THE BAY BUCKET BRIGADE BEGINS OPERATION
Bay Bucket Brigade training in Spain.
Mr Denny Larson
being interviewed by GBC
in May 2004
Format: Real Audio 16kbs.
Mortality study
for the area
Telling
Toxic Truth
Worldwide
In a week that has seen the publication of a report on the mortality rate in Spain, the Bucket Brigade was launched in Gibraltar and Spain. This comprised of four days of training as well as three separate presentations outlining the concept and practical application of the bucket sampling method and how this has been done in other parts of the world.
The ESG organised talks that were given by Denny Larson to students at the Bayside and Westside schools and these were very well received.
The training for the ESG and other group representatives saw a combination of bucket building workshops and classroom sessions and proved to be very instructive to those who participated. The ESG, GWA and GONHS attended and representations were made by members of three Spanish organisations involved in health and environmental matters. Sampling protocol and techniques as well as quality control and assurance was covered and field trips were made to pollution hotspots in Spain and Gibraltar. Denny Larson is obviously someone well used to dealing with industrial polluters and mainstream authorities and has answers to many of the tactics and strategies which could be used to challenge future bay bucket brigade findings.
One field trip included a visit to the worst affected neighbourhood in Puente Mayorga where the Gibraltarian contingent including Mr Larson, were greeted by numerous residents who were then given a practical demonstration of the bucket sampling technique. Much support was pledged by the residents who are quite fed up and fearful for their health. Indeed in what appeared to the Gibraltarians present as being a very strong smell of chemicals, this was perceived as minor by the residents claiming it was usually much worse and almost always at night.
Last night Mr Larson gave a final presentation in Gibraltar which could have been better attended, but nevertheless saw more people joining the brigade and learning firsthand how this campaign can positively improve chronic pollution we are all living in.
Due to the importance of the Bucket Brigade and its potential significance in challenging the manner in which industry operates in the bay, the ESG, Mr Larson and Spanish brigade partners have been called today to give interviews to three Spanish television networks in Puente Mayorga at a housing complex that overlooks the chimneys of the refinery plant and which are in the frontline of the foulest emissions from the plant.
We urge all those who have pledged financial support to please do so now as we need to afford as many samples as necessary to obtain the evidence of industrial malpractice and hazardous emissions.
The ESG is very grateful to Denny Larson for the tools and expertise he has imparted to the group to embark on its goal of pollution reduction in this area.
Bucket Brigade Part 1
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