Sludge Watch ==> Tembec - US Subsidary of a Canadian Forest Firm Put Melamine in Animal Feed

[Maureen Reilly]

Sludgewatch Admin:


Ok Sludge Watchers...listen up.

In 1996 there was a campaign to stop the spreading of 'black liquor'  on 
dirt roadways as a 'dust suppressant'.  Black liquor which is spent pulping 
liquor, a papermill liquid waste.  The main target of the campaign was 
Dombind Road Binder - from the Domtar (later Norampac) mill in Trenton 
Ontario.  Dombind was given away for free to municipalities to spray on 
roads, even though it didn't work well, and was toxic to many species and 
testing showed it raised dioxin levels on rural roads.
After a 6 year campaign the nasty stuff was off the roads.

see:  http://www.sierralegal.org/m_archive/2002/pr02_10_31.html

But there was a similar 'product' marketed by Tembec, a different Canadian 
forest products company.  That is when I found out that the Tembec material 
was used as a binder (dust suppressant if you will) in dry pet food.  Look 
out Rover and Fluffy!  One of the suspicions with Domtar's Dombind Road 
Binder was the possibility of endocrine disruption.  I reviewed complaints 
from veterinarians that cattle ponds contaminated with 'road binder' 
resulted in estrogen disruption in the cattle who drank the contaminated 
water.

Now a Tembec subsidiary in Toledo Ohio has been found to be distributing 
melamine contaminated materials as fish feed, shrimp feed and cattle feed.


Well...you heard it first on Sludge Watch.  Recycling industrial 'residuals' 
  (may I say 'wastes'?)  can result in all kinds of contamination of soil 
and water and food.


If you want to read Tembec bragging about using their Dust Suppressant in 
pet food see the story posted after the current story below.



...........................................
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070601.RTEMBEC01/TPStory/Business





MANUFACTURING: CRISIS CONTROL: FORESTRY

Tembec unit runs afoul of U.S. rules
Told to stop using melamine for animal food
BERTRAND MAROTTE
Globe and Mail - Toronto

June 1, 2007

MONTREAL -- A U.S. subsidiary of Tembec Inc. that has been dragged into the 
scandal over tainted animal food ran afoul of U.S. Environmental Protection 
Agency regulations covering risk management for hazardous chemicals three 
years ago.

Tembec BTLSR Inc. - a resin manufacturer based in Toledo, Ohio - has been 
told by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to stop using the industrial 
chemical melamine to make binding agents that end up in feed for farmed 
fish, shrimp and livestock.

The FDA measure - announced Wednesday - is not the first time Tembec BTLSR 
has had a run-in with U.S. regulatory authorities.

In December of 2005, Tembec BTLSR was fined $15,540 (U.S.) after the EPA 
found the company was not in compliance with federal and state regulations 
regarding risk management related to onsite formaldehyde, a key ingredient 
in resin production.

Print Edition - Section Front
  Enlarge Image

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Go to the Report on Business section
The company's deficiencies were first discovered during an audit in May of 
2004, according to EPA documents.

The EPA determined that the company was still not in compliance by the end 
of 2004 and a meeting was held on Jan. 14, 2005, to "discuss the remaining 
deficiencies in the process safety information, process hazard analysis, and 
operating procedures," according to the EPA file.

The EPA says Tembec BTLSR was still not compliant with aspects of a required 
prevention program in June of 2005 and only came into compliance in October 
of that year.

John Valley, Tembec's executive vice-president for business development and 
corporate affairs, said in an interview yesterday that the deficiencies 
"have been corrected and the plant is now in compliance."

Montreal-based Tembec acquired the resin company - then known as Toledo 
BTLSR Inc. - in 2003 because it was seen as a good fit with its rapidly 
expanding resin business, Tembec consultant and former chief executive 
officer Frank Dottori said in an interview yesterday.

Melamine is used as a binding product in resins used to make oriented 
strandboard, plywood, laminated hardwood flooring and other engineered wood 
products. Tembec BTLSR also uses it to make specialty resins in the 
manufacture of insulation, abrasives and truck floors.

Mr. Valley yesterday played down the melamine controversy, saying the 
chemical was used sparingly as a binding agent in feed pellets for cattle, 
sheep, goats, fish and shrimp.

"The melamine was a small proportion of the binder product, which in turn 
was a small proportion of the seed pellet," he said.

The product was not intended to be used domestically, but for foreign 
markets, he added.

Melamine first made headlines two months ago when traces of it were found in 
shipments of wheat flour and rice protein from China that was mixed into 
North American pet food. In May, it was also found to have contaminated fish 
food.

The tainted pet food is believed to have killed dogs and cats throughout the 
United States.

The incident involving Tembec BTLSR is the first time that domestically 
produced melamine - used to make plastics and resin used in synthetic 
plywood and other products - has been found in North American animal and 
fish food products.

Tembec and a Colorado company that uses Tembec ingredients - Uniscope Inc. - 
have stopped adding melamine to feed products and are helping the FDA in its 
investigation.

TEMBEC INC.

Close: $1.18, up 1 cent

What is melamine?

Melamine is an industrial chemical that has been making headlines recently 
after being found in fish feed and pet food. There were reports two months 
ago of kidney failure in pets that ate food tainted with melamine. Some of 
the pets died.

Authorities have said that the contamination did not appear to pose a risk 
to humans.

The chemical is used primarily in the manufacturing of resin and plastic 
products, pesticides and fertilizers. End products include countertops, 
fabrics, glues, wood panelling and flame retardants.

Melamine also artificially raises protein levels in food and - in China - 
was added to wheat gluten and rice protein that were later mixed into North 
American pet food.

The use of melamine in food in the United States and Canada is banned, but a 
chemical plant in Ohio was recently found to be using it as an ingredient in 
binding agents for feed for farmed fish, shrimp and livestock.




................................


Tembec brags about using spend pulping liquor dust suppressant as animal 
feed binder.

Also note that it doesn't work very well as a dust suppressant on roadways, 
since it easily washes off roadways in the rain!

..................................................................................................



Down with dust! Alternatives to salt products are available, if and when 
they are needed

Pulsifer, Craig
You know the scene. The hero tips his hat to the ladies, spurs his horse and 
gallops off toward the setting sun in a cloud of dust. What the audience 
doesn't see is that the rescued damsels are left choking into their hankies 
with grit in their eyes.

Today's cowboys mount a different kind of steed -- truckers haul on forest 
roads long past sunset -- but if the road superintendent hasn't applied an 
effective dust suppressant in certain areas, those rigs can still kick up 
enough fines to deteriorate the road surface and hurt offsite resources.

Airborne dust affects all things roadside -- animal, vegetable and mineral. 
Road dust reportedly triggers allergic reactions and asthma attacks in some 
people, making dust-control a health issue in residential and commercial 
areas. Safety is also a priority on high-traffic forest roads because dust 
creates a visibility hazard. Settling dust also reduces plant vigor and 
degrades crop value in agricultural operations. And dust is certainly no 
friend to engine parts and filters.

For residential and commercial zones, some agricultural areas and hazardous 
high-traffic areas, something must be done to keep fines stuck to the road 
surface.

Dust suppressants work by binding fine particles to larger particles that 
cannot be swept up in the backdraft of passing vehicles. In days gone by, 
oil products were used for this purpose, however, under various provincial 
laws and the Federal Fisheries Act, mineral oils are deemed to hurt fish and 
fish habitat. The use of oil is now outlawed.

Water Drawing

One group of products, commonly used today is salts like calcium chloride 
(CaCl[Symbol Not Transcribed]) and magnesium chloride (MgCl[Symbol Not 
Transcribed]). Salts are hygroscopic, meaning they absorb ambient humidity 
to keep the road surface moist and hold fine particles together. These salts 
are readily available, easily stored and can be applied on the company's own 
schedule, rather than that of a supplier. Because salts are water-soluble 
and water dependent, they are effective in a moderate climate regime; but if 
the weather gets too wet, the product tends to leach out and if it gets too 
dry, there is not enough ambient humidity.

Every year across Canada, over 100 000 metric tonnes of calcium and 
magnesium chlorides are sprayed on dust-sensitive sections of forest haul 
roads. This is a small fraction of salt compared to the total amount of road 
salts, especially sodium chloride (NaCl), used for de-icing the nation's 
roads. Nonetheless, it is significant enough for Environment Canada and 
Health Canada to include it among 25 substances on their "second Priority 
Substances List" (PSL2) now being assessed for the potential risk to the 
environment and human health. Results from these assessments will be used to 
determine whether the substance should be declared toxic under the Canadian 
Environmental Protection Act (CEPA).

Results will be released for public comment in August 2000 and may later be 
posted on the government web site 
http://www.ec.gc.ca/cceb1/eng/substances/road.htm. If, as a result of this 
study, road salts are classified as a toxic substance under the CEPA, it is 
possible that provinces, municipalities, and other interested parties will 
be required to establish measures to limit environmental risks while 
maintaining roadway safety.

Pulp By-product

Alternatives to road salts are being applied to public and industry roadways 
these days as costs, availability and environmental impact factors are 
weighed together. Several commercial products are available where the 
substance itself is the binding agent. One such product is lignosulphonate, 
a co-product of the pulping process.

Lignosulphonates are derived from lignin, a naturally occurring polymer 
found in wood that acts like glue holding the cellulose fibres of pulp 
together. During the pulping process, lignin is separated from the wood and 
becomes part of the cooking liquor. The liquor undergoes a process of 
further evaporation and fermentation to remove volatile compounds like 
methanol, furfural and ethanol. The remaining heavy liquor is finally 
evaporated to about 50% solids and sold as a liquid or powder ammonium or 
sodium-based lignosulphonate.

In preparation for applying the liquefied form of this dust suppressant, 
roads are first re-crowned with a grader. The suppressant is then sprayed 
with a tank truck using application rates of 1.0 to 1.5 liters/m[Symbol Not 
Transcribed]. The product dries in 20 to 30 minutes to form a hard, durable 
surface that binds fines to the larger aggregate particles in the road 
surface. Because the product does not depend on ambient humidity for the 
binding agent, the road surface is maintained in dry weather.

Studies and Standards

In 1998, FERIC released results of a comparison of calcium chloride with a 
lignosulphonate product called Tembind, manufactured by Tembec Inc -- the 
product name has since been changed to TDS. The report concludes that the 
product is an effective dust control agent in that it reduced dust 
production by more than 30% during the first 37 days of the test and by 20% 
for an additional 20 days. Economic comparisons were not made during the 
test. However, Hugh Hambly, veteran road maintenance supervisor at St. 
Anne-Nackawic Pulp Company where tests were conducted, suggests that in that 
area, costs are similar to those associated with using liquid calcium 
chloride.

Not all products are created equal. The name change from Tembind to TDS is 
largely because of Tembec's need to distinguish its product from a competing 
product that was found to contain high levels of dioxins. As an ISO 9002 
registered company, Tembec has developed quality control procedures geared 
to meet stringent standards. The environmental integrity of TDS carefully 
addresses the issues of phytotoxicity (i.e. potential to harm plant life), 
dioxin levels, and toxicity to livestock and humans.

Classified as non-hazardous by WHMIS, TDS claims to be biodegradable and 
non-toxic to plants, animals and humans. It is non-corrosive and will not 
attack metals or promote rusting. In fact, TDS is approved for use as an 
animal feed binder and in liquid animal feed by the Canadian Department of 
Agriculture and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The product is also 
used as a component for concrete admixtures, mineral pelletizers, 
emulsifiers, dispersants and carbon black pelletizers.

Care must still be taken when applying any dust suppressant to a roadway, 
particularly around water crossings. Provincial guidelines for using 
suppressants at water crossings might vary as to the distance it can be 
mechanically applied from the actual stream perimeter. In some cases, the 
application of a suppressant within five to 10 meters of a watercourse must 
be done by hand sprayer. Interestingly, the concern for some 
lignosulphonates is not chemical toxicity, but biological toxicity.

Mike Kent is the chief environmental officer with the B.C. Ministry of 
Transportation and Highways' Engineering Branch. He says, "The concern comes 
from occasions where lignosulphonates have been dumped in excessive 
quantities into streams and there have been fish kills as a result. This 
happened on Quadra Island off Vancouver several years ago." In that case, 
the product was not TDS, but involved the breakdown of the material's 
organic components, which created an unnatural demand on dissolved oxygen in 
the water that led to the suffocation of fish.

You might want a home where the buffaloes roam but things are seldom that 
simple -- even dust can be a complicated matter. So the next time you're 
about to ride off into the sunset, best tip your hat to the road supervisor 
before giving your mount the spurs. Because whether it's fish, water, crops 
or family -- by the time the dust finally settles, it is bound to land on 
something dear to your heart.