- PR MACHINERY- they practice to deceive.
The chemical industry did not have to worry about its public relations until 1962 when a marine biologist by the name of Rachael Carson published 3 damning articles in The New Yorker magazine. Her argument that pesticides were not safe but dangerous and were overused became the best seller “Silent Spring”, which is still regarded as the beginning of the grass roots environmental movement when it was still a movement concerned with chemicals and not the catch all “climate change” religion that it has become today.
The likes of Monsanto – makers of the pesticide “round up” containing glyphosate- made by Albright and Wilson, began an attack on the writer not long after with the use of industry friendly scientists with university links. Rebuttle and the assertion that “natural” chemicals in the body were more harmful than man made chemicals continues to be the lie that the industry pumps out to promote its “vital” existence.
Our initial interface with Albright and Wilson, but mainly Rhodia started with denial when we decided that many birds had died on the pool, and that it was NOT “natural causes” that were at work. The Sunday Mercury story from April 2001 “Poison probe as swans die in lake” was the first of the many “problems” for the French company run by previous Albright and Wilson staff. Pictures of dead birds and the pump dispensing waste into an open air pool offered a fairly damning spectacle- but Rhodia had their rebuttal pre-prepared because the lie concerning what was contained in the pool had been circulating for years by the likes of former works managers like Peter Bloore.
Instead of stating what was actually contained in the waste, (and not mentioning white phosphorus) Rhodia drew attention in the article to calcium phosphate.
“John Scott, operations manager for Rhodia said
“WE SIMPLY DON’T KNOW WHAT IS KILLING THESE BIRDS, BUT THEY COULD HAVE JUST DIED OF NATURAL CAUSES.
WE HAVE A WASTE LICENSE TO DUMP CALCIUM PHOSPHATE- A WASTE PRODUCT FROM OUR OLDBURY FACTORY- INTO THE POOL WHICH HAS BEEN USED FOR YEARS.
BUT CALCIUM PHOSPHATE IS NOT HARMFUL TO WILDLIFE. IT IS FOUND IN EVERYDAY PRODUCTS LIKE TOOTHPASTE AND ANIMAL FEED
AFTER THE FIRST SWAN DEATHS, WE CARRIED OUT POST MORTEMS BUT THE RESULTS WERE INCONCLUSIVE AND THERE WAS NOT A PRECISE CAUSE OF DEATH.
WE GENUINELY DO NOT BELIEVE THE POOL IS KILLING THESE BIRDS AS WE HAVE ALSO TAKEN WATER SAMPLES WHICH SHOWED NOTHING.”
Looking back on these quotes makes us angry. Angry that people like Scott were both lying through their teeth about what “the license” actually allowed his company to dump, but also the manner in which any notion of their wrong doing or culpability is deflected by a positive comment implying action on their part or a distraction from the subject to attract attention to another subject to set their own agenda.
We call this PR tool “the attraction/distraction technique.” It is a bugbear of examiners marking exam papers when the student candidate answers their own questions instead of the one set in the text of the paper. The chemical industry, like the lying politician being interviewed by a tough cross examiner has no such excuse- they do it purely to deceive to hide behind a lie. If the journalist does not do their homework, or the editor does not know otherwise they can get away with murder.
- “NATURAL CAUSES” linked to the story as a defence when he knows full well as “Rhodia operations manager” what toxic white phosphorus is and that it is in the Rattlechain lagoon in significant quantities to wipe out thousands if not millions of animals.
- “CALCIUM PHOSPHATE” is not mentioned in license SL31 at all. NOT ONCE.
Read the- sl31-licence
A reminder of what the license allows to be dumped- (information known to Scott as “operations director” or at least he should have known that they could dump)
- “EFFLUENT TREATMENT SLUDGE- 140 TONNES PER DAY
- INERT SOLID WASTE CONTAMINATED WITH ELEMENTAL PHOSPHORUS- 500 TONNES PER YEAR
- WATER CONTAMINATED WITH ELEMENTAL PHOSPHORUS, OR PHOSPHORIC ACID OR SULPHUR -1000 GALLONS PER YEAR
- “INERT SOLID WASTES” -10 TONNES PER WEEK.”
.. but he doesn’t tell the newspaper this does he.
Scott draws attention to calcium phosphate to distract attention away from the harmful chemical that is a rat poison and is in the waste disposal license. White phosphorus.
This sets up the next segment of his invented distraction story.
- “USED FOR YEARS” another defence that time somehow justifies dumping toxic waste into the open air. THIS SITE NEVER HAD ANY PLANNING PERMISSION CHANGE OF USE FROM A BRICKWORKS TO CARRY OUT THIS PRACTICE FROM THE START OF THE TOWN AND COUNTRY PLANNING ACT 1947.
There are many things that go on for years- like slavery, workhouses, and phossy jaw- until they are stopped because they are morally repugnant.
- “FOUND IN EVERYDAY PRODUCTS LIKE TOOTHPASTE AND ANIMAL FEED.”
Almost an advert for the company- so why then do they dispose of it as “waste” if it is usefully found in these products? This attempt to distract attention attracts attention to things that people put in their mouths- so how could this be harmful if the birds are swallowing it?
What we would like to know is if toothpaste manufacturers or producers of animal feed can guarantee that their products do not contain white phosphorus in any amount, given Scott’s claim that the waste in this pool, which we know does NOT just contain calcium phosphate does. If this pool is a microcosm of the toothpaste recipe, then perhaps this industry has been conning people for years by adding a tooth rotting bone destroying man made chemical to its tubes.
- “WE HAVE TAKEN WATER SAMPLES WHICH SHOWED NOTHING”
Implied action on their part out of the goodness of their hearts, linked to the distraction away from the sediment to attract attention towards the water. How would the water have showed anything when primarily it was a “natural” liquid that had fallen out of the sky. White phosphorus is virtually insoluble in water- Scott does not state what chemicals were tested for if any with this empty meaningless phrase. As it is white phosphorus was found in the water samples confirmed in the Rhodia sponsored HPA human health risk assessment.
This is another form of PR lie- “the non -denial denial”, the conveying of an ambiguous message in an apparently unambiguous manner that contains enough “get out clauses” to enable the person using the language to apparently break their word if necessary with the explanation that the listener had misunderstood the words and read into them a certainty that, when closely examined, proved not to be there in reality. As a result, the person being communicated to, not the person doing the communicating, is blamed for any divergence between what the words appeared to mean and subsequent acts.
These deceptions were the first of many more in the same vein by the Trinity Street swindlers to invent a narrative in the press to try to deflate our genuine observations about wildfowl mortality on the rattlechain lagoon.
Pipe dreaming- John Scott former Rhodia operations manager.