ALCOA’S ‘DIRTY SECRET’

IN 2007, US environmental activist Erin Brockovich joined residents and workers who claimed Alcoa was poisoning their communities.
The public health crusader who successfully took on big industry in the US, then had a movie named after her, joined Queensland-based Shine Lawyers to sue Alcoa in a class action.
In 2011, the lawsuit involving 244 local plaintiffs was thrown out of court, the US court of appeals ruling the case should be heard in WA and not Pennsylvania, where Alcoa has its head office in Pittsburgh.
Alcoa was accused of knowingly, negligently and recklessly operating its Kwinana, Pinjarra and Wagerup factories and poisoning surrounding communities with toxic emissions.
In the US, plaintiffs do not have to pay Alcoa’s legal costs if they lose. In WA, they are liable to pay a portion of the defendant’s legal bill.
The alumina giant consistently has said its WA operations are safe.
Health authorities also maintained the Alcoa-funded Healthwise study by the University of WA and Monash University was the only reliable guide to cancer incidence among Alcoa workers in Australia.
Healthwise found the rates of death in Alcoa’s Australian workforce were the same as healthy workers in all industries.
The company is now under fire over having not properly rehabilitated nearly 28,000ha of jarrah forest and that its mining operations in the Darling Scarp threaten Perth’s drinking water supply. It also faces criticism for potentially having exposed workers to asbestos at its Pinjarra plant.
Walkley Award-winning Michael Southwell in 2000 embarked on two-year investigation into the pollution impacts of Alcoa’s bauxite mining and alumina refining operations in the South West of Western Australia.
His series of reports uncovered Alcoa’s dirty secret’, that its emissions were potentially causing a growing number of cancers in the community, both among workers and residents near its refining plants.
“When I left journalism to run a family business, I presumed the stories would be followed up, and the scrutiny of Alcoa’s operations continued. This hasn’t happened,” Southwell says online. “Alcoa has kept expanding its operations. It now has an alarming footprint and impacts on our environment. They also threaten the health of those near refineries in Kwinana, Wagerup and Pinjarra.
“Several people have asked me to help bring it to public attention. I’m prepared to go back into battle with this powerful multinational, but I still have to pay the bills. I’m asking those who believe in the power of investigative journalism to help me recommit to this vital cause.”