press releases

Greenpeace today condemned as "misguided" plans by a Japanese electricity company to return to Britain a controversial cargo of plutonium reactor fuel, whose delivery sparked international protests last year.

Greenpeace campaigners try to block whaling vessels from harpooning whales on Christmas da

As the Japanese foreign minister, Mr. Yohei Kono arrives in London to discuss Japan - UK economic relations, Japan is continuing to hunt whales illegally in the protected Southern Ocean Sanctuary. Mr Kono is due to meet Foreign Secretary Robin Cook as part of a brief European tour.

Greenpeace's ship, the Arctic Sunrise, which has now been tracking Japan's illegal whaling activities for 23 days, witnessed seven minke whales being harpooned by Japanese whalers.

Tesco, the UK's largest food retailer, has written to its suppliers instructing them not to grow crops on sites used for the testing of genetically modified crops. The letter to suppliers states that "We need to be able to assure our customers that no material from GM crop trials could come in contact with our crops. Therefore any crop grown for Tesco MUST NOT [Tesco's emphasis] be grown in a field that has been used for GM trial crops".

The Japanese whaling vessel Nisshin Maru today rammed the Greenpeace ship MV Arctic Sunrise while making an illegal overtaking manoeuvre in the remote Southern Ocean around Antarctica.

The incident follows Greenpeace's successful bid on Monday to block the illegal whale hunt, in which a Greenpeace activist twice jumped into the icy waters of the Antarctic to disrupt the activities of the whalers. The activist also climbed on to the back of the dead whale as it was being dragged up the ramp of the factory vessel. As catcher ships can only carry two harpooned whales at a time, this delayed the hunt.

Greenpeace volunteers today used inflatable boats to interfere with a Japanese whaling fleet illegally hunting Minke whales inside the internationally recognised whale sanctuary that surrounds Antarctica.

The inflatable boats were launched from the Greenpeace vessel MV Arctic Sunrise at 08.00 local time (02.00GMT) and drove two hours across icy Antarctic waters to block the Japanese factory ship Nisshin Maru from loading a harpooned whale from a catcher ship. The Southern Ocean around Antarctica was formally designated a whale sanctuary in 1994 by the International Whaling Commission (IWC), making the region permanently off limits to commercial whaling. However, despite repeated calls from the IWC to cancel its whaling programme, Japan began hunting in the Sanctuary last month, intending to kill 440 Minke whales (up from 389 last year) as part of a so-called 'scientific research' programme.

By ignoring the IWC request to stop whaling in the Southern Ocean Sanctuary, Japan is in breach of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which requires all countries to co-operate with the IWC in the conservation of whales.

A new survey of British supermarkets by Greenpeace has revealed that major food retailers are rushing to source meat, eggs and dairy products from non-GM fed animals to counter widespread customer concern.

Tesco, the largest food retailer in the UK with an annual food turnover of £3,678 million, has already written to major international animal feed suppliers, Cargill and Archer Daniel Midlands, informing them of their intention to obtain the "complete elimination of GM ingredients from animal feed".

16 Devember 1999 - Japan's Industry Ministry (MITI) today said that no more plutonium-MOX fuel will be accepted from British Nuclear Fuels following revelations that quality assurance data cannot be guaranteed. This represents a fatal blow to BNFL's plans to open the unauthorised £300 million Sellafield MOX Plant (SMP).

Scientific tests on baby toys sold on Britain's High Streets show them to be packed with toxic chemicals according to results published by Greenpeace today (15/12/99). Many of these toys on sale in Britain are banned in other European countries because the chemicals leak out and can be swallowed by children.

The findings are the result of independent scientific tests commissioned by Greenpeace on five soft PVC toys all from leading retailers. In one example, a small yellow vinyl giraffe was discovered to contain nearly 50% of the harmful substance.

The toys, sold by the Early Learning Centre, Mothercare, Boots, Toys 'R' Us and Woolworth's, all contained between 24% and 42% of hazardous chemical softeners called phthalates, which have been linked to damage to the liver, kidneys and reproductive organs. Phthalates leak out of toys when children squeeze or suck them. Children may even absorb the toxic chemicals just by holding the toys.

Mark Strutt, Greenpeace toxics campaigner, said: "We chose to test these toys because they are just the sort of things babies and toddlers are likely to suck and chew. Young children are liable to swallow hazardous chemicals from these toys - a fact which will horrify most parents. Tony Blair should follow other European countries in banning toys containing phthalates."

Earlier this month the European Union agreed an emergency ban on six phthalates in baby toys "intended for the mouth" which, according to the European Commission, are liable to cause various health effects including liver and kidney damage. The ban, which is the first ever emergency product ban by the EU, only applies to toys "intended for the mouth" despite findings that children chew for longer on other toys like animal figures and squashy bricks. (1)

A Greenpeace investigation, 'Smuggling GM in through the back door' has revealed a trail of GM contamination which leads from Monsanto's US laboratories to British consumers of McDonald's chicken McNuggets. The investigation also undermines the claims by many supermarkets, producers and fast food chains to be 'GM-free'.

As European member states unanimously gave the green light today to an emergency ban on chemicals in soft PVC teething toys "intended for the mouth", Greenpeace warned consumers that children are still at risk. The emergency Europe-wide ban will not include other soft PVC toys such as bath ducks and animal figures which children still suck.

Greenpeace highlighted a scientific study carried out for the Dutch Government, which shows that babies between 6 and 12 months suck and chew toys not "intended for the mouth" like bath toys and squash bricks for much longer periods than teethers and dummies.