National's Environment spokesperson Nick Smith today called for a Ministerial Inquiry into the storage of chemicals on trucks after two serious toxic spills in as many weeks on roads in the north of the South Island.

"Our clean, green environment cannot sustain repeated dumping of tonnes of toxic chemicals. Yesterdays spill of 26 tonnes of formaldehyde resin on the Hope Saddle comes only a fortnight after the dumping of 1.8 tonnes of brodifacoum poison on the Kaikoura Coast.

"The road transport industry needs to answer some tough questions about the standards of safety and environmental protection following these two serious chemical spills.

"A major concern is the standard of storage of dangerous chemicals on trucks. It is inevitable there will be some road accidents involving trucks carrying dangerous chemicals, but the storage vessels should be capable of preventing large spills. In both recent crashes the storage seemed quite inadequate.

"The Ministers of Transport and the Environment should initiate an inquiry to determine whether the standards are adequate.

"It is fortunate that no one was seriously injured in either accident. On these occasions it is the environment that has suffered. An inquiry is necessary to ensure better protection of the environment in future," Dr Smith said.

Ends

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>