A global toxic trade watchdog group is concerned over an apparent resurgence of a "waste trade epidemic" and wants enforcement of international law banning the shipment of toxic waste to developing countries.

The Basel Action Network is pointing to the dumping scandal on the Ivory Coast in West Africa that has killed three people and hospitalized some 1,500 as evidence of the resurgence. The watchdog group wants increased enforcement of the Basel Convention, adopted in 1989, and the Basel Ban Amendment, which prohibits the export of toxic waste from developed countries to developing nations. It also is calling on all developed nations, including the United States, to ratify the treaties.

"Unfortunately, if it´s easy to poison the poor for profit, unscrupulous operators and businesses will do it," said Jim Puckett, coordinator of the Basel Action Network. "It´s now time for every nation to enforce those rules and end this environmental injustice once and for all."

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