On 20 August 2006, the people of Abidjan in Côte d’Ivoire woke to find that foul-smelling, toxic waste had been dumped at multiple locations across their city. The smell engulfed Abidjan. In the days and weeks that followed the dumping, thousands of people streamed into the city’s medical facilities, complaining of nausea, headaches, breathing difficulties, stinging eyes and burning skin. By the end of October 2006, more than 100,000 people had been treated according to official records. The authorities reported that between 15 and 17 people died. The dumpsites required extensive clean-up and decontamination. To this day people in Abidjan live in fear of the longterm impacts of the dumping on their health and the health of their children, for two simple reasons – a lack of action and a lack of information. No one has ever checked up on or monitored the health of affected communities, or fully assessed any longterm health risks of exposure to the chemicals in the toxic waste...Eleven years on, we finally have an opportunity to address the toxic legacy of this disaster. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) will shortly release the results of their July 2016 environmental audit of the various dumpsites, undertaken at the request of the Côte d’Ivoire government. This is an important first ste pin helping to address people’s fears about ongoing contamination at the dumpsites..Affected communities, Amnesty International and United Nations experts have consistently called on the Côte d’Ivoire government to take this step. At the Côte d’Ivoire government’s request, UNEP and the World Health Organization (WHO) have now organised a meeting of public health experts to analyse information on the health impacts of the dumping and to consider the need for a long-term health study. This briefing makes the health and human rights
case for that study. It summarizes the story of this disaster, how it affected people’s health and their environment, and the impact it has on the people of Abidjan to this day. It outlines how the dumping violated the right to health of the people of Abidjan and why relevant governments still have an obligation to remedy that violation. It also makes recommendations on what the study could involve, how it could be implemented and how any long-term health impacts could be monitored and addressed.