Wisconsin Tissue Announces NC Mill to be Chlorine-Free! For Immediate Release: May 27, 1999 Greensboro, NC— Environmentalists across the state are celebrating today, after winning a hard-fought battle. Wisconsin Tissue is planning to build a 100% recycled paper mill in Halifax County and said that they would use sodium hypochlorite to bleach the pulp. Sodium hypochlorite is the same solution as Chlorox, and tons of it would be dumped in the Roanoke River, having a profoundly negative effect on the health of aquatic and human life. Wisconsin Tissue officials have not named the chemical they will bleach with, but it will most likely be hydrogen peroxide, which is much cleaner. Most chlorine bleaches create dioxin as a byproduct. Dioxin is known to cause birth defects, cancer, and other potentially deadly health problems in humans and wildlife. It is not known if sodium hypochlorite creates dioxin, but it is a serious irritant and a mill using it would create thousands of pounds of chloroform annually. Concerned citizens and several organizations including North Carolinians Acting for the Environment and EarthCulture have been putting pressure on Wisconsin for months. The company has been challenged in public forums, received over a hundred letters and postcards, and taken heat in statewide newspapers. The message was clear that if Wisconsin Tissue wanted into North Carolina, they better clean up their act. Earlier in the month, Wisconsin Tissue agreed to carry out an Environmental Impact Statement. With that announcement coupled with their chlorine-free policy, the company is making strides to be a good neighbor in Halifax County. Local citizens are still concerned with the placement of the mill and evidence shows fish populations will be effected. “The pressure we’ve given Wisconsin Tissue paid off,” says EarthCulture’s Rick Spencer. “We are happy to have a clean bleaching, totally recycled paper mill in the state, but we will keep a close watch on them regarding some concerns over siting. Wisconsin Tissue is proving you don’t have to destroy forests, kill rivers, and harm people to produce paper.” ###