Alsamh Special to Saudi Gazette BRASILIA — A container filled with 20 tons of assorted hospital waste from Spain was seized in the port of Itaja?, Santa Catarina, in the south of Brazil last week. Used, dirty and smelly sheets, towels, carpets, t-shirts and uniforms were in the container, many with the logos of the Spanish hospitals from which they came, said the Folha de S?o Paulo newspaper. According to Brazilian tax authorities, who check all cargo coming into Brazil, the container came from Valencia in Spain. The contents had been declared as being “Other cotton cloths.” “We saw that they were not rolls of fabric but finished products, all clearly used and thrown out in Spain,” said Carlos Mergen, the head of the Brazilian Environment Agency, known as IBAMA in Portuguese, in Itaja?. “We could see just from the state of the items that they were dirty, torn and smelled bad.” Brazilian authorities said that the cargo would be sent back to Spain within 30 days. The shipping agent said he did not have any information concerning the shipment, but that he would cooperate with the investigation. IBAMA said they were studying the possibility of applying a fine to the importer. This is the third shipment in the past eight months of trash that has been intercepted in Itaja'. In March, 40 tons of trash from Canada were impounded, and last year 60 tons of trash from Spain were also discovered. __
