Sex ban to save boron
Güncelleme Tarihi:
Doğan News Agency
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Ocak 29, 2009 00:00
BALIKESİR - A state mining company has mobilized its workers to prove boron is not a toxic material that causes impotence, by initiating a three-day sex ban next month.
Eti Mining Department is trying to scientifically prove that boron Ğ seen by many in Turkey as a huge money generator in the future due to its common application in electronic components Ğ is safe, contrary to a European Union decision to list it as a toxic material.
Petrol-İş Union Bardırma Branch Chief Recep Gökdeniz said they would be collecting blood, urine and sperm samples from workers to prove the EU claim was false. "We will ask them not to have sex for three days in the second half of February," Gökdeniz said.
The EU says boron causes impotence based on tests done on laboratory mice, Gökdeniz said, adding that the EU was biased and wanted to hurt Eti Mining. "This project, which will cost 500,000 (Turkish) liras, will reveal the truth once and for all. After proving boron is safe, we will lodge a complaint at the World Trade Organization, or WTO," he said.
Two hundred workers, half of whom directly deal with boron, will be the subjects of the project to be conducted by an academic experts’ board. The three-day sex ban is aimed at ensuring tests will be conducted on healthy sperm, he said.
"The workers are very sure about their potency," said Gökdeniz.
Seventy percent of the world’s boron needs originate from Turkey and 600 workers at Eti’s Bardırma complex produce 90,000 tons of Boric acid a year, generating $550 million in revenue.
Petrol-İş Union Bardırma Branch Chief Recep Gökdeniz said they would be collecting blood, urine and sperm samples from workers to prove the EU claim was false. "We will ask them not to have sex for three days in the second half of February," Gökdeniz said.
The EU says boron causes impotence based on tests done on laboratory mice, Gökdeniz said, adding that the EU was biased and wanted to hurt Eti Mining. "This project, which will cost 500,000 (Turkish) liras, will reveal the truth once and for all. After proving boron is safe, we will lodge a complaint at the World Trade Organization, or WTO," he said.
Two hundred workers, half of whom directly deal with boron, will be the subjects of the project to be conducted by an academic experts’ board. The three-day sex ban is aimed at ensuring tests will be conducted on healthy sperm, he said.
"The workers are very sure about their potency," said Gökdeniz.
Seventy percent of the world’s boron needs originate from Turkey and 600 workers at Eti’s Bardırma complex produce 90,000 tons of Boric acid a year, generating $550 million in revenue.