(Conyers, GA) – Following the company’s announcement that it would shut down manufacturing at the facility at the heart of the September 2024 Bio-Lab Fire, the Committee
to Protect Rockdale, formerly named the Shutdown Bio-Lab Coalition, released the following statement:
”Over twenty years after their first major disaster, the Committee to Protect Rockdale recognizes this closure is a good first step towards accountability, and we look forward to
continuing that journey in the courthouse and the community. Right now, our attention is on supporting the Public Health Recovery Research project so that we can track health and
wellness outcomes and make sure no one gets left behind in the coming years.”
The announcement comes after months of continuous pressure from community members, environmental justice organizations, and public health experts. Along with the public health
research, the Committee is particularly concerned about an apparent lack of any chemical safety plan on the part of Rockdale County – despite multiple incidents involving just this one
company over the last twenty years.
The Committee therefore calls on the County Commission to expedite a thorough Emergency Planning Update that fixes this oversight and deny any business license renewal applications from the company for 2025 or in the future that don’t explicitly prohibit KIK Consumer Products or its subsidiaries from chemical production or manufacturing within Rockdale. Put simply: we don’t want to wake up in a year to find out that the company has quietly restarted production. We want the Commission to leave no doubt. It should be lost on no one that current intelligence suggests that the 2024 fire didn’t start because of the company’s production process, but due to negligence in the storage of chemicals for distribution – a practice they are continuing at this location. Still, the off-ramp does allow for a significant number of employees to continue working for the time being.
The Committee to Protect Rockdale, formerly the Shutdown BioLab Coalition, is a coalition of individuals and organizations representing Rockdale and surrounding impacted counties that have organized in the wake of the latest BioLab disaster. Members include the organizations below as well as community leaders Symbaneke Stroud, Ashonti D., Jose D. Daniel Blackman, Bezal J., and Monica W.
