Ittehad Chemicals, Ltd

OPERATION PAKISTANI BALLDROP, PART TWO:
THE QUEST FOR ISO-14001 CERTIFICATION

From: "M.Imran Sufi" <ia.purchase@ittehadchemicals.com>
To: Bob Cromwell
Subject: ISO-14001 CERTIFICATION - ENVIRONMENT
Date: Wednesday 06 April 2005 03:06

Dear Sirs,

We are working to get ISO 14001 Certification regarding Environment
and in order to prepare documentation, we need your confirmation of
the certification of your Organization in ISO-14001.

We shall appreciate if you kindly send us by e.mail/fax
No.00-92-42-6365697 copy of the Certificate if it is obtained.

Regards

MUSTAFA GONDAL
ITTEHAD CHEMICALS LIMITED
39, EMPRESS ROAD,
LAHORE - PAKISTAN.
PH: 00-92-42-6306586-88
FAX: 00-92-42-6365697
WEB: www.ittehadchemicals.com <http://www.ittehadchemicals.com/>

From: Bob Cromwell
To: ia.purchase@ittehadchemicals.com,
CC: sm.purchase@ittehadchemicals.com
Subject: Re: ISO-14001 CERTIFICATION - ENVIRONMENT
Date: Friday, April 15, 2005 9:41 PM


Gentlemen --

Thank you for your recent inquiry.

I must confess that my operation is not currently certified under ISO
14001, although as you certainly may imagine, this is something that could
stand immediate rectification.

On consideration of the two main lines of operation here, to wit:
  [1] Digital imaging of sanitary facilities, and
  [2] Organization of air-drop missions to deliver sanitary equipment,
it occurs to me that category #1 is almost entirely without environmental
impact -- and given the recent switchover to a strict use of rechargeable
batteries only, I do believe it would be fair to claim "entirely".

It is only operational category #2 where this operation runs the risk of
environmental impact.  I am mulling over the possibility of spinning off
that activity into a separate operating unit.  That unit could pursue ISO
14001 certification independently, and until this was achieved, the digital
imagery activity could continue unimpeded by any lack of ISO certification.

Your inquiry gives me reason to reflect on past operations, and it is
certainly amazing how environmental impact issues have rapidly come to
affect this field.

Long gone is the day when you could simply slide pallet loads of stainless
steel plumbing fixtures out the rear cargo door of a transport aircraft as
it circled above a city!  Of course, the political brouhaha surrounding the
debacle of the ill-fated 1988 Harare pipe drop far outshadowed any physical
damage done, and I must side with those analysts who said that there really
was no significant damage done: the defects in the parliament building's
roof were pre-existing and due to a long lack of scheduled maintenance. The
ironic fact that one of a pipes happened to skewer the corrupt defense
minister's limousine like an over-sized martini olive was undoubtedly the
sole cause of the ensuing excitement.  While it is fortunate that the
limousine in question was sitting empty at the time outside the apartment
building where the defense minister's mistress lived, one can't help but
speculate whether the following spring's border incursion into Malawi might
not have happened had the pipe drop gone more smoothly.  Well, live and
learn.

Even in the late 1990's, when the industry had long adopted the now
standard encasing of fittings in hard rubber before any air drops, we still
saw many drops of sturdy fixtures (e.g., cast-iron bathtubs, thick-walled
pipes, and all-stainless-steel urinals) done in the old style, "in the
raw", at least in underdeveloped regions and in areas with minimal
population.  Some industry analysts have argued that the sole negative
outcome of the last decade's continuing unsanctioned plumbing drops has
been the establishment in New Guinea of a cargo cult now awaiting the
return of a great sky-god known as Kohler.

And we mustn't overlook the continuing practice in the South Pacific in
which fixtures are dropped from aircraft into lagoons where they are
recovered by pearl divers.  No one seriously claims that there aren't drops
where a couple of tons of high-pressure valves go clattering across the
beach, or even whiz through the palms sheltering what passes for the towns.
In an environment where fully mature coconuts regularly plummet from the
treetops, a few stainless steel 90-degree elbows, PVC sewer clean-out
fittings, or even cast-iron floor drain fittings are indistinguishable from
the hazards of the natural environment.

Well, that is neither here nor there.

For now I'm afraid I must report that my operation lacks ISO 14001
certification.


Bob Cromwell


On Wednesday 06 April 2005 03:06, you wrote:
> Dear Sirs,
>
> We are working to get ISO 14001 Certification regarding Environment
> and in order to prepare documentation, we need your confirmation of
> the certification of your Organization in ISO-14001.
>
> We shall appreciate if you kindly send us by e.mail/fax
> No.00-92-42-6365697 copy of the Certificate if it is obtained.
>
> Regards
>
> MUSTAFA GONDAL
> ITTEHAD CHEMICALS LIMITED
> 39, EMPRESS ROAD,
> LAHORE - PAKISTAN.
> PH: 00-92-42-6306586-88
> FAX: 00-92-42-6365697
> WEB: www.ittehadchemicals.com <http://www.ittehadchemicals.com/>

Somewhat surprisingly, or then again maybe not, I did not receive a response from them.