Fifteen members of Greenpeace were arrested in St Petersburg, Russia, today after protesting at an incinerator plant, the organisation said.
Greenpeace said some activists had blocked access to the state-owned incinerator on Bely Island and others had climbed a smoke stack to hang a banner accusing the government of polluting the Baltic Sea with toxic chemicals.
Built in 1997 the incinerator burns sewage sludge from the state's communal and industrial waste treatment plant nearby on the Gulf of Finland in the Baltic Sea.
Greenpeace said incinerator plant officials had refused to allow it to take samples to study releases from the incinerator.
But it said that during the protest, activists had taken samples inside the incinerator and chimney that showed very high concentrations of toxins, including organic chlorine compounds, and toxic metals such as cadmium and chromium.