space Press Releases, News Stories

KumKum Dasgupta, The Newspaper Today

On June 19, Hindustan Lever Mercury Thermometer Factory at Kodaikanal suspended operations amid these allegations. But, the extent of damage that has already been done to the biodiversity and workers in the HLL factory is yet to be assessed. The factory, the largest mercury thermometer plant in the world, was nearing the end of its life at its previous location in Watertown, New York, when it was imported to India in

1983. The Kodi plant was 100 per cent export oriented throughout its existence in India. According to Greenpeace, mercury wastes had been "recklessly discarded in the open or in torn sacks by HLL.” They said the company was dumping its waste as crushed or broken glass. “Despite poor local waste dealers who are ignorant of mercury's health hazards, the waste has been left outside the factory walls on the slopes leading to the sanctuary,” Greenpeace charged.

If one goes by the previous cases of mercury poisoning in other parts of the world, the foremost being at Minamata in Japan, then the company can safely be accused of criminal negligence, say experts. HLL, says Greenpeace, “not only violates Indian laws but also Unilever's own policy to exercise the same concern for the environment wherever [it] operate[s]… ensure the safety of its products and operations for the environment and provide whatever information and advice is necessary on the safe use and disposal of [its] products".

Greenpeace has also accused HLL of not offering any protection from mercury spills to factory workers. Several workers, the NGO claims, have complained of mercury-related health problems. Senior officials at HLL say that these allegations have caused the company "enormous surprise and concern since such a possibility is remote given established systems and controls that are in place". It added that it has decided to carry out an audit of the factory's operations, including a comprehensive review of disposal of glass scrap. And last week, they suspended production at the factory. HLL has also agreed to track and retrieve other batches of waste that have been sent to various locations outside the factory, and to clearing up the wastes that have been dumped in the watershed forests behind the factory wall.

“The fact that this company, which vehemently denied all charges of wrongdoing, now admits that such wastes may be lying in various locations outside the factory fuels our concern of the long-term impact to the water bodies in those areas,” says Greenpeace.

But just tracking down the waste is not enough. Greenpeace and Palni Hills Conservation Council have demanded that HLL clean up the local dumpsite situated beside a school; that they account for all the past waste shipments to other parts of Tamil Nadu; that the company conduct a full investigation to assess the damage to health among current and ex-workers and give them compensation; and finally, accept responsibility and financial liability for "the damage done" to workers, community and environment of Kodaikanal and the Palni Hills.

"Unilever claims to be concerned for the safety of its operations and the environment but this attitude clearly does not stretch to India," said Navroz Mody, executive director, Greenpeace India, who lives in Kodaikanal. "As the major shareholder it has a duty to ensure the health and safety of the workers, residents and environment around its plant."

The scrap yard, where HLL dumped its wastes, is located in a crowded part of town on top of a slope with terraced cultivation and habitation. When poisoning came to the fore, activists and local residents cordoned off the scrap yard. The highly hazardous mercury-bearing wastes were stored haphazardly in the open or in torn sacks with the contents spilling onto the workspace that was frequented by bare-feet, unprotected workers.

“All that talk about the industry having learnt a lesson from Bhopal is nonsense. Here's an example of another multinational applying double standards, polluting the environment, exposing its workers to hazardous waste and pouring poisons onto a sensitive watershed forest…and it has been doing this for more than two decades. No lessons have been learnt, either by companies such as Hindustan Lever, or by our regulatory authorities,” says R. Kannan, an activist with Palni Hills Conservation Council. “With substances like mercury, banning is the only solution. India must begin work on a mercury phase-out plan and encourage adoption of cleaner alternatives,” said Rajesh Rangarajan of Madras-based NGO Toxics Link.

"We're not just talking about the ongoing or future pollution. We're talking about the deadly mercury wastes that have been dumped in the forests; the tonnes and tonnes of broken thermometers that are now lying in the scrap yard," Kannan said. "Hindustan Lever is treating us like we are idiots. They should get this straight: If they want to continue using mercury, let them take their factory back to America."

Though HLL bosses feign ignorance of any mercury dumping, they are guilty of arm-twisting activists. Two Greenpeace activists were accosted by security guards and HLL officers -- armed with sticks and knives -- when they tried to get samples from the forestlands. An officer of the forest department, who escorted the two Greenpeace activists after they were threatened, has filed charges of trespass against 17 HLL officials.

"Such criminal intimidation is unbelievable, especially when it comes from a multinational that claims to be environmentally and socially responsible," said Eco Master of Greenpeace Netherland's Toxics Campaign. Master, one of the two activists accosted by HLL's armed goons, was in Kodaikanal to investigate the extent of mercury pollution in Kodaikanal. The company now claims that none of its 140 factory workers, or any of the 250 or so ex-workers, (many of who resigned in the past due to health reasons), have been affected by mercury.

But, 10 workers below the age of 40 have died while they were employed at the plant. Many ex-workers are being treated for kidney ailments, chronic stomachaches, blood vomiting, infertility, and several women suffer from a variety of gynaecological disorders. The company has neither conducted a comprehensive and scientific epidemiological study, nor has it published the basis of its claims that no workers have ever been affected. But then, HLL still believes that mercury has no ill effects on humans and the environment.

Hg - The Nerve Poison

Fact is that mercury affects the human brain, spinal cord, kidneys and liver. The liquid metal, which most of us know as the silver liquid inside thermometers, is particularly dangerous to foetuses, women of childbearing years, pregnant women and young children. A recent study by the US-based National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences warned that at least 60,000 babies per year in the United States could be at risk for low IQ and learning disabilities because their mothers have eaten mercury-contaminated fish and seafood.

The metal is considered a global pollutant because it travels around the world, carried by wind and rain. Mercury does not break down, it simply accumulates in the fat of animals, concentrating as it moves up the food chain. A number of workers and ex-workers, especially those working in the mercury sections of the HLL factory, complain of a variety of health problems and unsound working conditions in the factory's mercury sections. Mercury, when it comes in contact with microorganisms in soil or water, becomes methyl mercury that can be carried through air, water or skin and exerts severely effects the central nervous system (brain), kidneys and liver.

According to Mahendra Babu, who used to work at HLL’s Kodaikanal factory and was instrumental in organising the workers to speak against mercury pollution, says the company's waste management practices are no surprise given the casual manner in which mercury is handled within the factory.

"When I worked there, they used to suck up mercury from the floor using a vacuum cleaner once a day. In another section, where they used to heat thermometers in an oven, workers are exposed to gusts of mercury vapour every time the oven door opened." "Most of those working there [HLL] get affected, mainly in the kidneys," says a local doctor who spoke on condition of anonymity. "I advise all of them that the only cure is to quit their jobs and many do so. Others suffer stomach pains, burning sensation while passing urine and high pus content in urine."

"They (HLL officials) tell us to drink lots of water," says one current worker, who refuses to be identified. "They tell us not to worry - if they find high levels of mercury in our urine, they shift us to a different area." Several ex-workers complain that the company refuses to share any records of the infrequent medical tests conducted on them. The chairperson of Tamil Nadu's State Pollution Control Board, Sheela Rani Chungath, has promised to “punish the company if found guilty.”

"If the evidence indicates that this company has mishandled its waste, then we will expect them, as a multinational, to use the latest technology available in the world to clean up," she said.

"Unilever has placed the burden of proof of impact on the health of poor workers who are paid a meagre Rs 3,750 per month after 10 to 15 years of service," says Raja Mohammed, an ex-worker.

"We have already proved that the company's bad housekeeping has exposed us to toxic mercury. Now, let Unilever prove that the exposure is not causing all these health problems we face. Only that would justify their claims that they are treating their Indian workers at par with their Dutch or English workforce," Mohammed says.

A conservative environmental audit conducted by Unilever's consultant indicates that hundreds of tonnes of mercury-bearing toxic wastes have been sold to unsuspecting recyclers and end users in several southern states. Several tonnes of wastes, that ex-workers claim are severely contaminated with mercury, were buried in unlined pits at the factory site, bordering a forest sanctuary. However, till date, the company has failed to fully disclose to the Pollution Control Board the raw data based on which the calculations for toxic mercury releases from their factory were calculated.

Greenpeace has demanded that apart from assessing and remediation the damage to environment and workers' health, Unilever should apologise for deceiving the public and endangering worker and community health and the environment with their careless handling of toxic mercury. In a report presented to the Pollution Control Board, Unilever assess the amount of mercury put out in the environment from its factory site at Kodaikanal at 539 kg, (with a statistical variance "of between 43 kg minimum and

1,075 kg maximum"). Another 284 kg of mercury has been dispersed through "off site disposal". The HLL factory has produced 165 million thermometers with 125,000 kg of mercury, with a breakage rate documented at around 30 per cent to 40 per cent.