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GREENPEACE OPPOSES U.S. DUMPING OF MERCURY IN INDIA

Kyodo News Service

NEW DELHI, India, 26 December 2000 --Environmental groups, including Greenpeace International, are opposing the export of used toxic mercury from the United States to an undisclosed destination in India, activists said Tuesday. Also involved are Toxic Links, a coalition working to stop the proliferation of chemical and radioactive industrial carcinogens, and the Basel Action Network (BAN), a group seeking an end to economically motivated toxic waste exports and the dumping of hazardous waste from rich countries on poorer countries. The groups have expressed their concerns to the Indian government and the U.S.

Embassy here while alerting trade unions, including dock workers' unions, about the toxic consignment. A statement by Toxic Links claimed that 118 tons of used and toxic mercury originated from HoltraChem Manufacturing Co., a Maine-based chlorine-caustic factory, and was allegedly sold to chemical broker, DF Goldsmith of Evanston, Illinois. According to reports, Goldsmith intends to resell and ship the mercury overseas to chlorine-alkali plants in India that still use the highly polluting and outdated mercury cell technology once used by HoltraChem. Measures have already been taken in the U.S. to phase out the use of mercury due to growing environmental concerns. Some states have banned the use of mercury thermometers as a first step toward phasing out the use of this toxic metal altogether.

'In India, this import can preempt fledgling attempts by Indian groups to frame rules to handle existing mercury contamination and to find alternatives to mercury,' said Ravi Aggarwal of BAN. Over the last few years, environmental activists have highlighted many instances of hazardous waste and obsolete products or technologies from industrialized countries being dumped in India.

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