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GREENS OPPOSE U.S. SCHEME TO DUMP TOXIC USED MERCURY IN INDIA

Coalition Press Release

MUMBAI / NEW DELHI, India, 26 December 2000 -- US and India-based activist groups have joined hands to prevent the export of a 118 ton-stockpile of used and toxic mercury from the United States to an undisclosed destination in India, according to Indian citizen groups Toxics Link, Basel Action Network and Greenpeace. The mercury stockpile, was recovered from HoltraChem, a Maine-based chlorine-caustic factory. D.F. Goldsmith and Metal Corp., an Illinois-based trader has purchased the stockpile, allegedly for shipment to a secret recipient in India.

Companies and Government agencies in the US do not want to adopt the stockpile because of the severe environmental liabilities and potential environmental risks associated with storing the metal, which is known to be a deadly nerve poison. [1] Following protests by Maine-based NGOs, the Governor of Maine approached the US Government to prevent the export and instead add the stockpile to the existing store of used mercury in the US Department of Defense's stockpile, because Maine had no facilities to store the material. The US Government has refused to accept the mercury stockpile claiming they lack authority to do so.

"The United States government is complicit in this act of poisoning the poor for profit. It is deplorable that we are preparing to send to India is a highly toxic substance that we do not want to live with in the United States," said Lisa Finaldi, Greenpeace USA's toxics campaigner. "Even as we phase out this toxic metal from our products and lives in the United States, we shamelessly export it to industrializing countries knowing fully well the magnitude of damage to human lives and environment it can cause in these countries."

Faced with growing environmental concerns surrounding the toxic metal, many US cities, states and hospitals are phasing out mercury thermometers as a first step towards eliminating mercury releases into the environment. Boston, San Francisco, and the US state of New Hampshire have outlawed mercury thermometers. In September, 11 leading retailers and manufacturers, including Walmart, Kmart Corporation and Meijer's Supermarkets, announced that they would terminate sales of mercury fever thermometers.

"Likewise 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 Basel Action Network spokesperson Ravi Agarwal in New Delhi.

Over the last few years, Greenpeace, Basel Action Network and Toxics Link have highlighted numerous instances of toxic trade, of hazardous waste dumping and the export of dirty, obsolete products or technologies by industrialized countries into India. India seems to be a preferred dumping ground for the West.

The activist groups have raised the matter with the US Embassy and the Government of India, and have alerted the trade unions, including the dock workers unions. The groups have also expressed their appreciation to the US citizens groups and the Maine Governor Angus King for their efforts to sensitize the US Government on this latest instance of "toxic trade."

"We have had enough of this "take-this" US imperialism, where unwanted and dangerous substances, technologies and wastes are routinely dumped on industrializing countries," said Madhumita Dutta, an activist with New Delhi-based Toxics Link. "India must refuse the import of this horribly toxic and persistent poison, and instead begin to work on policies that phase out our own use of the toxic metal at home.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Madhumita Dutta, Toxics Link, New Delhi. +91 11 4328006. Email tldelhi@vsnl.com

Navroz Mody, Greenpeace (India). Mobile +91 (0) 9820194022. Email: navroz.mody@dialb.greenpeace.org

Lisa Finaldi, Greenpeace USA. Tel . Email lisa.finaldi@dialb.greenpeace.org

Ravi Agarwal, Basel Action Network (India). Tel +91 11 4328006. Email ravig@del6.vsnl.net.in

Jim Puckett, Basel Action Network (USA) Tel +1 (206) 720-6426, Email: jpuckett@ban.org

NOTES

[1] 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 lower 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 accumulates in the fat of animals, concentrating as it moves up the food chain.

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