space Press Releases, News Stories

India Abroad News Service

"The protest (by environmentalists) and rejection of this shipment has made the Indian government seriously acknowledge the extreme hazards of mercury," Delhi-based activist Madhumita Dutta, head of Toxics Link India, told IANS. Dutta's organization is working with the Basel Action Network (BAN), a global toxic trade watchdog net, and other groups.

A ship from the US loaded with the deadly poison, which is known to be a global pollutant that circulates in the environment through wind and rain, was turned back from near the Egyptian shores following international protests by the greens. The identity of the Indian importer who ordered this highly toxic metal, use of which is restricted in the US, is not known.

Activists also claimed preliminary success in the larger struggle to phase out mercury use and trade worldwide when US Congressman Tom Allen announced that he would introduce legislation to phase out certain uses of mercury and provide for waste mercury to be stored and retired rather than exported to developing countries.

"We applaud Allen's leadership role on this issue. There is an emerging global consensus that all uses of mercury must be phased out as soon as possible," Michael Bender, executive director of the Montpelier, Vermont-based Mercury Policy Project, said in a statement made available here. "It is impossible to manage and use it safely anywhere in the world but least of all in developing countries lacking in regulatory infrastructure and resources to safeguard the public and the environment," he added.

The owner of the waste, Don Goldsmith of D. F. Goldsmith Inc., decided to recall the first 20-ton consignment of the material while on its way to India after protests began in India by environmentalists and Indian dockworkers claimed they would refuse to unload it. The Goldsmith decision was apparently influenced by the fact that the states of New York and Maine declared the material a hazardous waste, which would have made its entry into India possibly illegal under the Indian hazardous waste import ban and under the Basel Convention -- an international accord designed to minimize trade in hazardous waste.

"We applaud their help in turning this shipment around. Now we must adopt trade and consumption strategies which phase out all mercury use for good," Madhumita Dutta said.

The US based activists who initially raised the global alarm have been protesting the export plans of D.F. Goldsmith for several months, and have urged the U.S. not to allow the spread of toxic mercury around the word, particularly to developing countries that lack the resources and regulations to manage it safely.

"The people of India were absolutely justified in rejecting this toxic shipment," said Michael Belliveau, toxics project director for Natural Resources Council of Maine. "The mercury from the HoltraChem plant has already despoiled enough of our environment in Maine. We cannot let this same toxic nightmare cause even more grief abroad," said Belliveau.

It is claimed that the mercury discharged by the HoltraChem plant has resulted in the highest levels of mercury-contaminated sediment possibly ever recorded in the world. The coalition, which includes among others Greenpeace, Toxics Link of New Delhi, Srishti in New Delhi, All India Port and Dockworkers' Federation, Basel Action Network, Mercury Policy Project and the Natural Resources Council of Maine, are calling for the US government to forever lock up retired commercial mercury along with the Defense Department Mercury Stockpiles of about 4.5 million kg.

On Thursday Congressman Allen, Democrat of Maine, had announced that he would introduce legislation directing the Department of Defense to temporarily accept waste mercury, like that left after the closure of the Maine HoltraChem plant. The bill also would direct the US Environmental Protection Agency to develop and implement a program for long-term storage to prevent use and trade of mercury.