Indya.Com News

Hindustan Lever says it has employed an international eco consultant, Dames & Moore, for advice onassessing and addressing the environmental consequences. The communications department of Dames &Moore, India says its country representatives have already submitted a protocol to clear the 5.23 tonnesof mercury wastes lying in Munjikal.

Mercury dumping poses a hazard because exposure to it can cause damage to the brain, the kidneys anddeveloping foetuses. Effects on brain functioning may result in irritability, shyness, tremors, changes invision or hearing, and memory problems.

In addition, short-term exposure to high levels of metallic mercury vapours may cause effects includinglung damage, nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, increases in blood pressure or heart rate, skin rashes, and eyeirritation.

“Hindustan Lever, which had earlier denied all charges against its thermometer factory of dumping mercurywaste illegally, has finally admitted that the 5.3 tonnes of mercury-containing glass wastescurrently lying at the Munjikal scrapyard in Kodaikanal, came from their factory,” says Navroz Mody,campaign director, Greenpeace, India.

In a letter to Greenpeace, the company has also promised to track and retrieve other such shipments thathave been sent to various locations outside the factory, and to clear the wastes that were found tobe dumped in the watershed forests behind the factory wall, Mody told indya.com in an interview fromKodaikanal.

The Delhi-based NGO Toxics Link’s director Madhumita Dutta further explained that though the Tamilnadu Alliance Against Mercury (TAAM), rallying against this practice (which began in 1983) has welcomed these admissions, the body remains irked that Hindustan Lever has not yet apologised to the community.

“They’re downplaying the impact,” A Kolhatkar, president, Kodaikanal Consumer Action Group told indya.com. “It’s evident from the fact that several shipments of potentially mercury-contaminated wastes sent over the last 17 years of operation may now be untraceable. By now, these have spread out not only over various parts of Tamil Nadu, but also even into neighbouring states,” he said.

Mody lauded the company for at least having admitted that the waste mercury (which came from brokenand defective thermometers and contained other wastes like glass) came from their plant. “This in the first time a major company has actually accepted a part of the fault,” he said, adding that credit should be given to pressure from the local citizen’s groups.

However, all those indya.com spoke to pointed out that since the waste mercury actually comprised 25-30 per cent of the amount used for production, deducing the total quantity of mercury dumped since 1983 when the whole thing began, will be tough. For, it will be difficult to track 13-year-old waste mercury across several states.

"Hindustan Lever's admission is a good first step, but discussions with the company cannot begin inearnest, until the company offers a public apology," says Mody. "Hindustan Lever should realise that thisgoes beyond mere financial compensation and remediation which can never fully make up for the damage to the quality of life and environment. More importantly, they should realise that if such dumping were found in London or Amsterdam, where Unilever is based, the company would be in deeptrouble."

The action groups have also demanded that Hindustan Lever finance an independent expert study on thehealth and ecological impacts of the mercury waste that its generated so far.

Replying to indya.com’s queries, Debasis Ray, manager, corporate communications, Hindustan Lever, says the company has tackled the issue with speed and openness and promises to conduct tests to determine the steps required to effectively clean up the area that has suffered most – the ecologically sensitive Pambar Shola, Kodai Kanal.

“We have shared the protocol with the Kodaikanal community and NGOs involved, and have also written tothe Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNCPB). We’re now awaiting the TNCPB’s approval to remove this scrap and bring it inside the factory,” says Ray.

He also pointed out that the company is studying the impact on the soil and water in the neighbouringarea of the factory to ascertain if there has been any adverse impact.

Twenty-two soil samples, three of them from outside the factory, and six water samples, four from outsidethe factory, have been taken and sent for testing at reputed laboratories in Melbourne, SGS-Chennai, ITRC-Lucknow, and also Hindustan Lever’s own facilities.

Hindustan Lever will share the results with the community. If such studies indeed throw up issues,Hindustan Lever says it will address them, and decide and initiate remedial measures. Such impact assessment tests on the factory employees is also being undertaken. However, the company denies allegations of dumping mercury-containing wastes in nearby forests.

“Allegations that drums containing mercury bottles had been thrown into the forests outside the factoryare not true. The drums were within the factory’s fenced site and on factory property. They havenow been moved to a better storage location in the factory,” was the company’s reply to indya.com’squeries.

Hindustan Lever is also in the process of tracking down other shipments of stocks of glass scrap from thefactory, bulk of which has gone to industrial users such as bulb manufacturers, to ascertain its natureand quality. It would bring back any recovered crushed glass that may need further evaluation orprocessing.

TNCPB says it plans to take stringent action against the offending unit unless the company delivers what ithas promised to Greenpeace and TAAM. “We might even close it down,” Rama Chandran, environmentalengineer and adviser to member-secretary TNCPB told indya.com.

The scene of the pollution? Pambar Shola, Kodaikanal, perched on the edge of the precipe with the Fallscascading down for several hundred metres. This extremely biodiverse shola, now shrunk to less than3 kms in circumference, is witnessing the last-ditch battle for survival by a number of plant species, the lastsentinels of a bygone age.

The past has been glorious; several plant species were described as new to science from here. But thedevelopment activities of recent decades have depleted its species richness; a few are already extinct;at least four are now known from a single clump each for the entire Palai hills. Pambar Shola is trulya living fossil, a relic among relics.” Hindustan Lever’s mercury thermometer factory is on the ridge of Pambar shola slope — a location thecompany acquired by securing special exemption from the Tamil Nadu government on grounds that thefactory is non-polluting, says Kolhatkar.

Over the years, the slopes leading into Pambar shola's core have been used by the factory management asa dumping ground for all kinds of wastes, including mercury wastes from broken thermometers and other mercury-contaminated materials. The slopes where the wastes are dumped are part of the Pambarshola watershed, draining water through the Pambar River which eventually ends up in the plains leading up to the temple city of Madurai through a network of canals.

Hindustan Lever’s entire production from the thermometer factory is exported to the US, for sale in Germany, UK, Spain, US, Australia and Canada. The mercury for the plant is imported, mainly from theUS. The factory, set up in 1977, was a second-hand plant imported from Cheseborough Ponds from the USwhich was shut down.

Mody says such a violation would have proved extremely expensive in any Western nation, “But not so inIndia, where the Central Pollution Control Board are hardly aware of the details on India’s mercury usage.The regulatory mechanisms are extremely weak, he says, citing the recent shipment of toxic mercury from the US, which was sent back only after media reports brought it to government’s notice. «