The Hindu : Call to assess mercury spread in Kodai area

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jun 13, 2003

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Call to assess mercury spread in Kodai area

By Kalpana Sharma

MUMBAI June 12. The Indian People's Tribunal on Environment and Human Rights released a 50-page report on Wednesday documenting the health and environmental impact caused by the Hindustan Lever Mercury Thermometer Factory in Kodaikanal, Tamil Nadu. It called for an independent assessment of the spread of mercury in the Kodaikanal area and a time-bound remediation of the site to meet international standards.

The issue of alleged mercury contamination by the HLL factory (originally set up by Cheesborough Ponds in 1983 and acquired by HLL in 1997) has been the focus of an ongoing agitation by environmental groups, principally the Palani Hills Conservation Council and Greenpeace.

The suspected contamination was brought to the public's notice when these groups discovered a substantial quantity of glass from the factory that contained traces of mercury with a local scrap dealer.

The expose led to an intervention by the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board and eventual suspension of production by the factory in 2001. Mercury is an extremely toxic substance and is the only metal that can exist as both liquid and vapour.

In a report submitted to the Hazardous Waste Monitoring Committee set up by the TNPCB, HLL admitted that 5.3 tons of mercury-bearing waste had been "inadvertently" sold to a local scrap dealer. But when the contaminated glass was recovered and weighed, it turned out to be 7.4 tons of glass.

The IPTEHR report cites this as one of several inconsistencies in HLL's reports on mercury levels within and outside the factory, the extent of waste, what was done with it and the impact on the health of workers.

However, following the agitation by local people and directions from its parent company, Unilever, HLL shipped out a large quantity of mercury-laden glass from the closed factory site to the U.S. from where the mercury was bought. This is an unprecedented step and confirms the allegations that there was mercury contamination on site.

Two issues that the Tribunal's report emphasises, and that have not been adequately addressed by HLL, are the long-term environmental impact on the Kodaikanal region and the health effects on the workers.

The factory got permission to operate in an environmentally fragile area on the understanding that it was non-polluting. It is located on the edge of a highly eco-sensitive Pambar Shola that forms part of the watershed that eventually drains into the Pambar River. This joins a network of canals that runs past Madurai and eventually drains into the Bay of Bengal. According to the report, the core of this Pambar Shola was the dumping ground for waste from the factory including mercury-contaminated glass.

The long-term impact of mercury traces making their way through this eco-system have not yet been assessed.

The second issue is the impact on the health of workers. HLL's survey of 250 workers states that there are no serious impacts on the health of the majority through exposure to mercury.

The Tribunal and the Community Health Cell, Bangalore, could not gain access to the detailed report and had to rely on a power-point presentation by the HLL team. From this, it was concluded that the survey, based on an "opportunistic" sample was inadequate on a number of crucial counts. It urged an independent survey of the health of workers that will consider how long they were exposed to the mercury. This is not clear from the HLL survey. It also suggested that contract workers, brought into the factory for shorter periods, be surveyed. The Tribunal interacted with 160 ex-workers of the factory of whom 65 had worked with HLL and Ponds, 48 only with Ponds and 47 only with HLL. All of them brought their medical records, prescription, x-rays and MRI scans.

The majority of them, according to the Tribunal, were unaware of the hazards of mercury.

Many reported symptoms, such as persistent headaches, nausea and gum problems, which can be attributed to exposure to mercury. In the absence of an independent epidemiological survey, there is not way to assess the extent to which the health of these workers has been affected through exposure to mercury.

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