In the winter of 1984, a Thermometer factory owned by the multinational consumer company Ponds was set up in the colonial summer retreat of Kodaikanal. The plant had been transported to India after dismantling a plant owned by the Cheseborough Ponds in Watertown in the US.

Hindustan Lever Limited, a subsidiary of Unilever, the Anglo-Dutch Consumer-care firm, acquired the plant in 1997 as part of Unilever's global acquisition of Ponds.

For almost two decades, this thermometer factory functioned without alerting either the employees or the Kodaikanal community about the dangers it posed to the surroundings and to the workers for almost two decades. Raw materials, including Mercury, for the thermometers was imported from the United States and finished thermometers were sent back to the US, from where they were distributed to markets abroad.

By the late 1990s, Mercury contamination in the area was hundreds of times over the permissible limits of .01mg/kg in the soil. Over a period of years, Mercury that had escaped the plant as vapour and/or was dumped as waste would amount to several tons.

The company, however, insisted that the loss of Mercury to the atmosphere was 'insignificant' and would not impact the environment, thus putting the onus on the local community to prove the contamination.

HLL's toxic dumping exposed!
On 7 March 2001, Greenpeace and a local environment group - Palani Hills Conservation Council (PHCC) - exposed Mercury-bearing waste glass that had been dumped by HLL at a local scrap yard.

Consequent demonstrations by the local people at the factory site forced its closure, and the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) issued a notice to the company, ordering them to refrain from carrying out any activity at the site.

When asked by the TNPCB to provide documentation on the use or storage of Mercury at the site, HLL submitted fraudulent and patently false declarations. The first report in May 2001 by its Australian consultant stated the amount of Mercury lost to the environment as 559 kg, which was subsequently revised to 2031 kg.

Investigations revealed that a further 10 tons of Mercury were unaccounted for and had been lost to the environment, in addition to the amount that company was willing to admit to!


Gross neglect of workers' health and safety
Apart from the damage caused to the environment, workers at the thermometer factory were exposed to unacceptable levels of Mercury. They worked without the safety equipment and apparel required to protect oneself from hazardous materials. There were neither adequate safety measures, nor regular medical check-ups.
Many workers suffered symptoms which clearly indicated exposure to Mercury, though these were often not even recorded during the irregular medical examinations. In the last few years, as many as 14 ex-workers of the factory have died of either renal failure or multiple complications, which could easily be connected to the Mercury exposure at the factory. Many more are suffering and at various stages of criticality with problems ranging from neurological, nephrological, reproductive and endocrinal disorders.

Risking a wide, fragile ecosystem
The tropical forest of the Pambar Shola on the east and the Kodi Lake and town to the West and North respectively have been polluted by the Mercury vapor blown out by the fans and via the natural drainage of water. Mercury contamination of the Kodai Lake and the Pambar River can have wide ranging environmental effects since the sediments will be recycled into the aquatic Eco-system for decades or even longer.

The levels of Mercury in the soil outside the factory indicate an elevation of 25 times over the lowest reading, and 250 times permissible limits. This contamination is the result of Mercury vapor forcefully blown out by fans, and there is every reason to believe that these high levels of contamination would also be reflected in the surrounding environment.

After the closure of the factory, local environmental groups and Greenpeace have been focusing on safe containment of the hazardous wastes, sending them to back to the United States as a 'Return to Sender', demanding the safe retiral of the Mercury, remediation of the site and compensation to the workers.

Indian Peoples' Tribunal Report
In November, 2002, local groups requested that the Mumbai-based Indian Peoples' Tribunal (IPT) look into the health and environmental impacts of Mercury pollution, besides recommending safety and effluent disposal measures.

The investigation and public hearing by the IPT confirmed that the ex-workers of HLL thermometer factory had suffered occupational health problems. It also demonstrated that HLL had falsified information provided to statutory bodies, and could be held responsible for the illegal dispersal of several tons of Mercury throughout Tamil Nadu, in addition to the tons of Mercury released from the factory in a sensitive ecological location. The analysis of factory workers' health problems were similar to Mercury poisoning symptoms reported from other parts of the world. The spot ambient Mercury readings are 9.6 times more than the accepted standard specification. Such exposures are sufficient to cause memory loss and other neurological problems. The report of the Tribunal headed by a former High Court Chief Justice, which was released to the media and the public in Mumbai on June 11th 2003, was rubbished by the company showing scant regard to opinions of eminent legal luminaries.

Return to Sender
In March 2003, the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board ordered HLL to collect the Mercury containing glass waste dumped in scrap yards and forests and send it back to the United States for recycling and disposal. Consequently, the company had no option but to collect, pack and send 289 tons of waste material to a recycling facility in Pennsylvania from the Tuticorin port in May 2003.
The arrival of this hazardous waste in the US was met with a worldwide cry to retire the Mercury recovered from the waste permanently, which the company has continued to resist.

Independent analyses confirm Mercury contamination
In 2003, an institute of the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) released the startling results of a study they conducted. According to them, the Mercury levels outside the factory is at dangerously high levels even years after the closure of the factory.

The study found Mercury levels at 1.32 microgram per cubic meter against the normal level of 0.5-10 nanogram per cubic metre; effectively an aberration of between 132 to 2,640 times. The DAE also observed that the Mercury contamination has spread far and wide from the factory and has reached deep inside the pristine Pambar Shola forests. A level of 0.2 mg Mercury was found in every kilogram dry weight of Lichen and Moss collected from a lake 20 km away from the factory.

These findings were seconded by another study by Greenpeace Research Laboratory, University of Exeter, UK released in November 2003. This study, 'Atmospheric Disperal of Mercury from the Hindustan Lever Limited factory, Kodaikanal, Tamil Nadu, using Lichen as a bio-monitor' also found Mercury levels in Lichen samples collected from different destinations around the factory ranging from 0.08 to 1.99 mg per kilogram dry weight of samples. These studies have provided enough scientific basis for the argument that Mercury contamination around the factory site is far than anything the company and its hired experts were willing to admit to.

A former employee of HLL who worked in the accounts section of the factory presented a startling calculation on the lost Mercury estimates in a Conference organized by Greenpeace in April 2004 in Chennai. Using documents submitted by the company to the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB), he proved that a total quantity of 17.655 tons of Mercury has been lost into the atmosphere from the factory through different routes.

Campaigning for justice
Greenpeace along with local environmental organizations and the ex-workers of the factory are seeking a medical rehabilitation programme for the affected ex-workers and the community. Greenpeace and concerned shareholders of the company have raised these questions at the company's Annual General-body Meetings for three consecutive years, from 2002 to 2004, and have sought replies on the various issues related to the company's outrageous Mercury pollution. The Chief Executive Officer and directors of the company continue to evade all crucial questions relating to its condemnable acts in Kodaikanal.

The company meanwhile, continues to hold the outrageous view that the workers have not been affected by their years of exposure to Mercury and that there have been no harmful impacts on this sensitive forest area due to the tons of Mercury dispersed by the factory into the atmosphere!