The scrapyard is located in a crowded part of town on top of a
slope with terraced cultivation and habitation. The highly
hazardous mercury-bearing wastes are stored haphazardly in open and
torn sacks, with the contents spilled onto the workspace,
frequented by barefeet, unprotected workers.
Greenpeace and PHCC also found mercury contaminated wastes from
Hindustan Lever, a 51% owned subsidiary of Anglo-Dutch
multinational Unilever, dumped behind the factory wall onto the
slopes leading to Pambar Shola, a highly productive watershed and
one of the last remaining pockets of megabiodiversity in the
region. Recently, the shola was officially designated as a
sanctuary area.
A number of workers and ex-workers, especially those working in
the mercury sections of the factory, complain of a variety of
health problems and unsound working conditions in the factory's
mercury sections.
Mercury in contact with microorganisms in soil or water becomes
methyl mercury that through air, water or skin exerts severe
effects on the central nervous system (brain), kidneys and liver.
Pregnant women, fetuses and women of child-bearing age, and young
children are particularly at risk of poisoning by methyl
mercury.
According to the company, Hindustan Lever's entire production
from the thermometer factory is exported to the United States, for
sale in Germany, UK, Spain, USA, Australia and Canada. The mercury
for the plant is imported, mainly from the United States.The
factory, set up in 1977, was a second-hand plant imported from
Cheseborough Ponds from the United States, after the US factory was
shutdown for unknown reasons.
Unilever's mission statement may read like poetry; but their
actions in Kodaikanal expose them as toxic traders who run
polluting industries in developing countries to service the markets
of the rich nations, said Navroz Mody, Greenpeace's Toxics
Campaigner in India and a long-time resident of Kodaikanal.
All that talk about the industry having learnt a lesson from
Bhopal is nonsense. Here's an example of another multinational
applying double standards, polluting the environment, exposing its
workers and pouring poisons onto a sensitive watershed forest, and
doing this for more than two decades, R. Kannan, an activist with
Palni Hills Conservation Council. No lessons have been learnt,
either by companies such as Hindustan Lever, or by our regulatory
authorities.
For substances like mercury, banning is the only way. India must
begin work on a mercury phase-out plan and encouarage adoption of
cleaner alternatives, said Rajesh Rangarajan of Chennai-based
Toxics Link.
Greenpeace and Palni Hills Conservation Council hold Hindustan
Lever criminally liable and demand that:
1. HLL should immediately end the use of mercury in the
Hindustan Lever Thermometer factory and ensure that the livelihoods
of workers are not jeopardised due to your negligent behaviour;
2. A full investigation should be conducted into the extent and
nature of mercury pollution caused by the factory within its
premises, at the scrapyard and in the surrounding environment.
3. Hindustan Lever must, under strict supervision, clean up the
Munjikal dump site as it poses an immediate and ongoing threat to
children at an adjacent school and densely populated community.
Hindustan Lever mustaccount for all past waste shipments to other
parts of Tamilnadu.
4. A full investigation should be conducted to assess the damage
to health among Lever's current and ex-workers, and HLL should pay
to restore their health and compensate them for the loss of quality
of life;
5. Hindustan Lever must be held criminally and financially
liable for the damage done to workers, community and environment of
Kodaikanal and the Palani Hills.