Fw: [AMALGAM] Mercury/hazardous waste

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----- Original Message -----

From: " Kathleen Dudley " <dudleyka@...>

<AMALGAM@...>

Sent: Wednesday, May 07, 2003 10:31 AM

Subject: [AMALGAM] Mercury/hazardous waste

> +++++ Mercury Poisoning from Dental Amalgam <AMALGAM@...>

++++++

>

> Hazardous Waste Is Shipped From India to U.S. Recycling Plant

>

> May 7, 2003

> By SARITHA RAI

>

>

>

>

>

>

> BANGALORE, India, May 5 - In what environmental activists

> in India are hailing as a major victory, tons of hazardous

> waste from an abandoned thermometer factory owned by

> India's largest consumer products company, Hindustan Lever

> Ltd., is heading to a recycling plant in the United States

> for safe disposal.

>

> About 300 tons of mercury-contaminated material and waste

> from the thermometer plant in Kodaikanal town, in India's

> southern state of Tamil Nadu, will be shipped to the United

> States.

>

> A ship carrying the material is expected to dock in New

> York on May 29. The waste shipment is headed to Bethlehem

> Apparatus Company, in Hellertown, Pa., the world's largest

> mercury recycling facility.

>

> Ameer Shahul, the corporate campaign coordinator for

> Greenpeace India, termed the shipment " reverse dumping, "

> referring to a reversal of earlier instances in which

> hazardous material has been shipped from the developed

> world to poorer countries.

>

> Prolonged protests from environmental activists led to the

> closing of the Hindustan Lever plant two years ago.

> Hindustan Lever is a subsidiary of Unilever.

>

> " We have forced the company to send back hazardous material

> from a poor country like India, an event that doesn't

> happen too often, " said V. R. Rajagopal Dorairajah, a

> member of Palani Hills Conservation Council, one of the

> conservation groups involved in the dispute. " This is a big

> win for us. "

>

> Mercury is a heavy metal that is very toxic even in small

> doses. Exposure to mercury can lead to damage of the brain,

> spinal cord, kidneys and liver.

>

> India has no recycling facilities for mercury-contaminated

> material.

>

> On Wednesday, the ship carrying several containers of

> contaminants from the plant, including waste glass tainted

> with mercury, effluent sludge, thermometers and metallic

> mercury, will leave Tuticorin port, about 200 miles south

> of the city of Madras in southeastern India.

>

> Greenpeace activists who joined local environmental groups

> to campaign against the plant are closely monitoring the

> hazardous cargo.

>

> Hindustan Lever confirmed the shipment. The waste was

> transported by road to the southern port under police

> supervision during daylight hours, the company said.

>

> The thermometer factory was acquired by Hindustan Lever

> from Pond's India Ltd., a cosmetics maker.

>

> Pond's moved the factory to India from the United States

> after the plant owned there by its parent,

> Chesebrough-Pond's, had been dismantled.

>

> The mercury for the thermometers was imported, primarily

> from the United States, and finished thermometers were

> exported to markets in the United States and Europe.

>

> The thermometer plant operated for nearly two decades in

> Kodaikanal, a popular summer resort dating back to the

> colonial period.

>

> Hindustan Lever said it was taking action to remediate

> contaminated soil according to stringent international

> regulations.

>

> It is currently seeking approval of its remediation plan by

> the Tamil Nadu pollution control board before it starts the

> process, the company said.

>

> Environmental activists have charged that mercury vapor

> released from the factory has impaired the health of the

> workers and community, a charge that Hindustan Lever

> vehemently denies.

>

>

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/07/international/asia/07INDI.html?ex=1053316

> 722 & ei=1 & en=26d5598f56e2a60d

>

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