toxics

The Anglo-Dutch multinational, Unilever, has admitted that the mercury contaminated waste dumps exposed by Greenpeace and local citizens' groups two weeks ago, originated from its mercury thermometer factory in the Indian tourist town of Kodiakanal.

Although its Indian subsidiary, Hindustan Lever, initially denied responsibility for the 5.3 tonnes of wastes lying at the Munjikal scrapyard in Kodaikanal, it finally closed its factory pending an investigation and has said it will assess the environmental consequences of the dump.

Greenpeace today welcomed the report on sustainable waste management by the House of Commons Select Committee on the Environment, Transport and the Regions. The report condemns the Government's policy on waste incineration and raises real doubts about the safety and regulation of the technology.

The report itself says that "incineration will never play a major role in truly sustainable waste management" and that "the health effects, which result from an incinerator's emissions, are not yet fully known".

The new UK Government life cycle analysis (LCA) of PVC and alternatives has been unable to find a way to address the main issue surrounding the use of the material - the impact of toxic pollutants generated throughout its life cycle. This means the LCA adds little information of use to the current debate on policy measures needed to reduce the environmental impact of PVC.

However, even without taking into account environmental impacts of major pollutants, the report finds PVC to be the worst of the options it considered for windows and floors. This is because timber and linoleum use less energy, contribute less to global warming gases, use fewer non-renewable resources and generate less waste. In fact the LCA depends almost entirely on energy consumption, as nearly all of the six impact assessment categories (Greenhouse effect, air acidification, stratospheric ozone depletion, photochemical oxidant formation, water eutrophication and non-renewable resource depletion) follow from this.

Greenpeace today backed the decision to stop Southampton Football Club selling off seats from The Dell when the ground is demolished this summer. The PVC seats contain high levels of the toxic metal cadmium.

Commenting on the decision, Mark Strutt, a toxics campaigner at Greenpeace, said:
"This is the right decision for both football fans and the environment. The seats should be sent to a special waste landfill as the best of several bad options. If the seats were sold and taken home by fans the plastic could erode over time releasing highly toxic cadmium dust into the home environment."

Mumbai/Chennai, 09 March, 2001

Palni Hills Conservation Council, United Citizens Council of Kodaikanal, Greenpeace and New Delhi-based Toxics Link have dismissed as an "insensitive PR exercise" Hindustan Lever's official response of temporarily suspending production at their polluting mercury thermometer factory in Kodaikanal. The groups were responding to HLL's attempt to "cover up" their environmental crime by saying that there was a "remote chance" that mercury-containing broken thermometers may have left the factory and attributing it to a possible "human error."