Counterview Focus
“Chemical Hub : A Silent Killer”
- a booklet in Bengali
THE INDIAN PEOPLE’S TRIBUNAL REPORT - 2003
On Human Rights Violations, Industrial Pollution and the
Implications of the
Proposed Chemplast Sanmar PVC Factory in SIPCOT, Cuddalore, TamilNadu
News
Irregularities in Dow Plant Sanction
The chemical industry is certainly different from various other industries and potentially as dangerous as nuclear plants. The effluents are highly toxic and disastrous to the environment causing irreversible damage to the air, soil, water and pose serious threat to the health of the workers, surrounding communities and end-users. It destroys bio-diversities on earth and dangerously affect the ecology. Without appropriate checks (horrendously expensive), chemical industries can lead to complete catastrophe as witnessed in the city of Cubatao, Brazil. Giant multinational or transnational corporations are difficult to control and have extremely dubious track records. In the absence of stringent environmental protection laws, competent enforcement agencies, appropriate technologies and without any declared chemical use and handling policy like REACH as adopted by the European Union (EU), the setting up of a chemical hub does not qualify to be approved.
The government of West Bengal has decided to set up a chemical hub in the state. Such a hub is a cluster of production units centered around the main plant(s). The chemical industry is certainly different from various other industries and potentially as dangerous as nuclear plants. The effluents are highly toxic and disastrous to the environment causing irreversible damage to air, soil, water and pose serious threat to the health of the workers, surrounding communities and end-users. It destroys bio-diversities on earth and dangerously affect the ecology. Without appropriate checks (horrendously expensive), chemical industries can lead to complete catastrophe as witnessed in the city of Cubatao, Brazil or Bhopal, India.
A thick layer of fumes hovers over the city of Cubatao in Sao Paulo state, Brazil.
In Cubatao , the chemical capital of Brazil and came to be known as the “Valley of Death”, babies were born without brains, believed to be due to high level of pollution. The valley’s location made it irresistible to the industrial planners. Situated near the port of Santos, it was perfect place for industries like petroleum, fertilizer and chemicals to turn imported raw materials into finished products before shipping them to Sao Paolo via the long climb uphill. The river served as a convenient place to dump wastes.
In the early eighties the city recorded the highest infant mortality rate in Brazil and over one-third of the residents suffered from pneumonia, tuberculosis, emphysema and other respiratory sicknesses. By 1984, the Cubatao River was basically dead from organic pollution. Downstream form Cubatao, tons of heavy metals accumulated in bottom sediments and washed into the sea near Santos. Above the valley, fallout from the air-pollution began killing the Atlantic Forest and denuding the mountainsides.
Finally, in January 1985 the crisis became a catastrophe, as 15 inches of acid rain poured onto the bare hillside in 48 hours. Hundreds of mud-slides cascaded into the valley, and the broke a large ammonia pipeline in Vila Parisi, releasing gas that injured many residents and forced a mass evacuation. Official denial ended as the governor of Sao Paolo State declared an emergency and mandated forceful action by CETSEB, the state's pollution control agency.
Foetus with birth defects (Bhopal, 1984) [courtesey : bhopal.org]
On December 3, 1984 thousands of people in Bhopal were gassed to death after a catastrophic chemical leak at a Union Carbide pesticide plant. More than 150,000 people were left severely disabled, of whom roughly twenty two thousands have since died of their injury. More than 27 tons of methyl-isocyanate and other deadly gases turned Bhopal into a gas chamber on that night. None of the safety systems of the factory were working and Union Carbide's own documents prove that the company designed the plant with untested technology and cut corners on safety and maintenance to lower down the expenditure.
Today twenty four years after the Bhopal disaster, at least 50000 people are suffering from the incident, they cannot even work for their living and a recent study in the Journal of The American Medical Association confirmed that the children of the gas-affected parents are affected by Carbide's poison. Still the contamination in the water near Carbide's factory is affecting almost twenty thousand people and a study in 2001 revealed the presence of poisons such as 1,3,5,-trichlorobenzene, dichloromethane, lead and mercury in breast milk of nursing mothers living near the factory.
Burial of an unknown child (Bhopal, 1984) [courtesey : greenpeace.org]
Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) was formulated in 2001 in response to the urgent need for global action to protect human health and the environment from chemicals that are highly toxic, persistent, bio-accumulative and propagate over long distances in the environment. The Convention seeks the elimination or restriction of production and use of all intentionally produced POPs (i.e., industrial chemicals and pesticides). It also seeks the continuing minimization and, where feasible, ultimate elimination of the releases unintentionally produced POPs such as dioxines and furans. Stockpiles must be managed and disposed of in a safe, efficient and environmentally sound manner. The Convention imposes certain trade restrictions. It also includes a mechanism for expanding its list of POPs to new problem chemicals.
The POPs listed under Stockholm Convention banned are known as Dirty Dozen which include (i) pesticides/insecticides : Aldrin, Chlordane, DDT, Dieldrin, Endrin, Heptachlor, Toxaphene, Mirex (ii) Industrial Chemicals : Hexachlorobenzene, PCBs. (iii) Unintention by-products : Dioxines and Furans. As the POPs can travel long distances without being destroyed (persistent), can enter into the food chain and might be absorbed in human and animal bodies (bio-accumulative) these are responsible for various deadly diseases including cancer, birth defects, nerve diseases, endocrine disruption, asthma etc.
European Union has recently adopted a regulatory system for chemicals, REACH that stands for Registration, Evaluation and Authorization of Chemicals (REACH). This is a significant change which will affect not only the European economy but the world economy as a whole. REACH requires registration of all chemicals marketed at annual volumes above 1 metric ton per manufacturer or importer. For production volume above 100 metric ton per year require evaluation, including reviewing of animal testing data, by member state experts and a new EU chemical agency. Chemicals termed “substances of very high concern” - will require authorization for each contemplated use. The EU white paper estimates that there are about 1,400 of these chemicals. Some of the chemicals may be banned altogether.
In view of stringent regulations taken by European Union and other agencies, the chemical industries are now more inclined to shift their manufacturing units in the third world countries where the pollution control rules are relaxed and virtually non-existent. It might be mentioned that a large number of chemicals are already banned in developed countries but are produced and/or used in the third world nations.
Global experience shows that the chemical industry is controlled by handful of giant corporates like DuPont, Dow, Monsanto, Shell, Mitsubishi etc. These corporations are least concerned about the protection of environment or public health. A lot of chemicals produced by these manufacturers are highly toxic and a good many of those are already banned in Europe or in USA. More substances are likely to be included in near future. Once banned, corporates invent new products and start marketing them which prove to be even more hazardous than the previous ones. In a country like India, keeping surveillance on plants, constant monitoring of effluents and other discharges, evaluation of products, safeguarding environment and public health from being exposed to poisonous chemicals are difficult to materialize due to technical reasons and lack of proper legislations. To conclude, the conditions, as they exist now, both in the state (densely populated) and in the country as a whole, are not permissive to the setting up of chemical hub unless a comprehensive policy along the lines of REACH is formulated. [ pdf, 100 KB]
Chemical Hub - Biswayan Shilpayan Unnayan (Chemical Hub - Globalization, Industrialization and Development)
As part of its so called industrialization agenda, the Government of West Bengal is trying to build a chemical hub in the state. This is part of the globalization program pursued by both by the central and state government. The article discusses various aspects of the proposal with particular focus on the political economy of the petrochemical industry in the era of globalization. Various examples have been cited to assert authors' claim that setting up of a petrochemical hub is not a viable industrial program for India which is highly unstable because of the dependence on the global oil market and other related issues concerning technology and exports etc — writes Abhee Dutt-Mazumadar (published in Dainik Statesman on 02.09.2007). [ pdf, 124 KB]
The Time Table for Catastrophe
The recent conflicts and controversies over the proposed chemical hub in East Midnapur of West Bengal have aroused widespread interest and diverse opinions, misinformation and disinformation are daily making their appearances in the electronic and printed media and it is imperative to endeavor to make out what are going to be there and their likely impacts on the economy and on man & environment albeit there lies the problem of paucity of information and government's secrecy about the details of the whole plan. It appears from a government note of 18th May, 2007 circulated to political parties, which is incomplete and internally inconsistent, that petro-refinery and petrochemical industries would be the key stone of the chemical hub from which besides the usual fuels like gasoline, kerosene, furnace oil, LPG, wax, carbon, asphalt etc., plastics, synthetic polymers, pesticides, drugs, adhesives, synthetic rubbers etc. will be produced. For this, elementary chemical commonsense deduces that some other necessary plants like caustic soda, chlorine, sulfuric acid etc. will also be needed. Without details and the usual Environmental Impact Assessment one can at best try to make some enlightened guess works by the experiences from some other areas of the world from a chemical and environmental background. — writes Manindra Narayan Mazumder (courtsey : Frontier) [ pdf, 84 KB ]
Nandigram Beckons : Resist PCPIRs Everywhere
— Manindra Narayan Majumder [ pdf, 68 KB ]
Chemical Hub : A Boon or Bane?
— Dr. Siddhartha Gupta [ pdf, 84 KB ]
Chemical Hub : A Note
This note explains the stand-point of West Bengal government for setting up of a chemical hub in the state. Distributed among the political parties. [ pdf, 2.4 MB]
WB Govt. Note : A school level essay - says experts
In a press conference organized by the Teachers And Scientists Against Maldevelopment represented by Partha Sarathi Roy, Dept. of Chemical Technology of the Calcutta University, Rabin Majumdar of the Chemical Engineering Department of the Calcutta University and Manindra Narayon Majumdar of Kalyani University, has heavily criticized the document entitled `Chemical Hub' dated 18th May 2007 and described this as a School Level Eassy which fails to qualify as a serious document.
Professor Roy observes that the claim of the employment generation is far from reality as the technology involved in modern chemical plants are highly automated and require only little man power. He contested by noting that in Baraoni Oil refinery the number of jobs available was around two thousands where the total yield was 2.5 mt per anum while on the other hand at Jambani, in the refinery set up by the Reliance with a production capacity of 26 mt per anum, the number of jobs created was about the same, i.e. two thousand or so. It was even argued that government should justify why are they going for petrochemical industry in the hub as such a hub does not necessarily has to be so. Particularly, in a country like India, before setting up of petrochemical hub, the Government has to justify why it does not consider setting up of chemical hub which are agribased. Furthermore, the government should declare its chemical use, management, handling, export and import policy before such a project is undertaken.
TASAM's letter to CM
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TASAM's Press Release
Press Coverage →
The Statesman
Times of India
Indian Express
Dainik Statesman
Ekdin
Corporate Crimes
This report by Greenpeace/Raghu Rai compiles 37 cases from various industrial sectors, including chemical, forest, mining, genetic engineering, nuclear energy and oil industries in different parts of the world. They illustrate the urgent need for governments to force corporations to uphold the law and become more accountable to the public.
These cases illustrate that irresponsible corporate behaviour continues to severely affect both the environment and peoples health, and that the companies who are responsible fail to respond in an adequate manner. They show how companies routinely fail to compensate and/or assist impacted communities, how they evade obligations to clean up or remediate damaged environments, and, by and large, violate human and community rights by failing to monitor, report and provide essential information concerning their products and processes. Such behaviour is no less than criminal, and it is becoming increasingly difficult — sometimes impossible — to seek justice, and to hold these companies accountable and liable for their crimes. [ pdf, 781 KB]
