Tragedy lurks as mercury dumping grows

‘‘We are rapidly becoming the dumping ground of the world’s mercury. At this rate we will become the world dirt capital,’’ said Sunita Narain, director, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) said today.

‘‘Mercury can cause severe damage to the central nervous system, lungs and kidneys. There is need to do a nationwide study,’’ said J.S. Chopra, president, Neurological Society of India. Europe has decided to phase out all its chlor-alkali (caustic soda) plants and has 13,000 tonnes of mercury that it intends to discard. In seven years, it has sold 3,000 tonnes to India. The other regular exporters are Spain, UK, Russia, Italy and US.

How does Europe manage to send consignments to India, considering they are signatories to the Basel convention that prohibits sale of hazardous waste? CSE claims it has signed an agreement with the biggest mercury mine of Spain to circumvent this. The mine will buy 13,000 tonnes of mercury from a chlor-alkali plant and put in place of mined mercury, making it pure mercury that can be dumped.

CSE has marked mercury hot spots in the country after it discovered that the main user of mercury plants did not account for 90 per cent of the mercury they were using.

A collation of sporadic studies shows it is the coastal areas that are at maximum risk. In Mumbai, Kolkata, Kochi, Karwar, Chennai, North Kowel and Bihar, high levels of mercury were found in fish.

Mercury pollution is caused by things we use everyday — mercury cells, pesticides, electrical fittings, thermometers, dental amalgam and paints. Consumption of these things is going up rapidly — sales of mercury vapour lamps have gone up from 2,100 to 0.12 million, thermostats from 1.73 to 2.51 million and button cells from 17.1 to 91 million.

Making dumping easier is the fact that the inhouse industries are completely unregulated. In the name of Government action, there has been a draft notification issued by the Ministry of Environment and Forests to phase out mercury from consumer products, but no action has been taken so far.

In the 2003 Union Budget, tax exemptions for importing membrane cell components to mercury cell plants were granted. This was another wake-up call for industry to clean up its act before the country faces a disaster like Japan’s Minamata tragedy where thousands lost their lives and were maimed by mercury poisoning.