US, INDIAN GROUPS PROTEST EXPORT OF WASTE MERCURY TO INDIA

ASIA PULSE

January 5, 2001

CEBU CITY, Jan 5

Environmental groups from the United States and India have united to
protest US government plans to ship 118 tons of used mercury to an
undisclosed destination in India.

Toxics Link, Basel Action Network and Greenpeace said the highly toxic
mercury stockpile was recovered from HoltraChem, a Maine-based
chlorine-caustic factory. D.F. Goldsmith and Metal Corp, an Illinois-based
trader, has purchased the stockpile, allegedly for shipment to a secret
recipient in India.

Companies and government agencies in the US have refused to take on the
stockpile because of the severe environmental liabilities and potential
environmental risks associated with storing the metal, which is a deadly
nerve poison.

Following protests by Maine-based non-government organisations, the
Governor of Maine also approached the US Government to protest the export.
He suggested that it instead be added US Department of defense's existing
stockpile.

However, the US Government has refused to accept the mercury stockpile
claiming they lack authority to do so.

"The United States government is complicit in this act of poisoning the
poor for profit. It is deplorable that we are preparing to send to India is
a highly toxic substance that we do not want to live with in the United
States," said Lisa Finaldi, Greenpeace USA's Toxics campaigner.

"Even as we phase out this toxic metal from our products and lives in the
United States, we shamelessly export it to industrializing countries
knowing fully well the magnitude of damage to human lives and environment
it can cause in these countries."

Many US cities, states and hospitals, including Boston, San Francisco, and
New Hampshire, are phasing out mercury thermometers as a first step towards
eliminating the possibility of mercury leaking into the environment.

In September, ll leading retailers and manufacturers, including Walmart,
Kmart Corporation and Meijer's Supermarkets, also announced that they would
terminate sales of mercury thermometers.

"Likewise in India, this import can preempt fledgling attempts by Indian
groups to frame rules to handle existing mercury contamination and to find
alternatives to mercury," said Basel Action network spokesperson Ravi
Agarwal in New Delhi.

Over the last few years, Greenpeace, Basel Action Network and Toxics Link
have highlighted numerous instances of toxic trade, hazardous waste dumping
and the export of dirty, obsolete products or technologies by
industrialized countries into India.

The activist groups have raised the matter with the US Embassy and the
Government of India, and have alerted the trade unions, including the dock
workers and the Maine Governor Angus King for their efforts to sensitize
the US Government on this latest instance of "toxic trade."

"We have had enough of this "take-this" US imperialism, where unwanted and
dangerous substances, technologies and wastes are routinely dumped on
industrializing countries," said Madhumita Dutta, an activist with New
Delhi-based Toxics Link.

"India must refuse the import of this horribly toxic and persistent poison,
and instead begin to work on policies that phase out our own sue of the
toxic metal at home."

*** 04-Jan-0* ***

Title: ENVIRONMENT-INDIA: Govt. to Stop Toxic U.S. Mercury Shipment

By Ranjit Devraj

NEW DELHI, Jan 4 (IPS) - Indian stevedore unions have pledged support for
greens activists trying to stop the unloading of a 118-tonne shipment of
toxic mercury waste headed from the United States.

The President of the All-India Port and Dock Workers Federation, S. R.
Kulkarni has told the New Delhi-based campaigner 'Toxic Link', that port
workers would be on the lookout for the consignment of toxic metal at all
the 18 major ports along the Indian peninsula.

The Indian government too has finally decided to prevent the toxic cargo
from being unloaded. A senior Ministry of Environment and Forests official
told IPS that customs and port authorities have been alerted.

''We have alerted the customs and port authorities and asked them to seize
this illegal consignment,'' said Indrani Chandrasekhar, Director in the
ministry.

''Basically it is the responsibility of the United States to stop it
although they are not signatories to the Basel Convention. We are doing
everything we can to stop the import of mercury, which is banned,'' she added.

The mercury was recovered from 'HoltraChem', a chlorine-caustic factory in
the United States and sold to 'D.F. Goldsmith and Metal Corp.', an
Illinois-based trader who is said to be shipping it to India.

The port workers' leader, in a note to Toxic Link activist, Madhumita
Dutta, said that his organisation would also alert its counterpart in the
United States -- the 'Longshoremen's Union' --to ensure that the
consignment was not loaded at U.S. ports.

Dutta says her group sought the stevedores' help because the mercury
shipment is shrouded in secrecy. It is still not known who the Indian
consignees are, though they are certain to be Indian manufacturers of
thermometers used to measure human body temperature, she says.

Activists believe that at least some of the mercury could be sent to a
large thermometer factory located in the Indian town of Kodaikanal in
southern Tamil Nadu state.

According to the International Trade Administration, U.S. government
agency, India is the largest recipient of mercury exports from the United
States. Apart from thermometers, the metal is used in the manufacture of
chlorine and caustic soda.

Toxic Link is working with activist groups across the world that are trying
to stop the international trade in toxic substances, banned by the Basel
treaty. It is also in touch with non-governmental organisation(NGO)
networks in the United States as well as the U.S. Department of Defence to
help stop the exports.

The U.S government is under pressure from NGOs there to prevent the mercury
export, who, instead, want it to be added to used mercury in the U.S.
Department of Defence's stockpiles.

''The United States government is an accomplice in poisoning the poor for
profit. It is deplorable that we are preparing to send to India a highly
toxic substance that we do not want to live with in the United States,''
Greenpeace campaigner Lisa Finaldi said in a press note.

Many U.S. cities, states and hospitals are phasing out mercury
thermometers. The cities of Boston, San Francisco and the U.S state of New
Hampshire have outlawed mercury thermometers.

In September last year, 11 leading retailers and manufacturers, including
'Walmart', 'Kmart Corporation' and 'Meijer's Supermarkets', announced they
would stop making and selling mercury thermometers.

The action followed the publication of a study by the U.S.- based National
Research Council of the National Academy of Science, which warned that at
least 60,000 babies born every year in the United States, faced the risk of
stunted mental growth because their mothers had eaten mercury-contaminated
fish and seafood.

Mercury is specially dangerous because it does not break down, but
accumulates in the body of animals.

Activists want the government to regulate imports to screen out toxic
substances. ''The Ministry of Environment has done little to seal our
borders against illegal waste dumping,'' says Nityanand Jayaraman, Asia
Toxics campaigners for Greenpeace in India.

In November last year, customs officials in Mumbai found themselves saddled
with 160 containers loaded with hazardous wastes exported by traders in the
Middle East. These were labelled as furnace oil, though this is included in
a list of items whose import was banned by India's Supreme Court in the
year 1997. (END/IPS/ap-en/rdr/mu/01)

Here's a front-page national daily story on HoltraChem's leftover mercury saga

The Times of India January 2, 2001

America's unwanted heading for India?
By Rahul Gupta

NEW DELHI: Environment groups in India are up in arms over a move by the US to export used and toxic
mercury to India. The 118-tonne stockpile is being exported to India under a veil of secrecy.

A Maine-based chemical factory, HoltraChem, sold it to an Illinois-based trader, DF Goldsmith and Metal
Corporation, which plans to send the mercury to India.

The entire transaction has been kept under wraps. Who the Indian importer or the group of importers is is
not known. Which city will receive the mercury in India also has been kept a secret. What has also raised
eyebrows is the probable use for such a large consignment of used mercury in India.

Maine, where the mercury originated, does not want it. It does not have storage facilities for such a toxic
substance. After protests by NGOs in Maine, the governor specifically asked the US government to stop
its export to India. He even suggested that the US defence department take over the cargo and add it to its
stockpile.

Indian and American NGOs are closely monitoring the movement of the cargo. These groups include
Greenpeace USA, Toxics Link in India and Basel Action Network (BAN). Greenpeace USA's Lisa Finaldi
said: ``The US government is an accomplice in poisoning the poor for profit. Even as we phase out this
toxic metal from our products and our lives, we shamelessly export it to (other) countries knowing fully well
its damage to human lives.''

BAN spokesperson Ravi Aggarwal said: ``Neither the US government nor US companies want the used
mercury, as its storage poses a big headache.'' Mercury, the only liquid among metals, is a deadly nerve
poison and is known to be a global pollutant as it carried all over the world by wind and rain. The metal
does not break down and accumulates in the fat of animals and keeps on moving up the food chain.

Aggarwal said: ``We have taken up the matter with the government of India and the US embassy in Delhi.
We have also alerted trade unions and dock workers unions.''

One reason the Americans do not want it on their land is a recent warning by the National Research
Council of the National Academy of Sciences that 60,000 babies per year in the US are at a risk of brain
damage as their mothers have eaten mercury contaminated food.

With such findings, Boston, San Francisco and New Hampshire have even banned mercury thermometers.
Even hospitals have outlawed such thermometers. In September 2000, a number of retailers and
manufacturers announced that they will end the sale and manufacture of mercury based thermometers.