Is your garam masala safe from mercury?
Kodaikanal, 19 July 2010 Paliya tribes living in and around Kodaikanal are allegedly facing health problems attributable to mercury pollution, according to an NGO working with tribals in the region. Read media story...

Waiting in vain for compensation
Kodaikanal/Chennai July 19, 2010 Ruby Martine (80) walks to the graveyard every Wednesday to offer flowers at the grave of her son Christopher Martine, who worked at the Hindustan Lever Limited’s (HLL) erstwhile mercury plant in Kodaikanal. Read media story...

Truth is the real victim
Kodaikanal/Chennai July 19, 2010 Even while the Madras High Court was hearing the prayers of the ex-workers in 2006 and considering setting up of a committee to assess health damages, Hindustan Lever Ltd (HLL) sought expert opinions from three premier national institutions – Industrial Toxicology Research Centre (ITRC), All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and National Institute of Occupational Health (NIOH). Read media story...

Hazardous waste spill on ECR road at Cuddalore Town; SIPCOT Unit suspected
Cuddalore, 26 June 2010: SACEM monitors reported a hazardous waste spill on the ECR road opposite Co-optex showroom today. Read more...

Tamil Nadu's 'Bhopal in waiting'
Chennai, 21 June 2010 More skeletons have tumbled out of Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board's (TNPCB) closet relating to its actions on the Kodaikanal mercury leak cleanup, this time in the form of false claims in its status note to the Union environment ministry and specifying cleanup standards that have not been scientifically validated. Read media story...

Unwanted gift of quicksilver to Kodaikanal
Kodaikanal, 21 June 2010 The issue of mercury leak in the eco-sensitive Pambar Shola forest in Kodaikanal from Hindustan Lever's thermometer factory was first brought to notice in 2001 by factory workers and environmental groups. Read media story...

Current cleanup can't protect Pambar Shola
Kodaikanal, 21 June 2010 A site-specific target level of 25mg/kg for cleanup of mercury in Kodaikanal is grossly inadequate to save the eco-sensitive Pambar Shola forest, according to Mark Chernaik, toxicologist and staff scientist at the US-based 'environment law alliance worldwide'. Read media story...

Tamil Nadu's Cuddalore industrial belt facing safety hazards
Chennai, June 15, 2010: Even though the industrial disaster in Bhopal happened 26 years ago, little seems to have changed in the country when it comes to better practices in industrial safety. One such example is Tamil Nadu's Cuddalore industrial belt where violations continue to be the norm and the victims are the locals. Read media story...

Ryots oppose fencing of land for power plant, mini-ports
CUDDALORE, 14 June 2010: Members of the Coordination Committee of the Affected Farmers' Forum and the Communist Party of India (CPI) gathered at Vellingarayanpettai near here on Sunday and protested against fencing of lands acquired by private companies for setting up power plants and mini-ports. Read media story...

Poison in the air

ASHA KRISHNAKUMAR
in Cuddalore
Frontline
The Hindu
04 June, 2005

Poisonous gases released into the air by some chemical units in the SIPCOT industrial estate in Cuddalore, Tamil Nadu, continue to endanger the lives and livelihoods of people in a number of villages in the absence of government action.

At the SIPCOT industrial estate in Cuddalore. Gases released by chemical units have severely affected the air quality in the area.

VILLAGES in the industrial area on the outskirts of Cuddalore town in Tamil Nadu are increasingly being identified more by pungent smells than their names - smells of rotten cabbage, burnt rubber, rotten egg, neem, detergent, human excreta, decomposing bodies, mosquito coils, rotting bones, decaying chikoo fruit, and nail polish. The smells come from toxic chemical compounds that are manufactured or released as effluents by the 18 companies in the industrial area and which have been damaging the environment and the health of more than 20,000 people in about 20 villages. Read more...