A synopsis of news and opinions on events and policies related to chemical pollution, health, safety and environment.
Based on discussions on
etoxic@yahoogroups.com This synopsis contains
1. Action against shipbreaking project
2. Waste to energy and burning of wastes
3. U.S. will use once-banned human tests to study affect of pesticides on humans
4. Pollution a reason for infertility, say experts
Mega-shipbreaking yard threatens fisherfolk
26 November, 2001
Government regulators have been pressured into granting permission for the setting up of a mega-shipbreaking yard in Odarevu, a town in the eastern coastal state of Andhra Pradesh in India. The yard, which proposes to import and break ocean-going vessels laden with toxic substances, will wipe out fisheries in the nearby areas and devastate the environment. Evidence about the destructive impact of shipbreaking on the environment and fisheries is available from the existing yards in Alang, Gujarat. It is not too late to prevent this project from coming up.
Take Action to prevent India from becoming a bigger dumping ground for the world's toxic ships-for-scrap.
Kindly add your support to:
http://makingindiagreen.actionize.com/view.php?action=1000 Waste to energy and burning of wastes
Lalit Kumar reported in the Times News Network that unsegregated domestic, industrial
and medical waste in a large number of Noida's 400 community waste bins is being incinerated inside the bins themselves. This includes plastics. This crude incineration is generously adding to the air pollution already derived from industrial and automobile emission. Motorists are increasingly complaining of a burning sensation in the eyes, while residents complain of respiratory discomfort. Chlorine, derived from the burning of PVC, can combine with organic compounds to form toxic dioxins and furans as well as generate acid gases like sulfur dioxide and nitrous oxide.
On November 27th 2001, Chetan Chauhan reported in the Hindustan Times
http://www.hindustantimes.com/ that Municipal Corporation of New Delhi approved setting up of a garbage treatment plant which will produce electricity. The first plant of the corporation at Majnu ka Tila built in early 1990s had failed to even take off. It had been found that burning of the solid waste was producing no electricity. Instead, more fuel was being burnt to generate power causing air pollution. The technology did not work and the plant was closed down. At present there are no buyers for it. The former Transport Minister Rajender Gupta, who is also promoter of the new project claims that the same mistake would not be repeated. "The plant producing power in Australia does not generate heat by burning the garbage. It gasifies the solid waste disposal to provide energy to turbines to generate power," he said. To be built at a whopping cost of over Rs 200 crore on the basis of Build Operate Transfer (BOT), the plant will generate 25 megawatt (MW) of power. The plant will consume 1,000 tonnes of garbage every day of the total 6,000 tonnes of garbage, which Delhi generates. "Six such plants can be an answer to garbage management," Gupta said. As per the technology being used in this plant first the waste is processed in a water steamer and treated with chemicals to burn the bacteria. The processed garbage is then sent to primary gasifier, which generates gas under heavy pressure for the power plant. "The gas, not heat, is utilized for generating power," he stated.
ToxicsLink, Delhi held a press conference on 30th November along with other groups in Delhi criticizing Delhi government's move to put up a waste to energy gasification plant in Delhi (by the Australian company EDL).
At least 11 such waste-to-energy projects are currently being proposed for India. These include gasification, pelletisation (refuse-derived fuels), plasma arc and pyrolysis plants, which are all variations on the basic theme of burning trash.
Having failed in its first experiment in Timarpur with the WTE project based on RDF in 1990 at a huge loss and a court case, this is yet another instance of ignoring environment and public health imperatives, stated Dr Vijay Lakshmi of Development Alternatives. Moreover, this plant boasts of gasifying unsegregated wastes, including plastics. This is a clear violation of the national Municipal Waste Rule 2000, which makes its mandatory to segregate waste and also bans burning of chlorinated plastics (like PVC) and waste chemically treated with chlorine. "Gasification technology and similar technologies like pyrolysis, plasma arc are classified by the European Union as incineration process and have similar health concerns. The syngas produced during gasification process will be contaminated with dioxins, toxic heavy metals like mercury, lead and other toxic substances", said Ravi Agarwal of Toxics Link.
In the United States, Japan and Western Europe, waste combustion is the primary source of dioxin, known as the most toxic substance ever made. According to the US EPA, World Health Organization, and other scientific bodies, dioxin causes cancer, birth defects, endometriosis (an ailment involving painful menstrual cycles), and lifelong damage to the immune system, decreased sperm counts, de-masculinisation and other hormonal problems.
Waste-to-energy plants are the most expensive form of waste management. Recently-built installations in Japan and the Netherlands cost around US$700 million (Rs. 3,150 crores) each. Half of this expense is in air pollution control equipment, which is in any case not completely effective, as evidenced by high dioxin levels in mother's breast milk in countries with many incinerators. In New Jersey, U.S., just five such plants have run up a debt of US$1.5 billion (Rs.6, 750 crores), which the government must now repay.
As a result of these problems, waste combustion is falling into disfavor in the west. The U.S. has not built a plant in over 5 years, and there are no new proposals. Canada has not built one in 12 years, and the proportion of waste burned in Europe is steadily falling. Unable to sell their combustors in the west, large engineering firms are now looking to India and other developing nations for incinerator markets.
"The solution to the garbage problem does not depend on high-tech machinery but on simple household segregation of waste into compostable, recyclables", said Shyamala Krishna of Centre for Environment Education, an NGO working on waste management issue in Bangalore and Delhi.
Organizations present at the press meet included: Centre for Environment Education, Development Alternatives, Accord, Toxics Link and Srishti.
"The alternatives are cheaper, less polluting, and employ more people," said Ms Neena Gulabani of Accord. "We just have to stop thinking of trash as an engineering problem -- it's really an organizational issue. There's nothing in an ordinary family's rubbish that needs to be burned."
For more information contact: Ravi Agarwal/Gopal Krishna/Madhumita Dutta, Toxics Link: 4320711/4328006, email:
tldelhi@vsnl.com US will use once-banned human tests to study affect of pesticides on humans
On Tuesday, November 27, 2001 Elizabeth Shogren wrote in the Los Angeles Times that U.S. Will Use Once-Banned Human Tests EPA says it will accept industry data gathered by giving paid subjects chemical doses. Three years ago, in response to mounting criticism from environmentalists and physicians, the Clinton administration stopped using information from industry studies conducted on humans to determine the amount of pesticides that could be applied to fruits, vegetables and other crops.
Now the Bush administration, siding with manufacturers on whether such studies are ethical and scientifically valid, has told the pesticide industry it will use data from such tests, in which paid volunteers swallow small doses of the products. Manufacturers and Industries gain millions of dollars from these tests. With this decision, the Bush government has maintained its consistency in siding with industries and putting communities at risk.
Pollution a reason for infertility, say experts
TIMES NEWS NETWORK reported that Infertility among couples is on the rise and some important factors included use of plastics, environmental pollution and changing life styles, observed Dr Kishan Sullia, director of Centre for Reproductive Medicine. He said some compounds, including those found in plastics, could behave like estrogen hormones and interfere with the normal functioning of cycles. Indians have the highest levels of DDT in their bodies; more than half the vegetables we consume are laced with deadly pesticides, of which about 10
per cent are dangerously loaded to cause a number of diseases. In Kasaragod, in Kerala, generations of children have been crippled in bodyand mind from endosulfan poisoning; and in Warangal, in AP, farmers have reportedly died from prolonged exposure to pesticides. Evidently, indiscriminate and unthinking use of pesticides has begun to play havoc with ecology and human health.
Email:: 
URL::