Andhra Pradesh welcomes toxic PVC project

In mid-2002, people in Tamil Nadu boldly rejected the setting up of a 1.70 lakh tonnes PVC manufacturing facility during the public hearing conducted as part of the Environmental Assessment procedure in the State. Villagers living in and around the Semmankuppam, Eachangadu and Sonanchavadi panchayats located around the proposed site and NGOs had raised serious doubts about setting up a dioxin-generating PVC unit.

Poly Vinyl Chloride (PVC) also known as the “Poison Plastic” because of the toxic emissions and related health effects associated with the manufacture, use, recycling and disposal of this material. PVC production and combustion (during disposal or in accidental or landfill fires) are significant contributors to the global load of dioxins. The UN-led Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) identifies PVC combustion as a significant source of dioxins, and separately requires signatories, including India, to reduce, with the aim of elimination, all sources of POPs, including dioxins. “The proposed project, wherever it is set up, will contravene India’s obligation under the POPs Convention”, says Rajesh Rangarajan, Toxics Link.

Vinyl Chloride Monomer (VCM), the primary raw material proposed to be used in the factory, is a chemical which causes cancer in both humans and animals, according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the International Agency for Research on Cancer. Scientific studies among VCM factory workers confirm a link between occupational exposure to VCM and the development of angiosarcoma of the liver. VCM is a carcinogen for which no safe level of exposure can be anticipated.

During the public hearing, questions about the under reporting of sources and quantum of fugitive emissions of VCM and the absence of a health impact assessment of predicted ground-level concentrations and a life cycle assessment of PVC impacts to the environment in the EIA, were raised by environmentalists.

A fatal flaw in the EIS is the lack of assessment of potential dioxin formations. VCM incineration are said to release “substantial amounts of PCBs and dioxins because of the strong tendency of VCM combustion products to form these potently toxic substances.”

Internationally also, this project has come under critical scrutiny. The US Treasury Department has short-listed the Chemplast PVC project for close and constant scrutiny. Further, five US Congressmen have also written to the International Finance Corporation (IFC), which is part-financing the project, asking them to withdraw support to the project. Very significantly, the Compliance Audit Ombudsman (CAO), a body set up to investigate World Bank funding of projects, has entertained a complaint against the project.

“The local communities, elected representatives and the Constitutionally mandated local government bodies have shown that public pressure can play a significant role in influencing government action”, says Mr. M. Nizamudeen, FEDCOT, Cuddalore.

“Such potentially disastrous units of large corporations that are going to release serious amounts of POPs should not be set up anywhere in India”, says Nityanand Jayaraman, environmentalist.