Community Rejects Chemplast PVC Unit at Public Hearing;
Calls for Ban on Polluting Industries

07 June, 2002, CUDDALORE – Community residents living around the SIPCOT Chemical Industrial Estate in Cuddalore, Tamilnadu, gathered in force at an official public hearing today to formally register their opposition to the Rs. 500 crore Poly Vinyl Chloride (PVC) factory proposed to be set up by Chemplast Sanmar Ltd. Local Government bodies, represented by the Presidents of various Panchayats, submitted their opposition to the plant in writing to the District Collector. Their opposition, they said, was in light of the fact that PVC plastic is one of the most toxic plastics whose manufacture involves the use and release of carcinogenic Vinyl Chloride Monomer (VCM), and releases of deadly poisons such as dioxins, hexachlorobenzene and polychlorinated biphenyls. The latter three chemicals are known to persist in the environment and are ranked among the most poisonous chemicals. The elected representatives said that the proposed factory poses an additional threat to the livelihood security and health of local communities without addressing the problems already faced by them because of unregulated pollution from the existing industries.
Owing to the dangerous pollution potential of PVC throughout its lifecycle, PVC manufacturing, use and disposal is the most regulated plastic internationally. Countries in Northern Europe are even contemplating timelines for the phase out of all uses of this plastic.
A study conducted by Nagpur-based NEERI has confirmed local complaints that well water in the villages in and around the chemical industries is seriously contaminated. In a 1998 report for the State Human Rights Commission, the Hon. Justice Nainar Sundaram, SHRC chairman and retired Chief Justice of the Madras High Court, cautions against „establishing any more chemical industries in the Cuddalore region proper. I am convinced that public health cannot take more burden than that which has ensued by the existing chemical industries.‰
Public interest groups such as the Federation of Consumer Organisations of Tamilnadu, Toxics Link, CorpWatchIndia, Pasumai Thayagam and Greenpeace have dismissed Chemplast‚s Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) as „a flawed document replete with falsehoods, misrepresentations and suppression of facts.‰ However, even the facts presented in the EIS point to the unacceptable and unmanageable threat posed by poisonous emissions from the factory.
1. The EIS falsely states that the River Uppanar is of no commercial importance and that fisherfolk do not depend on this river. In fact, more than 20 villages are directly dependent on the river for their livelihood, although their lives have been made difficult by the increasing pollution of the river by chemical industries.
2. According to the EIS, emission rates of carcinogenic VCM from one of several sources at the proposed PVC plant would exceed international safety standards by a factor of 20. The company fails to report the other significant sources of VCM releases to the environment.
3. The EIS not only understates the releases of VCM, but also fails to predict the increased incidence of cancer that would be caused among the local population because of exposure to VCM.
4. Despite popular knowledge that PVC and VCM are closely associated with the formation and release of dioxins, the EIS for the PVC plants fails to assess, or even report, the potential emissions of dioxins and polychlorinated biphenyls from its incinerator.
5. PVC is a poison plastic, known for its serious impacts to human health and the environment at every stage of the material‚s lifecycle – from production, to use to disposal. However, the EIS fails to provide a lifecycle assessment of its product despite the fact that it will be the source of 170,000 tons of additional PVC to the environment.
6. Most devastatingly, the Environmental Action Plan for the PVC plant lacks a contingency plan for responding to a major release of VCM or for assessing or containing any oil spills caused at the company‚s marine terminal.
Local communities have reiterated their call for a ban on the setting up of polluting and water-intensive industries in the Cuddalore area, and have called for labour-intensive industries that are non-polluting.
For more information, contact:
M. Nizamudeen, Gen. Secy, FEDCOT-Cuddalore. Mobile: 9842330978