Hindustan Unilever has proposed to clean the mercury contamination in Kodaikanal to a standard that is 20 times WEAKER than what may be considered safe for residents in the United Kingdom, where Unilever is headquartered. What is more shocking is that the Central Pollution Control Board seems to have endorsed this. Please don’t accept Unilever’s […]
News & Updates
Don’t accept sub-standard cleanup in Kodai – Write to the environment minister
PRESS RELEASE – Study Finds Record High Levels Mercury in Kodai Forest Sediments
Issued by Tamilnadu Alliance Against Mercury, St. Mary’s Road Residents Welfare Association & Community Environmental Monitoring 15 June, 2016 — Exposing as false Hindustan Unilever’s claim that its mercury contaminated factory site is not an ongoing threat to the Pambar Shola ecology, results of analyses from a Department of Atomic Energy laboratory have revealed record […]
Unilever’s Mercury Pollution in Kodaikanal, India – Claims vs Reality
In 2001, a mercury thermometer factory operated by Unilever subsidiary Hindustan Unilever Ltd was shut down by state environmental regulators after it was found that the company had illegally disposed tonnes of mercury wastes at a local scrapyard. The factory site, which is nestled between two biodiverse and ecologically valuable watershed forests in the beautiful […]
Victory – Hindustan Unilever settles with 591 Kodaikanal workers
PRESS RELEASE: Activists Celebrate as Unilever Settles with Kodaikanal Workers 9 March, 2016 — The settlement between Hindustan Unilever and 591 former mercury workers from its thermometer factory in Kodaikanal is an unprecedented victory and a fitting culmination of the 15-year campaign by workers and the hundreds of thousands of supporters worldwide, said campaign organisations […]
IPEN Mercury Policy Advisor – Guidance on the indentification, management and remediation of mercury-contaminated sites.
Find the full document attached below.
Scientific Opinion on HUL’s Proposed Cleanup — Dr. Sultan Ismail, Soil Biologist
Find the document attached below.
Scientific Opinion on HUL’s Proposed Cleanup — Dr. Dilip Boralkar, Member, Supreme Court Monitoring Committee on Hazardous Wastes
Find the document attached below.
Report shows elevated mercury levels outside HUL factory, claim activists
‘Elevated levels of mercury in a few samples taken outside the now defunct thermometer factory of Hindustan Unilever (HUL) in Kodaikanal’. The latest study conducted by the National Environment Engineering Institute (NEERI) has shown elevated levels of mercury in a few samples taken outside the now defunct thermometer factory of Hindustan Unilever (HUL) in Kodaikanal, […]
Video: Kodaikanal Won't!
Sofia Ashraf is BACK with a brand new video! This time she’s challenging some of Unilever’s biggest misleading statements regarding the company’s mercury contamination of Kodaikanal, India.
Background
The verdant hills, forests and grasslands of Kodaikanal — a popular tourist destination in South India — hides a toxic secret. Unsafe practices of handling and disposing hazardous material at Unilever’s mercury thermometer factory has exposed hundreds of workers to toxic mercury and contaminated the local environment. Dozens of workers have died prematurely, and hundreds of others and their families are struggling to cope with illnesses they believe are caused by exposure to mercury. The tonnes of mercury released into Kodai’s environment by the company has polluted the soil and water and can affect generations to come unless it is cleaned up to exacting standards. In fact, ex-workers say that Unilever’s toxic act is already claiming lives and futures of a second generation of victims. The company, for its part, acknowledges that mercury contaminates the environment but denies that its past practices and its failure to clean up is hurting people.
