Workers of Hindustan Unilever Poorly Paid, With No Right to Unionize – IndianCSR
MUMBAI: Workers of Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) from two factories Dapada Factory and Amli Factory situated in the union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli are demonstrating today for their higher wages and other fundamental rights at HUL head office at D.B., Sawant marg, Chakala, Andheri (E), Mumbai. “Workers of Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) from […]
India signs the Minamata Convention – Live Mint
Given their inevitable expansion over the next decade, it is imperative that India establish and enforce mercury emission standards for coal-fired power plants A year after it was adopted, India joined the global mercury abatement agreement. Not surprisingly, India dragged its feet a bit, but in the end signed up to the Minamata Convention on […]
Demonstrations against HLL – The Hindu
Activists demand clean up of mercury. Chairman denies people were affected. Activists want long term medical monitoring.
UK campaigners question Unilever over India activities – The Economic Times
LONDON: A UK-based campaign group raised questions over Anglo-Dutch multinational Unilever’s activities in India during its annual general meeting here yesterday. Protesters from the UK Campaign for Justice in Kodaikanal challenged the company’s executive board over allegations of poisoning in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu where a mercury thermometer factory run by the company’s […]
Get Hindustan Unilever to clean up Kodai unit – The Hindu
Chennai: Victims of the Union Carbide leak from Bhopal have urged the State government to get Hindustan Unilever to clean up the mercury contamination within and outside its thermometer factory in Kodaikanal and rehabilitate affected workers and people. After meeting Environment Minister B.V. Ramanaa, Bhopal survivors’ leader Balkrishna Namdeo, at a press conference here on […]
Action assured in mercury leak case – ExpressBuzz
CHENNAI: B V Ramanna, who took over as the environment minister following the latest reshuffle, has assured to look into the issue of mercury leak from the erstwhile factory of Hindustan Unilever in Kodaikanal. The decade old issue had come under widespread criticism from residents and activists after RTI responses exposed that mercury cleanup standards […]
Decade-long struggle in 16 minutes – Indian Express News
CHENNAI: The 10-year struggle and miseries faced by factory workers and their families, exposed to mercury in the Hindustan Unilever thermometer factory in Kodaikanal, was poignantly depicted in the documentary Mercury in the Mist. As the 16-minute film delved on the lives of the workers and the poisoned ecology of Kodaikanal, it also brought to […]
Project to phase out mercury use in private healthcare organisations – The Hindu
Based on UN study on disposal of biomedical waste CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) has launched a project to phase out use of mercury in private healthcare organisations. The project is based on a study done by the United Nations Development Programme on disposal of biomedical waste in developing countries. A dozen […]
HUL admits to breach of protocol at TN factory – Hindu Business Line
HUL admits to breach of protocol at TN factory World Economic Forum. New Delhi: At the release of its global ‘Sustainable Living Plan’ programme at the World Economic Forum, Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) admitted that it had committed a grievous breach of protocol at its mercury thermometer factory in Kodaikanal. But nine years after the […]
Poisoned ground – Frontline
Hindustan Unilever is avoiding its responsibilities to its workers exposed to mercury in the thermometer factory it owned in Kodaikanal. IT was when the men in moon suits arrived that it really sank in. There they were, with breathing apparatus and impermeable all-in-ones, gingerly taking away the material that had been sitting for five years […]
Is your garam masala safe from mercury?
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. However, no study has been conducted till date to validate these claims as the tribal group continues to stay away from modern healthcare facilities. “About 20-25 per cent of […]
Waiting in vain for compensation – Expressbuzz
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. Christopher died in 1997 due to kidney failure at the age of 33 and his mother claims this was due to his […]
Unwanted gift of quicksilver to Kodaikanal – Express News Service
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. The company later admitted on record to have discharged more than 1.3 tons of toxic mercury into the Pambar Shola and that the soil […]
Tamil Nadu’s “Bhopal in waiting” – Express News Service
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. Following an alarm raised by […]
Current cleanup can’t protect Pambar Shola – Express News Service
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’. Chernaik made the remark after conducting a critical assessment of the four major reports on the proposed cleanup […]