CASE STUDY: HLL’S FOLLY: MERCURY SPILL IN KODAIKANAL

INTRODUCTION

In March 2001, more than 400 residents of Kodaikanal, an idyllic hill station on the Western
Ghats in the south of India, caught the multinational Hindustan Lever Ltd (HLL) red-handed
when they found a dumpsite with toxic mercury-laced waste from the company’s thermometer
factory located in the heart of the town. ‘The 7.4 ton stockpile of crushed mercury-containing
glass was found in torn sacks, spilling onto the ground in a busy scarp yard located near a
school.’1 ‘The expose marked the beginning of an ongoing saga of dishonesty and botched
cover-up efforts’2 by Unilever’s Indian subsidiary, Hindustan Lever Ltd.

On the same day, during HLL’s chairman’s annual review meeting held in the headquarters in
Mumbai, ‘a query came from N. Jayaraman of Corporate Watch, an NGO, whether there had
been any disposal of mercury contamination waste along with broken thermometer and ground
glass from HLL’s thermometer plant in Kodaikanal, Tamil Nadu’.3 The company also learnt that
earlier that day several Kodaikanal residents led by a few non-governmental organizations
(NGOs), including representatives of Greenpeace staged protests outside the plant.

It was estimated that more 32,000 potentially affected people lived in Kodaikanal. Ten workers
had died at the factory while it was functioning. Greenpeace, a global NGO committed to
environment protection, claimed that the deaths were linked to mercury poisoning. Symptoms
reported by ex-workers were fatigue, headaches, nausea and other stomach dysfunctions, blurred
vision, skin complaints including burns and dermatitis, respiratory disorders, kidney dysfunction,
central nervous system problems such as loss of memory, tremors, depressions and some report
of seizure disorders. The ex-workers claimed that many of them got these symptoms after they
were employed at the factory which had been functioning in Kodaikanal since 1983.
 HISTORY OF THE HLL FACTORY

Hindustan Lever’s thermometer plant at Kodaikanal had a chequered history. The factory which
was originally in New York was shutdown for environmental reasons. US-based Chesebrough
Pond’s relocated its aging mercury thermometer factory from Watertown, New York to
Kodaikanal in 1983. Kodaikanal is a verdant hill station in the upper Palani Hills in southern
Tamil Nadu. The town measures 21 sq km, with a population of 32,000. The factory was
acquired by Unilever, after it bought Chesebourgh Pond’s owner of HLL, which is Unilever’s 51
per cent owned Indian subsidiary. The factory was said to be the largest thermometer plant in the
world. Unilever, the Anglo-Dutch fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) giant, imported all the
mercury and glass for the thermometers from the United States, and exported all the finished
thermometers to the US-based Faichney Medical Co. which in trun exported them to markets in
the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Germany and Spain.

Mercury is a toxic metal, which when converted into deadlier forms such as methyl mercury and
released into the environment could cause tremendous health problems to people living nearby
and even far away. The factory that manufactured glass mercury thermometers for exports was
split into two main areas—the first area converted glass tubing into empty thermometers, stems
and bulbs. The second area filled them with mercury, marked the scale, sealed the end and
packed. Both areas, working with glass, generated considerable quantities of scarp. Glass scrap
from the first area was sent for recycling to the glass merchants. Glass from the second area
containing mercury was first treated (crushed and heated) to recover the mercury. The remaining
scrap was sold to recyclers unlawfully and in breach of the company’s operating policies.

All water from the plant was led to a dedicated effluent treatment plant. Sludge from the effluent
treatment plant was dried, packed in plastic drums and stored in the pit on site under cover.
During the investigations, it was also found that the factory buried glass scrap on the site after
appropriate regulatory approvals.

The Pambar stream that runs through the forests below the back wall of the factory flows down
to the Kumbhakarai waterfalls, a popular tourist bathing site. Below the waterfalls, the stream
surpasses into canals flowing from the Vaigai dam that irrigates lands down south. The slopes
where the wastes are dumped are part of the Pambar Shola watershed, draining water through the
Pambar river. This small river eventually ends in the plains leading up to the temple city of
Madurai.

DAMAGE TO WORKERS AND THE ENVIRONMENT

Before the HLL thermometer factory was shut down on the orders of the Tamil Nadu Pollution
Control Board (TNPCB), it was reported that between 600 and 800 workers were exposed to
mercury due to unsafe working conditions and the willful negligence of the HLL management in
not warning employees about the dangers of mercury. Mahendra Bapu, President of the Pond’s-
HLL Ex-Mercury Worker’s Welfare Association claimed: ‘HLL has caused irreparable damage
to the health of the workers. More than 20 workers between the age group 22 and 35 years have
died due to poisoning from the factory’4 over the past 18 years. Besides, workers who were
directly exposed to the hazardous toxic metal, thousands of people in the vicinity of the factory
suffered from ‘skin diseases, premature graying, incessant headaches, stomach pain, kidney
problems and blood in the urine’.5

Moreover, what was difficult to understand was the fact that HLL, subsidiary of Unilever that
was a signatory to the UN Global Compact principles discontinued occupational safety measures
at the factory from 1985, that is, the second year of operation. Besides, the only warning given to
the workers by the management was ‘wash hands before eating’, without giving any inkling to
the uneducated workers the hazardous nature of the work they were engaged in, thereby covertly
endangering their lives. Another problem was that the poisonous vapour carrying mercury
traveled far beyond the factory fence, encircled the entire Kodaikanal town that is dependent on
tourism and boarding schools and contaminated the Pambar Shola and the scenic lake.

HLL also had to bear a vicarious responsibility to its criminal negligence of its worker’s safety
and health hazards of citizens of the town inasmuch as it refused to provide any credible
information on mercury use and its disposal at the factory, despite repeated requests by TNPCB.
This prevented timely remedial measures, as independent analysts could not verify the claims of
HLL’s consultants that mercury releases posed no danger to the town’s people and environment.
HLL’S RESPONSE TO COMPLAINTS

Despite legitimate concerns of the workers and Kodaikanal citizens regarding the adverse health
effects of workers and factory neighbours, HLL sought to dismiss the complaints. The
company’s responses to the mercury-dumping controversy were ‘characterized by denials, cover-
ups, untruths and a singular lack of transparency.’ After denying in March 2001 of any mercury
waste leaving the factory and admitting that the factory keeps meticulous records of all mercury
inventories, the company accepted later that it shipped out a load of 5.3 tonnes of mercury-
bearing waste to a scrap yard in Kodiakanal.6However, independent verification by activists
showed that the actual quantity of mercury waste sent out of the factory to the Kodaikanal scarp
yard was 7.4 tonnes. Subsequently, HLL admitted to having systematically sold over 98 tonnes
of those toxic factory wastes to various parts of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

Though HLL was very defensive at the early stages, with local and Greenpeace activists
becoming more vociferous in their complaints against the company to the public and TNPCB,
the company responded quickly, transparently and even aggressively. HLL duly informed
TNPCB of the details of mercury disposal. The persons responsible for the breach of the
company’s well laid waste disposal policy were identified and penalized, the penalty depending
on the severity of the offence committed. A new factory manager, R. John George, who knew the
local language, Tamil, and who had no reason to defend the past actions of the factory
administration was appointed.

Following the directive of TNPCB, manufacturing operations were suspended on 8 March 2001.
Earlier, in 1999 itself the glass scarp that was stored in old and worn-out shed known as the
‘bakery’ till 1998 was shifted to a safe and secure place. The factory personnel rendered jobless
in the wake of suspension of work in the factory were employed for verifying weights and
packing of glass scrap.

An environmental audit was commissioned by HLL on 11 March 2001. It appointed the well-
known URS Dames & Moore (URS) of Australia to conduct a detailed environmental audit.
URS admitted that the estimated discharge of mercury to the Pambar Shola forest was
approximately 300 kg. The HLL-appointed consultant also said that another 700 kg of mercury
waste were released through air-borne emissions.

Apart from the environmental audit by URS, HLL also engaged the services of an acknowledged
international expert in the eco-toxicology of mercury, Dr P. N. Vishwanathan, to study the
environmental and health aspects relating to Kodai thermometer factory. However, unlike URS
scientists, this former Director of Industrial Toxicology Research Centre of the Council for
Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR-ITRC), Lucknow, found no evidence to risks caused by
mercury either to humans or environment.

Another survey among former employees of HLL by Dr Mohan Isaac of Bangalore-based

community health cell noticed symptoms consistent with mercury exposure among some of the
participants, and recommended that based on the available data, a thorough investigation of the
potential health hazards be made.

All the surveys and studies made both by HLL and activists offered conflicting views about the
exact nature and impact of the mercury waste on workers and the immediate community of the
Kodai thermometer factory.

HLL EXITS FROM THERMOMETER PRODUCTION

Hindustan Lever Ltd also decided, in principle, in January, 2001 to exit from the thermometer
business. The company said in a statement, that it was quitting the business because it is not core
to the company. ‘The company’s core business is the manufacture and marketing of soaps,
detergents, skin care products, deodorants and fragrances, food and bever-ages.’7

Moreover, in response to complaints from former workers and NGOs, including Greenpeace
activists, the TNPCB ordered the factory to close down and clean up the toxic mess the company
had created. TNPCB also directed HLL to decontaminate the site and its surroundings to global
standards. The company also was under great pressure from the public and government to cart
away the mercury waste. The company sent back at least 300 tonnes of the toxic material to the
United States in 2006.
ROLE OF NGOS IN MAKING HLL REDRESS PUBLIC GRIEVANCES

If unlike Union Carbide (now Dow Chemicals) in Bhopal, HLL saw reason rather early in the
period of public agitation and took corrective measures, it was because of the active role of
NGOs spearheaded by Greenpeace activists. The NGOs left no stones unturned to mobilize
public opinion and to pressure TNPCB and the Tamil Nadu government to compel HLL to make
amends for its acts of commission and omission in the unlawful disposal of the hazardous toxic
waste and in the exposure of its workers to potentially dangerous work environment. It was the
NGOs that galvanized workers, concerned citizens and environmental activists to force the
factory to suspend operations in March 2001, after discovering that the company had dumped the
mercury-contaminated waste at several public locations. The NGOs were also responsible to
form the Tamil Nadu Alliance Against Mercury (TAAM), which tried to identify and contain
contaminated soil. They were also behind several measures initiated by TNPCB to set up a
special Hazardous Waste Management Committee (HWMC) to monitor the complete site
remediation by HLL, after removing the mercury-laden broken thermometers and crushed glass.
Greenpeace campaigners Ameer Shahul and Navroz Mody took the lead in canvassing for
remediation measures by HLL and later initiated the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE)
investigation. On examination DAE found that the atmospheric levels of mercury near the
factory was 1.32 micrograms per cubic meter (1.32 μg/m3), which was about 1,000 times more
than what is generally found in uncontaminated areas.8

The NGOs were also behind the former workers approaching the Supreme Court of India in
2005, demanding compensation from HLL for the loss of their jobs and the health hazards they
suffered. The apex court appointed a Monitoring Committee to study the issue and report it to the
court. The Supreme Court Monitoring Committee in turn has acknowledged mercury-related
health damage of workers and community residents: ‘The situation at HLL is extremely serious
in nature. There can be no two opinions that remediation and rehabilitation of the natural
environment and of workers and others are both urgently required.’9

The NGOs and their activists by their incessant and continued demands and demonstrations
ensured that the livelihood of workers was not jeopardized by HLL’s negligent and irresponsible
behaviour, a detailed investigation was made into the extent and nature of pollution caused by
the mercury waste inside the factory and the outside environment; the ongoing threat to the
adjacent school children and the nearby community was eliminated by forcing HLL to clean up
the dumpsite; the damage to the health and safety of the workers, past and present was properly
assessed and compensated adequately; and that HLL accepted both the responsibility and the
financial liability for the damages caused to the workers, the community and ecology of the
Kodai town and the surroundings hills.

The most laudable part of the NGOs role is the novel and dramatic manner in which they kept
the mercury waste spill issue alive throughout, by using a variegated set of measures available to
them. They shouted slogans and showcased placards during HLL’s annual general meetings on
13 June 2003 and 29 June 2004; they bound themselves by chain to the HLL Chennai branch
office on 15 November 2002; they enlisted constantly the support and sympathy of the general
public to the cause they were fighting through issue of leaflets, and organizing demonstrations
and meetings. They also very effectively used the Greenpeace Web site, photo albums, seminars
and anniversaries on a regular and timely basis so that the issue is not forgotten by all the
stakeholders—the former HLL employees, Kodaikanal town’s concerned citizens,
environmentalists, TNPCB and the Tamil Nadu Government.

As pointed out earlier, there have been conflicting reports from teams of HLL-appointed as well
as NGO-commissioned professional experts as to whether the unlawful disposal of mercury
wastes have caused damages to the health and safety of humans and environment, but the NGOs
were convinced that the spread of mercury wastes had done considerable harm to both.

WHERE DOES THE TRUTH LIE?

Two scientific studies, made after the closure of the Kodai factory in March 2001, have shown
high levels of mercury contamination within the town, in the forests, and in locations as far as
the beautiful and nature-made lake, 20 km from Kodaikanal. The studies also revealed that the
Pambar Shola forests, acknowledged as one of the bio-diversity hotspots of the world were also
adversely affected.
Scientists from the National Centre for Compositional Characterization of Materials (CCCM), a
DAE institute had reported the incidence of atmospheric mercury in some areas outside the HLL
factory site in Kodaikanal. The concentrations of mercury up to 1.32 μg/m3 was reported to be
about a thousand times higher than in the areas that were not contaminated.

HLL responded to this finding by saying that the findings of the report were at ‘variance with the
data collected by independent foreign consultants’ and that the levels detected were ‘much lower
than 50 mg limit prescribed under the factory rules’.10

Obviously, the statements made by HLL betray its lack of understanding of mercury as a serious
toxic hazard.

A study conducted by Greenpeace Research Laboratories reported considerable amounts of

mercury along the hills surrounding Kodaikanal Lake to the west of the factory and in the
Vattakanal and Pambar Sholas. The study showed the distance to which the impact could be felt.
‘The manifold increases in accumulated mercury in the elevated lichen samples give an
indication of potential impacts on ecosystems at these locations. Plants that accumulate
atmospheric mercury are likely to form part of the diet of fauna living in the vicinity. Through
such processes, mercury can be transferred into the wider ecosystem, possibly bio-accumulating
in certain species.’11 The findings of the Greenpeace report was similar to a study conducted by
the DAE.

HLL meanwhile, continued to deny responsibility based on the insufficient data provided by
their study teams for any mercury impact on the health of workers at the plant, or of the
surrounding community or environment. These studies led HLL to deny that their mercury could
be responsible for the death of 10 young men working in the factory. But eventually, the
company which had earlier denied all charges against its thermometer factory of dumping
mercury waste illegally has finally admitted that the 5.3 tonnes of mercury-containing glass
wastes currently lying at the Munjikal scrap yard in Kodaikanal came from their factory.

In an official communication to Greenpeace, the company promised ‘to track and retrieve other
such shipments that have been sent to various locations outside the factory, and to clear the
wastes that were found to be dumped in the watershed forests behind the factory wall’.12 Though
TAAM, rallying against the company’s unlawful practice welcomed these admissions, were
legitimately upset that HLL had not apologized to the community. Many environmental
organization and NGOs (Box 10.1) have demanded justice from HLL for their folly. However, it
is only fair to point out that this was the first time a major company has actually accepted a part
of its faults openly.

ULTIMATE DEMAND TO GOVERNMENT

The coalition of ex-workers, community representatives of Kodaikanal and Greenpeace

demanded the following:

 The government should initiate legal action against HLL for lying to a statutory body
like TNPCS and providing false information, and for destroying evidence in a matter
concerning the lives and health of hundreds of workers, their families and many
thousands more who reside in the vicinity of the factory or those who might have come
into contact with mercury.
 The government should take serious action against the Inspectorate of Factories, who
for 18 years failed in their assigned duty to find any traces of mercury at the factory
site or beyond, thus jeopardizing the lives of workers and the environment.
 The government should initiate, at HLL’s expense, independent long-term studies to
monitor the impact of mercury on this fragile hill-forest ecosystem, the town and the
people. The mercury in the forests could have far reaching implications both in the
town of Kodaikanal and downstream Palani and Vaigai, as pointed by the DAE and
Greenpeace studies.
 The government should order, at HLL’s expense, an independent inquiry on the impact
of mercury on the health of the workers, their families and other susceptible members
of the community, and initiate long-term monitoring and treatments for detoxification
of affected populations.
 The government should find ways and means of compensating families of the 10 dead
workers and affected community members for loss of earning capacity, damages for
mercury contamination and long-term health remediation, and
 The government should ensure that the mercury retrieved from HLL’s wastes is
permanently destroyed and not released once again in another unsuspecting part of the
developing world.
 CONCLUSION

There has been ample evidence to prove that the mercury emitted from the HLL plant had far
greater and wider impacts than the experts commissioned by HLL were prepared to reveal. And
yet, five years after being caught, HLL is yet to submit complete clean-up protocols to the
TNPCB. If it were in a developed country, HLL would have been forced to clean-up and
remediate such a disaster site immediately, using the best international standards and practices.

YSC PROTEST FOR KODAIKANAL WORKERS

The Youth for Social Change (YSC) activists staged a protest in Chennai against Hindustan
Unilever Ltd accusing the company of not taking any steps to clean the environment even after
seven years of shutting down its mercury thermometer plant in Kodaikanal. They alleged that at
least thousand workers were exposed to the mercury contamination and no compensation has
been made to any of them. The YSC members left after submitting a petition to the company
representatives.13

Besides, as pointed out by J. Arunachalam, head of the DAE centre, mercury is still prevalent in
the atmosphere because the discarded factory scarps and contaminated vegetation re-emit
absorbed mercury.14 The loss to the environment is huge. Thousands of people, especially
workers, their families and other relatives, have been unsuspecting victims of the persistent
dangers posed by HLL’s inadequate commitment to transparency, or concern for public health
and environment.

Hindustan Lever’s behaviour violates the environmental principles of the UN Global Compact
such as supporting a precautionary approach to environmental challenges, undertaking initiatives
to promote environmental responsibility and promoting the diffusions of environmental
technologies. Unilever, the parent organization of HLL is a prominent signatory of Global
Compact. If HLL and Unilever stand by these high principles, they should ensure they put these
principles into practice in every conceivable situation relating to their closed factory at
Kodaikanal.