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Chemical Hub: the Dire Threat

[1]

Development through foreign investment and export. According to the trend of globalization this is precisely the government-approved paradigm of development, the real aim of which is plunder. Free-of-cost supply of water and infrastructure, land and labour at cheap price—these are the preconditions of such investments. The investors will bring over their own capital, own technology, even their own raw material if required; and then they will carry on indiscriminate plunder, shatter nature, environment, destroy water, air, soil, and all resources for production. Ultimately they will leave without the least qualm after they have pushed the total economy of the country into the jaws of imminent disaster. This has been proved by history; Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, and other places bear witness to this process. When the investors arrive they force a huge number of people to death by dispossessing them of their means of livelihood, displacing them from habitation, and pauperizing to destitution; and when they finally leave they have already shattered the backbone of the country’s total economic development which affects not only the uprooted, penniless, homeless millions, but also people belonging to all rungs of the society. Considered in this perspective the plan of installing ‘chemical hub’ in West Bengal acquires enormous significance. It becomes clear here how international trade and commerce , in their own interest, offers some such projects to the third world countries, where the dazzle of advertisements and fanfare of government propaganda keep hidden the ugly face of the marauders, the real conspiracy of the plunderers.

But what is actually meant by this so-called controversial ‘chemical hub’? It is not known if there is any formal definition of this phenomenon. Anyway, as a practical definition it can be said that ‘chemical hub’ is an industrial zone which contains a series of chemical factories that are connected to each other in an interdependent chain. However, the real issue is not the definition, but the threat of pollution, ecological imbalance, threat to public health, security, etc. And certainly of course some more questions are related to this. For instance, exactly what chemical items are going to be produced there, and for whom; what is their requirement, who are going to be the main consumer of the produced goods—are they Indians or foreigners, etc., etc.? Furthermore, if it is meant for indigenous consumption, then what will be our policy regarding chemical production? In fact, chemical industry is not just another industry. Its area is far more extended, and its impact too is far-reaching. In addition to this, chemical industry is directly connected with agricultural policy, and various other questions related to environment and habitation are also involved in this context.

Today’s chemical industry is not what it was a hundred years ago. Today it has sent tentacles into food processing, agricultural trade, manufacturing from seeds to cosmetics, soft drinks and many different items. Besides installation of such a chemical zone involves great hazards at every step. The place where huge quantities of such a dangerous range of chemicals will be produced, will necessarily emit or spit up countless elements which are bound to be hazardous for the environment, for the health and security of the labourers, as also for vast numbers living in the adjacent areas. Even apart from this, there always remains the possibility of some massive accident, the kind of which had been witnessed in Bhopal. In this situation, if the produced goods are again shipped off abroad, why should we at all take this additional risk of danger? We must give serious thought to the matter.

According to the note issued by the State Government here the hub will be engaged in making petrochemical products. The main problem of such chemicals producing zone is the poisonous waste which is not less hazardous than radioactive nuclear waste by any account. Any chemical reaction lead to the production of certain unwanted items which come to no use any more. For instance , the lethally poisonous Dioxin, or Furan, can be mentioned. Besides there are the varied polluting emissions which roll into the air. Among the waste there are the heavy metal including mercury, arsenic, etc. Where will these go? It is quite expensive to reduce or control the amount of poisonous waste. Who will shoulder this extra expense? All the industries indiscriminately dump this waste into adjacent rivers, canals or the sea. A sizeable portion also enters the air as black smoke. This creates a heavy layer in the air, and innumerable minutest of the minute particles gather in the air which lead to perforation in human lungs. The heavy elements spread over the soil, seep into the lower layers underneath, roll into the water tanks of the locality. Gradually, the rivers, sea, canals, tanks, forests, plantations, everything get contaminated by the poison. The strong poison seeps from the surface through the soil into the underground; drinking water gets poisoned, which again in its turn attacks the agricultural field. From there through crops and corns the poison creeps into the bodies of humans and cattle, poultry and fish leading to various severe incurable diseases. That is the grim inevitability. Ultimately the whole zone ceases to be habitable any more. Then the big companies too wind up their industry and sneak off elsewhere.

‘Chemical Hub’! However fine the name may sound, this is but that old wine in new bottle. In many places of the world industrial zones of this type have come up. And the experience of those chemicals producing industry zones is not of prosperity, but rather its opposite. A glaring example of the kind of horrible disaster that can fall upon a whole area in the wake of emissions from the long chain of factories is Kubatao, the chemical industry city or ‘hub’ of Brazil. During the decade of the seventies, in the name of quick and largescale development and prosperity, it had indiscriminately invited a host of investors. On the crest of a tidal wave of foreign investment, this industry city came up there—crowned as ‘the Chemical Capital of Brazil’; flanked by the flowing river, while Port Santos, the largest Latin American sea port stood close by, -- a flawless communication-transport system both by land and water routes. To this was added trade-friendly liberal industrial policy, cheap labour, unlimited tax concession, land at nominal price, -- a free field for plundering. At that time no other country in the world was agreeable to such an extent of concessions. Therefore, by getting the guarantee of biggest profit the investors had rushed for Brazil which provided for them the ideal arena for unrestrained plunder. It seems much like the scene of today’s West Bengal or India.

Kubatao is the grim example of the horrible consequences of unplanned haphazard investment, unrestrained trade, and the limitless concession to export-oriented economy. Within just a single decade that city turned into the valley of death. It is for this reason that Kubatao is called ‘the valley of death.’ The dense Atlantic forest that once covered the mountain ranges there was completely destroyed. The river that once quietly brimmed with life turned into a dead water reservoir. There was no living creature inside the river any more; it was now carrying only poisonous water and some water plants. The city slithered with poison all over its body. The air above is poisoned; so is the soil below, the land, the forests. Kubatao began to have infants born without the brains, infants who rarely survived and were born deformed. It was difficult to draw one’s breath in the heavy air, which severely lacked oxygen. The sky was dark even during day time. And sickness everywhere! Most of the residents of the area had been suffering from tuberculosis, or cancer, asthma or lungs-related various diseases. The once dense forests upon the hills had disappeared; in its place appeared some stray dwarfish sickly trees and plants , with leaves shaken off by the pungent smoke of chemicals. Every now and then landslides occurred, killing many. This was compounded by frequent acid rains. In all a total disaster it was.

By 1985 the situation of Kubatao went completely out of control. In January that year a continuous rain of two days and 15 inches was followed by a strange landslide. Hundreds and hundreds of displaced boulders came down crashing on the valley of Kubatao. The gigantic ammonia pipeline in Villa Parisi burst and within an instant thick pungent smoke, dense like cloud, shot up. Many were injured in this accident, many fell sick. Although initially the government refused to admit, ultimately the administration was forced to make an emergency evacuation of the entire region on war-footing. The governor of Sao Paolo officially declared emergency, and ordered the pollution control board of the state to enforce an immediate curb on pollution, a thing which was impossible at this stage. During the span of more than twenty years that followed since, and in spite of the concerted effort of many organizations, the pollution level of Kubatao could not be lowered to the below-danger level.

Brazil is not alone. Similar histories lie scattered over the world. Even within the territories of the USA itself it has been noticed how the adjacent areas to chemical factories become infested with poison. Let us cast a glance at Midland of the state of Michigan. Dow Chemical, one of the world’s biggest producers of chemical goods, has poisoned not only the water of the Tittabaowasi river, but also the underground layers beneath its basin. The local residents have launched movement against this. Residents of the area have filed suit against the Dowe Chemicals alleging its responsibility behind their many ailments including cancer. The level of poisonous Dioxin is extraordinarily high there, which can lead not only to cancer, but also to serious complicated ailments including heart-disease, diabetes, skin-disease, deformity at birth, etc. The data figures in the bulletin of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality. In Washington various allegations have come up against Du Pont, the largest chemical corporate of the world. For instance, in the adjacent areas to Du Pont’s factory in Virginia, the tap water shows the presence of the poisonous C8 which is used in Teflon. When blood test of the local residents also exposed the presence of the same poisonous element, cases had been lodged against the company. It was alleged that the company had deliberately suppressed facts. In the Teflon case Du Pont had to pay more than ten million US dollars towards compensation. It needs no mention that even after Teflon had been banned in the USA it continued to be exported long afterwards. It should be mentioned in this connection that there are many chemicals which have been banned in the developed countries, but are still being produced and used in the underdeveloped countries of the world.

[Author: Abhi Datta Majumdar; Professor, Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Kolkata. Translation by Rama Kundu from the Dainik Statesman, 29 & 30 June 2007]

[2]

[Author: Abhi Datta Majumdar; Professor, Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Kolkata. Translation by Rama Kundu from the Dainik Statesman, 29 & 30 June 2007]

Let us now look back from North America to Asia. In Japan, towards the West of Kauusu there is a small coastal village, called Minamata. During the early years of the last century there came up the carbide factory of the Nippon Kesso Company in Minamata. As they could not garner enough profit by producing carbide only, they gradually started manufacturing from carbide calcium sulphide and later on chemical fertilizer containing ammonium sulphate. In the meantime Mitsubishi also joined them on partnership basis. By 1930 they had accessed the technology of manufacturing acetylene by using mercury compound. They started producing various organic items like acetic acid, acetone, butanol, etc. In course of this process they also established their monopoly in acetylene chemistry. Not only in their own country, but also in many countries abroad, including Korea, ther Nippon Kesso spread its empire. In the meantime the topography of Minamata too has changed along this course of the progress of the Nippo Kesso Company. Initially from village to town, Minamata had eventually emerged as a full-fledged city, with abundant roads, communication and transport facility.

But under this façade of prosperity there lies hidden many an untold story of lost lives, shattered families, ruined means of livelihood, smashed ways of life. The local fishermen, farmers, farm lands have been ruined bit by bit silently imperceptibly. The horrible claws of chemical industry have grabbed and mangled all the resources of man’s livelihood. The uncontrolled dumping of factory waste has poisoned the sea water, which has in its turn infected sea weeds, fish and other creatures of the sea. Poisonous chemical elements have entered the food chain, which through the circuit of other creatures ultimately enters the human body. The soil, air, water, forests have been infected in the same way. In all it headed for such a grim situation about which nobody had spared a forethought – neither the company nor the government had been bothered by it in the least. Consequently the pollution went on unabated, and the count of the infected started to show a steep hike.

The horror of the situation came to the fore around 1956. One day four patients, complaining of a strange symptom, were admitted to Minamata hospital. The number continued to swell with time. The symptoms included signs of mental abnormality, rigour, fainting, slipping into coma, and finally death. Before long this unknown ailment took the form of pestilence in the area. As the very ailment was of an unknown category, treatment too was not possible. Eventually it came to light that all of them used to catch fish in the far sea, and consume that fish on a regular basis. Harosuai, a physician at the local hospital, first turned attention towards the sea. After some time, the very same year a team of researchers from Kumamoto university discovered the presence of an extraordinary level of mercury in the waste rolling into the sea water, and they identified this as the cause of the lethal disease. The discovery led to a considerable stirring at the national level. But Kesso refused to admit the allegation and continued their production as before. Neither did they have any trouble amassing the governmental support on their side. Instead of disinfecting the environment the government only came down ruthlessly on the very report, which was stiffly opposed. The demonstration of local fishermen against Kesso was met with repression and torture on the part of the government. In the meanwhile hundreds of cats, turned mad, started to jump into the sea and thus commit suicide. Every now and then infected birds started dropping down from the sky and falling dead. Various ailments including physical deformities surfaced among the bulk of the human population of the area.

Then at last Nippon Kesso geared itself up to stop protest. They started thrusting cash into the palms of the infected. The government kept completely silent on the matter. Neither did they announce any kind of compensation. On the other hand more than forty thousand people had waited till 1993 in the hope of compensation. Neither was there any compensation, nor any pause in production, or any restrain in the violation of nature. No order/ordinance was clamped on Kesso towards restraining or controlling this violation; instead a ban was imposed upon the fishermen of the locality—that they could catch fish in the sea, but won’t be allowed to consume that fish or any other sea-creature. Furthermore, the news had already reached far and wide. As a result no customer was to be found for their fish. Consequently an enormous economic disaster confronted the fishermen of the entire area. In the meantime Kesso had started dumping its waste into the adjacent river called Minamata; carried along the flow of the river pollution now spread into other cities as well, and there too the diseases of Minamata began to spread. Countless people died. And as there was no cure for this ailment except pollution control, the consequence of the Minamata disease too was extremely terrifying. It is strange that Nippon Kesso had never admitted that the pollution caused by their waste was the precise cause of this pestilence. Consequently none of the affected has got any compensation till date.

Since this is the fallout of chemical industry zone [or ‘hub’] throughout the world, how far should it be wise or practicable to build this type of industry zone in a densely populated state like West Bengal, or a highly populated country like India? It is desirable not to undertake any project of such potentially hazardous industry in a place where there is no existing appropriate governmental infrastructure to ensure public safety-security, where there is practically no existing system to control pollution. It is also noticeable that the government here is seeking to install ‘chemical hub’ precisely in the Brazilian model. The raw material will come from abroad; they will use the water, land and cheap labour of our country. Then the produced goods will be shipped off to other countries, especially to those developed countries which are adequately conscious of their health requirements, sufficiently vocal about protecting their own environment.

In fact, it is under the pressure of environmental movements of the first world that the many big commercial houses are now in a rush for the third world shores in order to maintain their rate of profit. Today the new chemical industry control policy in Europe, called ‘RICH’, have been forcing the investors to look for new locations. ‘RICH’ is the abbreviated name of a policy called ‘Registration Evaluation and Authorization of Chemicals’. Since the enforcement of this regulation it will not be possible for them to shoulder all the responsibility of protecting the environment and amassing the huge profit margin at the same time; it is precisely for this reason that they have now been on the lookout for new sites. The German company, BASF has already declared in so many words that this regulation is not realistic; because this will multiply the cost of building and running ‘chemical hubs’ to such a degree that customers will ultimately give up the consumption of chemicals. Yet Europe has not backed out from its earlier stance at all; not only that, but they are also actively engaged in strengthening their own chemical usage policy and imposing control over the use of many items.

Towards ensuring a pollution-free earth the Stockholm convention of 2001 had identified twelve specific chemicals as the ‘dirty dozen’. Recently many more items are being added up to these compounds. That list includes undesirable poisonous waste like Dioxin, furan as well as various chlorine-based insecticides including D.D.T., Eldrine , and poisonous by-products. These are called ‘Persistent organic pollutant’ or POP compound. This means that these are not only poisonous, these can continue unabated in the environment for a long time, and can even be bio-accumulative. This means they can enter the vegetation or animal body , through food chain and can infect the human body through these. Let us suppose this is sprinkled on the grass; from there it enters the body of bovines and other cattle, from there again in the milk; through the milk seeping into the human body, which can even percolate through the body of the succeeding generation. A big range of such poisonous chemicals are again broadly classified as PBT, or ‘Persistent Bio-accumulative Toxic Chemical’.

In addition to this there are several other compounds which are called carcinogenic, mutagenic, and toxic to reproduction, or CMR compounds. This refers to those chemical compounds which can lead to cancer, mutation (cell splitting), and adversely affect reproduction. Many elements of the petrochemical industry are characterized by both these properties. Therefore, Europe and America have imposed various restrictions in the areas of high volume production. It is not difficult to guess how far these restrictions are applicable in a country like India. Besides this there are also many hazards during application. The way dangerous chemicals are handled in this country with bare hands, and without taking any precaution, is enough to send cold shivers through the spine of any person with the minimum awareness. The question of additional measures for labour security is better left unmentioned.

In the developed countries it is not only that many chemicals are being banned, or restrictions are being imposed on the production of compounds classified as POP, CMR, PBT; the proportion of poisonous elements in industry waste is subject to strict surveillance. In all chemical industry faces a big challenge in Europe today. It may be mentioned that there are some chemicals whose synthesizing is restricted though not the use. The USA too has been imposing stricter state control over chemicals industry. The reason of all such restriction is precisely the possibility of hazards related to this industry. Not that it is impossible to produce by obeying all the restrictions; but that should be enormously expensive. That is why the multinational mega industrial companies have been seeking out the third world countries. It is common knowledge that in these third world countries there is practically no such thing as proper system towards pollution control; neither can the situation change overnight. Therefore, if the production is shifted to this location then the profit level can be maintained at ease. It is only too clear that if West Bengal is turned into such an industrial colony under the excuse of development, then ultimately it will be a repeat of Kuabato; such an anxiety can prove only too real.

The government-adopted paradigm of development, in accordance with the trend of globalization , and by means of investment and export, is actually a plan of plunder to serve the interests of multinational trade; and the effort to set up chemical hub in West Bengal is but a glaring example of that plan of plunder. And if it materializes , a total disaster will be inevitable in the coming days. In view of the standard and infrastructure of pollution control in our country, and moreover, in view of the past record of the big multinational trade and industry, it requires no great wisdom to foretell that wherever such an industry zone comes up, a vast area around it will be turned into a graveyard in near future. Agriculture, food, water, air, public health, everything will be under attack. The moment they find it uncongenial to their interest all the time-servers of today will wind up their trade and scurry away; but they will leave behind a poisonous killer field. Those who knowingly or unknowingly, acting at the behest of foreign multinational companies, are taking initiative to set up this chemical hub, are actually forcing the countrymen to a devastating, horrible, grim hell. In the name of industrialization they are actually going to stop all roads to development, and stop them permanently. Posterity will not forgive any of them for this crime.

[Author: Abhi Datta Majumdar; Professor, Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Kolkata. Translation by Rama Kundu from the Dainik Statesman, 29 & 30 June 2007]

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