Kodaikanal mercury poisoning is a proven case of mercury contamination at the hill station of Kodaikanal, Tamil Nadu, India by Hindustan Unilever in the process of making mercury thermometers for export around the world. The exposé of the environmental abuse led to the closure of the factory in 2001 and opened up a series of issues in India such as corporate liability, corporate accountability and corporate negligence.
Mercury pollution in Kodaikanal
The mercury contamination in Kodaikanal originated at a thermometer factory owned by Hindustan Unilever. Unilever acquired the thermometer factory from cosmetics maker Pond's India Ltd. Pond's moved the factory from the United States to India in 1982 after the plant owned there by its parent, Chesebrough-Pond's, had to be dismantled following increased awareness in developed countries of polluting industries. In 1987, Pond's India and the thermometer factory went to Hindustan Unilever when it acquired Cheseborough-Pond's globally.
The factory imported mercury from the United States, and exported finished thermometers to markets in the United States and Europe. Around 2001, a number of workers at the factory began complaining of kidney and related ailments. Public interest groups such as Tamil Nadu Alliance Against Mercury (TNAAC) alleged that the Company had been disposing mercury waste without following proper protocols. In early 2001, public interest groups unearthed a pile of broken glass thermometers with remains of Mercury from an interior of part of the shola forest, which they suspected could have come from the company. In March, a public protest led by local workers' union and international environmental organisation Greenpeace forced the company to shut down the factory. Soon the company admitted that it did dispose of mercury contaminated waste. The company said in its 2002 annual report and its latest Sustainability Report that it did not dump glass waste contaminated with mercury on the land behind its factory, but only a quantity of 5.3 metric tonnes of glass containing 0.15% residual mercury had been sold to a scrap recycler located about three kilometers from the factory, in breach of the company procedures. Quoting a report prepared by an international environmental consultant, Unilever said there was no health effect on the workers of the factory or any impact on the environment. This is hotly contested by a book published by Pan MacMillan in 2023, Heavy Metal: How a Global Corporation Poisoned Kodaikanal, authored by veteran journalist-tuned-public policy leader Ameer Shahul.
Reverse dumping
Once the factory was shut down, public interest groups demanded the return of the remaining mercury waste to the United States for recycling, remediation of the factory site, and address of the health complaints of the workers. Local groups and workers' union under the leadership of Greenpeace, represented to the company, regulatory bodies, and the government, besides initiating legal action against the company.
Greenpeace campaigner Ameer Shahul led the public affairs groups and workers collaboration in forcing the Company to collect 290 tonnes of dumped mercury waste from the shola forest and send back to the United States for recycling in 2003. This was widely hailed by the media as ‘reverse dumping’. Later Greenpeace campaigners Ameer Shahul and Navroz Mody led the groups in lobbying for remediation of the site and initiated an investigation by the Department of Atomic Energy of Government of India, which found that the free mercury level in the atmosphere of Kodaikanal was 1000 times more than what is found in normal conditions. Analysis of water, sediment and fish samples collected from Kodaikanal Lake by a team of scientists of the Department of Atomic Energy showed elevated levels of mercury four years after the stoppage of mercury emissions. A series of scientific studies have also been carried out by Governmental and non-governmental organisations to determine the extent of damage caused to the environment and to the people who were exposed to mercury in the factory.