New Delhi: The disposal of toxic chemical waste from the Bhopal gas tragedy site has led to fresh consternation in Pithampur, with authorities and local residents of the industrial town entrenched on opposite sides of the issue.
Assurances by officials that the toxic chemical waste was “safely” disposed of under controlled conditions last weekend have done little to allay the concerns of local residents who fear improper disposal could turn Pithampur into “another Bhopal”.
Waste combustion releases high levels of dioxins and furans, two gases that are considered carcinogenic and are known to cause breathing problems in humans.
On its part, the Madhya Pradesh Pollution Control Board (MPPCB), which oversaw the operation, assured due diligence was done for the disposal. But residents were not convinced and moved the Madhya Pradesh High Court, which heard their petition Monday and said it would constitute a medical committee to examine the health effects of the waste-burning exercise that was undertaken following its directives.
The court order Monday came in response to a petition filed this January by Pithampur Bachao Samiti, which has been agitating against the burning of toxic waste from the Union Carbide plant in the town and nearby areas.
Since January, around six different petitions have been filed in the high court as well as Supreme Court by different resident and activist groups from Indore, Bhopal and Pithampur against the decision to dispose of the toxic chemical waste in the incineration facility.
In one of the worst industrial disasters in the world, methyl isocyanate gas leak at the Union Carbide pesticide plant in December 1984 claimed more than 5,000 lives and injured lakhs of others, leaving behind 337 tonnes of toxic chemical waste that was brought to Pithampur for incineration this January.
Speaking about the court order, Anurag Agrawal, advocate for the local residents, told ThePrint: “We have been complaining for six months, and there has not been a single health check-up of local residents in Pithampur ever since the waste arrived here from Bhopal. Now, they want to conduct the health check-up. And the court said that if nothing genuine was found, the petitioners were liable for action.”
While 30 tonnes of the waste was burnt earlier during three trials at the facility, the remaining 307 tonnes was incinerated between 5 May and the night of June 29-30, the state pollution control board stated in a release. The state government confirmed Monday that the waste had been burnt to ashes in an incineration facility in Pithampur.
“We conducted real-time monitoring of all emissions during the incineration period and found them to be within acceptable limits,” said Shrinivas Dwivedi, regional officer, MPPCB. “Our own officials were stationed at Pithampur and ensured that everything from air quality to other emissions from the industry was acceptable,” he told ThePrint.
According to Dr Sanjay Dixit, former Dean and CEO of MGM Medical College in Indore, there should not be much cause for worry among local residents in Pithampur. “Initially there were apprehensions, I admit. But then the local people were taken into confidence and I think all protocols are being followed to safely dispose of the waste,” he told ThePrint.
Dr Dixit also spoke about the breathing problems faced by people during the March trials in the incineration facility, explaining that the symptoms have not persisted. “There was daily monitoring of air quality, carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide at the site, and I think everything was under control,” he said. Adding, “There’s nothing for people to worry about too much.”
But Dr S.S. Nayyar, a cancer surgeon who heads the Institute of Cancer and Stem Cell Research in Indore, had a differing opinion. According to him, “there is already established evidence that dioxins and furans are carcinogenic”.
“I’m citing decades of research when I say that this waste burning and landfill will cause infertility, lung cancer, breast cancer and other deadly diseases in 20-30 years in the population of Pithampur and nearby areas,” he told ThePrint.
Rachna Dhingra, an activist and petitioner, also raised the issue of disposal of residue from the incineration. “The incineration of 300 tonnes of waste has just tripled the problem; there is now 900 tonnes of toxic ash, which is going to be buried in a landfill covered in a plastic sheet.”
Dhingra alleged that there were glaring lapses in the manner in which the waste-burning exercise was conducted.
During the trial run, an independent report by Dr Asif Qureshi of Indian Institute of Technology in Hyderabad had pointed at potential mercury leakage during the burning process. The report, a copy of which is with ThePrint, said there were “logical inconsistencies” in the reported mercury levels from the hazardous waste, which leaves a certain amount of mercury unaccounted for in the ash content after incineration.
“Professor Qureshi’s study indicates it could only have leaked somewhere but there’s been no attempt to trace the nature or location of this leak,” said Dhingra.
However, Dwivedi assured that the MPPCB “monitored all emissions, including mercury, both with automatic readers and manual readers”.
“The dioxins and furans have also been monitored, and while the report is yet to be released, I can tell you they were within permissible limits,” he maintained.
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‘We are seeing just primary symptoms’
Petitions filed in court, led by citizen groups such as Bhopal Group for Information & Action and Pithampur Bachao Samiti, allege lack of transparency in the incineration process. They also cite previous reports and testimonies from MPPCB and the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) warning against burning the toxic chemical waste inside India, and doctors’ testimonies on how exposure to toxic waste could be lethal for residents of Pithampur.
ThePrint has accessed copies of some of the pleas.
“The toxins and their impact on the local population might not be visible immediately, but it will be very harmful,” Dev Vasudevan, an activist and one of the petitioners, told ThePrint.
In March this year, after the Pithampur Bachao Samiti’s petition against the waste-burning exercise had been filed, the high court permitted three trials to burn 10 tonnes of waste in each at the Pithampur incinerator. “The trials, undertaken in the first week of March, led to many residents facing health issues,” said Hemant Hirole, a 53-year-old resident of Pithampur and a member of Pithampur Bachao Samiti.
In the second week of March, almost 40 different residents submitted their doctor prescriptions in court, which documented their health condition—watery eyes, itchy skin and throat, and problems in breathing. According to Hirole, “We are seeing just the primary symptoms. I am sure in the future there will be more adverse health effects.”
Now that the incineration is complete, the final process in the disposal of the toxic chemical waste is to bury the residual ash in a landfill inside the incineration facility run by Re Sustainability in Pithampur. MPPCB said the process will start after the monsoons and will be complete by November, but local residents are planning to resist its burial in a landfill.
“There have been enough tests and expert opinions stating that the incineration facility is not equipped to handle the waste safely,” said Dr Nayyar. “If the waste is buried in the village, it runs the risk of leeching into the soil, the water, and the river, which will impact people’s health for far longer than what we see now.”
Dr Nayyar cited a 2010 letter from the director of Thermax Ltd, a global waste management company, which said that “no incinerator in India possessed the safety systems to handle the Union Carbide Waste”. He and Dhingra also pointed out two separate instances in 2012 and 2013 when the MPPCB and the Bhopal Gas Tragedy Relief and Rehabilitation Department wrote affidavits stating that the Pithampur facility was not equipped to handle toxic waste. ThePrint has copies of the affidavits and the letter.
According to MPPCB’s Dwivedi, however, the incineration company and the board are taking all precautions to make the landfill safe. Its construction will begin after the monsoons, and it is expected to be a double-lined system with two layers of plastic coating, clay, and other systems recommended by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).
“The Union Carbide waste brings with it a heavy connotation, and we want to be very sure that we’re disposing it safely. All protocols are being followed, and we even decided to make a new landfill for the waste, instead of burying it in the usual industrial waste landfill,” said Dwivedi.
The high court has scheduled the next hearing in the matter for 31 July, in which the CPCB and MPPCB will be heard on the matter of the landfill and storage of ash.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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