The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : When lead gets in the blood

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jun 29, 2007
ePaper

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

When lead gets in the blood

Divya Gandhi

Bangalore: At 15, S. Ravikumar, from Chitradurga, started working at a small battery recycling unit in Peenya here, sorting and reassembling parts in a garage filled with the rancid smell of lead fumes.

Earlier this year, and now 23, he arrived at St. John’s National Referral Centre for Lead Poisoning in India (NRCLPI). His right hand had gone inexplicably limp, and no one could diagnose his condition.

NRCLPI director T. Venkatesh found that it was a clear case of lead poisoning: his blood lead level was 13 times over the permissible limit.

Ravikumar is one of at least 4,000 victims of lead poisoning in Bangalore, says Dr. Venkatesh, based on a survey he conducted in 2005, which concluded that Bangalore had a minimum of 1,000 unorganised lead-acid battery reassembling units, each employing four or five people.

In India, lead batteries are the single largest cause of lead poisoning, which affects the nervous system, kidneys, and cardiovascular system of those exposed to it.

Registered manufacturers and recycling units to a certain extent are compelled by the law to make some basic provisions for environment safety and protection for its workers.

But the smaller units, located in almost every ward in Bangalore, according to Dr. Venkatesh, are the ones that employ the bulk of workers who repair and reassemble batteries beyond the radar of the law, with constant exposure to occupational hazards. It is telling that the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) knows only of 11 manufacturing and 12 recycling units of lead batteries in the State and cannot even hazard an estimate of the number of unorganised units that exist.

NRCLPI study

A week ago, the NRCLPI conducted a study at a unit on the outskirts of Bangalore that revealed that 60 out of 65 workers had very high levels of lead in their blood: the average was 87 micrograms per decilitre (10 micrograms per decilitre is the permissible limit), and the highest went up to 185 micrograms. Many had not yet developed symptoms.

Says P. Parthasarathy, founder of E-Parisara, an organisation that deals with e-waste management, “This is only to be expected, because there are neither clean technologies used nor measures such as ventilation exhausts, protective gear for workers or regular blood-lead-level monitoring.”

He attributes this to the lack of awareness and the lack of means to invest in clean technologies.

Proactive role

Mr. Parthasarathy believes in a more proactive role for the Pollution Control Board.

“Through allocations of land away from residential areas, through training and education and soft loans to units to invest in cleaner technology, these unorganised units will at least have an opportunity to create better working conditions.

The least the Board can do is to conduct a survey to determine the number of unauthorised units in Bangalore,” he says.

“We cannot expect these units to shut down. Each of us uses batteries extensively whether in cars and scooters or cell phones and computers and UPSs.”

The larger, registered manufacturers must also be made accountable, he feels, since the Batteries (Management and Handling Rules) of 2001 expects them to collect 90 per cent of the batteries sold.

According to sources at the KSPCB, only 14 per cent of registered manufacturers, recyclers and agents have filed their returns this year.

And only one manufacturer has come forward to comply with the international standards that were laid down two months ago by the NRCLPI, OK International and Development Alternatives to encourage manufacturers and recyclers to adopt clean standards.

Infrastructure

Mr. Parthasarathy says, “They have the infrastructure and resources to train the recyclers and to ensure that there is a centralised collection system in place for lead parts. It is, after all, in their interest to make sure that the lead is retrieved by them and not reassembled and sold by unauthorised units.”

KSPCB chairman H.C. Sharatchandra acknowledges that while regulations exist, their implementation is the biggest challenge.

He is hoping for the zoning of industrial and residential areas in Bangalore’s Master Plan 2015.

“Ideally we must have a separate location for these units, where effluent treatment can be centralised and where the industry can be regulated,” he says.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Karnataka