Highly-polluting pharmaceutical and bulk drug industries across the State have escaped the regulatory ambit of Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board’s (APPCB) much-publicised 24-hour online monitoring of all industrial waste.
The crucial online assessment - to check levels of stack emission and ambient air quality – is being enforced across nearly 50 major fertiliser and cement industries, besides thermal power plants in the State.
Yet, the mechanism has eluded most pharma and bulk drug industries.
“We do not possess the technology required to track down the smell of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) generated by pharmaceutical industries to the source in our country and hence cannot measure the waste generated by these industries,” said Prasanna Kumar, spokesperson of the APPCB.
This has led to a situation where numerous big pharmaceutical and drug industries in the State, including those in Medak and Ranga Reddy districts, have been left unregulated.
“The VOCs, which are dangerous to human health and the environment, are released in huge quantities by bulk drug industries. And residents have constantly been complaining about the nuisance caused by their pungent odour, even during the night. Yet, this aspect has evaded the scanner,” officials admitted.
Regular data
Several paper, cement and thermal power industries, however, have installed the systems necessary to facilitate the real time and accurate assessment of pollution. Hourly data from the industries is thus uploaded onto the central server of the APPCB which keeps a tab on emission standards.
An average of the entire days’ emissions is taken into account to evaluate the pollution levels of an industry. The system will also allow enforcement authorities and industries to review highest emissions in the day and rectify the cause.
“With the waste from each industry being monitored on an hourly basis, the system allows for correctional and pro-active action to ensure that pollution do not exceed stipulated levels,” informed officials.
The online monitoring mechanism has been in place since October 2010, and no gross violators have been identified so far. Transparency due to real time public visibility of the emissions, officials said, is a major factor to ensure better performance.
