Demand for phasing out toxic mercury

New Delhi, Jan 11 (UNI) An NGO researching on toxic substances has demanded immediate policy intervention to phase out the use of mercury from the country, saying India is the only major country not to do so.

European Union had announced phasing out the heavy metal by 2011 while the United States already had mercury management programme in place but India, which second largest 'consumer' after China in the world, was doing nothing to contain the hazardous substance, Toxic Link Director Ravi Agarwal yesterday said.

Mercury, which retarded mental and physical development, damaged kidneys and even caused infirmity, was widely used in homes and hospitals in form of thermometers, blood pressure machines and florescent bulbs, and in industries for making soda ash and caustic soda.

Digital thermometers and blood pressure machines were replacing ones with mercury worldwide, similarly alternatives to mercury were being increasingly used by the industry but no substitute had yet been found for florescent bulbs.

''Urgent steps were needed to regulate imports of mercury, lest India became a hub of international trade in the poisonous substance,'' he said.

In India mercury was sold through open general license and to add to it there was no proper system for its waste disposal even when one gram of the substance (found in a simple thermometer) was enough to pollute a water body measuring 20 acres!, he added.

As indiscriminate use and inapt handling of mercury was affecting homes, hospitals and people at large, Mr Agarwal hoped the government would take corrective action at the earliest.

India would also have to discard " mind yoour business" attitude towards the rest of the world because it was now an established fact that mercury "let off" into the environment in Delhi's backyard eventually found its way to the artic, he added.

UNI