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EDITORIALS

Economic & PoliticalWeekly EPW november 16, 2013 vol xlviII nos 45 & 46 9

studies proved that it was congenital and that women could pass it

on to their children. In fact, according to the World Health Organi-

sation, there is no safe threshold for mercury. Mercury poisoning ispopularly known as the Minamata disease because of the discovery

of its effects on the unfortunate people living in that area.

Given the many uses of mercury, it is clear that it cannot be

banned altogether. It is extensively used, for instance, in gold

mining where it helps separate gold from the rock and the sedi-

ment. In fact, mercury emissions are highest from the enormous

number of small-scale and therefore unregulated artisanal gold

mines around the world, even more than the mercury emitted by

coal-burning power plants. The convention recognises this and

only asks for a phasing out of the use of mercury over a 30-year

period. However, it does recommend a ban by 2020 of the import

and export of mercury-containing products including electrical

switches and relays, batteries, lamps and bulbs, thermometers,

blood pressure-measuring devices and certain cosmetics and soaps.

If 50 countries that have signed the convention get it ratified by

their elected bodies, it will come into force as an international

convention. It will then be mandatory for all countries to formulate

their own laws reflecting the main provisions of the convention.

It would be virtually impossible to ascertain how many people

in India are affected by mercury poisoning. For instance, a decade

ago, thanks to the intervention of environmental groups, a major

multinational, Hindustan Lever Limited, now Hindustan Uni-

lever Limited, was charged with disposing of mercury from itsthermometer factory in Kodaikanal without following proper

procedures. The broken thermometers were dumped on land

behind the factory, resulting in the mercury leaching into the soil.

As in Minamata Bay, it required the intervention of environ-

mental groups to establish this unpardonable attitude towards

the disposal of dangerous waste. Ultimately, the company had

to arrange for the soil from behind the plant to be removed.

Given the background of the devastating consequences of

mercury poisoning as has been extensively documented from

Minamata Bay, and the fact that in India regulating waste

discharge from chemical industries is notoriously lax, there is

simply no justification for refusing to sign such a convention.

Why does the Government of India drag its feet when it

comes to international environmental agreements?

Decidedly, not all are in the countrys interests, or atleast that is the official perception. But surely something like

the Minamata Convention on Mercury that many countries

signed at a recent meeting in Japan, should not invite any sec-

ond thoughts. Yet India, along with Russia, has held back and

not yet signed the convention.

The convention draws its name from the shameful and wilful

poisoning of the waters of Minamata Bay in Japans Kumamoto

prefecture by the Chisso Corporation. The company used mer-

cury as a catalyst to produce acetaldehyde. The untreated waste

water from this process was emptied out into the bay from 1932

to 1968. In the beginning, there was little knowledge of the impact

of organic mercury, or methyl mercury on the human system. In

1958, first animals, principally cats, and then humans began

showing symptoms of what appeared to be an unknown disease

whose symptoms included partial paralysis, convulsions, loss of

hearing and sight. It took years of research and investigation by

representatives of the affected people in Minamata before the

Chisso Corporation admitted that the methyl mercury discharged

from their factory into the water had caused the nerve damage

that had led to hundreds being affected, and many deaths.

The story did not end there. Despite this admission, the

corporation continued to discharge untreated waste. It has

taken the victims of mercury poisoning in Minamata andsurrounding areas over five decades to get justice and compen-

sation, and even today there are affected groups that continue

to battle with the company and the government. Since Minama-

ta, there have been numerous examples of similar callousness

by industry, not least by Union Carbide in Bhopal.

Apart from the larger lesson on industrial waste and its impact

on the environment and humans, the Minamata tragedy is specific

to the problems with mercury. This is a naturally occurring mineral

and in its metallic form it does not have an adverse effect. But

when it becomes methyl mercury, humans and animals easily ab-

sorb it. It remains within the system for much longer than other

minerals and ultimately hits the central nervous system. Later

From 50 Years Ago

Vol XV, No 45, november 9, 1963

weekly notes

Student WastageMore than half the students fail every year inthe BA, BSc and BCom examinations. The aver-age percentage of failures in these examina-

tions, taking all the Indian universities togeth-er, was 53.6, 54.7 and 53.4 respectively in 1961.In the previous year also, the percentages were

about the same. The percentage of failures ismuch lower in the post-graduate examinationsand they are also lower in engineering, agri-culture, veterinary science and other technicalsubjects the only exception being medicine,in which the percentage of failure is prettyhigh, being 43.8 in 1961. Why is the percent-age of failures so high in some subjects and notin others? In his convocation address to theUniversity of Kashmir and Jammu, Professor DS Kothari drew pointed attention to the largepercentage of failures which measure the mag-

nitude of what he calls the problem of studentwastage at the university stage. In secondaryeducation, wastage of this type is even higher.

The wastage in our education system is ofmany kinds, some of which are perhaps morefamiliar to the public than others. One is that ofthe lapse into illiteracy of those who attendprimary schools only for a few years and thenleave off. Another is the disproportionate numberof those forced to go in for art subjects and thestrong literary bias in the system generally, re-sulting in a lack of correspondence between thetypes of education needed for the developmentof the country and the type of education imparted.It is this latter aspect of education which by and

large arouses the greatest resentment, beingheld responsible for the distressing phenomenaof the hordes of educated unemployed.

Poisoned by Mercury

There is no justification for India refusing to sign the Minamata Convention.