Overview: Pollution unmasked
It’s a Catch-22 situation. How does one rate an industry where the pollution is minimal at the production plant and peaks the moment the product leaves the factory gates? How does one rate an industry that is the mother of all chemical industries? How does one rate an industry that has no control over the products it manufactures? These are the dilemmas of rating India’s caustic-chlorine industry, an interme diary industry that supplies precious raw material for almost all products. But also one that is fast becoming a major environmental and health hazard the world over.
That’s why the third rating of the Centre for Science and Environment’s Green Rating Project (grp) is significant. It is an attempt to study this industry, whose environmental performance was as yet a grey area.
The issues that the caustic and chlorine industry throw up are many. Chlorine and caustic soda are used extensively by industries to make products like plastics and pesticides that are highly detrimental to the environment. Even the storage and transportation of products like chlorine is a highly risky business, especially in a densely populated country like India. Moreover, the mercury cell process for producing caustic soda and chlorine is fast emerging as a major environmental and human health concern.
Indicator of industrialisation
The chemical industry in India has been one of the fastest growing industries since independence. And the caustic-chlorine industry is considered as a symbol of the level of industrialisation in the country. The basic inorganic and organic chemicals produced in the chemical industry provide the building blocks for several downstream industries but the hallmark of the industry is pollution