Reject the proposed Chemplast PVC facility in SIPCOT Cuddalore, Tamilnadu

We are writing to strongly urge you to reject the proposed Chemplast PVC facility in SIPCOT Cuddalore. We understand this is a VCM-PVC unit and not an integrated unit, however even the best-designed PVC facilities pose irreversible health and environmental threats to surrounding communities.

An array of poisonous chemicals such as vinyl chloride, ethylene dichloride, and dioxins are used and/or inadvertently produced during the manufacture of PVC. Vinyl chloride is a known human carcinogen that affects the central nervous system and damages the liver. Besides cancer, workers and residents alike are vulnerable to a range of ailments associated with vinyl chloride exposure, including damage to the liver, lungs, blood, nervous system, immune system, cardiovascular system, skin, bones and reproductive system. There appears to be no safe level of exposure to vinyl chloride, as it is considered to be genotoxic meaning it causes irreversible damage to DNA. Any exposure increases the risk of developing cancer, a birth defect or a genetic disorder.

PVC manufacturing facilities have poisoned workers and fenceline neighbors, polluted the air, contaminated drinking water supplies, and even wiped entire neighborhoods off the map. Consider some of the following brief examples of these very real threats:

Air pollution:
-------------------
* In Mossville, Louisiana, air monitoring conducted by the US Environmental Protection Agency in 1999 showed vinyl manufacturing facilities emitted concentrations of vinyl chloride more than 120 times higher than the ambient air standard.
* In Delaware City, Delaware, air-monitoring has revealed high concentrations of vinyl chloride near a PVC manufacturing facility, which is under close state and federal scrutiny for pollution violations.

Water pollution:
---------------
* An air sample taken above Chemplasts effluent outfall into the River Kaveri in Mettur revealed the presence of high levels of cancer-causing chemicals like chloroform, vinyl chloride and ethylene dichloride -- some of which were well above guidelines or standards. This facility has been accused of polluting hundreds of wells and thousands of acres of agricultural land in Mettur, and has been caught discharging highly poisonous effluents into the River Kaveri upstream of TWAD Boards drinking water intake wells.
* In Lake Charles, Louisiana, a jury found one of the United States leading PVC manufacturers liable for wanton and reckless disregard of public safety, caused by one of the largest chemical spills in the nations history which contaminated the groundwater underneath the surrounding community.
* In Pennsylvania, the federal government is working to clean up highly contaminated groundwater and contaminated lagoons at an OxyChem PVC plant.
* In Texas, vinyl chloride has been discovered in wells nearby a PVC plant, which was forced to spend one million dollars cleaning up the contaminated groundwater. This same company was fined in 1991 for over $3 million (U.S.) for hazardous waste violations related to the groundwater contamination.

Harm to Workers:
------------------
* Studies have documented links between working in vinyl chloride production facilities and the increased likelihood of developing diseases including angiosarcoma of the liver, a rare form of liver cancer, brain cancer, lung cancer, lymphomas, leukemia, and liver cirrhosis.
* On April 23, 2004, a PVC plant in Illinois exploded, sending a plume of toxic smoke for miles around surrounding communities. Five workers were killed, four towns were evacuated, several highways closed, a no-fly zone declared, and three hundred firefighters from twenty-seven surrounding communities battled the flames for three days.
* An explosion at the Formosa Plastics Corporation plant in Point Comfort Texas in December 1998 injured 26 workers and rattled windows 35 miles away.
* These explosions at PVC plants are of great concern, especially in light of the close proximity of the proposed Chemplast plant to Palldian Chemicals, a manufacturer of highly explosive rocket fuel, which together may pose a Bhopal-like hazard to area residents.

PVC Fenceline Communities Wiped Off the Map
-------------------------------------------
* In 2003, in Plaquemine, Louisiana, a trailer park development was relocated after being contaminated by vinyl chloride groundwater contamination, but only after women suffered from an abnormal number of miscarriages in the tainted area.
* Reveilletown, Louisiana, was once a small African-American town adjacent to an EDC/VCM facility owned by Georgia-Gulf. In the 1980s, after a plume of vinyl chloride in groundwater began to seep under homes in the area, Georgia-Gulf agreed to permanently evacuate the entire community of one hundred and six residents. Reveilletown has since been demolished.

Residents living near the SIPCOT industrial area are already overburdened by polluting facilities and can not afford to face such risks. The Tamilnadu State Human Rights Commission declared public health in the SIPCOT industrial estate cannot take more burden than that which has already ensued by the existing chemical industries. Additionally, the local government (Panchayat) and the Panchayat Union have resolved against setting up polluting factories in SIPCOT. A legislative assembly member from your own party has written to you requesting the proposal be shelved. Residents living in and around the SIPCOT chemical industrial estate have already complained of intense chemical odors and health disorders which may be linked to the pollution. Residents believe there are high rates of morbidity among the regions children, who may be suffering from physical, mental and sexual development deficits. The SIPCOT Area Community Environmental Monitors (SACEM) have documented the presence of numerous cancer-causing chemicals in the air near SIPCOT due to current industrial operations.

Recognizing the myriad of environmental health threats posed by the PVC lifecycle, numerous governments and companies have already enacted PVC restrictions or have policies to eliminate PVC. These companies include Wal-Mart, Nike, Honda, Proctor and Gamble, Toyota, Microsoft, Apple, and Sony.

Given the significant environmental and health threats posed by the Chemplast PVC plant, we strongly urge you to reject the proposed facility. As organizations deeply concerned about and following this proposal from around the world, we look forward to and await your prompt response.