Lead poisoning compounded by many factors

CHENNAI: The implementation of laws by governments alone is not enough to effectively prevent environmental pollution. Manufacturers, dealers and consumers must take proactive roles to prevent poisoning by hazardous materials, State Environment Minister BV Ramanaa has said.He urged stakeholders to set up the requisite systems and infrastructure to collect used batteries and channelise them to authorised recyclers to prevent lead poisoning.Speaking at a workshop to create an awareness on the safe handling and disposal of lead acid batteries by the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB), Ramanaa appealed to industries to take measures to assist the government in implementing the Batteries (Management & Handling) Rules, 2001.The workshop, sponsored by the Central Pollution Control Board, saw the participation of PCB officials from neighbouring states, apart from dealers and manufacturers of lead acid batteries.“We need to ask if we are conforming to the legal framework and whether our legal framework is striving towards the standards of the future. We also need to ensure that our manufacturing and practices are socially-acceptable. This is vital to our efforts in curbing lead poisoning from unauthorised processing of lead acid batteries,” noted TS Srinivasamurthy, Director for Environment.Officials noted that the problem of lead poisoning due to lead acid batteries was compounded by a number of factors such as the gap between demand and supply in electricity, growth in automobile population, lack of interest in safe processing of used lead acid batteries and the absence of safe practices in unauthorised recycling of lead. They noted that bringing more dealers and manufacturers into the legal framework would serve to improve implementation of the Batteries (Management & Handling) Rules, 2001. TNPCB Joint Chief Environmental Engineer R Kumar and CPCB Senior Environmental Engineer Anand Kumar also spoke at the workshop’s inaugural.