An Angry Rap Video Is Roiling Indians Against Mercury Poisoning
A new, angry, three-minute rap song in English has a simple message for the global consumer product company Unilever – clean up.
The video, which was viewed and shared online by tens of thousands of people on social media networks in India on Friday, is the latest tool in the environmental battle against mercury poisoning being waged by the residents of the southern Indian hill town Kodaikanal and a band of activists.
The rap song, sung by Sofia Ashraf, exhorts Unilever to clean up the toxic site of its abandoned mercury thermometer factory and compensate hundreds of its workers who have been exposed to mercury poisoning. Ashraf became popular in 2008 when she rapped against Islamic extremism.
The song begins with the words “Kodaikanal won’t step down till you make amends now.”
In a statement on its Web site, the company said it "did not dump glass waste contaminated with mercury on land behind its factory" and that independent studies have shown that "there were no adverse impacts on the health of employees or the environment."
The factory moved to India after it was shut down in Watertown, N.Y., in the early 1980s when concern over mercury in the Great Lakes was at its peak.
The factory, which began production in 1984 in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, was hurriedly shut down in 2001 when the state pollution control board declared that it was violating environmental laws. Activists claim that 45 Unilever factory workers and 18 children died prematurely and hundreds struggle with illnesses linked to mercury poisoning.
“The company kept workers in the dark about the dangers of mercury,” said Peter J. Sundarajan, a former worker in the thermometer factory. “The company used to first remove red labels that showed a skull and crossbones and some text about mercury in English from the glass mercury bottles that came from America. Then the mercury bottles were brought into the factory shop floor for us to work with."
A new study, released in June by a group called Community Environmental Monitoring, found high levels of toxic mercury in vegetation, river and sediment collected from the vicinity of the thermometer factory in Kodaikanal.
An online signature campaign by Chennai-based activists began a week ago, urging Indians to pressure the company’s chief executive, Paul Polman, to take action either directly or through its Indian subsidiary.
“Unilever spends $8 billion on marketing itself as a socially responsible company,” said a statement by the activists Thursday. “Even a day's budget would be more than sufficient to start addressing its liabilities in Kodaikanal.”
Activists say that their next step will be to call upon Indians to boycott the company’s products like toothpaste, deodorant and skin-lightening cream.