Environmentalists urge MoEF not to approve Cuddalore PVC plant

Environmentalists and Citizens’ collective have urged the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) to not grant approval to the polyvinyl chloride (PVC) paste resin plant of 70,000 TPA by Chemplat Sanmar Ltd at SIPCOT-phase two in Cuddalore. Members of the environment watchdog SIPCOT Area Community and Environmental Monitors (SACEM) and Citizen’s collective sent a memorandum to the MoEF to not grant approval until environment carrying capacity and the cumulative impact of the SIPCOT area is accessed. The processed project is in close proximity to many large chemical industries in the ‘Red’ category, they pointed out. In the memorandum, members of SACEM claimed that the project site is located in a critically polluted industrial cluster, which has high levels of pollution with a Comprehensive Environmental Pollution Index (CEPI) of 62.56. SACEM also said that a scientific report on volatile organic compounds in the SIPCOT area in 2007 prepared by the Nagpur-based National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) had assessed that residents of Cuddalore SIPCOT were more likely to be affected by cancer in their lifetime due to exposure to high-level toxic gases from chemical industries in the region. Image Source