Our car and inverter batteries are poisoning us and the environment!

Workers handling Lead recovered from scrap batteries

Do you know that `Leaded` batteries are `Loaded` with toxicity and are posing major environmental and health hazards? A new report titled ‘Loaded Batteries: Mapping the Toxic Waste Trail’ released in New Delhi today by leading environmental think tank “Toxics Link” reveals how used lead acid batteries are being mismanaged in the country and are poisoning us.  The study on the current status of used lead acid battery management in the country establishes the utter failure of Battery Rules in India and finds out how a major chunk of used LABs reach the unorganized sector, raising serious concerns about the environmental and health impacts.

The Toxics Link study, spread over four states- Delhi, Rajasthan (with study partner Gramin Vikas Evam Paryavaran Sanstha), Andhra Pradesh and Jharkhand (with study partner Lok Swar), looked at the entire value chain and recycling practices and found that the battery dealers were leaking out batteries to the informal sector where these batteries were handled crudely and put in open ‘bhattis’ to recover lead. "The Battery Rules, under Extended Producer Responsibility, mandate that the Battery companies have to collect 90% of end-of-life batteries but lack of information shared by the companies and the quantum of EOL batteries reaching the informal sector clearly indicates that the brands are not meeting their targets. It`s a big failure of a rule which has been in force for almost 18 years" explains Priti Mahesh of Toxics Link, a researcher involved in the study.

From Toxics Link`s study it was evident that unauthorized smelting or recycling units, across the 4 states surveyed lacked even basic precautionary measures. Workers were bereft of personal protective equipment like gloves, masks, aprons and shoes. A treatment centre, located near the recycling units in Delhi, also shared that the workers usually had abnormally high lead blood levels.  Open burning and handling of lead was resulting in the toxic metal’s dispersal in soil and air, as there were no environmental safeguards in place in these informal units. Lead is a cumulative toxicant that affects multiple body systems and young children are particularly vulnerable to it. However, consumer awareness in general is poor regarding disposal and processing concerns of used lead acid batteries as well as about the Rules. The study also points at a failure of State Pollution Control Boards as regulating agencies. Out of 36 agencies (SPCB and PCC), not even 50% have filed reports to CPCB on status of the Rules implementation.