Mexico City IPEN environmental and health organizations, together with other civil society organizations, sent a letter yesterday to the Ministry of Health, the Federal Commission for the Protection of Sanitary Risks and the Federal Attorney's Office of the Consumer, requesting to end the sale of J&J baby powder and any other brands containing mineral talc, to avoid risks to the health of consumers by applying the Precautionary Principle.
Click the link above to read the letter and press release (Spanish).
Read the letter and press release urging the Mexican governemnet to recall Johnson and Johnson products containing mineral talc and join other international governments in banning talc that may contain asbestos from products.
After LG’s toxic release of styrene vapor into a nearby residential area killing and injuring people, the Andhra Pradesh State Governmentconvened a High Power Committee (HPC) to investigate the tragedy.
Two months later, the HPC delivered a 4,000-page report sharply critical of LG’s management. The government investigation demonstrated LG’s disregard for safety, raised the possibility of a double standard in LG operations in South Korea and India and revealed significant environmental pollution caused by LG’s massive styrene release.
India’s Andhra Pradesh State Government created a High Power Committee to investigate the LG tragedy which released its final report on 6 July 2020. The investigation revealed LG’s disregard for safety, raised the possibility of a double standard in LG operations in South Korea and India and revealed significant environmental pollution caused by LG’s massive styrene release.
To mark World Environment Day, activists in India and South Korea performed press events to push LG to take full responsibility for its horrible tragedy in India. Note that LG is a Korean company headquartered in Seoul. Groups in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Hong Kong, Japan, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, and Vietnam joined virtually.
The National Green Tribunal (NGT) is the government legal body with expertise and jurisdiction over environmental matters. After LG's toxic release of styrene gas into a nearby residential area killing and injuring people, NGT convened an investigative committee.
The NGT investigative committee delivered acriticalfinalreport on 28 May 2020 which concluded that LG’s “gross human failure” and the company’s lack of basic safety equipment and procedures caused the tragedy. The committee noted that, “The root cause thus appears to be the lack of experience of LG Polymers India and their Korean principal, LG Chem, in monitoring and maintaining full tanks of styrene that were idled for a long period of several weeks without operation.”
India’s National Green Tribunal created a monitoring committee to investigate the LG tragedy which released a final 168-page report on 28 May 2020, finding that LG’s disregard for safety as the cause of the lethal chemical release.
Absolute liability should be applied in deaths and injuries at its plastics factory in India
Thursday, 28 May 2020
Polystyrene plastic is familiar to consumers in the form of coffee cups and take-out food containers. However, many people do not realize that the building block of this common plastic – styrene – is a probable human carcinogen with a variety of toxic effects. The recent LG tragedy in India demonstrates the toxicity of polystyrene production on community residents. The parent company and its Indian subsidiary should be held fully accountable and absolute liability should be applied.
