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.
Groups Also Call for a National Phase Out and An Agro-Ecological Transition of the Food System in Mexico
Tuesday, 02 June 2020
More than 180 non-governmental organizations, social groups and academics from different universities sent a letter to the federal authorities to maintain the ban on imports of glyphosate by the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat) and move forward for a national phase out of all uses.
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.
Groups pursue ban on waste trade as the first anniversary of the re-exportation of Canadian garbage dumped in the Philippines on May 31 nears
Thursday, 28 May 2020
Quezon City, Philippines Civil society groups marked the first anniversary of the repatriation of 69 container vans of rotting Canadian garbage to their source with a resounding plea for decisive policy actions to prevent its recurrence and to defend environmental justice and the rule of law.
This country profile presents data for over 1700 pesticides registers for use in Azerbaijan at the beginning of 2020. The data show that about one third of approved pesticides are highly hazardous pesticides. Additionally, some banned pesticides still in use in Azerbaijan. In 2020, a national campaign supporting phasing out of HHPs in Azerbaijan was launched. An addendum to the list of HHPs in Azerbaijan was prepared and approved for step-by-step phase out.
