The background

The presently defunct Golden Chemicals Ltd. was once the largest manufacturer of Bichromates in the country and was functioning here since early 40s. It had severely polluted the gound water and soil around with highly carcinogenic hexavalent chromium, a toxic legacy left behind by the Golden Chemicals for the people of this area and their future generations. The dumping practice is in blatant violatio of the Hazardous Wastes (Management and Handling) Rules, 1989.
Despite informing the autorities concerned (Maharashtra Pollution Control Board) with specific suggestions to curb the public health risk from the polluted ground water more than a month back, the situation has not become any better (Our letter to MPCB is appended for your ready reference). We have analysed the golden yellow coloured water samples obtained from the area in the MPCB Lab at Belapur which indicated 2.5ppm of hexavanent Chromium (see the scaned image of the result attached (Lab report_Dahisar.jpg)). The maximum permissible concentration of hexavalent chromium in potable water being 0.01 ppm [WHO, 1970] the concentration in Dahisar water was 50 times higher than the maximum available limit in the water.

There is every likelihood of a Hema Chemicals (Vadodara) episode (Where a recent Supreme court panel's order ordered a similar chemical unit at vadodare to pick up Rs 17-cr tab for removal of the waste dumped by them) repeting itself here. Since the chemical involved is the same, the case is analogous to that of the well known Hema Chemicals case. Most of the workers have symptoms of severe occupational exposure to Chromium such as nasal septum perforation, ulceration and dermatitis. The Dahisar case is
likely to be more severe because of two major reasons.
1) The Golden chemical has a much longer history of existence than Hema (Golden started in 1941 itself, while Hema started operations in 1979).
2) The quantum of chemicals Golden Chemicals that the Golden Chemical was dealing with, was much higher (According to the company, they were the largest manufacturers of chromium Chemicals in India with a production of 15000 tpa).
Moreover, the company is defunct for last several months for reasons unknown, even to the workers of the company !! (The most likely reason, could be that it was afraid of facing a similar penalty as that of Hema Chemicals). The workers are not even paid any compensation and are kept in dark by the company authorities.
Hence, there is every chance to believe that the situation can only be worser at Dahisar, than Vadodara and it is only a matter of time before it comes out in to open. It is our duty to fasten that process in the the larger interest of the public health and environmental rights of the people.