Stepping into danger
The multinational Hindustan Lever Ltd. (HLL) is facing the music from its employees for allegedly, issuing boots containing carcinogenic materials. In a legal notice served in January this year, employees of the Bombay unit of HLL demanded Rs 9 lakh as compensation to all workers who developed serious skin problems after using gumboots and sandals provided by, the management every year before the monsoon.
Last year, when employees complained of a foul smell from the boots, the factory doctor recommended washing the boots with detergent powder. The petitioners claim the boots were smelling of nitrobenzoyl, a highly carcinogenic chemical.
Alarmed when they developed blisters on soles and peeling skin, about 40 affected workers rushed to the department of dermatology at Sion Hospital in Bombay. The head of the department, H R Jerajani, stated in his report that the workers had full-blown contact dermatitis due to the boots they were wearing. According to another senior doctor at the hospital, the workers had a high risk of contracting skin cancer if they had continued to use the boots.
Related Content
- Order of the National Green Tribunal regarding protection of wetlands of Pampore, Jammu & Kashmir, 06/03/2024
- Global health security (GHS) index 2021: advancing collective action and accountability amid global crisis
- No time to lose, says Sunita Narain on the new IPCC report
- Order of the Supreme Court of India regarding use of kerosene in vehicles in Delhi, 10/08/2020
- Order of the National Green Tribunal on gas leak at LG Polymers chemical plant in RR Venkatapuram village, Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, 08/05/2020
- With Carbon Dioxide Concentrations Nearing New Highs, 2020 Will Be ‘Make It or Break It Year’ for Climate Action, Secretary-General Warns