Toxic Battery Factory Threatens The Health Of Thousands In Kenya

Lead pollution could be making the violence in that area worse, because of effects on the brain before birth and in childhood.

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/06/24/3452344/kenya-toxic-factory/

BY WILL FREEMAN ON JUNE 24, 2014

While the biggest United Nations environmental meeting in history entered its second day on Tuesday in Nairobi, Human Rights Watch called on the Kenyan government to stop toxic lead from threatening thousands of lives in a poor district of Mombasa.

“At least three people have died and thousands of others are under threat from toxic lead because the Kenyan authorities didn’t enforce their own environmental laws and regulations,” said Jane Cohen, senior environmental researcher at Human Rights Watch. The group says the “urgent and on-going crisis” is the result of the Kenyan government’s failure to regulate lead smelter from a battery recycling plant that contaminated Mombasa’s Owino Uhuru district for years after it began operating in 2007.

All 193 U.N. member states are participating in this year’s Environmental Assembly meeting, which is being held under the theme of “A Life of Dignity for All.” While chemical waste features prominently on the agenda for discussion, the Kenyan government has made no statement responding to the report by Human Rights Watch yet.

A man who formerly worked at the factory claimed the management manipulated workers into continuing to risk their lives by telling them they would inevitably die from lead poisoning. “Whether we quit or kept working we would die, so we were better off just working,” he explained, relaying the message handed down by management.

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Today, children living in the district still suffer fainting spells, seizures, and chronic pain, and water used for drinking and washing has high levels of contamination, according to the film.

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Kenya has made significant strides in adopting renewable energy, promising to generate over half its electricity through solar power by 2016. However, lead-acid batteries play an important role in making solar power storage possible. For this reason, it is unlikely a shift to clean energy will put an end to battery recycling plants and the threats they pose to unprotected workers.

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