PANJIM: Nearly 100 chemical manufacturing and pharmaceutical units in the State will be monitored by Goa State Pollution Control Board (GSPCB) to ascertain their consumption of arsenic-bearing raw material or discharge of arsenic in effluents, leading to ground water pollution and health hazards.
The decision comes following directives issued by Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), which has asked its State units to undertake study of arsenic analysis in effluents. The Inter-Ministerial Group (IMG) of the Union Ministry for Environment and Forests (MoEF), had directed that such studies be conducted across the country.
“The IMG in its meeting held on July 13, decided to carry out analysis of arsenic in effluents of all industrial units consuming arsenic-bearing raw material or discharging arsenic in the effluents,” the letter by CPCB Nazim Uddin reads.
When contacted, GSPCB chairman Jose Manuel Noronha said that arsenic could be found in industrial units manufacturing fertilizers, pesticides, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, etc. In Goa there are nearly 100 such units.
“As per the Board observation, in Goa, no industries use arsenic as a raw material. It has been substituted by other less polluting raw material,” Noronha said.
He added that since there were directions to submit a compliance report on the study it would be conducted. “The report will be ready by December,” he said.
Arsenic toxicity leads to ground water contamination and has a severe impact on human health, and could result into lung disease.
