Future Now
The IFTF Blog
A political brouhaha in the making: Chinese workers sickened for cleaner energy in the West
The Times of London recently had an excellent article that will make you feel horrible every time you use a compact fluorescent lightbulbs to save energy--and that also suggests an emerging cultural flashpoint around which the Chinese public could organize in the coming years. "'Green' lightbulbs poison workers", by Michael Sheridan, describes a surge in Chinese mercury mining and manufacturing of the bulbs, which contain small amounts of mercury, following an EU directive to ban incandescent lightbulbs by 2012. To meet the growing demand, old Chinese mercury mines are being re-opened, factory workers are getting sick, and people are beginning to take notice:
In one case, Foshan city officials intervened to order medical tests on
workers at the Nanhai Feiyang lighting factory after receiving a petition
alleging dangerous conditions, according to a report in the Nanfang Daily newspaper. The tests found 68 out of 72 workers were so badly poisoned they required hospitalisation.
A specialist medical journal, published by the health ministry, describes
another compact fluorescent lightbulb factory in Jinzhou, in central China, where 121 out of 123 employees had excessive mercury levels. One man’s level was 150 times the accepted standard.
Note: petitions, media reports in the daily newspapers. Chinese workers have the sympathy of the public and the media. Environmental injustice on a global scale, where Western manufacturers and governments export toxic practices in order to save the environment at home, is just the kind of issue that will resonate with Chinese resentment about double standards. This could dovetail with global sustainable labor activists like Greenpeace, who try to hold companies accountable for their labor practices in China.