A recent amendment to Honduras’ General Environmental Law will allow imports of toxic waste from car batteries. This law had prohibited importing any toxic waste that causes harm or pollution, but has now been modified to state that “the import, manufacture and/or recycling of new or used sealed lead/acid batteries is not prohibited.”
The measure was introduced by congressional representative Leonor Osorio (National Party), who posted messages on social networks declaring that all the controversy after the amendment was passed was nothing but “a malicious misinterpretation by representatives from opposition parties.” Osorio contends that the country is not opening up to an inflow of toxic waste, only lead batteries. The representative says that the intent is to foster a battery recycling industry that also generates employment.
Life for Hondurans could deteriorate as a result of this decision, as happened once before. A report by Honduras’ Center for Pollution Research and Control (Centro de Estudios y Control de Contaminantes – CESCCO) states that four factories used to operate in the Tegucigalpa metropolitan area, but were closed down in 2004 due to legal, labor, environmental, and social pressures. The same report states that between 1969 and 1976, five major fish kills were reported in Lake Yojoa, one of the highest recorded rates of its type. Tests of the dead fish determined that the cause of death was acute poisoning from heavy metals that contaminated the area, including lead.
Representative Dennis Castro Bobadilla (Patriotic Alliance Party) issued a statement saying that “this type of law doesn’t get passed without some ulterior motive behind it… someone with a specific interest, a representative who has or represents some financial interest.” Bobadilla points out that the adverse effects of the Record Batteries factory located in La Libertad, El Salvador on public health and the local environment were so significant that an environmental emergency was declared in the area.
Despite its widespread use, lead is extremely dangerous to health because of its neurotoxicity. It can accumulate in and affect various systems (nervous, hematological, gastrointestinal, cardiovascular and renal) of the body, and can have even more harmful effects on children. Companies that recycle batteries release lead emissions into the air, and careless handling of the lead can expose humans to its harmful effects, as well as contaminate the land and water sources around these companies.
Representative Osorio promises that a certification process for these battery recycling companies will ensure that there are no harmful effects. “If the batteries are recycled by certified companies, there will be no damage to anyone’s health − not the employees, nor the general public.” However, for environmental analyst Pedro Landa, this law “will condemn the country to become a toxic dump, resulting in a permanent pandemic worse than the one we are experiencing now around the world.” He added that the country didn’t have the political will to help the people in Siria Valley affected by the pollution caused by the Minerales Entre Mares de Honduras mining company, even when the Office of the Environmental Prosecutor certified the health damages.
ECOJURIS, a Honduran environmental consulting company (Consultoría Especializada en Legislación y Gestión Ambiental) collected more than 4,000 signatures on a petition addressed to the National Congress, warning that the amended law can be misinterpreted to also allow imports of damaged batteries. The petition further warned that the amended law “can also be interpreted to allow imports of products or wastes classified as hazardous in the Basel Convention if there is notification of their transboundary movement, which is carte blanche for importing not just batteries, but any type of waste.'
