ICEH Papers

IMPACT OF FOUNDRY UNITS ON COIMBATORE ENVIRONMENT


Palanivel, M., T.Elayaraja, D.Ganeshmoorthy, N.Jagadeeswaran, and K.Kalaiselvi “Impact Of Foundry Units On Coimbatore Environment” in Martin J. Bunch, V. Madha Suresh and T. Vasantha Kumaran, eds., Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Environment and Health, Chennai, India, 15-17 December, 2003. Chennai: Department of Geography, University of Madras and Faculty of Environmental Studies, York University. Pages 322 – 327.

Abstract:

Industrialization and urbanization are the two sources of chemical agents which cause environmental degradation. Industrialization has rapidly developed, which plays both a beneficial and harmful role in the environment. Coimbatore is a major industrial city in Tamilnadu. There are about 450 foundries, 300 motor manufacturing units, 200 wet grinder manufacturing units, about 300 brick clines and 210 textile dyeing and bleaching units in operation. In Coimbatore, as in other Indian cities, there is no separate zone for industrial/commercial activities. Therefore, some industries are located in residential areas. Urbanization, industrialization and associated increases in automobile vehicular activities result in severe pollution problems, which is a major health concern. Hence the study was undertaken to estimate the pollutants released from the foundries and its contribution on the Coimbatore environment.

About 17 foundries were selected randomly and studied for various polluting parameters by adopting CPCB methods. The result of this study showed that there is no wastewater from the process of the unit, the ambient and stack analysis results of SO2 NOx, SPM are under the limits as per the CPCB. The released SO2 depends on the quality of the raw materials and coke. Most of the solid waste is reused, and only slag is the solid waste, which is non-hazardous. Even though all the air pollutant released from foundries are within the limits, the industrial location and increase in number of industries year by year in Coimbatore may be adding up to the load of impact on human health. Hence the study concludes that there should be a separate zone for the industrial sector.

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