Marilao

Location:

Bulacan, Philippines

Region:

Southeast Asia,

Pollutants:

Lead

Source:

Smelting

Transmission:

water

Potentially affected people:

102,000

The problem

Marilao is a small town located in the province of Bulacan, Philippines. The largest lead battery recycler in the country, the Philippine Recyclers Inc (PRI), has a smelting plant here, and a vast cottage industry of unregulated lead recycling has sprung up on the plant's outskirts.

Health Impact

In adults, lead poisoning can cause irritability, poor muscle coordination, nerve damage, higher blood pressure, and problems with hearing and seeing. Reproductive difficulties (low sperm counts) and disturbed pregnancies might also develop. In children, lead poisoning can cause brain damage and retardation, anemia, liver and kidney damage, hearing loss, hyperactivity, and even death.

Current Activity

In 1997, PRI began working with the International Lead Management Center, an international industry group focused on reducing lead exposure, on a pilot program to improve its domestic recycling efforts. The company launched a scrap battery recovery program that is helping to divert some of the informal recyclers in the area into a more organized infrastructure of battery collection. However, if Greenpeace's 2003 report is correct, PRI should be encouraged to tighten its procedure for storing lead waste.