The multinational
Hindustan Lever Ltd.
(HLL) is facing the
music from its employees for allegedly, issuing boots containing
carcinogenic materials.
In a legal notice served
in January this year,
employees of the
Bombay unit of HLL
demanded Rs 9 lakh as
compensation to all
workers who developed serious skin problems after using gumboots and sandals provided by, the management every year before the monsoon.
Last year, when employees complained of a foul smell from
the boots, the factory doctor recommended washing the boots with
detergent powder. The petitioners
claim the boots were smelling of
nitrobenzoyl, a highly carcinogenic chemical.
Alarmed when they developed
blisters on soles and peeling skin,
about 40 affected workers rushed to
the department of dermatology at
Sion Hospital in Bombay. The head
of the department, H R Jerajani, stated in his report that the workers had
full-blown contact dermatitis due to
the boots they were wearing.
According to another senior doctor
at the hospital, the workers had
a high risk of contracting skin cancer
if they had continued to use the boots.
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