Foreword
The products and byproducts of the Inorganic Chemical Industry , besides adding to more effective medicines, bettertextile, increased fertiliser and food production, has also raised concern because of their adverse health and ecological impacts when wastes from production proces;ses are discharged in the environment.

The International Pr9gramme on Chemical Safety and the International Register of Potentially Toxic Chemicals (IRPTC) of UNEP have identified about 350 chemicals of international significance. The Central Pollution Control Board as a first step has taken up the work of development of the Minimal National Standards (MINAS) for the industries manufacturing selected 42 inorganic chemicals. As these industries are ranging from large to very small units and use a variety of raw materials and process of manufacture, it is not practicable to evolve common MINAS applicable to all

inorganic chemicals manufacturing industries. Due to these limitations, it is decided to evolve MINAS for this category of industry part by part. .- In the first part of this series M INAS for selected eighteen chemical compounds of the eight heavy metals VIZ chromium, manganese, nickel, copper, zinc, cadmium, mercury and lead are covered. The comprehensive document for the Inorganic Chemical Industry has been prepared by M/s Environmental Engineering Consultant, Bombay 400021, which formed the basjs for the preparation of this MINA?

It is my hope that the document will be useful to the industry, regulatory agencies, consultants and other interested in pollution control.