Saturday, June 20, 2009
Twenty-five years after one of the world’s worst chemical accidents, the city of Bhopal is still struggling to get the American corporate owners of the plant that spilled deadly fumes to clean up the mess left behind. A delegation from India, including two teenaged survivors of the disaster, has gained the backing of 27 members of Congress to call upon Dow Chemical to clean up the abandoned site where the pesticides factory once stood. Leftover toxic matter is continuing to adversely affect the local community through contaminated drinking supplies.
On December 3, 1984, the plant—then owned by Union Carbide—leaked cyanide gas into surrounding Bhopal neighborhoods, killing more than 3,500 people instantly and at least 8,000 people in the first week. Another 15,000 died later from complications stemming from exposure to cyanide, and all together, an estimated 200,000 were affected by the accident. Warren Anderson, chairman of Union Carbide at the time of the spill, fled India and returned to the United States, refusing to face criminal charges.
Dow purchased Union Carbide in 2001, but has refused to accept liability for the Bhopal disaster. Corporate officials insist the matter was resolved years ago, when Union Carbide paid the Indian government $470 million to be distributed among survivors. That amount was considerably less than the $3 billion sought by Indian officials, and it amounted to only $350 per survivor.
Dow purchased Union Carbide in 2001, but has refused to accept liability for the Bhopal disaster. Corporate officials insist the matter was resolved years ago, when Union Carbide paid the Indian government $470 million to be distributed among survivors. That amount was considerably less than the $3 billion sought by Indian officials, and it amounted to only $350 per survivor.
Among the congressmen who have pledged their support to help India recover monies from Dow is Henry Waxman (D-CA), chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, who led the congressional subcommittee investigation into the Bhopal disaster back in 1984. Waxman told the Indian delegation he would conduct new hearings and summon Dow officials to testify.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Air, Water, Earth and the Sins of the Powerful (Tehelka Magazine)
International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal
Bhopal Information Center (Union Carbide)
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