Bhopal Disaster

obmar · Bhopal Disaster

Bhopal Disaster (person)
(all of Bhopal Disaster, there are 2 more in this node)
(person) by jitsumonkey (1 hr) (print) ? Thu Mar 20 2008 at 22:54:28

Bhopal, 3/12/1984. A Dow Chemicals India plant spills 40 tons of methyl iso-cyanate spill into the air1 Many people die (estimates range from the conservative 3,000 from the Indian Supreme Court to 15,000 dead in one month by doctors who treated victims) Dow refuses to accept responsibility.

The Independent (Britain) puts the numbers at 7,000 dead in minutes and 20,000 dead from medical issues folllowing the disaster.

Methyl iso-cyanate is an iso-cyanate (MIC) (a compound where cyanide is joined through the nitrogen rather rather than the carbon as is usual) and is extremely dangerous. The release of 43 tonnes of MIC into Bhopal caused the death of at least 3,000 people in those first few nights.

Dow claims that the 'accident' was a result of employee sabotage rather than corporate negligence; since which they have escaped relatively pain free despite refusing to name or charge the 'employee' "responsible" for the water leak into the MIC tank which they claim caused the disaster

"The plant's alarm system - mwhich could have given some last minute-warning - failed to go off for a number of hours - bbc.co.uk3

From Dow's Web Page:

Responsibility Begins Here

"Sustainability begins at home, but its destiny is to engage the problems of the world. We will build on our company's rich legacy of leadership in solving the world's most pressing problems with a spirit of fearless accountability, not just for our own footprint on the planet, but the collective footprint we make as part of the human family." --Andrew Liveris, Chairman & CEO, The Dow Chemical Company

2 decades after they have refused to help rebuild the sufferers' of Bhopal they have the nerve to come out with this bullshit? How much lower can they stoop? They've spent over 20 years running away from their problems and now they claim that they want to help? BOLLOCKS!

for further reading:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhopal_disaster

http://www.bhopal.org/

http://professorkim.blogspot.com/...05/seeking-justice-in-bhopal.html

http://youtube.com/watch?v=SlUQ2sUti8o unfortunately, this interview was not with a Dow spokesperson. It did knock a lot off their share price though. For more infor search for the 'yes men'

http://www.dowethics.com/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2007/sep/05/comment.india

for the defence:

http://www.dow.com/

I may have missed things out. Sorry, if I have please message me. Likewise, if you have anything else to add to this writeup please message me. Sorry there isn't more detail but I can't look at this stuff without crying and vowing to never do anything as fucked-up as bhopal (I' m a chemist)