Ethics Newsline®

“Had the toxic waste been cleaned up, the contaminated groundwater would not have happened. Dow was the first crime. The second crime was government negligence.”

– Dr. Mira Shiva, speaking to the New York Times in an article chronicling the groundwater contamination — and severe birth defects — near Bhopal, India, where a pesticide plant owned by U.S.-based Union Carbide released 40 tons of poisonous gas into the air in 1984. That dawn-time disaster killed more than 3,000 people immediately and an estimated 8,000 people within two weeks.

The site has never been cleaned up and is suspected of contaminating the local groundwater, crippling children and poisoning residents in the process.

Michigan-based Dow Chemical bought Union Carbide seven years after the accident, paid the Indian government $470 million to compensate residents, and maintains that it has no responsibility to clean up the contaminated land. “As there was never any ownership, there is no responsibility and no liability — for the Bhopal tragedy or its aftermath,” Dow spokesman Scot Wheeler told the Times. The paper reports that Wheeler “went on to say that Dow could not finance remediation efforts, even if it wanted to, because it could potentially open up the company to further liabilities.”

The article notes that the Indian government expended the original settlement to compensate victims, and now lacks the funds to clean up the site. It fears that pursuing Dow aggressively would harm its chances to attract foreign investment, reports the Times.

Source: New York Times, July 7.

For more information, see: Related Newsline story, July 26, 2004 — Related Newsline story, Mar. 24, 2003 — Related Newsline story, Sep. 9, 2002.