The Bhopal Legacy

Nearly 20 years ago, on the night of December 2nd - 3rd 1984, 27 tons of lethal gases leaked from Union Carbide Corporation's pesticide factory in Bhopal, India. It was the worst chemical disaster in history. Methyl isocyanate, hydrogen cyanide and other toxic gases escaped from a tank during routine maintenance operations. With safety systems either malfunctioning or turned off, an area of 40 square kilometers, with a resident population of over half a million, was soon covered with a dense cloud of MIC gas. People woke in their homes to fits of coughing, their lungs filling with fluid. In the span of the first three days after the accident, over 8,000 people died in Bhopal, mainly from cardiac and respiratory arrest.
That night was only the start of a tragedy that is still unfolding.

The chilling statistics of a continuing tragedy.

· More than 8,000 people killed due to exposure to the lethal gasses in the immediate aftermath of the disaster

· More than 500,000 people exposed to the poison gasses left to suffer a lifetime of ill health and mental trauma

· The death toll has since risen to more than 20,000 people

· Nearly 30 people continue to die from exposure-related illnesses every month

· At least 1,50,000 people, including children born to gas-exposed parents, suffer debilitating exposure-related health effects

· Tons of poisonous pesticides and other hazardous wastes lying scattered and abandoned in the DOW-Carbide factory premises, insidiously poisoning the ground water and contaminating the land

The Absconding Criminals - Union Carbide and Dow Chemicals

Union Carbide's response to the disaster was to accept 'moral responsibility' - a legally meaningless term - on the one hand, whilst pursuing liability-evasion-at-any-cost on the other. Officials described what had already claimed thousands of lives as 'nothing worse than tear gas'. Toxicological data potentially crucial to local physicians was held back as they claimed it to be a 'trade secret'. Carbide began to distance itself from 'an Indian managed company', eventually blaming employee sabotage.

As a result, the disaster has done little to affect Union Carbide. In Feb 1989, after forcing a paltry compensation settlement -- $470 million as opposed to $3 billion demanded by the Government of India - Union Carbide's share price jumped 44 cents and they went back to business as usual. According to Carbide's Annual Report it was their best financial year ever. Nearly 95 percent of the survivors have received $500 (Rs. 25,000) for lifelong injury and loss of livelihood. That works out to less than 9 US cents a day - only enough for a cup of tea every day - for nearly 20 years of unimaginable suffering.

In February 2001, the U.S. multinational Dow Chemical Company acquired Union Carbide despite being warned by Bhopal survivors of Carbide's pending liabilities in India. When asked about what Dow will do to address it's responsibilities to Bhopal, Dow public affairs person, Jon Musser said "I wouldn't speculate on that because it won't ever happen." In fact, Dow Chemical's PR official, Ms. Kathy Hunt, maintains that "$500 [in compensation] is plenty good for an Indian."

Union Carbide Corporation (UCC) and Warren Anderson, the then CEO of UCC have been charged with culpable homicide or manslaughter and have been proclaimed absconders by the CJM's court, Bhopal, in 1992, after failing repeatedly to honor the summons of the court. Now that Dow Chemicals has taken over Union Carbide, it falls upon them to ensure that Union Carbide is produced before the court.

The Toxic Legacy of Union Carbide, now Dow Chemicals.

In 1999, Greenpeace and Bhopal community groups visited the abandoned factory to assess the environmental condition of the site and its surroundings. The team documented the presence of stockpiles of toxic pesticides as well as hazardous wastes and contaminated material scattered throughout the factory site. The survey found substantial and, in some locations, severe contamination of land and water supplies with heavy metals and chlorinated chemicals.

From the Greenpeace samples, groundwater from wells around the site showed high levels of chlorinated chemicals including chloroform and carbon tetrachloride, indicative of long-term contamination. Additionally, lead, nickel, copper, chromium, hexachlorocyclohexane and chlorobenzenes were found in soil samples. Overall contamination of the site and immediate surroundings was due to both routine spills and accidents during the operation of the factory and continued releases of chemicals from the toxic wastes that remain on site.

Many of the people, who continue to live in the vicinity of the factory, including survivors of the deadly gas leak, are left with no alternative but to use groundwater contaminated with toxic pollutants. The fight for clean water has been going on since 1990. Even the local government testing reported heavy contamination, stating that many wells were unfit for drinking in 1996. Clean drinking water has not been provided to the people living in the vicinity of the factory till date - 8 years since the local government's own report!