Spreading the light to Bhopal...
"Twenty years on, people in Bhopal are still suffering because
DOW Chemical refuses to take responsibility for their welfare or
for the toxic waste that is still poisoning their land and water
(2). Thousands around the world are remembering Bhopal and what its
stands for today - the danger of the chemical age, double standards
and lack of accountability of multi-national corporations," said
Vinuta Gopal,
Greenpeace campaigner in Bhopal.
Greenpeace activists in fifteen countries, and seven Indian
cities, including Bhopal, will hold candlelight vigils and form
human chains. In Switzerland, they will deliver an exact replica of
the memorial statue in Bhopal to the DOW European headquarters in
Zurich. Photo exhibitions showing people impacted by the poisoned
gas and the contamination of the site are being held in Belgium,
France, Australia, India, Slovakia and China, among others.
"In an increasingly globalised world, there is a need for
corporations like DOW to use consistent standards around the world
and take responsibility for their operations. If this disaster had
happened in Europe or the US, the site would have been cleaned and
the people fully compensated. We demand that DOW takes full
responsibility for the horrendous disaster in Bhopal", Gerd
Leipold, Greenpeace International Executive Director will say at a
seminar on Bhopal and corporate accountability in Brussels on
December 3rd.
Greenpeace and International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal
(ICJB) (3) are demanding that DOW, the multinational chemical
leader, pays for the health treatment of the survivors, cleans up
the large stockpiles of dangerous poisons left behind at the
factory site since the disaster and cleans up the contaminated
underground water. They are also calling for international
corporate accountability legislation to make sure disasters like
Bhopal never happen again.
For more information please contact:
Vinuta Gopal, Greenpeace India campaigner in Bhopal, + 91 98
45535418
Zeina Al-Hajj, Greenpeace International campaigner, + 31 6 531
28904
Cecilia Goin, Greenpeace International media officer, +31 6 212
96908
For photos, Laura Lombardi: +31 6 46 16 20 09; for video, Hester
van
Meurs: + 31 6 29 00 11 35
(1). On the night of December 2-3rd 1984, forty tons of lethal
gases leaked from a pesticide factory in Bhopal, owned by Union
Carbide, now DOW Chemicals. The disaster has killed up to 20,000
people and left at least 150,000 chronically ill to date. Survivors
and their children continue to suffer long-term health effects
ranging from cancer and tuberculosis to birth defects and chronic
fevers. (2). A further 20,000 people remain at risk of being
poisoned by toxic waste that has been abandoned at the site since
the disaster. The toxic chemicals include carbon tetrachloride and
other persistent organic pollutants and heavy metals such as
mercury, according to the scientific findings of Greenpeace in
1999, 2002 and 2004. (3). http://www.bhopal.net