News that some folk in Cirencester are planning to visit Bhopal in India is a good excuse to publicise the online petition to Dow which I signed some time ago:www.studentsforbhopal.org/Petition/bhopal.php
For those unfamiliar with this tragic and hugely unjust case do please visit the various websites for more info like here and here. Here is a summary from the Bhopal Medical Appeal:
On the night of Dec. 2nd and 3rd, 1984, a Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India, began leaking 27 tons of the deadly gas methyl isocyanate. None of the six safety systems designed to contain such a leak were operational, allowing the gas to spread throughout the city of Bhopal. Half a million people were exposed to the gas and 20,000 have died to date as a result of their exposure. More than 120,000 people still suffer from ailments caused by the accident and the subsequent pollution at the plant site. These ailments include blindness, extreme difficulty in breathing, and gynecological disorders. The site has never been properly cleaned up and it continues to poison the residents of Bhopal. In 1999, local groundwater and wellwater testing near the site of the accident revealed mercury at levels between 20,000 and 6 million times those expected. Cancer and brain-damage- and birth-defect-causing chemicals were found in the water; trichloroethene, a chemical that has been shown to impair fetal development, was found at levels 50 times higher than EPA safety limits.Testing published in a 2002 report revealed poisons such as 1,3,5 trichlorobenzene, dichloromethane, chloroform, lead and mercury in the breast milk of nursing women. In 2001, Michigan-based chemical corporation Dow Chemical purchased Union Carbide, thereby acquiring its assets and liabilities. However Dow Chemical has steadfastly refused to clean up the site, provide safe drinking water, compensate the victims, or disclose the composition of the gas leak, information that doctors could use to properly treat the victims.
The good news is that a new generation is throwing Dow's plan for wholesale expansion in India into utter disarray. In the wake of its social ostracism from four out of seven Indian Institute's of Technology (IITs), Dow had its sponsorship of an international conference chucked back in its face by IIT, Delhi just before Christmas, just a day before the event was due to start. This is important as Dow's global strategy for the next few decades is being seriously challenged. Let us hope the visit from Cirencester will remind people of this on-going injustice.
"Bhopal isn't only about charred lungs, poisoned kidneys and deformed foetuses. It's also about corporate crime, multinational skullduggery, injustice, dirty deals, medical malpractice, corruption, callousness and contempt for the poor. Nothing else explains why the victims' average compensation was just $500 - for a lifetime of misery . . . Yet the victims haven't given up. Their struggle for justice and dignity is one of the most valiant anywhere. They have unbelievable energy and hope . . . the fight has not ended. It won't, so long as our collective conscience stirs."
Outlook India 7 Oct 2002
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