The impact of an MNC

in: Bhopal, India!

 Introduction…
• More than 20 years after the Union Carbide gas disaster in Bhopal, upwards of
100,000 people in the city are still seriously ill and the drinking water of a further
20,000 has been poisoned by chemicals leaking from the abandoned plant. Union
Carbide and its 100% owner Dow Chemical, refuse to clean their factory.
• A prfulfilalled, the Bhopal Medical Appeal began in Britain as a joint effort of
ordinary individuals to bring free medical relief to the victims of the gas and water
disasters. There are now supporters across the world. At the Sambhavna Clinic in
Bhopal all consultations, treatments, therapies and medicines are completely free.
More than 16,000 people have been treated there and in 2002 the clinic won the
Margaret Mead Award which is given to small groups who make a big difference in
the world.
• In April 2005 a new clinic was opened, still with support of donations to help keep
the clinic running.
 How the disaster
happened?
• 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.
• Regular maintenance had fallen into disrepair
that on the night of December 2nd , when an
employee was flushing a corroded pipe,
multiple stopcocks failed and allowed water to
flow freely into the largest tank of MIC.
• Exposure to this water soon led to an
uncontrolled reaction; the tank was blown out
of its concrete sarcophagus and spewed a
deadly cloud of MIC, hydrogen cyanide, mono
methyl amine and other chemicals that
hugged the ground.
• Blown by the prevailing winds, this cloud
settled over much of Bhopal (shown right).
• Soon thereafter, people began to die.
 Survivors
• memories…
Survivor, Champa Devi Shukla, remembers that "It felt like somebody had filled our bodies up with red chillies, our
eyes tears coming out, noses were watering, we had froth in our mouths. The coughing was so bad that people were
writhing in pain. Some people just got up and ran in whatever they were wearing or even if they were wearing
nothing at all. Somebody was running this way and somebody was running that way, some people were just running
in their underclothes. People were only concerned as to how they would save their lives so they just ran.
• "Those who fell were not picked up by anybody, they just kept falling, and were trampled on by other people. People
climbed and scrambled over each other to save their lives – even cows were running and trying to save their lives
and crushing people as they ran." In those apocalyptic moments no one knew what was happening. People simply
started dying in the most hideous ways. Some vomited uncontrollably, went into convulsions and fell dead. Others
choked to death, drowning in their own body fluids. Many died in the stampedes through narrow gullies where street
lamps burned a dim brown through clouds of gas. The force of the human torrent wrenched children's hands from
their parents' grasp. Families were whirled apart," reported the Bhopal Medical Appeal in 1994.
• "The poison cloud was so dense and searing that people were reduced to near blindness. As they gasped for breath
its effects grew ever more suffocating. The gases burned the tissues of their eyes and lungs and attacked their
nervous systems. People lost control of their bodies. Urine and feces ran down their legs. Women lost their unborn
children as they ran, their wombs spontaneously opening in bloody abortion." According to Rashida Bi, a survivor
who lost five gas-exposed family members to cancers, those who escaped with their lives “ are the unlucky ones;
the lucky ones are those who died on that night.”
 The effects?
• Half a million people were exposed to the gas and
20,000 died 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
continues to poison the residents of Bhopal.
• In 1999, local groundwater and well water 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.
• 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.
 Union Carbide's
•
response?
The Union Carbide factory in Bhopal built the pesticide factory there in the 1970s, thinking that India
represented a huge untapped market for its pest control products.
• But sales never met the company’s expectations; Indian farmers, struggling to cope with droughts and
floods, didn’t have the money to buy Union Carbide’s pesticides. The plant, which never reached its
full capacity, proved to be a losing venture and ceased active production in the early 1980s.
• However vast quantities of dangerous chemicals remained; three tanks continued to hold over 60 tons
of methyl isocyanate (MIC).
• The management’s reasoning seemed to be that since the plant had ceased all production, no threat
remained. Every safety system that had been installed to prevent a leak of MIC (at least six) ultimately
proved inoperative.
 Union Carbide's
charges?
The gas-affected people of Bhopal continue to succumb to
•
injuries sustained during the disaster, dying at the rate of
one each day. Treatment protocols are hampered by the
company's continuing refusal to share information it holds
on the toxic effects of MIC.
• Both Union Carbide and its new owner Dow Chemical
claim the data is a "trade secret," frustrating the efforts of
doctors to treat gas-affected victims. The site itself has
never been cleaned up, and a new generation is being
poisoned by the chemicals that Union Carbide left behind.
• It wasn’t until 1989 that Union Carbide, in a partial
settlement with the Indian government, agreed to pay out
some $470 million in compensation.
• The victims weren’t consulted in the settlement
discussions, and many felt cheated by their compensation
-$300-$500 - or about five years’ worth of medical
expenses.
• Today, those who were awarded compensation are hardly
better off than those who weren’t.
• In 1991, the local government in Bhopal charged Warren
Anderson, Union Carbide’s CEO at the time of the disaster,
with manslaughter. If tried in India and convicted, he
faced a maximum of ten years in prison.
• However Mr. Anderson never stood trial before an Indian court; he instead, evaded an
international arrest warrant and a summons to appear before a US court. For years Mr.
Anderson’s whereabouts were unknown, and it wasn’t until August of 2002 that Green
peace found him, living a life of luxury in the Hamptons.
• Neither the American nor the Indian government seem interested in disturbing him with an
extradition, despite the recent scandals over corporate crime. This is unfortunate: Mr.
Anderson’s decisions didn’t just wipe out retirement plans, they killed people.
• The Union Carbide Corporation itself was charged with culpable homicide, a criminal charge
whose penalty has no upper limit. These charges have never been resolved, as Union
Carbide, like its former CEO, has refused to appear before an Indian court.
• Union Carbide also remains liable for the environmental devastation its operations have
caused. Environmental damages were never addressed in the 1989 settlement, and the
contamination that
• Union Carbide left behind continues to spread. These liabilities became the property of the
Dow Corporation, following its 2001 purchase of Union Carbide.
• The deal was completed much to the chagrin of a number of Dow stockholders, who filed
suit in a desperate attempt to stop it. Dow was quick to pay off an outstanding claim
against Union Carbide soon after it acquired the company, setting aside $2.2 billion to pay
off former Union Carbide asbestos workers in Texas. However, has consistently and
stringently maintained that it isn’t liable for the Bhopal accident.
 Bhopal Medical
Appeal
• The Bhopal Medical Appeal was launched in
1994, when a man from Bhopal came to
Britain to tell whoever would listen about
the calamitous condition of the still
suffering victims of the Union Carbide gas
disaster.
• Those who met him learned that after ten
years, the survivors had received no
meaningful medical help.
• Survivors realised that they must help
themselves, because nobody else would.
They wanted to open their own free clinic
for gas victims.
• They were joined in the UK by a few
individuals who put the mechanics of the
Appeal together. They were in turn joined
in this effort by other like minded people.
The International
Campaign for
Justice in Bhopal
(ICJB)
PAN-UK is a member of the
ICJB, which seeks to obtain
justice for the survivors in
Bhopal, and many of whose
aims have medical significance
- for example, the provision of
proper medical relief, including
for people born since the
disaster who suffer from gas-
and water-poisoning, adequate
compensation for past medical
bills and loss of livelihood, the
clean-up of the factory, which
continues to poison nearby
land and drinking water
supplies.
 Today…
• Victims in Bhopal have been left in the lurch,
told to fend for themselves as corporate
executives elude justice and big corporations
elude the blame.
• Dow’s unwillingness to fulfil its legal and
moral obligations in Bhopal represents only
the latest chapter in this horrifying
humanitarian disaster.
• For twenty years, the victims of Bhopal have
continued to demand justice.
• Achievements of the new clinic (2002)…
Have developed safe, effective and inexpensive
treatment methods for particular symptoms
or symptom complexes.
At Sambhavna they provide free treatment to
the gas victims on the basis of their
symptoms or symptom complexes. Those
coming for medical care can chose to be
treated through allopathy, Ayurveda and
Yoga.
Constant efforts are being made towards
developing treatment protocols for specific
symptom complexes.