Lest we forget: 'A Cloud Still Hangs Over Bhopal'

[heyheybooboo]

A Cloud Still Hangs Over Bhopal

This is the 25th anniversary of the Bhopal gas disaster, an epic mess that started one night when a pesticide plant owned by the American chemical giant Union Carbide leaked a cloud of poisonous gas. Before the sun rose, almost 4,000 human beings capable of love and anguish sank to their knees and did not get up. Half a million more fell ill, many with severely damaged lungs and eyes.

An additional 15,000 people have since died from the aftereffects, and 10 to 30 people are said to die every month from exposure to the hundreds of tons of toxic waste left over in the former factory. But amazingly, the site still has not been cleaned up, because Dow Chemical, which since acquired Union Carbide, refuses to accept any responsibility...

In 2001 ... Dow Chemical bought Union Carbide for $11.6 billion and promptly distanced itself from the disaster.

Union Carbide and Dow were allowed to get away with it because of the international legal structures that protect multinationals from liability. Union Carbide sold its Indian subsidiary and pulled out of India ...

The Indian government, fearful of scaring away foreign investors, has not pushed the issue with American authorities.

Dow has used a kind of blackmail with the Indians; a 2006 letter from Andrew Liveris, the chief executive, to India’s ambassador to the United States asked for guarantees that Dow would not be held liable for the cleanup, and thanked him for his “efforts to ensure that we have the appropriate investment climate.”

Just wanted to post this up since most of you guys weren't around back then.

I believe to this day Union Carbide still claims sabotage but the over-whelming body of evidence pretty much calls 'bullshit' on that claim.


:thumbsdown:

 

[Toastedlightly]

This was talked about in one of my courses (as a ChemE, this strikes close to home). I believe the failure happened due to a water contamination in one of the synthesis steps or something. The reaction got out of hand and the pressure was relieved to prevent an explosion of the reacting vessel. Unfortunately, the vented gases were pesticides which killed thousands.

It is still very ugly that it has not been cleaned up and that official responsibillity did not properly fall. However, I feel that blaming Dow Chemical for it is rather misplaced, it being that Union Carbide had not been blamed for it before Dow's aquisition.

 

[heyheybooboo]

... Dow Chemical bought Union Carbide for $11.6 billion ...

When one purchases a company the liabilities come along with the assets.

Additionally, my understanding of current US law is that the 'principles' of previous ownership may now be found liable for the clean up costs associated with environmental disasaters.

On the surface this may seem appropriate --- except the assets of those former principles are now long gone and/or safely hidden away, under a shield of corporate protection, or secret off-shore accounts.

In our age of globalization the rule of law must adapt (as noted in the article) "... international legal structures that protect multinationals from liability."




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[StageLeft]

I am an ignorant douche. I had not ever heard of this.

 

[werepossum]

Man, how could you not have heard of this? (Unless you're very young.) This is one of - probably THE - worst accidental man-made disasters ever. Only Chernobyl comes to mind in the same rank.

Funny though that this article makes only the slightest concession that it was an Indian company (owned by Union Carbide, true) operated by Indian scientists and technicians in accordance with Indian environmental and occupational safety laws at the time. This isn't some hell-hole, it's one of the most populated, best educated, smartest nations in the world. I've no problem with Union Carbide (and now Dow) being held responsible according to Indian law at the time, but the raw wealth envy and hatred displayed in this article is troubling.

 

[CycloWizard]

When one purchases a company the liabilities come along with the assets.

Additionally, my understanding of current US law is that the 'principles' of previous ownership may now be found liable for the clean up costs associated with environmental disasaters.

Since it didn't occur in the US, what US law says about the situation is pretty irrelevant. I agree that international law should address such matters, and probably does to some extent.

 

[CycloWizard]

Man, how could you not have heard of this? (Unless you're very young.) This is one of - probably THE - worst accidental man-made disasters ever. Only Chernobyl comes to mind in the same rank.

Funny though that this article makes only the slightest concession that it was an Indian company (owned by Union Carbide, true) operated by Indian scientists and technicians in accordance with Indian environmental and occupational safety laws at the time. This isn't some hell-hole, it's one of the most populated, best educated, smartest nations in the world. I've no problem with Union Carbide (and now Dow) being held responsible according to Indian law at the time, but the raw wealth envy and hatred displayed in this article is troubling.

India is an environmental hell-hole. Its environmental and safety regulations, particularly for the chemical industry, are almost non-existent. Many specialty chemicals are manufactured there now because it is so much less expensive to produce them there than anywhere else save China: costs are diminished by huge amounts when one can simply vent potentially toxic, environmentally hazardous materials directly into the atmosphere rather than going through the struggle of removing and neutralizing them.

 

[Robor]

Man, how could you not have heard of this? (Unless you're very young.) This is one of - probably THE - worst accidental man-made disasters ever. Only Chernobyl comes to mind in the same rank.

Funny though that this article makes only the slightest concession that it was an Indian company (owned by Union Carbide, true) operated by Indian scientists and technicians in accordance with Indian environmental and occupational safety laws at the time. This isn't some hell-hole, it's one of the most populated, best educated, smartest nations in the world. I've no problem with Union Carbide (and now Dow) being held responsible according to Indian law at the time, but the raw wealth envy and hatred displayed in this article is troubling.

WTF? Where did you get wealth envy? What I read was outrage that the company committed such a horrible act and did so little about it.

 

[dahunan]

If the US would stop letting US companies go into other countries and use their LACK OF laws to destroy their environment and abuse the laborers then maybe we would be a little more liked?

 

[rudder]

Man, how could you not have heard of this? (Unless you're very young.) This is one of - probably THE - worst accidental man-made disasters ever. Only Chernobyl comes to mind in the same rank.

Well if you are 35 years old now... you were 10 when this happened and probably did not watch the news or read the paper. No internet forums back then.

 

[Moonbeam]

The recent Bhopal news, aside from an anniversary, is about the hope of extracting more money, in my opinion

 

[heyheybooboo]

Since it didn't occur in the US, what US law says about the situation is pretty irrelevant. I agree that international law should address such matters, and probably does to some extent.

I agree US law (only to the extent that it apply where applicable to UC as an international subsidiary) --- sorry I didn't make that clear.

I tried to cite a 'general position' of current US law and how it may possibly be extended internationally --- and what problems that might go along with it.

 

[Jaskalas]

Man, how could you not have heard of this? (Unless you're very young.) This is one of - probably THE - worst accidental man-made disasters ever. Only Chernobyl comes to mind in the same rank.

I had never before heard of this.

 

[monovillage]

For those that never heard of this environmental catastrophe, one of the worst, if not the worst example of piss poor safeguards being taken of hazardous manufacturing products in history. You probably also didn't hear this. " Q - Who has killed more Indians than John Wayne? ......................... A - Union Carbide."

 

[Rainsford]

If the US would stop letting US companies go into other countries and use their LACK OF laws to destroy their environment and abuse the laborers then maybe we would be a little more liked?

I think a much bigger portion of the blame belongs with the dirtbag politicians in those countries who refuse to protect their citizens.

 

[werepossum]

WTF? Where did you get wealth envy? What I read was outrage that the company committed such a horrible act and did so little about it.

That would be this.
"Warren Anderson, the Union Carbide chief executive at the time of the gas leak, lives in luxurious exile in the Hamptons, even though there’s an international arrest warrant out for him for culpable homicide." See any mention of the relative luxury of the Indian members of management?

It's also problematic to me that Anderson (American CEO of Union Carbide) was arrested upon arriving in Bhopal on December 7th after being guaranteed save passage, yet Mr. Y. P. Gokhale (Indian managing director of Union Carbide's Indian operations subsidiary) was not arrested. Evidently a four-day investigation was sufficient to determine that a "criminal conspiracy" resulting in mass homicide existed all the way up to the parent company's CEO - yet skipped the native management altogether. The Indian government (also half owners) were also completely innocent. Only the white guy half the world away caused the disaster. Or could it be they made a big show of arresting the top paleface to avoid a riot, then quietly released him? Ever wonder why the Indian government never pushed his arrest and extradition?

The claims of sabotage were pretty funny though. From what I remember of stories back in the day, you could have sneezed in that plant and compromised the safety of half a dozen operations. The original contractors and suppliers had been corrupt or incompetent (or both), the operators were untrained and largely untrainable, the maintenance people worse, the whole plant never made a profit even with dirt cheap labor and had been more or less falling apart since it was built. It should have been closed years before the disaster.

This was extensively detailed in engineering and industrial plant magazines of the day - not to mention environmental groups' newsletters. At one time I could have quoted quite a few specifics of the plant's defects in design, maintenance and operation. Suffice it to say that plant was a time bomb, and that it still operated (at a loss) had more to do with the Indian government's desires than Union Carbide's. That disaster should never have happened, but to say Warren Anderson is responsible (or at least more than Gokhale or the Bhopal and Indian governments) is foolish.

Rudder - you're right, I should say 35 is only fairly young, not very young LOL. But if you read many environmental or engineering or industrial publications, this disaster is referenced pretty often, at least in passing.

 

[ElFenix]

When one purchases a company the liabilities come along with the assets.

only if they buy it that way. they don't have to.