Presentation on Bhopal Gas Tragedy

2.  On December 3rd, 1984, thousands of people in
Bhopal, India, were gassed to death after a
catastrophic chemical leak at a Union Carbide
pesticide plant. More than 150,000 people were
left severely disabled - of whom 23,000 have since
died of their injuries - in a disaster now widely
acknowledged as the world’s worst-ever industrial
disaster.
 More than 27 tons of methyl and other deadly
gases turned Bhopal into a gas chamber. None of
the six safety systems at the plant were
functional, and Union Carbide’s own documents
prove the company designed the plant with
“unproven” and “untested” technology, and
cut corners on safety and maintenance in order to
save money.

4.  Today, twenty years after the Bhopal disaster, at
least 50,000 people are too sick to work for a living,
and a
recent study in the Journal of the American Medical As
confirmed that the children of gas-affected parents
are themselves afflicted by Carbide’s poison.
 Carbide is still killing in Bhopal. The chemicals
that Carbide abandoned in and around their
Bhopal factory have contaminated the drinking
water of 20,000 people. Testing published in a
2002 report revealed poisons such as 1,3,5
trichloro benzene, dichloromethane, chloroform,
lead and mercury in the breast milk of nursing
women living near the factory.

5. Some survivors of the
Bhopal Gas Tragedy

6.  Bhopal is not only a disaster, but a
corporate crime. It began as a
classic instance of corporate
double-standards: Union Carbide
was obliged to install state-of-the-
art technology in Bhopal, but
instead used inferior and unproven
technology and employed lax
operating procedures and
maintenance and safety standards
compared to those used in its US
'sister-plant'.

7.  Although Dow Chemical acquired Carbide’s liabilities
when it purchased the company in 2001 , it still
refuses to address its liabilities in Bhopal - or even
admit that they exist. Till date, Dow-Carbide has
refused to:
1) Clean up the site, which continues to;
3) Provide alternate livelihood opportunities to
victims who can not pursue their uncontaminate
those near it, or to provide just compensation for
those who have been injured or made ill by this
poison;
2) Fund medical care, health monitoring and
necessary research studies, or even to provide all
the information it has on the leaked gases and their
medical consequenceal trade because of their

9.  There was no siren and no warning--people woke with the
gases already in their faces, filling their mouths, noses and
lungs with excruciating pain.
 NONE of safety systems were functioning on the night of the
disaster—six in all.
 Union Carbide and its new owner, Dow Chemical, continue
to blame the disaster on a fictitious and unnamed worker,
and deny their own negligence.
 In the wake of the disaster, Carbide claimed that the gas
was harmless, when it knew it was lethal (as described in
its own manuals).
 Dow-Carbide refuses to share all its medical information
about the health effects of the gas it released, MIC--
information that doctors could use to save lives--claiming
the information is a “trade secret”.
 Union Carbide fled India and abandoned its Bhopal plant,
leaving thousands of tons of dangerous chemicals behind,
which are now poisoning the water of the same people
Carbide first poisoned 20 years ago. As more people grow
sick, Dow-Carbide still refuses to clean up its pollution in
Bhopal.

10.  Set up a National Commission on Bhopal with the
participation of non-government doctors and scientists and
representatives of survivors for long term health monitoring,
research, care and rehabilitation of the survivors of the
disaster and their children at least for the next thirty years.
 Ensure Dow’s liability for on-site and off-site cleanup and
payment of compensation for damage to health and property.
Submit an amicus brief in US court in support of the
plaintiffs.
 Set up a panel of scientists for independent and expert
assessment of soil and groundwater contamination. Publish
ICMR(indian council of medical research) toxicological and
clinical reports.
 Blacklist Dow and Union Carbide for purchases by
government departments.
 Ensure that BMHT(bhopal memorial hospital trust) continues
to provide free treatment for gas survivors even after the 8-
year deadline.
 Declare December 3rd as a National Day of Mourning for the
victims of industrial disasters. The disaster in Bhopal must
be made part of textbooks in school and university education
in the country.

11.  Supply safe drinking water through Koler Pipeline
in communities affected by Union Carbide’s
contamination.
 Not send chemical wastes from the Union Carbide
factory for land filling or for incineration.
 Ensure free treatment of patients from
communities affected by ground water
contamination.
 Not build a memorial without proper cleanup of
the Union Carbide factory site.
 Present a White Paper on expenditures made,
programs carried out and results obtained in the
last twenty years with regard to the relief and
rehabilitation of the survivors.

13. Group: Karan Kamboj ,
and Hitesh Arora