I heard a bit of this on BBC radio the other night and thought that it might be fodder for discussion here.

Quote :

"Bhopal survivors fight for justice In Bhopal no-one uses the term "accident" to describe the calamity that took place here in the early hours of 3 December 1984. For "accident" implies blamelessness. And in Bhopal the hunger for justice among those who suffered seems undiminished. Those who survived remember the terrible randomness of it. Eyewitnesses saw a dense cloud of poisonous gas settle on the slum areas that crowded the Union Carbide pesticide plant. As it passed through the dimly lit streets, the direction of the wind determined who lived and who died. Within three days, 8,000 were dead. Thousands more died in the months afterwards. And 500,000 people were exposed to the gas. Many still suffer life-long chronic illnesses. ........ Campaigner Satinath Sarangi says he has ample evidence that the Union Carbide plant is still, after all these years, leaking toxins into the ground water supply on which many people still depend. "We are talking about thousands of tons of waste that was dumped here and covered over. It has never been cleaned up," he says. "Every time it rains it washes toxins into the ground water. We have ample evidence going back many years." Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh Shivraj Chouhan dismisses the claims. In an interview with the BBC to mark the 25th anniversary of the disaster, he told me that the communities around the plant had been supplied with clean drinking water. "It took some time," he said. "But... we can say that we are providing 100% clean water." The Union Carbide plant had also been made safe, he said. Campaigners angrily dismissed his claims. "Even with people who settled here long after the gas," says Satinath Sarangi, "what we find is a very high incidence of diseases: damage to the kidneys, the liver, the brain, the skin. The incidence of birth defects in these areas is at least 10 times what you would find in similar socio-economic populations." In a neighbourhood just north of the Union Carbide plant, we found people drawing groundwater from a pump. We took a sample and had it tested at a laboratory in the United Kingdom. The test found that it contained nearly 4,000 micrograms per litre of carbon tetrachloride - nearly 1,000 times the World Health Organisation's safe limit. "Carbon tet", as it is known, is a highly toxic pollutant which is known to cause cancer and liver damage. In 1989, Union Carbide reached an out-of-court settlement with the government of India. The company agreed to pay $470 million. The Indian government had initially demanded nearly 10 times that. The money built a hospital for those who continued to suffer ill-health. The survivors of the gas got about $1,000 each in compensation. The agreement represented a full and final settlement of Union Carbide's civil and criminal liabilities. "The environmental damage caused by the toxic contamination was never part of that settlement," says Mr Sarangi. "Very little was known about the toxic contamination at the time. Data started coming out in 1990 and 1991 about the high levels of organochlorines, talids, polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons and heavy metals." Sambhavna, the charity Mr Sarangi runs, wants Dow Chemical, the US company that bought Union Carbide, to pay to clean up the ground. In a statement the company said: "The groundwater issue at the Bhopal site is best addressed by the state government of Madhya Pradesh, which owns the site and is responsible for clean-up activities. "Our understanding is that the central and state governments have plans for the site clean-up and we're hopeful they will follow through with their remediation plans, including addressing concerns about groundwater." For Union Carbide the matter is, in a legal sense, closed. For the people of the affected areas, it is far from closed. In 25 years, no-one has been successfully prosecuted, either for the original leak, or for the continuing alleged groundwater contamination. And the shadow of what happened on that toxic night reaches down through the decades, and into the lives of generations who were not even born on what everyone in Bhopal refers to as "the night of the gas"."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8390156.stm

The BBC actually has a tremendous amount of information on the disaster and the current state of Bhopal as well:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/business/2009/bhopal/default.stm

It's an ongoing disaster, but the US and Indian governments have no interest in further prosecution. Many are calling for Dow Chemicals to step in and pay further, though I can't agree with that as they never operated the Bhopal plant, having bought Union Carbide in 1999.

Just a real clusterfuck of a situation from every angle.

12/6/2009 7:20:47 PM

i had never heard of this until I saw this picture set last week.
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/11/25th_anniversary_of_the_bhopal.html

amazing what you can get away with if you have a little bit of money....

12/6/2009 7:31:32 PM

The BBC also has a podcast about this:

http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/worldservice/docarchive/docarchive_20091203-1545b.mp3

Haven't listened to it yet, though.

With regards to Dow--when one company buys another, assets and liabilities are generally both included, including any legal liabilities.

12/6/2009 7:33:39 PM

it's a shame that India decided to just place all the blame on Union Carbide and fail to realize that the vast majority of the fatalities could have been avoided if they had set up zoning districts for residential and industrial use. It was a bunch of local idiots that decided to leave the scrubber tanks empty while the plant was operational, not Americans.

12/6/2009 7:58:33 PM

Well, in reality their exposure to natural carcinogens is so much higher than this RAWR RAWR RAWR.

12/6/2009 8:01:39 PM

Another complication for liability:

Quote :

"Union Carbide sold its Indian subsidiary, which had operated the Bhopal plant, to Eveready Industries India Limited, in 1994."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhopal_disaster

12/6/2009 8:01:45 PM

Quote :

"It was a bunch of local idiots that decided to leave the scrubber tanks empty while the plant was operational, not Americans."

If Bhopal hadn't been wearing such a short skirt, they wouldn't have been asking to get raped.

12/6/2009 8:26:53 PM

Union Carbide Corporation and Union Carbide India Limited are not unreasonable candidates for liability. I wouldn't expect their successors to be unreasonable candidates for liability either. Eveready may also be liable for damages, depending on how the liabilities were divvied up when Union Carbide India was sold.

I'm curious about the corporate relationships--Eveready was at one point owned by Union Carbide.

-----

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhopal_disaster#Settlement_fund_hoax

The Yes Men played Bhopal pretty much the same way they just played the US Chamber of Commerce.

12/6/2009 8:30:58 PM

^^so you're saying that if the workers at a Toyota plant in the U.S. were to accidentally vent cyanide gas into the local community, it would all be Japan's fault and they should pay us for the incompetence of our own citizens?

12/6/2009 8:38:09 PM

It wouldn't be Japan's fault, it would be Toyota's fault.

12/6/2009 8:39:05 PM

lol, my dad used to work for union carbide developing pesticides. The entire AG division was bought by the company Rhone Pulounc after this disaster. I dont think RP bought any liability though as the parent company of Union Carbide was still around.

12/6/2009 9:46:54 PM

Quote :

""It took some time," he [Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh Shivraj Chouhan] said. "But... we can say that we are providing 100% clean water." "

and then

Quote :

"In a neighbourhood just north of the Union Carbide plant, we found people drawing groundwater from a pump. We took a sample and had it tested at a laboratory in the United Kingdom. The test found that it contained nearly 4,000 micrograms per litre of carbon tetrachloride - nearly 1,000 times the World Health Organisation's safe limit. "Carbon tet", as it is known, is a highly toxic pollutant which is known to cause cancer and liver damage. "

The Chief Minister is obviously getting his dick sucked by the right people... that's the main problem with Africa, Asia, and South America.

He should be forced to drink that water... he obviously only drinks imported bottled water in his cushioned house. Fucking bastard

12/7/2009 5:17:49 AM

I have not read up on this exact case, but from my understanding of Indian industrial policy back in the 80s, foreign firms doing business in India were required to do business partnered with a native Indian company. Therefore, while Union Carbide was liable for the disaster, the chain of authority over the equipment in question probably never left India. Even if UC thought safety standards were being sacrificed in the plant, their only means of complaint would have been to either bribe their involuntary partner or abandon the plant and pull out of India all together.

12/7/2009 10:30:03 AM

I found the NPR piece interesting because it focused its wrath on Union Carbide while letting the Indian government off lightly over this incident. Yes, Union Carbide screwed up big, but the Indian government deserves a share of the blame for how they handled the incident, particularly in letting Union Carbide off so lightly (by the article's standards at least) and shutting down any further appeal attempts at the national level. Given how strongly it was shut down by their courts, I don't think there's any chance of the issue being resurrected by their government barring a complete toppling of the Indian government.

So how does the liability work? If the subsidiary that caused the accident was sold to Eveready but the larger mother company, Union Carbide, was purchased by Dow, who is responsible? Both?

12/7/2009 4:45:53 PM

Interesting follow-up:

Quote :

"Indian court finds chemical execs guilty in Bhopal disaster A court in central India ruled Monday that seven top executives and the company they worked for are guilty for their role in the 1984 industrial disaster that killed thousands in Bhopal, India. The leaking of poisonous gas from Union Carbide India Limited -- the now-defunct local subsidiary of the American chemical company -- was one of the world's worst industrial disasters. Plaintiffs had waited more than two decades for the verdict. The convicted former employees have been sentenced to the maximum punishment allowed in the case. The judge imposed a two-year prison term and a fine of about $2,000 each after convicting the men of negligence causing death, endangering public life and causing hurt. Indian industrialist Keshub Mahindra, then head of Union Carbide India Limited, six colleagues and their company were convicted of negligence, said prosecuting attorney C. Sahay. Another company manager charged in connection with the litigation died during the trial, he said. ......."

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/06/07/india.bhopal.verdict/index.html

6/20/2010 4:15:46 PM

Quote :

"8,000 dead"

Quote :

"a two-year prison term and a fine of about $2,000"

6/20/2010 4:32:20 PM

Actually:

Quote :

"It is estimated that 20,000 have died since the accident from gas-related diseases. Another 100,000 to 200,000 people are estimated to have permanent injuries"

It is truly terrible, and the worst industrial accident ever.

The statistics are horrifying.... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhopal_disaster

Even now thousands of children are being born with mental and physical retardation/abnormalities.

6/20/2010 6:23:42 PM