DOW CALLS FOR PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

national | miscellaneous | news report

Monday March 10, 2003 11:05

by AL

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

As historic court hearing approaches, the only
site with the real
story remains
http://www.dowethics.com/bhopal.com/

This Wednesday, Dow will ask to sue 200 women
survivors of the worst
industrial accident in history for a US$10,000
"loss of work" fee.

Last December 2, these survivors of the 1984
Bhopal catastrophe--for
which Union Carbide, later acquired by Dow, was
responsible--deployed
themselves outside Dow's Bombay headquarters for
a two-hour protest.
As a result, one very important Dow employee
exited the building and
spent several minutes of valuable work time in
conversation.

During those minutes, the protesting women
complained to the employee
that the Bhopal accident site, which has never
been cleaned up,
continues to leak mercury, lead and other
chemicals into the
groundwater. The women noted that over the years,
15,000 Bhopal
residents have died from such secondary effects
of the accident, in
addition to the 5,000 people who died on the
spot, and that one Bhopal
resident still dies every day from gas-exposure
related diseases. The
survivors asked the employee why Dow, which
settled Union Carbide's
asbestos liabilities in the U.S., refuses to
settle its liabilities
for Bhopal in India.

The Dow employee, Finance Director Anand Vohra,
promised the women
that he would personally recommend "that action
should be taken to
alleviate the plight of gas-affected people in
Bhopal"--words that led
to cheering, clapping, and deep sighs of relief
from the women.

"We're very gratified that we can make people
feel better," said Dow
spokeswoman Corvelle Saranex. "But Dow is a
business, and we can't
work for free. Otherwise we would be vulnerable
to a 'grapevine'
effect, with countless other groups demanding
euphoria too. Our
executives would become full-time evangelist
cheerleaders."

That is why Dow, valuing the survivors' feelings
of relief and
euphoria at US$50 per person, will ask to sue
them for US$10,000 all
told in a Bombay courtroom this Wednesday, March
12
(http://www.dowethics.com/bhopal.com/).

Although charging for services rendered is just
sound business sense,
some special-interest groups are reporting the
lawsuit more cynically.
One enemy website
(http://www.bhopal.net/archive/december2002.html)
calls it a "stroke of PR genius," while another
(http://www.greenpeace.org/news/details?item_id=95486&campaign_id=3941)
says it is "stunning."

Only Bhopal.com
(http://www.dowethics.com/bhopal.com/) maintains a
level head under fire, presenting Dow's full side
of the story with
sobriety, fairness, and modesty. It is therefore
incumbent on every
right-thinking civilian to visit
http://www.dowethics.com/bhopal.com/
immediately and repeatedly, and to spend as much
time there as
possible this week.

Dow Chemical is a chemical products and services
company which deploys
a wide range of chemicals to a wide range of
customers. Its solutions
for the agriculture, defense, oil, and gas
industries include
well-known products like Styrofoam, DDT, and
Agent Orange, as well as
lesser-known brands like Quash, Evidence,
Prevail, Dowicide,
Eliminator, Papi, and Woodstalk. For more on the
Bhopal calamity,
please visit Dow at
http://www.dowethics.com/bhopal.com/, or download
those pages at
http://www.thing.net/~rdom/ecd/bhopal.com.zip.