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Knowing No Boundaries

In the middle of the night on Dec. 2, 1984, 40 tons of various lethal gases began spewing from Union Carbide Corporation’s pesticide factory in Bhopal, India. Instead of an attempted evacuation of the surrounding area, people were made aware of the disaster when they awoke in their beds with their eyes searing and the gases filling their mouths and lungs. What ensued in the following hours was complete chaos. By dawn, the streets of Bhopal were littered with corpses. Over half a million people were exposed to the deadly leak. According to www.bhopal.net: “The gases burned the tissues of the eyes and lungs, crossed into the bloodstream and damaged almost every system in the body. The number of deaths to date is close to 20,000. And today more than 120,000 people are still in need of urgent medical attention.”

Afterwards, it was discovered that the gas leak was related to a cost-cutting drive by the Union Carbide Corporation, including cutting personnel numbers, lowering minimum training from six months to 15 days and the cutting down of vital safety measures. When the gas leak occurred, the safety siren did not sound because it had been turned off. To top it off, Union Carbide fought having to pay victims and insisted the gases were not as toxic as others said. At the end of the day, the disaster ended up costing Union Carbide only 48 cents a share. Last year, Dow Chemical — a Michigan-based company — acquired Union Carbide, despite warnings about the responsibilities in Bhopal.

While the disaster happened nearly 20 years ago, what I find most heartening is that today, multinational corporations are being attacked by multinational activists. While activists in India have been working on this issue for years, the actions of a Texas fisherwoman have brought a lot of attention to Dow. After completing a 29-day hunger strike, 52-year old Diane Wilson scaled a 70 foot tower and chained herself to the ethylene oxide unit of the Dow Chemical factory in her hometown of Seadrift, Tx.

When asked why she is so driven to join in this struggle, Wilson said: “The pain of up to 150,000 Bhopalis who continue to bear Dow/Union Carbide’s toxic legacy in their bodies, is the world’s pain and justice’s unfinished business. These toxins … know no boundaries, species, race or religion. So why should I?”

— Neela Banerjee