The Dow Chemical sponsorship of London 2012 tarnishes the Olympic ideal, and insults the memory of the tens of thousands of victims of the 1984 Bhopal disaster, argues Dick Skellington.
The news that the 2012 London Olympics will be sponsored by Dow Chemical, has caused consternation in India. There have been calls to the Indian Olympic Association to boycott the games. Dow Chemical is the company that bought the infamous Union Carbide Corporation (UCC), responsible for one of the worst environmental disasters of modern times when up to 10,000 people died at the corporation's Bhopal plant in India during December 1984. Fifteen thousand more victims are estimated to have perished since.
As part of the sponsorship Dow Chemical will produce a £7m decorative wrap to cover the external facade of the Olympic Stadium. Both London Organising Olympic Committee (LOC) chief, Sebastian Coe and London Mayor Boris Johnson have enthusiastically welcomed Dow, calling the deal the 'icing on the cake', but campaigners seeking justice for Bhopal gas victims are up in arms. Amnesty International has questioned whether the deal, which gives Dow Chemical 'exclusive marketing rights' to the main Olympic Stadium, complies with London's 2012 ethical code.
There is nothing past tense about the situation in Bhopal. Living around the former Union Carbide factory site are some of the poorest people in the city, who for the past 27 years have been slowly poisoned by contaminated groundwater which they use for drinking, cooking and bathing.
Dow continue to maintain that they can not be held responsible for what happened at Bhopal before they took over UCC. But this stance has caused uproar in India, and a spokesman for the International Campaign for Justice In Bhopal described it as 'offensive'. He said: 'This crass attempt by Dow to detoxify their brand won't wash with the thousands of victims of the Bhopal disaster, nor ordinary Londoners."
What happened in Bhopal
Early in the morning of 3 December 3 1984, forty tonnes of a toxin called methyl isocyanate (MIC) leaked from the Union Carbide pesticide factory and settled over the slums in Bhopal, killing thousands as they slept. Survivors’ leader Champa Devi Shukla explained ‘The pain was unbearable. We were writhing, coughing and slobbering froth. People just got up and ran in whatever clothes they were wearing. Some were in their underclothes, others wore nothing at all. It was complete panic. Among the crowd of people, dogs and even cows were running and trying to save their lives and crushing people as they ran.’
In the stampedes through narrow alleys many were trampled to death. Some went into convulsions and dropped dead. Most, struggling to breathe as the gas ripped their lungs apart, drowned in their own body fluids.
In the years since, more people have died of their injuries and illnesses. In some places the dead were so many that it was impossible to walk without stepping on them. The hospitals were full of the dying. Doctors did not know how to treat them because they did not know which gas or gases had leaked, and Union Carbide would not release the information, claiming it was a ‘trade secret’.
Toxic legacy
The problem for Dow is that many of the issues in Bhopal remain unresolved, long after the disaster people are still dying, and thousands still suffer from related health problems. The site of the former pesticide plant, now abandoned, is still polluted by poison.
In June 2010, after years of protracted legal action against UCC, a court in Bhopal sentenced eight former plant employees, all Indians, to two years each in jail over the gas plant leak. The convictions were the first since the disaster. Campaigners said the court verdict was ‘too little and too late’.
Union Carbide and the Dow Chemical Company still refuse to publish the results of studies into the effects of MIC. UCC paid £300 in compensation to each survivor, money that is meant to last the rest of their lives.
Over the years the survivors have received little medical help. In 1994 the Indian government, eager to put the gas leak behind it, shut down all research studies into the effects of the gas, just as new epidemics of cancers, diabetes, eye defects and crippling menstrual disorders were beginning to appear.
Abandoned by all who had a duty of care, the survivors launched the Bhopal Medical Appeal and set up the Sambhavna Clinic which offers survivors free treatment.
Still poisoning
A private Union Carbide memo, obtained via a US court case, reveals that as far back as 1989 the company had tested soil and water inside the factory. Fish introduced to the samples died instantly. The danger to drinking water supplies was obvious, but Union Carbide issued no warnings. Its bosses in India and the USA watched silently as families already ruined by the gases drank and bathed their children in poisoned water.
The situation did not improve after the state government took possession of the site in 1998. The following year, when Greenpeace was testing soil and water around the factory, it found carbon tetrachloride in one of the hand pumps at levels 682 times higher than the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) limit. In August 2009, a sample of water from the same hand pump was analysed by a Greenpeace laboratory in the UK. Carbon tetrachloride was found at 4,880 times the EPA limit. In the last decade, the water has become seven times more poisonous. The Indian government has filed a fresh demand for $1.1 billion in compensation from Dow, but Dow continues to deny responsibility for the legacy of the disaster.
The Bhopal disaster is continuing. Scores of children are born with unimaginable congenital defects: no eyes, fused fingers, physical and mental retardation and virtual catatonia are all commonplace. Entire families suffer chronic ill-health and the incidence of various cancers and reproductive problems are far higher than in other parts of India. The factory and its poisons remain in the heart of Bhopal. Union Carbide and Dow have not faced justice.
The problem for the LOC is that this single act of sponsorship risks damages the Olympic ideal. Should we not respect humanity more than we respect profit? It is time that Dow Chemical cleaned up Bhopal, and that the LOC looked at its own ethics, and approached Dow seeking a withdrawal of the controversial sponsorship. If they did, there is no doubt that other bidders would come in with the lost £7m.
There is a Facebook campaign seeking a review of the sponsorship decision.
Dick Skellington 28 November 2011
Cartoon by Catherine Pain
