Activist scales Dow factory in Texas; drops banner saying “Dow -- Responsible for Bhopal”

Monday August 26th 2002
Seadrift, Texas


Activist scales Dow factory in Texas; drops banner saying “Dow -- Responsible for Bhopal”

Early this morning, on the eve of the Earth Summit in Johannesburg, around 05.45 am Central Time, Diane Wilson, a fourth generation fisherwoman turned environmentalist, scaled a 70 feet tower and chained herself in the ethylene oxide unit of the Dow Chemical factory on TX 185 in her hometown Seadrift, a fishing town with a population of 1092, just off the Gulf Coast on the San Antonio Bay in Texas.

Before chaining herself to the tower, 52-year-old Ms.Wilson hung a 12-foot banner from the top of the tower stating ‘DOW - RESPONSIBLE FOR BHOPAL’.

Ms.Wilson also made the following statement on her mobile phone from the top of the tower. "The Government of India, in a bid to protect Dow's money and reputation and also not to set a "bad example" for potential foreign investment in India, has offered to clean up soil and groundwater contaminated with toxins that have been leaking from Carbide's abandoned pesticide factory (Union Carbide is now wholly owned by Dow Chemical) in Bhopal, using the $280 million remaining in the Bhopal Gas Affected survivors' compensation funds.

By allowing this, and not paying for clean up themselves, Dow is in effect robbing survivors of their compensation money. If a similar thing happened in the US, it would have been a public outrage. Not only would the site be declared a Superfund, but also Dow would have been forced to pay billions of dollars for clean up and damages. So Dirty Dow is not only a robber of the poor and sick but also an operator of double standards. Where is the conscience of this company? Does it even exist?"

In February 2001, Midland, Michigan-based Dow Chemical acquired Union Carbide despite warnings by environment and human rights activists about Union Carbide’s unresolved liabilities in Bhopal, India.

"Even after 18 years, almost 30 people still die every month as a result of long-term effects of the exposure in 1984. Dow has a moral, legal responsibility to fully rehabilitate the Bhopal survivors. Instead of settling its liabilities, the company has sent its President William Stavropoulos to Johannesburg to talk sustainable development. Utter hogwash! The company must think we’re stupid enough to forgive and forget the world’s worst corporate crime, and let Dow-Carbide off the hook. "

Earlier this month, Ms. Wilson went on a hunger strike outside the same Dow facility in solidarity with the Bhopal victims’ struggle for justice and their protest against the Indian Central Bureau of Investigation’s motion to dilute "culpable homicide" charges to "criminal negligence" against the then CEO of
Union Carbide Warren Anderson. Reduction of charges would make Anderson’s crime a non-extraditable offence. The motion will be heard in the Bhopal Judicial Magistrate’s Court on August 27th. Survivors have opposed the Indian Government’s application saying that the “Government has betrayed the Bhopalis by succumbing to US pressure. In seeking to dilute criminal charges against Anderson, the Government has reduced the world’s worst industrial disaster to the legal status of a car accident.” Tomorrow, Bhopal activists and their supporters will protest Dow’s presence at the Johannesburg Earth Summit.

Warren Anderson had been declared an absconder by the Indian Supreme Court in April 1991 when he jumped bail and subsequently refused to appear in the Bhopal Magistrate’s Court where he and other Carbide officials face criminal charges for their role in the 1984 Bhopal Gas Disaster when as a result of double standards in design and maintenance, 27 tons of a deadly cocktail of toxic gases leaked from its pesticide factory killing 8,000 people in its immediate aftermath and almost 20,000 people to date. In the absence of
medical information withheld by Union Carbide on the pretext of "trade secret", between 1,20,000 and 1,50,000 survivors continue to suffer multi-systemic illnesses from long-term effects of toxic exposure, ranging from severe respiratory problems to gynecological irregularities, cancer and birth defects.

When Ms.Wilson ended her fast after 29 days, on the 15th of August 2002, the 55th anniversary of the Independence Day of India, over 700 people had already joined the worldwide hunger strike. That number is now well over 1000 (details on http://www.bhopal.net). Despite more than 2 months of continuous international protest, Dow Chemical has refused to relent. To add insult to injury, a Dow-Carbide spokesperson Kathy Hunt declares that “$500 is plenty good for an Indian,” referring to the meager compensation amount that survivors of the disaster got.

At a rally organised on the 15th in Seadrift by volunteers of the Campaign for Justice in Bhopal and the Unreasonable Women for Earth, and attended by locals, media, Green Party Candidate for Governor of Texas, Rahul Mahajan and members of PACE - the Texas City Union, Ms.Wilson reiterated in her letter to Michael Parker, current CEO of Dow Chemical, that she will not end her fight against Dow until the company accepts its criminal liabilities in Bhopal and also signs a Zero Discharge Agreement for the more than 5.6 million gallons of wastewater a day that is discharged into San Antonio Bay.

Ms.Wilson also declared results of the first ever citizen initiative to test air samples near Seadrift. "According to Bucket Brigade officials who helped us obtain air buckets to collect samples which we then sent off for analyses, there were 18 different partially formed chemicals. It’s like a “toxic soup” out here. For most of these chemicals, there are no safe level figures available. They haven't even been studied....which means we are all guinea pigs here."

Indian and American supporters from Bhopal and all over United States joined Ms.Wilson, in presenting brooms to Dow officials with the message that they must clean up their mess.

When asked why she felt so passionately driven to join the Bhopal peoples struggle for justice, Ms. Wilson said, “The pain of up to l,50,000 Bhopalis who continue to bear Dow/Union Carbide's toxic legacy in their bodies, is the world's pain and justice's unfinished business. The pain of a mother in Bhopal, whose breast milk is poisoned with Dow’s toxins, is my pain. The pain of 18 yr. old Shabnam* who has never had a period in her life, is my pain. The pain of 27 yr. old childless Mira* who has already reached menopause, is my pain. These toxins once released into the environment, travel thousands of miles killing everything in their way. They know no boundaries, species, age, race or religion. So why should I?”

Incidentally, the ethylene oxide tower to which Ms.Wilson is currently chained, was implemented in a l991 explosion that killed 1 worker, injured 34 others, including 6 citizens after the plant had been declared the
safest one in the state by the Texas Chemical Council. Shrapnel the size of cars flew into the countryside. Oceanic Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), a federal agency that monitors federal workers’ safety, leaked a document to Ms.Wilson revealing that for 20 years Carbide/Dow’s own audits warned them that this was an accident that could cause serious worker injury and death. The company ignored these warnings just as it ignored its own safety inspectors in a May 1982 report about the Bhopal facility that stated "a total of 61 hazards, 30 of them major and 11 in the dangerous Phosgene/Methyl Isocyanate units." And just as the MIC tank in Bhopal was filled with 42 tons of MIC, more than twice the safe level and therefore a virtual time bomb, this ethylene oxide unit is equivalent to 56 tons of TNT.

Explaining Union Carbide Corporation’s knowledge and direct role in causing the Bhopal disaster, she said, “In violation of Carbide’s own safety regulations, to save less than $50 a day, CEO Warren Anderson and his officials not only stored lethal amounts of MIC (Methyl Isocyanate) on one site but also shut down the crucial refrigeration unit that is mandatory for storing the deadly gas at zero degree Celsius. In all, five basic safety systems were either shut down, malfunctioning or under repair, and trained maintenance staff was fist cut in half and then replaced by untrained personnel. As compensation, Union Carbide paid on an average around $500 for lifelong injury and about $1250 to families of the dead. That is only 37.5% of what the Indian government itself pays its citizens in similar situations. Compare that to the US $ 10,000,000 settlement paid in an out of court settlement to an American child injured by Dursban, a pesticide manufactured by Dow.”

When asked how long she planned to continue her action, "I refuse to go away until justice is done. Dow bought Union Carbide, lock, stock and all its stinking barrels. So it cannot choose to take Carbide’s assets and its products and its profits while refusing to take its criminal liabilities. Thousands of Indian lives have been sacrificed to feed Dow/Union Carbide's insatiable “bottom line.” As an American, I refuse to let an American multinational corporation get away with such grossly irresponsible, racist and criminal behaviour," said Ms.Wilson as she awaits her imminent arrest by the County Sheriff.

* Names changed to protect identities.
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Issued on behalf of Diane Wilson by volunteers of the Campaign for Justice in Bhopal
Diane Wilson can be reached on her mobile phone at +1 361 676 0663.

Bhopal survivors and activists at Johannesburg can be reached on Amit Shrivastava’s mobile +27 72477 2267.

For latest updates on Ms.Wilson’s direct action, more information on the Bhopal Gas Disaster and its aftermath, scientific reports and footage of contamination in Bhopal and India, please call G Krishnaveni at +1 832 444 1731 or email at kinnu [at] subvertisement.org or visit http://www.bhopal.net, http://www.corpwatch.org, http://www.greenpeace.org

If you would like to add your voice to Diane Wilson’s action please call the Dow Chemical Company at 1 800 232 2436 and tell them to
1) Accept their criminal liability for Bhopal and
2) Clean up their toxic mess in Bhopal.