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Dow Chemical
Dow Addresses Bhopal
Outwage, Explains Position |
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December 3, 2002
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
mailto:press@dow-chemical.com
DOW ADDRESSES BHOPAL OUTRAGE,
EXPLAINS POSITION
Company responds to activist concerns with
concrete action points
In response to growing public outrage
over its handling of the Bhopal
disaster's legacy, Dow Chemical
(http://www.dow-chemical.com) has
issued a statement explaining
why it is unable to more actively
address the problem.
"We
are being portrayed as a heartless giant which doesn't care
about
the 20,000 lives lost due to Bhopal over the years," said
Dow
President and CEO Michael D. Parker. "But this just isn't
true. Many
individuals within Dow feel tremendous sorrow about
the Bhopal
disaster, and many individuals within Dow would like
the corporation
to admit its responsibility, so that the public
can then decide on the
best course of action, as is appropriate
in any democracy.
"Unfortunately, we have responsibilities to
our shareholders and our
industry colleagues that make action on
Bhopal impossible. And being
clear about this has been a very big
step."
On December 3, 1984, Union Carbide--now part of
Dow--accidentally
killed 5,000 residents of Bhopal, India, when
its pesticide plant
sprung a leak. It abandoned the plant without
cleaning it up, and
since then, an estimated 15,000 more people
have died from
complications, most resulting from chemicals
released into the
groundwater.
Although legal
investigations have consistently pinpointed Union
Carbide as
culprit, both Union Carbide and Dow have had to publicly
deny
these findings. After the accident, Union Carbide
compensated
victims' families between US$300 and US$500 per
victim.
"We understand the anger and hurt," said Dow
Spokesperson Bob Questra.
"But Dow does not and cannot
acknowledge responsibility. If we did,
not only would we be
required to expend many billions of dollars on
cleanup and
compensation--much worse, the public could then point to
Dow as a
precedent in other big cases. 'They took responsibility;
why
can't you?' Amoco, BP, Shell, and Exxon all have ongoing
problems that
would just get much worse. We are unable to set
this precedent for
ourselves and the industry, much as we would
like to see the issue
resolved in a humane and satisfying
way."
Shareholders reacted to the Dow statement with
enthusiasm. "I'm happy
that Dow is being clear about its aims,"
said Panaline Boneril, who
owns 10,000 shares, "because Bhopal is
a recurrent problem that's
clogging our value chain and
ultimately keeping the share price from
expressing its full
potential. Although a real solution is not
immediately possible
because of Dow's commitments to the larger
industry issues, there
is new hope in management's exceptional new
clarity on the
matter."
"It's a slow process," said Questra. "We must learn
bit by bit to meet
this challenge head-on. For now, this means
acknowledging that much as
it pains us, our prime
responsibilities are to the people who own Dow
shares, and to the
industry as a whole. We simply cannot do anything
at this moment
for the people of
Bhopal."
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