Bhopal and the Age of Globalization

Bhopal and the Age of Globalization

By Gary Cohen

November 1999

Fifteen years ago, on December 3, 1984, Union Carbide Corporation's pesticide factory accidentally leaked poisonous gases into the city of Bhopal, India. In one night of chemical terror over three thousand residents were killed and hundreds of thousands of others were injured, many of them permanently. Bhopal has been called the "Hiroshima of the Chemical Industry", the worst commercial industrial disaster in history.

In the last fifteen years since the chemical accident, there have been few positive changes in Bhopal. Union Carbide's pesticide factory remains abandoned and contaminated, leaking toxic chemicals into the nearby slum. Despite an extradition order pending since March, 1992, the Indian government, which issued the extradition order, has made no moves to bring former Union Carbide CEO Warren Anderson to trial. Instead, the government is courting chemical companies to expand their manufacturing capacity in India, as well as allowing them to introduce genetically engineered crops to replace traditional farming practices.

For Union Carbide and the Indian government, the Bhopal incident was a public relations fiasco that is finally fading from the public's memory. With the recent merger of Union Carbide and Dow Chemical, even the name of Union Carbide will soon disappear.

For the survivors of the Bhopal disaster, the toxic nightmare has continued unabated: At least sixteen thousand people have died so far from injuries related to their toxic chemical exposure fifteen years ago. 550,000 people have injury claims before the compensation courts set up in Bhopal. Of the claims processed so far, 90% of the claimants have received only $400 for their personal injuries, which is barely enough to cover medications for five years. Unfortunately, the courts do not understand the long term health impacts related to peoples' toxic exposure. People are suffering from significant immune system...