No justice for Bhopal survivors.Twenty years TWENTY YEARS. The lapse of twenty years raises a presumption of certain facts, and after such a time, the party against whom the presumption has been raised, will be required to prove a negative to establish his rights. 2. after an Indian Union Carbide Union Carbide Corporation (Union Carbide) is one of the oldest chemical and polymers companies in the United States, and currently has more than 3,800 employees. ant leaked poisonous gas and killed 20,000 people (see "Dumping on India," In Brief, September/October 1996), Bhopal residents continue to drink contaminated contaminated, v 1. made radioactive by the addition of small quantities of radioactive material. 2. made contaminated by adding infective or radiographic materials. 3. an infective surface or object. water, suffer from disease and bear children with birth defects birth defects, abnormalities in physical or mental structure or function that are present at birth. They range from minor to seriously deforming or life-threatening. A major defect of some type occurs in approximately 3% of all births. . The plant is rusting, contaminated with asbestos, PCBs and mercury. Toxic solvents leach into the groundwater and open pesticide bags litter the ground. Union Carbide, now owned by Dow Chemical, settled with the Indian government for $470 million in 1989, and Dow refuses to admit further liability. But the settlement provided little relief to the victims, many of whom live in slums around the plant. "The site is an incredible mess," says Rick Hind, legislative director of Greenpeace's Toxics Campaign. Bhopal survivors are pushing Dow to pay for medical bills and lost wages; a class-action suit is pending in federal court. An accomplished imposter pretending to be "Jude Finesterra," a Dow Chemical spokesperson, was interviewed by the BBC BBC in full British Broadcasting Corp. Publicly financed broadcasting system in Britain. A private company at its founding in 1922, it was replaced by a public corporation under royal charter in 1927. on the anniversary of the leak and proclaimed that the company was "accepting full responsibility for the Bhopal catastrophe." Finesterra added that Dow had prepared a $12 billion fund, effectively wiping out Union Carbide as an entity. He turned out to be Andy Bichlbaum, a member of the Yes Men group. CONTACT: Greenpeace Toxics Campaign, (202)462-1177, www.greenpeace.org. |
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