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Decades Later, Toxic Sludge Torments Bhopal

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LaStrega Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jul-11-08 08:21 PM
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Decades Later, Toxic Sludge Torments Bhopal
After the 1984 gas leak in Bhopol, Union Carbide offered a statement claiming deliberate sabotage. Then they "worked to develop and globally implement Responsible Care®."

A lot of good that did.

From the New York Times

BHOPAL, India — Hundreds of tons of waste still languish inside a tin-roofed warehouse in a corner of the old grounds of the Union Carbide pesticide factory here, nearly a quarter-century after a poison gas leak killed thousands and turned this ancient city into a notorious symbol of industrial disaster.

The toxic remains have yet to be carted away. No one has examined to what extent, over more than two decades, they have seeped into the soil and water, except in desultory checks by a state environmental agency, which turned up pesticide residues in the neighborhood wells far exceeding permissible levels.

Nor has anyone bothered to address the concerns of those who have drunk that water and tended kitchen gardens on this soil and who now present a wide range of ailments, including cleft palates and mental retardation, among their children as evidence of a second generation of Bhopal victims, though it is impossible to say with any certainty what is the source of the afflictions.

Why it has taken so long to deal with the disaster is an epic tale of the ineffectiveness and seeming apathy of India’s bureaucracy and of the government’s failure to make the factory owners do anything about the mess they left. But the question of who will pay for the cleanup of the 11-acre site has assumed new urgency in a country that today is increasingly keen to attract foreign investment.

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MisterP Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jul-11-08 08:50 PM
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1. flash capital strikes again in its neolib comprador governments!
"It showed that one arm of the government, the Chemicals and Petrochemicals Ministry, entrusted with the cleanup of the site, has wanted Dow to put down a $25 million deposit toward the cost of remediation, while other senior officials warned that forcing Dow’s hand could endanger future investments in the country."
This is just like when the Thai authorities refused to sound a tsunami alert so the tourism industry and $$$ wouldn't be endangered.
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madrchsod Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jul-11-08 08:52 PM
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2.  bhopal films.........
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LaStrega Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jul-11-08 09:10 PM
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3. Heart wrenching! I nearly couldn't watch, but I'm glad you shared. n/t
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