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| | Issue Date: August 15, 2008 | 8/20/2008 | | | Cloud Lingers
Decades later, Bhopal still seeks retribution for tragedy; Dow shrugs, points toward now-defunct Union Carbide
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On the grounds of the former Union Carbide Corp. pesticide factory in Bhopal, India, hundreds of tons of toxic chemicals and other pollutants are piled up behind the walls of an old, tin-roofed warehouse. Though the waste is largely hidden from view, the decaying structure serves as a reminder of the December night nearly a quarter-century ago when poison gas seeped from the plant and into the surrounding neighborhoods, killing thousands of Bhopalis as they slept and leaving behind a permanent reminder of the world's worst industrial accident.
The incident took place early in the morning of Dec. 3, 1984, when a tank inside the factory ruptured, spewing some 40 tons of methyl isocyanate gas into the air. The clear, colorless and sharp-smelling chemical quickly spread into the surrounding neighborhoods, killing those who inhaled it as they slept. According to the Indian government, the disaster resulted in the immediate deaths of more than 3,000 Bhopalis, while many doctors and other disaster-response agencies that witnessed the immediate aftermath believe that more than 8,000 people died within the first two weeks of the accident. Revised estimates have put the death toll at more than 100,000 people.
Twenty-four years later, the toxic waste has yet to be removed from the building and the grounds remain a poisonous wasteland. Yet, perhaps even more vexing for Bhopal residents, the government of India and the Madhya Pradesh state government, no one is really sure how polluted the 11-acre site is; both the Madhya Pradesh government, which took control of the property in 1998, and the Indian government have yet to conduct a thorough analysis of the land to determine how much of the pollution has seeped into the soil and groundwater beneath the decaying factory.
(Click on headline for complete article) | | | |  | | | | |
| | Pallab Chatterjee | | |
CEO, i2 Technologies Inc.
Pallab K. Chatterjee is chief executive officer of i2 Technologies Inc., an IT-consulting firm that provides supply change management products and services.
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