bhopal

What happened in Bhopal?

Last edited 7 November 2001 at 9:00am
Bhopal

Bhopal

20,000 dead. 150,000 survivors chronically ill. Communities still drinking contaminated groundwater 18 years later - because Dow has not yet cleaned up the dangerous chemicals Union Carbide left behind....

Between 1977 and 1984, Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL), located within a crowded working class neighbourhood in Bhopal, was licensed by the Madhya Pradesh Government to manufacture phosgene, monomethylamine (MMA), methylisocyanate (MIC) and the pesticide carbaryl, also known as Sevin.

Article tagged as: bhopal, chemicals, india, toxics, union carbide

Lever, clean up, don't cover up

Last edited 12 March 2001 at 9:00am
12 March, 2001
unilever mercury dumpMumbai/Chennai, 09 March, 2001

Palni Hills Conservation Council, United Citizens Council of Kodaikanal, Greenpeace and New Delhi-based Toxics Link have dismissed as an "insensitive PR exercise" Hindustan Lever's official response of temporarily suspending production at their polluting mercury thermometer factory in Kodaikanal. The groups were responding to HLL's attempt to "cover up" their environmental crime by saying that there was a "remote chance" that mercury-containing broken thermometers may have left the factory and attributing it to a possible "human error."

Article tagged as: bhopal, chemicals, hindustan lever, india, kodiakanal, press releases, toxics, unilever

Bhopal accident 15 years on: site still contaminated

Last edited 29 November 1999 at 9:00am
29 November, 1999

Bhopal: Local villagers

Mumbai/Amsterdam - The site around the former Union Carbide factory in Bhopal, India - where one of the world's worst industrial disasters took place 15 years ago - is still highly contaminated by toxic chemicals, according to a report published today by Greenpeace. 

In its report entitled "The Bhopal Legacy," Greenpeace highlights that the factory site is still extensively contaminated by toxic chemicals such as mercury and hazardous organochlorines. Some of the organochlorines found in groundwater supplying the neighbouring communities of gas victims are known to have been used at the plant during its routine operations. The levels of mercury found in a sample taken in conjunction with local Bhopal support groups in May 1999 from a location within the factory, were between 20,000 and 6 million times higher than background levels which would be expected in uncontaminated soils. Mercury is highly toxic to the central nervous system.

Article tagged as: bhopal, press releases