[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 121 (Thursday, September 30, 2004)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1746-E1747]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           BHOPAL RESOLUTION

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. FRANK PALLONE, JR.

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                     Wednesday, September 29, 2004

  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I introduced a resolution today in 
recognition of the 20th anniversary of the Union Carbide Corporation 
gas leak that took place in Bhopal, India, in December 2004. This 1984 
Bhopal Gas Leak Disaster is widely regarded as the worst peacetime 
environmental catastrophe in world history, and this important 
resolution expresses the commitment of the United States Congress to 
work with the Government of India and others to ensure that Union 
Carbide provides environmental and medical rehabilitation in Bhopal and 
is held responsible for its actions.
  On the night of December 2, 1984, 27 tons of poisonous gas including 
methyl isocyanate leaked from a storage tank at the Union Carbide 
Corporation's pesticide plant in Bhopal and quickly spread to the 
surrounding residential areas. Official estimates indicate a death toll 
of 3,000 lives in the aftermath of the disaster, with unofficial 
estimates putting the toll much higher at 8,000. To date, the death 
toll has climbed to more than 20,000 lives.
  Although it is now 20 years since the disaster, approximately 10-30 
people continue to die every month in Bhopal from toxic exposure and 
150,000 people continue to suffer long-term health consequences from 
the disaster. The effects of the toxic gases also appear to be harming 
the next generation, as more overwhelming evidence is surfacing that 
points to higher incidence of health effects and birth-defects among 
children born to gas-affected people.
  A host of international organizations and independent investigators 
have concluded that Union Carbide's inadequate technology, double 
standards in safety and emergency-preparedness compounded by a reckless 
cost-cutting drive at the plant were the principal causes of the 
disaster. Based on these investigations and other evidence, the 
authorities in India brought criminal charges against Union Carbide, 
its Indian subsidiary as well as local managers in 1987 for criminal 
negligence and reckless indifference leading to death.
  In 1989, Union Carbide negotiated a settlement of $470 million with 
the Indian government that was based on inaccurate statistics about the 
scale and magnitude of the disaster in addition to being widely 
condemned by the media and responsible jurists in India as 
insufficient, even when compared to compensation awards provided for 
under Indian law. The Supreme Court of India in its judicial review of 
the settlement in October 1991 held that the criminal charges could not 
be overturned or dismissed based on the civil settlement and directed 
that the criminal prosecution against Union Carbide and the Indian 
accused must proceed in the courts of India.
  When Union Carbide was served with a summons in the criminal case by 
the Bhopal District Court in 1992, and a notice to appear for trial was 
published in the Washington Post, Union Carbide's spokesmen responded 
with a public statement that the company was not subject to the 
jurisdiction of India's courts in disregard of universally accepted 
international law regarding criminal jurisdiction acknowledged by both 
the United States and India. Based on its refusal to appear to face 
criminal charges against it, the Bhopal District Court issued non-
bailable arrest warrants for Union Carbide, ordered that its remaining 
properties in India be attached to secure its appearance and declared 
that the company was a ``proclaimed absconder'' or fugitive from 
justice.

  Union Carbide has recently become a wholly-owned subsidiary of The 
Dow Chemical Corporation, which made the decision to acquire the 
company with full knowledge, according to its own public statements, of 
the criminal charges pending against it and Union Carbide's status as 
an absconder or fugitive from justice. Despite repeated public requests 
and protests around the world, Dow Chemical has refused to make its new 
subsidiary appear before the Bhopal District Court to face the criminal 
charges pending against it for the disaster.
  Like Union Carbide before it, Dow Chemical has, to date, continued to 
refuse to release all scientific research on the leaked gas, claiming 
that this information constitutes a commercial ``trade secret''. Like 
Union Carbide before it, Dow Chemical has also continued to refuse to 
release all of its own medical research on the toxicology of the leaked 
chemicals and gases to date. The lack of information on the gas has not 
only hindered the study of the long-

[[Page E1747]]

term health and medical effects of exposure, but has left doctors with 
few options besides symptomatic treatment of the hundreds of thousands 
of gas-affected individuals and children. The devastating health 
effects of the gas, the birth defects of their children and inability 
to work because of illness have forced many Bhopali families in 
desperate need of medical help into insurmountable debt.
  Since 1999, at least three independent environmental surveys, 
including one conducted by state authorities in India, have shown that 
the former Union Carbide plant has badly polluted the soil and 
groundwater aquifer beneath it resulting in severe contamination of the 
drinking water supply of as many as 20,000 people living in residential 
colonies near the plant. One study found the presence of a large number 
of highly toxic pollutants in drinking water samples tested by the 
University of Exeter in the U.K. that were matched with chemicals found 
in soil samples from the Bhopal plant, including one carcinogenic 
chemical whose presence in the drinking water exceeded by 1,705 times 
the maximum limit allowed by the World Health Organization.
  Another environmental survey was able to trace chemicals from the 
former Union Carbide plant in the breast milk of mothers living in the 
residential areas in the vicinity of the badly polluted site, which 
continues to leach pollutants into the groundwater aquifer to date. The 
land for the plant was leased from the State of Madhya Pradesh in India 
which stipulated that, upon termination, the land would be returned to 
the State in the condition that it was first leased and suitable for 
the use prescribed by the zoning regulations. The State discovered that 
clean-up of the site until 1998 had been insufficient leaving thousands 
of metric tons of toxic wastes, chemical by-products, effluents, and 
other hazardous materials both above-ground on the premises of the 
factory and below ground in burial pits and landfills, all of which 
posed a grave threat to the surrounding population.
  At least 10 residential areas in the vicinity of the former Union 
Carbide plant were found to have severely polluted drinking water 
according to these environmental studies and no substantive effort has 
been undertaken for environmental remediation of the area leaving water 
that has high levels of mercury, dichlorobenzenes, chloroform, carbon 
tetrachloride, and other pollutants, toxins, and heavy metals. Soil 
samples from the area have found abnormal amounts of lead, nickel, 
copper, chromium, hexachlorocyclohexane, and chlorobenzenes. Tainted 
water and the generally toxic living environments have lead to 
premature cancer, deformities, chromosomal aberrations, and other 
disorders for Bhopali children.
  There is a ``polluter pays'' principle enshrined in the domestic laws 
of both India and the United States as well as both domestic and 
international law which states that the polluter rather than the public 
agencies or taxpayers should be held responsible for its environmental 
pollution in its entirety. International trade and ethical practices 
compel Dow Chemical to treat this matter very seriously and ensure that 
equitable treatment be afforded to the victims and their progeny.
  Mr. Speaker, India is the largest democratic country in the world and 
enjoys a close and mutual friendship with the United States based on 
common values and common interests, and as a result, our countries 
should come together to recognize the gravity of the Bhopal disaster 
and the ongoing environmental problems in Bhopal caused by Union 
Carbide's policies and practices.
  I encourage my colleagues in the U.S. Congress to support this 
resolution and commit to working together with the Indian government, 
Dow Chemical Corporation, and the victims to ensure that Union Carbide 
provides complete medical, social, and economic rehabilitation to the 
victims of the disaster. In addition, we should work together to ensure 
that Union Carbide undertakes a complete environmental remediation that 
restores the badly polluted plant site affected by this disaster to a 
habitable condition and fully remediates the drinking water supply of 
affected residential communities. Lastly, we need to ensure that Union 
Carbide appears before the Bhopal District Court for prosecution on the 
criminal charges pending against it there, in accordance with 
principles of international law regarding criminal jurisdiction 
accepted by the world community including India and the United States.

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