Dursban is a pesticide manufactured by Dow Agrosciences , the Indian subsidiary of chemical giant Dow Chemical. Highly toxic, especially in children, it can damage the nervous system, alter the growth ... Its sale was banned in the U.S. but Dow sells for $ 500 million per year of Dursban around the world, and that this product is "safe " ...
Dow Chemical, is precisely the group that took over Union Carbide, responsible in 1984 of the worst industrial disaster in history, Bhopal, India: 25 years, 23,000 dead and 500,000 victims. This week a delegation came to London to remind Dow's horrible legacy: a bottle of water contaminated that meets the sweet name of "B'EAU PAL".
These are the cons-The Yes Men propagandists who set up this operation "memory". By designing a true-false bottle of mineral water, with red and white logo reminiscent of Dow (the Pal B'eau Water even has a true-false website). The document "Nutrition" shows the concentrations of three major pollutants that persist in the groundwater of the Indian city:
- dichloride methane (400% above the standard lethal daily);
- chroloforme (250% beyond standards )
- especially carbon tetrachloride, which presence in a single bottle of B'Eau Pal is 200,000% lethal dose daily!
is probably why, on July 13, when the delegation came to demonstrate outside the headquarters of Dow, the company's premises had been sealed that morning by the leadership ... According
the minutes of the Yes Men, if Dow Chemical has steadfastly refused to deal with the consequences of the disaster since its acquisition of Union Carbide, however they will not miss an opportunity to "green" their image.
CEO Andrew Liveris has said recently that "the lack of drinking water and the greatest cause of disease worldwide and more than 45,000 children die every day" (sic). Not hesitating to add that "Dow is committed to creating one of the safest water supplies and sustainable over the entire planet."
The Yes Men indiiens and activists - including Sathyu Sarangi, the head of the Sambhavna Clinic in Bhopal, which is still struggling today with the health consequences of the disaster - then made their little calculations. Liveris annual salary exceeds $ 16 million. With this sum, "it could give every child who dies of water Unhealthy $ 10 per day to buy bottles of Evian or Perrier. Or, for an amount far smaller, it could build their own pipelines and safe, just like those dire population of Bhopal. "
the night of 2 to 3 December 1940 tonnes of methyl isocyanate, a toxic gas used in the hyper-production of pesticides, escape from the UC plant located in the city, and the same day there were already hundreds of deaths. Nearly 25 years after the record is appalling: more than 23,000 direct and indirect deaths and approximately 500,000 victims, sick or disabled.
French photographer Micha Patault worked there with the association of Bhopal since 2005 and has just published a book in tribute to victims, available at unifying Bhopal.org. He recalls doing the following:
Today, 170,000 people lack adequate medical care and need for economic support. A coalition of three NGOs have been fighting for 23 years demanding justice and reparations. The U.S. plant of Union Carbide pesticide and its surroundings have been no decontamination. The Toxic products have leached into the soil and groundwater, polluting water consumed 5 000 families living nearby, subject to the hazards of drinking water. The effects of the disaster then open a new chapter: The water produced irreversible effects on the new generation.
In 2009, the situation is even more critical that the region of Madhya Pradesh, Bhopal, is undergoing a severe drought, as reported by The Guardian - just three years after suffering the worst flooding ever experienced in the region. "Even if people are still dying by the hundreds of thousands, while climate change will kill even more, Companies like Dow are not forced to lower their emissions, "lamented the head of the Sambhavna Clinic, Sathyu Sarangi. "Bhopal should be a lesson to the world - that we should think before it's too late for the world. "
- The next film Yes Men out August 11.
- On Numerolambda see a documentary by Al Jazeera, which recounts the disaster, and review a sham of the Yes Men who have been invited on the set of the BBC's posing as a spokesman for Dow in 2004, 20 years later.
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