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June 30, 2006

Dow Chemical buys Chinese engineering firm to develop a "water solutions" business.
(Wonder if they'll use it to clean up Bhopal?)

DOW JONES NEWSWIRES, JUNE 29, 2006

Dow Chemical Co. (DOW) said Wednesday evening that it plans to buy China's Zhejiang Omex Environmental Engineering Co. Ltd. to increase its water components portfolio.

The Midland, Mich. producer of plastics, chemicals, hydrocarbons and herbicides didn't disclose terms of the agreement.

Dow Chemical said the acquisition will allow it to expand into three critical, enabling component technologies for water treatment: Ultrafiltration, Membrane Bio-Reactor membranes, and Electrodeionization.

The OEE purchase will bring new components that, together with Dow's existing technology offerings, will create the framework for a new Dow Water Solutions business.

Posted by bhola at 11:21 AM | Comments (0)

June 29, 2006

Crews digging up, cleaning up Dow's radioactive waste at mouth of Saginaw River

JEFF KART, BAY CITY TIMES, JUNE 27, 2006

If you've seen men in white suits at the Saginaw River mouth, don't be alarmed.

They've been digging out hundreds of tons of radioactive waste and contaminated soil from an old Dow Chemical Co. site across from the Consumers Energy's Karn-Weadock power plant.

The waste, called thorium slag, is being loaded into air-tight rail cars and shipped to a landfill in Utah.

"We began in early June," said Garret Geer, a Dow spokesman. "It's scheduled to run through mid-July to the end of July."

The slag is a byproduct of castings made at a magnesium foundry that Dow operated in Bay City from the 1940s through the 1960s. It's been buried by the Saginaw Bay for decades.

So far, about 80 rail cars have been loaded with the gray, powdery slag and contaminated dirt from the site, which takes up more than 9 acres.

Geer said about 105 rail cars will be needed to take away all the material.

When all is said and done, more than 11,000 tons of slag and dirt will have gone west, said Dave Wojtkowiak, radiation safety officer for Babcock Services Inc. of Rhode Island, a contractor.

Dow is working with the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission on the cleanup. Thorium is known to cause cancer, but NRC officials have said the work poses no danger to the public.

Wojtkowiak said the cleanup will make the site safer.

Posted by bhola at 12:21 AM | Comments (0)

June 25, 2006

Dow Chemical launches 'The Human Element' campaign

Has Dow Chemical been inhaling too many of its own chemicals, an ad industry insider asked before the ceremonial unveiling of Dow's latest attempt to salvage its rotting reputation. The ad campaign, which is costing $20 million (which could well have been used to benefit the company's victims in Bhopal and elsewhere) makes vague and fantastic claims that portray Dow as the saviour of the suffering all over the planet. The official press release is below.

Highlights Commitment to Solving Global Problems

(CSRwire) Midland, MI - June 20, 2006 - The Dow Chemical Company (NYSE: DOW) today unveiled a bold new U.S. advertising campaign — “The Human Element” — that reintroduces the company and announces its vision of addressing some of the most pressing economic, social and environmental concerns facing the global community in the coming decade.

The Human Element campaign, developed by FCB, made its national broadcast debut on Saturday, June 17, and showcases individual human profiles and circumstances to communicate the power of harnessing “The Human Element” to foster solutions to human problems around the world.

“This is more than an ad campaign to our company. It is a statement to the world and, more importantly, to ourselves about the future direction of our business,” said Patti Temple Rocks, Dow vice president of global communications and reputation. “It will be our calling card to people around the world who care about the future relationship between businesses, society and the environment. It reflects our intention as a company to prioritize the things we do to advance innovation and focus the people and resources of Dow on solving human problems.”

“Dow’s Human Element campaign is about reconnecting the company with the faces and values of the people Dow touches in a positive way,” said Toby Sachs, senior vice president/group management director at FCB Chicago. “Our creative approach was driven by the need to capture visually the commitments Dow has made to use its expertise and influence to make a difference in the lives of real people around the world.”

Beyond paid media, the campaign will also feature new research and environmental commitments backed by extensive public relations outreach to policy leaders, NGOs, Dow communities and journalists spearheaded by Chicago-based public relations firm GolinHarris.

Together, the advertising and public relations efforts will combine to reinforce Dow’s commitment — first articulated by Dow president, CEO and chairman Andrew N. Liveris during an announcement to the NGO and public policy communities last month — to engage the challenges of global energy supply, climate change, affordable and adequate food supply, decent housing, sustainable water supplies; and improved personal health and safety. These commitments and Dow’s progress against them are outlined in the company’s 2015 sustainability goals and are available to the public at www.dowattainability.com

About the Human Element campaign

The Human Element advertising creative was developed featuring real people rather than professional actors and includes dramatic environmental and human imagery (a blacksmith in Mexico, children at an orphanage in Namibia, an artist at his studio in Prague) gathered on location on four continents. The campaign runs in U.S. broadcast, print and online media through the end of 2006, with plans to extend the campaign to key international markets in 2007.

Broadcast spots (90 and 30 seconds) launched June 17 as part of NBC’s national coverage of the U.S. Open golf tournament and are expected to run through the end of the year. National print and online advertising will launch the following week in major publications across the country.

“This is a major investment by our company,” Temple Rocks said, “and we are mindful of the fact that its success will be measured by the extent to which that investment pays off in new sources of ideas and relationships both inside and outside our company.”

Posted by bhola at 10:24 AM | Comments (0)

Dow among dry-cleaning chemical makers responsible for Modesto pollution

JULIANA BARBASSA, ASSOCIATED PRESS

FRESNO, Calif. - Three chemical manufacturers were ordered to pay the city of Modesto $178 million for contaminating its water with suspected carcinogens, a jury decided.

Jurors in San Francisco Superior Court found the companies acted with malice because they failed to tell dry cleaners how to use perchloroethylene or trichloroethylene without harming the environment.

The jury levied more than $175 million in punitive damages late Tuesday and $3.2 million in actual damages for groundwater contamination.

Vulcan Materials Co. was ordered to pay $100 million in punitive damages, Dow Chemical Co. was ordered to pay $75 million and RR Street & Co. Inc. was hit with a $75,000 verdict.

"We're gratified at the jury's verdict," said attorney Duane C. Miller, who represented the city in the case. "We believe it's the first time the manufacturers of PCE have been held accountable for damages caused by that product."

Representatives of the companies reached Wednesday said they planned to appeal the verdict, which they called baseless.

"We think the punitive damages are completely without merit," said David Donaldson, of Birmingham, Ala.-based Vulcan Materials. "We're going to be pursuing all the different means for post-trial and appellate relief to make that point."

Midland, Mich.-based Dow Chemical argued in a statement that there was no proof any of their products had directly caused pollution in Modesto. The company also said it wasn't fair for jurors to look at its product warnings issued decades ago, in light of the scientific information available today that suggests the chemicals could be more harmful than previously thought.

"Although the jury's verdict is disappointing and without basis, Dow believes that this absurd result will be remedied by the courts," said corporate vice president Charles J. Kalil.

Calls to RR Street, of Naperville, Ill., were not immediately returned Wednesday.

Two other chemical companies - Pittsburgh-based PPG Industries and Dallas-based Occidental Chemical Corporation - do not face punitive damages, but were ordered to contribute to the $3.2 million awarded in actual damages. Representatives from both companies also did not immediately return calls for comment.

Two local dry-cleaning businesses that were named in the lawsuit, Modesto Steam Laundry and Cleaners and Halford's Cleaners, will not have to pay any damages.

"Claims have been brought against dry cleaners for contamination, when reality was they never knew this could cause contamination," Miller said. "They were told they could dump this in the sewer and into the ground in the 60s, 70s, through 80s and into 90s. They just didn't know."

Modesto filed the lawsuit in San Francisco Superior Court in December 1998, but the case didn't go to trial until February.

Posted by bhola at 02:12 AM | Comments (0)

Dow Chemical and others sprayed chemicals on Canadian base

REPORT REVEALS EXTENT OF SPRAYING ON NEW BRUNSWICK BASE

Nine locations at CFB Gagetown have, still today, unacceptable levels of dioxins resulting from chemical spraying that occurred during the last half century, a federal fact-finding investigation has revealed.

That is six more than the federal government had previously acknowledged.

The revelation was included in the first of a series of reports into the history of spraying on the New Brunswick base and the potential health effects of the chemicals on people living nearby.

The two studies were ordered by Ottawa, which is considering compensation for people who say they were harmed by herbicides sprayed at the base.

They reveal several different herbicides were sprayed at Gagetown between 1956 and 2004, including agents Orange, Purple and White.

It confirms that the U.S. military tested Agent Orange - which was used extensively by the U.S. in the Vietnam War, and has been the subject of numerous lawsuits in the States - at CFB Gagetown in 1966 and 1967.

But it also reveals that several other groups tested chemical herbicides on base property before and after the American tests. Those groups included the Canadian Forest Service and the U.S.-based multinational Dow Chemical Co., which tested commercial herbicides on base property in 1990.

Base officials also sprayed chemicals as part of their annual program to clear land and control brush between 1956 and 2004. The report reveals that program included spraying components of Agent Orange in four separate years prior to the American tests.

The report also said 24 different herbicides were used since 1956, with 14 active ingredients, many of them linked with dioxins, but that all chemical spraying was done in compliance with the laws of the day. Dennis Furlong, the former New Brunswick health minister who took over as co-ordinator of the federal inquiry last fall, said the hard facts need to be shown without the emotion that has often been attached to the issue.

"Everybody had a personal impression of what took place, but what we needed to know is what actually took place," he said. "That is what these documents are about."

"I'm content today that between 1952 and today we finally have one concise document that tells us what happened, when and how it was applied, how much was applied and where it was applied," Furlong said. "Now we have to do the other step, bring that all together in one final piece of information that goes to the government of Canada for decision-making."

Hundreds of people have come forward to claim their health was affected by the use of herbicide sprays at the base since it opened in the 1950s.

Until the 1980s, those sprays contained dioxin, a toxic by-product now banned. Three of the nine locations revealed to have unacceptable levels of dioxins have already been declared off-limits to people. Base officials are now deciding what to do about the other six.

Widely used during the war in Vietnam, the sprays are blamed for numerous health problems in that country and among U.S. veterans of the war.

Some veterans and civilians who worked on the base complain the entire fact-finding mission, which could take at least another year to complete its work, is a stalling tactic.

"I would like to see a compensation package announced today," said Wayne Cardinal, who spent nearly 40 years in the Canadian Forces.

That won't happen today, Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor said.

"My understanding, by talking to people on the ground there, [is that] it's going to take another year for us to resolve this issue, at which time, if we find people that have ailments linked to the activities there, there will be compensation," he said. "But we have to make that linkage."

Thursday's reports are the first of several, Furlong said. The hardest work is yet to come. That includes tracking down all of the people who worked at CFB Gagetown over the past 50 years during spraying. About 50,000 have so far been identified.

A major health study has also to be done, and that could take until the middle of next year to complete.

Posted by bhola at 01:22 AM | Comments (0)