Members of a student organization hosted a candlelight vigil on the South Mall Monday in remembrance of the industrial disaster in Bhopal, India.

Members of the UT chapter of the Association for India's Development, a student organization that according to its Web site "fights the problems of poverty, illiteracy, unemployment and other problems facing India's development," hosted the vigil 23 years after the industrial disaster in Bhopal that immediately killed and sickened thousands of people.

It was one of the worst industrial accidents in history, and the organization said a similar incident could occur today.

Four thousand people died immediately, and another 3,000 died in the following days, according to estimates by the Indian government. According to the association, more than 22,000 have died to date.

The accident was caused by a leak of methyl isocyanate gas from the Union Carbide plant on the night of Dec. 2, 1984.

The Union Carbide factory has since been purchased by The Dow Chemical Company. Union Carbide claims an employee

sabotaged the line that caused the leak and then the Indian government blocked the investigation. But members of the association say that Dow has not fulfilled its responsibility to the victims of the Bhopal accident.

"We are asking Dow Chemical first and foremost to take responsibility, and we also do not want them to invest in India," said Pragya Bhagat, a UT alumna and member of the association. "We also want to make people aware that this type of accident can happen anywhere, even in Texas."

After graduating from UT, Bhagat spent six months in India interning at the Sambhavna Trust Clinic, which provides free treatment to the gas survivors in Bhopal.

"I got to participate in the grassroots activism at the ground level of the movement, and I saw the stark reality of how children are still being born with physical and mental deformities," Bhagat said. "Now, 23 years later, [that] children are still being born with problems is actually horrid."

Union Carbide said in a statement on its Web site, "The 1984 gas leak in Bhopal, India, was a terrible tragedy which understandably continues to evoke strong emotions even 23 years later."

A monetary settlement was made with the Indian government and Union Carbide, but victims have not been compensated.

"The perpetrators of this incident, Union Carbide, the people responsible, have never been brought to justice," said professor Itty Abraham, director of the South Asia Institute in the College of Liberal Arts.

Student Government passed a resolution in 2006 that called upon the University to require Dow to match its contributions to the University with contributions to Bhopal, according to a Daily Texan article.

Bhagat said, despite the backing of the student body, the administration has not altered its policy toward accepting money from Dow.

Besides remembering the victims of Bhopal, attendees of the vigil want to ensure that a similar incident does not happen again.

"It's not a question of if this could happen, it's when," Abraham said. "We know there is a level of risk. Part of that risk comes from the fact that large, complex systems can fail."

Condemnation against Police Brutality on Nandigram Farmers

Washington DC - Solidarity fasts by over 10 volunteers with Association for India’s Development and Students for Bhopal are being held in front of the Indian Embassy for the next 3 days (16th to 18th March) in support of the survivors in Bhopal who despite being on their 12th day of an indefinite hunger strike demanding basic amenities like poison-free drinking water and access to competent medical care, are yet to hear from the Madhya Pradesh government. The MP government has dragged its feet in fulfilling a Supreme Court order to provide clean water and full federal funding for the project.

Concerned citizens and members of the Indian diaspora also held a vibrant protest outside the Indian Embassy in Washington DC at 4pm yesterday, demonstrating their outrage and alarm at the callousness and apathy of the governments of Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal and complete disregard for the life of the common citizen, as evinced from the recent happenings in Bhopal and Nandigram. The public fast starts this afternoon (~3-4:30pm) despite heavy rain and snow, fasters will sit in public at the Embassy each afternoon this weekend to demand action from the government. *** Contact Somu Kumar for exact location and times.***

The fasters in Washington DC are also strongly condemning the brutal killing of farmers in Nandigram, in an unprecedented act of inhuman violence unleashed by the state machinery on 14th March, 2007.

While the official estimate of the death toll at Nandigram is between 14 and 20, non-governmental sources on the ground are reporting that the death toll may have crossed 100. Many are reportedly missing and do not count in official death tolls. It is feared that several bodies may have been dumped in the sea so they cannot be identified.

Prof Mohan Bhagat, director of the Association for India’s Development and a faculty at the University of Maryland, says: “As Indians living in the diaspora we are truly hanging our heads in shame when people ask us what is wrong with India that claims to be a big player on the world scene but can only do so by spilling the blood of her own people?” He urges the Indian ruling elite to abandon all anti-people policies and devise methods that will lead to the betterment of the citizens from the bottom up.

Overwhelming concern and support for the Bhopali survivors has poured in from all corners of the world - over 2000 faxes have been sent to the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, Mr Shivraj Singh Chouhan and over 350 phone calls made to various government offices in India, urging the government to accept the basic demands of the survivors.

Somu Kumar, a volunteer with Students for Bhopal, who is on a fast in Washington DC, says, "The fact that six Bhopal survivors are in a hunger-strike for last 11 days for the most basic of all needs -- clean-drinking water -- is appalling; more worrying is the fact that Madhya Pradesh Government is turning a blind-eye to their just demands. It makes me wonder whether we are living in a democracy."

In a separate petition to the Chief Minister of West Bengal which has received over 400 signatures in less than a day, the advocates are demanding an independent probe into the killings of farmers in Nandigram, withdrawal of police and armed party cadres from the area, and immediate action by the state government to economically rehabilitate the bereaved and the affected.

An outraged Arun Gopalan, president of the Maryland chapter of AID, comments: “While people in Bhopal are waiting for justice for the last 23 years, people in Nandigram are being killed so that they do not even exist to seek justice! Do we want India to shine with the blood of it own citizens? Is this the sort of development we want to see? ” Arun will also join the solidarity fast.

In Bhopal, on the 14th day of the "Jeene kaa Haq" (Right to Live) campaign led by four Bhopal Chemical Disaster Survivors organizations, 6 representatives of survivors of the world's worst industrial disaster started an indefinite fast on March 5th, demanding medical care, economic and social rehabilitation and protection from Union Carbide's poisons that have killed and maimed for 22 years. The survivors also work with those affected by ground water contamination from the abandoned Union Carbide factory site where the deadly 1984 accident occurred. Current Carbide owner Dow Chemical so far has refused to clean up the site. The hunger strikers include Goldman Environmental Prize winner Rashida Bee, who lost six family members to cancer, and herself suffers from chronic health problems ever since the disaster.

"We are very happy to hear of BERC's decision,” said Kamal Kapadia, a doctoral student at Berkeley. “This sends a clear message to Dow that it cannot continue to ignore the suffering it has inflicted on hundreds of thousands of people in Bhopal. Until the company takes full responsibility for its actions and meets the demands of the Bhopal survivors, all their attempts at greenwashing, like sponsoring this clean energy event, will be exposed and rejected for their deep hypocrisy."

Resolution #198 was passed in 2004 by the Associated Students of the University of California (ASUC), which represents Berkeley’s 33,000 students. Sponsored by a coalition of South Asian and environmental student groups, the resolution calls on the University of California to divest from Dow Chemical, the world’s second-largest chemical company, and refuse all donations from the company. Dow is a major donor to the University of California, Berkeley, with cumulative donations totaling $4.3 million as of October 2003.

In a statement emailed to UC Berkeley students and faculty, the conference organizers cited the Bhopal resolution as the basis for their decision. “In light of the ASUC resolution, the BERC leadership has decided that it is important to respect our organization’s role as a representative of the larger Berkeley student community. Therefore, BERC will abide by the ASUC resolution and not use Dow funding for the 2007 Berkeley Energy Symposium.”

The UC Berkeley Energy Symposium is organized by the Berkeley Energy & Resources Collaborative (BERC), and promises to “bring together 150 of Berkeley’s leading researchers in energy technology, economics, and policy with the top cleantech investors, industry experts, and entrepreneurs.” Scheduled speakers include Robert Birgeneau, the Chancellor of UC Berkeley and Commissioner Art Rosenfeld of the California Energy Commission. The conference will focus on the role of UC Berkeley in creating a sustainable energy future.

On December 3rd, 1984, thousands of people in Bhopal, India, were gassed to death after a catastrophic chemical leak at a Union Carbide pesticide plant. More than 150,000 people were left severely disabled—of whom 22,000 have since died of their injuries¬—in a disaster now widely acknowledged as the world’s worst-ever industrial disaster. Today, those who survived the gas remain sick, and the chemicals that Union Carbide left behind in Bhopal have poisoned the water supply and contributed to an epidemic of cancers, birth defects, and other afflictions. Since its purchase of Carbide in 2001, Dow Chemical has refused to clean up the site, which continues to contaminate those near it; fund medical care or livelihood regeneration; or present Union Carbide to face criminal charges of “culpable homicide” (manslaughter) from which it has been absconding since 1991.

Since 2001, Dow Chemicals fully owns Union Carbide, which was responsible got the Bhopal gas tragedy in India. This gas leak caused by the total failure of the plant’s safety systems killed over 22,000 people and left behind an accident site where, even today, hundreds of thousands of people are being exposed to toxic wastes. The banner and posters held by the protestors attracted the attention of the conference attendees and several by-passers. The protestors also distributed flyers and spoke to several pedestrians about the Bhopal disaster and Dow chemicals’ involvement. Earlier in the month, representatives from AID and Amnesty International had expressed their concerns to the Dean of Kelly School of Business which had lead to invitations for the two groups to attend the conference and question Mr. Liveris directly.

Three members from AID and Amnesty were present inside the conference venue and made use of the Question & Answer session to ask Mr. Liveris about their role in Bhopal. Ms. Harini Gopalakrishnan, the spokesperson for AID and graduate student at Indiana University, described the plight of the 200,000 Bhopal victims in her question and asked if Dow will take any steps to shed its apathy. “[B]eing the CEO of the largest chemical company in the world and also the parent company of Union Carbide, I would like to know, what you would like to do about this (Bhopal) in the future”, Ms. Gopalakrishnan wanted to know. Mr. Liveris, calling it a tough question, declined all responibility on Dow Chemical for the disaster. “Union Carbide settled with the government of India, and the state Government of Madhya Pradesh, for four seventy million dollars in 1989….. it is really not the DOW chemical company’s responsibility at all”.

Mr. Tom Benner from Amnesty International countered Dow's position with a follow-up question referring Amnesty's 2002 report on the Bhopal disaster. Mr. Benner asked Mr. Liveris, “… [e]veryone here understands that when you purchase a company, you acquire all its assets, but also it liabilities. You talked about sending four seventy million dollars to the government of India. But with all due respect, I don’t think that’s sufficient. When I was a child, my parents taught me that when I made a mess, it was my job, my responsibility, to clean it up. Shouldn’t the same thing apply to corporations as well?”. Mr. Liveris was clearly irritated by the question and tersely reiterated his earlier position taking cover behind the limited settlement arrived at in the Indian courts. He added, “the settlement was justified and ... by the Supreme Court of India. So, I will again urge you to get on a flight to New Delhi, and ask exactly that question to the Government of India, who has access to four seventy million dollars from 1989.”. He failed to mention that the settlementwas only for the current victims of the disaster in 1989 and did not cover the cleanup of the accident site or the fallout of the toxic pollutants in the site on the health of thousands living in the Bhopal community.

Finally, Giri Krishnan, president of AID and graduate student at Indiana University, confronted Mr. Liveris on their using the law to justify their compensation yet not appearing in the Indian courts to face criminal charges. Mr. Krishnan said, “In 1991, the Supreme Court of India has reacted against Union Carbide 'culpable homicide' against the Union Carbide industry and Union carbide is right now, a fully subsidiary of DOW, and it has not shown up in the courts of India”, and went on to ask if Dow would put any pressure on Union Carbide to face trial and provide justice to the affected people. before Mr. Liveris could address their criminal liability, the moderator of the conference intervened saying the most people in the audience did not take the environmental issues raised on Bhopal seriously and that we move on to other questions. This was met with applause from the audience, which seemed to reflect the futility of tying environmental responsibility with business.

Despite Mr. Liveris failng to adequately answer the questions and the disinterest of the audience to environmental issues that were poisoning people in developing countries, the protest served to highlight to continued negligence of Dow Chemical to the Bhopal victims. The protestors attested that they would continue to fight for justice for the Bhopal victims and their actions against Dow would endure till the victims are rehabilitated.

Listen to the Q & A session:

Question & Answer #1 (Ms. Gopalakrishnan and Mr. Liveris)
Question & Answer #2 (Mr. Benner and Mr. Liveris)
Question & Answer #3 (Mr. Krishnan and moderator)

The Prelude
The moment we got to know about the arrival of Dow Corning at the Life Sciences Career fair hosted by the University, it was natural to think that we should use this opportunity to organize a protest to help spread the awareness about "the dark side of DOW" amongst the students at IU. There was a two fold agenda drawn up in order to make an organized show of resistance against the company that was the perpetrator of the death of thousands on December 3, 1984. The main goal was to help enable IU students to make an "informed choice" on their career by getting to know the whole story about a company, and the second one was to ask the University to set a standard for the kind of companies that they allow on campus for such events in future. After all, setting the bar high on the companies invited to a career fair raises the standard of the University itself and in turn helps the students who invest their future on the makings of such companies.

The preparations for the protest began 10 days before the fair and were masked in secrecy to surprise Dow and avoid preemptive interference by University officials. We used an AID sponsored Diwali Potluck to spread the word on the protest and started collecting pledges from students that "I wont work for Dow". We also collected resumes from students marked with the pledge not to work for Dow, with the intent of handing them over to Dow. This would send a symbolic message that Dow came to get resumes of students interested in working for them, but instead got many more resumes of students who would NOT work for them. We also started digging up information about Dow Corning, which was a joint venture of Dow and had its own set of issues, such as the Breast Implant litigation in the early 1990’s. We also collected information on IU/departmental policies on on-campus recruitment and networked with other student groups like the Indian Students Association, No Sweat, and Graduate Student Groups. One of the best things we did was the PR campaign where we put the knowledge gained from Media Training Workshop at the SfB Conference to work. We prepared press releases and press kits with background information, called up reporters and went in person to talk to editors, sent reminders to them to make sure they turned up and brought photographers, and prepared juicy sound bites for them. All of these ensured that the protest turn out to be a great success!

The Big Day
The night before the protest, several volunteers went chalking and flyering all around the career fair venue. We drew outlines of dead bodies and named them after real victims of the Bhopal disaster. We also added quotes like "Don’t work for Dirty Dow" and "Dow = Death". We wanted to make sure anyone even close to the venue would not miss the protest.

The career fair was between 10 AM and 2AM at the IU Auditorium, and by 9:45 there were more than 10 people holding up banners and posters taking their positions. We were mildly disappointed (though not surprised) that flyers within 30 feet of the venue had been removed/washed out by the career fair organizers, but those further away had survived. The posters we held were graphic and based on a parody of Dow’s Human Element campaign. There were volunteers who were distributing flyers with pictures of Dow’s atrocities around the world (Bhopal, Vietnam, Nicaragua, Africa, and USA). We found these to be more effective in grabbing people’s attention than written material – pictures do speak more than words. These graphic evidence would remain glued to the memory of any passerby who would cringe at the thought of associating himself/herself with Dow in the future. Protestors braving the cold and the wind kindled the curiosity of students visiting the fair and only a few avoided us. The volunteers told them of the reason for the protest and how could make a difference through signing a pledge and talking to the Dow representatives inside!! Signatures for the "I won’t work for DOW" pledge form started pouring in!!

The protesters were not allowed into the venue though it was open to all IU Students. We were politely warned to keep a 30 feet distance from the venue and a couple of cop cars were on standby just to get the message across to us. A few of us, in the guise of seeking a job (we were, after all, IU Students), took the responsibility of walking in and speaking to the Dow Corning representatives on what they thought about Dow’s handling of Bhopal and on the protest being staged outside. They outright denied any association with Dow Chemical, claiming that Dow was just a share holder (a 50% share holder!) in their company, and acted surprised that we were protesting against a company that was not even present at the Career Fair. Well, that did not fool many. Looks like owning 50% of the company's shares is not much of an association!!

Most students who went in or came out of the fair stopped at the Showalter Fountain to talk with us and many signed the pledge form not to work for a company that indulges in such "inhuman activities". Over 100 people have taken the pledge and that is about 25% of all people who were at the career fair! We even had a bunch of middle schools students visit the fountain and all of them got Bhopal flyers :-)

We had several members from other student groups also join us through the day and it was a wonderful exercise in coalition building. We had several reporters coming in at different points in the protest, talking to protestors, with the Dow Corning representative, and taking pictures. The campus newspaper, Indiana Daily Student, and the city newspaper, Herald Times, carried the campaign report the next day on their 2nd page. The much desired goal of creating awareness among the students to create an "informed decision" was achieved! In a nutshell, you could not have asked for a better first campaign!

Inspired by Armstrong's words, I would call this a giant leap for the Bloomington chapter, who was/is still a newbie to the world of protesting and showing resent against a giant corporation! All these would not have been possible without the humungous efforts of many a people, both on and off stage, who are recognized at the bottom. Thanks to each and every one of them. Every small effort was counted and seen, and each of us are proud to have made an attempt to make these people accountable for a horrendous deed committed 22 years ago, whose wounds are still afresh among the affected!

The Aftermath & Post-mortem
The PR campaign did not stop with the reports. We made sure we followed up with the reporters and sent letters to the editor rebutting the claims of the Dow Corning representatives that they were independent of Dow. Two of these letters were published in the campus newspaper. The 200 graphic flyers that we printed we all used up by the end of the protest! That showed us not to under-estimate the effectiveness of our efforts.

While we managed to retort to Dow Corning’s claims that they were not part of Dow, we did not expect such a defense from them, though in hindsight, it seems obvious. We should have pre-empted them from giving such a justification by having posters about it or having facts like Dow has 4 board members in Dow Corning’s board of directors. This would have made the press report more in our favor, instead of having to use letters to the editor to fill the gaps.

It is not clear if our efforts at secrecy were worth it. While we did have over 30 protestors in all, we could have get more if we’d actively used mailing lists to publicize the protest. Dow Corning had a surprise for sure, but they may have had the surprise even if we’re publicized the protest more. We may have just been a bit paranoid.

Dow has got the message, loud and clear, that students at IU will not stand by as people continue to shrivel and die at Bhopal -- without clean water, without medical care, without livelihood, without justice!

This is just the beginning. Several other groups have expressed support to kick out dirty companies like Dow from the IU campus. As we take this movement forward, each one of our voices will count!

Cambridge City Hall - Activists representing peace, the environment, labor and human rights climbed a giant ‘scale of justice’ at 5:30pm on Tuesday, September 26th, 2006 to celebrate Cambridge’s unanimous passage of the ‘Justice for Bhopal’ resolution. The legislation asks the City to take shareholder and purchasing action against Dow Chemical until the company faces its responsibilities to the Bhopal Chemical Disaster survivors.

Several activists mounted a seesaw-like “scale of justice” atop a “toxic waste barrel” at the Cambridge City Hall this evening, stranding the “Dow Chemical Grim Reaper” in the air, waving a scythe around angrily.

Dow Chemical is the company activists say is responsible for clean up and medical care for the half million survivors of the 1984 Bhopal Chemical Disaster. Supporters of the Resolution say it will hold the corporation accountable for its human rights violations in Bhopal, India, as well as protect Cambridge residents from some of Dow’s toxic products. Councilor Henrietta Davis, Councilor Marjorie Decker and Vice Mayor Tim Toomey sponsored the resolution which was strongly supported by local labor, peace and justice groups.

Harvard St. resident Namarata Bhasin commented, “Ten to 15 people are dying each month in Bhopal, yet Dow Chemical continues to avoid responsibility. These poisons did not come from nowhere, we cannot let them continue to get away with murder.”

“This resolution is the strongest action Cambridge can take to hold a corporate criminal accountable. We do not ever want a disaster like Bhopal to occur again. This kind of lawlessness cannot be tolerated,” Coalition for Justice in Bhopal member Aquene Freechild said, dressed in white to represent the peace movement resolution backers.

The resolution asks the Cambridge Retirement Board to use their ~12,000 shares in Dow to co-file shareholder resolutions regarding Bhopal and to divest of Dow bonds until Dow addresses the survivor’s demands. It also requests a report of what Dow products the city buys and options for substitution.

“People concerned with how our increasingly globalized economy develops, should be thrilled about this policy,” said Nate Stell from local Amnesty International Group 133. “Allowing Dow Chemical to act with impunity sets a very dangerous precedent in international commerce with respect to human rights. It’s important to that we let Dow and other would-be offenders know that we will not stand for these kinds of abuses.”

Harvard student Kaveri Rajaraman said, “Dow Chemical continues to violate safety standards, and the victims of Dow in the US and abroad continue to mount. This resolution will push for clean up of the toxic contamination in Bhopal and hold Dow to better safety standards.”

The 1984 Union Carbide Chemical Disaster in Bhopal, India has left more than 20,000 people dead in the past 22 years. Union Carbide, bought by Dow Chemical in 2001, has refused to face manslaughter charges in Bhopal or to clean up the site that has poisoned the drinking water for 20,000 people according to Amnesty International.

Endorsing Organizations Include: Activate South Asia (Harvard) - Alliance for a Secular and Democratic South Asia - Amnesty International Groups 133 & 563 (Somerville & Cambridge) - Area 4 Coalition - Association for India’s Development -Boston Mayday Coalition (labor) - Cambridge United for Justice with Peace - Clean Water Action (Mass.) - Dollarsandsense.org - Environmental Health Fund - Groundwork USA - Harvard Initiative for Peace and Justice – Harvard Law School Advocates for Human Rights Environmental Group - Healthy Building Network - Mass Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health - Mass. Jobs with Justice - South Asia Center - Stop the Wars Coalition - Student Labor Action Movement

Aquene adds:
We had a group of 20 supporters there all dressed in red and wearing Bhopal buttons in a show of solidarity although we asked only 5 of these people to speak in session. In addition, we had 20 local groups endorsing the campaign. In open session, Cambridge residents who had come to speak about issues different from Bhopal were moved by the issue and added their support before they made their own comments.

I see myself surrounded by passion. In the circle where I sit, I see people that have devoted their Labor Day weekend to one cause – justice for Bhopal. And even though the gas leak that killed thousands happened twenty-two years ago, the hearts of those present here are brimming with compassion for the victims of the disaster, with rage for the criminals walking free, and with smiles for the 30 other people around them, gorging on bagels smothered with cream cheese. It’s eight-thirty in the morning in Bloomington, Indiana. The 2nd Annual Students for Bhopal Conference has begun.

Do not let the term ‘students’ mislead you. The attendees of the conference range from college going students that are wise beyond their years, to working professionals that are young at heart. The beauty of it all is that age aside, we are all students here, striving to learn more from the residents of Bhopal at the ground level, from each other, and from ourselves.

The conference is a tremendous success for various reasons. Superb organizing by volunteers of AID Bloomington results in smooth transitions, punctual food arrivals, memorable social events, and long lasting bonds between conference attendees. Conference calls with Rajan Sharma, the attorney for the International Coalition for Justice in Bhopal (ICJB), and Sathyu Sarangi, a vital figure at the Sambhavna Clinic, provide us with valuable updates that will influence the direction our campaigns will take at the local levels. The Advisory Board’s debut is also a highlight of the conference, as they are spearheading the national SfB campaign along with Ryan Bodanyi.

Like any other conference, this one is also contains numerous sessions that are both interesting and informative. These sessions allow us to extract information from experts in their fields, and apply what we learned at our local chapters. We learn how to create local campaigns, how to recruit and retain members, how to expel Dow from our universities, and how to create city council resolutions. We learn the meaning of direct action, and we understand how to effectively pitch events to the media. We learn that we can contribute our strengths through various workgroups that have already been set up, workgroups that will strengthen SfB and help us grow as an organization and as a movement. We learn from the experiences of others, what worked and what didn’t, where we’ve succeeded and how far we have to go to win. We learn as students, thirsting for knowledge and never running out of questions. We learn as much as we can, and then we learn some more, till the last session of the conference.

As the weekend comes to a close, we sit outside in a circle, on the damp cobblestone of Indiana University, and pass around a label of Sevin, the chemical that “is responsible for the deaths of thousands”, as Aquene Freechild puts it. As we share our thoughts with each other and the street lamps dimly light the somber faces, I embed this image in my memory – a group of individuals from all walks of life who have come together here in search of a better future for those that live an ocean away from them. And as the conference began, it ends- I see myself surrounded by passion.

Organization
The Ecology Center is a Michigan-based environmental organization that
works for a safe and healthy environment where people live, work, and
play. Founded in 1970, the Ecology Center has approximately 6,000
members and supporters, 12 staff persons, several part-time consultants
and interns, and an 11-person Board of Directors. In recent years, the
Ecology Center has led successful campaigns to close down Michigan's
medical waste incinerators, improve the environmental performance of
the auto industry, and save thousands of acres of working farms and
valuable natural areas. The Ecology Center is the parent organization
of Recycle Ann Arbor, also a nonprofit organization, which operates the
premier recycling program in the state of Michigan.

Job Responsibilities
The Ecology Center’s Environmental Health Project works to protect
people’s health from toxic chemicals. The Project's focus includes
education of key constituencies on the link between the environment and
health, advocacy campaigns for non-toxic manufacturing and safe
consumer products, and state and national policy initiatives for reform
of chemicals policy. We run campaigns in market sectors including
health care, chemicals and pesticides, and we work in coalition with
several leading environmental health campaigns nationally, including
Health Care Without Harm and Coming Clean. In addition, the Ecology
Center’s Auto Project coordinates national campaigns to phase out the
use of toxic chemicals in the auto industry.

Our staff are advocates who translate cutting edge environmental
science into calls for changes in policy and in the marketplace. We
work in an informal, team atmosphere, where individual initiative and
priority setting is expected. Our methods emphasize research and
scientific credibility, developing reports, fact sheets and websites,
grassroots organizing with public health, environmental and
health-impacted communities, and crafting effective stories for the
media.

Primary responsibilities include:

• Working with the newly-formed Michigan Environmental Health Network,
a coalition of health care professionals and environmentalists working
to enact cutting-edge statewide environmental health policies.
• Strategizing with our campaign team to gain political support for our
agenda through coalition-building, grassroots organizing, lobbying,
media publicity, endorsements and message development.
• Working on regional and national campaigns to phase out the use of
toxic chemicals, potentially including efforts to clean up and reform
Dow Chemical's operations, to enact state-level PBT and/or other
innovative chemicals policy, and other campaigns.
• Bringing problems and solutions to the attention of decision-makers –
including government officials and corporate leaders – through direct
lobbying, testimony at public hearings, and high quality position
papers.
• Serving as a public spokesperson through media events, press
releases, editorial board meetings and other public relations tactics.

The person would join our staff working from our downtown Ann Arbor
office. Located in the center of the Great Lakes Basin, Ann Arbor is
widely considered one of the best places to live in the Midwest, with a
vibrant arts and music scene, great schools, terrific parks, and one of
the best public universities in the country, all a short drive from the
most beautiful natural areas in the region.

The position offers opportunity for educational and professional
development. It also has some shared organizational responsibilities
and office duties. Ecology Center staff are unionized, and actively
participate in organizational decision-making. This position is a
great opportunity for a creative person to make a difference working
for a nationally respected public interest organization with
outstanding colleagues.

Qualifications
• at least 5 years of relevant professional experience, including
grassroots organizing, political, policy, legal, journalistic, or
government settings;
• strong verbal and written communication and interpersonal skills,
including experience in preparing and delivering public presentations,
and ability to communicate technical information to the general public;
• an advanced degree in a relevant field is desirable;
• great leadership skills, self-initiative, and willingness to take
risks;
• must be passionate about protecting public health and the
environment, and tenacious in the face of challenges.

In addition, some experience with planning, fundraising for and
managing projects (including budgeting) would be preferable. We are,
however, flexible and will craft the position to meet the strengths of
the best candidate.

Compensation
Salary is commensurate with relevant professional experience. The
Ecology Center offers generous benefits, including medical, dental,
four weeks vacation, and retirement.

To Apply
Please send a cover letter, resume, and a current writing sample by
email to jobs@ecocenter.org. Alternatively, please fax to (734)
663-2414, or mail to Ecology Center, 117 N. Division, Ann Arbor, MI
48104. For more information, please call (734) 761-3186.

Application Deadline
Please apply before April 7, 2006. Applications received prior to
April 7 will be given priority, but we will continue to receive
applications until the position is filled.

The Ecology Center is an equal opportunity employer. Women,
minorities, and people of diverse cultural backgrounds are strongly
encouraged to apply.
___________________
Mike Garfield
Director
Ecology Center
117 N. Division
Ann Arbor, MI 48104
(734) 761-3186 ext. 104
michaelg@ecocenter.org
www.ecocenter.org