The Bhopal LowDOWn – for January 20, 2010
We’re trying a new format for the newsletter – let me know what you think.
Editor’s Note: We are all watching with a heavy heart as the disaster in Haiti unfolds. Bhopal activists know all too well that this environmental disaster, coupled with the human-made disasters of poverty and debt, will not be over for months or even years. Please do what you can in the days and years to come to help the people of Haiti. On www.charitynavigator.org, you can see a list of organizations involved in Haiti’s recovery.
1. Tell Anna University to Dump Dow!
Dow Chemical, the company responsible for the continuing medical and environmental disaster in Bhopal, is on a binge to purchase legitimacy. It has paid Rs. 5 lakhs (over $10,000) as sponsorship for College of Engineering at Anna Universiry in Chennai, Guindy’s Kurukshetra Techfest 2010. IIT Delhi and Kanpur have returned Dow’s money a day before the sponsored event. It is never too late to do the right thing! Find out how you can take action here. See our recent Press Release and a related news story from Jan 13 and from Jan 19.
2. Ringing in the New Year with a 2010 Bhopal Calendar
2009 was a monumental year for the Bhopal campaign. Read this full message to our supporters to learn more. Please ring in 2010 with ICJB, and help us build on the success of 2009 and remember the long history of this movement. Make a $15 (USD) donation and we will send you a beautiful 2010 Calendar: A Tribute to the 25 Year Struggle for Justice in Bhopal.
Click here to find out how to get a copy of this great calendar or donate $15 or more here now.
3. Threat of Bhopal-like Disaster grips W. Va Community
Ken Ward of the Charleston Gazette reported this week that Bayer CropScience has put the community around their Institute, WV plant at a high risk for a Bhopal-like disaster. According to the article, Bayer has “not properly maintained or tested the underground storage tank where it keeps roughly 200,000 pounds of methyl isocyanate, the deadly chemical that killed thousands of people in Bhopal, India, in 1984.”
Read the full article here. And read ICJB’s statement on the issue here.
4. Chicago Tribune reports on Dow’s Legacy in Vietnam
Agent Orange’s lethal legacy: Defoliants more dangerous than they had to be
Papers show firms didn’t act on data to reduce toxicity
Chicago Tribune, By Jason Grotto and Tim Jones
As the U.S. military aggressively ratcheted up its spraying of Agent Orange over South Vietnam in 1965, the government and the chemical companies that produced the defoliant knew it posed health risks to soldiers and others who were exposed.
That year, a Dow Chemical Company memo called a contaminant in Agent Orange “one of the most toxic materials known causing not only skin lesions, but also liver damage.”
Read the full article here.
Please donate to the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal
Contact: Shana Blustein Ortman
US Coordinator, International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal
49 Powell Street, Suite 500
San Francisco, CA 94102
shana@panna.org – email
www.studentsforbhopal.org – www.bhopal.net
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