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The Bhopal Reader

(1984-2005)

edited by Bridget Hanna, Satinath Sarangi and Ward Morehouse  -- Apex Press, New York, 2005

This anthology of primary documents, a co-production of the Bhopal Memory project, the Bhopal Group for Information and Action, and the Apex Press, is the most comprehensive reference in existence about the Bhopal gas disaster and it's aftermath.

Covering all aspects of the disaster, and with understandable, succinct introductions by the editors about each topic, the Reader brings together primary and secondary documents about the disaster from accross discipines and political boundaries, many of which are published and translated from Hindi for the first time. Additionally, the book outlines the main conflicts and parties that have played parts in this struggle, as well as providing extensive bibliographic resource, contact, web and film references.

This book is a crucial resource for anyone studying the Bhopal gas disaster, or the aftermath of any chemical disaster.  For an independent review of the book, click here.  For the table of contents, and summary of available material in the Reader, see below.  For more information, write bhopal@bard.edu

THE BHOPAL READER

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PREFACE  ........... 10

INTRODUCTION  ........... 11

THE BHOPAL TIMELINE  ........... 14

PART 1: DISASTER  ........... 20

1.              Bhopal              20

A student and apprentice at a tailor's shop, Ramesh was 12 years old in December 1984 and living in Jai Prakash Nagar.  ................. 20

Bano Bi was a 35 year old housewife living in Chhawani, Managlwara the night of the gas disaster.  ................. 21

Journalist Suketu Mehta captures the human dimension of the tragedy in this, the first of a series of vignettes about the victims of Union Carbide’s negligence.  ................. 22

2.              Predictions              24

Ramkishan, 40, was a worker at the Carbide factory, and lived close to it.  ................. 25

This 1980 letter from the Factory Inspector in Bhopal demonstrates the laxity of the “culture of safety” at the Bhopal pesticide plant, and the generally unconcerned attitude of corporate officers about chemical injury.  ................. 25

Letter by M.L. Ranjhi regarding the death of worker Mr. Ashraf Mohd.from chemical exposure, with a response from Union Carbide.  ................. 26

Rajkumar Keswani, a journalist concerned about the state of the factory, wrote a series of articles in the Rapat Weekly, begging the city to take notice of the dangers the Carbide factory posed.  He concludes “For now Bhopal sleeps, till the next morning and possibly to never get up some morning.”  ................. 27

In this poetic letter to Arjun Singh, then chief minister of the state, Keswani, a journalist and concerned citizen, begs the minister to investigate the Carbide factory before Bhopal “turns into Hitler’s gas chamber.”  ................. 29

A letter to Union Carbide India Limited by Shahanawaz Khan, Advocate, warning of the dangers of the Bhopal factory.  ................. 30

Internal documents of the Union Carbide Corporation describing the use of unproven technology in the Bhopal plant, and the differences between it and its “sister” in Institute, West Virgina, USA.  ................. 31

Lawyer for Bhopal Survivors and Activists, H. Rajan Sharma, explains the significance of the Carbide discovery documents showing that design flaws may have caused the Bhopal disaster.  ................. 32

3.              Explanations              34

Why and how did the gas disaster happen in Bhopal? An article by New York University media studies professor Arvind Rajagopal.  ................. 35

Why was a large pesticide factory built in Bhopal in the first place?  What were the conditions in India and Madhya Pradesh that motivated Carbide to build the plant, and officials to allow its construction?  Ward Morehouse and Chandana Mathur explain.  ................. 37

A specific analysis of the various causes of the disaster from the report of the international trade union delegation (ICFTU-ICEF) that visited Bhopal in 1985.  ................. 38

The report, excerpted here, of the Indian Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) studies the nature of the storage and use of MIC, and the “factors and circumstances which lead to the chemical reaction and the gas leak.”  ................. 43

Union Carbide hired the consulting firm, Arthur D. Little, Inc. to investigate what happened in December 1984.  The results of that investigation were presented at a technical meeting in London in May 1988; excerpts from their report follow.  ................. 47

M.L, Varma, the worker believed to be Carbide’s sabotage suspect, tells his story of the night of the gas disaster and of the factory’s internal politics.  ................. 49

4.              Just Compensation?              52

The story of Batul Bi, a gas widow, who has tried for years to get compensation for her husband’s death and her own chronic health problems.  ................. 53

Veena Das of Delhi University probes the interface between physical and mental suffering and the behavior of the judiciary and the government around the Indian government's major legislative response to the disaster, namely the Bhopal Gas Leak (Processing of Claims) Act.  ................. 54

Sessions of the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal on Industrial and Environmental Hazards and Human Rights took place at the Yale Law School in the U.S. and then in Bangkok, Bhopal and London from 1990 to 1994. In this excerpt the tribunal issues a decision on the Bhopal disaster.  ................. 59

According to Usha Ramanathan, an international human rights lawyer, industrial risk was a dormant concern in Indian law until the Bhopal Gas Disaster.  The essay excerpted here traces the impact of Bhopal and the steps that have been taken through legislation and litigation to protect communities at risk.  ................. 62

H. Rajan Sharma, a lawyer who is presently representing residents of Bhopal in a Federal class action against Union Carbide in US courts, brings the legal story up to date, outlines his case, and looks at what Bhopal means for the future of Human Rights.  ................. 65

On the 20th anniversary of the disaster, Amnesty International issued a report reviewing the responses to the Bhopal disaster.  In this section describing the compensation process, they articulate some of the hurdles that have come between claimants and settlement money.  ................. 71

5.              Criminals (and Corporations)              75

In the immediate aftermath of the disaster, India’s Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) enumerated the criminal acts alleged to have caused the Bhopal disaster.  Twenty years later, all of these crimes remain unpunished.  ................. 76

In 1984 Warren Anderson, then CEO of Union Carbide Corporation, was arrested in Bhopal for culpable homicide in the Bhopal case.  He signed a bail bond, paid 25,000 Rs., and promised to return for trial.  He has still not responded to the following warrant.  ................. 81

The UK’s Daily Mirror tracked down Warren Anderson living out a luxurious retirement.  The company had claimed they did not know his location.  ................. 82

Bhopal activist Tim Edwards explores Dow’s legal responsibility for Bhopal.  ................. 84

V. Venkatesan of Frontline probes the legal basis for U.S. government's rejection of India's request to extradite Warren Anderson, former Chairman of Union Carbide Corporation.  ................. 84

Ward Morehouse and Chandana Mathur address the central  issue in pursuing the criminal charges against Warren Anderson and the Union Carbide Corporation – whether they are subject to criminal law jurisdiction of  the Indian courts.  ................. 87

Although the Bhopal court ruled subsequently that by February 15, 2005 Dow must show cause why it should not be asked to make Union Carbide face trial, this application to the court exemplifies the corporate veils and shifting assets that make multinationals so difficult to bring to trial.  ................. 88

This order, requiring Dow Chemical Company, USA to state why it cannot present the absconder UCC in the ongoing criminal case for the ’84 disaster, is one of the first legal orders to directly involve Dow in Carbide’s liability.  ................. 91

PART 2: TWENTY MORE YEARS  ........... 93

6.              Surviving              93

These brief, personal testimonials by survivors illustrate the continuing hardship of the aftermath of the Union Carbide disaster.  ................. 93

These two vignettes by Suketu Mehta deal with the difficulties of making a life after the gas.  Sajida Bano is a gas widow who has to leave home after the disaster; Harishankar Magician has to adjust his trade to his condition after exposure.  ................. 95

This speech was delivered by prize winners and Bhopal activists Rashida Bee and Champa Devi Shukla when they received their “green nobels.”  Bi and Shukla, both survivors, have been running a  trade union of gas exposed women workers in an office stationary production unit for eighteen years.  ................. 96

Suroopa Mukerjee looks into the conflicts within Bhopal, between the sick and struggling of Old Bhopal, different activist groups, the decision-makers and bureaucrats of New Bhopal, and the blame game that keeps them all apart.  ................. 97

7.              Sickness              103

Daya R. Varma, one of the few scientists to study the effects of MIC on living systems, conducted research on its relationship to reproduction, and its effect on pregnancy through tests on mice.  ................. 104

This selection from a paper by Ramana and Rosaline  Dhara explores the dilemmas facing those striving to provide effective medical treatment to the gas disaster survivors.  ................. 106

A summary of the report of the International Medical Commission on Bhopal (IMCB) by one of its members, Birger Heinzow, MD.  ................. 107

A study by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) that reflects the challenge of determining health impacts in Bhopal through epidemiological methods, but that nonetheless determines that exposed people are still dying faster than the unexposed.  ................. 113

A report on the mental health situation among the victims, by an expert involved with treatment and  research in the aftermath of the disaster.  ................. 114

Conclusion of research letter (coauthored by Nishant Ranjan, Satinath Sarangi, V.T. Padmanabhan, Steve Holleran, Rajasekhar Ramakrishnan, and Daya Varma), examining the effects of exposure to Carbide’s gases on the physical growth pattern of offspring of exposed people.  ................. 117

8.              Contamination              118

Carbide’s internal documents clearly show that the company knew there was possibility of contamination from the beginning, knows there is currently contamination at the site, and has known all this for some time.  ................. 119

In 1991 and 1996 tests on local groundwater taken from 11 tubewells were carried out by the M.P. Public Health Engineering Department’s State Research Laboratory. Extract of report translated from the original in Hindi.  ................. 121

Indian government research agency NEERI’s report titled “Assessment of contaminated areas due to past waste disposal practices at EIIL, Bhopal,” was sponsored by Eveready Industries India Limited (corporate successor to UCIL) and is often cited by both Dow and Carbide. Following is an extract from the report.  ................. 122

ADL, the consulting firm that Union Carbide depended on to craft their ‘sabotage theory’ report, had these criticisms of the 1997 NEERI report that is UCC’s primary defense against allegations of continuing ground contamination.  ................. 122

This summary of ground water samples collected around UCIL premises (April 03 - Jan 04) found a variety of chemicals and pesticides consistently in wells within 2km radius of the former factory.  ................. 123

In one of the only efforts to document the health effects of ground water contamination from the Union Carbide factory, the Sambhavna clinic surveyed 1528 individuals from 270 families, between 17 July 2001 to 9 January 2003. This is their brief conclusion.  ................. 124

In 2002 Greenpeace International took a scientific team to the grounds of the former Union Carbide plant to record and measure the chemical stockpiles left behind at the site, and their continuing effects on the local environment.  ................. 124

Kalpana Sharma, a regarded Indian journalist, investigates why it took a hunger strike by three Bhopal survivors/activists, and an international campaign, to get the Indian government to agree that Union Carbide should clean up the factory site.  ................. 126

A statement from the Government of India to a Federal District Court judge in New York that it would have no objection if the court were to rule that Union Carbide Corporation should be required to clean up the factory site.  ................. 128

9.              Healing              130

Beginning with the thiosulphate controversy in the disaster’s immediate aftermath, and ending with the effects of groundwater contamination, Satinath Sarangi charts the troubled history of attempts to address the medical crisis in Bhopal.  ................. 130

This report, researched in 1994 by M. Verweij, M.D., S.C. Mohapatra, M.D. and R. Bhatia M.D., details the limitations of the health infrastructure existing in Bhopal, and outlines a model for the kind of community based health system still needed.  ................. 136

Because there is no treatment protocal or understanding of the combinations of symptoms that result from gas exposure, much of the treatment and many of the prescriptions at the Bhopal Hospital Trust are ineffective or harmful. Dr Atanu Sarkar reports.  ................. 140

In the summer of 2000 Maya Shaw spent two months in Bhopal investigating the health care provided in the Bhopal Memorial Hospital Trust community clinics.  She was disappointed with what she found.  ................. 142

Richard Mahapatra, writing for “Down to Earth,” describes an example of ayurvedic treatment of a gas leak survivor at the Sambhavna Trust Clinic.  ................. 147

Bhopal survivors, local activists, and a handful of medical professionals and social workers created the Sambhavna Clinic, which provides allopathic, ayurvedic and yogic treatment for the gas affected. Emily Polk describes the clinic  ................. 149

This report by Jonathan Nash from November 2002 looks at the usage and usefulness of private, uncertified medical practitioners in Bhopal.  Inexpensive and flexible, street doctors are often the only option for treatment of the gas affected.  ................. 150

PART THREE: CHANGES  ........... 158

10.              Movements              158

People’s movements in Bhopal have been the relentless motivator for justice that has carried the issue for two decades.  Songs like the one translated here, adapted from Balli Singh Cheema, have given strength and voice to these protests.  ................. 159

Suketu Mehta, in another part of his series, examines the women’s movements in Bhopal in the years after the disaster.  ................. 160

Amrita Basu looks at the emergence of women’s movements in Bhopal, and at the mothers who have mobilized to stage large-scale protests and actions for their cause.  ................. 160

Satinath Sarangi, an activist in Bhopal since 1984, presented a history of agitation in Bhopal in testimony before a session of the Permanent People’s Tribunal on Environmental and Industrial Hazards.  ................. 163

As the second post-disaster decade began, increasing effort to inform a wider audience took form, as exemplified by this full page ad that appeared in the New York Times. Endorsed by 25 environmental and human rights organizations, it tries to expose Carbide’s duplicity in dealing with the Bhopal issue.  ................. 165

Penny Wark of the Times (UK)’s article about Rashida Bi and Champa Devi, winners of the Goldman Environmental Prize.  ................. 167

This list of demands, published by the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal (ICJB), enumerates the many problems and needs that form the basis for agitation in the next years.  ................. 169

Ryan Boydani, an activist who runs “students for Bhopal” summarizes student activism on Bhopal around the world on the 20th anniversary.  ................. 170

11.              Evasion              173

Carbide’s CEO at the time, Warren Anderson, at a press conference in March 1985, began trying to shift the blame to “operating plant personnel” –  i.e., workers employed by Carbide’s Indian subsidiary and to hint at the possibility of worker sabotage.  ................. 174

Chemical industry based journalist, Wil Lepkowski, explores the internal culture of the Carbide Corporation.  ................. 175

In response to Ward Morehouse's review of Jamie Cassels’ book The Uncertain Promise of Law: Lessons from Bhopal (July/August 1994), The Ecologist received the following letter from Bud Geo Holman of the law firm Kelley Drye & Warren, and response from Morehouse:  ................. 180

Letters published in The Nation magazine between Carbide public relations official Bob Berzok and Joshua Karliner, the author of an article, on the tenth anniversary of the disaster.  ................. 181

Claude Alvares, an Indian journalist, tells the story of how a lawyer for the officials of Carbide’s Indian subsidiary abandoned the “sabotage theory” in the Magistrate’s Court in Bhopal.  ................. 182

Activist Satinath Sarangi tells stories of discussing the issue of Bhopal in person – from jail cells and in conference rooms  – with the individuals whose job it is to communicate Union Carbide’s positions to the public.  ................. 183

In this letter to all Dow employees,  then CEO of Dow, Michael Parker, presents the company’s position that it will never accept responsibility for what its wholly owned subsidiary did to the people of Bhopal.  ................. 184

The Dow Corporation contracted Brown, Nelson & Associates to manage its website on Bhopal, www.bhopal.com.  Excerpted here is the description of the capabilities of this Houston, Texas firm in their own words.  ................. 186

In Spring 2004, the Bard Human Rights Project responded to an information request about their Bhopal project from the email address horsenuzzler@aol.com.  Immediately after referring “HN” to an unpublished draft of the project, HRP was contacted by Dow and then by UCC in an uncharacteristically long exchange of letters about Bhopal.  ................. 187

12.              Responsibility              196

While community organizations around the world were demanding better regulation of chemical companies, the corporations took an ingenious step called “responsible care” – a self-regulation/public relations initiative for environmental safety.  ................. 197

Dow’s Trespass (2004)  ... 200

A comprehensive examination of Dow’s record by Jack Doyle concludes with this articulation of the company’s long history of “toxic trespass.”  ................. 200

Dow Chemical:  Risks for Investors (2004)  ... 201

Report prepared by Innovest Strategic Value Advisors, assessing Dow’s prospects as a solid financial investment, given its continuing liability in Bhopal and elsewhere, illustrates that Bhopal may be beginning to penetrate the corporation where it matters – with the stockholders.  ................. 202

Bhopal Critics in Web Hoax Against Dow Chemical (2002)  ... 203

Claudia H. Deutsch describes a 2002 stunt by The Yes-Men, an activist duo, who put up a website called www.dow-chemical.com, subtly parodying the actual Dow website and their position on Bhopal.  ................. 203

The BBC has fallen victim to an elaborate hoax (2004)  ... 203

On the 20th anniversary of the gas disaster, the BBC contacted the wrong website for comment from Dow Chemical.  For a few minutes, the world took seriously the possibility of justice for Bhopal.  ................. 203

Dow’s Retraction of the Settlement Story (2004)  ... 205

Dow reacts to the “unfortunate situation” caused by a hoax that announced that they were taking responsibility for the Bhopal disaster.  ................. 205

The Yes-Men Tell the Story of the Hoax (2004)  ... 205

Andrew Bichlbaum, who posed as “Jude Finesterra,” Dow spokesman, and his partner in crime, tell the story of the hoax that shook Dow, the BBC and all of Bhopal.  ................. 205

13.              Do We All Live in Bhopal?              208

Introduction:  Bhopal remains terribly unique and unsettlingly normal.  ....... 208

Hawk’s Nest: Carbide’s American Disaster (1986)  ... 209

Union Carbide also caused the worst industrial disaster in the United States.  Excerpted here is a brief account of the Hawk’s Nest Tunnel in West Virginia in 1930 as told by Martin Cherniack.  ................. 209

We All Live in Bhopal (1985)  ... 210

George Bradford (a.k.a. David)’s essay published in the Fifth Estate, the anarchist quarterly, was an early articulation of the global significance of the world’s worst industrial disaster.  ................. 210

Charter on Industrial Hazards and Human Rights (1996)  ... 213

One of the most important efforts to codify and apply the lessons of the Bhopal disaster was this charter on industrial hazards and human rights.  Excerpted here are the introduction and first set of articles.  ................. 213

Lots of Chemicals, Little Reaction (2004)  ... 214

Rick Hind and David Halperin look at how the lessons of Bhopal are being forgotten in the current drive for domestic security in the USA.  ................. 214

Greenpeace’s Bhopal Principles on Corporate Accountability  (2002)  ... 215

The principles on corporate accountability that Greenpeace presented to the 2002 Earth Summit were named after Bhopal, because internationally Bhopal has come to  exemplify corporate crime.  ................. 215

Redefining the Public Debate on Chemical Security (2004)  ... 217

U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, which has been analyzing serious accidents in U.S. chemical plants and other industrial facilities.  Here are some disturbing findings from CSB investigations.  ................. 217

Amnesty International’s 20 Year Report on Bhopal (2004)  ... 218

On the 20th anniversary, Amnesty added their voice to the chorus of survivors and organizations, including Greenpeace, and followed shortly after by chapters of Friends of the Earth, demanding justice and rehabilitation in Bhopal. This is their conclusion.  ................. 218

CONCLUSION  ........... 220

RESOURCE LISTS  ........... 221

ACRONYMS  ........... 231