Exposing Dow

 
Published: Thursday 15 January 2009

-- In October activists of the International Campaign for Justice for Bhopal issued an advertisement in the brochures of the India Chem exhibition. But the advert was issued in the name of Clean Chemistry Council, a fictitious European public relations firm, offering consultancy to corporations for improving their public image. The ad cited Dow Chemical as a pioneer in charity "with a lot of strings attached". It said that Dow's donation of Rs 1 crore to supply artificial feet to amputees, stymied activists seeking justice for Bhopal gas victims--Dow acquired Union Carbide, the company responsible for the Bhopal gas tragedy. "For every child crippled by Carbide's poison, there was an amputee benefiting from its profits," the ad said. The artificial feet were originally made of vulcanized rubber but Dow substituted it with polyurethane, one of its major products.

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