Who Is Dow
Chemical Company?
The Dow Chemical
Company is headquartered in Midland, USA, and was formed in 1897. The
Dow Chemical Company is a diversified, worldwide manufacturer of more
than 3,500 basic and performance chemicals and plastics, and agricultural
products that are primarily used by customers as raw materials to manufacture
a diverse range of products that serve various consumer markets. The Company
serves the following industries: appliance; automotive; agricultural;
building and construction; chemical processing; electronics; furniture;
housewares; oil and gas; packaging; paints, coatings and adhesives; personal
care; pharmaceutical; processed foods; pulp and paper; textile and carpet;
utilities, and water treatment. Dow conducts its worldwide operations
through global businesses that are organized in six operating segments:
Performance Plastics, Performance Chemicals, Agricultural Sciences, Plastics,
Chemicals, and Hydrocarbons and Energy.
The Dow Chemical Company is the world’s largest manufacturer of chemicals,
with annual sales exceeding USD30 billion. As the world's largest producer
of chlorine, an essential component of the potential cancer-causing chemical,
dioxin, Dow is undoubtedly the largest root source of dioxin on the planet.
In addition, through its subsidiary Dow AgroSciences, Dow is one of the
largest producers of insecticides (Dursban), herbicides (Clincher) and
fungicides, and has produced some of the most dangerous pesticides known
to man, including DDT, Dursban, and 2,4,5-T, the active ingredient of
Agent Orange. Dow is now increasing its investment in genetically modified
crops that can withstand high doses of its pesticides.
About Dow South Africa
Dow's headquarters
in Africa are located in Bryanston (Johannesburg), South Africa. Dow's
primary manufacturing location in South Africa is the Dow Plastics operation
in Sasolburg. This plant was previously a joint venture between Sentrachem
and Hoechst. When Dow acquired Sentrachem, Hoechst's 50% holding was purchased
by Dow making it wholly owned by Dow. The main products manufactured in
Sasolburg are polypropylene and high-density polyethylene. These products
are sold within Africa and globally. Propylene oxide is a potential occupational
carcinogen and is on the EPA (USA) list of hazardous air pollutants.
All DOW activities in South Africa:
http://www.bhopal.net/oldsite/dow-watch/dowcarbideworldwide.html
1. Bryanston, Bryanston houses the
Customer Services centre and corporate office, the main centre of Dow's
business in Southern Africa.
2. Old Mill Site, Canelands, Durban - Head office for Dow Agrochemicals
in South Africa. It has been reported that the chemical methyl isocyanate
is used at this plant, the same chemical that leaked from the Union carbide
plant in Bhopal, India. (See below for more details on Bhopal disaster)
3. Sentrachem, Kempton Park, A wholly owned subsidiary of The Dow Chemical
Company. Branches of Sentrachem also found in Sasolburg, Germiston, Isipingo,
Umgeni
4. Union Carbide South Africa (Proprietary) Limited, A Subsidiary of The
Dow Chemical Company, South Africa
5. Sasolburg is Dow's primary manufacturing location in South Africa.
6. Pretoria, Silverton is the administrative head office of the Southern
Africa LBU and all commercial activities (Crop SA and Africa, Speciality
and Efekto is conducted from this site. Research and Developement (R&D),
marketing, customer service and administrative functions are also based
on this site
Corporate Accountability
The chemical industry in South Africa
has been allowed to get away with murder. A global move towards greater
corporate accountability has shown that these companies can no longer
hide, shareholder activism is increasing and will lead to the downfall
of these companies, and most importantly civil society will no longer
remain silent. A sterling example of this is the two activists from Bhopal
who against all odds have campaigned against Dow chemicals. In recognition
of their work, Rashida Bee, who has lost six family members to cancer
since the leak, and her colleague, Champa Devi Shukla, received the coveted
Goldman Environmental Prize in San Francisco last month and are currently
touring the United States. They plan to attend the Dow shareholder meeting
on 13 May 2004 to make their voices heard. It is time that Dow accepts
its moral and legal responsibility for the world's worst industrial disaster.
Dow Chemicals Environmental Justice Legacy
Chemicals conspiracies,
1954 to date
Dow and Union Carbide knew in 1954
that vinyl chloride caused cancer, but they and other companies hid the
facts from their own workers, from the public and from the government
for years. See
www.pbs.org/tradesecrets/program/vinyl.html for the documents.
Napalm, 1968
Dow Chemical was the key manufacturer
of chemical warfare agents Napalm and Agent Orange for the US government
during the Vietnam War. The US government dropped more than 19 million
gallons of herbicidal agents on the Republic of Vietnam during the Vietnam
War.
2,4,5-T Poisons Globe, Arizona,
1970
In 1970, miscarriages and illnesses,
linked to the spraying of 2,4,5-T (half of Agent Orange) by the Forest
Service in Globe, Arizona, resulted in a court case between Dow and the
local community. Although Dow knew about the deleterious effects of the
herbicide, it refused to accept liability and finally settled in 1981.
The same situation arose in the Alsea Valley in Oregon, prompting the
EPA to prohibit 2,4,5-T. See Princeton University's The Progressive Review:
www.princeton.edu/~progrev/98-99/n6_jk.html
DBCP Sterilizes Thousands of Central
American Workers, 1970s
Dibromochloropropane (DBCP), a pesticide,
was banned in the U.S. in 1978 after its use was linked to both sterilization
and cancer. However Dow and other chemical manufacturers continued to
produce DBCP for export to newly industrializing countries. Twenty-five
thousand farm workers in Costa Rica and other countries brought suit against
Dow for sterility from DBCP’s use in banana crops. Dow initially tried
to block the suit from being brought, but ultimately was forced to settle
for $41.7 million along with Shell and Occidental Petroleum in 1997.
See http://multinationalmonitor.org/hyper/
issues/1991/07/mm0791_10.html
Union Carbide gas leak in Bhopal,
India, 1984
Twenty years ago a deadly gas leaked
from the Union Carbide’s pesticide factory in Bhopal, India killing more
than 8,000 people within three days and over 20,000 people have died to
date as a result of their exposure. An estimated 150,000 people continue
to suffer from long lasting effects of gas exposure, which include diminished
vision, cancer, and respiratory, neurological and gynecological disorders.
The chemical that was released, methyl isocyanate (MIC), is an ester of
isocyanic acid (HNCO). It is highly volatile and inflammable and is easily
produced and stored at room temperature.
Despite acquiring Union Carbide, Dow Chemical has refused to address Carbide's
pending liabilities in Bhopal that include medical and economic rehabilitation
of victims, clean up of toxic wastes and contaminated groundwater, and
provision of safe drinking water.
Exporting Unregistered Pesticides
to Africa, Latin America, 1990
Dow's joint venture with Eli Lilly,
DowElanco, exports two pesticides from the United States which are not
registered with the EPA. The EPA has refused DowElanco's registration
application for haloxyfop, an herbicide marketed under the names "Gallant"
and "Verdict," and has classified it as a "probable human
carcinogen." According to a July 1990 Greenpeace report, "Never-Registered
Pesticides," haloxyfop is used in Africa, Latin America, Asia and
Europe. The EPA has refused to set a permissible amount of residue (known
as food residue tolerances) for both haloxyfop and nuarimol, a DowElanco
product sold under the trade names "Gauntlet" and "Tridal."
The EPA refused to permit any nuarimol residues on food because it creates
cancer and birth defects in laboratory animals. Nevertheless, Greenpeace
reports that nuarimol is used in Africa, Colombia and Honduras and Europe.
Though the EPA technically bans haloxyfop or nuarimol residues on food
sold in the United States, they are likely to appear anyway, since "food
is rarely tested for residues at the border," according to the Greenpeace
report.
See http://multinationalmonitor.org/hyper/
issues/1991/07/mm0791_10.html
“Dead Peasant” Life Insurance, 2002
A few months ago, only a handful
of people had ever heard of "dead peasant" life insurance. But
word has gotten out now that Dow and a few other companies have been sued
for taking out secret life insurance policies on their employees and keeping
the proceeds when the workers die. As the widows and widowers file lawsuits
to recover the insurance money, which some judges have ruled rightly belong
to the family members, one well-known Houston law firm is trying to position
itself as the expert for companies to call when family members of deceased
employees start asking questions. See The Houston Chronicle: www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/business/sixel/1536606
Agent Orange Poisons One Million
Vietnamese, 2003
Birth defects resulting from contamination
with the chemical herbicide persist in today's third generation of grandchildren
of the war and its victims - with no end in sight. An estimated 650,000
victims suffer from chronic illnesses in Vietnam alone, and another 500,000
have already died, researchers say.
See Asia Times: www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/EG11Ak03.html
Agent Orange Found in Vietnamese Food Supply, 2003
Decades after the wartime defoliant
Agent Orange was sprayed over Vietnam, toxic chemicals continue to contaminate
Vietnamese people and the food they eat, according to a new study released
Monday. The finding, published in the August issue of the Journal of Occupational
and Environmental Medicine, found that six out of 16 food samples taken
last year from around the southern city of Bien Hoa, a former U.S. air
base, had levels of dioxin approaching those found during the Vietnam
War. “Dioxin was found in ducks, chickens, a bottom-dwelling fish and
a toad. Samples of pork and beef showed negligible levels.”
See Associated Press: http://famulus.msnbc.com/FamulusIntl/ap08-11-084802.asp?reg=PACRIM
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