UNION CARBIDE KILLED 10 TIMES AS MANY AS 911- AND CHARLESTON, W. VA. MAY BE NEXT

UNION CARBIDE KILLED 10 TIMES AS MANY AS 911- AND CHARLESTON, W. VA. MAY BE NEXT
by • Wednesday June 12, 2002 at 07:51 PM


"If terrorists today, for example, were to penetrate into the (former Union Carbide) chemical plant in Charleston, West Virginia, where the same pesticides that were being made in Bhopal are being produced, with the same millions of liters of methyl isocyanate, we would have a catastrophe that would endanger the lives of some 250,000 Americans living the Kanawha Valley."


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Bhopal: 'An atomic bomb about to explode'
By Claude Salhani
From the Life & Mind Desk
Published 6/12/2002 6:42 PM


WASHINGTON, June 12 (UPI) -- Here is a quick quiz; which recent nefarious event killed the most people, and who was responsible for it?

If the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, jumps to mind as the most devastating attacks, think again. And if you believe Osama bin Laden to be responsible for the most civilian deaths in recent history, go back to your history books.

There was another incident -- 18 years ago -- that killed far more people.

The devastating incident in question occurred in the Indian city of Bhopal, on the night of Dec. 3, 1984. It was not terrorist-related, but the result of terrible miscalculation by Union Carbide, one of the world's leading chemical producing companies. UC was a behemoth corporation consisting of 130 subsidiaries in 40 countries, with 500 production sites that employed 120,000 people.

This goes to show that sometimes a multi-national corporation can kill far more people than terrorists -- and get away with it.

Of course, the Union Carbide executives did not set out deliberately to murder thousands of innocent people. And that makes their crime - essentially homicidal negligence - some degrees less vile than Osama bin Laden's plot to destroy the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

But on that deadly night, a highly toxic, inodorous, and invisible gas escaped from the plant, killing thousands of people and creating sheer pandemonium, as thousands more fled, not knowing exactly what hit them.

In a new book called "Five Past Midnight in Bhopal," (Warner Books, 403 pages, $25.95) famed author Dominique Lapierre looks back at the string of events that led to the largest industrial catastrophe in history, and left between 16,000 and 30,000 people dead, and another 150,000 suffering from continuing consequences.

Some of the experts warned UC of the dangers of the Bhopal plant: "Your engineers are out of their minds. They're putting an atomic bomb in the middle of your factory that could explode at any time," Lapierre quotes one of the experts.

In his moving and revealing book, Lapierre, and co-author Javier Moro, give a human face to the protagonists of an industrial adventure that implicated the wealthy West and the India of One Thousand and One Nights, and that ended up as an industrial Titanic.

In an exclusive interview with United Press International, Lapierre (who authored "The City of Joy," and along with Larry Collins wrote "The Fifth Horseman," "Freedom at Midnight," "O Jerusalem," and "Is Paris Burning,") said he was asked to establish a gynecology clinic for the women of Bhopal who were left without resources.

"I went to Bhopal and I was terrified and maddened that 18 years after the tragedy, nothing was done for these people," said Lapierre. "So I opened up this clinic and decided to tell the story of what occurred. We decided to do something for the 150,000 victims of the largest industrial catastrophe in history who continue to suffer."

What pushed Lapierre to become involved with India and Bhopal?

First and foremost, says Lapierre "it's a love story with India. It was also the challenge to reconstruct one of the most important events of our history -- the independence of India, a country that comprises one fifth of humanity."

"Then, with Bhopal, it was for humanitarian reasons, said the investigative author.

Lapierre is the only author at age 50 to share all his royalties with humanitarian actions. Having written several books on India, ("Freedom at Midnight," and "City of Joy,") since 22 year now, he has contributed towards the healing of 4 million people suffering from tuberculosis, and helped save 9 million children affected by leprosy in the slums of Calcutta. He has built 548 wells of potable water, and commissioned 4 hospital ships in the Ganges Delta that assist 1 million people living on 54 islands that do not appear on any maps.

"This investigation gave me a real love of the people of India. And when "Freedom at Midnight" became a huge success, I decided, along with my wife, to show my gratitude toward the Indian people. I went to Calcutta, met Mother Teresa, and began to work in the slums, using the royalties from my book."

Research for the Bhopal book took a painstaking three years, and made the author wonder if large, multi-national corporations could be trusted.

"Five Past Midnight in Bhopal," which has already sold more than one million copies in Europe alone, has acted as a wake up call to the dangers posed by the chemical industry.

Because of this book, the French government has reassessed the number of industrial sites at risk -- and discovered there were 1,209 in France that represented a potential threat. As a result some of the sites were shut down, including the one in Toulouse where an accident in Sept. 2001 killed 29 people and injured more than 4,000.

"It's a book that warns about the dangers of such installations," cautions Lapierre. "Especially today, in light of terrorist threats, this book becomes even more factual. If terrorist today, for example, where to penetrate into the (former Union Carbide) chemical plant in Charleston, West Virginia, where the same pesticides that were being made in Bhopal are being produced, with the same millions of liters of methyl isocyanate, we would have a catastrophe that would endanger the lives of some 250,000 Americans living the Kanawha Valley."

While the threat in West Virginia of potential terrorism lingers in the air, much like the nauseous smells produced by the chemical plant, the ill effects of Bhopal continues, unabated.

Today, 18 years after the catastrophe, there are still about 9,000 tons of toxic waste on the former site of the Union Carbide plant.

"This," says Lapierre "causes the water tables that feed into the wells where more that 150,000 people live, to become polluted with chrome, mercury, lead and zinc. That surpasses several hundred times the allowed levels. Greenpeace just did a study, and it is frightening."

Lapierre is upset that nothing is being done to care for, or treat, the survivors of the Union Carbide catastrophe, and their children.

Four years after the incident, Union Carbide paid 470 million dollars to the Indian government to settle all outstanding issues. Funds, which the government never filtered down to the people. There was never a trial, and no one was ever brought to justice.

"The question was asked, what is an Indian life worth," said Lapierre. "The Wall Street Journal did a study and said that an American life is worth more or less half a million dollars. Based on India's gross national production, which represents 1.7% of the American GNP, the life of an Indian was found to be worth $8,000."

And the problems are far from over.

"Today, the conditions of genital cancers, of children born with deformations, of respiratory problems are terrifying, which allows us to believe that similar to atomic radiation, the gas that was being produced by Union Carbide has penetrated into the genes."

"What worries me more," said Lapierre, "is that even 18 years later, Union Carbide has never accepted to reveal the composition of the toxic gas that killed between 16,000 and 30,000 people. The medical corps was never able to establish a particular treatment for the victims."

Why that great a discrepancy in the number of deaths? Indians, explains Lapierre, do not carry identification cards. Many of the victims were migrant workers with no fixed address. Entire families died and left no one to report their deaths. Following local traditions, the dead were rapidly buried or cremated.

"We traced and found the invoices of logs of wood that were used for funeral pyres by Hindus, then found invoices for cloths that were used as burial shrouds by Muslims," said Lapierre. That, he said, was the only solid evidence to go by.

Warren Anderson, chairman of Union Carbide at the time of the accident is the man that Lapierre holds responsible. "He is involuntarily responsible. Do you know a man that has caused more harm than Osama bin Laden?" he asks. "Yes," he replies to his own question. "Warren Anderson, who today remains in hiding. No one has been able to find him, even thought Interpol has a warrant out for his arrest."

Lapierre will continue to pressure so that those responsible are brought to justice. "It is unthinkable that a tragedy that caused so many deaths, remains unpunished"

But, thanks to the book, some things are starting to change. A New York judge has just forced Union Carbide to reveal something the company was always reluctant to -- the secret composition of the gas that killed. If that happens, Lapierre is hopeful that a treatment could be found.

One of the reasons cited by the industry for not revealing the components is that they claim that terrorists could learn to copy these lethal gasses.

"Maybe things will change. Until now, the U.S. justice always said this occurred in India, and that it was up to them to solve them. Union Carbide today no longer exists, having been taken over by Dow Chemicals. Dow says they never had any responsibilities in this affair. They were never in Indian and never fabricated Sevin," the gas that killed the thousands in Bhopal.

But Lapierre believes that 9/11 has changed many Americans. "They have discovered that people are vulnerable, and that they (Americans) are more vulnerable, too. There is greater solidarity today following the Twin Towers."

Lapierre hopes that the chemical industry will learn from past mistakes. He hopes his book will alert the chemical industry to the dangers of building such potentially dangerous sites too close to heavily populated centers. In Bhopal, UC found it was far less expensive to build the plant near the city.

"Charleston, WV., is 10 times the size of Bhopal. You enter there and there is such a smell that grabs you... it smells of rotten cabbage. Of course, Charleston is far more protected, there are alarms, and sensors. It is the most safety conscious plant in the world. But if terrorists attack such sites, watch out....

"But you know, the chemical industry is silent, but it smells. It makes no noise, but it stinks."

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