Send a letter

Help us contact Dow Inc. and urge them to support a clean-up in Bhopal. You can use the one we have drafted below, or even write one in your own words.

Your letter will add support to those of others who have written to Dow Inc, reminding them that the continuing toxicity of Bhopal is not forgotten, and nor is Dow Inc’s responsibility for it, having acquired the Union Carbide Corporation’s assets.

You can send your letter to ethics@dow.com or even better, send a paper copy to the following address:

Mr. J Fitterling, CEO
Dow Inc.
627- 693 Washington St.
Midland
MI 48640
United States

Example Letter

Dear Mr Fitterling,

 

I am writing to support letters sent to you by Action for Bhopal – an independent group working towards a clean-up of the contaminated area of Bhopal affected by the Union Carbide (Dow Chemical, now Dow Inc.) site.

 

The suffering of the people of Bhopal should not be allowed to continue into yet another generation. The water contamination in the area, resulting from toxic residues left in the soil and water round the abandoned pesticide plant, is spreading. For many years now it has led to severe and debilitating birth defects in children and chronic and mortal sickness in the surrounding population. There is an urgent need for a clean-up of the site. Your company’s restructure provides a unique opportunity to put this right, since Dow Inc. is well known to be the successor to the Union Carbide Corporation which established the factory.

 

We hope that you will fulfil your stated intentions towards good corporate governance and your obligation to the local community in Bhopal, by restoring their environment and paying for a clear-up of the site. At present, the state of things in Bhopal is an abuse of both human rights and the environment.

 

We aware that this is a huge endeavour. However, Dow Inc., as one of the successor group of companies, have ample resources to fund it. We believe that financial support for a clean-up in Bhopal would also offer your company the chance to rebuild its reputation.  This is particularly crucial at this time when the world is having to reckon with the environmental destructiveness of its industries.

 

I therefore hope that you will accept the invitation to make this a priority and discuss it with both your directors and shareholders, with a view to definite action.

Yours faithfully,

You could also send a letter to your Pension Fund Managers or ISA Investment Managers

If you have savings such as an ISA, or a pension fund, you might write to your financial advisor or pension fund-holder to check whether any of our money is invested in any way in Dow’s shares. Even if you are working with an ethical investment company, which would make this very unlikely, it is worth writing anyway to flag up this issue and your concerns about it.

Example Letter

Dear

I am writing to you as the company handling my [pension, ISA, investments} for reassurance that my money has not been invested in any of the world’s large chemical companies.

In particular I am concerned about the track record of Dow Inc, formerly The Dow Chemical Company, who acquired the Union Carbide Company, USA, in 2001. As the successor company, having taken on both its assets and liabilities from that date, Dow has not just failed, but made strenuous efforts to avoid, taking any responsibility for the toxic site remaining uncleared in Bhopal, India, previously owned by UCC.

Though the 1984 gas explosion in Bhopal is still rated as the world’s worst industrial accident, what is less well known is that toxic waste dumping resulting from the company’s pesticide production has been contaminating the local water supply since before 1984 and continues to do so this day – and the pollution is spreading further each year. Many communities are affected and the local water is not safe to drink. Toxins from both gas and water have resulted in extreme birth defects, neo-natal deaths and much chronic illness.

It is not acceptable to me that a profitable company such as this, which has benefitted from the corporate assets it acquired, will not take responsibility for the environmental and human rights abuses being perpetuated by that same company. While representatives of Dow have been summoned to court hearings in India, no one from the United States has ever attended and they are therefore considered fugitives from justice.

I hope you will agree that this is not a company worthy of investment by any ethically minded person or company. I would like your assurance that none of the funds where my money (and preferably anyone else’s as well) will find their way into Dow Inc’s shares.

Yours faithfully,

Thank you