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FORTY YEARS AFTER THE BHOPAL DISASTER, THE DANGER STILL REMAINS  
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Gary Cohen
December 18, 2024
The Progressive
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_ On the 40th anniversary of the Bhopal disaster -- with a death toll
of over 20,000 -- Senator Jeff Merkley, Representatives Pramila
Jayapal and Rashida Tlaib introduced a resolution designating December
3 as National Chemical Disaster Awareness Day. _

On the thirty-forth anniversary of the 1984 Bhopal Disaster,
survivors’ organizations marched to the abandoned Union Carbide
factory, (Rohit Jain: CC BY-NC 2.0)

 

Forty years ago this month, a Union Carbide pesticide factory in
Bhopal, India, sprung a toxic gas leak, exposing half a million people
to toxic fumes. Thousands of people lost their lives in the immediate
aftermath, with the death toll climbing
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more than 20,000 over the next two decades. Countless others,
including children of survivors, continue to endure chronic health
issues.

In the United States, the events in Bhopal ignited a grassroots
movement to expose and address the toxic chemicals in our water, air,
and neighborhoods. In 1986, just two years after the disaster, this
growing awareness led Congress to pass the first National Right to
Know Act
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which requires companies to publicly disclose their use of many toxic
chemicals.

In India, Bhopal victims have had a long struggle for justice. In
1989, survivors flew
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a Union Carbide shareholders meeting in Houston to protest the
inadequate compensation for the trauma they’d suffered. The
settlement awarded each Bhopal victim was a mere $500—which a
spokesperson for Dow Chemical, Union Carbide’s parent
company, called
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good for an Indian.” 

Union Carbide had the survivors arrested
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they could enter the meeting. Meanwhile, their abandoned chemical
factory was still leaking toxic chemicals into the surrounding
neighborhoods and drinking water. 

Nevertheless, Bhopal survivors never stopped fighting. They opened
a free clinic [[link removed]] to treat
the intergenerational health effects caused by the disaster.
They marched
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miles between Bhopal and New Delhi. They staged hunger strikes. They
created memorials to the disaster and established a museum to ensure
that the horrors of their collective past are not forgotten.   

The survivors even obtained
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extradition order for Union Carbide’s former CEO, Warren Anderson,
but the U.S. government never acted on that request. Forty years
later, the factory in Bhopal has never been properly cleaned
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is still leaking poison. 

Unfortunately, the kinds of chemicals that flow through the veins of
Bhopal survivors also flow through ours. The petrochemical industry
has brought us together in a perverse solidarity, having chemically
trespassed into places all over the world.

According to one figure, Americans are exposed
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dangerous chemical fires, leaks, and explosions about once every two
days. In one dramatic example in early 2023, a rail tanker filled with
vinyl chloride derailed
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East Palestine, Ohio, forcing the evacuation of 2,000 residents. 

Nearly all Americans now carry
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substances known as PFAS in our bodies. These have been linked to
cancer, liver and kidney disease, and immune dysfunction. And the
continued burning of fossil fuels is killing
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of people each year around the world through air pollution. 

Petrochemical and fossil fuel companies know they can only survive if
they avoid liability for the damage they are doing to our health and
the planet’s ecosystems. That’s why they are heavily invested in
lobbying to prevent any such accountability.

Polluting industries are certain to have strong allies in the coming
Trump Administration, which plans to open even more land to fossil
fuel production and, under the blueprint for conservative governance
known as Project 2025, to slash
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and public health regulations. But we can take inspiration from the
people of Bhopal, whose fierce commitment to health and justice
sparked a global movement.

Earlier this month, on the fortieth anniversary of the Bhopal
disaster, congressional allies of this movement including U.S. Senator
Jeff Merkley, Democrat of Oregon, and U.S. Representatives Pramila
Jayapal, Democrat of Washington, and Rashida Tlaib, Democrat of
Michigan, introduced
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resolution designating December 3 as National Chemical Disaster
Awareness Day.

“Chemical disasters are often the result of corporations cutting
corners and prioritizing profits over safety,” said Merkley, who
chairs the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works subcommittee.
“These catastrophes cloud communities with toxic fumes, upending
lives and threatening the health and property of those living and
working close by.” He called for “stronger laws to prevent
chemical disasters and keep our communities and workers safe.”

This growing global alliance, which has been called
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for environmental health and justice in history, is fighting for a
future in which everyone has the right to live in a healthy
environment. It’s a movement that unites us all. Because in many
ways, we all live in Bhopal now.

_Gary Cohen is the president of Health Care Without Harm and a long
time member of the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal._

_This column was produced for Progressive Perspectives
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magazine, and distributed by Tribune News Service._

_A voice for peace, social justice, and the common good! Since
1909, The Progressive magazine has aimed to amplify voices of
dissent and voices under-represented in the mainstream, with a goal
of championing grassroots progressive politics._

* Bhopal
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* Union Carbide
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* PFAS
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* chemical spill
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* Jeff Merkley
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* Environmental Protection
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