MEWS FOCUS
Union Carbide-Bhopal Saga Continues as Criminal Proceedings Begin in India Opinions vary on India's bid to try Union Carbide and its former chairman on criminal charges, as bureaucratic snafus mar relief efforts in Bhopal currently living in Greenwich, Conn. But the Bhopal court has threatened seizure of Anderson's assets as well as those of UCIL unless he shows up by the March 27 deadline. If he n a trial that will probably last for years and keep interdoes not appear by then (and Carbide indicates he won't), national corporate law scholars debating for decades, extradition proceedings could begin. Anderson, who retired criminal proceedings have begun in India against from Carbide in 1986, declines to discuss his legal situation Union Carbide and its Indian affiliate, Union Carbide India with the press. Ltd. (UCIL) for the December 1984 methyl isocyanate (MIC) The rebirth of Bhopal litigation may be a surprise to those gas disaster in Bhopal. The case is currently before the magwho assumed the $470 million settlement between Carbide istrate in Bhopal who has been calling for the appearance of and the Indian government in February 1989 ended the Warren M. Anderson, chairman of Union Carbide at the matter. The settlement was mediated by India's Supreme time of the calamity. Court, which was considering an appeal brought to it by The day after the disaster, Anderson flew to Bhopal to faCarbide from a court in Madhya Pradesh state, the state cilitate Carbide's role in relief operations. But just as he got Bhopal is located in, at the time Carbide termed the settleoff the plane at Bhopal airport, he was arrested, booked, ment "full and final." But public outcry was so strong that placed under house arrest, then released on bail. Because he the court agreed to review its decision. It completed its rehas not appeared for arraignment, the magistrate is calling view last December, upholding the settlement but restoring him an absconder from justice and has made moves toward the criminal charges it had thrown out as part of the 1989 extraditing him to India. ruling. The chief judicial magistrate of Bhopal district court is The $470 million—now closer to $600 million because of Gulab Sharma who filed a summons for Anderson's appearinterest gained—currently sits in the State Bank of India. ance on Dec. 1, 1991. That was followed by a legal notice None of it has been distribpublished Jan. 1 in the uted to the tens of thouWashington Post that out5 sands of victims, pending lined the charges against | the untangling of hopelessAnderson, ordering him to 2? ly complex claims probappear by Feb. 1. Andered lems in Bhopal. Meanson has remained unwhile, about 500,000 Bhobudged and a new March pal residents have been ^ 27 deadline has been set. receiving 200 rupees or The criminal charges $8.00 ($1.00 = 25 rupees) a against Carbide were month from the Indian brought by India's Central government as part of earBureau of Investigation. lier judicial orders. Some Anderson is not the only local Bhopal politicians are corporate officer under inasserting in campaign talk dictment. Others are that the whole city of more former UCIL chairman K. than 1.5 million be deMahindra; its managing clared eligible for paydirector and current chairments. man V. P. Gokhale; former Carbide believes that as vice president K. Kamdar; of last October, its legal, . former Bhopal plant mancorporate, and moral ager J. Mukund; and plant business was completed operators R. B. Choudhary, in India. It has pulled furS.P.Choudhary,K.V.Shetther back from affiliation ty, and S. I. Qureshi. with UCIL by having desUnion Carbide's plant in Bhopal Anderson is listed as Wil Lepkowski, C&EN Washington
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MARCH 16,1992 C&EN
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ignated it in 1990 an "unconsolidated affiliate," which The civil trial was sent to India by the federal district means UCIL no longer is included in Carbide's financial court in New York in 1986 after several failed attempts to books as it was at the time of Bhopal. Carbide still owns reach a settlement. The decision thus opened the way to en50.9% of the Indian company, which continues to produce tanglements in India's legal system, leading to the criminal Eveready batteries for the South Asian market. (In 1986 Cartrial. Preparations for the trial began this past December bide sold its international battery business to Ralston Puriwith arraignments before Sharma. na, but because of the Bhopal litigation was barred from Victor E. Schwartz, a Washington, D.C., attorney who detransferring the Indian affiliate to Ralston.) fends corporations in tort cases, doesn't think much of the idea of Carbide returning to India to stand trial, and beCarbide says it is under no legal obligation to stand trial in lieves Carbide is well out of the woods in the matter of India. 'Union Carbide agreed in 1986 to submit to the civil Bhopal. "As a practical matter/ / he says, law jurisdiction of the Indian courts/' Jo"I would say Carbide came to the end of seph E. Geoghan, vice president and genthe road. That the Indian government will eral counsel for the company, commented be able to enforce a criminal sanction recently. 'That litigation was concluded against the parent in the U.S. is highly unwith a $470 million settlement [in Februcm. | NOTICES likely. I don't think they'll be able to do it. ary 1989]." 90*899 In this case, which has had all these ups Geoghan also said: "Union Carbide 815 Legal Notices and downs, there isn't the type of ring to Corp. has never appeared before an IndiCOURT OF SHRI GULAB it that's going to create any outcry that an criminal court and has never agreed to SHARMA, CHIEF JUDICIAL MAGISTRATE, BHOPAL, would compel [Carbide] to submit to Indisubmit to the criminal law jurisdiction of MADHYA PRADESH, INDIA an criminal court jurisdiction. It always the Indian courts. Neither the corporation DOCKET R.T. NO. 2792 OF 1997 (ARISING OUT OF CASE - RC had seemed to me that India [was] levernor its past chairman, Warren M. Ander3/84-ACUU) CBI SPE NEW DELHI STATE THROUGH aging criminal law to force more compenson, are otherwise subject to criminal ju(CENTRAL BUREAU OF INVESsation in the civil case. In this country we TIGATION, NEW DELHI, INDIA) risdiction in India. Union Carbide India Vs dard a at least try to keep civil and tort law sepaMR. WARREN ANDERSON, Ltd. and Indian citizens have appeared other £ FORMER CHAIRMAN, quail " UNION CARBIDE CORPORATION, rate." before the court." Carbide has said, howa cu U.S.A., AND 11 OTHERS Law ACCUSED relati ever, that the criminal trial would offer Schwartz also argues that for economic bia's PROCLAMATION REQUIRING under opportunity to prove that the cause of the reasons India cannot afford to mount a THE APPEARANCE dlrec? OF A PERSON ACCUSED Depai accident was employee sabotage, not continuing threat against a major multina(SECTION 82 OF THE CODE OF norlt* CRIMINAL PROCEDURE 1973) Flrrr company negligence. (ACT II OF 1974 OF INDIA) tional corporation. "You have a country der t Whereas complaint has been made Prog before me that Mr. Warren Anderthat has severe economic problems and D. S. Sastri, legal counsel to the Indian proi» son, S/O late J.M. Anderson, Fordevr mer Chairman, Union Carbide Corneeds to attract capital. But with these acEmbassy in Washington, D.C., during QUE poration, U.S.A., R/O 54, Greenwich Hill Drive, Greenwich CT-06831 U.tions they are unlikely to be successful." the Bhopal years, says Geoghan is misSped. S.A. has committed the offence of Issued culpable homicide not amounting to dance reading international jurisprudence. A New York lawyer familiar with the murder, voluntarily causing grievment P ous hurt by dangerour weapons or Bhopal case, speaking only on a back"Warren Anderson was arrested," means, mischief by killing of animals and the commission of such offences mar' with criminal intention of knowledge ground basis, is equally dubious of any says Sastri. "The arrest starts the crimiJam etc., punishable under Sections, 304, east; 324, 326, 429 and 35 of Indian Penal enthusiasm by the Indian authorities to nal proceedings in terms of acquiring judres; Code 1860, and if has been returned to a warrant of arrest thereupon prosecute Anderson or Carbide. "We risdiction. Then he was released on bail. issued that the said Mr. Warren Anderson cannot be found, and have been told that the proliferation of He appeared before the magistrate. And whereas it has been shown to my satisfaction that the said Mr. WarBhopal litigation is hurting business in Innow he is just like any other bail jumper. At) ren Anderson has absconded or Is concealing himself to avoid the serREQUL dia. Firms from Japan and the West are There's no question that he must submit vice of the said warrant; Proclamation is hereby made that shying away. Put yourself in the position to the criminal court." Sastri adds that the said Mr. Warren Anderson of 54, Greenwich Hill Drive, Greenwich CT-06831 U.S.A. is required to apof chairman of any multinational corporathose principles are part of international pear at Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, The r India before this Court to answer the tion," he says. "The guy sees the governlegal convention and says it would be Busln said complaint on the 1st Day of ment February, 1992. tlons ment of India essentially harrassing the reunseemly for U.S. courts to flout them. vldu; Dated, this 7th Day of December, $tru( tired, 70-year-old former chairman who Anderson may not have performed a de1991. dim. (Gulab Sharma) com had nothing to do with the plant in Bholiberate criminal act, Sastri says, but that Chief Judicial Magistrate, throi Bhopal, bia. Madhya Pradesh, India pal. At the time of Bhopal, Union Carbide does not excuse him and the corporation prf 825 had about 700 plants around the world. from standing trial in a criminal proBids & Proposals The notion that the chairman could be receeding. sponsible for something that happened in Adds international activist attorney any distant location is totally absurd. In a criminal case you Clarence Dias of the Center for Law & Development in New need criminal intent. That is why no one believes an AmerYork: "The criminal trial restitution is part of the settlement ican court would extradite Anderson. It would be deemed package. You can't take one portion and leave aside all the a frivolous attempt. If extradition comes to the United others. Besides, I believe UCIL will try to dump everything on States, it will be dismissed. No magistrate in the United Union Carbide, since UCIL's officers are now the ones on the States is going to give this a second look." firing line. They don't have the golden parachutes the Union Carbide executives have." Dias agrees that Carbide will now Nor does this attorney believe Carbide could be brought have the opportunity to prove its sabotage claim in the courts back to India to stand criminal trial, even to argue the case rather than in the press. The question is whether the Indian for sabotage. "UCIL can prove sabotage without Carbide," government can compel Carbide, through action in U.S. he says. "And UCIL will make a motion that there was no courts, to participate in its defense. criminal intent. They are prepared for their defense. They Sit
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MARCH 16, 1992 C&EN
believe it was a well-designed plant, bide will have to come to India. "The and they are eager to begin the trial/' court has issued notices to them, and if they do not respond, warrants will be Sastri, in private legal practice in issued and will have to be executed Washington and an officer in a recentvia the extradition treaty. There is no ly established firm that facilitates U.S. question in my mind that it is legal, corporate investment in India, says the because it is a valid treaty between Union Carbide litigation is not being countries. And the U.S. Justice Departseen as any factor at all in India's new ment has not made any preemptive economic policy. "In 1985 there were objections so far. Union Carbide offionly 1850 collaborations between U.S. cials have been individually and speand Indian businesses," says Sastri. cifically charged, and they will have to "Today the number is 2500, and it is say whether or not they will come. As growing." far as UCIL is concerned, they will William N. Eskridge, a professor of have to make their own defense, and international law at Georgetown Unithey will probably say they were actversity, looks at the situation as someing under instructions from Union thing of a test case for international Carbide—that their mind and soul corporate liability. He says it is now were in Danbury." becoming common for countries to take a more serious view of corporate What if the U.S. refuses to go along? culpability in mass disasters, such as "Let the United States put into the the Exxon Valdez oil spill, and to file Geoghan: Carbide driven to improve scrap heap a treaty it has signed," Baxi suits in several courts. Eskridge says says. "Any sovereign state can repudiseveral countries are trying to find ways of dealing with ate such a thing. But that will involve foreign policy costs." multinational corporations that have a history of pollution Opinions differ so widely that it's impossible to predict within their borders. Apparently, with Bhopal, India is which direction the case will go if India decides to persist in leading the way. the extradition action. One U.S. activist attorney, Robert Hager of Washington, D.C., says: "It certainly is intriguing. Although Eskridge doesn't think any U.S. court would On the one hand, you have UCIL relying on information agree to send Anderson back to India, he believes the comfrom [parent Union Carbide] for their defense, while on the pany could be ordered back. He says there are valid proceother, maneuvering to share the blame with them." Hager, dures Indian prosecutors could use in a U.S. federal court— who fought to have Carbide brought to trial in various U.S. be it in New York where Carbide's major banks are located, courts, doubts the trial will be administered with full vigor or in Danbury, Conn., Carbide's headquarters—to attach in India. "The government could simply arrange a show Carbide's property and enter a default judgment against the trial where everyone knows the results in advance." company. He says Carbide could be forced back into the case that way, depending on the friendliness of an AmeriIn Bhopal, meanwhile, efforts at providing relief for the can judge. "India clearly has the jurisdiction to do that," victims has reached chaotic proportions. Numbers of insays Eskridge. "If Carbide refused, then it would be subject jured have become essentially meaningless despite the exto a default judgment that could be enforced and be satisistence of agencies that were set up to count cases and profied by their assets in India. Carbide has far fewer arguvide medical treatment to the victims. Still, estimates of the ments than Anderson." number that died as a direct result of exposure to MIC are now pretty much settled at 2660. There is also the possibility— | The number of deaths from afterefstrongly doubted by Carbide—that *=" fects is a vaguer figure but runs UCIL's officers will move in court 2 around an additional 2500. Not inthat Union Carbide stand trial with g eluded are deaths of unborn chilthem, since Carbide owned more dren through MIC-induced misthan half of UCIL and had financarriages. cial control of the affiliate at the The number of permanently intime of the accident. Carbide has jured has fluctuated widely, rangargued all along in its own defense ing from Carbide's own estimate that it had no control at all over of no more than 10,000 to the UCIL. The point is that the Indian 200,000 figure the Indian Council prosecutors could resort to several for Medical Research claims. The devices aimed at bringing Carbide Indian Supreme Court, in the texts to the Bhopal court and Carbide to of its settlement decision, simply several of its own to avoid it. No put the figure at "tens of thouone contacted by C&EN could ofsands ... affected and impaired in fer any complete scenario, howevvarious degrees of seriousness." er. Definitions of injuries and categoFormer jurist Upendra Baxi, ries of injured are inconsistent. now vice chancellor at the UniverMore than 500,000 injury claims sity of New Delhi, believes CarSastri: litigation wont affect economic policy MARCH 16,1992 C&EN
9
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NEWS FOCUS
Research on MIC leading to picture of its toxic potential in mammalian systems Although the legal aspects of the Bhopal disaster have produced some innovative developments in international law, the notorious agent of the disaster, methyl isocyanate (MIC), seems to be making toxicological history in its own right. It seems that MIC, with the help of a molecular coconspirator, is an even more noxious chemical than originally believed. Chemical research since the disaster has shown that MICs toxicity does not stop at the lungs, as most toxicologists believed, but that MIC may be transported throughout the body through binding with glutathione, a thiol tripeptide found abundantly in the lungs. The belief that MICs activity began and ended with surface tissue—especially the eyes and lungs—formed the basis of Union Carbide's thinking when it presented evidence in 1986 that MIC reacted with lung and eye tissue and quickly degraded thereafter. Carbide toxicologists said at the meeting, held at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in Durham, N.C., that MIC was so reactive on contact with surface proteins and water that not enough of it would be left to travel anywhere else. Satisfied with their findings, they apparently ceased work on MIC at their Bushy Run laboratories near Pittsburgh. A few skeptics, such as Yves C. E. Alarie of the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health, William E.
Brown of Carnegie Mellon University, Daya R. Varma of McGill University in Montreal, and a team of researchers at India's National Defense Research Center in Gwalior disputed the claims. But the consensus was that if MIC was responsible for any systemic effects in the body, the effects were the result of anoxia caused by tissue damage in the lung. Alarie, Brown, and their colleagues, plus the Indian researchers, pressed on with their own research, however, and through radioactive tracers found labeled MIC carbons thoughout most of the organs in the bodies of the animals they studied. It was suggested that glutathione and hemoglobin were the molecules responsible for the transport of the MIC, in a nontoxic form, throughout the systems. In 1988, Thomas A. Baillie, Paul G. Pearson, and J. Greg Slatter of the department of medicinal chemistry at the University of Washington, Seattle, became fascinated with labeling work and decided to pursue the possibility that glutathione acted as a metabolic carrier of MIC. Because of its free sulfhydryl group, glutathione, y-L-glutamyl-L-cysteinyl)glycine (GSH), is both a nucleophile and a reducing agent in the body. Unlike most hazardous electrophilic metabolites, isocyanates—such as MIC— are conjugated reversibly with GSH. Briefly, such a MIC-GSH conjugate would be expected to move around the
were filed, but these were done simply on the basis of the total population of the part of the city covered in one form or another by the movement of the MIC cloud. The majority of these claims are regarded to be either bogus or too indirect to take seriously. But seldom reckoned are the possible long-term cellular effects of exposure to MIC, which toxicologists have shown to be carried around the body to all organs. For its part, the directorate of claims in Bhopal issued in late 1990 the following statistics relating to the accident: • Medical folders prepared: 361,966 • Injured: 155,203 • Temporary injuries: 173,382 • Permanent injuries: 18,922 • Temporary disabilities: 7172 • Temporary disabilities caused by permanent injuries: 1313 • Permanent partial disability: 2680 • Permanent total disability: 40 • Deaths: 3828 According to the compensation formula devised by the Indian Supreme Court in the settlement, $8000 would be 12
MARCH 16,1992 C&EN
body to various organs and tissues, then in regions of low GSH concentration, the conjugate would release MIC, which would then react through carbamylation with the tissue or cellular peptides [Ace. Chem. Res., 24, 264 (1991) and Chem. Res. Toxicol, 4,436 (1991)]. Until recently it had been believed glutathione was essentially only a helper in the detoxification activities of the cell, carrying away toxic molecules. That is, of course, still true. But now, with the MIC work, it turns out that GSH can also be a "toxifer," or carrier of certain poisons around the body. More recent collaborative work by Baillie, and McGill colleagues Varma and Ian Guest has shown the conjugate is also toxic to mouse embryos in intriguing ways. It inhibits their growth without killing them. "It is concluded/' says the abstract of their forthcoming paper that the conjugate "exerts embryotoxic and teratogenic effects and may be responsible for systemic toxicity of methyl isocyanate." "Working with MIC has just been a gold mine/' Baillie tells C&EN, "because so little has been published about the chemistry of the reaction with cellular constituents. A few other people in the field are interested in the differing actions of MIC and other isocyanates on glutathione. But MIC is, of course, a difficult molecule to work with and that's probably why many have shied away from it. We found
paid for each death and each permanent disability, $4000 per partial permanent disability, and $2000 for each temporary partial disability. One native of Bhopal who has had close associations with Carbide since the disaster is Paul Shrivastava, now a professor of management at Bucknell University, Lewisburg, Pa., and a specialist on industrial crisis management. For about three years Shrivastava attempted to create a mediation climate between Carbide and the various public and political constituencies in India. But by 1989, the attempts petered out as Carbide and the Indian government moved toward settlement. Shrivastava thinks Carbide could have done much more to establish a climate of continuing stewardship between the company and the MIC victims in Bhopal. Shrivastava recently returned from Bhopal to examine the situation there in preparation for a revision of his 1987 book, "Bhopal: Anatomy of a Crisis" (Ballinger Publishing). "There is a real crisis there having to do with compensation of the victims," he says, "and Carbide should feel morally obligated to help do something about it." The problem, he says, is that Indian authorities, in an attempt to cut through the complexities of claims, simply de-
GSH-transported MIC can trigger toxic effects throughout body
HX-N =C = 0
+
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N
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Methyl isocyanate (MIC) Glutathione (GSH) In lungs
HOOC
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S-(A/-Methylcarbamoy I) glutathione From lungs, to various parts of body S—R HoC—N 3 H
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Carbamylation reactions with various enzymes, macromolecules, and membrane structures can lead to toxic effects
clared 37 wards of the city affected by the gas. "These 37 wards," says Shrivastava, "now hold about as many people as made up the whole population of Bhopal in 1984. And anyone living in the wards can claim compensation. The Supreme Court ordered payment of compensation. But now it's impossible to find a way to determine who was and who was not living in those wards at the time of the accident. Now there's pressure to declare the whole city gas-affected. It's become a very political thing. "The trouble is [until procedures for identifying and compensating the victims are set] people in the wards are all receiving $8.00 a month under an order from the previous V. P. Singh government. Politically it's become a crisis." Satinath Sarangi, an Indian activist engineer now involved in rehabilitation work in Bhopal, describes as "awful" the rehabilitation situation in Bhopal. He tells of people being called to meet with the claims commissioners through the newspapers but not being told where to go. Names given in Hindi are translated into English by computer, producing confusing misspellings. Claimants are being required to provide affidavits of deaths and injuries through appropriate records, but are being charged up to $1.60 by
that the chemical toxicology of MIC is really fascinating." Baillie says he is surprised that Union Carbide toxicologists have shown no interest in their work. "We've had no contact with them, and that's kind of interesting. From a scientific point of view, I would have thought they might be curious as to how MIC behaves. I would have thought it would be to their benefit to know as much as possible about the disposition of MIC. They never even requested reprints. It was as though we didn't exist." (When queried by C&EN, a Union Carbide spokesman said the company was aware of the study.) So MIC's recent history has taken some disturbingly macabre turns. But there may be a glint of a silver lining out of the new research in the design of anticancer drugs. For example, anticancer agents such as methylformamide appear to work by undergoing metabolism in the liver to toxic isocyanates. "However," says Baillie, "the mechanism by which these isocyanates are delivered to tumors has remained obscure. Since the liver contains high levels of glutathione, unstable isocyanateglutathione conjugates could be the molecular vehicles for that purpose." "Thus," Baillie says, "an understanding of the chemistry of the Bhopal disaster may provide future directions for the rational design of improved drugs for the treatment of human cancer."
notaries for the service. "We are also saying that the children born to the victims have gas-related problems and must be taken into account," Sarangi adds. "We think the solution is that all the residents of the affected parts of the city should be given a fixed sum and not be required to present themselves. The medical categorizations have been completely rejected by the people." The relationship between Union Carbide and the Indian people will always be a subject of intense speculation for students of the Bhopal disaster. Carbide made several attempts to provide rehabilitation for the Bhopal victims. Its employees contributed $120,000 toward relief for the victims. But most attempts, including cash offers in the millions of dollars, were by and large rebuffed. As part of the settlement, Carbide agreed to contribute $19 million for the construction of a medical center for the victims—something Anderson promised he would do in 1986. Carbide accepted "moral responsibility" for the disaster, and accepted the $470 million settlement, yet the attitudes persist—and may always persist—that it has kept too far a distance from the victims and their needs. Its failure to follow up on MIC research may be symbolic of its wish to retreat from involvement. MARCH 16,1992 C&EN
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too little credit for the safety and enJ. Andy Smith III, who heads the vironmental reforms it has undertakcorporate responsibility project for en since Bhopal. Tired of being scapethe American Baptist Church in ValS goated by activist groups. Tired of ley Forge, Pa., has been urging Carcontinuous shifting and reorganizing bide over the years through proxy during the 1980s. Tired of being exresolutions to be of more help to the pected to atone for the sins of the rest Bhopal victims. At each annual Carof the industry. Tired of its bad luck, bide stockholders meeting, he has such as the leak of aldicarb oxime at been unsuccessful. "I have met often its Institute, W.Va., plant in 1985, and with Carbide officers on Bhopal and the explosion at its Seadrift, Tex., ethon other ethical subjects/' he says, ylene oxide plant last year. Tired, "and it's still hard to understand their without much doubt, of articles like mentality. After my visits to India, I this. continue to think that the Carbide management has been out of touch But Ward Morehouse, who heads with the direct human needs of the the New York office of The Bhopal people that lived near the plant in Action Resource Center/feels no symBhopal. The world they live in is a pathy for Carbide. "Imagine how the different world. To them, their reality victims feel, with their rising morbidseems to be the shareholders. Sure, I ity rates, increasing evidence of very think Anderson should go back to adverse long-term effects of MIC, and stand trial. It seems if Carbide agreed their continuing inability to earn a livSarangi: Bhopal rehabilitation status awful to participate in that process they ing for their families. It was a terrible ought to do what the court has asked them. It would be a learning experience for both Carbide and the victims, and good idea to have the full story of the disaster heard in while it may be a great pity that Carbide has gone through court," he adds. "Because, from what I know from my visa lot, look at the enormous human suffering they caused." it, a lot has not come out." Carbide, its reputation damaged and its former employees scattered, seems to have sought most of its security Shrivastava says opportunities for reconciliation were within the chemical community. It has won several awards missed in the early weeks after the disaster when Carbide from other companies' customer service groups and was and the Indian government seemed willing to settle for just particularly proud last year when its chairman, Robert D. under $1 billion. "That is when the lawyers apparently inKennedy, won the coveted Palladium Medal, which chemitervened. A lot of high-level people were involved, includcal executives give to their peers. Kennedy won it for spearing the late Rajiv Gandhi, premier at the time." heading efforts by corporations in improving science and He thinks the behavior of Carbide was far from socially math education in elementary schools and for overseeing responsible. "It isn't only a case of where you throw monestablishment of the Responsible Care program three years ey at a problem," he says. "After 50 years' experience in ago when he was president of the Chemical Manufacturers India, one would have thought they could have been Association. more creative. It's like Pilate washing his hands of the matter. It wasn't even financially the most sophisticated "Bhopal drained a lot of cash, a lot of vitality, out of the thing to do, throwing money without solving the probcompany," commented Dexter F. Baker, chairman of Air lem. There is admittedly conflict over the presence of Products & Chemicals, to C&EN recently. "They lost their multinational corporations in India. If Carbide would have spirit, lost their focus," especially after the attempted takedecided to stay around, people would have found a way of over by GAF Corp. in 1985. But Baker says Carbide did accommodating themselves to it. Humbling a big multinamake a remarkable comeback, "given the hand they were tional is a feather in the cap of some politicians. But they dealt" and he says Carbide is now a "model" for the induswould provide at the same time a form of cover for the cortry in safety and environmental programs. poration. My reading of the current situation is that not Over the years, Carbide has dwindled from a huge coneven the Indian government is taking the criminal trial seriglomerate corporation employing 100,000 to today's "tightously." ly focused" petrochemical company with a work force of only 16,000. Some Wall Street analysts predict Carbide will And so, on and on it goes, as though the Indian culture be taken over by another firm and its name—forever athas decided to institutionalize Bhopal as a mythic event and tached to Bhopal—will disappear into history. Kennedy, Union Carbide as a vile deity. To impart cynicism to Carhowever, says it will be around, as a high-tech commodity bide over Bhopal would probably be an unfair judgment to chemicals company. Thus it will supply industry with everyone but its populist critics, who have targeted Carbide largely anonymous products, and license its technology as prototypical of all the perceived environmental and huaway from the public eye. man exploitation by multinational corporations in the Third And as for the Bhopal incident, Carbide's Geoghan can World. Indeed, a group named Communities Concerned only sigh and admit the obvious. "Bhopal is going to be the about Carbide has recently been formed and, in a few days, kind of overhang that will drive Union Carbide and the inis holding a strategy meeting in Texas City, Tex. dustry toward improved results. Everything we do will be Carbide is tired of the whole Bhopal matter. Tired of beput in the context of Bhopal," he commented at last year's ing defensive about itself. Tired of the shell observers say it stockholder's meeting, "and we'll deal with it." • was forced t(5 crawl under after Bhopal. Tired of receiving 14
MARCH 16, 1992 C&EN
