industryterm:gas leak tragedy

  • Dow Chemical’s Olympic PR push dogged by Bhopal | Reuters
    http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/21/dowchemical-olympics-idUSL2E8DL07M20120221

    Dow Chemical Co hoped an Olympic sponsorship would boost its global cache, but the company’s link to a gas leak tragedy 28 years ago threatens to curb some of the benefits from the $100 million advertising deal.

    As many as 25,000 residents of Bhopal, India, died in the aftermath of a 1984 gas leak at a pesticide factory that was owned by a subsidiary of Union Carbide, which sold the facility in 1994. Dow bought Union Carbide in 2001.

    Since then, India, Amnesty International, Greenpeace and some members of the British Parliament have demanded Dow increase a $470-million compensation package that Union Carbide paid victims in 1989.

    The Indian government wants Dow to pay an additional $1.7 billion, but Dow has refused, saying it has no responsibility for Bhopal and that Union Carbide settled liabilities.

    (...)

    Dow justified the sponsorship by forecasting an Olympic-related sales boost of $1 billion by 2020.

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