"Dow’s failure to offer remedy for the Bhopal disaster has created a “sacrifice zone”", 28 March 2024

The failure of the US-based chemical company Dow to provide remedy to victims of a deadly gas leak from a pesticide plant in India that resulted in the deaths of more than 22,000 people has created a “sacrifice zone” in which 500,000 more continue to suffer

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The report concludes that the area around the plant is so badly contaminated, and the health consequences from poisoned well water and toxic soil on local communities so severe, that it is a sacrifice zone – which are typically characterized by catastrophic and lasting harms to the health of marginalized communities caused by pollution from businesses.

The report adds that environmental racism, which can be the result of discrimination based on race, caste and/or religion, either intentional or otherwise, underpins the disaster and its aftermath. This includes operating a pesticide plant that stored and processed highly poisonous chemicals – and which was maintained and supervised below standards of equivalent UCC facilities in the United States – next to densely populated and predominantly Muslim and lower-caste communities living mostly in poverty and in informal housing.

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The report notes that when asked to comment about this settlement following its purchase of UCC in 2001, a Dow spokesperson said, “US$500 is plenty good for an Indian”.

To have a legal claim against it dismissed from US jurisdiction, UCC argued that it was impossible for American courts and juries, imbued with US cultural values and expectations, to understand the living standards of people in the informal housing surrounding the plant.

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Amnesty International wrote to Dow and its wholly owned subsidiary, Union Carbide Corporation (UCC),

to provide them with an opportunity to respond to the findings and information in this update. Dow and

UCC replied with links to the relevant pages on their respective websites