RE: One day story

["Kent, Michael D." <Michael.Kent@nmcco.com>]

I think this more to the subject, people did die and are dying.  The only reason I remembered this was that it was in the back page of the local newspaper.  When TMI or Chernobyl anniversaries come around you see it on the nightly news.  Not this, at least I did not see it.



I think the basis to this thread has been hashed and re-hashed.  It all boils down to education and the HPS community getting it's own cumulative act together.  I do not care if you believe in LNT or hormesis, I think the common ground the community can share is that for most nuclides a few µµCi (sorry ex-navy) of it above background will not kill you or give you cancer.  And that is what seems to be lost in the various debates.  If it did, radionuclides would not be used to treat people, because it would kill them all, i.e. the cure would be worse than the disease.



Until the public understands this, until the government supports this in it's clean up efforts, you can keep talking, but actions are louder than words.



I do not remember if it was on RADSAFE or another source, but I read that when the Superfund Sites were initially created, each state got their own Superfund site, the implication being, bringing the cash cow home.  In my own opinion this is what it boils down to for a lot of people, it is a cash cow.  They will tell you it's dangerous, because they do not want their cash cow to leave. 



On another note, the nuclear plant I work at has spent many millions updating their security post 

9-11.  How many Dupont's, Monsanto's etc... have done the same.  They may have added an extra security guard, or shaped up that rusted fence, but none have spent the money the nuclear power plants have, and as in the story below, chemical plants can kill just as effectively as nuclear power plants, maybe even more effectively.  I do not think all the people killed in all the nuclear accidents since it's inception would amount to the number of people killed in Bhopal in one night.



Anyway, enough of my rant.....  Here is the story.....



Twenty years after the catastrophe in Bhopal, India, thousands of survivors are still struggling for justice and fair compensation



"There were thousands of bodies," said Mohammed Owais, a volunteer at a local hospital in Bhopal. "There were bodies everywhere. And people were dying all round." The Bhopal gas leak of December 1984 is acknowledged as one of the worst industrial disasters of the 20th century. More than 7,000 people died in the immediate aftermath of the incident, and a further 15,000 died in the following years. Some 100,000 continue to suffer from associated illnesses, including respiratory disease, breast and cervical cancer, and anxiety and depression. 



The leak devastated Bhopal's poorest communities. Its impact reverberated across the globe, raising questions about government and corporate responsibility for large-scale industrial accidents. But two decades later, survivors of the tragedy have yet to receive fair compensation or proper medical assistance and support. The plant site, polluted since the 1970s, still has not been cleaned up, leaving toxic waste seeping into the earth and contaminating water. No one has been held to account for the damage. 



Union Carbide Corporation (UCC), then owner of the pesticide factory in Bhopal, and Dow Chemicals, which merged with UCC in 2001, have publicly denied all responsibility for the leak and the resulting damage. Attempts by survivors' organizations to bring the company to justice through US and Indian courts proved fruitless. 



In 1989, the Indian government, backed by the Indian Supreme Court, cut short any further attempts to pursue UCC through the courts by agreeing a settlement of US$470 million with the company. The agreement was made without any consultation with survivors, and the amount, nominal given the extent of the catastrophe, still has not been fully distributed. About 30 per cent of claims for injuries have been rejected by the government while around 16,000 are still outstanding. Successful claims have resulted in minimal payments which began only in 1992. As late as September 2004, around US$330 million remained held by the Reserve Bank of India.



In return for a small financial payment, UCC bought itself civil and criminal immunity, despite its mismanagement of the site. The company's decision to store bulk quantities of ultra-hazardous material (methyl isocyanate or MIC) in Bhopal without introducing corresponding safety precautions undermined any possibility of effectively managing a breech. Residents in the surrounding area were not warned of the possibility of a leak, even though the company was aware, as early as two years prior to the incident, that the plant was unsafe. After the event, UCC refused to divulge any information about the chemical content of the leaked substances making it very difficult to properly treat victims. 



The Bhopal disaster is a case not only of corporate negligence, but also of the failure of the Indian government to stand up for the concerns of its blighted citizens. Neither the local nor central government appear to have taken the necessary steps to evaluate the risk posed to local communities by the UCC plant. UCC was not required to review its safety procedures. A decade after the disaster, the government ceased all medical research on the effects of the Bhopal disaster without explanation, and has refused to publish any results.



Although the government has taken steps to support victims, these have proved ineffective. Shamshad Bi was a trainee at a state-supported training centre set up for women victims of the Bhopal gas leak in 1985. She earned Rs320 (US$7) a month until the centre was closed in 1992. She told AI: "My husband is sick and is incapable of doing his carpentry regularly and the compensation money is already spent on treatment and other domestic expenses. Where do I go? And how does the government expect us to survive?" 



In its report, Clouds of injustice: Bhopal disaster 20 years on (ASA 20/015/2004), AI is calling for the immediate clean-up of the groundwater and affected areas of the Bhopal site by UCC/Dow, a detailed assessment of the damage to health and the environment caused by the leak, and the payment of full and fair compensation to survivors. 



AI also recommends the implementation of an international human rights framework, based on the UN Norms for Business, that can be applied to companies directly. AI considers such a framework essential to guarantee victims effective access to justice.

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