My name is Anabel Schnura, I live in Germany. I am 26 years old and I studied social work / social pedagogy at the Fachhochschule Düsseldorf. For my University I needed to make an internship for at least four month. Since my high school graduation I travelled a lot and so I though I could do my
internship overseas.
Through my involvement in the coordination against Bayer dangers, I have often heard of the disaster from Bhopal. To this day, it is the worst chemistry defeat in human history.
On the night of 2 December to 3 December 1984, 27 tons of a dead gas, named methylisozynate, were found in the factory of the chemical company Union Carbide in Bhopal, India. None of the six security systems were operational at this time, so gas spread throughout the city. Half a million people were exposed
to the gas and more than 25,000 people have already died. More than 150,000 people are still suffering from the sequelae caused by the accident and subsequent pollution, at the site of the facility. The adverse health effects include loss of sight, lung damage, stomach disorder, paralysis and
infertility as well as heart, kidney and liver disease. An increased rate of malformations in newborn babies as well as stunted growth in children in the area many years after the event are also largely attributed to the disaster.
Contaminants can still be found in Bhopal’s soil and groundwater. They were never cleaned up. Union Carbide has abandoned the local communities. They have never received appropriate compensation – not from the corporation, not from
the state. Neither Union Carbide nor its successor company Dow Chemical have ever released information on the composition of the toxic gas cocktail which was released into the air.
Similarly, there is no indication of adequate medication or treatment. The only known factor is that Union Carbide paid a lump-sum settlement of $470 million to the Indian government in 1989. However, most of those affected never saw any of this money: only 40,000 victims received compensation of up to
€1,600. Bhopal residents waited in vain for effective help or constructive support. I decided to help in India, especially in Bhopal. I googled it and found the Sambhavna Trust Clinic. This Hospital is a 100 percent self organized Clinic. I asked them if I could do my internship there. So I came to Bhopal the first time in February 2014. to date, I‚ve been to Bhopal three times over the past two years and worked there for in total eleven month as an volunteer. This hospital, which is funded exclusively by donations, now employs 55 people. Everyone is doing a great job here. The Sambhavna Trust Clinic is located in the old part of Bhopal, which is much poorer than the new part. It is like a small paradise island surrounded by poverty and pollution. With their free-of-charge care for the victims of the gas accident, the employees look after more than 31,000 patients. They offer them not only a retreat from the concrete
and slum jungle, which surrounds them daily, but also medical care by allopathic and ayuvedic treatment. Ayuvedic massage, yoga therapy and other measures are also prescribed to control the damage that Union Carbide/ Dow Chemical has caused. In the garden, which is behind the clinic, most drugs are produced. It may also happen that a doctor prescribes to the patient fresh aloe vera, which can be taken directly from the garden. The concept of the clinic describes a holistic manifestation of health care. There is also a team of health workers who goes daily to the surrounding communities and provides the
necessary medication and the associated explanation for the
people there with.
Through the power and greed of Union Carbide, a world of pain and suffering has arisen here in the middle of Bhopal, as you can not imagine if you haven’t seen it with your own eyes. The many dead immediately afterwards are unfortunately not the whole extent. The gas has produced gene defects that affect
more than 150,000 people. Still, 32 years, after the catastrophe, people are left alone by the polluters, but also by the government. Therefore, it is of great importance that the people here have a place to which they are not left alone. Due to the misfortune that has spread in the old town of Bhopal, chemical residues have leaked into the ground water. To this day the water, which people use for their daily activities and also wash and even drink it every day, is contaminating the environment of the clinic and the former factory. This poisoning continues to spread. A simple chemical procedure makes it easy to determine whether the ground water is poisoned or not. We were investigating this. With the health workers, we regularly visit the neighbouring districts, where we collected samples from hand pumps, drill holes and water tanks. It is frightening to see to what extent the contamination has progressed. I supported a study where we had to analyse the groundwater in addition to the contamination.
Rather I write my bachelor‘s thesis about the circumstances in Bhopal. As I said I volunteered at the Sambhavna Trust Clinic. Today, 32 years after the disaster, the conditions there are still terrible. People are left by the responsible group (today DOW CHEMICAL) and by the state. I heard from the
ethecon Foundation and the international ethecon Black Planet Award. In 2014/2015 they confront the DOW CHEMICAL Company with this Award. This award should revile the responsibles.
Primarily responsible for decisions and actions of the chemicals group Dow Chemical (USA) are the president, directors and officers Chairman Andrew N. Liveris, Executive Board member and member of the Auditing, James M. Ringler and
the major shareholders. They own the group. They run the company. They are responsible for the ruin of human health and the destruction of the environment on a large scale, and even the death of many people. They represent not only a danger to peace and human rights but also to democracy, ecology and humanity as a whole. They act for the benefit of personal power and private wealth. For this they smash morals and ethics under their feet and accept the destruction of Earth as a Black Planet.
ethecon sees in the action of Andrew N. Liveris, James M. Ringler and the major shareholders of the chemicals group Dow Chemical (USA) a shocking contribution to ruin and destruction of our Blue Planet. For these appalling abuses and violations of human ethics Ethecon reviles those responsible of DOW
CHEMICAL with the International Ethecon Black Planet Award 2014/2015.
This is the reason why I would like to confront the DOW CHEMICAL in the USA with the international ethecon Black Planet Award 2014/2015 on the 32nd anniversary of the Bhopal disaster.