The 26-year-old Indian campaigner is outraged that the Dow Chemical Company seems to have washed its hands of the disaster at Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh 25 years ago. So he is attending a protest today at the US multinational’s newly acquired Scottish factory in Wholeflats Road.
“We have not learnt the lessons we should have done, so it’s just a matter of time before another Bhopal happens because big companies have shown that they don’t respect human life,” said Shah.
Bhopal was one of the world’s worst industrial accidents. Shortly after midnight on December 4, 1984 the toxic gas, methyl isocyanate, leaked from a tank at a pesticide plant and killed thousands of local people, as many as 8,000, according to Mr Shah. In the years since, they say, another 25,000 have died from chronic diseases caused by the contamination, though this is disputed.
At the time of the accident, the plant was owned by the US company, Union Carbide. In 2001, Union Carbide was bought by Dow, and since then, though it protests its innocence, the company has become the target of the seething anger that Bhopal left in its wake.
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