An influential US lawmaker has asked the Dow Chemicals to clean up its factory site in Bhopal and fund necessary medical care and research studies to treat the victims of the Bhopal gas tragedy.
“Dow should clean up the factory site, which continues to contaminate the local environment and should go beyond simply providing compensation to the victims,” Frank Pallone, Democratic Congressman from New Jersey, told the US House of Representatives.
“Dow should also fund the necessary medical care and research studies necessary to treat victims and offer them the chance to live fruitful lives not plagued by chemical affects,” Pallone said in his speech on the occasion of 25th anniversary of the Bhopal gas tragedy.
“It is simply unbelievable that Union Carbide refused to acknowledge which chemicals and gases were leaked for fear of legal liability. This left doctors to treat patients with no knowledge of how to proceed or what treatment to use,” he said.
Union Carbide’s use of unsafe and untested technologies led to one of the worst chemical disasters in world history. Rather than acknowledge the devastation it created and fully pay for the damages, Union Carbide decided to walk away, Pallone said.
Last year, Pallone and 15 other Congressmen wrote to the Prime Minister Singh to express support for the people of Bhopal and urged him to personally meet with survivor groups to address the long-standing demands for justice.
