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Overview
Dow Chemical is responsible for producing some of the most
infamous chemicals, from Agent Orange and napalm for use in
the Vietnam War, to ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons
(CFCs) and the widely used insecticide Dursban. Dow has a
history of unethical behavior, including testing its chemicals on
humans and withholding information from the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Union Carbide,
acquired by Dow in 1999, owned the chemical plant in
Bhopal, India that released methyl isocyanate and other chemicals,
causing one of the worst environmental disasters in history
in 1984. World Bank guidelines for private sector partnerships1
indicate that a company with a such a poor record of corporate
social responsibility should not be eligible for a partnership
with the Bank.
Damaging developing countries
Pesticide causes infertility
Dow and three other companies continued to produce and
export the extremely hazardous pesticide DBCP to developing
countries after it was banned in the continental U.S. in 1979.
The U.S. ban occurred after DBCP, one of Pesticide Action
Network’s Dirty Dozen pesticides, was linked to human sterility
in California.
• Information concealed. The companies knew at least since the
1960s that the product caused male sterility in rats, but concealed
this information.2 They also neglected to report findings
of reduced sperm and atrophied testicles of rabbits and
monkeys when they submitted information for registration
and labeling.3 When DBCP was first marketed in developing
countries, it had no labels warning that it was extremely toxic
and no instructions on the use of safety equipment.
• Workers sterilized. Widespread use of DBCP on banana plantations
around the world has caused the permanent sterility of
thousands of workers. One study found that approximately
20-25% of the male working population in banana plantations
on Costa Rica’s Atlantic coast, where workers had mixed
DBCP by hand, were sterilized.4 In a 1997 out-of-court settlement,
the four companies that produce the chemical
agreed to pay US$45 million to 26,000 banana workers in 11
countries.5
Bhopal disaster
In August 1999, Dow merged with Union Carbide, the company
responsible for the Bhopal chemical disaster.6 Union
Carbide became infamous for the 1984 gas leak from its plant
in Bhopal, India, that killed thousands and injured 140,000.
Union Carbide refused to release information about the composition
of the chemicals that leaked from the plant, and withheld
information on the effects on animals of one of the chemicals
released (methyl isocyate), claiming it was confidential
business information.7
• Fugitive CEO. Additional lawsuits related to the incidents are still
pending in U.S. and Indian courts. The Indian lawsuit
charges Warren Anderson, chairman of Union Carbide at the
time of the accident, with “culpable homicide,” the legal
equivalent of manslaughter. Despite the ruling of a U.S.
District Court judge that Union Carbide must submit to the
jurisdiction of the Indian courts, company officials and Mr.
Anderson have failed to appear. The Indian government
issued a warrant for Mr. Anderson’s arrest and notified
Interpol that he is a fugitive.8 The U.S. case, a civil suit filed
in New York, charges Union Carbide with violating international
law and fundamental human rights of the victims and
survivors.”9
Agent Orange impacts
Dow was one of the major producers of Agent Orange (2,4,5-T
and 2,4-D), a defoliant used by the U.S. in the Vietnam War.
Dow agreed to pay US$180 million to 4,000 U.S. veterans suffering
from the effects of exposure to Agent Orange.10 In
Vietnam, the impacts of Agent Orange and dioxin, present as a
contaminant in Agent Orange, are overwhelming. Some estimates
have put the number of dioxin-related deformities of
Vietnamese children related to spraying of Agent Orange at
500,000.11
Company Profile
When it merged with Union Carbide in 1999, Dow Chemical
became the world’s second largest chemical company, following
Dupont.1 Dow Chemical produces pesticides and chemicals
used in dry cleaning, paint and antifreeze and is a leading
maker of caustic soda, chlorine, ethylene, polyethylene, polystyrene,
polyvinyl chloride (PVC), and chlorinated solvents.
These chemicals are created by combining chlorine with other
chemicals at high temperatures, releasing dioxins, which are
highly toxic to the endocrine and immune systems, even at
extremely low doses.2 Dow was widely criticized in the 1960s
as the sole manufacturer of one of the ingredients used to
make napalm, a jellied gasoline used by the U.S. military to
burn people, villages and forests in the Vietnam War.
Notes
1 “Dow Chemical, Union Carbide and Bhopal,” Pesticide Action Network Updates Service (PANUPS),
August 25, 1999.
2 ”Dioxin Reassessed—Part 1,” Rachel’s Environment and Health Weekly #390, Environmental
Research Foundation, Annapolis, MD, May 19, 1994.
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Harming health and the environment
Dursban (chlorpyrifos) withdrawn
Chlorpyrifos is a nerve toxin and suspected endocrine disruptor
that has been widely used in U.S. homes and has resulted in
7,000 reported accidents every year.12 In June 2000, as a result
of pressure from environmental and public health organizations,
Dow withdrew registration of chlorpyrifos for use in
homes and other places where children could be exposed,13 and
severely restricted its use on crops.14 In earlier attempts to show
that the chemical was “safe” and hide its ill effects, Dow
engaged in many unethical acts.
• Human testing.15 Dow tested Dursban on 60 paid recruits at a
lab in Lincoln, Nebraska in 1998. Dow also fed Dursban to
inmates at Clinton Correctional Institute in New York State
in 1972 to assess its effects, a type of study that is now illegal
in the United States.
• Withholding poisoning information. Dow was fined $732,000 in
August 1995 for not sending the EPA its reports on 249
Dursban poisoning incidents that it had received.16
DDT and birds
Dow was one of the companies that produced DDT, the carcinogenic,
endocrine disrupting pesticide banned in the U.S. in
1972 after it was made famous by Rachel Carson’s Silent
Spring. DDE, a breakdown product of DDT, causes the thinning
of the bird eggshells, and was associated with population
declines of peregrine falcons and other birds.17
March 2002
Notes
1 Partnerships with the Private Sector: Assessment and Approval, Business Partnership & Outreach Group, The World
Bank Group, Washington, DC. World Bank Web site http://www.worldbank.org/business/03assessment.html#guidance.
2 “DBCP Out-of-Court Settlement,” Global Pesticide Campaigner, March 1998.
3 Thrupp, L. “Direct Damage: DBCP Poisoning in Costa Rica,” Dirty Dozen Campaigner, May 1989. PANNA.
4 “DBCP Out-of-Court Settlement,” op. cit.
5 Ibid.
6 “Dow Chemical, Union Carbide and Bhopal,” Pesticide Action Network Updates Service (PANUPS), August 25, 1999.
7 Ibid.
8 Hedges, C., “A Key Figure Proves Elusive in a U.S. Suit Over Bhopal, “ The New York Times, March 5, 2000, p. 4.
9 Ibid.
10 Kleiner, A., “The Three Faces of Dow,” GARBAGE Magazine, July/August 1991.
11 “A Corporate Giant,” News in Review, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, http://www.cbc.ca/insidecbc/newsinreview/
mar99/milk/corp.htm; testimony before EPA dioxin reassessment panel, December 1994, by Liane C. Casten,
Environmental Task Force Chair, Chicago Media Watch, http://www.greens.org/s-r/078/07-47.html; memorandum
to the EPA from William Sanjour (policy analyst), July 1994, http://pwp.lincs.net/sanjour/monsanto.htm.
12 Environmental Working Group, BanDursban.org, http://www.bandursban.org/basics/
13 “Notice To Retailers On Pesticide Products Containing Chlorpyrifos,” U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Web site,
http://www.epa.gov/oppfead1/cb/csb_page/updates/noticedursb.htm
14 Environmental Working Group, BanDursban.org, http://www.bandursban.org/latest/
15 Environmental Working Group, BanDursban.org, http://www.bandursban.org/dow/humantesting.shtml
16 Environmental Working Group, BanDursban.org, http://www.bandursban.org/dow/studies.shtml
17 “Effects of DDT on Birds: Does Dixy Know Something the Experts Do Not?” Environmental Review Newsletter ,Vol.
One No. Seven, July 1994. http://www.igc.org/envreview/anderson.html
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