Yesterday I suggested that corporations persist in misbehaving because they just don't pay a high enough price for their misdeeds. Here's a case in point. And I should hasten to add that I'm in no way equating the misbehaviour of Lexmark with this. Union Carbide makes Lexmark's arrogance look like small potatoes.
The worst industrial disaster in history occurred in 1984 in Bhopal, India.
It was caused by the accidental release of forty tons of methyl isocyanate (MIC) from a Union Carbide pesticide plant located in the heart of the city.
...
The MIC leak began shortly after midnight on December 3, 1984. The vapors killed more than 2,000 people outright and injured anywhere from 150,000 to 600,000 others, some 6,000 of whom would later die from their injuries.
...
Investigations have revealed that many safety procedures were bypassed and the standard of operations in the Indian plant did not match those at other Union Carbide plants. It was also alleged that these safety procedures were wilfully toned down as a part of "cost cutting operations" at the Indian plant that Union Carbide was involved in at that time. Recent documents that surfaced during a compensation claims case involving New York Federal District revealed that Union Carbide frequently exported "untested technology" to the Indian plant.Union Carbide denies these allegations on its website dedicated to the tragedy.
UC agreed to pay $470 million in damages in an out-of-court settlement in 1989, though that doesn't end the story. Warren Anderson, UC's CEO at the time, is still a wanted man in India.
UC sold its Indian division in 1994 and four years later handed responsibility for the site back to the Indian government. In 2001, UC became a wholly owned subsidiary of Dow Chemical who maintain that the $470 million is the sum total of their responsiblity. Which brings us to the present day.
Thousands of Indians around Bhopal remain at risk of poisoning 20 years after a major disaster in the city, an investigation by the BBC has revealed.
...
Union Carbide India Limited was responsible for cleaning up the site.But thousands of tonnes of toxic waste are still stored inadequately nearby, poisoning the town's water supply.
We took a sample of drinking water from a well near the site.
It had levels of contamination 500 times higher than the maximum limits recommended by the World Health Organization.
The local people who drink this water every day are exposing themselves to a substantial chemical hazard associated, over time, with liver and kidney damage.
...
But there are still thousands of tons of toxic waste on the abandoned and dilapidated site, lying in piles exposed to the weather.We found pools of mercury lying on the ground, skips full of poisonous material and in some sheds, chemical waste in bags that was still highly dangerous.
...
When it rains - especially in the monsoon season - rainwater washes these chemicals into puddles, streams and eventually into the ground water.
The original incident may have been, technically speaking, an accident since obviously Union Carbide didn't intend for this to happen. But there's evidence here that UC's cost-cutting measures and lax safety standards were contributing factors. That makes this negligence at best. And there's no excuse I can think of for the way they've washed their hands of the aftermath and walked away. If it was up to me, Union Carbide would have two choices: clean up this mess and properly compensate the victims or have its corporate charter revoked.
Update:
Edited to remove incorrect usage of the word "mitigating". Shame on me.
After reading this part:
The vapors killed more than 2,000 people outright and injured anywhere from 150,000 to 600,000 others, some 6,000 of whom would later die from their injuries.
I was struck by the 3,000 dead on 9/11 and the retribution that followed.
Maybe I shouldn't make that leap but the extreme difference in the aftermath of both incidents is mind-boggling.