News & Features - Toxic waste remains in India for 24 years

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Toxic waste remains in India for 24 years

BHOPAL, India (UPI) -- A final decision is expected this year on what to do about hundreds of tons of toxic waste on the grounds of a pesticide factory in Bhopal, India.

The Union Carbide factory was the site of a poison gas leak in 1984 that killed at least 3,000 area residents and is also blamed for affecting the health of 500,000 others, The New York Times reported Monday.

No one examined the soil or determined to what extent toxic chemicals seeped into area water until 12 years after the gas leak, the newspaper says.

Advocates insist that Michigan's Dow Chemical, which purchased Union Carbide in 2001, should pay for the cleanup. But Dow says it bears no responsibility for cleaning up a mess it didn't make, leaving the Indian government in a quandary.

"Do you want $1 billion in investment or do you want this sticky situation to continue?" a senior government official, prohibited from speaking publicly, said to the newspaper.

Copyright 2008 by United Press International

This news arrived on: 07/07/2008

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