Word: bhopal
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When Union Carbide agreed last year to pay $470 million to compensate victims of the 1984 toxic-gas leak that killed more than 3,400 people in Bhopal, India, the company hoped it had put the world's worst industrial accident behind it. But after less than two months in office, the government of Prime Minister V.P. Singh last week disavowed the settlement. New Delhi said it would demand the $3 billion in damages that India originally sought and would seek to reinstate criminal charges against Union Carbide executives...
...Connecticut-based company called the settlement "extremely fair" and expressed confidence that it would survive the challenge. Experts on international law agreed that the settlement is likely to hold up. So far, victims of the Bhopal disaster have received none of the $470 million in damages because the Supreme Court has postponed distribution until it considers anti-settlement petitions filed by Indian groups...
...Some foreign violence does get substantial U.S. media coverage. But typically this is because American corporate or other interests are directly involved -- as when Union Carbide's poison gas cloud killed 2,233 people in Bhopal, India, in 1984 -- or because humanitarian groups arouse American donors and volunteers, as happened with famines in Ethiopia and Biafra. In general, however, the scales are so tilted that Hurricane Hugo, which killed 51 people, got about as much coverage across the U.S. as the 1985 Mexico City earthquake that claimed 20,000 lives...
...same time, momentous accidents have reminded citizens that commonplace industrial activities have vast destructive power when companies are careless. The deadly chemical accident in Bhopal, India, groundwater contamination at Colorado's Rocky Flats nuclear-weapons plant and the oil slick from the Exxon Valdez all suggest that safety is too low a corporate priority. "That's why there was such a sense of outrage over the Valdez," Johnson argues. "The consequences of mistakes are just so much greater today...
...leak was an act of sabotage by a disgruntled worker, will have no trouble raising the cash. The company had already set aside $200 million for the purpose, and its insurance will cover another $250 million. But the case may not be fully closed, liability experts say, because dissatisfied Bhopal survivors may decide to file claims in the U.S. as well...