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Dow Chemical Company

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The Dow Chemical Company (commonly referred to as Dow) is the world's largest chemical manufacturer founded in 1897 in Midland, Michigan, where it is still headquartered. Union Carbide, which was involved in the Bhopal disaster in India and later in asbestos lawsuits, is a subsidiary. [1]

Contents

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Animal testing

Dow does animal testing.

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Animals by species, numbers & locations

  • Midland, Michigan [2]

For links to copies of this facility's U.S. Department of Agriculture reports indicating species, number of animals used and other information visit Stop Animal Experimentation Now Facility Reports and Information, U.S. Department of Agriculture-Animal Plant Health Inspection reports. This Web site lists each of the 50 states; each state's name links to biomedical research facilities in that state, and to PDF copies of government documents where the facilities must report their animal usage.

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Contract testing

Dow contract tests out to Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS). [3] Huntingdon Life Sciences is the 3rd largest Contract Research Organization (CRO) in the world and the largest animal testing facility in all of Europe. Firms hire HLS to conduct animal toxicity tests for agrochemicals, petrochemicals, household products, pharmaceutical drugs and toxins. [4] HLS has a long history of gross animal welfare violations. See also Huntingdon Life Sciences, sections 2 & 3.

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Environment

In October 2007, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency gave Dow 60 days (until December 10, 2007) to present the agency with "a good faith offer demonstrating its willingness to conduct or finance a remedial investigation and feasibility study and design a remedy" for dioxin contamination of the Tittabawassee River, and perhaps the Saginaw River and Saginaw Bay areas of Michigan. [5]

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Bisphenol-A

Dow Chemical is one of the leading manufacturers of Bisphenol-A (BPA), a chemical that is used in the making of polycarbonate plastics and epoxy resins. Recent studies have shown that the BPA in common consumer products is leading to many serious diseases, even at a low level. Some such diseases are infertility, obesity, breast and prostate cancer, diabetes, thyroid malfunction, and attention deficit syndrome. Recent studies have also found links to genetic problems leading to chromosome abnormalities which can lead to miscarriages, Down's syndrome, and Turner syndrome, among other serious conditions. Some common products containing Bisphenol-A include household appliance parts, compact discs, sunglasses, eating utensils, paints, and reusable bottles. [6] Check out an extensive list atBisphenol A in plastics - does it make us sick? A consumer guide

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Chlorpyrifos

First used as a nerve gas in World War II, chlorpyrifos have most recently been used as indoor and outdoor pesticides. In 1963 Dow AgroSciences began manufacturing chlorpyrifos under the name Dursban, a product mainly used as a means of controlling cockroach populations in homes. Dursban was banned by the EPA in 2000, citing it as a neurological toxin that was unsafe to children's health. It was the third organophosphate that the EPA banned from consumer use [7] The chemical was only banned from over-the-counter products; farmers still had access to the pesticide for their crops. This product, labeled Lorsban by Dow, is just as toxic and is having adverse health effects on farmers and their children around the world. Because pesticide use is not required by law to be reported, and due to the lack of restrictions on growers to report the dangers of the pesticide to the workers, chlorpyrifos continues to be used without being federally monitored.

In effort to prove that their chemical does not have the extreme impacts on children, they have undergone unethical tests and hidden the results from consumers. They claimed that the EPA's report on the harms that have been seen on various animals and its restults that 92% of children and 82% of adults showed traces of the chemical has a "tremendous number of errors and omissions" and is instead completely safe. [8] In 2003 Dow faced a law suit by the Attorney General in New York resulting in payments of $2 million for advertising their product as safe; 8 years after they were fined $732,000 for failing to report to the EPA on findings from their studies on the toxicity of their product. [9] They have also done human testing on 60 paid people in Lincoln, Nebraska in 1998, paying them to swallow the tablets covered in chlorpyrifos. [10]


Some health effects:[11]

  • neurological damage that can lead to:
    • blurred vision
    • fatigue
    • muscle weakness
    • memory loss
  • carcinogenicity
  • reproductive/developmental problems
  • birth defects
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Bhopal, India

The night of December 3, 1984 is the night thousands remember as the beginning of a catastrophe that has still not found peace. That night, thousands suffocated on the 27 tons of methyl isocyanate that leaked out of Union Carbide’s pesticides plant and filled the city of Bhopal, India with a white cloud of smoke that was impossible to run from. [12] At least 3,000 people were killed that night, several thousand more in the following nights, and yet more in the years to come. Today, nearly twenty-five years later, the chemicals from the abandoned factory continue to seep into the ground and poison the survivors and their children.[13] It has been claimed that it is the “unlucky” ones who survived that night and must suffer every day from the disabilities and the contaminated drinking water.

The fight for justice and compensation has been long and hard, and in 2001 Dow Chemical inherited the liabilities when it purchased Union Carbide and its dark history along with it. Union Carbide left the factory desolate and destroyed, ignoring their lease agreement with the state of Madhya Pradesh, which said that the land, when returned, must be left in a ‘habitable and usable condition.’.[14] Dow is not facing responsibility for the destroyed lives, ignoring the Polluter Pays principle and claiming that the Madhya Pradesh government should pay for the cleanup and that the $300 million in compensation paid by Union Carbide in 1989 should not go to individuals but to the cleanup efforts instead…ultimately having the survivors pay for chemical cleanup.[15] The catastrophe continues today.

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Napalm

During the Vietnam War, Dow encountered boycotts against its end-consumer products because of its manufacture of napalm. [16]

ZNet has this to say about Dow:

Saran Wrap -- The thin slice of plastic invaluable to our lives.
Produced by Dow until consumers were looking for Dow products to boycott. Dow decided to get out of consumer products for this reason -- they sold off Saran Wrap -- and since just makes chemicals that make our consumer products.[17][18][19]
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Purchasing agreement for gasified coal

On April 27, 2009 Dow & GreatPoint Energy (a coal gasification company) signed an agreement that gives Dow the option to buy GreatPoint's gasified coal if the company reaches the commercial level. [20] If the two companies do decide to do business with each other, they will enter into a fifteen-year contract and Dow will buy gas from GreatPoint's first three commercial plants.[20] The press release states: "Dow is one of the country’s largest industrial users of natural gas and has over thirty years of gasification experience, having developed its own gasification technology, known as E-gas, and extensive chemical industry processing and technology scale-up experience… Daniel Goldman, GreatPoint Energy’s Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, who led the negotiations with Dow, commented, “having Dow as a potential major purchaser of natural gas further validates our technology and enables financing structures that will reduce our cost of production." [20] GreatPoint Energy CEO Andrew Perlman stated, “This potential gas agreement will also enable us to move forward with the development of large scale facilities in North America.” [20]


In 2007, Dow worked with Citi Sustainable Development Investments, The AES Corp., and Suncor Energy, Inc. to put together a $100 million investment for GreatPoint Energy. [21] The investment was used to create a pilot gasification plant called the Mayflower Clean Energy Center, located at Dominion's Brayton Point station in Somerset, Massachusetts. This was the largest "green tech" investment of 2007, and "one of the industry's biggest venture capital rounds ever."[22][23]

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Political contributions

Dow gave $180,000 to federal candidates in the 2006 election through its political action committee - 19% to Democrats and 80% to Republicans. [24]

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Lobbying

The company spent $2,280,000 for lobbying in the first half of 2007. [25]

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Personnel

Key executives and 2006 pay: [26]

Selected members of the Board of Directors: [30]

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Books

  • Alastair Hay, The Chemical Scythe: Lessons of 2, 4, 5, 6 and Dioxin, Kluwer Academic Publishers September 1982. ISBN 0306409739. This book, written by a pathologist at the University of Leeds, tells the story about dioxin and its toxicity. The book discusses the chemistry and occurrence of dioxins, the toxicology, Chloracne (a skin condition caused by exposure to dioxin), dioxin injuries to Vietnam veterans, the 1976 explosion which contaminated the Italian town of Seveso with dioxin, and dioxin at Love Canal.
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Contact details

2030 Dow Center
Midland, Michigan 48674
Phone: (989) 636-1000
Fax: (989) 832-1556
Web: http://www.dow.com
Also found with the domain name http://www.biodegradables.com

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Articles & sources

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SourceWatch resources

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References

  1. ↑ Union Carbide Profile, Hoovers, accessed December 2007.
  2. ↑ Humane Society of the U.S. Midland, Michigan, Research Facilities, accessed February 2009
  3. ↑ Inside Huntingdon Life Sciences Inside Customers, accessed December 2008
  4. ↑ Inside HLS Frequently Asked Questions About Huntingdon Life Sciences, accessed February 2009
  5. ↑ Tony Lascari, "EPA to Dow: 60 days to talk cleanup," Midland Daily News (Midland, Mich.) October 11, 2007.
  6. ↑ Friends of the Earth, "Bisphenol A in plastics - does it make us sick? A consumer guide," Friends of the Earth September, 2008.
  7. ↑ David Brown; Joby Warrick, "EPA Increases Risk Estimate Of a Pesticide; Agency Decision Effectively Bans Dursban From Stores," The Washington Post (Washington, DC) June 1, 2000.
  8. ↑ Cat Lazaroff, "Common Insecticide Found Highly Risky in New Review," Environment News Service 1999.
  9. ↑ International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal, "U.S. Will Use Once-Banned Human Tests," International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal 2005.
  10. ↑ Elizabeth Shogren, "U.S. Will Use Once-Banned Human Tests," Common Dreams November 27, 2001.
  11. ↑ International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal, "U.S. Will Use Once-Banned Human Tests," International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal 2005.
  12. ↑ International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal, "What Happened?," International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal November 11,2008.
  13. ↑ Ellen Shifrin, "Bhopal: The Search for Justice," Basics Free Community Newsletter January 28,2009.
  14. ↑ Joe Jackson & Maeve McLoughlin, "Bhopal disaster: still waiting for the clean up," International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal November 20, 2008.
  15. ↑ International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal, "Dow's Liabilities," International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal November 11,2008.
  16. ↑ "Dow Drops Napalm", Time, November 28, 1969.
  17. ↑ Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman, "Twenty Things to Know About Dow Chemical on the 20th Anniversary of Bhopal", Z Net, November 23, 2004.
  18. ↑ Dow Chemical Profile, Hoovers, accessed December 2007.
  19. ↑ Products and Services, Dow Chemical, accessed December 2007.
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 20.2 20.3 "GreatPoint Energy and Dow Chemical Company Sign Natural Gas Sales Agreement", GreatPoint Energy press release, April 27, 2009.
  21. ↑ “GreatPoint Energy closes $100 million capital raise co-led by Citi Alternative Investments and Dow Chemical”, GreatPoint Energy press release, September 24, 2007.
  22. ↑ Martin LaMonica, "Where coal and clean tech meet", Cnet, April 13, 2009.
  23. ↑ Robert Gavin, “Mass. plant will make natural gas from coal”, Boston Globe, October 25, 2007]
  24. ↑ 2006 PAC Summary Data, Open Secrets, accessed December 2007.
  25. ↑ Dow lobbying expenses, Open Secrets, accessed December 2007.
  26. ↑ Corporate Officers, Dow, accessed December 2007.
  27. ↑ Andrew N Liveris, Forbes, accessed December 2007.
  28. ↑ Geoffery E Merszei, Forbes, accessed December 2007.
  29. ↑ David E Kepler, Forbes, accessed December 2007.
  30. ↑ Board of Directors, Dow, accessed December 2007.
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External links

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