Candlelight vigil at
Avonmouth Park, Avonmouth, Bristol
6.45pm, 3rd December 2014

Called by Bristol Hazards Group
Bristolhazards@gmail.com

A flyer for this event can be found at Bhopal Gas Disaster – 30th anniversary

In 1969 the Union Carbide Corporation (UCC) established a pesticide plant with unproven technology near residential areas of Bhopal. To cut costs, UCC compromised the safety of the plant and ignored warning signals of the imminent disaster. On the night of the gas leak, not one of the six inadequate safety systems was functional. This leak left at least 7,000 people dead in the days following December 2nd, 1984. In the years that followed more than 25,000 people have died and 150,000 are severely disabled by the long term effects of the gas and/or by the drinking water contaminated with toxic waste that leached from the factory site.

Bhopal was not only a disaster, but also continues to be a fundamental violation of human rights. Amnesty International cites Bhopal and Dow – Carbide as a leading example of the corporate violation of human rights. Its report on Bhopal, “Clouds of Injustice” notes that “Thousands of people in Bhopal were denied their right to life, and tens of thousands of people have had their right to health undermined… Thousands of poor families have suffered illness and bereavement, further impairing their ability to realize their right to a decent standard of living.” The Bhopal case tragically demonstrates that transnational companies, including those at Avonmouth, need to be better regulated to eliminate their complicity in human rights abuses.