Media Credit: Amanda Wade

On December 3, 1984, in Bhopal, India, an American-owned chemical plant began leaking 27 tons of toxic gas into the sleeping town. Twenty one years later, after 22,000 deaths and countless cancers and birth defects, the inhabitants of Bhopal are still feeling the effects of that leak. Various advocacy groups in Boston, including Amnesty International chapters, the Environmental Health Fund, and the Boston Coalition for Justice in Bhopal came together on Friday evening for a candlelight vigil in front of the Park Street T-stop. Roughly 20 people visited the vigil in its first hour.

The vigil was meant to memorialize the deaths and also to boost awareness. Aquene Freechild, a worker for the Environmental Health fund, said, "We want to show them [the victims] some sort of respect" as fellow human beings.

The center of the advocate groups' attention is in Dow Chemical Company, the chemical plant's current owner. According to bhopal.net, Dow still refuses to properly clean up the site, fully compensate the disaster's victims, or disclose the composition of the gas so that doctors will be better able to treat those affected.

Kelly Turly, a Boston social worker and member of Amnesty International who attended to vigil, said she thought it was important to "look beyond our immediate community" and to see "the interconnectedness" of all human beings.

Media Credit: Amanda Wade Kelly Turly and other participants hold up a sign to bring attention to the vigil, which took place in the middle of the evening rush hour.

Dow Chemical Company's position, since buying the Union Carbide plant in 2001, is that the company did not inherit the liability of that company when it acquired its assets.

In a statement issued on December 3, 2002, the 18th anniversary of the disaster, Michael D. Parker, then president and CEO of Dow, said that although many individuals within Dow feel the company should take responsibility, "Unfortunately, we have responsibilities to our shareholders and our industry colleagues that make action on Bhopal impossible."

In the same statement, Dow spokesman Bob Questra added, "We must learn bit by bit to meet this challenge head-on. For now, this means acknowledging that much as it pains us, our prime responsibilities are to the people who own Dow shares, and to the industry as a whole. We simply cannot do anything at this moment for the people of Bhopal."

Media Credit: Amanda Wade Participants discuss the various aspects of the Bhopal tragedy, known to many as the "Hiroshima of Chemical Disasters."

Somnath Mukherji, an electrical engineer who participated in the vigil, said the situation in Bhopal is an example of justice being betrayed. "If you let big companies get away with murder after this, that is not just," Mukherji said. "If I don't stand up for other human beings, who will stand up for me when I'm in trouble?"

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