Union Carbide Corporation
Profile
Union Carbide, now a wholly owned subsidiary of Dow Chemical, was founded in 1898 in Niagara Falls, New York, to produce ethylene and other chemicals. In 1930, the company began building the Hawks Nest Tunnel in West Virginia where workers, who were mostly African-American, were exposed to silica. Many of the workers were denied the use of respirators and over 700 were estimated to have died from the breathing in silica dust which is akin to breathing in shards of glass. In 1962, the company began mining asbestos in King City, California, which it shipped to factories in New Jersey and New York for use in industrial manufacturing. Many workers exposed to asbestos became ill with asbestosis, lung cancer and mesothelioma. Union Carbide, however, is most famous for one of the world’s biggest industrial disasters in Bhopal, India, in December 1984, in which an accidental leak of methyl isocyanate resulted in the deaths of at least 16,000 people and for over 40,000 to be permanently maimed or disabled. The company paid out compensation of $470 million in 1989, but the families of victims in India have continued to fight for a better deal>
Bulk chemicals, ethylene, ethylene derivatives.
Violations
Union Carbide violation data can be found here.
Data for Union Carbides parent company, Dow Inc, can be found here.
Stories
Activism
Victims of Bhopal gas tragedy say pandemic has worsened their plight
Reuters | December 3, 2020
Protesters in the central Indian city of Bhopal formed a human chain on Thursday to demand justice for people suffering cancer, blindness, respiratory, immune and neurological problems from the world’s worst industrial disaster 36 years ago.
Bhopal prays and protests on 35th anniversary of 1984 Union Carbide gas leak tragedy
Express News Service | New India Times | December 4, 2019
On the 35th anniversary of Bhopal Gas Tragedy on Tuesday, organizations working for the cause of the victims and survivors of the 1984 industrial disaster carried out protest marches in the Old Bhopal area here, where the Union Carbide factory now lies defunct.
Bhopal Gas Tragedy: Survivors Stage Protest in Front of Defunct Union Carbide Factory
News 18 | December 3, 2016
Survivors of 1984 Bhopal Gas tragedy on Saturday staged a protest in front of the now-defunct Union Carbide factory here on the 32nd anniversary of the world's worst industrial disaster, with activists alleging that toxic waste lying there was still to be cleaned up.
Angry Protest 30 Years On From Bhopal Disaster
Sky News | December 3, 2014
Victims of the Bhopal disaster in central India have demanded harsher punishments for those responsible and more compensation.
- Amnesty International
- Center for Health, Environment & Justice
- Ecology Center
- Greenpeace
- International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal
- Pesticide Action Network
- Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families
- A Community Voice
- Alliance for Affordable Energy
- Climate Reality New Orleans
- Coalition Against Death Alley
- Healthy Gulf
- Justice and Beyond
- Louisiana Bucket Brigade
- Louisiana League of Conscious Voters
- New Orleans Office Sierra Club
- Poor Peoples Campaign
- SouthWings
- Sunrise Movement, New Orleans
- RISE St. James
- 350 New Orleans
& Lawsuits
Union Carbide Faces New Lawsuit Over Water Pollution
Curtis Tate | West Virginia Public Broadcasting | September 10, 2021
An attorney for the Courtland Company has filed a new complaint in U.S. district court in Charleston over water pollution from an industrial landfill that Union Carbide owns.
Lawsuit Alleges Union Carbide Failed To Report Toxic Landfill
Brittany Patterson | WV Public Broadcasting | August 7, 2020
On a recent sticky July afternoon, Diana Green stands on the muddy bank of lower Davis Creek in South Charleston, West Virginia
Jury Awards Widow $2.38 Million in Mesothelioma Lawsuit Against Union Carbide
Mesothelioma Hope Team | February 8, 2019
A jury has recently awarded a widow $2.38 Million in a landmark mesothelioma lawsuit against Union Carbide Corporation. Union Carbide is an asbestos supplier and subsidiary of Dow Chemical Company that shipped its asbestos products to the victim’s employer for more than four decades.
Environmental Impacts
The World’s Worst Industrial Disaster Is Still Unfolding
Apoorva Mandavilli | The Atlantic | July 10, 2018
In Bhopal, residents who survived the massive gas leak and those who arrived later continue to deal with the consequences.
Union Carbide accountable for water pollution: Victims
The Economic Times | September 2, 2015
Union Carbide Corp (UCC) is responsible for water pollution that continues to foul local wells at the site of the 1984 Bhopal Gas Disaster, the world's worst industrial tragedy, lawyers representing communities living near the plant have argued in a US federal court.
& Relations
Bhopal gas tragedy victims face agonising neglect even after 37 years
Anup Dutta | The Hindu | December 3, 2021
Even 37 years after the Bhopal gas tragedy, hundreds of survivors of the world’s worst industrial disaster continue to the fight to receive adequate medical attention and compensation.
High cancer risk from union carbide emissions in kanawha persists analysis suggested workplace study
Mike Tony | Charleston Gazette | July 23, 2021
Pam Nixon wanted answers. It was July 2019, two-and-a-half years since federal environmental regulators had classified ethylene oxide as a carcinogen. Union Carbide plants in Institute and South Charleston had emitted more than 865,000 pounds of the chemical since 1987.
Financials
Union Carbide is a subsidiary of Dow Inc.
Croctail Subsidiary Tool using the CorpWatch API - This API extracts the subsidiary relationship information from Exhibit 21 of companies' 10-K filings with the US SEC.
- CIK numbers link to SEC database (EDGAR)
- Section 21 links to SEC list of companies.
- Union Carbide Croctail Profile
Union Carbide parent company, Dow Inc, shareholder data.
Political Influence
Open Secrets - Tracks corporate lobbying of US politicians.
OpenSecrets.org Profile of Union Carbide
Import & Export Data
ImportYeti - Shipping Tracking Tool - Bill of ladings are public information that are too cost prohibitive, challenging to obtain and difficult to use for the average joe. ImportYeti's goal is to solve that problem.
- ImportYeti Profile of Union Carbide
& Evasion
Union Carbide Corporation v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, No. 11-2552 (2d circuit 2012)
Swanson Reed | December 16, 2014
This is an appeal from the U.S. Tax Court denying Union Carbide Corporation (UCC) a credit for supplies used in the conduct of qualified research. Judge Pooler agrees with this judgment and files a separate concurrence.
Procurement
Union Carbide contracts with the U.S. Federal Government (via USA Spending)