Lessons from Bhopal

Before the BP oil spill and the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster, there was Bhopal, still the world's worst industrial catastrophe. The 1984 leak of toxic gas from a pesticide plant operated by an Indian subsidiary of Union Carbide killed an estimated 15,000 people and affected at least a half million others. Though it is difficult to draw direct comparisons between the current environmental and economic disaster in the Gulf of Mexico and what occurred in India more than a quarter of a century ago, Bhopal has resonance today.

The first factor is that the damage from such disasters is long-lasting. More than 25 years after events in Bhopal, thousands of children still are being born with brain damage and physical deformities because of their parents' exposure to the toxic gas or to water contaminated by it. There is likely to be a similarly long-lasting impact from the oil spill.

The problems likely will effect the delicate ecology of the Gulf region rather than the human population, though the latter is uncertain. No one is quite sure what long-term exposure to the oil and the chemical dispersants sprayed to break it up might do to humans. Some of the workers cleaning up the oil have become ill and several have been hospitalized.

Experts say that the oil now invading the marshlands along the Gulf Coast and washing up on beaches from Louisiana to Florida will kill some species and dramatically alter the habits and habitat of others, including millions of migratory birds. The toll is increasingly apparent, and the situation will get worse long before it gets better.

The Coast Guard's spill overseer, retired Adm. Thad Allen, said Monday that problems will continue until relief wells are completed -- perhaps by August -- and that the spill "is no longer a single spill, but a massive collection of smaller spills. We'll be dealing with the oil and effects of the oil at least four or six weeks after the well is capped." Some experts believe with good reason that the admiral is overly optimistic.

The second lesson of Bhopal is that justice can come slowly, if at all, in the wake of such disasters. On Monday, a court in India finally convicted seven former employees of Union Carbide's subsidiary of "death by negligence" for their roles in the 1984 leak. That sounds like a tough sentence, but it isn't. Conviction means a two-year prison term and a fine of about $2,000.

That outrages many Indians and others. Some are understandably disturbed that it took a quarter of a century to obtain a verdict and that Union Carbide, which later sold its Indian subsidiary, was able to escape judicial judgment by paying a settlement of $470 million to India in 1989. Others are upset by the verdict itself. One activist call the court's ruling "a travesty of justice."

"Every one of these men," he said, "is free on bail and will go home to their families tonight. For survivors and families of victims [of Bhopal] there is nothing to go home to. They lost their families." Moreover, justice is not done. The appeals process could last for years.

BP promises to do better, suggesting it will pay up rather than turn to the courts for delay or succor. That remains to be seen. BP says it is paying legitimate claims arising from the spill, but many public officials say the company is not responding quickly enough. President Barack Obama agrees. He reiterated Monday that "... there is going to be economic damages that we've got to make sure BP is responsible for and compensates people for."

That's properly Mr. Obama's task. He should use his bully pulpit and the judicial system -- both civil and criminal -- to hold BP to its promises. Americans, unlike residents of Bhopal, should not have to wait 25 years for what might prove to be uncertain recompense and justice.

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