Bob Berzok is your regular corporate executive. He wears a three piece suit and carries lines on his face that appear to come from libido worries. The first and only time I saw him, the Director of Public Relations for Union Carbide Corporation (UCC) was through the plexi-glass screen at the Texas state prison in Houston. It was the middle of the night and from my freezing cell, I was brought into the visiting room. His company had probably realised that keeping us (two gas victims and myself) in jail on charges of criminal trespass would make bad press and sully its public image further. Bob was scared of bad PR. It wasn't even clear that we had been properly arrested; on the previous morning, officers at the annual shareholders' meeting arrested us for the simple act of distributing a fact sheet on Bhopal.
Two years later in 1991, with my friend T.R. Chouhan - a former plant operator in Bhopal Union Carbide - I met with Joseph Geoghen in New York city. Again a regular senior executive, and a Vice-President at Union Carbide, USA. He had a lawyer sitting on either side of him and a secretary taking notes. To Joe I repeated the same request I had made to Bob.
Your company is the inventor of industrial production of methyl isocyanate (MIC), one of the gases that leaked in Bhopal. You have been doing research on MIC and other chemicals and their effect on life systems for at least 30 years at your labs in Research Triangle Park, Raleigh. There is mention of at least 16 research studies that you have chosen not to publish, at least one of which is on 'human volunteers'. It does not cost you to give us the information you have generated over the years and for all one knows, this information may be vital in finding the painfully elusive 'proper line of treatment' for those exposed.
While the lawyers whispered behind Joe, and he waited for their conclusion, Chouhan described for thier benefit, the regularity with which samples of workers' blood, urine and other substances had been taken at the factory. These reports were never released. The lawyers had finished their discussion by then and one of them, the Indian guy, whispered into Joe's left ear. We got our answer: he advised us to contact the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for MSDS data sheets and to take out grievances to the Indian Government.
In as few words as possible, (because I could see he was getting impatient) I described the pain of a family from my neighbourhood in Bhopal, who had not known one day's respite from exposure-related illnesses and despite their extreme poverty had left no doctor or hospital unvisited. One of the lawyers indicated he had to catch a flight. I looked at Joe, Joe was looking at his watch. I knew I had little time. I appealed to him not to invoke the Trade Secrets Act and attempt to justify their continued and deliberate withholding of medical information. As politely as I could I reminded him that their denial of information was compounding the injuries they had caused - not only were they impeding development of specific therapies but they were also the direct cause of doctors prescribing drugs that were doing serious damage to peoples' bodies.
When I think of the disaster and try to fathom the minds that decided that it was right and proper to produce one of the most toxic chemicals in the midst of populated settlements; to under-design the factory that would produce that chemical, and then, to direct a global 'economy drive' that, among other things, resulted in the shutting down of the refridgeration plant (to save Rs.700 per day) I draw a blank. In my generous moments I can see them just doing a job to send their children to the right school, have their wives look good at parties and keep up on the golf course. They didn't really know that a mega disaster would result from routine decisions taken as part of normal corporate practice, that of making a bigger profit than last year.
But when I think of the medical disaster that followed and is likely to continue for as long as you and I are alive, I have no generous way of thinking of the regular guys who are the principal authors of this tragedy. From the little that I know there was only one published paper on the health effects of MIC before the disaster. The only available information was held by Union Carbide. They knew - and possibly know more now - about what MIC does in the acute and the chronic phase. They know what it does to the lungs, to the eyes, to the brain, to the reproductive cycle and other systems. They know that by withholding information, they are prolonging the suffering they began, compounding the injuries they originally caused.
What people like Bob and Joe did was mislead people and doctors to think that MIC is nothing but a potent tear gas, scuttle the use of the only antidote known (sodium thiosulphate), send spin doctors and Pentagon toxicologists as specialists to help the Bhopal people, financially ruin the Red Cross Hospitals that were running in Bhopal, and much more.
Bob I hear has retired. What has become of Joe I don't know. Bob's position has been renamed Corporate Communications Manager and is held by Tom Sprick. Mahesh Mathai, maker of the movie, Bhopal Express invited Tom to the New York premiere in April this year. Tom declined on behalf of Union Carbide but assured Mahesh that "the tragedy continues to be a source of anguish for the company." Tom is just another guy with a normal career, he probably even sleeps well each night.
Satinath Sarangi
March 2001
March 2001
Editor's Note: Opinions included here are that of the author. Robert Berzok accepts that he disagrees with the author on many of the points relating to the Bhopal tragedy, but denies meeting Satinath Sarangi on the night in question above.
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