"Dow Chemical Co hoped an Olympic sponsorship would boost its global cache, but the company's link to a gas leak tragedy 28 years ago threatens to curb some of the benefits from the $100 million advertising deal. As many as 25,000 residents of Bhopal, India, died in the aftermath of a 1984 gas leak at a pesticide factory that was owned by a subsidiary of Union Carbide, which sold the facility in 1994. Dow bought Union Carbide in 2001."
"Since then, India, Amnesty International, Greenpeace and some members of the British Parliament have demanded Dow increase a $470-million compensation package that Union Carbide paid victims in 1989.
The Indian government wants Dow to pay an additional $1.7 billion, but Dow has refused, saying it has no responsibility for Bhopal and that Union Carbide settled liabilities.
The dispute was resurrected in the public eye by Dow's sponsorship of this year's Olympic games in London, home to a large South Asian population.
Dow will not be putting its logo on a decorative wrap that will don London's Olympic stadium in the months leading up to the opening ceremony. Dow had hoped the wrap would showcase its environmentally friendly plastic."
Ernest Scheyder reports for Reuters February 20, 2012.
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