[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 919 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
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118th CONGRESS
2d Session
S. RES. 919
Recognizing the 40th year since the 1984 Bhopal chemical disaster and
helping to ensure that no other community suffers another chemical
disaster, by designating December 3 as National Chemical Disaster
Awareness Day.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
December 3, 2024
Mr. Merkley (for himself, Mr. Wyden, and Mr. Welch) submitted the
following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on the
Judiciary
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RESOLUTION
Recognizing the 40th year since the 1984 Bhopal chemical disaster and
helping to ensure that no other community suffers another chemical
disaster, by designating December 3 as National Chemical Disaster
Awareness Day.
Whereas, on December 3, 1984, a Union Carbide pesticide factory released a dense
cloud of toxic methyl isocyanate gas into the Indian city of Bhopal,
killing 8,000 people within 72 hours and permanently injuring 500,000
more in what is considered to be the world's worst industrial disaster;
Whereas this catastrophic chemical leak in Bhopal strongly influenced the
Government of the United States to protect communities from toxic
exposure by enacting legislation such as the Superfund Amendments and
Reauthorization Act of 1986 (Public Law 99-499; 100 Stat. 1613), the
Emergency Planning and Community Right-To-Know Act of 1986 (42 U.S.C.
1101 et seq.), which authorized the Environmental Protection Agency to
establish and maintain a Toxic Release Inventory, and the Clean Air Act
Amendments of 1990 (Public Law 101-549; 104 Stat. 2576), which
authorized the Environmental Protection Agency to implement the Risk
Management Program and established the Chemical Safety and Hazard
Investigation Board (referred to in this preamble as the ``CSB''), and
prescribing regulations such as the Process Safety Management standard
published by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in 1992;
Whereas major risks to the public remain, with approximately 12,000 hazardous
industrial and commercial facilities across the United States, putting
some 131,000,000 people at risk for toxic exposures resulting from any
lapses which lead to dangerous conditions or procedures;
Whereas a CSB investigation identified dangerous conditions and deficiencies as
responsible for a 2008 explosion at a pesticide manufacturing plant at
Institute, West Virginia, which came so close to igniting a stockpile of
methyl isocyanate that a Congressional inquiry concluded that it could
easily have been ``a catastrophe rivaling the Bhopal disaster'';
Whereas data received from the CSB's Accidental Release Reporting Rule indicates
445 hazardous chemical incidents, including fires, explosions, and
harmful chemical releases, occurred in the United States between April
2021 and October 2024;
Whereas these hazardous chemical incidents include a train derailment near East
Palestine, Ohio, that released ethyl hexyl acrylate, isobutylene, and
vinyl chloride into nearby air, soil, and water, requiring the emergency
evacuation of over 2,000 residents, who now face ongoing health issues;
Whereas the health and economic impacts of chemical disasters have
multigenerational effects, such as in Bhopal where survivors suffer
significantly higher mortality rates, with over 150,000 survivors
battling chronic illnesses related to their exposure or that of their
parents, and approximately 500,000 people remain physically and
economically devastated by the disaster;
Whereas a University of San Diego study found that men who were in utero in
Bhopal at the time of the disaster have higher rates of cancer and
disability precluding employment, and lower levels of education;
Whereas the Bhopal disaster survivors have undertaken hundreds of protests and
dozens of legal petitions for adequate compensation, medical care,
rehabilitation, and criminal justice, and to achieve their goal of
establishing a serious deterrent against the possibility of other
Bhopal-level disasters;
Whereas the Government of India charged Union Carbide and its former Chief
Executive Officer Warren Anderson with culpable homicide, equivalent to
criminally negligent manslaughter under United States law and an
extraditable offense;
Whereas Union Carbide and its representatives have ignored repeated summonses to
appear in court in India, and applications under 2 extradition treaties
between India and the United States dating back to 1942 have failed to
secure their appearance;
Whereas Dow Inc., the owner of Union Carbide since 2001, has not compelled its
subsidiary to attend any proceedings relating to the Bhopal disaster;
Whereas, regarding the Bhopal disaster, Amnesty International states that ``The
indifference and disdain with which the survivors and their descendants
have been treated ever since the gas leak, the lack of proper and
effective accountability of both state and corporate actors for both the
gas leak and ongoing contamination, and the failure to ensure a
reparations programme that adequately addresses all past and ongoing
harms have been enabled by entrenched environmental racism'', in which
the people who inhabit industrial ``sacrifice zones'' are treated ``as
disposable, their voices ignored, their presence excluded from decision-
making processes and their dignity and human rights trampled upon'';
Whereas United States Census data shows that census tracts where people of color
are the majority experience 40 percent more cancer-causing industrial
air pollution and are twice as likely to get cancer from toxic air
pollution compared to census tracts where White people are the majority,
and the majority of residents near facilities where accidents occur are
from historically underserved and overburdened populations; and
Whereas the centrality of human rights to the foreign policy of the United
States and the commitment of the United States to the right to freedom
from discrimination are in line with the goal of safeguarding against
future chemical disasters, which disproportionately impact vulnerable
communities: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the Senate--
(1) recognizes the 40-year effort of the survivors of the
1984 Bhopal chemical disaster to ensure that no other community
around the world suffers another Bhopal-level disaster by
designating December 3 as National Chemical Disaster Awareness
Day;
(2) applauds the resilience of the Bhopal chemical disaster
survivors in battling to overcome ill health, poverty, and
marginalization to try to establish a deterrent against future
chemical disasters;
(3) calls on the Department of Justice to take--
(A) timely steps in response to requests by the
Indian Government concerning Dow Inc., who purchased
the Union Carbide facility where the disaster took
place; and
(B) any other actions necessary for the United
States to comply with obligations under the Treaty on
Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters, signed at
New Delhi on October 17, 2001 (TIAS 05-1003);
(4) seeks to engage with the survivors of the Bhopal
chemical disaster to strengthen the public's understanding of
the dangers of chemical disasters; and
(5) emphasizes that supporting human rights and protecting
the right to freedom from discrimination are and should remain
key pillars of United States foreign policy worldwide.
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