Dow Chemical Shareholder Resolution #4
Bhopal Risks and Liabilities

Whereas:

Dow Chemical has acquired Union Carbide, its assets and it liabilities.

Union Carbide has failed to appear in court to face continuing criminal charges in the Indian Courts for “culpable homicide, not amounting to murder” in the Bhopal disaster and has, therefore, been proclaimed an absconder from justice by the Bhopal Chief Judicial Magistrate.

By law in India the liability of Union Carbide for the offense of culpable homicide is wholly in the discretion of the courts and limited only by the company's total assets.

Dow, through its wholly owned subsidiary Union Carbide, has become implicated in the continued controversy over the Bhopal criminal case, as well as remediation of contamination at the site and redress of health and economic concerns of the community, and the survivors and their supporters have refocused their efforts upon Dow.

Dow's Chairman and CEO, William Stavropoulos, was quoted as saying “Companies that don’t meet their responsibilities to all their constituencies will have a difficult time. Responsible customers won’t want to buy their products…Enlightened communities won’t want them as neighbors, and wise investors won’t entrust them with their economic futures” (The Business of Business Managing Corporate Social Responsibility: What Business Leaders are Saying and Doing 2002-2007).

Dow's Chief Operating Officer Andrew Liveris was quoted as saying "We also are very committed to a concept termed sustainable development... Sustainable development is the new way to think about economic viability, environmental integrity and social equity as an integrated whole.... We want our critics to track our results and hold us accountable as we continuously improve our performance." (Improving What's Essential to Human Progress: An Inside Look at Engineers in the Chemical Industry).
Eighteen members of Congress have sent a letter to Dow management urging the company to provide medical rehabilitation and economic reparations for the victims of the tragedy, clean up contamination in and around the former factory site in Bhopal, provide alternative supplies of fresh water to the affected communities, and ensure that the Union Carbide Corporation appears before the Chief Judicial Magistrate's court in Bhopal where it faces criminal charges of culpable homicide.

Dow has noted in its Global Public Report that sales and operations in Asia account for $3.3 billion in revenues and that performance businesses comprise 60% of that.

The Bhopal disaster may continue to damage Dow's reputation which, in the opinion of the proponents, may reasonably be expected to affect growth prospects in Asia and beyond.

Resolved
That shareholders request the management of Dow Chemical to prepare a report to shareholders by October 2004, at reasonable cost and excluding confidential information, describing new initiatives instituted by the management to address the specific health, environmental and social concerns of the survivors.

Supporting Statement
The proponents believe that such report should also assess the impacts that the Bhopal matter may reasonably pose on the company, its reputation, its finances and its expansion in Asia and elsewhere.