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[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 919 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

<DOC>

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

_______________________________________________________________________

                               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.
                                 <all>
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