The Good
[  ]  one of top 50 best companies for minorities
[  ]  one of top 100 companies for working mothers
[X]  Has a non-discrimination policy that includes sexual orientation

To Be Improved
[X] - sites in non-democratic nations
[   ] - child labor violations in last five years
[X] - environmental violations in last five years

In a report entitled "Dow Brand Dioxin : Dow Makes you Poison Great Things," Greenpeace has accused Dow Chemicals of being the world’s leader in dioxin production. The name dioxin characterizes a family of 210 chemical substances that have different levels of toxicity.  Dioxin is known to cause cancer, sterility, birth defects, and impaired neurological development which is cause for alarm since dioxin currently contaminates the world's air, water, and food chain and continues to become more and more concentrated. According to the Greenpeace report :

Average citizens already have enough dioxin in their tissues for concern. More critically, contaminated adults pass dioxin to the fetus while it is still in the womb and to the infant through mother's milk. Both the fetus and the infant are much more sensitive to dioxin than is the adult; the full health impact on the child may not be expressed until maturity.

Agent Orange was used as a defoliant in the Vietnam war, which still has the highest dioxin concentrations in the world. After the war was over the detrimental effects of agent orange made their appearance on all participating forces. Dow agreed to pay a total of $180mil for compensation to US veterans suffering from symptom. 30,000 Koreans participating to the war developed the same symptoms but have not yet been compensated. The result on the Vietnamese population need not be mentioned.  Also, Dow was the manufacturer of Napalm, which was used during the Vietnam War.

Dow owns Marion Merrell Dow which is a pharmaceutical house. Many of its products such as Bentyl(irritable bowel syndrome), AVC(albicans vaginal cream), Cardizem (hypertension), have either had zero long-run testing for carcinogenesis, some have been accused of leading to psychosis while the use of others has been associated with unwelcome side-effects.

 In August 1999 Dow merged with Union Carbide. In 1984 a facility of Union Carbide leaked an undetermined gas in Bhopal, India leading to the death of thousands of people and only 140,000 survivors. Union Carbide has not released the composition of the chemical that leaked under the excuse of confidential business information, but paid US $470 mil to the Indian government as a settlement fee.

Dow’s chemical-manufacturing plant at Fort Saskatchewan, Canada has been accused in three occasions of releasing CFCs in the atmosphere. Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) are known to deplete the earth’s ozone layer and their use and production within the US is not permitted. Dow pleaded guilty for the actions of the plant and agreed to pay a total of $300,000 in fines. In 1995 the plant released 458Kg CFCs during plant maintenance and during 1996 an additional 1800Kg due to a valve leak.  According to Dow, their goal is to reduce emissions of ozone depleting chemicals by 75% by 2005, and that they have already reduced CFC emissions by 81% between 1994 to 1998.

Moreover, Dow is a leading producer of pesticides.  In Costa Rica, banana plantation workers have come in contact with pesticides and other chemicals that were air-sprayed to the fields. The results have been devastating. The population started developing infertility problems, birth defects, headaches and eye-sight problems. Dow Chemicals offered $22mil to a total of 25,000 Latin American workers as a compensation fee.

Rocky Flats is an area 16 miles northwest of Denver, Colorado that houses the United States’ greatest public threat, as the US department of energy puts it. Rocky flats is a former nuclear weapons manufacturing plant that stores a total of 14.2 tons of plutonium. Dow operated the site from 1952 to 1975. A total of 50,000 Coloradans have joined in a $550mil lawsuit against Dow and Rockwell International, the other co-operator of the plant. The suit is still pending.

According to an article in The Independent (Feb 8, 1999), Dow Chemicals ranks in the top ten of worst pollutors in the United Kingdom.

In January 1999, Dow signed on to these more stringent Responsible Care Guiding Principle a voluntary initiative within the global chemical industry to "safely handle products from inception in the research laboratory, through manufacture and distribution, to ultimate disposal, and to involve the public in our decision-making  processes."  More information on this can be found through Dow's website or by clicking here.

According to Dow, in April 1999 they completed a two-year collaboration with U.S. national and local environmentalists to reduce toxic emissions to the air and water by 43 percent at the Midland, Michigan site.  According to Dow, "working side by side with environmentalists through a participatory process certainly is unique...  [and] we plan to take the lessons learned from this project and apply the model to other Dow sites globally."

There have not been many documented cases of labor problems as far as Dow is concerned. The reason may be that either things are indeed in order, or that the focus has been placed more on environmental violations. However, Dow has and is taking positive steps in the area of labor, which do show.

In Merac, Indonesia situations have made finding a job in the chemistry industry quite difficult. Working with other chemical companies, Dow has launched a training program that prepares Indonesian people to assume positions of technicians and operators in their plants, thus helping the native population and economy.

In general, Dow has a diversity enhancement corporation-wide policy. Dow’s policy establishes “local, regional and global teams that are responsible for implementing tailored diversity strategies based in their business, function or area.” In 1998 Dow established the CEO Council on Diversity with more than 30 multinational CEOs around the globe. The council helps promote diversity in all the ranks of the organization.

Dow Chemicals is one of the pioneers in silicon-breast implants. As a result of that, it has at this moment quite a few lawsuits pending concerning their cancer inducing properties. Dow has agreed to pay a total of $4.25 bil for international settlement of 200,000 claimants.

Dow has a force of 51 lobbyists in the federal level and spent $1mil for lobbying purposes in the first half of 1996. Moreover it is a leading member in the Chemical Manufacturers Association. CMA has a lobbying force of 50 people and had spent a total of $4.68mil for lobbying purposes during the first half of 1996. Dow has a representative, Dave Buzzelli, on the unelected President's Council on Sustainable Development. Jonathan Lash, president of the World Resources Institute and member of Dow's Corporate Environmental Advisory Council, also serves on the President's Council.

• www.corpwatch.org - Just search for Dow Chemical to get a list of articles on Dow and its negative impact on the environment
• www.greenpeace.org/~usa/reports/asciiver - To read the Greenpeace report Dow Brand Dioxin : Dow Makes you Poison Great Things
• www.infact.org/ - A national grassroots corporate watchdog organization which singles out Dow Chemical as being among the five worst corporations and therefore lists the company in its Hall of Shame along with a description of why the company was chosen.
• www.dow.com  - Dow Chemical's Web Page
• www.dow.com/environment/goal2005.html - For a full description of Dow Chemical's environmental goals for 2005 and to find out what Dow has been doing to reach those goals.
• www.igc.org/trac/gallery/ej/ejflyer.html - An article on Corporate Watch's website on Dow Chemical and environmental justice issues
• infoweb4.newsbank.com - Newsbank : used to obtain articles on Dow Chemical.  Among articles used :
• "Dow fined$300,000 for CFC release" Calgary Herald (Calgary, Alta.), as provided by Southam Electronic Publishing, November 19, 1996 , p. A2 . 
• "Exposed : Worst Poullters in Britain."  Independent, The (London, England), February 8, 1999 , p. 10 .
• "A $550 Million Question: How Risky is Rocky Flats?"  Christian Science Monitor, The (Boston, MA), May 2, 1996 , p4
• "Banana Workers Speaking Out"  Inter Press Service, July 11, 1999