Dow Chemical Company
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Template:Infobox Company$46.307 Billion USD (2005)| net_income = Template:Profit$4.515 Billion USD (2005)|
num_employees = 42,413 (2005)| homepage = www.dow.com
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The Dow Chemical Company (Template:Nyse)(Template:Tyo) is a multinational corporation headquartered in Midland, Michigan, USA. In terms of market capitalization, it is the largest chemical company in the world, followed closely by DuPont.
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Products
Dow is the world's largest producer of plastics including polystyrene, polyurethanes, polyethylene terephthalate, polypropylene, and synthetic rubbers. It is also a major producer of the chemicals calcium chloride, and ethylene oxide, as well as various acrylates, surfactants, and cellulose resins. It produces many agricultural chemicals, perhaps being most famous for its pesticide Lorsban. On the consumer level, its most well-known products include Saran wrap, Ziploc bags (which now have been sold to SC Johnson), Styrofoam and Silly Putty.
Corporate governance
Current members of the board of directors of Dow Chemical Co. are: Arnold Allemang, Jacqueline Barton, J. Michael Cook, Willie Davis, Jeff Fettig, Barbara Franklin, Andrew N. Liveris, Keith McKennon, Pedro Reinhard, James Ringler, Harold Shapiro, Ruth Shaw, William Stavropoulos, and Paul Stern.
History
The Dow Chemical Company was founded in 1897 by Herbert Henry Dow in order to extract chlorides and bromides from brine deposits under Midland, Michigan. Its initial products included bromine and bleach. Even in its early history, the company set a tradition of rapidly diversifying its product line. Within twenty years, Dow had become a major producer of agricultural chemicals, elemental chlorine, phenol and other dyestuffs, and magnesium metal.
In the 1930s, Dow began production of plastic resins, which would grow to become one of the corporation's major businesses. Its first plastic products were ethylcellulose, made in 1935, and polystyrene, made in 1937.
In 1930, Dow built its first plant to produce magnesium extracted from seawater rather than underground brine. Growth of this business made Dow a strategically important business during World War II, as magnesium became important in fabricating lightweight parts for airplanes. Also during the war, Dow and Corning began their joint venture Dow Corning to produce silicones for military and later civilian use. In 1942 Dow began its foreign expansion with the formation of Dow Chemical of Canada in Sarnia, Ontario to produce styrene for use in styrene-butadiene synthetic rubber.
In the post-war era, Dow began expanding outside North America, founding its first overseas subsidiary in Japan in 1952, with several other nations following rapidly thereafter. Based largely on its growing plastics business, it opened a consumer products division beginning with Saran wrap in 1953. Based on its growing chemicals and plastics businesses, Dow's sales exceeded $1 billion in 1964, $2 billion in 1971, and $10 billion in 1980.
In September 2004, Dow obtained the naming rights of the Saginaw County Event Center in nearby Saginaw, Michigan, and the facility's new name is now The Dow Event Center. The deal is worth $10 Million, and is said to last until 2014. The center houses the Ontario Hockey League ice hockey team, Saginaw Spirit.
Today, Dow is the world's largest producer of plastics, and with its 2001 acquisition of Union Carbide has become a major player in the petrochemical industry as well.
Public health challenges
As one of the largest producers of chemicals in the world for the past century, Dow has been involved in a number of controversial incidents and produced many inherently toxic products. Some of these incidents recently made national headlines as a Student Campaign for the Bhopal Disaster focused their efforts on boycotts of Dow's educational funding and products.
Breast implants
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, consumer groups alleged that Dow Corning's (Dow Corning is a joint venture between Dow Chemical and Corning Glass Works) silicone breast implants caused numerous health problems including breast cancer, autoimmune diseases including lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, and various neurological problems. This led to numerous lawsuits beginning in 1984 and culminating in a 1998 class action settlement in which tens of thousands of plaintiffs accepted a $3.2 billion award.
Safety issues remain a concern, particularly regarding the rate of rupture and the long term effects.
The Bhopal Disaster
The Bhopal Disaster resulted in the highest number of deaths of any industrial disaster in recent history. The group Amnesty International reports that over 22,000 people have died to date from the disaster and ongoing water contamination from the plant site. An accidental chemical release of forty metric tons of Methyl isocyanate (MIC) occurred on December 3rd, 1984 from a Union Carbide India, Limited (UCIL) facility in Bhopal, India. Company documents from the plant's construction characterized the technology used in the plant as risky, and the plant was operating outside of guidelines to save money at the time of the disaster.
The Bhopal plant was a joint venture between the Union Carbide Corporation US and Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL). Extensive investigations and legal hearings took place during which time a settlement of over $470 million was reached without consulting the disaster survivors. The settlement worked out to about $500 per survivor for survivors who are permanently disabled. Ten years after the original incident, Union Carbide sold its 50.9% share of UCIL (along with all remaining liabilities) to MacLeod Russell Limited of Calcutta and voluntarily donated all proceeds of the sale to the establishment of a hospital in Bhopal.
It is worthy to note that Dow Chemical did not own Union Carbide at the time of the disaster.
Dioxins in Mid-Michigan
Starting in the early 2000s, residents living on the Tittabawassee River near the company's headquarters in Midland and nearby Saginaw counties in Michigan filed a class-action lawsuit against the company for dioxin contamination (levels of dioxins were found above those allowed by the Department of Environmental Quality) in the soil on the riverbed and along its shores. As of June 2005, the case is still awaiting class certification. [1]
Operation Locations
The Dow Chemical Company has offices in many different countries and regions. Below is an incomplete list of the known operation centers:
North America
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- Pontchartrain (Joint venture with DuPont, DuPont Dow Elastomers L.L.C.)
- Sterlington
- Greensburg
- St. Charles Parish
- Plaquemine
- Auburn Hills
- Ludington
- Midland (World Headquarters)
South America
Europe
Africa
Asia
- Handa, Aichi, Japan,
- Malaysia, Optimal - JV with Petronas, Seremban UES - JV;
- Indonesia, Merak, Medan;
- Thailand - Ma Tha Put;
- The Philippines - Batangas;
- China - Shanghai, GuangZhou, ZhangJiaGang, Beijing, Hong Kong, Taiwan;
- Australia;
- South Korea;
External links
- Dow Chemical Company website
- Dow History
- Dow Chemical Corporate News
- Dow Chemical Company Information from Hoovers
Advocacy
- International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal
- Studentsforbhopal.org, a student advocacy group based on the Bhopal disaster.
- Thetruthaboutdow.org, a parody/critical website against the corporation.
- Dow Chemical entry at Knowmore.org
- SourceWatch article on Dow Chemical Company
- Nature 2.0 beta | Legislation, Politics, Science and Spin Behind Genetically Modified Foods
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Further reading
- E. Ned Brandt. (2003). Growth Company: Dow Chemical's First Century. Michigan State University Press. ISBN 0870134264
- Jack Doyle. (2004). "Trespass Against Us: Dow Chemical and the Toxic Century." Common Courage Press. ISBN 1567512682
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