International Olympic profile proves hot potato for Dow Chemical

IT SHOULD HAVE been a good week for Dow Chemical as it was rolled out as the producer of the £7m Olympic wrap that will encircle the stadium in London next year. The announcement was complete with digital images and the message that the fabric will be sustainably produced. It marked Dow’s coming out party having signed on for 10 years as a TOP partner with the IOC last year for a whopping $275m. Rain has ruined Dow’s parade however as activists in India accuse the company of trying to walk away from its responsibilities following the Bhopal disaster in 1984. Despite only buying Union Carbide (the company behind the chemical catastrophe) in 1999, protesters including Greenpeace have asked for an Indian boycott of the Games. Dow has responded that the legal claims surrounding the incident were settled long before its involvement and that the company has helped to drive performance improvements to prevent any such disaster happening again.