Parliamentary Hearing- Dow Sponsorship of London Olympics

An adjournment debate has been called by Barry Gardiner MP on the 'Sustainability of the London Olympics'. The focus will be on the controversial sponsorship deal with the Dow Chemical Company.

Mr.Gardiner will be questioning the procurement process of the deal which was allegedly pre-determined in Dow's favour. he will also be asking questions about how Dow Chemical can have been considered suitable partners of the London Games, in terms of either sustainability or ethics.

He will raise the issue of Dow Chemical's recent business malpractice that has seen them blacklisted in India for bribing officials in order to sell banned, dangerous pesticides. He will point out that this case was running concurrently with LOCOG's procurement of Dow.

He will also ask why LOCOG continue to defend Dow's stance that they are not connected with Union Carbide and the Bhopal disaster when all of the available evidence suggests they are. This includes recently uncovered court documents, from the US, that suggest Dow has been illegally trading banned Union Carbide products in India.

Jeremy Hunt, Secretary for Culture Media and Sport is obliged to attend this hearing and is obliged to answer Mr.Gardiner's questions.

For more information, contact: colintoogood@bhopal.org

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