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Press Release

July 30 2012

With Olympic spirit held high in London,

the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) of Olympic sponsors,

DOW and SAMSUNG, should held tight in India and Korea.

The 30th Summer Olympic opening ceremony was launched in London in the evening of July 27 2012. We notice that this Olympic is held in the middle of the serious global climate change and threatened world peace with conflicts in the Middle East, Africa and other places. We wish that all the Olympic players can display their sportsmanship obeying the rules of honest competitions, so we can praise the winners and encourage the others.

Here we have to point out that with this London Olympic, Dow Chemical and Samsung Electronics, the 2 main London Olympic sponsors, are busy doing their image making, while simply ignoring their Corporate Social Responsibility.

Dow took over Union Carbide, the American pesticide producer that had brought the Bhopal’s disaster in India, 1984. But Dow has refused to do its responsibility on the Bhopal’s disaster. Approximately 150.000 people are still suffering from chronic diseases, 50,000 people of them are in critical conditions. More than 25,000 people have died so far. The factory site of the Bhopal disaster has been abandoned with no clean up at all over 27 years since the disaster when professor PAEK Domyung of Seoul National University and director CHOI Yeyong of Asian Citizen’s Center for Environment and Health visited Bhopal in November 2011. Underground water has been contaminated by the left-over of Bhopal disaster sites, and many residents have been continuously affected from the colossal environment pollution. 2 daycare centers for the deformed children by drinking contaminated underground water are operating with help of  local and international volunteers including victim themselves. But there were no Dow chemical’s activities. In Bhopal, activists and victims have organized an international campaign demanding DOW’s corporate social responsibility if they want to be a legitimate and faithful sponsor of  2012 London Olympic.

Samsung Electronics, the multinational company of top selling global cell phone maker, allowing no union in its bounderary, is also one of main sponsors of London Olympic. Samsung is blamed, for incurring occupational diseases to its 146 former employees, such as leukemia, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and then manipulating their occupational relationships in the court with their mercenaries poised as lawyers or scientists. Due to this problem, Samsung was voted as the third worst company in the world by global netizens, and even an academic journal IJOEH, International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health, had to publish a Samsung issue with a female victim photo on its cover together with editorials.

As sponsors of global sports event, Dow and Samsung should fulfill their sincere coporate social responsibility, not as just one of their usual business activities. Otherwise all the shame on insincere dirty trick players will also be directed to them by the olympic fans. Again, here we urge Dow and Samsung to face honestly and sincerely their corporate social responsibility.

Asian Citizen’s Center for Environmen and Health (ACCEH)

Based in Seoul, South Korea. www.eco-health.org

Room118, Building3, Yeon-Geon campus, Gyeongeon-dong 28-2, Chongno-gu, Seoul, Korea 

Contacts; Prof Domyung PAEK +82-10-2739-3118 paekdm@snu.ac.kr

(Seoul National University, Grauate  School of Public Health),

Director Yeyong CHOI +82-10-3458-7488 choiyy@kfem.or.kr