Dow Chemical Company

The Dow Chemical Company is a lead producer of plastics, chemicals, hydrocarbons, and agrochemicals. Dow was incorporated in 1897. It is the largest chemical company in the U.S. and the largest in the world (along with ExxonMobil and behind BASF). It is one of the "Big 6" Biotech Corporations, along with BASF, Bayer, Dupont, Syngenta, and Monsanto (so called because they dominate the agricultural input market -- that is, they own the world’s seed, pesticide, and biotechnology industries).

Dow also makes "performance plastics"; including engineering plastics, polyurethanes and materials for Dow Automotive. Other products include packaging materials such as its Styrofoam brand insulation; fibers, and films. It also makes chemicals like acrylic acid; commodity chemicals (chlor-alkalies and glycol) and agrochemicals. Its Hydrocarbons and Energy unit makes olefins and aromatics, raw materials for other chemicals. Dow also owns half of silicone products maker Dow Corning.

Dow subsidiary Union Carbide was involved in the disaster in Bhopal, India and later in asbestos lawsuits.

In 2011, the Dow Chemical Company reported $59,985,000,000 in total sales.

Ties to Pete Peterson's "Fix the Debt"
The Campaign to Fix the Debt is the latest incarnation of a decades-long effort by former Nixon man turned Wall Street billionaire Pete Peterson to slash earned benefit programs such as Social Security and Medicare under the guise of fixing the nation's "debt problem."

This article is part of the Center for Media and Democracy's investigation of Pete Peterson's Campaign to "Fix the Debt." Please visit our main SourceWatch page on Fix the Debt.

Ties to the American Legislative Exchange Council
Dow Chemical was a "Director" level sponsor of 2011 American Legislative Exchange Council Annual Conference, which in 2010, equated to $10,000. Dow Chemical was also a sponsor of the Louisiana Welcome Reception at the 2011 ALEC Annual Meeting. Dr. Daland R. Juberg, North American leader of the Human Health Assessment Group within Dow AgroSciences (Indianapolis, IN), spoke at the Energy, Environment and Agriculture Task Force meeting of the 2011 ALEC Annual Meeting.

See and  below for more on Dow's political influence.

Chemical Disaster in Bophal, India
On the night of December 3rd, 1984, thousands suffocated from 27 tons of methyl isocyanate that leaked out of Union Carbide’s pesticides plant. At least 3,000 people were killed that night, several thousand more in the following nights, and yet more in the years to come. Twenty-five years later, the chemicals from the abandoned factory continue to seep into the ground and effects nearby survivors and their children.

In 2001 Dow Chemical inherited the liabilities when it purchased Union Carbide. Union Carbide left the factory desolate and destroyed, ignoring their lease agreement with the state of Madhya Pradesh, that the land, when returned, be in a ‘habitable and usable condition. Dow ignored the Polluter Pays principle, claiming that the Madhya Pradesh government should pay for the clean up. The company asserted that the $300 million in compensation paid by Union Carbide in 1989 should be funneled into cleanup efforts, rather than to affected individuals.

Napalm
During the Vietnam War, Dow encountered boycotts against its end-consumer products because of its manufacture of napalm. ZNet noted:


 * "Saran Wrap -The thin slice of plastic invaluable to our lives. Produced by Dow until consumers were looking for Dow products to boycott.  Dow decided to get out of consumer products for this reason -- they sold off Saran Wrap -- and since just makes chemicals that make our consumer products.

Dioxin
In October 2007, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) gave Dow 60 days (until December 10, 2007) to present the agency with "a good faith offer demonstrating its willingness to conduct or finance a remedial investigation and feasibility study and design a remedy" for dioxin contamination of the Tittabawassee River, and perhaps the Saginaw River and Saginaw Bay areas of Michigan.

Animal testing
Dow contracts some tests out to Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS). Huntingdon Life Sciences is the 3rd largest contract research organization (CRO) in the world and the largest animal testing facility in all of Europe. Firms hire CROs to conduct animal toxicity tests for agrochemicals, petrochemicals, household products, pharmaceutical drugs and toxins.

For links to copies of a facility's U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)-Animal Plant Health Inspection (APHIS) reports, other information and links, see also Facility Reports and Information: Dow Chemical Company, Midland, Michigan.

Lobbying
2012 Lobbying Data for Dow

Dow Chemical and subsidiary Dow AgroSciences spent a combined total of $6,640,000 on lobbying in 2009. $1,870,000 went to 8 outside firms for the parent company; $120,000 went to one outside firm for the subsidiary and the remaining amount was spent on in-house lobbying. In 2011, the company spent $8 million in direct lobbying. $820,000 was focused on the AgroSciences division, around pesticide spray drift, the chemical sulfuryl fluoride, and efforts to minimize EPA’s review of dioxin. $3.3 million has been spent in the first 3 months of 2012, with $350,000 spent on its AgroSciences division.

Political contributions
The Dow Chemical company controls a political action committee that has been active in every election cycle since 1990.

Dow gave just under half a million dollars to federal candidates in the 2012 election cycle in the first half of the 2012 election cycle (it raised $644,402), almost as much as the entire previous cycle. 71% of that was to Republicans, and 29% of that was to Democrats. Dow gave $319,100 to federal candidates in the 2010 election cycle, 51% to Democrats and 47% to Republicans.

Executive Committee
As of January 2013:
 * Andrew N. Liveris - President, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer
 * James R. Fitterling - Executive Vice President: Feedstocks, Performance Plastics, Asia and Latin America
 * Joe Harlan - Executive Vice President: Chemicals, Energy and Performance Materials
 * Howard Ungerleider - Executive Vice President: Advanced Materials
 * Bill Weideman - Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Other key executives

 * William Weideman - Executive VP & CFO
 * David Kepler- Executive VP, Business Services, Chief Sustainability Officer & CIO

Key executives and 2006 pay

 * Andrew N. Liveris - $16,821,542
 * Geoffery E. Merszei - CFO, $7,222,491
 * David E. Kepler - $4,289,395

Board of Directors
As of January 2013:
 * Andrew N. Liveris - President, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer
 * Arnold A. Allemang
 * Jacqueline K. Barton - Arthur and Marian Hanisch Memorial Professor of Chemistry, California Institute of Technology
 * James A. Bell - Former Chief Financial Officer, The Boeing Company
 * Jeff M. Fettig - Lead Director; Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Whirlpool Corporation
 * John B. Hess - Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Hess Corporation
 * Paul Polman - Chief Executive Officer Unilever PLC and Unilever N.V.
 * Dennis H. Reilley - Former Chairman, Covidien, Ltd.
 * James M. Ringler - Chairman, Teradata Corporation
 * Ruth G. Shaw - Former Executive Advisor, Duke Energy Corporation

Former board members include:
 * Barbara Hackman Franklin - Former U.S. Secretary of Commerce under George H. W. Bush
 * Paul G. Stern - Director, Whirlpool Corporation, Member, Council on Foreign Relations

Contact
2030 Dow Center Midland, Michigan 48674

Phone: (989) 636-1000 Fax: (989) 832-1556 Web address: http://www.dow.com

http://www.biodegradables.com

Featured SourceWatch Articles on Fix the Debt

 * Fix the Debt Portal Page
 * Fix the Debt's Leadership
 * Fix the Debt's Partner Groups
 * Fix the Debt's State Chapters
 * Fix the Debt's Lobbyists
 * Fix the Debt's Parent Group
 * Fix the Debt's Corporations
 * Pete Peterson
 * Peter G. Peterson Foundation
 * America Speaks
 * Simpson-Bowles Commission
 * Erskine Bowles
 * Alan Simpson
 * Social Security
 * Medicare
 * Medicaid

SourceWatch articles

 * American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)
 * ALEC Corporations
 * ALEC Energy, Environment and Agriculture Task Force
 * Animal testing
 * Alliance for Energy and Economic Growth
 * "Big 6" Biotech Corporations
 * Biotechnology
 * Chemical industry
 * Community Advisory Panels
 * Community Advisory Panels: Corporate cat-herding
 * Dow Corning
 * Genetic engineering
 * Genetically modified organisms
 * Huntingdon Life Sciences
 * Michael Parker - former president
 * Pedro A. Freyre
 * Peter Sandman
 * Precautionary principle
 * Responsible Care - The chemical industry's sham "self-regulation" effort. Chemical accidents actually increased in number after the initiation of this program designed to help the Chemical industry avoid government regulation.

External articles

 * "Dow, Monsanto Ordered To Pay $62M Over Agent Orange", Associated Press, January 26, 2006

External resources

 * Basic history of Napalm.
 * The Bhopal Medical Appeal & Sambhavna Clinic, Bhopal
 * International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal
 * Students for Bhopal
 * The Truth About Dow
 * Dow Chemical Consumer Campaign by Beyond Pesticides
 * The Dow Chemical Company's Website - the latest company written news, PR and information about all of Dows various products and subsidiaries.
 * Dow History as written by Dow
 * Dow Chemical Corporate News & Information

Books

 * Alastair Hay, The Chemical Scythe: Lessons of 2, 4, 5, 6 and Dioxin, Kluwer Academic Publishers, September 1982, ISBN 0306409739
 * Jack Doyle Tresspass Against Us: Dow Chemical and the Toxic Century, Common Courage Press, April 1, 2004, ISBN 978-1567512687