2009-08-25 - Second Letter To Global Compact Office About Bayer

Global Compact Office Executive Director Georg Kell by e-mail: [email protected] August 25, 2009

Exclude Bayer AG from Global Compact Dear Georg Kell, We received Bayer´s reply to the letter we sent to the GC office in June 2009. We do not regard it as helpful that Bayer continues to vilify our group (“A constructive dialogue with the local activist group “Coalition Against Bayer Dangers” (CBG), who have written to you in this matter, has never been possible). Their attitude is similar to the "marginalization approach" towards the People Concerned about MIC group and the Charleston Gazette that led to the judgment of the US House Committee: "Evidence obtained by the committee demonstrates that Bayer engaged in a campaign of secrecy by withholding critical information from local, county and state emergency responders; by restricting the use of information provided to federal investigators; by undermining news outlets and citizen groups concerned about the dangers posed by Bayer's activities; and by providing inaccurate and misleading information to the public." A democratic approach would be to face up to criticism instead of to try to defame opponents. Furthermore, none of the grievances documented by the House Committee has been resolved by Dr. Wolfgang Große Entrup. Instead he merely repeats some of Bayer´s previous unproven statements: •

“Bayer supported the authorities involved in their investigations into the causes of the accident.” This clearly contradicts the Senate findings cited above.

•

“Health, Safety, Environment and Quality (HSEQ) are highly important issues for the Bayer Group. Bayer is a global company with numerous sites and subsidiaries. HSEQ management systems have therefore been established to ensure uniformly high health, safety, environmental protection and quality standards. (…) We are convinced that our sites

Advisory Board Dr. Erika Abczynski / Kinderärztin / Dormagen

Prof. Dr. Jürgen Rochlitz / Chemiker / Burgwald

Eva Bulling-Schröter / MdB / Berlin

Dr. Janis Schmelzer / Historiker / Berlin

Wolfram Esche / Rechtsanwalt / Köln

Prof. Dr. Anton Schneider / Baubiologe / Neubeuern

Prof. Jürgen Junginger / Designer / Krefeld

Dorothee Sölle / Theologin / Hamburg (gest. 2003)

Dr. Sigrid Müller / Pharmakologin / Bremen

Coalition against BAYER Dangers www.CBGnetwork.org

Letter to UN Global Compact Aug 25, 2009

are operated on highest safety standard and our employees have been trained appropriately.” This contrasts with the findings of the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) which criticized "...faulty safety systems, significant shortcomings with the emergency procedures and a lack of employee training". •

“Bayer firmly stated that it did not withhold any information required by the authorities at any time.” In reality, Bayer CropScience CEO William Buckner conceded under oath that the company used chemical plant security regulations to try to hide information about the incident and avoid a public debate over the large amounts of MIC stored at the Institute plant: "There were, of course, some business reasons that also motivated our desire for confidentiality," Buckner said. "These included a desire to limit negative publicity generally about the company or the Institute facility, to avoid public pressure to reduce the volume of MIC that is produced and stored at Institute by changing to alternative technologies, or even calls by some in our community to eliminate MIC production entirely."

Bayer also attached the translation of Werner Wenning´s reply to our countermotion in May 2009. This document contains similar assertions: "The fact is that the MIC tank in Institute was not affected by the explosion or the subsequent fire" and "the population or the environment were not at risk". Again this contradicts to the Senate report which concluded that the explosion "came dangerously close" to compromising a MIC storage tank. In fact, the explosion was only 80 feet from a tank that can hold up to 37,000 pounds of MIC. Had the residue treater hit the MIC tank, "the consequences could have eclipsed the 1984 disaster in India." Wenning continues: “All the safety apparatus designed to protect the tank functioned perfectly, and there was no cause for concern in this respect at any time” – a clear contradiction to the Senate findings: "Documents obtained by the committee raise serious questions about the vulnerabilities of Bayer's inventory of methyl isocyanate (MIC) during the 2008 explosion and about MIC monitoring systems that were out of service at the time of the explosion," the committee report said. "The documents also raise questions about whether Bayer has adequately considered the feasibility of reducing its MIC stockpile or switching to inherently safer technologies." Therefore we maintain our demand to exclude Bayer from the UN Global Compact due to their violations of the Compact´s principles in the aftermath of the Institute explosion. We thank you for your attention and look forward to your response. With Regards,

Coalition against BAYER Dangers www.CBGnetwork.org

Philipp Mimkes Coalition against BAYER Dangers (Germany) www.CBGnetwork.org [email protected] Tel: (+49) 211-333 911 Fax: (+49) 211-333 940

Letter to UN Global Compact Aug 25, 2009