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***MEDIA ADVISORY***
PALLONE TO HOST CONGRESSIONAL BRIEFING WITH BHOPAL DISASTER VICTIMS ADVOCATES |
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U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ), founder of the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans, will host a congressional briefing this Thursday, April 22 at 2:00 p.m. with Bhopal survivors and Goldman Environmental Prize winners Rashida Bee and Champa Devi Shukla. Pallone will also show a short documentary film that brings to life the horror of the Bhopal disaster and its aftermath.
At the briefing, Bee and Shukla will discuss their international grassroots campaign to seek justice for Bhopal survivors and their efforts to draw low-income, illiterate women from the margins of society to the center of this closely watched issue. Bee and Shukla were recently honored with the Goldman Environmental Prize for their roots in labor activism, their fight against Dow Chemical, and their great environmental and humanitarian leadership.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Union Carbide gas leak that killed more than 20,000 people in Bhopal, India, the world ’s biggest industrial disaster. According to victims rights groups, over 150,000 people continue to suffer the after effects of the disaster, including: reproductive complications, loss of ability to perform physical labor, rare cancers and severe respiratory problems. Residents of Bhopal are still faced with polluted groundwater, toxic waste and contaminated soil and their concerns have yet to be addressed.
In October, the New Jersey Congressman joined eight of his colleagues in filing an amicus brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals on behalf of the Bhopal victims and their families.
WHAT: Congressional briefing on Bhopal disaster and efforts to
WHO: U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) and Bhopal activists Rashida Bee and Devi Shukla
WHEN: Thursday, April 22nd at 2 p.m.
WHERE: 1116 Longworth House Office Building, located at the corner of Independence and New Jersey Avenues, S.E. |
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