ESPN E:60 Concludes Fall 2010 Season Tuesday E:60, ESPN’s award winning newsmagazine, will conclude its Fall 2010 season with stories from India, Italy and Pennsylvania on Tuesday, Nov. 9, at 7 p.m. ET.
News-Sports.net - Nov 05,2010 - E:60, ESPN’s award winning newsmagazine, will conclude its Fall 2010 season with stories from India, Italy and Pennsylvania on Tuesday, Nov. 9, at 7 p.m. ET. To view video clips of the features click here. Highlights of each feature:
BHOPAL:
On December 3, 1984, the worst industrial accident in history occurred at the Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, when a gas leak exposed several thousands to toxic chemicals. While death toll estimates vary, the untold story has been the lingering impact on the lives of unwitting youngsters who turn to Bhopal’s contaminated playgrounds to play cricket.
An E:60 crew and correspondent Jeremy Schaap travelled to India to tell the story of “The Children of Bhopal.”
The piece looks at the lasting impact of an industrial disaster on youngsters who just want to play their favorite sport – cricket. For “The Children of Bhopal,” the playgrounds they use to escape the squalor around them and to dream of a brighter future as professional cricketers have compounded their problems. President Barrack Obama’s visit to India next week, many observers expect, will draw renewed attention to these forgotten victims of the Bhopal gas tragedy.
Highlights:
* With help of scientists from SGS, a Swiss-based global environmental company, E:60 tested the soil in nine areas in and around the abandoned Union Carbide facility. Results show that the most contaminated areas are where the children play cricket.
* “My dream is to become a cricketer. My House is made of mud but I want a house of stone one day,” said 15-year-old Sachin Kumar, who can’t walk but still plays the sport of cricket he dearly loves.
* "The people who come here suffer from severe breathlessness, chest pain, joint pain, repeated infections," said Mohammad Ali Qaier, a physician at the Sambhavna Clinic in Bhopal, who sees hundred of victims of the disaster and their descendants daily.
* The sporting aspirations of “The Children of Bhopal,” rooted in cricket, have been caught in the middle of a government seemingly incapable of protecting them from a toxic environment; a company, many agree, needs to do more to clean up the disaster; and the protestation of numerous Bhopal victims rights groups. “Even if you are not prepared to clean up, at least prevent people from going to certain extremely contaminated areas,” Amnesty International’s Thambydurai Muthukumaraswamy told E:60.
* In 2001, The Dow Chemical Company acquired Union Carbide Corporation, which had UCIL as its Indian subsidiary.
* Congressman Frank Pallone, Jr., (D-N.J.), contends the Dow Chemical Company should be held responsible for the environmental and health problems in Bhopal today. “Ultimately, if Dow Chemical gets away with this, then other companies are going to continue to do the same thing," Pallone told E:60.
* Dow declined comment, as did former Union Carbide CEO Warren Anderson, who has been wanted in India for the past 26 years.
Click here to watch the trailer. (Some images on this video are graphic and can be disturbing
