Before you came to India, which other countries have you collected samples from?
We have collected samples from nearly all over the world. We did work in Argentina and Brazil and collected samples from Antarctica. Personally I have been collecting toxic waste from Beirut and Japan.

What are the basic problems in these countries?
A lot of technologies in chemicals that are used are environmentally unacceptable. There are chemicals like those which we found at Bhopal site, like Sevin, which should be banned throughout the world. They are hardly used anymore in western countries.

India needs to develop its chemicalindustry in a modern and clean way, rather than keeping outfashioned methods. Modern methods will create as much wealth without creating any harm.

Have you done anywork on other companies in India which produce pesticides?
Yes. But for now, our focus is on Bhopal. All the reports are not being released yet. We will do so at an appropriate time.

With respect to Bhopal, your findings relate only to the surroundings of the plant? How far away from the Carbide plant were the samples taken?
Drinking water fortunately was found contaminated in samples collected from closer to the factory boundary. In samples we took further away, we didn't find any volatile organic chemicals. We have found samples heavily contaminated, but there's a lot more that needs to be tested.

Your observations after the analysis of the samples you tested?
Firstly, there is still large amounts of pesticides and wastes stockpiled on the site like sevin and benzene hexafluoride, which have just beenforgotten.

Secondly, the soil around the site is heavily contaminated with metals and organic chemicals. Particularly worrying are the chlorinated chemicals.

Thirdly, drinking water in wells closer to the site contain high levels of chlorinated solvents and chlorinated benzenes. Four of the samples showed levels well over those set by World Health Organisation or US Environment Protection Agency limits. One of the chemicals was 1,700 times over, another 250 times over, another one 50 times over. This is completely unacceptable.

People there don't have money to buy water from elsewhere. It is the government's responsibility to conduct a full survey and make the people who are responsible for this contamination pay for this.