Dow Inc.
Profile
Dow Chemical is one of the three largest chemical companies in the world.* Founded in 1897, it is headquartered in Midland, Michigan. It became infamous for its production of Agent Orange and napalm and in the 1970s, two key ingredients in the weapons used in the U.S. war in Vietnam. Agent Orange is a chemical defoliant designed to kill plants and trees while napalm is an explosive that sticks to its targets. Dow joined other companies in paying out $180 million in compensation to U.S. military veterans who suffered health problems from Agent Orange but fought successfully to defeat a 2005 lawsuit by Vietnamese victims who suffered lasting illnesses and birth defects.
Commodity chemical manufacturing.
Violations
| Top 5 Offense Groups (Groups Defined) | Penalty Total | Number of Records |
|---|---|---|
| environment-related offenses | $269,110,701 | 174 |
| financial offenses | $1,900,000 | 3 |
| employment-related offenses | $930,583 | 3 |
| safety-related offenses | $829,096 | 60 |
| competition-related offenses | $706,000 | 3 |
(September 29, 2022)
Stories
- Clouds of Injustice: Bhopal Disaster 20 Years On (Amnesty International, 2004).
- Dodging Responsibility: Corporations, Governments and the Bhopal Disaster (Amnesty International, May 2009).
- Injustice Incorporated: Corporate Abuses and the Human Right to Remedy (Amnesty International, March 2014); includes case study on Bhopal.
- The Big Boys: Styles of Corporate Power by Ralph Nader and William Taylor (Pantheon, 1986).
- The Dow Story: The History of the Dow Chemical Company by Don Whitehead (McGraw-Hill, 1968).
- The Foreign Policy of a Multinational Enterprise: An Analysis of the Policy Interactions of Dow Chemical & the U.S. by Gordon K. Sorey (Ayer Co. Publishers, 1980).
Activism
Campaigners dressed as wolves invade Davos in protest against ISDS ‘corporate courts’
CIDSE | January 23, 2019
*Action is taking place on January 23rd at 1 pm, in front of the Davos Library*. Campaigners dressed as corporate wolves will invade the streets of Davos, on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum (WEF), to protest the rights of corporations to sue governments under controversial “Investor State Dispute Settlement” (ISDS) provisions.
Pompton Lakes residents rally to oppose controversial cleanup plan
James M O'neil | North Jersey | October 12, 2017
Holding signs that said “DuPont clean up your mess” and “Don’t pinch pennies on our health,” a group of Pompton Lakes residents held a small rally Thursday, exhorting neighbors to voice their displeasure with a proposal to dilute contaminated groundwater beneath their homes by pumping clean water into the ground.
Protesters greet DuPont shareholders
Jeff Montgomery, and Esteban Parra | Delaware Online | May 13, 2015
The drama over DuPont's board of directors easily overshadowed a protest Wednesday outside the DuPont Co.'s shareholder meeting – an annual event that in the past has seen angry activists occupy a factory water tower and rappel down the Hotel du Pont.
DOW Chemical Anti Vietnam War Protests
Michigan in the World | March 26, 2015
On college campuses across the country, anti-war activists protested corporations, who were contracted by the government to make products for the military.
- Amnesty International
- Center for Health, Environment & Justice
- Ecology Center
- Greenpeace
- International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal
- Pesticide Action Network
- Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families
- A Community Voice
- Alliance for Affordable Energy
- Climate Reality New Orleans
- Coalition Against Death Alley
- Healthy Gulf
- Justice and Beyond
- Louisiana Bucket Brigade
- Louisiana League of Conscious Voters
- New Orleans Office Sierra Club
- Poor Peoples Campaign
- SouthWings
- Sunrise Movement, New Orleans
- RISE St. James
- 350 New Orleans
& Lawsuits
Dow Chemical pesticide Chlorpyrifos caused kids’ brain damage, California lawsuits say
Associated Press | Chicago Sun Times | July 13, 2021
It’s approved for use on more than 80 food crops, including oranges, berries, grapes, soybeans almonds and walnuts, but California banned the sale of the pesticide last year and ended spraying this year.
Parents Sue Chlorpyrifos Makers Corteva, Dow Over Child’s Autism
Emily Dooley | Bloomberg Law | October 28, 2020
The farmworker parents of a girl with autism, obesity, and vision problems are suing Dow Chemical Co., Corteva, a California town, and two pesticide application companies, claiming that exposure to the powerful insecticide chlorpyrifos led to her significant health problems.
Dow Chemical agrees to $77 million settlement in pollution lawsuit
Sebastien Malo | Reuters | November 11, 2019
Dow Chemical Co has reached a $77 million deal with the federal government, the state of Michigan and a Native American tribe to fund environmental restoration projects to resolve a lawsuit accusing it of releasing hazardous substances for decades from a Michigan facility.
Dow Chemical settles SEC charges for failing to report ex-CEO's perks
Joshua Schneyer | Reuters | July 3, 2018
A three-year U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigation found that Dow Chemical failed to properly disclose around $3 million in perks for former Chief Executive Andrew Liveris, ranging from personal use of company aircraft to sporting events and dues Dow paid to a charity Liveris chaired
Dow Chemical settles price-fixing case after Justice Scalia's death
Anet Josline Pinto | Reuters | February 26, 2016
Dow Chemical Co DOW.N agreed to pay $835 million to settle a decade-long lawsuit on price fixing, saying it had less chance of winning its petition at the Supreme Court after the death of Justice Antonin Scalia.
Environmental Impact
Fatal chemical leak at a Texas chemicals facility
Rebecca Trager | Chemistry World | July 29, 2021
What caused 45 tonnes of a mixture including acetic acid to be released at La Porte, US, killing 2 and hospitalising 30, remains unclear
Shelter in place order issued in La Porte after chemical leak
Kris TV | July 21, 2021
Emergency officials in La Porte have issued a shelter in place order after a chemical leak in the city.
Dow Chemical pushes Trump to ignore evidence its pesticides damage 1,800 critically endangered animal species
Michael Bisecker | Independent | April 20, 2017
Dow Chemical is pushing the Trump administration to scrap the findings of federal scientists who point to a family of widely used pesticides as harmful to about 1,800 critically threatened or endangered species.
DuPont ordered to pay $2 million after jurors found ‘actual malice’ in suit over chemical linked to cancer
Berkeley Lovelace Jr. | CNBC | December 13, 2016
DuPont was ordered on Wednesday to pay $2 million after a jury found the company liable for diseases linked to a Teflon-making chemical, Reuters reported.
PERI Pollution Indexes
Based on United States Environmental Protection Agency data ranking the top 100 worst polluters.
& Relations
Names of 2 killed in Texas chemical plant leak released
Independent | July 29, 2021
Authorities have released the names of two workers who died in a chemical leak at a Houston-area plant that also injured dozens of others
Workers Protest Lockout At Dow Chemical Plant In Deer Park
Florian Martin | Houston Public Media | April 25, 2019
Workers have been silently picketing outside the Dow chemical facility on Tidal Road in Deer Park since Monday, when the company locked out about 240 workers without pay or benefits.
Financials
Note: Most recent list is not always the most complete list.
Croctail Subsidiary Tool using the CorpWatch API - This API extracts the subsidiary relationship information from Exhibit 21 of companies' 10-K filings with the US SEC.
- CIK numbers link to SEC database (EDGAR)
- Section 21 links to SEC list of companies.
- Dow Inc. Croctail Profile
Click here for the latest list.
Political Influence
Open Secrets - Tracks corporate lobbying of US politicians.
OpenSecrets.org Profile of Dow Inc.
Import & Export Data
ImportYeti - Shipping Tracking Tool - Bill of ladings are public information that are too cost prohibitive, challenging to obtain and difficult to use for the average joe. ImportYeti's goal is to solve that problem.
- ImportYeti Profile of Dow Inc
& Evasion
Supreme Court rejects Dow over $1 billion tax deduction claim
Lawrence Hurley | Reuters | January 9, 2017
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear Dow Chemical Co's DOW.N bid to revive its claim to more than $1 billion in tax deductions based on partnerships the company entered into that lower courts said were created primarily to avoid tax liability and had no legitimate business purpose.
Legalized Tax Fraud: How Top US Corporations Continue to Profit Through Offshore Tax Havens
Bernie Sanders | Senate Press Release | May 17, 2015
The Business Roundtable (BRT), a coalition of CEOs from 201 of America’s biggest companies, are supportive of raising the retirement age for Social Security and Medicare to 70, cutting Social Security benefits, lowering the corporate tax rate, and adopting a “territorial” tax system that exempts the offshore profits of American corporations from U.S. taxes.
Dow Chemical Loses $1 Billion Tax Shelter Case
Accounting Today | February 27, 2013
The Justice Department has won a tax shelter case involving Dow Chemical, in which the company was accused of creating approximately $1 billion in phony tax deductions in a scheme designed by Goldman Sachs and lawyers at King & Spalding.
Procurement
Dow Inc. contracts with the U.S. Federal Government (via USA Spending)