By msnbc.com staff and news services
A member of the body that oversees?sustainability issues for the London Olympics?has resigned in protest over?a sponsorship deal with Dow Chemical, an act reflecting?the company's latest setback in trying to generate goodwill as a Games partner.
Meredith Alexander, who sat on the Commission for a Sustainable London 2012, said she had decided to quit the independent body because she "didn't want to be party to a defense of Dow,"?the American company's ties to the 1984 Bhopal gas disaster, which killed 25,000 in India.
"People should be free to enjoy London 2012 without this toxic legacy on their conscience," she said in a statement released by rights group Amnesty International. "It is appalling that 27 years on, the site has still not been cleaned up and thousands upon thousands of people are still suffering."
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Dow has denied any responsibility for the pesticide plant accident. The former owner, Union Carbide,?settled its liabilities with the Indian government by paying $470 million. Dow merged with the Union Carbide Corp. in 2001.
Almost all publicity resulting from Dow becoming one of the 11 major games sponsors has been negative, the BBC reported.
Dow in 2010 signed on as one of 11 Worldwide Olympic Partners in a multimillion-dollar deal lasting until 2020, the BBC said. However, almost every story written about Dow associates the company's name with Bhopal, one of the world's worst industrial disasters.
Rights groups, athletes and Indian and British politicians have spoken out against Dow and signed petitions against Dow's participation.
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The company paid?7 million pounds (nearly $11 million) for?fabric panels to wrap around the London Olympic stadium, but to assuage public protest, Dow?agreed not to put its logo on the decoration, the BBC said.
But the world's second-largest chemical manufacturer isn't giving up, George Hamilton, vice president for Dow Olympic Operations, told the BBC.
Dow wants to talk about?what chemistry brings to the world in terms of supplying solutions in the field of water transportation, agriculture and energy, he said.
Dow materials are in the urethane foam in the track, polymer fibers in the super-fast hockey pitches, materials in stadium walls, floors and roofs, and insulation technology in the broadcast and electrical?cables, the BBC said.
Additionally, Dow is looking ahead?to?the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi,?Russia,?and the Youth Olympic Games in?Nanjing, China,?and?to the?2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, the BBC said.
"We're well known in the U.S. and Western Europe, but our profile is not that high in growth economies like Brazil, China and India,"?Hamilton told the BBC.
This article includes reporting from Reuters and msnbc.com staff.
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