Union Carbide Corporation

Union Carbide Corporation, major American manufacturer of chemicals, petrochemicals, and related products. It became a subsidiary of the Dow Chemical Company in 2001. Its headquarters are in North Seadrift, Texas.

The company was formed in 1917 as Union Carbide and Carbon Corporation, acquiring four earlier companies: Linde Air Products Company (established 1907), National Carbon Company (1899), Prest-O-Lite Company, Inc. (1913), and Union Carbide Company (1898). It assumed the name Union Carbide Corporation in 1957.

Formed during wartime, the company immediately took on the manufacture of new diversified products, providing helium, ferrozirconium, and activated carbon for the U.S. military, thus setting the pattern for the company’s future development. After World War I, it retained its chemicals business and moved into the consumer field, becoming one of the first companies to use market research to discover potential consumer needs and creating products to fill them. Early products of this type were the first antifreeze, Prestone (introduced in 1927), and the first batteries for portable radios, under the Eveready brand (introduced in 1959).

World War II further expanded the company’s research and development activities. In Oak Ridge, Tennessee, Union Carbide operated the gaseous diffusion plant, which produced uranium-235 for the first atomic bomb. The company had already become a pioneer in the manufacture of petrochemicals. It also produced plastics, industrial gases, metals and carbon products, and electronics and medical products. In 1986–87, however, it sold many of its home and automobile products businesses (such as those for batteries, waxes, and antifreeze). After its merger with Dow, Union Carbide remained a leading producer of chemicals and polymers for use in a variety of industrial and consumer products, including paints, solvents, and coatings.

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Survivors of the deadly 1984 industrial accident in Bhopal, India, protesting in New Delhi in 2014 over the government’s handling of the disaster.

© Sajjad Hussain—AFP/Getty Images

On December 3, 1984, Union Carbide’s pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, was the scene of the worst industrial accident in history when methyl isocyanate gas leaked from the plant and spread over a populated area, killing at least 3,800 people at the time of the accident and causing an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 subsequent deaths. Many thousands more sustained lifelong injuries. Boys who were in utero at the time of the accident grew up to have higher rates of disabilities and cancer; girls grew up to have higher rates of infertility and stillbirths. Suits for damages were brought against the company, and in 1989 India’s Supreme Court ordered Union Carbide to pay $470 million in compensation to the victims of the accident.