Allegations that the US$ 470 million settlement with Union Carbide was a sell-out gains credibility in light of the fact that Exxon paid as much as US$ 1.125 billion for an oil spill off the coast of Alaska that killed several thousand birds and fishes there. Obviously, human beings in the Third World come cheaper than birds in the First World. Settlements reached in some other industrial accidents:

1990 -- PPG Industries paid US$ 83.4 million for chromium contamination in Jersey City, New Jersey.
1989 -- National Lead paid US$ 78 million to 14,000 Ohio residents for damages to their environment.
1988 -- Amoco was ordered to pay US$ 85.2 million for an oil spill in 1978 off the French coast.
1987 -- Raytech Corporation paid US$ 75 million to three former DuPont employees for asbestos exposure.