BASF
"The Chemical CompanyTM."
"In 2008, BASF posted sales of €62.3 billion and income before special items of approximately €6.9 billion. We help our customers to be more successful through intelligent system solutions and high-quality products. Through new technologies we can tap into additional market opportunities. We conduct our business in accordance with the principles of sustainable development."
Corporate
Headquarters:
G-CCP - E100
Carl-Bosch Str. 38
D-67056 Ludwigshafen, Germany
Tel. +49-621-60-21153
Company Web Site:
www.basf.com
CEO:
Jürgen Hambrech
COMPANY HIGHLIGHTS:(this is just a small glimpse)
*1865 Jeweler Friedrich Engel-horn, founds BASF as a joint-stock company.
*1914-1918 produced both chlorine and phosgene gas for German military during WWI.
*1921 explosion at BASF facility in Oppau kills about 565 people, one of the largest industrial catastrophe's in German history.
*1925 BASF merges with Bayer, Agfa, Hoechst, Chemische Fabrik Griesheim-Elektron, and Chemische Fabrik vorm. Weiler Ter Meer to form the chemical conglomerate - I.G. Farben.
I.G. Farben built a factory (Buna Chemical Plant) to produce synthetic oil and rubber (from coal) at Auschwitz during the Holocaust. At its peak in 1944, this factory made use of about 83,000 slave laborers.
In 1951, I.G. Farben is split into its original constituent companies by Western Allies. The four largest quickly buy the smaller ones, and today only Agfa, BASF, and Bayer remain, while Hoechst merged with the French company Rhône-Poulenc Rorer to form Aventis which was later purchased by Sanofi-Synthélabo to form Sanofi-Aventis. IG Farben owned the patent on Zyklon B which was the trade name of a cyanide-based insecticide used by Nazi Germany to kill Jews in the gas chambers. It was later used as a pesticide.
*1947 In the postwar trials of I.G. Farben 5 of 7 defendants were BASF's operators.
*1940-44 Uses slave labor from Nazi concentration camps as part of I.G. Farben.
*1948 Explosion at Ludwigshfen, Germany plant kills 207 people.
*1953 a chemical reaction in BASF's plants spews dioxin-contaminated chemicals over workers and residents of Mannheim and Ludwigshafen in Germany. An epidemiological study done by the company is used to deny workers any compensation for ailments suffered as a result of exposure.
*1953 The British journal New Scientist reports, "A new analysis by a West German epidemiologist, Friedemann Rohleder, may have established the first clear cut evidence of a direct link between exposure to dioxins and cancer in humans. Rohleder claims that BASF presented the data in away that disguised the cancers (of the 1953 explosion)."
*1930s-50s BASF plants pours acidic chlorine-manganese solution into the Rhine.
*1984 Locks out 370 members of the Oil Chemical and Atomic Workers Union from its Geismar, Louisiana, facility. The lockout, which would last until 1989, was the longest in U.S. labor history.
*1986 OCAW charges BASF with an "apparent cover up" of unsafe conditions that could lead to a Bhopal-like release of toxic materials from its Geismar facility in Ascension Parish, Louisiana. Releases of phosgene, toluene, disocyanate and other toxic chemicals had occurred at the plant.
*1986 Wyandotte, Michigan group called the Downriver Citizens for a Safe Environment documents the discharge of hundreds of thousands of pounds of ethylene oxide and propylene oxide from the BASF Wyandotte Chemical Corporation.
*1990s BASF Aktiengesellschaft fined about $225 million for pollution.
*1990 explosion on July 19 at BASF facility in Cincinnati. The explosion kills two workers, injures 17 others and causes extensive damage to the neighboring community.
*1990 OSHA issues citations alleging 133 safety and health violations--including 104 willful violations--against BASF for its role in the Cincinnati blast. OSHA proposes fines totaling $1,061,000.
*1990 BASF settles claim of Illinois woman who alleges that a chemical detergent manufactured in the 1960s caused her leukemia. 23-year-old Fawn Wright, charged that the chemicals in the detergent Loxene, which was used to wash diapers at the Booth Memorial Hospital in St. Louis where she was born, caused her to become gravely ill, required her to have a blood transfusion when she was five days old and caused her current illness, acute myelocytic leukemia. One active ingredient in Loxene is pentachlorophenol, a wood preservative and suspected human carcinogen. BASF removed Loxene from the marketplace in 1967, BASF agreed to pay Wright $3.75 million.
*1996 Five of BASF’s manufacturing facilities in the U.S. rank amongst the worst 10% for toxic releases. BASF releases 17 million pound of toxins in Texas in 1996 making it Texas’ second largest polluter.
*1997 Its United States based Knoll Pharmaceutical unit agrees to pay $98 million to settle a class action lawsuit by thyroid patients. The company accused of suppressing a study saying its drug Synthroid was no better than generic versions. Boots and Knoll contended that the study, done by University of California researchers, was flawed and that the settlement was "in no way an admission of guilt."
*1999 Threatened to move a paint manufacturing plant from Ontario, Canada, to Mexico if air pollution standards were raised.
*1999 criminally fined for its involvement in a vitamin price-fixing cartel. Accused of conspiring with several other European and Japanese pharmaceutical companies, holding annual meetings and making secret agreements involving vitamin pricing and sales volume. The vitamins most commonly affected included vitamins A, B2, B5, C, and E. BASF ordered to pay US$225 million. The settlement was the largest under state laws permitting consumers and businesses to sue for damages caused by price-fixing charges.
*2000 BASF sold more products within North America than in Germany, with the latter accounting for only 20 percent of the firm's sales. Its core business is: chemicals, the construction of chemical plants, and chemical-based products such as plastics and fertilizers.
*2000 Signs onto the United Nation's social responsibility initiative "Global Compact." Participants in the program do not have their COPs checked for accuracy, according to the United Nation's web site. "The Global Compact Office expresses no opinion on the accuracy of the statements contained in the COPs. Consistent with the concept of the COP, such matters are for the participants' own stakeholders to assess."
"As a company committed to sustainable development and a dedicated founding member of the United Nations Secretary-General's Global Compact we are convinced that this partnership is a significant contribution to promote the aims of the Compact," said Matthias Hensel, Senior Vice President and Chair of BASF's International Steering Committee on Sustainable Development.
Other members of Global Compact include - Bayer, Dow Chemical, Syngenta, Dupont, Akzo Nobel and Japanese chemical giant Mitsubishi.
* 2001 illegally imports and sells pesticides. BASF's subsidiary Micro-Flo is fined 3.7 million for 673 violations of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act.
*2001 The European Commission fines BASF US$260 million for vitamin price-fixing. Total expected cost of fines, out-of-court settlements, and legal expenses estimated at about US$800 million.
*2003 Greenpeace conducts a series of scientific analysis on rain water and its contamination of chemical substances. Most of the 47 water samples taken throughout The Netherlands, Belgium and Germany contain a series of dangerous phalates (DEHP, DBP, DINP, DIBP et DEP). And these same phalates were found in the dust of 69 homes tested. Studies found these phalates in a number of textiles, cosmetics, toys, perfumes, and electronic products. BASF produces the following phalates: di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP), di-n-butyl phthalate (DBP), diiso-butyl phthalate (DIBP), di-iso-nonyl phthalate (DINP), di-iso-decyl phthalate (DIDP) and diethyl phthalate (DEP) 4.
*2004 A report by the European Commission named BASF, among a handful of companies, responsible for disproportionate pollutant emissions in Europe. The report goes on to state that BASF is responsible for 44.4% of TCB (trichlorobenzene) releases. The main use of TCB is in dye manufacturing.
*2004 On two occasions in Will County, Illinois, BASF fails to notify the state’s Emergency Management Agency about air pollution discharges that were in violation of the Illinois Environmental Protection Act. In addition, the company was accused of failing to notify the agency in an appropriate manner. BASF agreed to pay US$141,000 in fines.
*2004 A French judge Jean Guary de Saint-Gaudens (Haute Garonne), puts BASF, Bayer and their directors under investigation for "sale of toxic products." The French Agriculture Minister, Hervé Gaymard, suspends the commercialization of insecticides containing fipronil, of which Regent TS, made by BASF is one.
*2004 Minnesota Supreme Court upholds an appellate court ruling against BASF for charging different prices for two products, Poast and Poast Plus. Both contained the same active ingredients and were approved for the same use by EPA. BASF was ordered to pay a US$52 million fine for charging some farmers nearly US$32 more per gallon than others.
*2005 Complaints filed against BASF for hazardous substances at BASF/Inmont site in New Jersey, USA.
*2006 In February 2006, the U.S. Department of Justice serves a Grand Jury subpoena to BASF requesting the presentation of documents relating to the sale of TDI, MDI, polyether polyols and related systems. The U.S. Department of Justice was investigating the allegations of price fixing. On December 14, 2007 the U.S. Department of Justice informed BASF that they had ceased these proceedings.
*2006 The Ludwigshafen, Germany BASF chemical manufacturing complex uses about as much natural gas as the entire country of Denmark. Jürgen Hambrecht, the chief executive of the giant chemical maker, thanks Russia for a steady supply - and thinks Europe ought to do the same. BASF embarks on a venture with Gazprom (Russian gas giant) to market and distribute Russian natural gas throughout Europe.
*2006 A class action lawsuit filed against BASF. Claims the company fraudulently marketed the same herbicide as different products. POAST and POAST Plus were priced at different prices in order to obtain inflated prices for POAST from minor crop farmers, who grow sugar beets, sunflowers, potatoes, field beans, fruits, vegetables, and flowers. In a settlement reached with the Farmers' Common Fund, BASF agreed to pay $62.5 million to be reimbursed to the farmers who bought these products, ending the fraud lawsuit.
*2006 Vitamin makers, including BASF, pleaded guilty in 1998 to an international price-fixing scheme. A lawsuit alleged that the companies charged a hidden vitamin tax on everyday products such as fortified cereals, milk, juices, and pet and other animal food, as well as beauty products. The suit against the six vitamin makers resulted in a $310 million settlement. The world's six largest vitamin makers have awarded $6.5 million to the University of California as part of a settlement in the 8-year-old antitrust case.
*2006 Gazprom (Russia) and BASF create the company Wingas Europe to distribute natural gas in Europe. Wingas signs a contract with Gazexport to deliver, for 25 years, starting in 2010, 9 billion meters cubed of natural gas per year.
*2007 BASF plastics additives investigated. Simultaneous raids of BASF and other companies in the industry located in the EU, U.S., Canada and Japan. This is the third time that the commission has ended a probe into the chemicals industry in a year.
*2007 Clearfield CL 131, a rice developed by BASF, was not , according to the company, developed as a genetically engineered product, but, the company's own testing revealed, the variety may have been contaminated with a genetically modified strain. BASF notified the USDA of its findings.
*2007 37 BASF employees victims of a toxic leak at a Teesside chemical. The plant produces chemicals in the production of acrylic and nylon fibres for clothing and carpets, and nylon and acrylic plastics for domestic goods and the engineering and motor industries.
*2007 The Council of State in The Netherlands judges that the field trials of BASF potatoes had been illegally permitted by the Ministry of Housing, Spacial Planning, and Environment (VROM) and cancels the permits. Three BASF G.M. potato varieties are cited, two with changed starch content similar to the Amflora-potato and one with heightened late blight resistance.
*2005 upon becoming chancellor Angela Merkel asks and obtains a postponement of the European Council of Ministers' decision on REACH. One of her first official meetings as a chancellor is with chemical industry executives. Germany remained opposed to mandatory replacement of hazardous substances with safe alternatives, one of REACH's resolutions.
*2006 Engelhard becomes a wholly owned subsidiary of BASF. Located at 30 Taunton Street (Route 152) in Plainville, Massachusetts, this 39 acre site was formerly operated by the Makepeace Division of Engelhard Industries, Inc. (Engelhard) for the fabrication of nuclear fuel elements under the U.S. Atomic Energy Act (AEC). Manufacturing operations involved the use of natural, depleted, and enriched uranium. BASF is thought to use the site to "implement an engineered cell."
*2008 BASF's Williamsburg, Virginia facility emits contaminants including: benzene, 1, 1-dichloroethene, 1, 4-dioxane, cis-1, 2-dichloroethene, tetrachloroethene, vinyl chloride, and zinc.
*2008 BASF completes conversion into a European Company (SE - Societas Europaeaw), which means BASF will operate under the same laws across all 27 EU member states, meaning lower legal and administration costs, plus easier cross-border mergers with other companies in Europe.
*2009 Inner City Press asks BASF's chief compliance officer Eckart Suenner about alleged irregularities in BASF's export of a shipment of 25,000 tons of phosphates from the Bu Craa mines in Western Sahara, carried by the ship Novigrad to the harbor of Ghent. The transfer was thought to be illegal. BASF refused to make public an expert opinion it claims legitimates the transfer. Suenner dodged the question by Inner City Press who then sent Suenner evidence of the refusal to BASF's "Sustainability Center." No response from BASF was received.
*2009 The Chinese government allows BASF to start work on a factory making methylene diphenyl diisocyanate, or MDI, in Chongqing. MDI is used to make foam insulation for fridges and houses.This BASF factory will be the world’s largest MDI plant making 400,000 metric tons of MDI a year. Although MDI is considered less toxic than other similar compounds, BASF's production method is not disclosed.
*2009 BASF publishes detailed environmental information – including locations of discharge pipes, discharge amounts and contents – of its operations in the United States, Canada and Germany, none of its 15 branches in China have shared any similar information with the public. No independent review of discharge numbers is published.
*2009 BASF agrees to sell assets of two high-performance pigments in order to gain U.S. approval of its proposed $5.1 billion acquisition of Swiss rival Ciba Holding Inc. The Federal Trade Commission says BASF settled charges that its pending buyout would be anti competitive by agreeing to sell certain assets. BASF agrees to sell off several units to win European Union antitrust approval. EU regulators said the takeover could cause competition problems for several special chemical products used to make paper, plastics and skin care products.
*2009 BASF genetically modified potato contains antibiotic resistance genes, forced EU's Commission to re-evaluate the risks linked to antibiotic resistance in GM foods. Potato not approved for market. The potato was genetically modified to increase starch content for gloss paper products and animal feed.
*A few of the chemicals BASF has developed and produced: Chlorfenapyr (possible carcinogen) used on food crops, Fipronil (possible carcinogen) used on golf courses and turf, Flucythrinate (suspected carcinogen) used on food crops but banned in the EU, Hydramethylnon (possible carcinogen) used as insecticide but banned in the EU, Malathion (possible carcinogen) used as pesticide, Mecoprop-P (increases risk of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma) used as lawn herbicide, Mancozeb (carcinogenic effects) used in fungicide, Permethrin (carcinogen) used in insecticide, Phorate (toxic) used in pesticides, Terbufos (highly toxic to animals) used as insecticide, Vinclozolin (suspected carcinogen) used as fungicide.
Want to know more?
"Hell's Cartel: IG Farben and the Making of Hitler's War Machine," by Diarmuid Jefferys.
"Inside IG Farben," by Stephen H. Linder.
PUBLIC RELATIONS/LOBBYING: (this is just a small glimpse)
*15,000 lobbyists who work in Brussels to lobby the dozens of major European Union institutions that control the tens of billions of Euros in funding as well as decide the strict environmental, labor and financial rules that govern the 27 E.U. member states. Some 90% of these lobbyists are believed to work on behalf of industry, with civil society groups such as environmentalists and trade unions making up less than 10%.
*2002 BASF vice-chairman Eggert Voscherau becomes president of the European Chemical Industry Council (CEFIC). CEFIC says REACH will be responsible for job losses. He warned that under REACH: “we are in effect going to de-industrialise Europe”. BASF co-chairs the Transatlantic Business Dialogue (TABD), a coalition of corporate leaders from the USA, like the American Chemistry Council, and the EU.
*2005 BASF confirms to the press that it has 235 German politicians under contract. Parliamentarian Jurgen Creutzmann, for example, had been employed by BASF since 1973. Ralf Burgstahler started at BASF in 1986, then joined the REACH Unit of DG Enterprise and Industry in 2001. He then moved to the German Ministry for Economic Affairs in 2004 where he is in charge of REACH.
*BASF played a leading role through its lobbyists and industry associations to diminish the effectiveness of REACH in Europe. Because of the lobbying efforts, the following happened: safer alternatives will not replace very hazardous chemicals that can cause cancer, birth defects, reproductive illnesses or disrupt hormones, it will not provide basic health and safety information for the majority of low volume chemicals (1-10 tonnes per year, which constitute two-thirds of the substances covered by REACH), chemicals produced in higher volumes will not have to be registered with proper health and safety assessments, the public will not be informed of the hazardous chemicals that are in consumer products, and chemical users and producers will escape responsibility for the safety of the products they produce, market, import or use.
