India is opposed to the company's involvement with the Games because of its perceived link with the 1984 Bhopal disaster which killed tens of thousands of people in the capital of India's Madhya Pradesh state. Dow is now the parent company of Union Carbide, whose pesticide plant leaked gas into Bhopal in 1984 in the world's worst industrial accident.
A LOCOG spokeswoman told AFP: “There will definitely not be any Dow Chemical branding on the wrap before, during or after the Olympic Games. There was a discussion about (having the branding on) the test panels but Dow Chemical have now agreed to adhere to what we call our 'clean policy'.”
Dow Chemical spokesman Scot Wheeler said: “The agreement between Dow and LOCOG was limited to branding of five 'test panels' that were to be removed in the months before the Games and were not part of the final design. However in mid-summer, LOCOG and Dow agreed that Dow would defer the rights to these five panels to allow free and full execution of the design as determined by LOCOG.”