From Staff Reports

Midland, Mich. - For the third consecutive year, the American Chemistry Council (ACC) has awarded The Dow Chemical Company the Responsible Care Sustained Excellence Award for the company's commitment to workplace safety.

Dow also received ACC's Responsible Care Leadership Award.

These awards recognize companies' long-term commitment to responsible care, workplace safety and environmental protection.

Responsible Care is the chemical industry's voluntary program to achieve performance in environment, health and safety beyond governmental expectations.

"We're honored to receive both awards from the American Chemistry Council," said Carl Darling, site leader at Dow's Hanging Rock Plant. "This external recognition signifies that our continued emphasis - by the company and individual employees - on workplace safety, intervention and behavior-based performance is working.

The safety of our employees and contractors, communities and the environment, our products and customers will always be paramount at Dow."

ACC's Sustained Excellence Award annually recognizes superior safety performance over a three-year period.

To be eligible, a company must perform in the top 10 percent among its peers and fully implement the Responsible Care Employee Health and Safety Code at all of its sites.

Based upon external bench-marking, Dow established a set of aggressive 10-year goals in 1995 in the areas of responsibility and accountability, prevention of environment, health and safety incidents and increased resource productivity.

One of these goals called for the reduction of injuries and illnesses for all Dow employees and contractors by 90 percent.

Since that baseline goal was set, Dow has reduced its injury and illness rate by more than 75 percent and prevented an estimated 10,000 more accidents based upon prior performance levels.

ACC's Leadership Award annually recognizes companies that demonstrate excellent performance in responsible care.

To qualify for the award, companies must fully implement the Responsible Care Codes, complete a management systems verification and publicly report company goals and progress.

Dow is the recipient of the award in the large company category.

Dow publicly details its environment, health and safety performance, as well as its corporate social responsibility and financial performance, through annual public reports available online at www.dowpublicreport.com.

Achievements in reducing emissions and incidents, product stewardship and product testing and community outreach are hallmarks of the performance reports.

Dow promotes the responsible care ethic in stakeholder communications, the selection of supply chain partners and product risk management.

Dow is a leader in science and technology, providing chemical, plastic and agricultural products and services to many consumer markets. With annual sales of $33 billion, Dow serves customers in more than 180 countries and a wide range of markets, including food, transportation, health and medicine, personal and home care and building and construction, among others.

Committed to the principles of sustainable development, Dow and its approximately 46,000 employees seek to balance economic, environmental and social responsibilities.

More information about Dow's Responsible Care efforts is available at the Web site http://www. dow.com.

For further information, please contact Tim Taylor, Environment, Health & Safety Communications Leader, The Dow Chemical Company, at (989) 636-1508, tetaylor@dow.com.