Letter from the Site Leader — Lee Trusty

2005 brought unforeseen challenges to south Louisiana and the chemical industry in the form of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Through it all, our employees and our community neighbors showed their courage and generosity by tirelessly giving of themselves to help those more severely affected by the storms. Along with these challenges, high energy and raw materials costs again challenged many businesses, including Dow. These higher costs are evident to everyone in our community as we bring our personal vehicles to the gas pumps. But despite these continued tough economic times, there are great things happening both within our facility and around our community. Here are a few examples:

• We strive to be a company that employees are proud to work for, and a neighbor that our communities want in their backyards. As we celebrate our 50^th year of operation in Louisiana (in 2006) — we pledge our continued support to our surrounding communities. In 2005 alone, approximately 600 employees at Dow's Louisiana Operations spent more than 20,000 hours volunteering their time to assist with more than 40 different activities to benefit area communities. In addition to this, our employees also unselfishly gave their time and monetary contributions to help the thousands of Louisianans affected by the hurricanes.
  
  
• The Occupational, Safety and Health Administration has recognized Louisiana Operations as one of the safest workplaces in the entire nation. Creating and sustaining an environment where employees and contract employees can return home from work safely each day is critical. In 2005 we had our best safety year ever with a 0.19 OSHA injury rate… well below Dow’s global goals for safety. We are continuing to make progress toward our ultimate goal — a vision of zero injuries.
  
  
• We seek to reduce waste and emissions, and promote resource conservation at every stage of the life cycle of our products. In keeping with this focus, our site has reduced chemical emissions in a number of different categories since our baseline year of 1994. Also, we’re striving toward Dow’s new 2015 goals to reduce our waste and emissions even further.

In this 2005 Public Report, you will find the latest information regarding Louisiana Operations’ economic and social contributions to our state and local communities. You’ll learn more about our commitment to employees and our investment in their well-being. And, perhaps most important, we will give you an extensive look at our site’s environment, health and safety performance, and what we’re doing to continually improve in these areas.

This public report is presented to you as a report card on our performance. We hope you will see a strong, vibrant company that is a good employer, a responsible neighbor, and a conscientious supporter of the community for long-term, mutual growth.

Lee Trusty
Site Leader
Dow Louisiana Operations