BHOPAL GAS TRAGEDY

December 23, 1984

BHOPAL GAS TRAGEDY

The worst Industrial disaster in the world happened in Bhopal

 

The Bhopal catastrophe (also known as the Bhopal gas tragedy) is the world's worst industrial catastrophe. It occurred on the night of December 23, 1984 at the Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) pesticide plant in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India. A leak of methyl isocyanate gas & other chemicals from the plant resulted in the exposure of hundreds of thousands of people. Estimates vary on the death toll. The official immediate death toll was 2,259 & the government of Madhya Pradesh has confirmed a total of 3,787 deaths related to the gas release. Other government agencies estimate 15,000 deaths. Others estimate that 3,000 died within weeks & that another 8,000 have since died from gas-related diseases. A government affidavit in 2006 said the leak caused 558,125 injuries including 38,478 temporary partial & approximately 3,900 severely & permanently disabling injuries.

UCIL was the Indian subsidiary of Union Carbide Corporation (UCC). Indian Government controlled banks & the Indian public held 49.1 percent possession share. In 1994, the Supreme Court of India permitted UCC to sell its 50.9 percent share. The Bhopal plant was sold to McLeod Russel (India) Ltd. UCC was bought by Dow Chemical Company in 2001.
Civil & criminal cases are pending in the United States District Court, Manhattan & the District Court of Bhopal, India, involving UCC, UCIL employees, & Warren Anderson, UCC CEO at the time of the catastrophe. In June 2010, six ex-employees, including the former UCIL chairman, were convicted in Bhopal of causing death by negligence & sentenced to two years confinement as well as a fine of about $2,000 each, the maximum punishment permitted by law. An eighth former worker was also convicted but died before judgment was passed

Abandoned Union carbide corporation(Bhopal)

Bhopal still not at peace. Twenty years after the Union Carbide (UC) of industrial disasters, thousands of people, especially children, still embarked on a journey of suffering and injustice that began on the night of December, the third in 1984. Half a million people were exposed to 42 tonnes of methyl isocyanate (MIC) announced the plant, while all the safety systems did not work due to lack of maintenance. 

Thousands died in its wake.

In the consciousness of the world's older people, Bhopal is associated with the haunting images of that night and the failure of industrialization in the developing world. Left unattended for the past 25 years, toxic waste from the University of California, (now owned by Dow Chemical, the world's second largest chemical manufacturer) continues to penetrate the city's underground water reservoirs whenever the rain falls from the sky. An indelible curse, a vile crime, an injustice commission itself against defenseless children and their families who have been stripped of their right to dignity and happiness, which need water to survive has not stopped poisoned their bodies, their minds their lives.

    A series of prior warnings and MIC-related accidents had occurred:

• In 1976, the two trade unions reacted because of pollution within the plant.
• In 1981, a worker was splashed with phosgene. In panic he ripped off his mask, thus inhaling a large amount of phosgene gas; he died 72 hours later.
• In January 1982, there was a phosgene leak, when 24 workers were exposed and had to be admitted to hospital. None of the workers had been ordered to wear protective masks.
• In February 1982, an MIC leak affected 18 workers.
• In August 1982, a chemical engineer came into contact with liquid MIC, resulting in burns over 30 percent of his body.
• In September 1982, a Bhopal journalist, Raajkumar Keswani, started writing his prophetic warnings of a disaster in local weekly 'Rapat'. Headlines, one after another ' Save, please save this city', 'Bhopal sitting at the top of a volcano' and 'if you don't understand, you will all be wiped out' were not paid any heed.
• In October 1982, there was a leak of MIC, methylcarbaryl chloride, chloroform and hydrochloric acid. In attempting to stop the leak, the MIC supervisor suffered intensive chemical burns and two other workers were severely exposed to the gases.
• During 1983 and 1984, leaks of the following substances regularly took place in the MIC plant: MIC, chlorine, monomethylamine, phosgene, and carbon tetrachloride, sometimes in combination.
• Reports issued months before the incident by scientists within the Union Carbide corporation warned of the possibility of an accident almost identical to that which occurred in Bhopal. The reports were ignored and never reached senior staff.
• Union Carbide was warned by American experts who visited the plant after 1981 of the potential of a "runaway reaction" in the MIC storage tank; local Indian authorities warned the company of problems on several occasions from 1979 onwards. Again, these warnings were not heeded.

Disaster would not have occurred, Union carbide corporation made the disaster