This is a Union Carbide subsidiary part in Bhopal, a Central Indian City with a population of just under one and a half million. The name Bhopal gave note about it across the globe after the 3rd of December 1984 when the pesticide plant accidentally released 40 tons of a lethal gas called methyl isocyanate or MIC. Nearly 3,000 people were killed immediately with thousands more affected. To this day, up to 22,000 deaths I believe to have been caused by the disaster, which has come to be regarded as the world’s worst industrial accident.
Over 120,000 people continued to suffer from such things as cancer, serious birth defects, blindness, breathing difficulties and various gynecological complications. The immediate cause of most of the deaths and injuries was pulmonary edema, a swelling or fluid accumulation in the lungs. So how did it happen?
The plant was built in 1969 before being adapted 10 years later to produce carbaryl used mostly as insecticide. MIC is an intermediate used in the manufacture of carbaryl. The actual cause of the accident was the introduction of water into a methyl isocyanate holding tank, which is altered in a huge temperature increase to over 200 degree Celsius. The toxic gas produced led to a pressure release in a form of an explosion. But how the water got in the tank is another story. It seems as it’s so often the case that cost cutting was one of the chief culprits.
Before the plant was even built—of this Union Carbide’s refusal to locate it far away from densely populated areas as local authorities requested. And from 1982 onward, there was a long litany of cost cutting shortcuts and safety violations made at the plant in response to falling profitability from decrease sales of pesticides. Just one example of the widespread malpractice is that 70% of the employees were fined prior to the disaster for refusing to deviate from the proper safety regulations despite pressure from management.
When confronted with the disaster though, the response from Union Carbide management was that the incident was caused by deliberate sabotage, a claim that has never been substantiated nor has anyone ever been prosecuted or even publicly named for such an act. Unlike Union Carbide’s Company Chairman, Warren Anderson, who was charged with manslaughter but escaped to the US. He has since been living comfortably in the Hamptons.
Years of illegal land ruins followed the disaster but other issues have also a reason particularly ongoing health problems and contamination of the area. When an out of court settlement was finally reached in 1989, Union Carbide agreed to pay $417 million in damages not that much when it’s considered. But by then, it had already spent $50 million on legal fees alone.
By October 2003, the company, which is purchased by The Dow Chemical Company in 2001 had paid families of the dead on average $2200.00 by way of compensation. The recriminations and accusations continue.
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