GURU GOBIND SINGH INDRAPRASTHA UNIVERSITY

ASSIGNMENT

ON

BHOPAL GAS TRAGEDY

Submitted to: Submitted by:

Anupam Sharma Dhruv 03015603416
(Astt. Professor, HVPE)

Dr. Akhilesh Das Gupta Institute of Technology and Management

Shastri Park, Delhi 110053
April, 2020
 History:

Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) was a diversified manufacturing

company incorporated in 1934. Union Carbide Corporation (UCC) became one
of the first U.S. companies to invest in India when UCC acquired shares in
UCIL in 1934. Employing approximately 9,000 people at the height of its
business operations, UCIL operated 14 plants in five divisions. UCIL's annual
sales were nearly $200 million and UCIL shares were publicly traded on the
Calcutta Stock Exchange, with UCC owning just over half the shares. The
other stockholders included Indian financial institutions and thousands of
private investors in India.

Situated in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, the Bhopal plant was
built in 1969 and a production facility was added in 1979. The plant produced
pesticides for use in India to help the country’s agricultural sector increase its
productivity and contribute more significantly to meeting the food needs of
one of the world's most heavily populated regions. The plant never resumed
normal operations after the December 1984 gas leak.

 The Chemical:

Methyl isocyanate (MIS) is a chemical used in the manufacture of

polyurethane foam, pesticides and plastics. It usually is handled and shipped
as a liquid, which is easily burned and explosive. Methyl isocyanate evaporates
quickly in the air. It has a strong odor but it can begin to make people sick
before the chemical can be smelled. MIS was the chemical released in the
Bhopal, India, disaster in 1984 that killed more than 3,800 people.
 The Incident:

On December 3 1984, more than 40 tons of methyl isocyanate gas leaked from
a pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, immediately killing at least 3,800 people and
causing significant morbidity and premature death for many thousands more.
The company involved in what became the worst industrial accident in history
immediately tried to dissociate itself from legal responsibility. Eventually it
reached a settlement with the Indian Government through mediation of that
country's Supreme Court and accepted moral responsibility. It paid $470
million in compensation, a relatively small amount of based on significant
underestimations of the long-term health consequences of exposure and the
number of people exposed. The disaster indicated a need for enforceable
international standards for environmental safety, preventative strategies to
avoid similar accidents and industrial disaster preparedness.

Since the disaster, India has experienced rapid industrialization. While some
positive changes in government policy and behavior of a few industries have
taken place, major threats to the environment from rapid and poorly regulated
industrial growth remain. Widespread environmental degradation with
significant adverse human health consequences continues to occur throughout
India.

 Causes

The plant in Bhopal where the disaster happened started to produce 'Carbaryl'
in 1977. Carbaryl is mainly used as an insecticide. At first, the production was
2,500 tonnes per year. There was no problem, as the plant had been designed
 for an output of 5,000 tonnes. At the beginning of the 1980's, Carbaryl did not
sell very well. For this reason, the owners of the plant started to cut the costs.
This included employing fewer people, doing maintenance less frequently and
using parts that were made of lower-grade steel. Closing the plant was being
considered as well. When the disaster happened, there was no production at
the plant because there was a surplus amount of material on the market. The
disaster happened because water entered a tank containing Methyl isocyanate.
This caused a chemical reaction which resulted in the buildup of much Carbon
dioxide, among other things. The resulting reaction increased the temperature
inside the tank to reach over 200 °C (392 °F). The pressure was more than the
tank was built to withstand. The tank had valves to control the pressure. These
were triggered in an emergency, which reduced the pressure. As a result, large
amounts of toxic gases were released into the environment.

 Later effects

Between 3,500 and 25,000 people died as a result of contact with the cloud of
toxic gas. Up to 500,000 people were injured. Many of the injuries are
permanent. Some of the chemicals led to birth defects. The numbers vary so
vastly because there are no exact figures about how many people lived in the
neighborhood of the plant. About 100.000 people were living in a radius of 1
km around the plant where the disaster happened.
 What could be done

While natural disasters are largely unpredictable, environmental disasters are

caused directly or indirectly by human behavior. Chemical disasters, like the
one in Bhopal, are preventable if risks are identified and addressed early on.

It will take the combined effort of competent authorities, private sector and
society to prevent tragic environmental events from happening. Some
measures include: Developing policies to ensure that industries operate in
accordance with technical and safety standards and allocating resources for
risk assessment and monitoring. Most of all, it’s important to adhere to
environmental norms. Taking environmental safety and public health risks
seriously, and promoting do-no-harm industrial development can make a big
difference.

 Current scenario of Bhopal

Today, clean-up of the site is still pending, those who survived the disaster
don’t have alternate livelihood opportunities and victims are still suffering.

The company abandoned the factory site without cleaning and restoring it to
its original state. The contaminated land has not been cleaned up and families
too poor to move continue to live there. The livelihoods of more than 30,000
people are affected.

More than 20,000 people still live in the vicinity of the factory and are exposed
to toxic chemicals through groundwater and soil contamination. Health risks
and illnesses including cancer, birth defects, fevers, broils, headaches, nausea,
lack of appetite, dizziness, and constant exhaustion continue to plague a new
generation. Tests published in 2002 reported dangerous toxins in the breast
milk of nursing women living near the factory.

Recent reports confirm that the contamination is not diminishing with time.
Water from a hand pump in Atal Ayyub Nagar, already lethal by 1999, has
become seven times more toxic since then. The rate of birth defects in the
contaminated areas is ten times higher than in the rest of India.