UNIT IV

Global Issues

Multinational Corporations – Environmental Ethics – Computer

Ethics –Weapons Development – Engineers as Managers –
Consulting Engineers – Engineers as Expert Witnesses and
Advisors– Moral Leadership.

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 Bhopal Gas Tragedy
• The Bhopal disaster or Bhopal gas tragedy was a chemical accident on the night of 2–3
December 1984 at the Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) pesticide plant in Bhopal,
Madhya Pradesh, India.
• Over 5,00,000 people in the small towns around the plant were exposed to the highly
toxic gas methyl isocyanate.
• In 2008, the Government of Madhya Pradesh paid compensation to the family
members of 3,787 victims killed in the gas release, and to 574,366 injured victims.
• The owner of the factory, UCIL, was majority-owned by the Union Carbide
Corporation (UCC) of the United States, with Indian government-controlled banks and
the Indian public holding a 49.1 percent stake.

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 Bhopal Gas Tragedy
• In 1989, UCC paid $470 million to settle litigation stemming
from the disaster.
• In 1994, UCC sold its stake in UCIL to Eveready Industries India
Limited (EIIL), which subsequently merged with McLeod Russel (India) Ltd.
• Eveready ended clean-up on the site in 1998, when it terminated its
99-year lease and turned over control of the site to the state
government of Madhya Pradesh.
• Dow Chemical Company purchased UCC in 2001, seventeen years
after the disaster.
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 Bhopal Gas Tragedy
• In June 2010, seven Indian nationals who were UCIL employees in 1984,
including the former UCIL chairman Keshub Mahindra, were convicted in
Bhopal of causing death by negligence and sentenced to two years'
imprisonment and a fine of about $2,000 each, the maximum punishment
allowed by Indian law. All were released on bail shortly after the verdict.

• Warren M. Anderson, the former chair and CEO of Union

Carbide Corporation (UCC) was not arrested.

• He passed away in 2024.

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Bhopal Gas Tragedy

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 Back Story
• The UCIL factory was built in 1969 to produce the pesticide Sevin
(UCC's brand name for carbaryl) using methyl isocyanate (MIC) as an
intermediate.
• The chemical process employed in the Bhopal plant
had methylamine reacting with phosgene to form MIC, which was in
turn reacted with 1-naphthol to form the final product, carbaryl.
• In the early 1980s, although the demand for pesticides had fallen,
production continued leading to an accumulation of unused MIC at
the Bhopal site.

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 What Led to the Leak?
• The Bhopal UCIL facility housed three underground 68,000 litre
liquid MIC storage tanks.
• UCC safety regulations specified that no one tank should be filled
more than 50% (about 30 tons) with liquid MIC.
• Storing MIC in a large tank and a filling beyond recommended
levels resulted in exothermic reaction which increased the
temperature inside the tank to over 200C and raised the
pressure.

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 What Led to the Leak?
• Methyl isocyanate escaped from the tank into the atmosphere,
which got added to a weak wind which frequently changed
direction, which in turn the gas cover more area in a shorter
period of time.

• The flare tower and several vent gas scrubbers had been out of
service for 5 months before disaster .

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 What Led to the Leak?
Technologically, the tragedy was caused by a series of events listed:

❖ The safety manual of U C prescribed that the MIC tanks were to be filled only up to 60% of the
capacity. However, the tanks were reported to have been filled up to 75%.

❖ The safety policy prescribed that an empty tank should be available as a stand-bye in case of
emergency. But the emergency tank was also filled with to its full capacity. These facts
confirmed that the MNC had not followed and implemented appropriate safety standards of
the home country in the host country. [Example of ‘misappropriate technology’?]

❖ The storage tanks should be refrigerated to make the chemical less reactive. But here the
refrigeration system was shut down as an economy measure. This raised the temperature of
the gas stored.
 What Led to the Leak?
❖ The plant was shut down for maintenance two months earlier. The worker who cleaned the pipes and
filters connected to the tanks and closed the valves, was not trained properly. He did not insert the safety
disks to prevent any possible leakage of the gas. This led to the build up of temperature and pressure in
the storage tanks.

❖ When the gas started leaking out, the operators tried to use the vent gas-scrubber that was designed to
reduce the exhausting gas. But that scrubber was also shut down.

❖ There was a flare tower that was designed to burn-off the gas escaping from the scrubber. That was not
also in working condition.

❖ The workers finally tried to spray water up to 100 feet to quench the gas (which is water soluble). But the
gas was escaping from the chimney of 120-feet high.

❖ The workers were not trained on safety drills or emergency drills or any evacuation plans..
 What Led to the Leak?-Managerial Mishaps.
• Maintenance neglected & the trained maintenance reduced as economy measure.

• Inadequate training of the personnel to handle emergencies.

• Periodical Safety Inspection teams from U.S. which visited previously were also
stopped.

• Lack of experienced personnel to operate and control the vital installations.

• No emergency plan was put in practice, during the shut down and maintenance.

• Above all, the commitment of top-level management to safety was lacking.

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 Globalization
• Globalization refers to the increasing integration of nations
through trade, investment, transfer of technology, and exchange
of ideas and culture.
• In a more narrow sense, it represents an accelerating integration
and interweaving of national economies through the growing
flows of trade, investment, and capital across historical borders.

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 Multinational Corporations
• Organizations who have established business in more than one
country, are called multinational corporation.

• The headquarters are in the home country and the business is

extended in many host countries.
– Western organizations doing business in the less-economically
developed (developing, and overpopulated) countries.

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 Multinational Corporations
• Gain for the MNC:
– Inexpensive labor, availability of natural resources, conducive-tax
atmosphere, and virgin market for the products.

• Gain for the Host:

– Fresh job opportunities, jobs with higher remuneration and challenges,
– Transfer of technology.
– Several social benefits by the wealth developed.

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 Multinational Corporations
• Threats of Globalization:
– Social and cultural disturbance.
– Loss of jobs in the home country.
– Exploitation of work and natural resources.
– Political instability in the host countries

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 MNCs and Morality
• The economic and environmental conditions of the home and
host countries may vary.

• However, multinational institutions have to adopt appropriate

measures not to disturb or dislocate the social and living
conditions and cultures of the home countries.

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 Principles to be followed- MNC companies

1. MNC should respect the basic human rights of the people of the
host countries.

2. The activities of the MNC should give economic and transfer

technical benefits, and implement welfare measures of the
workers of the host countries.

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 Principles to be followed- MNC companies

3. The multinationals must respect the laws and political set up,
besides cultures and promote the cultures of the host countries.

4. Multinational institutions should provide necessary safety for the

workers when they are engaged in hazardous activities and
‘informed consent’ should be obtained from them.

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 Principles to be followed- MNC companies

• The multinational organizations should provide a fair

remuneration to the employees of the host countries.

– If the remuneration is high as that of home country, this may create

tensions.

– If the renumeration is too low it will lead to exploitation.

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 Principles to be followed- MNC employees
• Be prepared to live a life in a globalized economy.
• The work ethics and skill sets required have to be suitably
matched.
• While working in other countries, one has to take care of the
sociocultural aspects of the population one is working with.
• Ethical conduct, rules, and conventions may differ from country
to country.
• Professionals have to consider this while performing their duties
in other countries.
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 Environmental Ethics

• It is the study of
❖ Moral issues concerning the environment.
❖ Moral perspectives, beliefs, or attitudes concerning those issues.

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 Environmental Ethics
Engineers as experimenters have certain duties towards environmental ethics, namely:
❖ Environmental impact assessment: One major but sure and unintended effect of technology
is wastage and the resulting pollution of land, water, air and even space. Study how the
industry and technology affects the environment.

❖ Establish standards: Study and fix the tolerable and actual pollution levels.

❖ Countermeasures: Study what protective or eliminating measures are available.

❖ Environmental awareness: Study on how to educate the people on environmental practices,

issues, and possible remedies.

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 Environmental Disaster
• Plastic Waste Disposal
• e-Waste Disposal
• Industrial Waste Disposal
• Depletion of Ozone Layer
• Global Warming
• Acid Rain

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 e-Waste Disposal Examples
• The parts of computers and electronic devices which have served
its useful life present a major environmental issue for all the
developing countries including India.

• This scrap contains highly toxic elements such as lead, cadmium,

and mercury.

• Instead of spending and managing the scrap, unethical

organizations sell them to countries including India.
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 Unethical Industrial Waste disposal
-Example
• Sterlite Industries, a subsidiary of Vedanta Limited, operated a copper smelter plant in Thoothukudi,
Tamil Nadu.

• Copper production involves mining, smelting, and refining, which generate toxic by-products such
as lead, arsenic, and sulfur oxides.

• These pollutants adversely affect water, soil, and air quality in the vicinity of the smelter.

• Sterlite’s factory had a low stack, preventing proper dispersion of pollutants like sulfur dioxide.

• Unsafe levels of chemicals in the air harmed residents.

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 Industrial Waste disposal-Examples

• In 2018, protests erupted against the Sterlite plant, leading

to violent clashes between protesters and security forces.

• The closure of the Sterlite plant was ordered by the Tamil Nadu
government in response to public outcry and environmental
concerns.

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 COMPUTER ETHICS
• Computer ethics is defined as
❖study and analysis of the nature and social impact of computer
technology,
❖formulation and justification of policies, for ethical use of computers.

• The use of computers has raised moral concerns, such as free speech,
privacy, intellectual property rights, and physical as well as mental harm.

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 COMPUTER ETHICS
 The usage of computer replaces the job positions. This has been overcome to a large
extent by readjusting work assignments and training everyone on computer
applications such as word processing, editing, and graphics.

 There are numerous ways in which computers have been misused, leading to serious
ethical issues. Therefore, computers are also used as an instrument for unethical acts.
◦ Breaking privacy.
◦ Hacking
◦ Software Piracy
◦ Virus Dissemination
◦ Online fraud
◦ Cyber Stalking

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 Computer Ethics - Types of Issues

Computer as the Instrument of Unethical Acts

• Breaking privacy. Information or data of the individuals accessed or erased or
the ownership changed.

• Defraud a bank or a client, by accessing and withdrawing money from other’s

bank account.

• Hacking: The software is stolen or information is accessed from other

computers. This may cause financial loss to the business or violation of privacy
rights of the individuals or business.
 Computer Ethics - Types of Issues
Computer as the Object of Unethical Act
✓ Spreading virus:
✓ Other computers are accessed, and the files are erased, or contents changed
altogether through virus programs.
✓ Viruses are implanted to distort the messages and files beyond recovery.
✓ This causes financial loss or mental torture to the individuals.

✓ Health hazard: The computers pose a threat during their use as well as during
disposal.
 COMPUTER ETHICS

• Computer professionals should be aware of different conflicts of

interest as they transact with each other at different levels.

• The IEEE and Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) have

established the codes of ethics to manage such responsibilities.

• Engineers are recommended to follow these codes.

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 Human-centered Vs Nature Centered
Environmental Ethics
• Utilitarianism aims to maximize good consequences for human
beings.
– This approach assumes that only human beings have inherent moral
worth duly to be taken care of.
– Other living beings and ecosystems are only instrumental in nature.

• The nature-centered ethics, which ensures the worth of all living

beings and organisms, seems to be more appropriate in the
present-day context.

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 ENGINEERS AS MANAGERS
Managers have the ethical responsibility to produce safe and good products
(or useful services), while showing respect for the human beings who include
the employees, customers and the public.

The objective for the managers and engineers is to produce valuable

products that are also profitable.

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 ENGINEERS AS MANAGERS
The characteristics of engineers as managers are:

– Promote an ethical climate by framing organization policies,

responsibilities, and personal attitudes and obligations.

– Resolving conflicts by evolving priority, developing mutual

understanding and generating various alternative solutions to problems.

– Accountable to stakeholders, customers, employers, and society.

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 ENGINEERS AS CONSULTING ENGINEERS
• The consulting engineers work in private.

• There is no salary from the employers. But they charge fees from
the sponsor and they have more freedom to decide on their
projects. (no absolute freedom).

• The consulting engineers have ethical responsibilities different

from the salaried engineers.

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 ENGINEERS AS CONSULTING ENGINEERS
Advertising: The consulting engineers are directly responsible for advertising their
services, even if they employ other consultants to assist them.

Deceptive advertising such as the following are prohibited:

(a) By white lies.

(b) Half-truth, e.g., a product has actually been tested as a prototype, but it was claimed to have
been already introduced in the market.
(c) Exaggerated claims. The consultant might have played a small role in a well-known project.
But they could claim to have played a major role.
(d) Making false suggestions. The reduction in cost might have been achieved along with the
reduction in strength, but the strength details are hidden.
(e) Through vague wordings or slogans.

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 ENGINEERS AS EXPERT WITNESS
• The engineers, who act as expert witnesses, should not abuse their positions.

• Undesired activities by expert witness.

– Hired Guns
• Mostly lawyers hire engineers to serve the interest of their clients.
• Lawyers are permitted and required to project the case in a way favourable to their clients.
• However, the engineers have obligations to thoroughly examine the events and demonstrate their
professional integrity to testify only the truth in the court.
• The hired guns forward white lies and distortions, as demanded by the lawyers. They even withhold the
information or shade the fact, to favor their clients.
• They should not serve the clients of the lawyers directly.

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 ENGINEERS AS EXPERT WITNESS
Money Bias
– Expert witnesses should not be influenced or prejudiced for monitory considerations, gain
reputation and make a fortune.
Ego Bias
– The assumption that the own side is innocent and the other side is guilty, is responsible for this
behaviour.
– An inordinate desire to serve one’s client and get name and fame is another reason for this bias.
– Expert witness should avoid it.
Sympathy Bias
– Sympathy for the victim on the opposite side may upset the testimony. Expert witnesses should keep
these biases away from the justice.

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 MORAL LEADERSHIP
• A leader shall direct and motivate the group to move through a desirable ways and (or)
achieve an objective.

• Moral leadership refers to a leader’s conduct that exemplifies strong moral values,
selflessness and integrity.

• Decision-making in moral leadership is guided by an inherent ethical system and moral

purpose.

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 Engineers as Moral Leaders in Community Service
• Engineers can provide services without fee or at reduced fees to
needy groups.

• This type of voluntarism (or philanthropy) has been in practice in

the fields of medicine, law and education.

• But many of the engineers are not self-employed as in the case of

physicians and lawyers. (Continuied)

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 Engineers as Moral Leaders in Community Service

• The engineers can help in guiding, organising, and stimulating the

community towards morally- and environmentally-desirable
goals.

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