3rd December 1984: Bhopal chemical

accident

This was one of the world's worst industrial

accidents.

Thousand of people have died from the

effects of toxic gases which leaked from
a chemical factory near the central
Indian city of Bhopal.
The accident happened in
the early hours of this
morning at the American-
owned Union Carbide
Pesticide Plant three miles
(4.8 km) from Bhopal.

Mr Y P Gokhale, managing director of Union

Carbide in India, said that methyl isocyanate
gas (MIC) had escaped when a valve in the
plant's underground storage tank broke under
pressure.
This caused a deadly cloud of lethal gas to float
from the factory over Bhopal, which is home to
more than 900,000 people - many of whom live in
slums.

Chaos and panic broke out in the city and

surrounding areas as tens of thousands of
people attempted to escape.
Bhopal resident, Ahmed Khan, said: "We were
choking and our eyes were burning. We could
barely see the road through the fog, and sirens
were blaring.

"We didn't know which way to run. Everybody was very

confused.

Mothers didn't know their

"

children had died, children

didn't know their mothers
had died and men didn't
know their whole families
had died."
The Union Carbide factory was
closed immediately after the
accident and three senior
members of staff arrested .

Medical and scientific experts

have been dispatched to the
scene and the Indian
government has ordered a
judicial inquiry.
 Nearly 5000 people
died from the effects
of the poisonous gas
in the days following
the disaster.
• The tragedy
occurred when 40
tones of Methyl
Isocyanate (MIC)
leaked from the
pesticide facilities of
the Union Carbide
Corporation located
in Bhopal.
• Estimates say that
some 50,000
people were
treated in the first
few days suffering
terrible side-
effects, including
blindness, kidney
and liver failure.
• Campaigners say
nearly 20,000
• The gases that leaked
not only burned the
tissues of their eyes
and lungs but also
poisoned their blood
stream and other
internal organs. Many
who died did not even
know what hit them as
they suffocated to
death on their beds
while others went
running out on to the
In 1989 Union
Carbide, which
is now a
subsidiary of
Dow Chemical,
paid the Indian
Government
£470m in a
settlement
which many
described as
woefully
inadequate.
• But in 1999 a voluntary group in
Bhopal which believed not
enough had been done to help
victims, filed a lawsuit in the
United States claiming Union
Carbide violated international
• Union Carbide, which merged with
Dow Jones in the year, 2001, has
neither taken firm responsibility nor
been able to answer the questions
related to this horrific tragedy. It still
remains a mystery as to why the
company
their operationsadopted twostate
in the American sets of of
West Virginia had
anstandards
advanced computerized system inup
while putting place, the facility in
their
Bhopal was outdated to say the least. Faulty and defective
factories.
refrigeration and valve and vent lines had been left
unattended for a period of two years when the disaster took
place. Also, the amount of MIC stored in West Virginia was
5000 gallons as compared to the 30, 000 gallons that had
been piled up at Bhopal. Local authorities were also kept in
the dark about the dangers of an MIC leak leave alone the
matter of making provisions for antidotes.
There is a case pending
against the corporation on
the charges of death, not
amounting to murder though
the above facts point clearly
to a culpable offence. Why
should Union Carbide have
taken such great care to
protect its American plant
and shown so much
indifference to its plant in a
developing country like
India? Is it because life is
very cheap here or that some
countries (read America) are
more equal than others?
In November 2002 India
said it was seeking the
extradition of former
Union Carbide boss
Warren Anderson from
the US.
Mr Anderson faces
charges of "culpable
homicide" for cost-
cutting at the plant
which is alleged to have
compromised safety
standards.
In October 2004, the
Indian Supreme
Court approved a
compensation plan
drawn up by the
state welfare
commission to pay
nearly $350m to
more than 570,000
victims of the
disaster.