The Bhopal disaster is the largest man-made disaster in modern history by accident in a chemical plant owned by the American chemical industrial corporation in the Indian city of Bhopal (the capital of Madhya Pradesh ) on the early morning of December 3, 1984. . The catastrophe caused the death of at least 18 thousand people, of which 3 thousand died directly on the day of the accident, and 15 thousand in the following years.
| Bhopal disaster | |
|---|---|
 Demonstration on the streets of Bhopal with requirements for Union Carbide (2010) | |
| Type of | Chemical plant accident |
| Cause | Not officially installed |
| A country |  India |
| A place | Bhopal , Madhya Pradesh State |
| date | December 3, 1984 |
| Time | 00:30 local time |
| Dead | about 18 thousand people |
| Injured | 150-600 thousand people |
Timeline
Since 1970, the Government of India began to pursue a policy of attracting foreign investment in local industry, and under one of the programs, the American company Union Carbide received permission to build a plant for the production of pesticides for agriculture in Bhopal. The plant was built by a subsidiary of Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL). It was originally planned that for the production of pesticides the plant will import part of the chemicals produced at other enterprises of the corporation, but in the conditions of increased competition in the local market, the Bhopal plant mastered its own production of the necessary chemicals, requiring more complex and dangerous processes than it was originally designed.
Crop failures in India in the 1980s reduced demand for the plant’s products and were ready for sale by July 1984. However, the buyer was not found, and work at the plant continued on equipment that by that time no longer met safety standards [1] .
The plant produced the then-popular insecticide Sevin (carbaryl, 1-naphthyl-N-methylcarbamate), produced by the reaction of methyl isocyanate with α- naphthol in a medium of carbon tetrachloride . Methyl isocyanate was stored at the plant in three tanks partially dug into the ground, each of which could hold about 60 thousand liters of liquid.
The immediate cause of the tragedy was the emergency release of methyl isocyanate vapors, which heated up above the boiling point (39.5 ° C) in the factory tank, which led to an increase in pressure and rupture of the emergency valve. As a result, from 0:30 to 2:00 on December 3, 1984, about 42 tons of toxic fumes were released into the atmosphere. A cloud of methyl isocyanate covered nearby slums and the train station (located 2 km from the plant). A large number of victims is explained by a high population density, untimely information of the population, lack of medical staff, as well as adverse weather conditions - a cloud of heavy fumes was carried by the wind.
Reasons for the tragedy
The cause of the disaster has not yet been officially established. Among the versions, a gross violation of safety regulations and deliberate sabotage of the work of the enterprise prevail. In the American documentary television series “ Seconds Before the Catastrophe ” it was concluded that, despite the fundamental possibility of sabotage, the first link in the catastrophe chain was an economic error in assessing the demand for plant products, which led to the requirements of the management of the owner corporation to reduce the loss-making plant costs, as a result of which the company began to save on safety measures. The film demonstrated that all protective systems were inoperative or ineffective, the devices did not reflect the real state of the tanks, the safety inspector was fired, and the most effective protective tool - a gas afterburning pipe - was dismantled and did not recover for several weeks. According to the authors of the film, the company did not provide any significant evidence in favor of the theory of sabotage, that is, it fabricated this version to save the corporate reputation.
Consequences of the accident
According to various sources, the total number of victims is estimated at 150-600 thousand people, of which 3 thousand died immediately at the time of the disaster, another 15 thousand died in the following years from the effects of chemicals on the body. These figures give reason to consider the Bhopal tragedy the world's largest man-made disaster in terms of the number of victims [2] .
Union Carbide in 1987, as part of an out-of-court settlement, paid the victims of the accident $ 470 million in exchange for waiver of further lawsuits [3] .
In 2004, the art group The Yes Men staged a hoax, in which BBC World announced the sale of Union Carbide and the distribution of the proceeds of $ 12 billion to eliminate the consequences of the disaster, medical care and the study of possible harm from other products of the company. Dow Chemical (which absorbed Union Carbide in 2001) issued a rebuttal two hours later, but the outcome of the story was a total $ 2 billion drop in company stock [4] .
On June 7, 2010, an Indian court found seven former leaders of the Indian branch of Union Carbide guilty of negligence resulting in loss of life. Convicts were sentenced to two years in prison and a fine of 100 thousand rupees (approximately $ 2100) [3] .
In art
Bhopal: Prayer for the Rain (2014) dir. R. Kumar
Express at Bhopal (1999) dir. M. Mathai
Bhopal (2014) Show me a Dinosaur.
Notes
- ↑ Broughton, Edward. The Bhopal disaster and its aftermath: a review. // Environmental Health: A Global Access Science Source 2005, 4: 6 doi: 10.1186 / 1476-069X-4-6.
- ↑ Hiroshima chemical industry
- ↑ 1 2 The culprits of the largest man-made disaster in history received 2 years in prison
- ↑ Gilbey, Ryan. " Jokers to the left, jokers to the right ." The Guardian . July 17, 2009.
Links
- Alfred de Grazia, Alfred de Grazia. A Cloud over Bhopal - Causes, Consequences and Constructive Solutions . - 1985. - "The first book on the Bhopal disaster, written on-site a few weeks after the accident." - ISBN 0-940268-09-9 . Archived August 26, 2009 on Wayback Machine
- Bhopal verdict due after 25 years
- Life and death in Bhopal . Tape.Ru (December 3, 2014). - Consequences of the largest man-made accident in history (photo). Date of treatment December 4, 2014.