Bhopal Gas Leak : The Worst Industrial Disaster

According to, http://www.toxicology.org/gp/fda.asp, the Society of Toxicology website, in 1937 the Massengill pharmaceutical company dispersed Elixir Sulfanilamide. This drug was prescribed generally to anyone who had symptoms of strep throat. Elixir Sulfanilamide contains diethylene glycol, which is a chemical equivalent of antifreeze. There were 107 documented deaths, involving many children, because of the lack in regulations. The Pure Food and Drug Act was deemed to insufficient to protect the public. This tragedy was the critical motivation for the creation of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.

Effects of poisonous gas attacks- Chlorine was used in the gas attacks and within seconds of inhaling it, the vapors destroyed the victim’s respiratory organs. Then

When poison gasses were introduced to the First World War, aptly named the chemists’ war, they immediately resulted in heavy casualty rates. Militaries soon developed protective protocols, dropping chemical warfare’s potency mostly among the troops, contributing to the war’s high civilian fatality rate. As early as the fifth century BCE, there have been recorded uses of chemical warfare in Greece, China and India. The toxic gasses employed were mainly carbon monoxide, produced from burning wood. Soldiers exposed to carbon monoxide were described to have flu-like symptoms, and they could not combat with strength.

What has been brought to light in recent years is the effects of these chemicals on the body’s immune response. By introducing these toxic chemicals into the body, the potency of the immune system is compromised. More commonly than not, the body’s magnificent defense system will kick in and destroy foreign invaders but all it can take is an overwhelming amount of chemicals to slow or even shut down the body’s response systems. A large amount of these types of chemicals introduced into the body at one time would be considered acute toxicity and could even cause death. Additionally, a small amount of these poisonous substances brought into the body over a long period would be considered chronic toxicity and can have detrimental effects on the body’s natural response (Hoernschemeyer 55-57). This information is startling enough to want to make a change from conventionally grown food to pesticide-free organic

In means of protecting the Germans against phosgene poisoning, some scientists examined the effect it had on subjects’ lungs. Prisoners were also subjected to mustard gas to test possible antidotes for the poisoning. They found that besides local irritation to the skin, eyes, and upper respiratory tract, the lungs were the target organ of the phosgene gas. Even at low concentrations phosgene would destroy the enzymes in the lungs, causing fluid to build up and lead to death by drowning. The knowledge of this dangerous gas has led to the saving of lives of those who lived near the manufacturing plant.

Symptoms of pesticide poisoning are often deceptively misdiagnosed as flu or allergies. Other problems associated with the use of chemicals include headaches, nausea, fever, breathing difficulties, high blood pressure, and temporary paralysis. The National Academy of Sciences reports that at least one out of seven people are significantly harmed by pesticide exposure each year (American Defender Network, 1989). Unfortunately, due to the high costs of inspection, tests for pesticide poisoning are rarely performed.

The natural gas industry, according to Greco, is living in a persistent lie as being clean and climate friendly. Although burning natural gas produces less carbon dioxide, the natural gas can also pollute waterways, release methane which is 86 to 105 times as powerful as carbon dioxide, cause health problems, and also contributes to the amount of site accidents occurring in our nation. For example, the natural gas storage leak that occurred outside of Los Angeles in Porter Ranch after a lack of a subsurface shutoff valve caused clouds of gas to be produced outside of the plant for three and a half months caused the locals to experience nausea, vomiting, headaches, and nosebleeds. Erin Brockovich, an environmental activist and research, claimed that the leak was a “BP oil spill, just on land” because of its massive impact and the magnitude, duration, and climate effects. In regards to

Over 500,000 people were exposed to toxic gas from a pesticide plant, leading to thousands of deaths and tens of thousands of injuries.

Camera Techniques: This type of filming technique was used very well in this film because in Bhopal India there were many shoots of the Union Carbide plant, and the size of it showing that the pesticides that were leaked could have gone on for kilometers, also they took lots of close ups of the people who still are effected today. This helped me understand what they were going through. But there was also shoots of the people happy, there was a medical centre built just for the gas survivors and how they found a refugee in all the chaos of India.

The shell refinery located close to the day care in the reservation, leaked toxic chemicals into the air. The children got sick and no one notified the Aamjiwnaang people to tell them it leaked so the children went misdiagnosed. There are many spills that go unnoticed and the effects on the people of Sarnia and the workers are dangerous. Each plant is allowed to produce a certain amount of chemicals which is said to be “okay for the environment”. No study has been done to know what happens when all the different chemicals mix together in the

For this research paper, I chose to discuss the Louisiana air quality and its effects on the community. I was raised here in Baker, Louisiana which is north of Baton Rouge. Growing up I noticed something very striking and odd. We are overly exposed to chemical plants and their outputs. Driving around Baton Rouge at night and seeing a distant flame I often wonder what it really was. I wonder how this was affecting the community. How was this affecting our health? Upon doing research, I discovered it is called upset emissions. Upset emissions are unplanned events which release VOCs into the air. The Bucket Brigade which is an anti-energy group refers to emissions as accidents. Every year they release an annual report which gives

In the 19th century a group of people know as the Poison Squad began testing these chemicals by consume these products in order to find out how these substances affected the human body; their results were very alarming. From the testing or the Meat Inspection Act and the Food and Drug Act, which

This Article talks about the methane leak that took place in Porter Ranch Los Angeles, but the were no casualties. There was a leakage from Aliso Canyon natural-gas storage facility, which was one hundred thousand tons of methane, and it is considered to be one of the worst environmental disasters. More than 2,000 families were evacuated from their neighborhood after some people encountered headaches, vomiting, and bloody noses.

These chemicals were ingested by animals causing the chemicals to enter the food chain. These chemicals are carried up from animal to animal and even make their way to humans causing damage genetically. These chemicals killed numerous species of animals and went on to harm humans as well. The idea that this chemical could be thought of as safe but ends of being so harmful is hard to believe, but once again shows how the ignorance of humanity gives humans a false sense of safety that is not actually in the real world.

Prior to the disaster, the company had been facing a financial crisis for many years because the sale of pesticides had been fallen (Joseph, Kaszniak and Long 2005, p. 544). Due to the budget cuts, many plant operators received insufficient training on operations and safety awareness (Mannan 2012, p. 2649). As shown in Figure 1, there was a decrease in the length of training programmes for plant operators from 18 months in 1975 to only one month in December 1984 (Chouhan 2005, p. 207). Therefore, with a lack of the knowledge of runaway reactions occurring in the storage tank when the accident happened, many workers could not immediately take any emergency action to lessen the risk of the MIC escape from the storage tank (Chouhan 2005, p. 207). To connect the tank with another