Union Carbide's Bhopal Disaster

There is certainly not enough space to examine all twelve stories presented in Lerner’s book in this paper, and they are all shocking—both in terms of the level of exposure to toxic chemicals and the questionable choices of corporate and government officials—but a few stories stand out.

Just after midnight on December 3, 1984, a pesticide plant in Bhopal, India had a chemical leak accident. The chemical that was released into the air is called methyl isocyanate, or MIC, used to make pesticides. This chemical is tremendously harmful and fatal to humans, livestock, and crops. Only a short-term exposure may cause death or unfavorable health effects. The slums of Bhopal and its residents that surrounded the plant which were mostly affected by the gas suffered dearly. An estimated 8,000 people dead and about 300,000 more suffering from its effects. Bloated carcasses of cattle dotted the streets. Tree and plant leaves were yellow and brittle. "Corpses littered the streets and discovered behind locked doors, trapped in private

On December 2, 1984, water inadvertently entered a storage tank containing more than 80,000 pounds of methyl isocyanate, or MIC, which reacts violently with water. A subsequent runaway reaction generated heat and pressure causing a relief valve to open and resulted in a massive toxic gas release. A dense, lethal cloud of approximately 40 tons of MIC was released to the city exposing to thousands of people. An estimated 3,800 people died immediately, and tens of thousands of people were injured. As of 1994, more than 50,000 people remained partially or totally disabled as a result of exposure to MIC. This tragedy led to the establishment of laws and Process Safety Management system.

Even though, at the time of writing Silent Spring, synthetic pesticides had only been distributed for twenty years, they had already saturated the human, plant, and animal worlds. From Carson’s perspective, these death-dealing materials of insecticides are marketed cheerfully to consumers, without traditional poison warnings (174). In fact, only 15 out of 100 people even read the labels for the chemical products they buy (177). They destroy enzymes, enzymes that are specifically there to protect the body. They also block oxidation, thus blocking the body’s ability to receive energy which can make organs malfunction. Worst of all, these pesticides have all scientifically been linked to certain types of cancers and tumors. Because of the unpredictable, hard to see, and delayed effects of absorbing small amounts of pesticides over time, it becomes easy to ignore the problem. Humans seem programmed to shrug off disasters in the distant future, concerned only with those effects that can be seen immediately. Carson argues that the mass amount of unawareness of the true danger potential of these chemicals is the reason why many people are getting sick, simply because they don’t know what’s hurting them. When pesticides and other chemicals meant for food and cleaning products are deemed as “safe”, the vast majority of people are going to believe so, therefore continue using

In her novel Silent Spring, conservationist Rachel Carson writes, “Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts.” This demonstrates Carson’s ability to express the beauty and incredulity of nature. As a scientist, she knew that nature has the strength to restore itself. In Silent Spring, she wants readers to consider the serious dangers that pesticides could have on the environment. The use of these artificial chemicals to control insect populations release harmful substances into the air, water, and soil, and have the potential to poison animals. Carson describes chemicals as the “sinister and little-recognized partners of radiation” (Carson 15). Carson later explains how poisons

As previously stated, the Bhopal plant was responsible for the production of Carbaryl, otherwise known as Sevin which was released under the brand name Eveready. The plant itself aided Bhopal somewhat with attracting new people with the promise of jobs and fixing the inconsistent electricity supplied to the city. While the plant was initially very profitable, eventually the market changed, leaving the factory making a loss every year. The plant eventually stopped producing Sevin due to a large backlog of Methyl Isocyanate and little demand in the market for it[1]. Many of the safety features could have reduced the severity, or completely stopped the Bhopal Disaster altogether. However, with none of these active, very little stopped the Methyl Isocyanate cloud from descending upon Bhopal. In addition staff size was reduced below recommended levels, leaving very few workers on shifts with only a single supervisor[1]. Available positions would now be a less attractive prospect to workers, leading workers with fewer skills than previously to take up positions in the plant. Over 50 tons of Methyl Isocyanate in liquid form was stored in two tanks beneath the plants (though some workers claim that a 3rd reserve tank was in use too), and were kept there for several months.

In Bhopal, India there was incident where a plant located nearby had a terrible gas leak. The pesticide plant, Union Carbide India Limited had some type of malfunction causing a methyl isocyanate gas leak and poisoned the people of Bhopal. “Half a million people were exposed to the gas and 25,000 have died to date as a result of their exposure” (Union Carbide Disaster). The cause of this disaster is known, however who is to blame for it still remains under debate. The Indian government claim that it was poor management and budget cuts that caused the plant to not abide by safety protocols. Had these budget cuts not been made then the routine pipe maintenance would not have caused a backflow of water into the tank, which is what triggered the

In 1954, Hinkley, California was a sleepy little town located in the Mojave Desert. People went about their normal, daily lives without ever suspecting that they were in danger of chemical poisoning. Little did they know that natural gas compressor station was slowly leaking hexavalent chromium into the groundwater. Over the course of ten years, hexavalent chromium steadily spread over the town of Hinkley, unbeknownst to the citizens. The chemical, originally intended to prevent rust in water towers, was causing health issues in the unsuspecting citizens of Hinkley. For ten whole years, the leakage of hexavalent chromium was affecting the health and environment

Union carbide and the Bhopal disaster, is a disaster that happened due to a MIC gas leaked from the pesticide plant of union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) and killed almost half of the population in surrounding area closed to plant. Not following the rules and regulations that are required to run a pesticide company and moreover safety requirements were not followed according to the manual specified. UCIL goal was the same when we compare to any regular business, which is earning profits. They used to make profits, but exclusive of maintaining proper safety requirements, safety rules were four times below in compare to USA safety standards. Top level management is the key for whole organization but in this condition they were lacking safety

Transparency: Deciding that Union Carbide was unethical with their decision to use their legal tools to avoid a billion dollar lawsuit, Union Carbide, as well as their employees will be upset. They believed they were making an ethical decision for the company, and from a business prospective on the issue they were. Top management had to think about the company and its employees, they did not want to leave their employees jobless, and see their families suffer,

This accident is one of the biggest industrial incident till date taken place in India. The chemical, methyl isocyanate which leaked out from the Union Carbide India Ltd's factory killed thousands of people. Within a weeks of the accident the worst was over. The people were still suffering from common ailments such as TB. Till today no body knows much about the toxin gas or its antidote and how to treat people exposed to this gas. The children born after the incident were also affected because of the exposure to the poisonous gas in their mother's womb.

It was the night of December 2, 1984. It was the night that would change the lives of nearly 500,000 citizens in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India, forever. It was the night that at least 30 tons of the highly toxic gas, methyl isocyanate, was released from the Union Carbide factory in Bhopal, India. It has been recorded as the world’s worst industrial disaster. But how did such a disaster take place? The Union Carbide plant dated back to 1969 where it was a formulations plant. The original purpose of the plant was to produce pesticides for use in India in an attempt to fix India’s growing food demands according to the Union Carbide Corporation. The use of carbamate pesticides and insecticides, more specifically methyl isocyanate, or MIC, was

Introduction. On 06 January 2005, a cargo train carrying a massive amount of chlorine spilled in Graniteville, South Carolina creating panic and indeed chaos to both citizens and emergency managers on how to properly respond to the hazardous materials released from the train wreckage. The people of the small rural town of Graniteville located just outside of Aiken, South Carolina, where caught in their sleep when Freight train 192 traveling approximately 47 mph struck other consignments spilling a dangerous amount of chlorine gas into the atmosphere. As a result of this disaster, 5,400 individuals were evacuated from their homes whiling causing nine deaths. The magnitude of such disaster was one that would change any town or city forever.

As a result, the following came a lot of lawsuits, demanding compensation, and investigations, investigating the cause of the MIC leak, against the plant. During the investigations, both the government of India and the interior of the Union Carbide did research on that incident. We are not surprised at their different answers because the plant wanted to cover the truth that was harmful to themselves and the government as a result could not get the truth on the other hand. However, I can¡¦t deny that the plant really did something such as relief fund, training school, and so on to prove that they really wanted to compensate for that gas leak. In this case, I don¡¦t think that the CEO of Union Carbide should be arrested or be sentenced. But I do think he should be responsible for the whole case. In other words, he should resign for the whole incident.

It has been widely understood that UCC and the Indian government utilized one major type of management style that may have contributed to this disaster and is regarded as Top-Down management. This style is still in use today by many corporations, however it is recognized as only being effective in certain situations (Fortun & Embrary , 2001). For example, many corporations utilize top-down when a change needs to be implemented. Executives are able to directly lay out their expectations and what is expected. More specifically, everyone knows the rules and regulations developed by upper management, and follows them. However, regarding the Bhopal disaster, this management style is ineffective because middle management has no power to