Which gas cause bhopal tragedy

Activists allege that there has been a deliberate suppression by the Indian government of any research which proves the long term systemic or genetic damage caused by the gas explosion, to protect the corporations involved. Proof of the lasting damage of the gas exposure could have major legal implications for Union Carbide and its current owner Dow Chemicals, who took ownership of the company and its legal responsibilities in , in terms of compensation liability.

A civil court case, begun in , is ongoing in the supreme court, which is arguing to re-open the compensation case for victims of Bhopal. However, the study was subsequently discredited by the ICMR, who ordered it not to be published or disclosed.

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the trust, which was established entirely on the basis of donations given by thousands of Guardian readers who responded to a newspaper advert by the Bhopal Medical Appeal. Sarangi set up the clinic after several incidents convinced him the government were not giving Bhopal victims the correct treatment or information in a bid to disguise the lasting scale of the tragedy.

Walking into the hut where where Yikas, 21, and Aman, 19, lie side-by-side on the floor on a pink woven mat, she breaks down. They are unable to walk, talk or eat without assistance; their frail limbs splay out at awkward angles. Their grandmother sits in between them, strokes their heads and whispers gently in their ears. Their mother Sharda Yadav, 41, who was 12 years old when she was exposed to the gas from the explosion, fiddles with her canary yellow sari in distress.

The do not even know if it is day or night, I have spent my whole life taking care of them but I get sick most of the time. I feel a pain in my soul when I look at them. A tsunami of grief engulfs the small hut, as mother, father, grandmother and grandfather all quietly sob. Lying on the floor before them, Yikas lets out a gentle wail, his only means of communicating with his family.

A worker cleans dust as he displays a panel of photographs of some of the thousands of people who died in the Bhopal gas disaster at the forensic department of Gandhi Medical College in Bhopal on June 8, Chandra said that his wife Prema died as a result of gas poisoning after the Bhopal disaster.

Bi said that her husband Rehman died as a result of gas poisoning after the Bhopal disaster. Children play in front of their homes near the Union Carbide factory on November 27, , in Bhopal, India. The flare tower, where highly toxic methyl isocyanate gas was released into the air in the disaster, at the abandoned Union Carbide pesticide factory in Bhopal on November 28, Plants grow over a staircase at the abandoned former Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal November 14, A network of pipes rust at the abandoned Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal on November 14, Former maintenance worker, Mohammed Yaqub, poses in his house with his old identity card from the defunct Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal where he once worked, on November 13, Children are reflected in groundwater, believed to be contaminated, near the site of the deserted Union Carbide factory on November 28, in Bhopal, India.

A girl who suffers from hearing and speech disorders reacts to the camera at a rehabilitation center supported by Bhopal Medical Appeal, for children who were born with mental and physical disabilities, in Bhopal, on November 11, The rehabilitation center only treats families they believe have been affected by the Union Carbide gas leak 30 years ago.

Bhopal gas disaster survivor Akbar Khan, 70, sits inside a steam box as part of a rehabilitation using traditional Ayurvedic treatment at the Sambhavna Trust Clinic in Bhopal on December 1, A partially blind gas victim waits for a verdict with other victims in the premises of Bhopal court in Bhopal, India, on June 7, An Indian court convicted seven former senior employees of Union Carbide's Indian subsidiary of "death by negligence" for their roles in the Bhopal gas tragedy that left thousands of people dead more than a quarter century previously, in the world's worst industrial disaster.

A boy who was born with a mental disability looks out of a window at a rehabilitation center supported by Bhopal Medical Appeal for children who were born with mental and physical disabilities in Bhopal on November 11, Environmental Health volume 4 , Article number: 6 Cite this article. Metrics details. On December 3 , more than 40 tons of methyl isocyanate gas leaked from a pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, immediately killing at least 3, people and causing significant morbidity and premature death for many thousands more.

The company involved in what became the worst industrial accident in history immediately tried to dissociate itself from legal responsibility. Eventually it reached a settlement with the Indian Government through mediation of that country's Supreme Court and accepted moral responsibility.

The disaster indicated a need for enforceable international standards for environmental safety, preventative strategies to avoid similar accidents and industrial disaster preparedness. Since the disaster, India has experienced rapid industrialization. While some positive changes in government policy and behavior of a few industries have taken place, major threats to the environment from rapid and poorly regulated industrial growth remain.

Widespread environmental degradation with significant adverse human health consequences continues to occur throughout India. Peer Review reports. December marked the twentieth anniversary of the massive toxic gas leak from Union Carbide Corporation's chemical plant in Bhopal in the state of Madhya Pradesh, India that killed more than 3, people. This review examines the health effects of exposure to the disaster, the legal response, the lessons learned and whether or not these are put into practice in India in terms of industrial development, environmental management and public health.

In the s, the Indian government initiated policies to encourage foreign companies to invest in local industry. As part of the deal, India's government insisted that a significant percentage of the investment come from local shareholders. The company built the plant in Bhopal because of its central location and access to transport infrastructure. The specific site within the city was zoned for light industrial and commercial use, not for hazardous industry.

The plant was initially approved only for formulation of pesticides from component chemicals, such as MIC imported from the parent company, in relatively small quantities. However, pressure from competition in the chemical industry led UCIL to implement "backward integration" — the manufacture of raw materials and intermediate products for formulation of the final product within one facility.

This was inherently a more sophisticated and hazardous process [ 2 ]. In , the plant was manufacturing Sevin at one quarter of its production capacity due to decreased demand for pesticides. Widespread crop failures and famine on the subcontinent in the s led to increased indebtedness and decreased capital for farmers to invest in pesticides.

Local managers were directed to close the plant and prepare it for sale in July due to decreased profitability [ 3 ]. When no ready buyer was found, UCIL made plans to dismantle key production units of the facility for shipment to another developing country.

In the meantime, the facility continued to operate with safety equipment and procedures far below the standards found in its sister plant in Institute, West Virginia. The local government was aware of safety problems but was reticent to place heavy industrial safety and pollution control burdens on the struggling industry because it feared the economic effects of the loss of such a large employer [ 3 ].

At The vent-gas scrubber, a safety device designer to neutralize toxic discharge from the MIC system, had been turned off three weeks prior [ 3 ]. Apparently a faulty valve had allowed one ton of water for cleaning internal pipes to mix with forty tons of MIC [ 1 ].

A 30 ton refrigeration unit that normally served as a safety component to cool the MIC storage tank had been drained of its coolant for use in another part of the plant [ 3 ]. Pressure and heat from the vigorous exothermic reaction in the tank continued to build. The gas flare safety system was out of action and had been for three months. At around 1. Within hours, the streets of Bhopal were littered with human corpses and the carcasses of buffaloes, cows, dogs and birds.

An estimated 3, people died immediately, mostly in the poor slum colony adjacent to the UCC plant [ 1 , 5 ].

Local hospitals were soon overwhelmed with the injured, a crisis further compounded by a lack of knowledge of exactly what gas was involved and what its effects were [ 1 ]. It became one of the worst chemical disasters in history and the name Bhopal became synonymous with industrial catastrophe [ 5 ]. Estimates of the number of people killed in the first few days by the plume from the UCC plant run as high as 10,, with 15, to 20, premature deaths reportedly occurring in the subsequent two decades [ 6 ].

The Indian government reported that more than half a million people were exposed to the gas [ 7 ]. Several epidemiological studies conducted soon after the accident showed significant morbidity and increased mortality in the exposed population. Table 1. These data are likely to under-represent the true extent of adverse health effects because many exposed individuals left Bhopal immediately following the disaster never to return and were therefore lost to follow-up [ 8 ].

Immediately after the disaster, UCC began attempts to dissociate itself from responsibility for the gas leak. Its principal tactic was to shift culpability to UCIL, stating the plant was wholly built and operated by the Indian subsidiary. It also fabricated scenarios involving sabotage by previously unknown Sikh extremist groups and disgruntled employees but this theory was impugned by numerous independent sources [ 1 ]. The toxic plume had barely cleared when, on December 7, the first multi-billion dollar lawsuit was filed by an American attorney in a U.

This was the beginning of years of legal machinations in which the ethical implications of the tragedy and its affect on Bhopal's people were largely ignored.

In March , the Indian government enacted the Bhopal Gas Leak Disaster Act as a way of ensuring that claims arising from the accident would be dealt with speedily and equitably. The Act made the government the sole representative of the victims in legal proceedings both within and outside India. Eventually all cases were taken out of the U. The figure was partly based on the disputed claim that only people died and , suffered permanent disabilities [ 9 ]. By the end of October , according to the Bhopal Gas Tragedy Relief and Rehabilitation Department, compensation had been awarded to , people for injuries received and 15, survivors of those killed.

At every turn, UCC has attempted to manipulate, obfuscate and withhold scientific data to the detriment of victims. Some two and a half years after the tragedy, and only after the Indian government's reluctant release of some 70, pages of documentation, UCC filed a lengthy court document in India detailing the findings of its scientific and legal investigations: the cause of the disaster was undeniably sabotage.

Who could have sabotaged plant operations and caused the gas leak? Investigations suggest that only an employee with the appropriate skills and knowledge of the site could have tampered with the tank. An independent investigation by the engineering consulting firm Arthur D. Were the valves faulty on the MIC tanks at the plant?

In fact, documented evidence gathered after the incident showed that the valve near to the plant's water-washing operation was closed and leak-tight. Furthermore, process safety systems -- in place and operational -- would have prevented water from entering the tank by accident.

Based on several investigations, the safety systems in place could not have prevented a chemical reaction of this magnitude from causing a leak.

In designing the plant's safety systems, a chemical reaction of this magnitude was not factored in for two reasons:. How do you respond to concerns expressed about the technologies used at the plant prior to the incident?