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pstrong1984:/strong Poison gas leaks from a Union Carbide pesticide factory in Bhopal, India. It
spreads throughout the city, killing thousands of people outright and thousands more subsequently
in a disaster often described as the worst industrial accident in history./p pUnion Carbide chose
Bhopal, a city of 900,000 people in the state of Madhya Pradesh, because of its central location
and its proximity to a lake and to the country's vast rail system./p pThe plant opened in 1969 and
produced the pesticide carbaryl, which was marketed as Sevin. Ten years later the plant began
manufacturing a href="http://www.epa.gov/ttn/atw/hlthef/methylis.html"methyl isocyanate/a, or MIC,
a cheaper but more toxic substance used in the making of pesticides./p pIt was MIC gas that was
released when water leaked into one of the storage tanks late on the night of Dec. 2, a
href="http://www.bhopal.org/whathappened.html"setting off the disaster/a. Gas began escaping from
Tank 610 around 10:30 p.m. although the main warning siren didn't go off for another two hours./p
pThe first effects were felt almost immediately in the vicinity of the plant. As the gas cloud
spread into Bhopal proper, residents were awakened to a blinding, vomiting, lung-searing hell.
Panic ensued and hundreds of people died in the chaotic stampede that followed./p pAn exact death
toll has never been established. Union Carbide, not surprisingly, set the toll on the low end at
3,800, while municipal workers claimed to have cleared at least 15,000 bodies in the immediate
aftermath of the accident. Thousands have died since and an estimated 50,000 people became invalids
or developed chronic respiratory conditions as a result of being poisoned./p pRegardless of the
numbers, all a href="http://www.american.edu/ted/bhopal.htm"evidence pointed to Union Carbide/a and
its Indian subsidiary, as well as the Indian government, its partner in the factory, being
responsible, mainly through negligence, for what occurred. Despite the extreme volatility and
toxicity of the chemicals in use at the factory, safeguards known to be substandard were ignored
rather than fixed./p pIn the subsequent investigations and legal proceedings, it was determined,
among other things, that:/p ul class="list1" lipStaffing at the plant had been cut to save money.
Workers who complained about codified safety violations were reprimanded, and occasionally
fired./p/li lipNo plan existed for coping with a disaster of this magnitude./li/p lipTank alarms
that would have alerted personnel to the leak hadn't functioned for at least four years./li/p
lipOther backup systems were either not functioning or nonexistent./li/p lipThe plant was equipped
with a single back-up system, unlike the four-stage system typically found in American plants./li/p
lipTank 610 held 42 tons of MIC, well above the prescribed capacity. (It is believed that 27 tons
escaped in the leak.)/li/p lipWater sprays designed to dilute escaping gas were poorly installed
and proved ineffective./li/p lipDamage known to exist, such as to piping and valves, had not been
repaired or replaced because the cost was considered too high. Warnings from U.S. and Indian
experts about other shortcomings at the plant were similarly ignored./li/p /ul pThe aftermath of
the disaster was almost as chaotic. Union Carbide was a
href="http://www.bhopal.com/ucs.htm"initially responsive/a, rushing aid and money to Bhopal.
Nevertheless, faced with a $3 billion lawsuit, the company dug in, eventually agreeing to a $470
million settlement, a mere 15 percent of the original claim. In any case, very little money ever
reached the victims of the disaster./p pa
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_Anderson_(chairman)"Warren Anderson/a, Union Carbide's
CEO, went before Congress in December 1984, pledging his company's renewed commitment to safety, a
promise that rang hollow in India (and probably to Congress as well)./p pAnderson was subsequently
charged with manslaughter by Indian prosecutors but managed to evade an international arrest
warrant and disappeared. Investigators from Greenpeace, which has kept up an active interest in the
case, found Anderson in 2002, alive and well and living comfortably in the Hamptons. The United
States has shown no inclination to hand him over to Indian justice, and most of the serious charges
against him have been dropped./p pUnion Carbide, meanwhile, was acquired by the Dow Corporation in
2001, which refused to assume any additional liability for Bhopal, arguing that the debt had
already been paid through various court settlements. It did go on to settle another outstanding
claim against Union Carbide, this one for $2.2 billion made by asbestos workers in Texas./p pA few
outstanding legal claims from Bhopal remain to be settled, both in India and the United States, but
most of the court wrangling is over./p pThe victims of the disaster, those who live on, continue
dealing with various health problems — including chronic respiratory problems,
vision problems and an increased incidence of cancer and birth defects — and an
environment that remains contaminated to this day./p pemSource: Various/em/pbr style="clear:
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