UNIT-3

SAFETY, RESPONSIBILITIES AND RIGHTS

SAFETY AND RISK
• Imagine you are a fresh graduate.
• You get a job as an engineer in a large atomic power plant.

Would you take it or not?

Under what conditions would you take it?

Under what conditions would you not?

Why?
Concept of Safety
“A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for” – John A. Shedd
“A thing is safe if its risks are judged to be acceptable‟ - William W. Lawrence

1. We buy an ill-designed Iron box in a sale-> Underestimating risk

2. We judge fluoride in water can kill lots of people -> Overestimating risk
3. We hire a taxi, without thinking about its safety -> Not estimating risk

How does a judge pass a judgement on safety in these 3 cases?

….So, this definition won't do in real life.
• Then, what is acceptable also depends upon the individual or group’s
value judgment. Hence a better, working definition of concept of
safety could be,

“A thing is safe (to a certain degree) with respect to a given person or

group at a given time if they were fully aware of its risks and expressing
their most settled values, they would judge those risks to be acceptable
(to that certain degree).” - Mike Martin and Roland Schinzinger

• A thing is NOT SAFE if it exposes us to unacceptable danger or hazard

RISK
• RISK is the potential that something unwanted and harmful may
occur.
• We take a risk when we undertake something or use a product that is
not safe.
• Risk in technology could include dangers of
• bodily harm,
• economic loss, or
• environmental degradation.
• Some may assume that “safety” is a concrete concept, while “risk” is
a vague, hypothetical concept
• In fact, its the other way around
• Risks always exist. But true safety never exists, except in hypothetical
situations
• So, risk is reality, safety is fantasy
What degree of risk is acceptable?
• Safety is a matter of how people would find risks acceptable or
unacceptable, if they knew the risks, and are basing their judgments
on their most settled value perspective.
• So, to this extent, it is objective.
• But, perspectives differ. To that extent, it is subjective.
• So, Safety is 'acceptable risk'
Acceptable Risk
• A risk is acceptable when those affected are generally no longer (or
not) apprehensive (fearful) about it.
• Apprehension (i.e. anxiety) depends largely on factors such as,
• whether the risk is assumed voluntarily.
• how the probabilities of harm (or benefit) is perceived.
• whether the defects of a risky activity or situation are immediately noticeable
or close at hand .
• whether the potential victims are identifiable beforehand.
Assessment of Safety and Risk
• A person is said to take ‘VOLUNTARY RISK’
• when he is subjected to risk by either his own actions or action taken by others
and volunteers to take that risk without any apprehension.
• For example, John and Ann Smith enjoy riding motorcycles over rough ground for
amusement. They take voluntary risk, part of being engaged in such a potentially
dangerous sport.
• Connected to this notion of voluntarism is the matter of Control. In the example
cited, the Smiths are aware of the high probability of accident figures in such a
sport, but they display characteristically unrealistic confidence of most people
when they believe the dangers to be under their control.
• individuals are more ready to assume voluntary risks than involuntary risks, even
when voluntary risks are 1000 times more likely to produce a fatality than the
involuntary ones
Effect of information on risk assessments
• The manner in which information is presented can greatly influence how risks are
perceived. Consider this example:
• In a particular case of disaster management, the only options available are provided in 2
different ways to the public for one to be chosen (where lives of 600 people are at stake).
Alternate 1
• If program A is followed, 200 people will be saved. If Program B is followed, 1/3
probability is 600 people will be saved and 2/3 probability that nobody will be saved.
Response
• 72% of the target group chose option A and 28% option B
Alternate 2
• If program A is followed, 400 people will die. If Program B is followed, 1/3 probability is
that nobody will die and 2/3 probability that 600 people will die.
Response
• This time only 22% of the target group chose option A and 78% option B
• Conclusion

• Firm gain will tend to be preferred over those from which gains are
perceived as risky or only probable.
• Firm losses will tend to be avoided in favor of those whose chances of
success are perceived as probable.
RISK IN A PRODUCT
Manufacturer’s understanding of the risk in a product is necessary:
• To help reduce secondary costs
• To know the possible risk for purposes of pricing, disclaimers, legal
terms and conditions, etc.
• To know the cost of reducing the risks
• To take a decision before finalizing the design.
Buyer’s understanding of the risk in a product is necessary:
• To judge whether he/she wants to take the risks
• To judge whether the ‘risk vs. costs’ justifies taking the risk.
Secondary Costs of Products
Cost of products is High, if designed unsafely due to,
• Returns and Warranty Expenses
• Loss of Customer Goodwill
• Cost of litigation
• Loss of Customers due to injuries in using it
• Cost of rework, lost time in attending to design problems
‘JOB RELATED RISKS’
• Many workers are taking risks in their jobs in their stride like being exposed to
asbestos.
• Exposure to risks on a job is in one sense of voluntary nature since one can always
refuse to submit to the work or may have control over how the job is done.
• But generally workers have no choice other than what they are told to do since
they want to stick to the only job available to them.
• But they are not generally informed about the exposure to toxic substances and
other dangers which are not readily seen, smelt, heard or otherwise sensed.
• Occupational health and safety regulations and unions can have a better say in
correcting these situations but still things are far below expected safety
standards.
• Engineers while designing work stations must take into account the casual
attitude of workers on safety.
Problems faced by engineers about public
concept of safety
• The optimistic attitude that things that are familiar, that have not
caused harm before and over which we have some control present no
risks.
• The serious shock people feel when an accident kills or maims people
in large numbers or harms those we know, even though statistically
speaking such accidents might occur infrequently.
‘Safety in a commodity comes with a price’ –
Explain.
• Absolute safety is never possible to attain and safety can be improved in an
engineering product only with an increase in cost.
• On the other hand, unsafe products incur secondary costs to the producer
beyond the primary (production) costs, like warranty costs loss of goodwill, loss of
customers, litigation costs, downtime costs in manufacturing, etc.
• Figure indicates that P- Primary costs are high for a highly safe (low risk) product
and S- Secondary costs are high for a highly risky (low safe) product.
• If we draw a curve T=P+S, there is a point at which costs are minimum below
which the cost cannot be reduced.
• If the risk at Minimum Total Cost Point is not acceptable, then the producer has to
choose a lower acceptable risk value in which case the total cost will be higher
than M and the product designed accordingly.
• It should now be clear that ‘safety comes with a price’ only
Knowledge of risk for better safety
• Robert Stephenson writes that all the accidents, the harms caused
and the means used to repair the damage should be recorded for the
benefit of the younger Members of Profession.
• A faithful account of those accidents and the damage containment
was really more valuable than the description of successful work.
• Hence it is imperative that knowledge of risks will definitely help to
attain better safety.
• But it should be borne in mind, that still gaps remain, because
i)there are some industries where information is not freely shared and
ii)there are always new applications of old technology that render the
available information less useful.
Testing strategies for safety
Some commonly used testing methods:
• Using the past experience in checking the design and performance.
• Prototype testing. Here the one product tested may not be representative
of the population of products.
• Tests simulated under approximately actual conditions to know the
performance flaws on safety.
• Routine quality assurance tests on production runs.
• The above testing procedures are not always carried out properly. Hence
we cannot trust the testing procedures uncritically. Some tests are also
destructive and obviously it is impossible to do destructive testing and
improve safety.
Failure modes and effect analysis (FMEA)
• This approach systematically examines the failure modes of each
component, without however, focusing on relationships among the
elements of a complex system.

Fault Tree Analysis (FTA)

• A system failure is proposed and then events are traced back to
possible causes at the component level. The reverse of the fault-tree
analysis is ‘event – tree analysis’. This method most effectively
illustrates the disciplined approach required to capture as much as
possible of everything that affects proper functioning and safety of a
complex system
Risk Benefit Analysis
Ethical Implications
• When is someone entitled to impose a risk on another in view of a
supposed benefit to others?
• Consider the worst case scenarios of persons exposed to maximum
risks while they are reaping only minimum benefits. Are their rights
violated?
• Are they provided safer alternatives?
• Engineers should keep in mind that risks to known persons are
perceived differently from statistical risks.
• Engineers may have no control over grievance redressal.
Conceptual difficulties in Risk-Benefit Analysis
• Both risks and benefits lie in future
• Both have related uncertainties but difficult to arrive at expected
values.
• What if benefits accrue to one party and risks to another?
• Can we express risks & benefits in a common set of units?
e.g. Risks can be expressed in one set of units (deaths on the highway)
and benefits in another (speed of travel)?
• Many projects, which are highly beneficial to the public, have to be
safe also.
• Hence these projects can be justified using RISK-BENEFIT analysis.
In these studies, one should find out
i) What are the benefits that would accrue?
ii) What are the risks involved?
iii) When would benefits be derived and when risks have to be faced?
iv) Who are the ones to be benefited and who are the ones subjected to
risk- are they the same set of people or different.

• The issue here is not cost-effective design but it is only cost of risk taking Vs
benefit analysis.
• Engineers should first recommend the project feasibility based on risk-
benefit analysis and once it is justified, then they may get into cost-
effectiveness without increasing the risk visualized.
Examples of Improved Safety
1. Magnetic door catch introduced on refrigerators
• Prevent death by asphyxiation of children accidentally trapped inside
• The catch now permits the door to opened from inside easily
• Cheaper than older types of latches
2. Volks wagen's car safety belt
• Attachment on the door so that belt automatically goes in place on entry
‘SAFE EXIT’
• It is almost impossible to build a completely safe product or one that
will never fail. When there is a failure of the product SAFE EXIT should
be provided.
• Safe exit is to assure that
i) when a product fails, it will fail safely,
ii) That the product can be abandoned safely
iii) that the user can safely escape the product.
Some examples of providing ‘SAFE EXIT’:

• Ships need lifeboats with sufficient spaces for all passengers and crew
members.
• Buildings need usable fire escapes
• Operation of nuclear power plants calls for realistic means of
evacuating nearby communities
• Provisions are needed for safe disposal of dangerous materials and
products.
Collegiality
• Collegiality is a kind of connectedness grounded in respect for
professional expertise and in a commitment to the goals and values of
the profession and as such, collegiality includes a disposition to
support and co-operate with one’s colleagues.
• The central elements of collegiality are respect, commitment,
connectedness and co-operation.
• Respect: Acknowledge the worth of other engineers engaged in
producing socially useful and safe products.
• Commitment: Share a devotion to the moral ideals inherent in the
practice of engineering.
• Connectedness: Aware of being part of a co-operative undertaking
created by shared commitments and expertise.
• It is not defaming colleagues, but it does not close the eyes to
unethical practices of the co-professionals, either.
Loyalty
1. Agency-Loyalty
• Fulfill one’s contractual duties to an employer.
• Duties are particular tasks for which one is paid
• Co-operating with colleagues
• Following legitimate authority within the organization.
2. Identification-Loyalty
• It has to do with attitudes, emotions and a sense of personal identity.
• Seeks to meet one’s moral duties with personal attachment and affirmation
Loyalty - Obligation of Engineers
Agency-Loyalty
• Engineers are hired to do their duties.
• Hence obligated to employers within proper limits
Identification-Loyalty
• Obligatory on two conditions;
1.When some important goals are met by and through a group in which the
engineers participate
2.When employees are treated fairly, receiving the share of benefits and
burdens.
• But clearly, identification-loyalty is a virtue and not strictly an obligation.
Relationship - Professionalism and Loyalty
1. Acting on professional commitments to the public is more effective
to serve a company than just following company orders.
2. Loyalty to employers may not mean obeying one’s immediate
supervisor.
3. Professional obligations to both an employer and to the public
might strengthen rather than contradict each other.
Need for Authority
Authority is needed since,
• Allowing everyone to exercise uncontrolled individual discretion
creates chaos (confusion).
• Clear lines of authority identifies areas of personal responsibility and
accountability.
Institutional Authority and Expert Authority
Institutional authority

• The institutional right given to a person to exercise power based on

the resources of the institution.
• It is acquired, exercised and defined within institutions.
• It is given to individuals to perform their institutional duties assigned
within the organization.
• There is not always a perfect match between the authority granted
and the qualifications needed to exercise it.
Expert authority
• The possession of special knowledge, skill or competence to perform
some task or to give sound advice.
• Engineers may have expert authority but their institutional authority
to provide management with analysis of possible ways to perform a
technical task, after which they are restricted to following
management’s directive about which option to pursue.
• In large companies, engineers, advisors and consultants in staff
function carry expert authority, while institutional authority is vested
only with line managers.
Authority Vs Power
• Ineffective persons, even if vested with authority by their institution,
may not be able to summon the power their position allows them to
exercise.
• On the other hand, people who are effective may be able to wield
greater power that goes beyond the authority attached to the
positions they hold. Highly respected engineers of proven integrity
belong to this class.
Authority - Morally justified
• An employer who has institutional authority may direct engineers to
do something that is not morally justified.
• Engineers may feel that they have an institutional duty to obey a
directive that is morally unjustified, but their moral duty, all things
considered, is not to obey.
• To decide whether a specific act of exercising institutional authority is
morally justified, we need to know whether the institutional goals are
themselves morally permissible or desirable and whether that act
violates basic moral duties.
‘Zone Of Acceptance’ of Authority
• A subordinate is said to accept authority whenever he permits his
behavior to be guided by the decision of a superior, without
independently examining the merits of that decision - Herbert Simon
• Simon notes that all employees tend to have a ‘zone of acceptance’ in
which they are willing to accept their employer’s authority.
• Within that zone, an individual, relaxing his own critical faculties,
permits the decision of the employer to guide him.
• Employees generally do not make an issue of questionable incidents
on morality, out of a sense of responsibility to give their employer
leeway within which to operate and often not to risk their jobs.
• The problem increases when employees slowly expand the
boundaries of tolerance and rationalize it.
• This only shows that engineers should never stop critically reviewing
the employer’s directives especially on moral issues.

‘Faithful Agent Argument’

• Board of Ethical Review argued that engineers have a higher standard
than self-interest and that their ethical duty is to act for their
employer as a faithful agent or trustee.
Collective bargaining
• Collective bargaining is inconsistent with loyalty to employers
because it is against the desires of the employer uses force or
coercion against the employer and involves collective and
organized opposition.
• But every instance of such conduct need not be unethical.
• An example: Three engineers sincerely
feel that they are underpaid. After
their representations to their bosses
are in vain, they threaten their
employer, politely, that they would
seek employment elsewhere. Here,
even though, they act against the
desires of their employer and have
acted collectively, they have not acted
unethically or violated their duty.
Benefits of Collective Bargaining.
• Unions have created healthy salaries and high
standard of living of employees.
• They give a sense of participation in company
decision making.
• They are a good balance to the power of employers
to fire employees at will.
• They provide an effective grievance redressal
procedure for employee complaints.
Harms Caused by Collective Bargaining.
• Unions are devastating the economy of a country, being a main
source of inflation
• With unions, there is no congenial (friendly), cooperative decision
making.
• Unions does not promote quality performance by making job
promotion and retention based on seniority.
• They encourage unrest and strained relations between employees
and employers
Confidentiality

‘Confidentiality or confidential information’

• Information considered desirable to be kept secret.
• Any information that the employer or client would like to have kept
secret in order to compete effectively against business rivals.
• This information includes how business is run, its products, and
suppliers, which directly affects the ability of the company to
compete in the market place.
Privileged information, Proprietary
information and Patents.
Privileged information:
• Information available only on the basis of special privilege such as
granted to an employee working on a special assignment.
Proprietary information:
• Information that a company owns.
• This is primarily used in legal sense.
• Also called Trade Secret. A trade secret can be virtually any type of
information that has not become public and which an employer has
taken steps to keep secret.
Patents:
• Differ from trade secrets.
• Legally protect specific products from being manufactured and sold
by competitors without the express permission of the patent holder.
• They have the drawback of being public and competitors may easily
work around them by creating alternate designs.
Obligation of Confidentiality
Based on ordinary moral considerations:
I. Respect for autonomy:
• Recognizing the legitimate control over private information (individuals or corporations).
• This control is required to maintain their privacy and protect their self-interest.
II. Respect for Promise:
• Respecting promises in terms of employment contracts not to divulge certain
information considered sensitive by the employer
III. Regard for public well being:
• Only when there is a confidence that the physician will not reveal information, the
patient will have the trust to confide in him.
• Similarly only when companies maintain some degree of confidentiality concerning their
products, the benefits of competitiveness within a free market are promoted.
Based on Major Ethical Theories:

• All theories profess that employers have moral and institutional rights
to decide what information about their organization should be
released publicly.

• They acquire these rights as part of their responsibility to protect the

interest of the organization.

• All the theories, rights ethics, duty ethics and utilitarianism justify this
confidentiality but in different ways.
Conflict of Interest
Conflict of Interest arises when two conditions are met:
1. The professional is in a role that requires exercising good judgment
on behalf of the interests of an employer or client.
2. The professional has some additional or side interest that could
threaten good judgment in serving the interests of the employer or
client.
• E.g. When an engineer is paid based on a percentage of the cost of
the design and there is no incentive for him to cut costs- The distrust
caused by this situation compromises the engineers’ ability to cut
costs and calls into question his judgement.
Conflict of Interest created by Interest in other
companies
• When one works actually for the competitor as an employee or consultant.
• Having partial ownership or substantial stock holdings in the
competitor’s business.
• Tempting customers away from their current employer, while still working
for them to form their own competing business.
• Moonlighting usually creates conflicts when working for competitors,
suppliers or customers but does not conflict when working for others
without affecting the present employer’s business.
• Moonlighting means working in one’s spare time for another employer.
Conflicts of Interest created by Insider
information
• Using inside information to set-up a business opportunity for oneself
or family or friends.
• Buying stock in the company for which one works is not objectionable
but it should be based on the same information available to the
public.
• The use of any company secrets by employee to secure a personal
gain threatens the interest of the company.
Avoiding Conflicts of Interests
• Taking guidance from Company Policy
• In the absence of such a policy taking a second opinion from a
coworker or manager. This gives an impression that there no
intension on the part of the engineer to hide anything.
• In the absence of either of these options, to examine ones own
motives and use the ethical problem solving techniques.
• One can look carefully into the professional codes of ethics which
uniformly forbid conflicts of interest. Some of these codes have very
explicit statements that can help determine whether or not the
situation constitutes conflict of interest.
Occupational Crime
Types Of Crime
• Domestic crime - Non-accidental crime committed by members of the
family
• Professional Crime - When crime is pursued as a profession or day to
day occupation
• Blue collar crime (or) Street crime – Crime against person, property
(theft, assault on a person, rape)
• Victimless crime Person who commits the crime is the victim of the
crime. E.g. Drug addiction
• Hate crime - Crime done on the banner of religion, community,
linguistics.
Occupational Crime
• Occupational crimes are illegal acts made possible through one’s
lawful employment.
• It is the secretive violation of laws regulating work activities.
• When committed by office workers or professionals, occupational
crime is called ‘white collar crime’.
People Committing Occupational Crimes
• Usually have high standard of education
• From a non-criminal family background
• No involvement in drug or alcohol abuse
• People without firm principles (Spencer)
• Firms with declining profitability (Coleman, 1994)
• Firms in highly regulated areas and volatile market -pharmaceutical,
petroleum industry.(Albanese, 1995)
Price Fixing
• An act was passed, which forbade (prevented) companies from jointly
setting prices in ways that restrain free competition and trade.
• Unfortunately, many senior people, well respected and positioned
were of the opinion that ‘price fixing’ was good for their organizations
and the public.
Engineers’ Moral Rights
Engineers’ moral rights fall into categories of human, employee, contractual
and professional rights.
Professional rights:
• The right to form and express one’s professional judgment freely
• The right to refuse to carry out illegal and unethical activity
• The right to talk publicly about one’s work within bounds set by
confidentiality obligation
• The right to engage in the activities of professional societies
• The right to protect the clients and the public from the dangers that might
arise from one’s work
• The right to professional recognition of one’s services.
Right of Professional Conscience
• There is one basic and generic professional right of engineers, the
moral right to exercise responsible professional judgment in pursuing
professional responsibilities.
• Pursuing these responsibilities involves exercising both technical
judgment and reasoned moral convictions.
• This basic right can be referred to as the right of professional
conscience.
Right of Conscientious Refusal
• The right of Conscientious refusal is the right to refuse to engage in unethical behavior
and to refuse to do so solely because one views it as unethical.
Two situations to be considered.
1. Where there is widely shared agreement in profession as to whether an act is unethical.
• Here, professionals have a moral right to refuse to participate in such activities.
2. Where there is room for disagreement among reasonable people over whether an act is
unethical.
• Here, it is possible that there could be different ethical view points from the professional
and the employer.
• In such cases the engineers can have a limited right to turn down assignments that
violates their personal conscience only in matters of great importance such as threats to
human life.
• The right of professional conscience does not extend to the right to be paid for not
working.
Right to Recognition
• Right to Recognition involves two parts.
• The right to reasonable remuneration gives the moral right for
fighting against corporations making good profits while engineers are
being paid poorly. Also is the case where patents are not being
rewarded properly by the corporations benefiting from such patents.
• The other right to recognition is non-monetary part of recognition to
the work of engineers.
• But what is reasonable remuneration or reasonable recognition is a
difficult question and should be resolved by discussions between
employees and employers only.
Whistle-blowing and Its Features
• Whistle blowing is an act of conveying information about a significant moral
problem by a present or former employee, outside approved channels (or against
strong pressure) to someone, in a position to take action on the problem.
The features of Whistle blowing are:
• Act of Disclosure: Intentionally conveying information outside approved
organizational channels when the person is under pressure not to do so from
higher-ups.
• Topic: The information is believed to concern a significant moral problem for the
organization.
• Agent: The person disclosing the information is an employee or former employee.
• Recipient: The information is conveyed to a person or organization who can act
on it.
Types of Whistle Blowing
• External Whistle blowing: The act of passing on information outside
the organization.
• Internal Whistle blowing: The act of passing on information to
someone within the organization but outside the approved channels.
• Open Whistle blowing: Individuals openly revealing their identity as
they convey the information.
• Anonymous Whistle blowing: Individual conveying the information
conceals his/her identity.
Employee Rights
Employee rights are any rights, moral or legal, that involve the status of being
an employee.
Employee rights are:
• There should be no discrimination against an employee for criticizing
ethical, moral or legal policies and practices of the organization.
• The employee will not be deprived of any enjoyment of reasonable privacy
in his/her workplace.
• No personal information about employees will be collected or kept other
than what is necessary to manage the organization efficiently and to meet
the legal requirements.
• No employee who alleges that her/his rights have been violated will be
discharged or penalized without a fair hearing by the employer
organization.
Intellectual Property Rights
• Intellectual Property is a product of the human intellect that has
commercial value.
• Many of the rights of the ownership common to real and personal
property are also common to Intellectual Property
• Intellectual Property can be bought, sold, and licensed
• Similarly it can be protected against theft and infringement by others.
1. Patent
• A contract between an Inventor and the Government.
• An exclusive privilege monopoly right granted by the Government to
the Inventor.
• Invention may be of an Industrial product or process of manufacture
• Invention should be new, non-obvious, useful and patentable as per
Patents Act
• The right to the inventor is for limited period of time and valid only
within the territorial limits of a country of grant.
• Examples: a drug compound, a tool, maybe software effects
2. DESIGN
• Meant for beautifying an industrial product to attract the consumer
public
• Shaping, Configuration or Ornamentation of a vendible Industrial
product
• Exclusive ‘Design Rights’ to the originator for a limited term
• Patents & design embrace the production stage of an industrial
activity.
3. TRADE MARK
• Trade Mark is a name or symbol adopted for identifying goods
• Public can identify from the Trade Mark from whom the product is
emanating.
• Trade Marks protection is given for an industrial product by the
Government.
4. COPY RIGHTS
• The right to original literary and artistic works
• Literary, written material
• Dramatic, musical or artistic works
• Films and audio-visual materials
• Sound recordings
• Computer Programmes/software
• Example: Picasso’s Guernica, Microsoft code, Lord of the Rings
Need For A Patent System
• Encourages an inventor to disclose his invention
• Encourages R & D activities as the industries can make use of the
technology, & avoids redundant research
• Provides reasonable assurance for commercialization.
• One may get a very good return of income through Patent Right on
the investment made in R & D.
Effect of Patent
• A patentee gets the exclusive monopoly right against the public at
large to use, sell or manufacture his patented device.
• A patentee can enforce his monopoly right against any infringement
in the court of law for suitable damages or profit of account.
• The Government ensures full disclosure of the invention to the public
for exchange of exclusive monopoly patent right to the inventor.
Discrimination
• Discrimination generally means preference on the grounds of sex,
race, skin colour, age or religious outlook.
• In everyday speech, it has come to mean morally unjustified
treatment of people on arbitrary or irrelevant grounds.
• Therefore to call something ‘Discrimination’ is to condemn it.
• But when the question of justification arises, we will call it
‘Preferential Treatment’.
Bhopal Gas Tragedy.
• On December 3, 1984, Union Carbide's pesticide-manufacturing plant in
Bhopal, India leaked 40 tons of the deadly gas, methyl isocyanate into a
sleeping, impoverished community - killing 2,500 within a few days, 10000
permanently disabled and injuring 100,000 people. Ten years later, it
increased to 4000 to 7000 deaths and injuries to 600,000.
Risks taken:
• Storage tank of Methyl Isocyanate gas was filled to more than 75% capacity
as against Union Carbide’s spec. that it should never be more than 60% full.
• The company’s West Virginia plant was controlling the safety systems and
detected leakages through computers but the Bhopal plant only used
manual labor for control and leak detection.
• The Methyl Isocyanate gas, being highly concentrated, burns parts of body
with which it comes into contact, even blinding eyes and destroying lungs.
Causal Factors:
• Three protective systems out of service
• Plant was understaffed due to costs.
• Very high inventory of MIC, an extremely toxic material.
• The accident occurred in the early morning.
• Most of the people killed lived in a shanty (poorly built) town located
very close to the plant fence.
Workers made the following attempts to save
the plant:
• They tried to turn on the plant refrigeration system to cool down the
environment and slow the reaction. (The refrigeration system had
been drained of coolant weeks before and never refilled -- it cost too
much.)
• They tried to route expanding gases to a neighboring tank. (The tank's
pressure gauge was broken and indicated the tank was full when it
was really empty.)
• They tried to purge the gases through a scrubber. (The scrubber was
designed for flow rates, temperatures and pressures that were a
fraction of what was by this time escaping from the tank. The
scrubber was as a result ineffective.)
• They tried to route the gases through a flare tower -- to burn them
away. (The supply line to the flare tower was broken and hadn't been
replaced.)
• They tried to spray water on the gases and have them settle to the
ground -- by this time the chemical reaction was nearly completed.
(The gases were escaping at a point 120 feet above ground; the hoses
were designed to shoot water up to 100 feet into the air.)
• In just 2 hours the chemicals escaped to form a deadly cloud over
hundreds of thousands of people incl. poor migrant laborers who
stayed close to the plant.