BHOPAL GAS TRAGEDY
2 DEC ,1984
By : AYUSH PATHAK
ROLL NO : 17J059
INTRODUCTION
Bhopal Disaster (also known as Bhopal gas
tragedy) was a gas leak incident in India,
occurred on the night of 2nd-3rd December
1984, at the Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL)
Pesticide plant in Bhopal.
This incident was consider one of the world’s
worst industrial incident.
The leak of Methyl Isocyanate (MIC) gas and
many other hazardous chemicals from the
plant resulted in the death of thousands of
people.
The hazardous substance spread its way in
and around the neighbourhood areas located
near the plant.
Due to this it resulted in a very high death toll.
Union Carbide India
Limited(UCIL), which was
built in 1969 was the Indian
subsidiary of Union Carbide
Corporation(UCC), with
Indian holding a 49.1% stake.
The UCIL factory was built to
produce the pesticide Sevin
using methyl isocyanate
(MIC) as an intermediate .
THE ACCIDENT
The production continued and suddenly during the night
of December 2nd-3rd 1984 , water entered tank containing
40 tons of MIC.
This resulted in exothermic reaction which increased the
temperature in the tank to over 200 degree Celcius and
raise the pressure. About 30 metric tons of methyl
isocyanate (MIC) escaped from the tank into the
atmosphere of Bhopal in 45 to 60 minutes, that got
added to a weak wind which change the direction
frequently, which helped the gas to cover more area in
short time .
This produced weak wind caused a slow dilution of
gas in the allow poisonous gas to spread over a large
distance of area.
UCIL PLANT AFTER DISASTER
REASONS BEHIND THE GAS LEAK
Storing the Methyl isocyanate in large tanks and filling it
beyond a certain recommended level.
Failure of instant safety systems.
Also some safety systems were being switched off to save
the money, including the MIC tank refrigeration was kept
at 20 degrees Celsius, not the 4.5 degrees advised by the
manual.
Use of dangerous pesticide manufacturing method for
the decrement of generation cost.
There was only single manual back-up system,
while the Union Carbide Plant of USA have
four stage system.
Lack of well skilled operators of this factory –
No proper training was given to the operators.
Maintenance level was very low .
Factory location was too close to densely
populated area .
According to the science the reason behind the
accident was that the water entered the tank in
which about 40 cubic meters of Methyl isocyanate
was stored.
Due to that the safety valve of that tank was burst
because of the increment of pressure.
Between 20 to 30 tonnes of Methyl isocyanate was
released during the hour when the leak took place.
That gas was leaked from a 30 m high chimney and
that height was not enough to reduce the effects of
that discharge.
STATE OF SAFETY FEATURES OF METHYL
ISOCYANATE PLANT AT BHOPAL AT TIME OF
DISASTER
HEALTH EFFECTS
SHORT TERM :
Apart from Methyl isocyanate, the gas clouds may also
contained :
Phosgene
Hydrogen cyanide
Carbon monoxide
Hydrogen chloride
Oxides of nitrogen and many more
Due to this exposure the initial effects were coughing,
vomiting, eye irritation and also suffocation, stomach pains.
LONG TERM HEALTH EFFECTS
Around 100,000 to 200,000 people have permanent
injuries.
The symptoms were :
Eye failure
Respiratory difficulties
Immune disorders
Female reproductive difficulties
Many birth defects among the children born to
affected woman
AFTER THE LEAKAGE OF GAS
Most of the Doctors and medical staff were
unprepared for the thousands of causalities.
They were not informed of proper treatment
methods for Methyl isocyanate gas inhalation.
They simply tell the patients to just take cough
medicine and eye drops.
The trees were also damaged due to these gases. In
few days only all the leaves fell off from the trees.
The authorities marked 36 wards of Bhopal as
“Gas affected”, affecting a total population of
520,000.
Out of these total population 200,000 were
below 15 years of age, and 3,000 were
pregnant women.
Bodies were dumped out into Narmada River,
less than 100 km from Bhopal. There were
mass funerals in Bhopal.
The Indian Government passed the “Bhopal Gas Leak
Disaster Act”.
Government also helped the affected people by
economical help.
They helped all by giving them food, water and many
other things that they need for day to day use.
They also gave shelter to the homeless people.
Outside Bhopal 2,486 flats in two and four storey
buildings were constructed in “Widows colony”.
HEALTH CARE
After the disaster, the state government
established a number of hospitals, clinics and
many mobile units in the gas affected areas.
The Bhopal Memorial Hospital and Research
Centre (BMHRC) is a 350 bedded super
speciality hospital.
Free health care were also offered by
government to gas victims.
WHAT COULD HAD BEEN DONE TO AVOID
THE DISASTER
The Readings and feedback of the equipment
could have been taken for every one hour.
Skilled supervisor should be placed on night
shifts for supervision of the equipment.
Four stage back up system should be there
similar as of USA carbide plant instead of one
manual back up system.
Maintenance and service at regular intervals
of pressure valves, gas scrubbers must have be
made.
Regulations should be strict and must be
followed according to the manual.
Pressure gauges should be properly used.
DEVASTATION
The government affidavit in 2006 stated that
the leak caused 558,125 injuries, including
38,478 temporary partial injuries and
approximately 3,900 severely and permanently
disabling injuries.
Other estimates were that 8000 died within
two weeks, and another 8000 or more have
died due to severe gas related diseases.
OU
K Y
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