Bhopal was and still is today an appalling atrocity, still ongoing
after more than 20 years, a major crime against humanity and
something we all should know about. And be outraged about. The bald,
bare facts are bad enough, but the full picture in all its sickening
detail is far worse, and it's important to get the full picture. I
hope your stomach is strong.
- Though the design of the methyl isocyanate (MIC) unit at Bhopal was
based on Union Carbide's West Virginia plant, grossly lower standards
were employed in the selection of construction material, monitoring
devices and safety systems.
- Union Carbide wanted to save money. Accidental leaks from all the
Bhopal units were frequent, and operators and workers were regularly
exposed to different substances. The factory was running at a loss.
In November 1984 the most important safety systems were either closed
down or not functioning.
- Between 1980 and 1984 the work crew of the MIC unit was halved from
12 to six workers, the maintenance crew from six to two workers. On
December 26, 1981 a plant operator was killed by a phosgene gas leak.
Another phosgene leak in January 1982 severely injured 28 workers and
in October the same year MIC escaped from a broken valve and four
workers were exposed to the chemical. The senior officials of the
corporation, privy to a business confidential safety audit in May
1982, were well aware of 61 hazards, 30 of them major and 11 in the
dangerous phosgene/MIC units. Remedial measures were then taken at
Union Carbide's identical MIC plant in West Virginia but not in
Bhopal. In Bhopal, prior to the disaster, environmental safety
concerns by private citizens were responded to by legal threats from
the company and repressive managerial measures were employed against
workers who raised occupational health concerns.
- Secret Union Carbide documents obtained by discovery during a
class action suit brought by survivors against the company in New
York, reveal that the technology used at the fatal Bhopal factory -
including the crucial units manufacturing carbon monoxide and methyl
isocyanate (MIC) - was unproven, and that the company knew it would
pose unknown risks. The corporation knew the danger, but regarded it
as an acceptable business risk.
- Senior Carbide officials, including ex-CEO Warren Anderson, not
only knew about design defects and potential safety issues with the
Bhopal factory, they actually authorised them.
- On the night of the disaster, water (that was being used for
washing the lines) entered the tank containing MIC through leaking
valves. The refrigeration unit, which should have kept the MIC close
to zero degrees centigrade, had been shut off by the company
officials to save on electricity bills. The entrance of water in the
tank, full of MIC at ambient temperature triggered off an exothermic
runaway reaction an consequently the release of 27 tons of the lethal
gas mixture. The safety systems, which in any case were not designed
for such a runaway situation, were non-functioning and under repair.
Lest the neighborhood community be unduly alarmed, the siren in the
factory had been switched off. Poison clouds from the Union Carbide
factory enveloped an arc of over 20 square kilometers before the
residents could run away from its deadly hold.
- People woke up coughing, gasping for breath, their eyes burning.
Many fell dead as they ran. Others succumbed at the hospitals where
doctors were overwhelmed by the numbers and lacked information on the
nature of the poisoning. By the third day of the disaster, an
estimated 8,000 people had died from direct exposure to the gases and
a further 500,000 were injured. Today, the number of deaths stands at
20,000. Of the approximately 520,000 people exposed to the poisonous
gases, an estimated 120,000 remain chronically ill.
- UC/Dow has ever since refused to provide the technical information
required to treat the injured, claiming it is a trade secret.
- You'd think that by now the survivors would have received proper
medical care, that they'd have been adequately compensated for their
loss and their suffering, that somebody would have had to answer in
court for what was done to them. On all counts, you'd be wrong.
UC/Dow's compensation amounted to 7¢ a day, for 18 years of
suffering. On 7¢ a day they've had to struggle against pain,
breathlessness, giddiness, numb limbs, aching bodies, fevers, nausea,
brain damage, cancers, anxiety attacks, menstrual chaos, depression
and mental illness. Thirty people still die every month from the
effects of the gas.
- Meanwhile the drinking water of the same communities that were hit
in 1984 is being poisoned by cancer- and birth-defect causing
chemicals that lie in the open in the derelict factory, or were
dumped on waste ground by the company for up to ten years after the
disaster. Greenpeace found mercury at levels up to 6 million times
what could have been
