Overcoming Industrial safety problems: Bhopal Gas Tragedy

Abstract

The study focuses on the safety issues related to oil and gas industries that have

capability to cause damage to mankind, properties and environment if they are not properly

managed. This paper also analyses the issues raised by Bhopal gas tragedy disaster which led to

industrial crisis. The term Industrial crisis was used for understanding the tragedies similar to

Bhopal. This incident has created a huge damage to the human life, environment and considered

as the industrial crisis of the century. World’s worst disaster, Bhopal tragedy happened because

of improper management of union carbide. Malfunctioning of safety measures and lack of proper

identity of the toxicity of the gas has led the major accident. Even after 20 years, Bhopal has not

yet recovered. In this article, a brief study is presented on what happened and what lessons can

be learned from this incident. Some of the safety practices that have to be taken while

performing hazardous activities inside and outside the plant and also overcoming of industrial

safety problems have also been analyzed in this paper.

Keywords: Safety practices, Industrial crisis, Bhopal gas Tragedy, Oil and gas industries

In the early hours of Dec.3, 1984, the worst industrial accident on record occurred in

Bhopal, India. A dangerous chemical reaction occurred in the Union Carbide factory plant when

a huge amount of water got mixed up into MIC storage tank # 610. The leak was first detected by

workers who were working there when their eyes began to burn from11:30p.m. They informed

their higher official but they failed to take action until it was too late from the incident has

occurred. In the meantime, enormous amount, roughly around 40 tons of Methyl Isocyanate

(MIC), poured out of the tank for nearly three hours and escaped into the air, spreading within 6

miles within that area. Just four hours leak of methyl isocyanate (MIC) caused the death of over

3,000 people and approximately 30,000 to 50,000 people became ill due to the side effects of the

gas. The harmful gas spread throughout the streets of the city making thousands blindness. No

alarm was sounded and even no evacuation plan was prepared. Even today, the toxic legacy of

the disaster continues with tens of thousands of survivors suffering from various chronical

diseases, the presence of poisons in the soil of that area, water and even milk, the subsequent rise

in cancers and congenital problems among children born to exposed people. When the people

were taken to hospital the doctors didn’t know how to treat them.

The plant was worked by Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL), a little more than 50 percent of

which was possessed by Union Carbide Corporation. The primary report of the incident arrived

at Union Carbide executives in the United States more than 12 hours after the occurrence. By

6:00 a.m. in the U.S., executives were social affair with specialized, legitimate, and

correspondences staff at the organization's Dan cover, Connecticut central station.

Developing nations, for example, India, are especially powerless as they fail to offer the

foundation (e.g. correspondence, preparing, training and so forth.) needed to keep up engineering

when they setup modern plants. As a result, they contend internationally to draw in multinational

organizations for their speculation and capital, and in this methodology, regularly have a

tendency to disregard the wellbeing and wellbeing infringement that numerous MNC's

participate in.

http://www.kenblanchard.com/getattachment/Leading-Research/Research/A-Leading-

Imperative-for-the-Oil-and-Gas-Industry/

Blanchard_A_Leadership_Imperative_Oil_and_Gas.pdf

http://www.erm.com/Documents/Publications/2011/Sustainable-Oil-and-Gas-v14-3.2011.pdf

http://www.econ.upf.edu/~lemenestrel/IMG/pdf/bhopal_gas_tragedy_dutta.pdf

http://www.training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/downloads/IJEMS/ARTICLES/Preventing%20Industrial

%20Crisis%20The%20Challenges%20of%20Bhopal.pdf

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/dpu-projects/drivers_urb_change/urb_environment/pdf_hazards_pollution/

IIED_dinham_Bhopal.pdf

http://apps.engr.utexas.edu/ethics/standards/bhopal/The%20Bhopal%20gas%20tragedy...pdf

http://indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/files/report-1.pdf

http://www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/files/Bhopal%20Disaster.pdf

http://www1.american.edu/ted/bhopal.htm