Bhopal Gas Tragedy

Introduction: 

The Bhopal Gas Tragedy happened under the Union Carbide, and its Boss was Warren Anderson. He is living is Long Island currently, and has never had to undergo trial. The event happened in 1984. 

Union Carbide In India 

Union Carbide was manufacturing a pesticide called Seven. This was a chemical based pesticide. This plant was set up in Bhopal because through the 70-80’s The Government of India was under very tight state control.  The only way an MNC could come in was via a tie u with the state/central government. In this case, the state partner of UC [49% Shares] was MP Government. [51% Shares] Hence, the blame of the disaster also goes as a majority to the MP Government. All employees here were Indians. The only thing from the US was an Annual Visit from state dignitaries. 

Why Bhopal? 

In the 60’s and 70’s India has experimented with the Green Revolution which lead to an agricultural boom. UC saw this as an opportunity to manufacture and sell pesticides to further support the boom. Bhopal was chosen because the North was already flourishing with agriculture. They wanted industries to be set up elsewhere so that wealth does not get concentrated. The region of old Bhopal was chosen. 

What was happening at the plant?

To manufacture 7 – 2 extremely harmful chemicals had to be used – MIC and Fosterene. Both of these were toxic, harmful and volatile. These two had to be combined for producing 7. This combination would give your crystals, which was crushed into fine powder with certain derivatives to form 7. UC had predicted the demand for Seven. They had felt the increase in crops would be an ongoing trend. However, this growth was a onetime growth, and now was to be sustained. Hence, they predicted for an OVER estimated amount of pesticide. 

The Precautions 

UC USA had a strict mandate. The maximum capacity for each concrete tank for 50 tonnes, but anywhere more than 20 was lethal. There were multiple precautions to be taken: 

1. Out of 3 tanks, 1 would have 20 tonnes MIC. 1 was to be completely empty. 1 was to have inert nitrogen gas under high pressure which would act as a coolant. 

2. Around this apparatus there was a system which would circulate Freon gas used in refrigerators. Freon brings down temperatures. MIC displays an exothermic reaction when in contact when moistness/water hence to cool it down Freon was to be used. In theory it was all in place. 

3. In case one of these things go wrong, there were exit vents which would lead the gas into the atmosphere. This passage would have caustic soda ‘’vent gas scrubber’’ which would neutralize it. 

4. In case some MIC still escapes – there were 2 more precautions. As it left the tunnel, MIC would be burnt off using fire equipment.

5.  If this also fails, they had fire hoses. If the gas would be sprayed with water – it would crystallize and fall to the ground. 

In theory this is a perfect plan. Safety protocol is anyway just an after though as gas won’t even leak out in the first place. 

The Incident

The night between 3-4 December, the night shift workers complain of a leak. The immediate suspicion is that Fosterene is leaking. However, there is no leak here. The MIC storage area is checked. The entire area is trembling. The storage is underground – hence this means that something is happening underground. The gas seems to have cracked the concrete which is around 2 feet thick. The first thing to escape even despite a crack should have been the nitrogen gas. The supervisor checks the pressures, and the Nitrogen gas tank pressure level is 0. All of it couldn’t have possible escaped. The truth is that there was never any nitrogen at all. 

He the checks how much MIC is there. 1/3 tanks has cracked. This tank has 35 tonnes of MIC opposed to the maximum limit of 20. It had to be move into the remaining tank. This much MIC escaping into the atmosphere would be lethal. However this shift cannot be done. The next tank has another 25, and the third one has another 30. Neither of the three has Nitrogen. They hope for the Freon to act as the coolant. The Freon cooling chamber hasn’t worked for 3 years. This kind of heat could have cracked the other two tanks as well. This would mean 100 tonnes could have escaped into the atmosphere. Nobody has supervised or maintained the safety protocol since 7 years, and now this is their only hope. 

MIC turns into liquid only when it is pressurized by nitrogen. Because of the absence of Nitrogen, this is all in the form of gas. The hope is that the vent gas scrubber will make it neutral. Not even 1/35 tonnes is made inert. Now it goes through pipes to the flare tower. This is like a blow torch. It uses petrol to burn off things. However, this flare tower could burn just around 5 tonnes of MIC. The flare tower however doesn’t work. In the flare tower- a piece of equipment, a rod had corroded, been taken out but never been replaced. 

The final safety protocol was using fire hoses. The hoses don’t have enough pressure to reach as high up to the chimney. It was never tested and the hoses turned out to be too short. Hence 35 tonnes ended up escaping into the atmosphere. 

The Impact 

Around midnight, people of Bhopal got up coughing, choking – hysterical. By 3:00 a.m. 100’s of people find themselves outside Bhopal’s hospital. Breathing difficulties, eyes watering, choking, kids had already started dying. People sleeping already have already died. The doctors speak to the MP govt CM – Arjun Singh after asking UC says that this gas is Amonia. Use iodine tablets and eye drops, and doctors start this treatment. 

Nothing improves. People who had been running, and are given oxygen masks and their mouths are frothing. Nothing seems to work. The doctors contact the plant again and this time they say it is Fosterene. These doctors don’t know these industrial chemicals. They are told more remedies, and more people keep dying. Finally they are told it is MIC.  The doctors are expected to know the seriousness of the situation but they do not even know what MIC is. 

By morning 3000 people die and 100,000 are on the verge of dying. Cattle have died ALL across the city. All animals on the ground – dogs, cats have died. MIC was absorbed by the lungs, and then people began running. This replaced the O2 in the lungs, and then MIC began sucking blood into the lungs. People started dying on their own secretions. The more o2 was pumped in, the more MIC went into overdrive. 

Securing The Plant Further

By morning, its clear that this is a tragedy. Nobody knows what really happened. They still did not know if they were safe. 2 more tanks were left. The central government gets the only chemist who has dealt with MIC called Tyagrajan and tells him to form a team and secure the plan on government expense. He has just worked with 100 ml of MIC. He is sent anyway. The only people saved are the ones who were inside the plant. 

 Tyagrjan meets plant workers and sees the area where the gas has escaped from. He is told there is more gas, which is kept right next to where the leak happened. The tanks has not just cracked but it has moved from its place – that was the pressure. Right next to it that there are 2 more tanks also full of MIC. Nobody knows what caused 1 to crack, and the other 2 are also in potential danger. The one way to secure the plant is to re-start it and INSTANTLY convert all remaining MIC into pesticide 7. 24 hour shifts in overdrive would have to be used. 

While doing so, another tank will probably crack. This operation is called ‘FAITH’ because that is all you have. The whole plant will be covered with wet trampoline with helicopters flying ahead to drop water and soil in case of a leak. Expectation of another leak was 70%. When people here the plant is to be restarted people start leaving the city. The operation takes 4 days for the plant to be declared safe as there is no more MIC.

The Compensation/Negotiation/UC’s statement  

The whole population is ANGRY. They want answers. 3000 people have died and they don’t even know what. Mr. Warren Anderson comes to Bhopal. From the airport police are sent to arrest him. He is taken to Bhopal Guest house, stays there for 2 days, and does one lame press conference. He then goes back and has never come back since. 

Now the question is how could a disaster like this happen at all? The people call for an investigation but the MP government and UC says no. The Govt asks for 3.3 billion dollars. The final deal is struck at 370 million dollars. UC was additionally supposed to build a free hospital and give medical support but nothing has happened till date. 

People who lost working members of their families got 200 Rupees a month as compensation for 10 years. An independent investigation was demanded. Plant workers were being accused by Mr. Warren Anderson’s press conference in America which declared that there was no way that the gas could have reacted on its own, and that foul play was involved. He said 500 Units of water got into the unit, and this water had corroded particles which caused the exothermic reaction. It blamed disgruntled workers for putting water into the same tank as it is impossible for the water to go in by its own. This is their last and official statement. The government of India confirmed this. 

The Investigation

However, the worked now demanded a private investigation. An ex-military man in the US in an expert in plant disasters. His name is Mike Wright. He isn’t given a Visa, and has to come in as a tourist. He is not given access into the plant. He works using blue prints and via interactions with plant workers. He finds out that the storage area is very far from any potential water source. The closest area was the chemical processing unit. To unclog pipes here, water used to be used. But this is a closed limited set up. 

However since the 1980’s UC had stopped providing spare parts. Spanners, hammers etc were lacking. UC had told these people to use bare minimum sets of spare parts and share them in different locations. In order to share these tools – plant workers had established a tunnel pipe shortcut to send them through. This linked the main pant with the storage unit. To avoid seepage of water – they had created a disc valve which would block the water. This disc was bigger than the pipe for full blockage, to make sure no water can get through. 

Over the years, this disc had corroded. To insert this disc the supervision of a plant supervisor was required who was laid off a month before this incident took place. All these lay offs and stinginess was happening because the plant was doing very poorly and there was no demand for 7. The worker who was washing the plant and de-clogging pipes did so without any supervision and this caused the water to go straight through. Even after this would happen, all the safety protocols should have worked, but they didn’t. 

He also finds out that the vent gas scrubber has a maximum capacity of 2 KG of MIC. They were only expecting a leak to if ever happen to be of a few milligrams. Even if the safety protocols would have been working – it still would never have been enough for this scale of a leak. The disaster is epic and a question arises as to if India is even capable of having a plant like this. 

Video: The Prank 

In 2004 – on its 20th Anniversary a prank was pulled off wherein a group called The Yes Men announced live on BBC that Dow Chemicals which has now taken over Union Carbide will liquidate the same, and the combined assets will be distributed as compensation for 1984. Bhopal rejoiced, however soon after it was announced to be a HOAX. The justification was that this plant was played for Union Carbide to develop some conscience. This organisation is known for playing pranks and is very famous – it calls itself an NGO which works for humanity. A legal battle involving hacking and negotiations takes place between Dow and The Yes Men all because of this case.