Bhopal, chemical disaster

Aside from direct financial liabilities, investors should recognize the international significance and historical resonance of the Bhopal chemical disaster, and therefore its powerful effect on corporate reputation. Since the purchase of Union Carbide in 2001, Dow has been subjected to escalating public scrutiny and demands for action refocused from Union Carbide to Dow Chemical as the new parent corporation. These include ... 

Lewis, Sandford. (2004). The Bhopal Chemical Disaster 20 Years Without Justice, https //www.youtube.com/watch v=0csW97x8d24 t=12... 

White Noise was published at the same time as the Bhopal chemical disaster occurred, so that coverage of Bhopal in the mainstream press and reviews of the novel were occurring simultaneously. 

The worst chemical disaster in history occurred on December 3, 1984, in Bhopal, India, a city of some 1.6 million people in the state of Madhya Pradesh. On that date in the middle of the night, a tank at the Union Carbide India Ltd. plant leaked between 25 and 40 tons of methyl isocyanate, a volatile colorless liquid, into the atmosphere of Bhopal. This highly toxic gas settled onto the city and its inhabitants in a silent, if odorous, cloud. The results were horrific some 3800 people died and another 2700 experienced total or partial permanent disability. By some estimates, more than 10% of the population of Bhopal—170,000 people—suffered some adverse effect from the methyl isocyanate leak. 

Chandra, H., Saraf, A.K., Jadhav, R.K., Rao, R.K., Sharma, V.K., Sriramachari, S., Vairamani, M. (1994). Isolation of an unknown compound from both blood of Bhopal aerosol disaster victims and residue of Tank E-610 of Union Carbide India Limited - chemical characterization of the structure. Med. Sci. Law 34 106-10. 

AIChE created the Center for Chemical Process Safety (CCPS) in 1985 after the chemical disasters in Mexico City, Mexico, and Bhopal, India. The CCPS is chartered to develop and disseminate technical information for use in the prevention of major chemical accidents. The center is supported by more than 100 chemical process industry sponsors that provide the necessary funding and professional guidance to its technical committees. The major product of CCPS activities has been a series of guidelines to assist those implementing various elements of a process safety and risk management system. This book is part of that series. 

Certain chemical disasters have prominent places in medical history. In 1976, a chemical reactor explosion in Seveso, Italy, released 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin, which contaminated thousands of acres, killed 100,000 animals, and caused the evacuation of hundreds of people (Melius and Binder 1989). In 1984 in Bhopal, India, a carbamate pesticide plant released 30 tons of methyl isocyanate, causing more than 3,000 deaths and 50,000-300,000 injuries (Melius and Binder 1989). The Three Mile Island and Chernobyl nuclear accidents during the 1980s were the culmination of a string of eight nuclear accidents since 1952 (Melius and Binder 1989). Other chemical disasters severely affected local communities but did not generate widespread attention (De La Paz 1997 Withers 1988). 

Usha 1 want to tell you a bit about Bhopal. This was probably the worst chemical disaster, maybe until the Fukushima disaster in 2011. 

Usha Yes, you are right, Racheli. Bhopal was the worst chemical disaster ever. It occurred on the night of December 2,1984, in the Indian state Madhya Pradesh in the Union Carbide India Ltd (UCIL) plant that produced the pesticide Sevin from methyl isocyanate (MIC). MIC is extremely toxic to living organisms, causing in humans anything from severe coughing to death by suffocation. 

The American Society of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) is a technical society devoted to chemical engineering and associated technologies and issues. Many chemical engineers work in the chemical process industry. In 1985, AIChE established the Center for Chemical Process Safety (CCPS). It was an industry response to the Bhopal, India, disaster (Case 24-1). It has become the center of expertise for process safety. It publishes many publications on process safety, and conducts conferences and training to advance process safety practices. 

Which best belongs in the blank ) In 1988, after Bhopal and other chemical disasters, the American Chemistry Council launched... 

MIC and many other chemicals were stored in Bhopal. The disaster in 1984 led to the closure of the UCIL factory. While the remaining MIC was disposed of during Operation Faith, Union Carbide closed its... 

In Delaware, the Regulation for the Management of Extremely Ha2ardous Substances Act, developed in response to the Bhopal disaster and several chemical-release incidents in Delaware, became effective in 1989 (27,28). The regulations Hst 88 toxic substances, 32 flammable substances, and 50 explosive substances. A sufficient quantity is specified for each of these materials, based on potential for a catastrophic event at a distance of 100 m from a potential source of a 1-h release. 

Protection of Employees. In 1986, shortly after the Bhopal disaster, OSHA contracted to develop a federal standard on process ha2ards management. A proposed standard was issued in 1990, and the Process Safety Management of Highly Ha2ardous Chemicals standard was issued and implemented in 1992 (36). 

A plant team working with the Pampa fire department brought the fire under control. The Chemical Manufacturers Association s Community Awareness Emergency Response Program (CARE), developed after the Bhopal disaster was credited with effectiveness of their efforts in putting out the fire. 

The worst disaster in the history of the chemical industry occurred in Bhopal, in the state of Madhya Pradesh in central India, on December 3, 1984. A leak of methyl isocyanate (MIC) from a chemical plant, where it was used as an intermediate in the manufacture of the insecticide car-baryl, spread beyond the plant boundary and caused the death by poisoning of more than 2,000 people. The official figure was 2,153, but some unofficial estimates were much higher. In addition, about 200,000 people were injured. Most of the dead and injured were living in a shanty town that had grown up next to the plant. 

Environmentally hazardous projects are those where the risk of accidents is very high, which can result in a major and sometimes even catastrophic chemical pollution of the environment. Frequently, these disasters take casualties among the plant personnel, as well as among the nearby settlements population, which were the cases with the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant disaster in Ukraine, or with the pesticide plant accident in Bhopal, India. 

Ronald J. Willey, The Bhopal Disaster (New York American Institute of Chemical Engineers, 1998). 

Social Acceptance. Social acceptance of chemical plants is still an issue. This is due to the fact that big disasters have occasionally occurred (Bhopal, Seveso) and also because chemical plants smell, due to diffusive emissions of volatile components. Via process intensification the amount of chemically hazardous, reactive material can be reduced considerably, by which the size of an emission in the case of an explosion will be far less and the chance of an explosion itself reduced by the lowered hazardous, reactive content. 

In contrast, Professor Kletz documented that more people have been killed by the collapse of dams than by any other peacetime artifact. [28] He explains that in August 1979, a dam collapsed in India killing a large number of people. Various reports gave various counts of fatalities, between 1,400 and 25,000. This collapse could be responsible for more deaths than the dreaded Bhopal Tragedy. Kletz asked the question why people were more concerned about chemical engineering disasters than civil engineering disasters. It could be that water is a familiar chemical and pesticides or radioactive menaces are both poorly understood and not detectable by the man on the street. 

The Bhopal Disaster of 1984 was caused by the accidental release of 40 tonnes of methyl isocyanate (MIC) from a pesticide plant of Union Carbide India, Limited (UCIL) located in the heart of the city of Bhopal, India. A total number of victims is estimated as many as 600,0003. The plant was abandoned and remaining toxic chemicals at the site are still discharging into the environment. 

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