Bhopal disaster, India

Monoisocyanates are mature commodities used primarily as precursors for carbamate pesticides. Growth has declined over the past decade. Increased competition from newer, more economical and effective pesticides and repercussions from the Bhopal, India disaster in 1984 have diminished their widespread use. The Bhopal disaster has caused major changes in the way methylisocyanate is made and handled. 

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. 

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. 

Another type of activated double bond is found in isocyanates and isothiocyanates. Methylisocyanate was responsible for a disaster in Bhopal, India, in 1984 when approximately 40 tons of the gas were accidentally released leading to the death of thousands of people and injury to many more. Some have called this the worst industrial accident in history. Methylisocyanate reacts with nucleophiles as shown in Figure 8.18—in this case with a thiol. This reaction is reversible, and therefore a glutathione conjugate can act to... 

A toxic gas disaster occurred when 2,300 were killed and 200,000 others injured in a few hours when the gas escaped from the Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India. 

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. 

One of the most notorious cases of industrial disaster took place in 1984 in Bhopal, India. A plant with a license from the Union Carbide company was making methyl isocyanate (MIC), CH3NCO, which is an intermediate for the manufacture of pesticides. MIC boils at 39 °C, and the vapor density is heavier than air and very toxic by inhalation and skin absorption. The maximum allowable air concentration is 0.02 ppm by volume over 8 h. MIC also reacts with water and produces heat, which must be removed to prevent boiling over. On that day in 1984, the cooling system failed during... 

One team investigating the 1983 disaster at Bhopal, India, reported that the scrubbing system which should have absorbed the vapor discharged from the relief valves, the flare system which should have burned any vapor which got past the scrubbing system, and the cooling system for the tank were not in operation or not in full working order. 

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. 

The accident involving the generation of heat and the leakage of methyl isocyanate (MIC) that happened in Bhopal, India, from midnight of December 2 through Dec. 3, 1984, developed into the greatest industrial disaster in history. The death toll was reportedly 2,500, and it was said that more than 10,000 people suffered health-disorders as after-effects. Approximately 200,000 people in total were affected by the leaked gas. 

Aldicarb was one of the cotton pesticides being manufactured at the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India, when it became the site of the world s worst industrial disaster in 1984 °. 

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. 

Methyl isocyanate, which was involved in the disaster in Bhopal, India, in 1984, has the chemical formula CH3NCO. Draw its Lewis diagram, including resonance forms. (Note The N atom is bonded to the two C atoms.)... 

Several companies in India and China make j -naphthol using sulfonation-caustic fusion technologies. Many Indian companies were forced to close down as the Chinese material was found to be much cheaper. a-Naphthol is mostly recovered as a co-product during /(-naphthol manufacture. Also the Union Carbide technology after its Bhopal plant disaster and subsequent closure has been used by one or two companies in a pirated form. Using the conventional technology, China has already became the largest supplier of j6-naphthol in the world. 

Carbaryl is made by the reaction of methylisocyanate with 2-naphthol. This is the product made at the plant in Bhopal, India where the disaster mentioned in Chap. 1, occurred. 

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). 

The world s worst industrial disaster occurred in Bhopal, India, in 1984 in which nearly 40 metric tons of methyl isocyanate was released from a pesticide plant killing over 3000 people. Most deaths resulted from pulmonary edema within 3 days of accident. Many follow-up studies indicated pulmonary, ophthalmic, neurological, reproductive, immunologic and hematologic toxic effects among the survivors. 

In addition to terrorist actions, accidents will occur as manufacturing with potent industrial chemicals becomes widespread. Although industrial compounds are not traditionally classified as chemical agents, they are lethal and potent (eg, the disaster in Bhopal, India, which is discussed later in this chapter). Poor economic conditions may also promote theft of agents and their chemical precursors and illegal transfer of weapons—not only by international brokers but also by industrial workers. 

Thus far, discussion has centered on chemical compounds with a military application. Other highly toxic industrial chemicals also pose a potential risk to the military. The disaster in Bhopal, India, in December 1984, when an estimated 8,000 persons died and another 30,000 were injured from breathing methylisocyanate and chlorine released in an industrial accident, is just one of many examples of the devastating effect of poisonous gases.26... 

On December 3, 1984, the worst industrial disaster in history began in Bhopal, India. It involved the accidental release of tons of methyl isocyanate (MIC) and the death in short order of over 2,000 people with hundreds, possibly thousands more in succeeding months and years. The U.S. EPA Web site indicates a final death toll of about 3,800 with adverse and serious health... 

Protesters in Bhopal, India, rage against the injustice of the Union Carbide plant disaster that poisoned thousands with methyl isocyanate gas. 

The Bhopal disaster (also referred to as the Bhopal gas tragedy) was a gas leak in Bhopal, India, that happened in December of 1984. At the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, methyl isocyanate gas was accidentally released during a manufacturing process. The gas poisoned thousands of people in the surrounding city, most of... 

PU are compounds formed by reacting the polyol component with an isocyanate compound, typically toluene diisocyanate (TDI) methylene diisocyanate (MDI) or hexamethylene diisocyanate. Polyols are relatively non-toxic (i.e., polyether type polyols are found to be safe, because they are low in oral toxicity with almost no irritation effect to the eyes and skin), however, isocyanates are highly toxic and the product can have a significant toxicity if remnants of isocyanate are in it, which manifests itself mainly as a respiratory (as well as a dermal) hazard. Exposure to the vapour of isocyanates directly may cause irritation for the eyes, respiratory tract and skin. Such an irritation may be too severe to produce bronchitis and pulmonary oedema. As health hazards of isocyanates are considered, one immediately remembers one of the worst industrial disasters of the 20th century, that occurred in Bhopal, India, because of the toxic cloud of methyl isocyanate was released accidentally from the Union Carbide pesticide factory in December 1984. An estimated 3,000 people died immediately with a final of some 20,000, most suffocating from the cloud s toxic chemicals, and some 50,000 were injured, most were residents living near the plant. 

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