History of the Bhopal Case

In May of 1982, Union Carbide inspected its pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, and found 10 major deficiencies (Lueck, 1984 Ashford, 1984). The facility had been losing money for two years already and in the four years before the accident it lost a total of 4.5 million and the company was looking to sell it (Lueck, 1984 Ashford, 1984). 

46Bhopal People s Health and Documentation clinic for the Sambhavana Trust The Bhopal Gas Tragedy 1984 New Dehli, India Bhopal People s Health and Documentation Clinic for the Sambhavana Trust, 1998 November. 

47The Wall Street Journal reported that several weeks before the Bhopal disaster, Union Carbide changed procedures at its Institute West VA plant, on which the Bhopal plant design was based, to prevent a similar incident. Rep. Henry Waxman (D. CA.) disclosed that a Union Carbide safety team in September had warned of a potential runaway reaction of methyl isocyanate at Institute and the EPA had reported that there were 28 small leaks of the chemical in 1980 at the facility (Winslow, 1985). 

48The New York Times (January 27, 1985) conducted an extensive investigation involving more than 100 interviews in India and the United States about the gas leak. Its findings indicated that the plant design was from Union Carbide in the United States and that many of the safety features of the plant were inoperable at the time of the accident, in some cases to save on costs ( Design Flaws Contribute to Gas Leaks ). 

In short, faced with losing majority ownership under FERA, it has been alleged that Union Carbide made the overall plant cheaper to build by importing inferior technology, thus putting Bhopal at risk from the plant s inception. 

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