Union Carbide Corporation , Bhopal

Event 5 Toxic Chemical Leak—Methyl isocyanate (MIC). Union Carbide Corporation, Bhopal, India (December 3, 1984). 3,000-7,000 people killed immediately 20,000 cumulative deaths 200,000-500,000 injured post-traumatic stress continued medical consequences (Lees 1996). 

Bhopal Methyl Isocyanate Incident Investigation Team Report, Union Carbide Corporation, Danbury, Conn., Mar. 1985. 

Therefore, awareness that influences willingness, and leadership, but also new forms of communication and cooperation and a possible shift in corporate (safety) culture, are all crucial elements for ISP. Good and successful examples set by companies seen as peers may also strongly stimulate industry. Indeed, the production of the same pesticide produced by Union Carbide in Bhopal using a batch process was accomplished by DuPont using an inherently safer continuous flow process. 

Bhopal Information Center, Union Carbide Corporation (2006). http //www.bhopal.com (Accessed on November 15, 2006). 

Facility Union Carbide Corporation Location Bhopal, India Date of Event Yhecemher 3, 1984 Chemical(s) involved Methyl isocyanate (MIC)... 

The Bhopal incident was caused when a U.S.-based Union Carbide Corporation pesticide plant accidentally released approximately 40 metric tons of methyl isocyanate (MIC) into the atmosphere. The incident was a catastrophe for Bhopal, with an estimated 2,000 deaths, 100,000 injuries, and significant damage to livestock and crops. The long-term health effects from such an incident are difficult to evaluate the International Medical Commission on Bhopal estimated that as of 1994 more than 50,000 people remained partially or totally disabled (House of Representatives 1984). 

The tragedy of the Bhopal incident and its ramifications are best stated by the Union Carbide Corporation ... 

Union Carbide Corporation. 2002. Bhopal, www.bhopal.com (accessed December 2002). World Resources Institute. 1992. World resources 1992—93 A guide to the global environment. New York Oxford University Press. 

On December 3, 1984, a toxic gas release from a pesticide plant in India killed nearly 3000 people and injured at least 100,000 others. The chemical that leaked was methyl isocyanate, a chemical intermediate that was supposed to be stored in a cooled bunker near the plant s outer boundary. The vapor is highly toxic and causes cellular asphyxiation and rapid death. Despite engineering and procedural provisions to prevent its release, a total system breakdown resulted in the release of 40 tons of the deadly material into the densely populated community of Bhopal. Because of this incident, the plant was dismantled and ultimately the parent corporation. Union Carbide, was forced to make a number of organizational changes. The occurrence is considered by many to have been the most tragic chemical accident in history. 

Such a chain of events, Union Carbide Corp. believes, explains the gas leak that killed 2,500 people and injured thousands more in Bhopal on Dec. 2 and 3, 1984. The company insists that sabotage—not sloppy corporate practices in the Third World—caused what has been called the worst industrial disaster in history. [6]... 

For investors to put Bhopal into perspective it is important to recognize one important factor - Bhopal is not just a synonym for industrial disaster, it is a leading test case for what is alleged to be wrong with the lack of corporate social accountability in the globalized economy. The actions of Union Carbide, and now Dow, are perceived worldwide as those of foreign investors more concerned about damage control than about the hundreds of thousands of human lives their operations have destroyed. 

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 ... 

Nevertheless, the new corporate raiders succeeded in dismantling two of the six major U.S. core chemical companies. Allied Chemical and Union Carbide. After the raiders had finished. Allied Chemical became a specialty chemical unit in Allied Signal, accounting for roughly 25 percent of that company s revenues. In 1986, after a deadly accident at Union Carbide s plant in Bhopal, India, raider Samuel Heyman forced the company to sell off its major, long-established product divisions. It never fully recovered. Finally, in 2001, what remained of Union Carbide was acquired by Dow. 

Union Carbide is now a shadow of its former self, having expended hundreds of millions of dollars in legal settlements due to the Bhopal explosion in 1984. The company was formed in 1898 to produce calcium carbide and from it acetylene. In 1917 the company merged with three other companies, Prest-O-Lite, Linde Air Products Company, and National Carbon Company, to form Union Carbide and Carbon Corporation. From 1940 to 1975, it was second only to Du Pont in chemical sales. 

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