The Bhopal disaster: causes, victims, implications

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2018-03-25 14:37:14

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The twentieth century was a turning point for mankind, as the speed of technology has increased several dozen times. But with the events that changed history for the better, there have been several cases, and they were huge mistakes. The largest man-made disaster changed the face of the planet and led to dire consequences. The biggest of them is the accident at a chemical plant in Bhopal. This Indian city in the state of Madhya-Pages, and he does not stand out up to 3 December 1984. This date has changed for the people of Bhopal.

Bhopal disaster

History of construction of the plant

In the 1970-ies government of India decided to raise its economy by foreign capital. Therefore has introduced a special programme aimed at attracting foreign investors to invest in local industry. Approved the construction of the plant, which produced pesticides for agriculture. Originally part of the chemicals planned to import from other countries. But it turned out to be unprofitable, as the competition in this market segment was very high. Therefore, production was moved to another level, more complex and dangerous. In the 80's, the Bhopal (India) and its surroundings were very poor harvests, which led to a decline in demand for factory products. Therefore, it was decided to sell the company, but the buyer was never found.

Plant before the accident

This pitiable well-known plant was owned by Union Carbide India Limited – American company, which specialized in the production of chemical fertilizers (pesticides). The Bhopal plant was used to store very toxic substances methylisocyanate, or MITS. This deadly poisonous substance, which in the state of the gas in contact with the mucous it instantly burns, from which the lungs become swollen. If it is in liquid form, its qualities are similar to sulfuric acid.

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Also it has very specific physical properties. Boiling point – 40 degrees Celsius, and it is quite usual for India day temperature. If to the mixture to add even a small amount of water, it begins to warm up, that starts a chain reaction in which a substance is decomposed and released hydrogen cyanide, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide. This cocktail is able to destroy anyone that is in the affected area. The plant was created several systems that should have prevented a similar reaction, but they didn't work because of several reasons given below.

Bhopal India

Background to the accident

Before happened in the Bhopal disaster, there were several factors that predisposed to its occurrence. The first of these is the desire of the company that owns the plant to save money on wages. So they built their own plant in India, where wages are ten times lower than in developed countries. The skill level of these workers was not high enough, but their requests too. This was very beneficial in financial terms.

The Second factor – violation of international standards storage of toxic substances. The plants are allowed to store no more than 1 ton MITS, but in Bhopal it was as much as 42 times more, that is 42 tons.

The Third factor – the neglect of local people to warnings, which were published in the newspaper. The plant management had warned about the need to be very careful and if you hear the alarm, evacuate immediately.

The Following is what the town of Bhopal at that time had a government that constantly turned a blind eye to unsafe practices, and as a result, there have been several accidents at the plant.

Another important factor is the wear and tear of equipment, replacement of which cost a lot of money. Therefore, all systems that should have prevented the accident, was either for repairs or just disabled.

The causes of the disaster

The Official cause of the accident was never established. It is precisely known only that release a deadly gas into the atmosphere was caused by hitting the tank methylisocyanate water. This led to the boiling liquid, and evaporation under high pressure blew off the safety valve. How the water got into the substance with which to contact her is very dangerous, is still unknown. For this reason there are two versions.

If you believe first, then it's just a horrible accident. Before he was produced by rinsing the surrounding area, and because pipes and valves were faulty, the water got into the tank with MITS.

The Second says that the Bhopal disaster was staged. One of the unscrupulous employees for their own reasons could hook up the water hose to the tank and this started the reaction. But which of these versions is true, nobody knows. It is clear only that there is a constant desire to save money was the real reason that man-made disasters.

the consequences of the accident

Chronology of events

The Bhopal disaster happened on the night of 2-3 December 1984. In the capacity Е610, which contained 42 tons methylisocyanate, for unknown reasons, were about tons of water. This led to a heated liquid up to 200 degrees Celsius. Workers noticed the first signs of a malfunction of the tank with MIC in 15 minutes the first night, throughthe minute rates are already doubled. In addition to the sensors on the inevitable proclaimed strong noise that was making cracked under the capacity of the Foundation. Operators rushed to activate the emergency system, but they turned out to be simply absent. So they decided to manually cool the tank and began to pour water at outside, but the reaction has been unstoppable. At 00.30 valve just could not stand the enormous pressure and burst. In the next hour, more than 30 tons of poison gas were in the atmosphere. Since MITS is heavier than air, this deadly cloud began to creep along the ground and slowly spread to the surrounding factory areas.

Bhopal

Nightmare

All these events occurred at night, so the entire population peacefully sleeping. But people immediately felt the effect of toxic substances. They choked cough, they have thick eyes, you simply can't breathe. This led to the mass mortality in the first hours after the accident. Rising panic does not help. Everyone was scared and did not understand what was happening. The doctors tried to help people, but didn't know how. After the plant management did not want to disclose the composition of the gas due to commercial confidentiality.

By morning the cloud had lifted, but left behind a huge number of corpses. This was only the beginning. Over the next few days he died thousands of people, besides, nature is also very much affected: the trees dropped their leaves, the animals died EN masse.

Bhopal disaster India 1984

Consequences

The very fact that this disaster is considered the deadliest in history, says on its prevalence. In the first hours of a poisonous gas had killed 3787 people, within two weeks after this unfortunate event killed 8,000 people, in subsequent years, even 8000.

Research in 2006 showed terrible statistics: in the time after the release it was 558 125 cases, visits to doctors due to chronic illnesses that were caused by the poisoning of the MIC. In addition, the Bhopal disaster was a real environmental disaster. Toxins have poisoned the whole environment for years to come. Company-the owner of the plant paid a lot of money to the victims, but this has nothing to do with it.

Plant after the accident

Even after the incident the factory was closed immediately. It continued to operate until depletion of the reserves of the MIC. In 1986, however, there is a closure of the plant and its equipment sold. But no one even tried to completely eliminate the danger zone. It just turned into a landfill of chemical waste, which poisoned the whole life of the city. Until today, at the factory there are more than 400 tons of toxic substances that permeate the ground and make unfit for human consumption water and grown products. In 2012, the government of India has decided to recycle waste, but so far it only plans.

the Largest man-made disaster

Thus, the most terrifying man-made disaster in human history was the Bhopal disaster (India). 1984 for this country became a symbol of death. Even after three decades the consequences of this accident is relevant for the entire local population.


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DE: https://tostpost.com/de/news-und-gesellschaft/23742-bhopal-skaya-katastrophe-ursachen-opfer-folgen.html

ES: https://tostpost.com/es/noticias-y-sociedad/23767-bhopal-skaya-desastre-las-causas-las-v-ctimas-las-consecuencias-de.html

KK: https://tostpost.com/kk/zha-aly-tar-o-am/23711-bhopal-skaya-apat-sebepter-rbandary-saldary.html

PL: https://tostpost.com/pl/aktualno-ci-i-spo-ecze-stwo/23670-bhopal-skaya-katastrofa-przyczyny-ofiary-konsekwencje.html

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UK: https://tostpost.com/uk/novini-ta-susp-l-stvo/23702-bhopal-skaya-katastrofa-prichini-zhertvi-nasl-dki.html






Alin Trodden - author of the article, editor
"Hi, I'm Alin Trodden. I write texts, read books, and look for impressions. And I'm not bad at telling you about it. I am always happy to participate in interesting projects."

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