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Bhopal: The Union Carbide Gas Leak

Bhopal: The Union Carbide Gas Leak. Background.

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Bhopal: The Union Carbide Gas Leak

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  1. Bhopal: The Union Carbide Gas Leak

  2. Background • In the 1969, Union Carbide set up a plant in Bhopal, India, to manufacture pesticides. The facility was part of India's "Green Revolution" and industrialization policy. These pesticides were considered essential in the drive for agricultural self-sufficiency.

  3. Area Affected • Bhopal, India

  4. What happened? • What happened on December 23, 1984, was what had to be the world's worst industrial disaster - often referred to as the Three Mile Island of the chemical industry. A result of technological, industrial, legal and human error, the incident took the lives of 2,500 people, and injured about 400,000, with the toll still rising to this day.

  5. Environmental Concepts • We discussed this when we reviewed Air Pollution.

  6. Damage Report • In the aftermath of the 2,500 deaths and 400,000 injuries/illnesses caused by the leak, the Indian government further victimized the people of Bhopal. India settled out of court with Union Carbide for $470 million. That amount, distributed over nearly 550,000 claimants in the suit, wasn't even able to cover the majority of medical expenses, not to mention their suffering.

  7. Lessons Learned • This instance provides hard evidence to multi-national corporations that they can indeed get away with murder in third-world nations, and that it can be profitable. Upon settling, Union Carbides stock rose $2 a share, as investors realized that the company's pursuits were untouchable.

  8. Could this happen again? • No, it’ll never happen again. They are being more cautious to make sure they prevent it from happening again.

  9. Citations • http://www.bhopal.com/faq • news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/bhopal/4023447.stm • en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhopal_disaster • history1900s.about.com/od/1980s/qt/bhopal.htm • www1.american.edu/ted/bhopal.htm

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