Bhopal Union Carbide India remembered: 30 years on 02 December 2014

It is 30 years to the day since the Bhopal tragedy, when a major leak of methyl isocyanate gas from Union Carbide India's facility in Madhya Pradesh, India, killed 3,000 and injured hundreds of thousands more, many very seriously, in the shanty towns around the site.

Commenting on the tragedy, Fiona MacLeod, a chartered chemical engineer who visited Bhopal in 2013, said: "What happened on the night of 2 December 1984 was an unspeakable, terrible, tragedy, and the suffering of those who died, were physically injured or mentally traumatised, cannot be overstated."

Most experts agree the toxic release was caused by a runaway reaction in a tank containing about 40 tonnes of methyl isocyanate, which had come into contact with about one tonne of water.

What is still not known definitively is precisely how that happened.

There are four main competing theories: the accidental entry of water from a washing operation; sabotage by a disgruntled employee; confusion between a hose containing nitrogen and another containing water; and the gradual entry of water and other contaminants over many weeks prior to the incident.

But IChemE's (Instituion of Chemical Engineerrs) director of policy Andy Furlong makes the point that all of these are down to human factors.

"The stark reality here is that chemical plants don't hurt people. People hurt people," asserts Furlong.

"And even though three decades have passed since Bhopal, we must never stop reminding ourselves that the lessons from the past are there to be learned, and crucially, acted upon," he continues.

"It will come as no comfort at all to the people of Bhopal, but the events in 1984 contributed to a major shift in the way that industry views process safety."

Furlong states that, since then, there has been a near wholesale move towards inherently safe plant and process design, with significant reduction in the quantities of toxic chemicals stored.

Furthermore, employees are now better trained and educated around safety, and emergency planning has been massively improved and legislated for, while 'human factors' have taken centre stage.

IChemE is marking the 30th anniversary of Bhopal with a special issue of the Loss Prevention Bulletin.

The publication, which is being freely distributed worldwide, includes a moving contribution from MacLeod and features on a range of safety topics related to Bhopal, including a comment Judith Hackitt CBE, chair of Britain's HSE (Health and Safety Executive).

Civil and criminal cases were filed in the District Court of Bhopal, involving UCC and Warren Anderson, UCC chief executive at the time of the disaster.

In June 2010, seven ex-employees, including the former Union Carbide India chairman, were convicted of causing death by negligence and sentenced to two years imprisonment and a fine of some $2,000 each, the maximum allowed underby Indian law.

Brian Tinham

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