![]() ![]() Then, on the night of December 2, 1984, the disaster he had spent years warning about struck. Unfortunately, like a modern Cassandra, his warnings were ignored. With headlines such as “ Save Please, Save this City“ “ Bhopal Sitting on the Brink of a Volcano“ and “ If You Don’t Understand, You All Shall be Wiped Out“, Keswani’s articles left little doubt about the seriousness of the situation. In them, he detailed dismal safety standards at the plant and raised the alarm about a potential catastrophe. In one of the more evil replies in corporate history, he was told that it would be too expensive.Īfter a nine-month investigation, Keswani published the first of a series of newspaper articles that ran from 1982 to 1984. In an internal telex exchange, Union Carbide’s Indian manager sought better pipe coating from the parent company in the US. In one incident, a gas leak forced thousands of nearby residents to flee their homes in fear. There had been repeated screw-ups in which only dumb luck averted catastrophe. With the help of whistle blowers, he examined that and earlier mishaps and discovered that things were even worse than they looked. In 1981, Indian journalist Rajkumar Keswani began to look into the safety protocols and procedures at Union Carbide’s Bhopal plant after a friend died there in an industrial accident. The Cassandra Who Spent Years Warning About Catastrophe, and the Evil Corporate Callousness That Turned Down Requests for Improved Safety Measures One of three MIC storage tanks was out of commission, pipes and valves were corroded, most safety systems were out of order, and special vents for scrubbing poison gasses did not work. By early December 1984, the plant was a disaster waiting to happen. Over the years, there were numerous leaks in which dozens of workers were killed or injured. To save money, Union Carbide also cut corners in the maintenance of the MIC storage tanks and pipes at the Bhopal plant. Not so Union Carbide, which stuck with MIC at its Bhopal plant because it was cheaper. Other manufacturers eventually switched to other processes for producing carbaryl that did not require the use of the highly dangerous MIC. MIC is a highly toxic and irritating material and is extremely hazardous to humans. Union Carbide’s Bhopal plant was built in 1969 to produce carbaryl, a pesticide that is sold under the brand name Sevin, and for which methyl isocyanate (MIC) was a key component. Union Carbide had even turned down a request from local management for protective measures that would have averted the leak because it deemed them too expensive.Ī labor union protest in India against Union Carbide. The alarm was raised for years but was ignored. As seen below, the plant had a history of poor safety practices and near misses. What took the catastrophe from the realm of industrial accident to one of sheer corporate evil was the callousness exhibited by Union Carbide before, during, and after the event. It came to be known as the Bhopal Disaster. Thousands perished, and thousands more suffered permanent disabilities or were otherwise seriously injured. Over 600,000 people suffered from exposure to the lethal cloud. The plant was located in a densely-populated area, surrounded by shanty towns. It was one of history’s worst industrial accidents. That night, however, the plant leaked about forty tons of a highly poisonous gas called methyl isocyanate (MIC), along with other toxic gasses. Corporate Greed Caused One of Modern History’s Worst Industrial Accidentsĭecember 2, 1984, began like most days at the Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India. Following are thirty things about those and other evil things done by big corporations and bureaucracies. Or the bureaucrats who screwed up the testing of a defective weapon, then downplayed its defects for years while the servicemen stuck using it paid with their lives. Take the businessmen who literally ground up the bones of dead soldiers to sell as fertilizer. Wherever profits and self-interest are at stake, there are people willing to do whatever it takes to pursue them, even if whatever it takes is evil.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |