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The greatest industrial disaster of India; was it man-made?



Summary of background and causes:

The 1985 reports give a picture of what led to the disaster and how it developed, although they differ in details.

Factors leading to the gas leak include:

* The use of hazardous chemicals (MIC) instead of less dangerous ones
* Storing these chemicals in large tanks instead of over 200 steel drums.
* Possible corroding material in pipelines
* Poor maintenance after the plant ceased production in the early 1980s
* Failure of several safety systems (due to poor maintenance and regulations).
* Safety systems being switched off to save money—including the MIC tank
refrigeration system which alone would have prevented the disaster.

The problem was made worse by the plant's location near a densely populated area, non-existent catastrophe plans and shortcomings in health care and socio-economic rehabilitation. Analysis shows that the parties responsible for the magnitude of the disaster are the two owners, Union Carbide Corporation and the Government of India, and to some extent, the Government of Madhya Pradesh.

Public information

Much speculation arose in the aftermath. The closing of the plant to outsiders (including UCC) by the Indian government, and the failure to make data public contributed to the confusion. The CSIR report was formally released 15 years after the disaster. The authors of the ICMR studies[21] on health effects were forbidden to publish their data until after 1994. UCC has still not released their research about the disaster or the effects of the gas on human health. Soon after the disaster UCC was not allowed to take part in the investigation by the government. The initial investigation was conducted entirely by the government agencies – Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) under the directorship of Dr. Varadarajan and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

UCC and the Government of India maintained until 1994, when the International Medical Commission on Bhopal met, that MIC had no longterm health effects. .....more