Over 40 tonnes of highly poisonous methyl isocyanate gas leaked out of the pesticide factory of Union Carbide in Bhopal at midnight 2-3 December, 1984. Thousands died in the immediate aftermath. At least 10,000 have died in the years that have passed, and 10 more are dying every month due to exposure-related diseases.

The hundreds of thousands who survived, however, face a fate worse than death. They suffer from acute breathlessness, brain damage, menstrual chaos, loss of immunity; some journalist have dubbed it chemical AIDS. But far from receiving sympathy or assistance from those responsible, the survivors are being treated as though they are criminals.

As part of UCC's economy drive, the management at the Bhopal plant had switched off the refrigeration unit to save about Rs.700 (US $50) per day. Had the refrigeration unit been working, a runaway reaction in the MIC tank could've been delayed or even prevented.
The early morning hours of December 3, 1984 a rolling wind carried a poisonous grey cloud past the walk of the Union Carbide plant. An estimated 8,000 or more people died (over three times the officially announced total).Forty tons of toxic gases were released from Carbide's Bhopal plant and spread throughout the city. The cause was the contamination of Methyl Isocyanate (MIC) storage tank No. 610 with water carrying catalytic material. The result was a nightmare that still has no end. No alarm ever sounded a warning and no evacuation plan was prepared.

When victims arrived at hospitals breathless and blind, the doctors did not know how to treat them since Carbide had not provided emergency information. Everyone was running, screaming, nothing could be seen - the thick fog hung everywhere. But it was only when the sun rose the next morning that the magnitude of the devastation was clear. Dead bodies of humans and animals blocked the streets, leaves turned black, the smell of burning chilli peppers lingered in the air. The precise number of deaths still remains a mystery. 2,000,00 were injured and 30,000 to 50,000 were too ill to ever return to their jobs. This is the Hiroshima of chemical industry.
 
All over Europe the maximum permissible storage limit for MIC is half a ton. At the Bhopal plant, the US company's management kept the storage capacity hazardously high at over 90 tons. On the night of the disaster, 67 tons of MIC were stored in two tanks
 
The background...
 
In 1969, as part of its global empire, Union Carbide Corporation set up its pesticide formulation unit in the northern end of the city of Bhopal in central India. Initially it mixed and packaged pesticides imported from the US but was gradually expanded. In December 1979 its Methyl Iso Cyanate (MC) plant with an imtalled capacity of 5000 tonnes went into production. In the four years from 1978 to 1982, there were at least six accidents in the Bhopal factory causing injury and death. Plant operator Mohammed Ashraf was killed by a phosgene gas leak on December 26, 1981. Two other workers were injured. In October 1982, Methyl Iso Cyanate escaped from a broken valve seriously affecting four workers and causing eye irritation and breathlessness among people in the nearby communities. .
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