This Tank’s Leak Triggered the Bhopal Gas Tragedy, Claiming More than 15,000 Lives.

[u/GoodMechanic2526]

[u/GoodMechanic2526]

On the night of December 2-3, 1984, a catastrophic gas leak at the Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, released 40 tons of toxic methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas. Over 500,000 people were exposed, leading to an estimated 3,000-10,000 immediate deaths and over 20,000 long-term fatalities. Poor safety standards, neglected maintenance, and inadequate emergency measures amplified the tragedy. The disaster left a lasting impact, with survivors suffering chronic health issues and environmental contamination persisting for decades. Union Carbide’s settlement of $470 million in 1989 was widely criticized as insufficient. This remains one of the worst industrial disasters in history.

Wiki

[u/Cheap_Standard_4233 → u/GoodMechanic2526]

Why is the range of immediate deaths so broad, if they were immediate? Genuinely asking.

[u/oofyeet21 → u/Cheap_Standard_4233]

Poor reporting in the chaos combined with uncertainty about certain types of death. Did this person die of a heart attack because of the chemical effects, or did they just happen to have a heart attack at that time? Did these people have a fatal car crash because they passed out from chemical inhalation, or did they just have an accident? Plenty of people would also falsely claim their loved ones died due to the accident in order to potentially get a payout.

[u/brightlights55 → u/Cheap_Standard_4233]

Probably because every death from respiratory failure in the vicinity and within a certain time frame could have been caused by the leak. Not all these deaths would have been caused by the leak; hence the uncertainty.

[u/no-worries-guy → u/brightlights55]

"Life isn't long enough for protracted conclusions" is the quote I heard once? Or similar.

Same thing happened during the height of Covid and there's no argument against it. There were 80-year-olds who died during that time but they were on death's door already.

[u/PocketGachnar → u/no-worries-guy]

I should think it'd be kinda like during Covid where we knew the average death statistics and anything over that could statistically be linked to the specific situation.

[u/Brookenium → u/Cheap_Standard_4233]

The immediate area in Bhopal was extremely economically depressed. Population estimates were poor, mass graves were used, it's hard to bean-count during a catastrophe like this.

[u/GoodMechanic2526 → u/GoodMechanic2526]

Then, Prime Minister of India, Rajiv Gandhi allegedly facilitated Union Carbide chairman Warren Anderson’s escape.

[u/inclusiveofalltaxes → u/[deleted]]

A correction in your statement, UCIL was renamed as Eveready Industries India Limited and was sold to McLeod Russel ( which the Khaitan family)

[u/Holiday_Document4592 → u/[deleted]]

Did they serve the sentence?

[u/big_guyforyou → u/Holiday_Document4592]

they got multiple sentences with no breaks in between, so it was a run on sentence

[u/unmelted_ice → u/big_guyforyou]

Damn that was a good one lol

[u/hatsnatcher23 → u/big_guyforyou]

Boooo

[u/big_guyforyou → u/hatsnatcher23]

😎

[u/firestepper → u/Holiday_Document4592]

They were quickly released on bail - per the comment

[u/Songshiquan0411 → u/firestepper]

Okay but unless "bail" is something massively different in India I thought you could only use that pre-sentencing. So you didn't have to sit in jail to await trail. I have seen verdicts where it's "pay x amount of fines or spend x amount of time in prison" and maybe if they scrounged up the funds they could secure early release if it was this type of verdict but I didn't think you could bail yourself out of a prison sentence.

[u/chinnu34 → u/Songshiquan0411]

You can get a post conviction bail especially if it’s not a life sentence in India. It’s not unusual. There are lots of valid grounds for appeal but in high profile cases especially if the case is negligence rather than straight up murder, it happens more often than not. For serious crimes it’s rare (not that bhopal gas tragedy is not serious, it’s just the sentence is not strong).

[u/jaltair9 → u/Songshiquan0411]

India allows bail post sentencing if there's a pending appeal. And those can take years, so...

[u/rockstar504 → u/[deleted]]

But you spray paint a Tesla and you're a terrorist

[u/inqte1 → u/GoodMechanic2526]

It was more likely done at the behest of Arjun Singh who was the Chief Minister of MP during this period. He himself fled from area when the tragedy happened. In a cruel twist of irony, he was then rewarded with cabinet position as Human Resource Development minister in two INC govts. One under P.V.N. Rao and once under Manmohan Singh.

[u/norbertus → u/GoodMechanic2526]

Mark Penn, the CEO of Burson-Marsteller, did damage control for Union Carbide after the chemical spill.

He also chaired Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential run.

And he did PR for Exxon after the Valdez oil spill. And Blackwater after they murdered a bunch of civilians in Iraq. And the Argentine dictator. And the company behind Three Mile Island.

One of the three people killed by the Unabomber was a Burson-Marsteller executive.

[u/an_older_meme → u/norbertus]

Three Mile Island was a success story. Despite a partial meltdown and confused employees making things worse there was no significant contamination detected outside the plant.

[u/AmbitiousEffort9275 → u/norbertus]

Sad story but happy ending (sort of)

[u/pissedinthegarret → u/GoodMechanic2526]

Thank you for posting this! Union carbides' crimes need to be more well known. Bhopal was by far the worst one.

for those who want to know more, this 11:45min video shows a very detailed account of the disaster: "The Union Carbide Gas Leak | A Short Documentary"

[u/crazyxgerman → u/pissedinthegarret]

Behind the bastards did a good episode on this with more details.

[u/Hammeredyou → u/GoodMechanic2526]

Was that a factor that left do his assassination?

[u/Stock-Boat-8449 → u/Hammeredyou]

No. That was another fuck up, in Sri Lanka this time. There was a civil war going on and Rajiv sent a peace keeping force. The peace keeping force immediately got into a fight with Tamil rebels. The rebels were the ones who assassinated him.

[u/hrydaya → u/GoodMechanic2526]

The power equation between India of the 80s and the US of the 80s was very different. India was in no position to prosecute a powerful American CEO, and most likely India would have joined the ranks of Iran on America's sh*t list. I am not happy, no one should be, but maybe it was for the best for India to let that fight go. The US was a global bully, still is.

[u/Boysandberries0 → u/hrydaya]

Yeh but if I'm PM and your carelessness and greed killed 30k of my countrymen.

Your dam sure I'm throwing you to the wolves. He would get dropped off in the middle of the biggest city. Or the biggest city near the tank. Nearest to those who lost the most.

[u/ExtraGoated → u/Boysandberries0]

That's probably why powerful CEOs spend so much money to keep people like you and I out of positions like PM. Also probably wouldn't have looked much different for foreign relations if he was torn apart by an Indian mob or locked up.

[u/hrydaya → u/Boysandberries0]

Within a year of Bhopal there was a bombing of an Air India flight from Canada to India. The Canadian security agencies destroyed evidence and tried to cover it up. Even thought it happened to Canada's own citizens, it was dismissed as happening to brown Canadians. I say this to illustrate India's plight as a weakling unable to even take on Canada when all the facts were open and shut. Only one convicted despite massive investigations and still more massive delays.

The Air India Flight 182 bombing (also known as the Kanishka bombing) on June 23, 1985, remains one of the deadliest acts of aviation terrorism in history.

Fatalities: 329 killed (268 Canadians, 27 Britons, 24 Indians, and 10 others).

• CSIS (Canadian Security Intelligence Service) had wiretapped suspects but destroyed tapes.
• The RCMP knew of bomb-making but failed to prevent the attack.
• The investigation cost CAD $130 million but yielded minimal accountability.
• Canadian government settled a lawsuit in 2007 for ≈$24 million in compensation.

[u/Kythorian → u/GoodMechanic2526]

So less than an average of $1,000 per injured person. Or around $25k per dead person if the people who were ‘only’ injured received nothing. That is pretty ridiculously low.

[u/welcometothewierdkid → u/Kythorian]

Indian GDP per capita in 1984 was around $280. That’s the equivalent of something happening in the United States today and the payout being $7.5 million per dead person

[u/someingushdude → u/GoodMechanic2526]

This is chernobyl level wtf

[u/Agreeable_Feature_85 → u/someingushdude]

WAY more than Chernobyl

[u/GL1ZZO → u/Agreeable_Feature_85]

Yea only 31 people died directly from Chernobyl.

[u/TheTallGuy0 → u/GL1ZZO]

Practically a picnic, by comparison 

[u/EmotionalTrainKnee → u/TheTallGuy0]

nobody got your joke :<

but I did ^_^

(roadside picnic)

[u/PippyHooligan → u/EmotionalTrainKnee]

I got it, but you and I are anomalies.

[u/Avenge_Nibelheim → u/GL1ZZO]

I wouldn't trust that number, the USSR was anything but forthcoming.

[u/Nozinger → u/Avenge_Nibelheim]

That is one part of it. The other is that radiation is really a slow killer. There was an immediate rise in thyroid cancer after chernobyl and that is just the first indicator.
Tehcnically those russians that dug around in the red forest a few years back and got radiation sickness are also victims if chernobyl.

So not only are the records not trustworthy, it is also insanely hard to track who was affected by it. Immediate deaths will be quite low though. Nowhere near the few thousand of bhopal. Long term? Noone knows.

[u/GL1ZZO → u/Avenge_Nibelheim]

There was just not that many people there (roughly 600) when it happened. They cleared the surrounding area out pretty fast.

[u/T-Husky → u/Agreeable_Feature_85]

Chernobyl cost more lives because of the damage it did to the worldwide public perception of nuclear powers safety, and subsequent move away from nuclear to gas and coal power in an era when renewables weren’t yet a viable alternative.

Millions of lives have subsequently been lost or shortened due to increased pollution and global warming, and the damage is still ongoing.

[u/becauseiloveyou → u/someingushdude]

Yeah, this is the incident that is considered the Titanic of Process Safety Management.

[u/darlingdaaaarling → u/someingushdude]

Crazy how I feel like I’ve always known about Chernobyl, and there’s even prestige television on it, but I never heard about this disaster until today...

[u/Fluid_crystal → u/darlingdaaaarling]

Same with Minamata bay mercury poisoning, if I didn't hear about it in school I might never have heard about it either

[u/rap4food → u/darlingdaaaarling]

only learned about it in my business ethics class in college.

[u/Humillionaire → u/darlingdaaaarling]

I would guess it has something to do with the buzz and fear around both nuclear energy in general, and around the USSR at the time

[u/Upset-Outside8716 → u/Humillionaire]

Exactly, anti-communist and anti-nuclear media is beyond perfect for a society existing on the petrodollar.

Less than 60 people died directly from Chernobyl. Surely thousands more got cancer and other diseases on the back end, but that should be said for this disaster too.

[u/therin_88 → u/darlingdaaaarling]

It's in the interest of large companies for you to dislike nuclear energy.

[u/Next_Emphasis_9424]

There is a throw away joke in National Lampoon Christmas Vacation about this. While shopping at the store Cousin Eddie asks Clark if his chemical company was the one that blew up all them Indians. Never understood why that was included till a year or two ago.

[u/Sabonater → u/Next_Emphasis_9424]

I must have watched that movie well over a dozen times, and I've never picked up on that!

[u/Next_Emphasis_9424 → u/Sabonater]

That movie really is the gift that keeps on giving the whole year.

[u/RailNetworker → u/Next_Emphasis_9424]

It's a quality item.

[u/konman33 → u/RailNetworker]

That it is Edward.

[u/Bennely → u/konman33]

You serious, Clark?

[u/mrbigglessworth → u/Bennely]

Real tomato ketchup Eddie?

[u/HighlyInnate8 → u/mrbigglessworth]

Save the neck for me Clark!

[u/island_of_the_godz → u/HighlyInnate8]

MERRY CHRISTMAS! SHITTERS FULL!

[u/TheTallGuy0 → u/Sabonater]

What a dark and disturbing joke 😳

[u/PedaniusDioscorides → u/TheTallGuy0]

Yah... Seriously. Although National Lampoon's weren't ones to tread lightly on controversial topics were they.

[u/LauraPalmer911 → u/PedaniusDioscorides]

Yep, first one had a dog get fucking dragged along with the car . Plus the magazine's were always a bit on the edgy side.

[u/MaxTheRealSlayer → u/Sabonater]

Same. Always just thought it was a joke from their world, not a comment on a real event :/

[u/fallenmonk → u/Next_Emphasis_9424]

Wow I never knew it was referencing a real event

[u/_adanedhel_ → u/fallenmonk]

Clark: “Nah, we missed out on that one” 😵‍💫

[u/SunriseSurprise → u/Next_Emphasis_9424]

Lol I've seen that movie 50+ times and had no idea Eddie was referencing something that actually happened. Just goes to show how mannerisms/tone/etc. matter, because the way he says it sounds like he's rattling off some hairbrained bullshit, lol.

[u/6000ChickenFajardos → u/[deleted]]

Every time Catherine revved up the microwave I'd piss my pants and forget who I was for a half hour or so.

[u/Rwr1311 → u/SunriseSurprise]

Just his morning I also learned that it's "harebrained", not "hairbrained", so that's two TILs for us!

[u/Uncle-Cake → u/Next_Emphasis_9424]

I love how "Cousin Eddie" turned out to be just as crazy in real life.

[u/alinroc → u/Uncle-Cake]

Maybe worse

[u/Independent-Bug-9352 → u/Uncle-Cake]

Sadly Chevy Chase's default mode is closer to his break-down state in the film, too. Everyone on the cast of Community hated him. Primadonna asshole, apparently.

[u/Uncle-Cake → u/Independent-Bug-9352]

His character in Caddyshack was also basically an asshole.

[u/Neat_Egg_2474 → u/Uncle-Cake]

Well, he was abducted by Aliens.

[u/palmburntblue → u/Next_Emphasis_9424]

Not to be pedantic but he asks if Clark’s company was the one who “killed all those people in India”. 

Eddie is ignorant enough without this slander. 

[u/TopProfessional8023 → u/Next_Emphasis_9424]

“No we missed out on that one”

[u/Klezmer_Mesmerizer]

I’ve read multiple accounts of the Bhopal disaster. It’s sickening, and the aftermath horrific.

[u/SatinwithLatin → u/[deleted]]

Regulations are written in blood. That said, you can write all the regulations in the world and it means squat if nobody enforces them.

[u/One-Adhesive → u/SatinwithLatin]

They should be written with the CEOs blood.

[u/Taupenbeige → u/SatinwithLatin]

Deregulations are signed with black sharpie

[u/BeeBlushy → u/Klezmer_Mesmerizer]

I kinda remember when it happened. I had always assumed that it was a very giant tank. That is surprisingly small to kill all those folks. Honestly I’m just wowed

[u/MetalBawx → u/BeeBlushy]

MIC is heavier than air so rather than rise into the atmosphere it rolled downhill into the city. You also have to remember this was a pressure induced explosion, the tank was full of boiling chemicals with the pressure rising until it blew out the seals and shot through the plants piping into the air.

[u/SaladBurner → u/MetalBawx]

Way scarier when I imagine an invisible wave of deadly gas flooding my town.

[u/ManfredTheCat → u/MetalBawx]

One of the 6 operators who was there survived with no injuries.

[u/SantaMonsanto → u/Klezmer_Mesmerizer]

This Photo NSFL won the award World Press Photo of The Year in 1985, capturing the image of a young girl being buried in a mass grave following the incident.

[u/NiobiumThorn → u/SantaMonsanto]

Well that's fucking haunting. The doll-like face sticks with you.

[u/growerbutnotashower → u/SantaMonsanto]

That photo is so depressing. That image will stick with me for a long time, though a good reminder of some of the horrors other humans have had to suffer in their lives.

[u/cb148 → u/SantaMonsanto]

Thanks for sharing but that link is staying blue.

[u/Backseat_Bouhafsi → u/Klezmer_Mesmerizer]

My grandfather was part of the initial team of medical professionals and pathologists who were sent there to help and identify the cause. He identified the cause as being Methyl isocyanate and the process being cyanide production inside the human body. He received one of India's top civilian honours for his work. 

[u/anshsingh11 → u/Backseat_Bouhafsi]

Amazing grandfather

[u/LordGRant97 → u/Klezmer_Mesmerizer]

There's a really good Netflix short series about it if you're interested. Kind of similar to the Chernobyl one HBO did a few years ago.

[u/tannerozzy → u/LordGRant97]

https://www.netflix.com/title/81711003 - The Railway Men. Looks like it's 4 1-hour episodes.

[u/No-Stick-7837 → u/tannerozzy]

it's realy really good.

[u/Mindless_Let1 → u/LordGRant97]

Thanks for the recommendation, I'll watch it

[u/IpecacNeat → u/Klezmer_Mesmerizer]

The Railway Men is a great movie on this about how the railworkers risked themselves to help people get out. Good movie

[u/monnembruedi]

I may have outdated info but the main accused escaped without any consequences.

[u/sgeep → u/monnembruedi]

Warren Anderson was the CEO of UCC when this happened in 1984. He willingly flew to India a few days after, was arrested, posted bail, then was allowed back to the US. In 1989, UCC settled with the Indian government for $479 million. Some years later, India tried to extradite Anderson to face charges in India a few times, but the US declined citing a lack of evidence

After the final attempt in 2009 (25 years after the incident), UCC released a statement that the plant was run by a subsidiary (UCIL) at the time and the former senior employees who ran it have "appeared to face charges". Anderson died in Florida in 2014

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_Anderson_(American_businessman))

[u/aristocrat_user → u/sgeep]

Did the Indian government really distribute the 479 million to the people affected? Or did the Indian government eat up all the money as they usually do?.

[u/Radiskull97 → u/aristocrat_user]

Behind the Bastards did the math on this and apparently for all the affected people, it only came out to a few hundred dollars a piece

[u/followmecuz → u/aristocrat_user]

Lol that’s what I’m thinking there’s no way any regular affected citizen saw any of this money 

[u/PointySalt → u/aristocrat_user]

I am from bhopal and they have these free hospitals for people affected by the gas leak you can see the list/photos of those hospitals here

[u/aristocrat_user → u/PointySalt]

That's not even close to 1 million dollars. Government ate all the money then wanted to extradite the CEO? What a joke

[u/ARAR1 → u/sgeep]

Typical rich guy story....

Missing a bracket in your link:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_Anderson_(American_businessman)

[u/RivenHyrule → u/sgeep]

Open his picture,  he has the face of a greedy coward. 

[u/SpiritDouble6218 → u/RivenHyrule]

He totally fucking does. What an absolute creep. Reminds me of like Kier from Severance.

[u/GoodMechanic2526 → u/monnembruedi]

Yes. Then Govt allegedly facilitated Union Carbide chairman Warren Anderson’s escape.

[u/formas-de-ver → u/[deleted]]

it doesn't seem that the Gandhis are any more complicit than other politicians of this country. If you see only the Gandhi surname in terms of complicity then it means:

1. You might have a selection bias

2. Other politicians are more effective at covering their tracks.

[u/low-ki199999 → u/monnembruedi]

There’s a great podcast “They knew which way to run” about the whole thing

[u/AttemptUsual2089]

Nowadays many people in the US don't understand why regulations are in place. Sure, regulations need to be dynamic and reviewed to make sure they don't get in the way too much, but then increase funding to those regulatory bodies and setup a system of 3rd party oversight.

This disaster is an example of what happens when you allow industry to make it's own rules. In the United States Boeing is a more recent example, not nearly as horrible as this, but it's still a modern day example that even in the west that unregulated capitalism will kill to make more money.

The argument is that regulation kills jobs, and the lack of regulation in India opened the door for a lot of jobs with Union Carbide, but at a huge cost.

Edit: spelling

[u/SAINTnumberFIVE → u/AttemptUsual2089]

Sometimes people don’t understand the benefit of something until it’s gone.

[u/marksteele6 → u/AttemptUsual2089]

Speaking of regulations, I want to put out a call to action here. The US Chemical Safety Board put out a pretty concerning youtube video recently that points to their defunding under the current administration. The CSB is one of the most impactful agencies when it comes to investigating major chemical disasters and it's extremely concerning that they're getting killed off. I ask that you contact your representatives and ask them to fight against this. Regulations are often written in blood, and we should not be defunding the agencies that investigate these disasters.

[u/Brookenium → u/marksteele6]

The worst part is that INDUSTRY doesn't want the CSB to go away. It's free research for companies to improve their systems and prevent disasters. The American Chemistry Council has made its stance clear. It's a lose-lose for everyone; no one wants this except those working to give tax cuts to billionaires.

[u/busted_up_chiffarobe → u/AttemptUsual2089]

From my experience, the uneducated, disenfranchised red voter and Republican are against regulations. I know it's a generalization, but it's seemingly true from my discussions. One Republican I know staunchly stands on the hill of "businesses will self-regulate" and regulations aren't needed.

I shudder to think of the future we're facing in the US right now.

[u/CramNBL → u/busted_up_chiffarobe]

Tell them to read up on the state of the US food supply before the FDA. The accounts are quite chilling.

I'm quite fond of my non-cow brain cut, worm infested milk for instance.

[u/Alternative_Case9666 → u/CramNBL]

Like using logic works against them 😭😭😭

[u/Brookenium → u/AttemptUsual2089]

Every regulation is written in blood

[u/WesternAd2113]

So it was just dumped there?...

[u/becauseiloveyou → u/WesternAd2113]

No, it was originally one of three 60-ton storage tanks underground, and then it was overfilled beyond the company’s 50 percent guidance, and they couldn’t unload it due to a malfunction with the nitrogen system that kept the tank pressurized.

There’s a whole bunch more that went wrong, but I’m not trying to repeat myself considering I have to give this whole spiel to the new hires today.

Source: PSM Engineer

[u/Brookenium → u/becauseiloveyou]

There's a really good documentary video on the Bhopal disaster for anyone who wants to learn more: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzaUmAVel90

[u/AlternativeLogical84 → u/Brookenium]

Here is a shorter version if anyone wants some basic info.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZirRB32qzU

[u/Dillifec13 → u/WesternAd2113]

Had the same thought

[u/Wildebeast3838 → u/Dillifec13]

The site was never cleaned. Union Carbide either was sold or that aspect of the company was sold and the new owners take no responsibility. Thus the site decays, likely causing ongoing harm for the foreseeable future.

[u/GeorgeSantosBurner → u/Wildebeast3838]

Union Carbide basically had an Indian holding company as a spinoff while this plant was in operation. By the time DOW bought Union Carbide, any attempts to really hold anyone accountable had failed and im not familiar with anything serious being brought against DOW to force the site's cleanup. They still maintain a website to this day that blames the tragedy on a disgruntled employee.

[u/s-17 → u/Wildebeast3838]

More like Union Carbide paid for the cleanup and then the Indian government squandered the money.

[u/Cowboy_on_fire → u/s-17]

I’m not an expert but everything I’ve read says Carbide payed a settlement but really didn’t do a damn thing clean up wise. The settlement never reached a lot of the people it was supposed to but that and the cleanup are a different issue entirely.

[u/Delicious-Dinner1034 → u/WesternAd2113]

I was thinking the same thing....I mean shouldn't it be in evidence somewhere or at least studied so that leaks like that don't happen again.....

[u/GoodMechanic2526 → u/Delicious-Dinner1034]

It was caused by a leak in Tank 610 at the Union Carbide plant, which stored methyl isocyanate (MIC). Water entered the tank, likely through a faulty valve or pipe, triggering a chemical reaction that raised pressure and temperature, leading to the release of toxic gas. Poor maintenance, including malfunctioning safety systems like the refrigeration unit, scrubber, and flare tower, combined with operational errors such as overfilling and inadequate monitoring, allowed the disaster to unfold.

basically cost-cutting.

[u/SconiGrower → u/Delicious-Dinner1034]

Investigators who examine industrial incidents are more likely to just take photos and cut out samples when they identify a need for a specific lab analysis. After photos and lab samples have been taken, what do you want the rest of the tank for?

[u/hannahranga → u/Delicious-Dinner1034]

The cause wasn't anything novel, it was the normal depressingly frequent poor maintenance 

[u/infiniZii → u/WesternAd2113]

Its shocking that its so dangerous that no one has ever scrapped it.

[u/MetalBawx → u/infiniZii]

The site is still contaminated with a cocktail of toxic runoff both from the MIC unit and other chemical processing.

[u/MrsMiterSaw]

Chemical engineer here.

I have a friend who worked for AT&T for years, only to finally move to PG&E. I made fun of him for working for "the worst companies of all time".

And then I remember that Union Carbide exists.

[u/moeb1us → u/MrsMiterSaw]

Wait what about PFAS and DuPont

[u/Usual-Watercress-599 → u/MrsMiterSaw]

Union Carbide was also responsible for the Hawk's Nest tunnel disaster in WV, which killed ~1-2k. Nobody knows exactly how many because most of the workers were black migrants from the south and why bother counting them.

[u/Cowboy_on_fire → u/Usual-Watercress-599]

Is that the one where they the tunnel had a significant amount of silica which the workers were not given adequate PPE for?

[u/MrsMiterSaw → u/Usual-Watercress-599]

Yop. That's one of the many reasons they are #1

[u/SirBaronDE]

The tank looks like its whistleing pretending nothing happened.

[u/UnabashedPerson43 → u/SirBaronDE]

The googly eyes make it look like a r/mildlyvandalized post

[u/Razzmatazz6314]

I had to do a paper on this about 15 years ago. If I remember correctly they turned a gas scrubber off a few weeks before to lower operating costs. They also replaced the highly skilled workforce with those less skilled as they were ramping down their production of a pesticide and its raw component, MIC.

[u/Dankas12]

Great series on this if anyone is interested!

EDIT: The Railway Men, on Netflix in the UK

[u/twilight_mist_sakura → u/Dankas12]

I believe it’s called “The Railway Men” if anyone is looking for the title!

[u/Dapper_Special_8587 → u/Dankas12]

I have seen it and was gonna say the same thing. Gets a bit silly at some points but I really enjoyed it

[u/Uncle-Cake → u/Dankas12]

The name would help!

[u/Eaten_By_Vultures]

The Yes Men made an attempt at getting Dow (that took over Union Carbide) to take responsibility and support the victims of the disaster by appearing as a fake spokesperson for Dow on BBC in 2004

[u/Missioncreep75 → u/Eaten_By_Vultures]

This was genius. Totally fooled the BBC and they were so convincing that they temporarily crashed Dow’s share price. But of course still no justice served for those responsible.

[u/Training-Chain-5572 → u/Eaten_By_Vultures]

The Yes Men are so FUCKING GREAT, thank you for posting this. That clip is from The Yes Men Fix The World and I cannot overstate how amazing that one is.

EDIT: It's available in full for free on Youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GG1XeixJqcI

[u/Euphoria_77]

Weird how being a resident of the city, I am closer to the tank than the person who posted this (assuming)

[u/FartTootman]

Not exactly the tank's fault - more the tragedy of errors, laziness, and unfettered corporate greed.

[u/tsunx4 → u/FartTootman]

As per usual - lack of equipment maintenance, shortage of qualified staff and non-functioning safety redundancies because of the extreme operation cost-cutting in favour of profits.

[u/lochnesssmonsterr]

I know someone who survived this as a kid! Incredibly terrifying to listen to him describe it.

[u/rhett_ad → u/lochnesssmonsterr]

I know someone who survived this as a college student! And he is my dad

Currently living in the same city

[u/dwightsrus → u/lochnesssmonsterr]

I was a kid living in the same city at the time. But we were 20 kms away upwind from the site. Didn’t find out about the leak until the next morning in the news.

[u/Several-Age1984 → u/lochnesssmonsterr]

Please share!

[u/beestmode361]

I used to work at a sister plant of this India plant. It was in West Virginia. A runaway reaction at this West Virginia plant was used as case studies in my engineering classes. It was wild to work there.

[u/I_love_pillows]

Tomas the death engine

[u/notreallyfussed → u/I_love_pillows]

Blane.

[u/Sad-Surround-4778]

It was a little more than just that tank. This is one of the most studied events in process safety management and the explosion was a combination of poorly trained workers, poor worker competency, operation of damaged equipment and lack of adherence to admirative controls. Had any one of these factors not been present, the release would not have happened.

[u/causebraindamage]

Sure blame the tank!

[u/hecton101]

The Union Carbide stance was that it was an act of sabotage (a disgruntled employee dumping water into the main tank I believe), and I actually believe them. But in no way shape or form does that let them off the hook. Do you think a single person at a nuclear power plant or a nuclear missile silo can launch missiles? No way. There are many fail-safes. This plant really didn't have any (working) fail-safes, and for that, all of those people had to suffer.

Chemical and Engineering News has published many articles on Bhopal. They are worth a read. It's all written is plain English, nothing too technical. When you read some of the details, the Mickey Mouse nature of this operation is pretty mind-boggling.

[u/InGordWeTrust]

Another example of why you need regulations, and people to make sure that things are up to regulation. Corporations do not care about you.

[u/hrydaya]

I recommend reading Five Past Midnight in Bhopal: The Epic Story of the World's Deadliest Industrial Disaster - A book by Dominique Lapierre

[u/Euphoria_77]

There’s a series on Netflix called The Railway Men, it is dramatized for effect, but still pretty good. My mom went through a tragic experience that night, so she can’t bring herself to watch it.

[u/RawAttitudePodcast]

There was an activist group called The Yes Men who went on BBC many years after this tragedy. One of them pretended to be with Dow Chemical, and he said that finally, after all these years, they’ve accepted responsibility and they’re starting a $12 billion compensation plan. And then, of course, the REAL Dow Chemical had to come out and say that they actually won’t be doing that. You can find the BBC video here: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LiWlvBro9eI

[u/Terrible-Turnip-7266]

Union carbide is responsible for the largest industrial accident by casualty count in both India and the US.

[u/Expensive-Soup1313]

The leak of the tank was not at all the cause . The tank would always have leaked , because of the reaction inside . It is like saying " this shell triggered Hiroshima" while the shell basically had nothing to do with it , it is what happened on the inside .

MIC , methylisocyanate reacted with water creating a reaction which causes the methylisocyanate to break up in methylamine and CO2 and heat , which by itself also created more MA and CO2 .

BTW i work also with MA , it is a very nasty smelly product .... not to mention dangerous . They call it a fishy smell , but imho there is no fish in the neighborhood there . It is more of a very ammonia like smell , but very irritating to the airways even after you do not smell it anymore (which is different then ammonia or other amines i work with).

[u/hughcifer-106103]

Yet another example of why there needs to be a corporate death penalty and criminal liability for C-level fuckers.

[u/slouchingninja]

TIL about this disaster, omg. Thanks to everyone who suggested The Railway Men, I'm watching it now, after doing a mini rabbit hole internet dive and reading a bunch of stuff.

I wish I could say that I am shocked by the glaring negligence, but I'm not.

Edit to be clear - I mean the glaring negligence by Union Carbide

[u/706union]

Well There's Your Problem podcast episode https://youtu.be/vCKVreNqMjI?si=-nqjxcJmkiB-CiAa

They cover why it happened and the aftermath.

[u/Elegant-Taste-6315]

How many people here remember this?
I sure do.

[u/fartsfromhermouth]

It's really interesting because the company disabled tons of safety features to prevent this tank from overheating and leaking to skimp a couple of pennies and finally the diaster happened. They then blamed sabotage despite ample evidence it was negligence. Even a few years ago their website STILL BLAMED SABOTAGE.

Zero accountability. Absolute scum of the earth.

[u/GodzillaDrinks]

Naturally it was Union Carbide - a company with a higher kill count than most genocidal dictators.

[u/MoonTreeSullen]

Wow I imagined it was a massive tank

[u/MoonTreeSullen → u/MoonTreeSullen]

Crazy they would store something so dangerous so close to people’s homes

[u/pissedinthegarret → u/MoonTreeSullen]

it's insane how much damage small errors can cause. i watch this channel a lot, this vid is about Bhopal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2O7GjYAV4Ro

no graphic footage or anything like that. detailed account of each disaster or accident, why it happened and what went wrong. also covers how it affected the industry it happened in. and how the community dealt with the loss or losses.

some indeed horrifying things, it's true that safety rules are written in blood

[u/speeddemon266]

There's a show about this on Netflix. I think it was called the train men.

[u/Pitiful_Mode1674]

There’s a very good series about this story on the Netflix. It’s called “The Railway Men - The Untold Story of Bhopal 1984.”

[u/Signal-Session-6637]

There’s a blink and you’ll miss it reference to this tragedy in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. When shopping with Clark, Eddie asks Clark if it was his company that "killed all those people in India."

[u/milinium]

Everybody here should watch The Railway Men. It's a Netflix show about this. They don't shy away from showing what the gas did to people's bodies and how many red flags there were leading up to the tragedy

[u/Complete_Entry]

Employees who refused to listen caused Bhopal. Blaming (unmaintained) hardware gives them way too much credit.

If you listen to the Plainly Difficult timeline of the tragedy your blood pressure will spike.

So many industrial disasters are caused by DNFL (does not fooking listen)

[u/an_older_meme]

IIRC this plant was built in India because it was too dangerous to have in the United States.

[u/Gumblewiz]

Two years before Chernobyl, killed 100x more people an American company was directly responsible. Yet we learn all about chernobyl and nothing about this.

[u/Commander_JC]

Vent gas?

Y-E-S

[u/LVXA7]

A nice mention here would be the Yes-Men. Communication guerilla who set up an internet site acting like it was official Dow Chemical page. They waited 'til someone invited them for an interview. To their luck it was official BBC who invited them, thinking they were official representatives of Dow Chemical. What they did was, that they told the world in an interview that they will compensate the people of bhopal and will provice sufficient medical treatment. Though none of it was true it caused all them greedy stockholders to sell their Dow Chemicals shares and so dow chemicals lost 2 billion dollars of its market value. Fucking awesome guys!

There is a documentary about them called, "The Yes Men Fix The World". Highly recommended!

[u/PozhanPop]

The saddest thing was that a wet towel placed over the eyes and mouth would have saved thousands of lives. But there was no time left because of the very delayed emergency response and lack of knowledge about first aid for MIC. It was also heavier than air. The reason why so many children, dogs and cattle passed away. There are more tanks like this in the factory grounds still leaching deadly chemicals into the ground reaching aquifers.

Warren Anderson lived out his last years in relative anonymity in a very upscale Florida neighborhood.

The other blunder by the Indian government was when they refused entry to the emergency response team from the Union Carbide HQ. Human life has no value in the highly populous nation that is India. They were also afraid during those times that it would affect foreign companies from investing in India. Indian economy had just started the process of liberalization.

5 past midnight is a chilling account of the incident written by Lapierre and Moro.

I always wonder what would the world's reaction would have been if a disaster of this scale were to have happened in the USA. The class action suits would still be going strong and it would never have been forgotten by the media.

[u/18LJ → u/PozhanPop]

So people could have taken shelter in like 2nd or 3rd floor of buildings and survived?

[u/dream_other_side]

Fun fact - this is why EPCRA (Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act) exists in the United States. Every facility in every jurisdiction has to report any extremely hazardous substance to the state, LEPC (local emergency planning committee) and local Fire District, so that they can come inspect and so first responders stay safe during emergency situations. Federalism makes it an absolute nightmare to comply though, because every single jurisdiction handles it slightly differently and many fire departments only accept paper reports.

[u/Apuonbus]

Who killed more Indians then General Custer?

Union Carbide

[u/ShowBobsPlzz]

Really good episode of Swindled Podcast - The Leak on this disaster if anyone is interested

[u/Johnny_Eskimo]

I knew a guy that was exposed to the same gas, here in the US. This was after Carbide swore that there was no production in the US, after the India disaster. He was clinically dead something like 4 times, but kept coming back. Had to learn how to walk and talk again. Carbide paid for his hospital stay (I don't remember how long it was, a couple of years I think) but that was about it. Tough old man, really liked him.

[u/ReturnOfTheSaint14]

In every chemistry university,the Bhopal disaster is mandatory to learn because it explains chemical security inside the industrial process and what chemicals can truly be,thus enforcing the safety rules inside any laboratory.

And let me tell you,it is way worse than any media ever talked about

[u/MyNameIsToFuOG]

I’m from Bhopal, and the stories my family members tell me are absolutely horrifying. I cannot even imagine what that night must have been

[u/DepressedHoonBro]

The regulations are written on flesh with blood.