A brief presentation on Bhopal poisoning disaster. Includes on control measure on ways to prevent future occurrence

1. Industrial Hygiene
Airborne Hazard
The Bhopal Disaster
By,
Abirami V.Veeramani
Kong Wanying
Mohd Yusri Hafizi
Nivashini Krishna Kumar
Siti Saidatul

2. Occurrence 3rd December 1984
Place of
occurrence
Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India.
Company Union Carbide Corporation.
Chemical Methyl Isocyanate (40 tons)
People Affected > 500,000
People Died (+-) 40,000
What Happened 45 tons of methyl Isocyanate (MIC)
escaped from two underground
storage tanks at The Union Carbide
Pesticide Plant.
What Happened ?

4. To The Human
Health

10. • A Nitrogen line was connected to the tank to transfer the product by
inert pressurization of the headspace.
• The tank was fitted with a pressure relief valve and rupture disc. The
vent line from the valve exhausted into a scrubbing tower filled with
caustic soda (NaOH). This would neutralize the MIC to form Sodium
isocyanate. Any residual gas from the scrubber was sent to a 30 m tall
flare stack where it would be burned off.
• There was an external coiled jacket on the vessel through which
coolant (freon / chloroform) was re-circulated. This was to keep the
vessel contents at 0 C and thus prevent any adverse exothermic
reactions occurring.
• Tanks were not to be filled above the 50 % mark so that in the event
of dangerous chemical reactions occurring, solvents could be pumped in
to quench the reactions.

12. ANTICIPATION
Hazards in any large scale in any chemical processing industry can be classified into
the following categories ;-

22. Monitor
for IDLH
General
onsite
Monitoring
Perimeter
Monitoring
Periodic
Monitoring
Characterize the
site
Uses variety of
medium to
collect sample
Detect contaminants
that might escape
from the site
Keep update on
change over
time

31. INHALATION Face mask/face shield
EYE Goggle/face shield
SKIN Rubber hand
glove/safety
shoes/body
overclothing