bhopal gas tragedy

1. BHOPAL GAS
TRAGEDY

2. INTRODUCTION
The Bhopal disaster or Bhopal gas tragedy was an
industrial disaster that took place at a Union Carbide
subsidiary pesticide plant in city of Bhopal, on
December 3, 1984 due to release of toxic methyl
isocyanate(MIC)gas.

3. Behind the scenes
• During November 1984, most of the
safety systems were not functioning.
• In the midnight of 2-3 December,
large amount of water entered to the
Tank-610 which contained 42 tonnes
of MIC . It led to a runway reaction
accelerated by contaminants and high
temperatures.

4. Responsible Factors for this tragedy
• The use of hazardous chemicals (MIC) instead of less
dangerous ones.
• Storing these chemicals in large tanks instead of
several smaller ones.
• Possible corroding material in pipelines.
• Failure of several safety systems (due to poor
maintenance and regulations).
• Plant location close to densely populated area.

5. What is Methyl Isocyanate?
1.Clear, colourless,
sharp smelling liquid
2.Highly flammable
3.Extremely toxic
4.Volatile reaction
with water in about
10 minutes

6. Plant production process
– Union Carbide produced the
pesticide, Sevin (carbaryl) using
MIC as an intermediate.
– The chemical process used in the
Bhopal plant was to react methyl
amine with phosgene to form MIC,
which was then reacted with 1-
naphthol to form the final product.

7. HEALTH EFFECTS
Short term effects:
• The initial effects of exposure were coughing, vomiting, severe eye
irritation and a feeling of suffocation.
• Toxic gases like phosgene, hydrogen cyanide, carbon monoxide, hydrogen
chloride, nitrous oxides, and carbon dioxide were produced .
• Other acute symptoms were burning in the respiratory tract and eyes,
breathlessness, stomach pains.

8. Long term effect
Reported and studied
symptoms are eye
problems, respiratory
difficulties, immune and
neurological disorders,
cardiac failure secondary
to lung injury, female
reproductive difficulties,
and birth defects among
children born to affected
women.

9. Bhopal, India, December 1984
Child killed by poisonous gas
leak in the Union Carbide
chemical plant disaster.
ABOUT THE IMAGE:
Following the vehicles that
were taking the dead to be
cremated and buried,
Bartholomew saw the body of
a child, with eyes glazed,
milky-white and staring up at
him. His image became an icon
of grief and greed in the face
of industrial disaster.

10. Aftermath of the leakage
• Medical staff were completely unprepared for the thousands of
casualties.
• Doctors and hospitals were not informed of proper treatment
methods for MIC gas inhalation. They were told to simply give
cough medicine and eye-drops to their patients.
• The gases immediately caused visible damage to the trees. Within a
few days, all the leaves fell off.

11. Environmental effect
• There are still hundreds of
tones of toxic waste alone,
which could lead to a
continuous poisoning of the
soil as well as ground water.
• Some areas in and around that
area are still so polluted that
someone entering that area is
likely to lose consciousness in
less than ten minutes.

12. Environmental
Rehabilitation
• In order to provide safe drinking water to the
population around the UCC factory, there is a
scheme for improvement of water supply.
• When the factory was closed down in 1985-1986,
pipes, drums and tanks were cleaned and sold
off. The MIC and the Sevin plants are still there.
• In December 2008, the Madhya Pradesh High
Court decided that the toxic waste should be
incinerated at Ankeleshwar in Gujarat.

13. FUTURE
The Bhopal Gas Tragedy has
been lost in the collective
consciousness of the nation.
But the ill effects of the disaster
still exist.

14. MADE BY:-
NEHA DAWAR
NITISH SAPRA
PANKAJ AGARWAL
PANKAJ BHARTI
Md. YASEEN
FEROZE