The Bhopal gas tragedy was the worst industrial disaster, where 40 tons of toxic gases leaked from a Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, exposing over 500,000 people. Thousands died within days and many more developed serious health issues. Contributing factors included unsafe storage of chemicals, disabled safety systems, and the plant's location near a dense residential area. While over $500 million was awarded in compensation, most victims received very little and continue to suffer health and financial impacts decades later due to ongoing contamination. The disaster highlighted the need for improved emergency response planning and hazardous materials handling.

2. Location
of
Bhopal
in
India

3. BACKGROUND INFORMATION
The Bhopal disaster, also referred to as
the Bhopal gas tragedy, was a gas leak
incident in India, considered to be the
world's worst industrial disaster.
Monday, December 3rd, 1984. (28 years ago)

4. BACKGROUND INFORMATION
• One of Union Carbide’s Pesticide factories was
located in Bhopal, India.
• Union Carbide of India Limited (UCIL) was a
subsidiary of The Union Carbide Corporation
(UCC).
• The Factory produced carbanate pesticides. One
Component was Methyl Isocyanate (MIC).
• A rapidly growing community of roughly 900,000
people.

5. The system that failed

6. The Bhopal Disaster!
• 40 tons of deadly gases suddenly burst out into the
atmosphere.
• Workers fled in panic.
• People woke up coughing violently and with eyes
burning as if chilli powder had been flung into them.
• Neighbouring communities fled in panic
• The streets were foul with vomit. Those who fell were
trampled by the crowd.
• The worst affected were the children: unable to walk
and breathe, they simply suffocated and died.

7. The Bhopal Disaster!
• Ashay Chitre film maker and wife in Bhopal:
• Chaos at 3am , opened the window, they got a
whiff of gas. They immediately felt breathless
and their eyes and noses began to stream with
a yellow fluid.
• Local hospitals were soon overwhelmed with
the injured
• Over 500,000 people were exposed to methyl
isocyanate gas and other chemicals.

8. Contributing Factors
Factors leading to the magnitude of the gas leak
mainly included problems such as:
• storing MIC in large tanks and filling beyond
recommended levels, poor maintenance after the
plant ceased MIC production at the end of 1984,
• safety systems being switched off to save
money— including the MIC tank refrigeration
system which could have mitigated the disaster
severity.
• shortcomings in health care and socio-economic
rehabilitation.

9. Contributing Factors
• use of a more dangerous pesticide manufacturing
method,
• plant location close to a densely populated area,
• undersized safety devices,
• Plant management deficiencies were also
identified – lack of skilled operators, reduction of
safety management, insufficient maintenance,
and inadequate emergency action plans.

10. AFTERMATH OF IT ALL
• In the immediate aftermath of the accident,
most attention was devoted to medical
recovery.
• Children’s bodies awaiting cremation.
• So many thousands had died so suddenly that
these sorts of drastic measures were
necessary to identify and document as many
bodies as possible

11. AFTERMATH OF IT ALL
• The official immediate death toll was 2,259.
The government of Madhya Pradesh confirmed a
total of 3,787 deaths related to the gas
release. Others estimate 8,000 died within two
weeks and another 8,000 or more have since died
from gas-related diseases. A government affidavit
in 2006 stated the leak caused 558,125 injuries
including 38,478 temporary partial injuries and
approximately 3,900 severely and permanently
disabling injuries.

12. • Lawsuits set up against
Warren Anderson, Former
CEO of the UCC .
• Said to have been still living
the luxury life and spend way
much more in a day than the
total compensation of victims
have received from the
company.. .. $470 million of a
compensation settlement in
January 1989.
• Civil and Public unrest and
protests in the streets to get
Warren Anderson to pay!

13. Victims Remain Victims
• >Resident Leela was one of those caught by
Union Carbide’s cloud of poison gas.
• >Her family of six survived, but ever since
they have suffered from breathlessness and
spells of vomiting. One of her sons has gone
blind. All six family members suffer from
breathlessness and spells of vomiting.
• >Burdened by injury they cannot earn well.
The family’s joint income is $30 a month.
• For the gas victims of Bhopal every day of the

14. Victims Remain Victims
• 90% got less than $500.
• Leela got just $208. “No one in my family received more than
that”, she told us. “The money went on medicines as soon as
it came to our hands.”
• Over eighteen years $208 works out at just 3 cents a day and
with each day that passes, its value dwindles.
• Carbide's compensation will barely buy one glass of tea a day

15. Economic Effects
• loss of jobs (650 permanent jobs were lost)
• loss of earning capacity of victims
• business disruptions
• cost of compensation
• rehabilitation, and legal costs.
• "Investment hasn't been coming to Bhopal
because of the stigma."

17. NOW
* Still in a state Recovering
* Almost 30 years later, one out of four babies
born in Bhopal is born dead.
* Countless people suffer from breathing
difficulties, cancer, nerve diseases and
infertility.
* The ground water is still contaminated.

18. NOW
Deteriorating
portion of the
MIC plant,
decades after the
gas leak.
Contributor to
ongoing
contamination.

19. NOW
Bhopal
child born
with birth
defects

20. Lessons Learned/ Causal responses
• Had the safety systems been in working order, the
leak would not have been as damaging.
• $2.2 Million grant to Arizona State University for new
vocational-technical training facility for the citizens of
Bhopal.
• Emergency Planning and Community Right To
Know Act which Provides information to local
communities and individuals about hazardous
materials in their local areas.
• Location of plants away from densely populated
areas