Analysis Of The Bhopal Chemical Leak Disaster

882 Words2 Pages

Stuart Schmidtke
Analysis II
March 5th, 2014
Bhopal Chemical Leak Disaster
When things go wrong many people either blame someone else or look to someone to get them out of their mess. When Union Carbide Corporation (UCC) caused one of the world’s worst industrial disasters in history, they turned to Dow Jones Chemical to change their image. Years after the Bhopal disaster, Dow purchased the company for $12 billion in hopes of increasing their shares and revenue. What Dow didn’t know is that they would be compensating the victims of the Bhopal disaster the same amount of money they bought Union Carbide Corporation for. The Bhopal disaster is an example of image crisis. Even though, Union Carbide Corporation was a financial gain, Dow ruined their image by taking such a long time to clean up a mess that left thousands dead.
On December 2nd 1984, a toxic leakage from the Bhopal plant exposed half a million people to forty tons of Methylisocyante (Greenpeace.org). The leakage was caused by large amounts of water entering the Methylisocyante tank, which is believed to be deliberlity injected to lower costs (Bhopal.com). Over the next few days, more than eight thousand people would die from gas exposure and for the next two decades hundreds of thousands would be exposed to the contaminated soil and ground water. Union Carbide Corporation left a huge mess in India, and Dow believed they could be the ones to clean up the mess and compensate the victims of the disaster.
Dow Jones Chemical taking responsibility for the Bhopal disaster is the perfect example of Image Crisis. Image Crisis is the way a company perceives itself and how the public views the company. The image of Union Carbide Corporation was ruined not only from the Bhopal d...

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...ferent view points.
Authority: It is credible because it comes from a trusted database.
Accuracy: It is accurate because it comes from victims and very credible sources.
Purpose: The purpose of this source is to have something other than a trusted website as a source.
"Bhopal Disaster. (2007) BBC, The Yes Men." YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiWlvBro9eI
Currency: This video was taken when Dow announced they were compensating the Bhopal victims.
Relevance: This video is relevant because a big part of my paper was based on Dow paying back the Bhopal victims.
Authority: It is credible because it comes from the Dow spokesman himself.
Accuracy: It is accurate because it was taken right after Dow announced their plan to pay back the Bhopal victims.
Purpose: The purpose of this video is to back up my idea on Dow taking awhile to pay back the Bhopal victims.

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