The Union Carbide Gas Disaster in Bhopal, India On December 3, 1984 the residents of a Bhopal, India awoke to a toxic cloud of methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas that had been discharged from the near-by Union Carbida India Limited plant. The deadly cloud infiltrated hundreds of shanties and huts as it slowly drifted in the cool night awaking sleeping residents to coughing, choking, and stinging eyes. By dawn the cloud had cleared and many were dead or injured. Reports of the incident were slow to reach America. Union Carbide, a U.S. corporation that owns 51% of the plant, based in Danbury Connecticut, was in the dark for many days. Union Carbide made front page across the country for months and is still considered the worst industrial disaster in the history of the planet. The official Indian government panel charged with tabulating deaths and injuries updated the count to more than 3,800 dead and approximately 11,000 with disabilities (Browning, 1). The chemical that was released, methyl isocyanate (MIC), is an ester of isocyanic acid (HNCO). It is highly volatile and inflammable and is easily produced and stored at room temperature. MIC, with phosgene as one of the substances used to manufacture it, creates immediate irritation, chest pain, breathlessness, and can trigger severe asthma. If the exposure is high, as in Bhopal, it leads to severe bacterial and oesinophihc pneumonia, tumour or laryngeal edema and massive cardiac arrest. The real problem, however, is that it sensitizes the skin and even a mild exposure proves lethal (www.ecoindia.com). Union Carbide, reporting sales of $9.5 billion in 1984, was clearly one of the largest industrial companies in the Unites States and the World. They produced... ... middle of paper ... ...ord Straight." http://www.igc.org/trac/bhopal/index.htm. N.d. "Environmental Secrecy Brief: A Nationwide Campaign by Corporations to Evade Environmental Responsibility," http://www.enviroweb.org/gnp/corporat.htm. N.d. "MIC or Phosgene?" http://www.ecoindia.com/bhopal.htm. Morehouse, Ward, M Arun Subramaniam. The Bhopal Tragedy: What really Happened and What it Means for American Workers and Communities at Risk. New York: Council on International and Public Affairs, 1986. Orum, Paul. "Time to Reduce Hazards." http://www.rtk.net/wcs/time.html. 1999. PANUPS: Pesticide Action Network, http://www.rtk.net/E8247T598. Selcraig, Bruce. "What You Didn't Know Can Hurt You." http://207.90.163.3/sierra/99701/JFTRI1.html. N.d. "Union Carbide: Ten Years After Bhopal, Still Dealing With the Fall-Out." http://www.prcentral.com/rmjf95bhop.htm. 1995.
Due to political aspirations, government bureaucracy, and greed 111 men lost their lives and devastated the lives of loved ones and a community. While, I believe that it was collection of people who is to blame for the explosion one person who could have really avoided this situation was Robert M. Medill and his assistant Robert Weir. Robert Medill, Director of the Illinois of Bureau of Mines and Minerals, was a man filled with greed and power and did nearly nothing to fix the hazardous condition in Centralia. Medill department were very aware of the dangerous conditions at the mine but ignored requests to correct violations. Instead, Medill and Weir’s handling of the inspection reports and other communications were not conducive to clearing
Centralia Coal Company was owned by Bell & Zoller Coal & Mining Company. Herbert E. Bell was the Chairman and William P. Young was the Vice President. Illinois ranked third in coal production. Four agencies had authority over coal mining at the time; the state of Illinois, the United States Government, Centralia Coal Company and the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA). The explosion in Centralia No. 5 occurred on March 25, 1947. Beginning with his appointment in 1941, State Mine Inspector Driscoll O. Scanlan sent inspection reports to the Department of Mines and Minerals (DMM) Director Robert M. Medill. The U.S. Bureau of Mines inspected Centralia No. 5 the first time in September 1942. Findings and recommendations were the same in all reports. Scanlan requested maintenance related to safety issues. The U.S. Bureau of Mines report supported his findings. In all this time nothing was done.
This last process is significant not only because it brought dioxin the current notoriety but it also is a chemical process used to make products that were used and are still been used in many applications. These applications include pesticide, herbicide, defoliating agent such as Agent Orange, cleaning agent and electrical insulation. Consequently, human exposure to dioxin is not a recent phenomenon and the dangers of dioxin are not unknown. Only in recent years, especially after the Vietnam War, has the media concentrated on the dangers and impact of dioxin.
"Chemical Warfare Agents - Resources on the health effects from chemical weapons, emergency response & treatment, counterterrorism, and emergency preparedness.au.af." Specialized Information Services - Reliable information on toxicology, environmental health, chemistry, HIV/AIDS, and minority health. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 May 2010.
The facts given in the case of A Cloud in the Midnight Sky raise more questions than they answer. Reviewing this case with the mindset of an administrator, proves to be quite complex. Since I am the acting incident commander, It is my responsibility to declare this situation an external disaster. While the facts in this case study definitely point to catastrophic possibilities, I feel like there are still many pieces of the puzzle that need to be filled. Before I declare a disaster, I need to be in close communication with the local authorities. I will need to assess the entire situation and gather as much information about the incident as possible. Two of the most important pieces of information I would need is what chemical agents if any, have the patients been exposed to and
On April 17, 2013, the community of West, Texas, suffered a devastating and heartbreaking event in the evening hours. After a fire broke out inside the West Fertilizer plant, a massive explosion leveled the facility, caused millions of dollars in damage to surrounding buildings, and took the lives of over a dozen people. Sadly, the majority of those killed were volunteer firefighters who had responded to the fire and were unable to retreat to a safe distance before the explosion. Nearly 200 injuries were also reported to have been treated at local hospitals (Wood, 2013). The explosion was said to be caused by the combination of the fire and large stores of ammonium nitrate fertilizer at the plant.
I. How has an industry grown to become a 32 billion dollars a year machine?
On February 1, 2003, the Space Shuttle Columbia was lost due to structural failure in the left wing. On take-off, it was reported that a piece of foam insulation surrounding the shuttle fleet's 15-story external fuel tanks fell off of Columbia's tank and struck the shuttle's left wing. Extremely hot gas entered the front of Columbia's left wing just 16 seconds after the orbiter penetrated the hottest part of Earth's atmosphere on re-entry. The shuttle was equipped with hundreds of temperature sensors positioned at strategic locations. The salvaged flight recorded revealed that temperatures started to rise in the left wing leading edge a full minute before any trouble on the shuttle was noted. With a damaged left wing, Columbia started to drag left. The ships' flight control computers fought a losing battle trying to keep Columbia's nose pointed forward.
For this research paper, I chose to discuss the Louisiana air quality and its effects on the community. I was raised here in Baker, Louisiana which is north of Baton Rouge. Growing up I noticed something very striking and odd. We are overly exposed to chemical plants and their outputs. Driving around Baton Rouge at night and seeing a distant flame I often wonder what it really was. I wonder how this was affecting the community. How was this affecting our health? Upon doing research, I discovered it is called upset emissions. Upset emissions are unplanned events which release VOCs into the air. The Bucket Brigade which is an anti-energy group refers to emissions as accidents. Every year they release an annual report which gives information on the State of Louisiana air quality. A group called Energize LA made a rebuttal against the report. They argued that the Bucket Brigade facts were inaccurate. The views of both will be explained in detail. For this research paper, there will be a discussion on the upset emission effects on communities and health. As well how it correlates to the previous class discussions on the Clean Air Act.
“We as a corporation cannot afford to have union automobile plants in the United States any more than the union can….We cannot compete with a nonunion company building automobiles at the prices I think they can do it at in the country” (pg.103 Reynolds, 1986). Alfred Warren, GM Labor Relation Vice President was unable to conceive the thought of nonunion companies making automobiles in the United States, but that day is here. Right-to-work states have seen a significant increase in the amount of automobile companies opening plants in their states. These jobs are not controlled by the UWA and give companies true freedom of the way they conduct business. The question however is how and why has the idea of nonunion companies creating automobiles in the United States become popular and a success.
The product was made from 4-methylcyclohexanol. The chemical, 4-methylcyclohexanol is used in industrial settings. In 2014, West Virginia was exposed to this chemical in drinking water. Since this chemical is used to wash coal of its impurities, it was unsafe to drink the water as well as take a shower (CNN). Similarly, 4-methylcyclohexanol has a strong smell which may cause people to have symptoms like vomiting, skin irritation, and trouble breathing. Diesel is also replaced by 4-methylcyclohexanol (National Geographic).
In addition to the plant, the governments related in India that issued permits and provided incentives for the plant, Bhopal community officials who permitted slum dwellers to move near the plant in illegal settlements, Indian environmental and safety inspectors should also be responsible for this. The governments related in India issued permits because people need jobs, or people would starve to death. This was one reason in my opinion. Soft money from Union Carbide plant may be another reason for issuing permits. It was clearly that the governments in America would not issue a permit to Union Carbide plant under such circumstances, which lacked of severe environmental standards and permitted slum dwellers to live near the plant and so on. Such actions were the fuses leading to more deaths. Before the major gas leakage from the MCI unit on December 3, 1984, some people were killed because of phosgene gas leakage. However, no one took it seriously in spite of the report by media. One of the reasons that people ignore this was because people didn¡¦t know the potential danger of the chemical plant. The other reason was that there are not enough environmental inspectors to cover so many plants in India. Besides, those inspectors had a record of loose enforcement. Consequently, danger emerged just as the saying goes ¡§Nothing comes of nothing.¡¨
The loss of a life is the ultimate tragedy, and over the thousands of years of mining history, the industry has had its share of casualties. Mining deals with the extraction of raw materials like coal, diamond, iron-ore etc. Mining industries can be both open cast mining and underground mining. Although we have improved in the technology and study of the earth, mining industry is a very dangerous job. One of the most dangerous work of mining has been mentioned to be coal mining in which they extract coal from underground. Coal mining hazardous mixture of gas and coal dust can form a fatal explosion. As a matter of fact, I reviewed an article that mention the worst coal mining known as the Benxi Hu colliery disaster in China in 1942. “Cost 1,549 lives and is believed to be the worst coal mining disaster ever.” (Limited, 2014)
This corporation was not always known for its manufacturing of steel. During the 1950s and 1960s
number of pit heads. In case of any accident as given in Table 1, it