UNIT III.ppt

This particular gas then enters the lungs, where it reacts with bodily fl uids, fi lling the lungs and drowning a person 'from the inside'. This was a disaster the town might eventually (over a long period of time and with help) have come to terms with, were it not for the following facts:

The explosion in the Union Carbide factory in Bhopal, on the fateful winter night of 1984, still remains the most horrific and the world's most lethal industrial disaster. It led to thousands of deaths and millions of people suffered from genetic mutations and diseases of the respiratory and neurological system. Studies and theories pointed out that this disaster was evitable and could have been prevented had precautionary measures been taken and a thorough environmental assessment been done by the authorities at the State and Central level. It was only after this catastrophe that the environmental legislations in India were seriously worked upon and various laws, which are now expedient to the functionaries, were brought into existence. The model of Environment Impact Assessment which was followed in India at that time was the Discretionary Model, which gave a lot of discretion to the Central Government to sanction projects without mandating environment assessment. This meant that the projects could be sanctioned without carrying out of any form of impact assessment, which led to this fatal accident. The Public Liability Insurance Act of 1991 was hurriedly brought into existence after this accident, to provide liability insurance to the public at large in case of any environmental disasters which were to take place in the future. The most important environment legislation in India today, the Environment Protection Act of 1984 was devised only after the Bhopal Gas Tragedy. It will not be entirely incorrect to say that environment legislation in India accelerated and developed only when a tragic accident which killed thousands of people took place. It was only then, that the legislators realized the expedient need of formulating laws, which should have been there before hand and which could have averted this industrial disaster and saved thousands of lives and the suffering which followed. Introduction: December 2014 marked the thirtieth anniversary of the deadly disaster in Bhopal which left thousands of people dead and thousands others maimed for life. The lethal Methyl

American Journal of Public Health, 1987

2014 will mark the thirtieth anniversary of the massive toxic gas leak from the Union Carbide Corporation’s pesticide plant in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India. Even after three decades, the effects of the tragedy are still visible throughout the slums surrounding the abandoned site. The aim of this research was to examine the aftermath and a few instances of disastrous consequences of the catastrophe. Various consequences, let it be long-term or short, will be presented in this paper.

The Bhopal gas tragedy occurred in December 1984 wherein approximately 41 tonnes of deadly MIC was released in the dead of night. It caused the death of over 3000 people and continued life-long misery for over 300,000 with certain genetic defects passed on to the next generation. It happened in a plant operated by a multinational, Union Carbide Corporation, in a developing country, India. The tragedy has changed the chemical process industry (CPI) forever. The results have been new legislation with better enforcement, enhancement in process safety, development of inherently safer plants, harsher court judgements, pro-active media and NGOs, rights-conscious public, and a CPI management willing to invest in safety related equipment and training. These have already resulted in savings of several hundred lives and over a billion dollars in accident damages . Process plants: a handbook of inherently safer designs. London: Taylor & Francis. Sutton, I. Chemical Engineering, 106(5), (1999). 114]. However, thousands did not have to die for the world to realise the disaster potential of CPI. The question that still remains is whether such an accident could have happened in a developed country. The answer is 'yes', as a number of major accidents in the developed countries since 1984, such as the Piper Alpha oil platform fire (1988, 167 killed), the Zeebrugge ferry disaster (1987, 167 killed), Phillips petroleum fire and explosion (1989, 23 killed), the Challenger disaster (1986, 7 killed), Esso Australia Longford explosion (1998, 2 killed) have demonstrated. One or more of the following are the primary reasons for such disasters: The indifferent attitude of the management towards safety, the lax enforcement of the existing regulations by the regulatory bodies as well as unusual delays in the judicial systems. Such conditions can happen regardless of the level of development in a country. Hence, the Bhopal gas tragedy could have happened in a developed country too, albeit with a lower probability. This paper is concerned with the possibility and not with the probability value. It also points out that further significant advances in process safety will occur with fundamental research into the causes of accidents and with a move towards inherently safer design. 

As I heard of the poisonous gas leak from a factory in Vizag which must have killed many and affected hundreds took me back to the year 1984 where Union Carbide, a subsidiary in Bhopal killed hundreds and thousands of people and many thousands suffer of the side effects even now the aftermath. Paying compensation to the victims is still seemed to be going in the courts. Union Carbide happen to be multinational corporations with head quarters in the United States, whereas LG Polymer is a South Korean multinational from where poisonous gas leaked must have killed more than the figures that we get and affected many more. It is proven beyond doubt that the multinationals that sets plants in the developing countries send obsolete and outmoded technologies to the countries that desperately needs and also labor force which is cheap. The state and Central governments should have thought about the quality of machineries and followed strict safety measures before issuing license. The following write ups unfold many layers of questions and doubts about the Vizag leakage of poisonous gas: Questions in wake of Vizag gas leak: 'What caused the leak, did people know they lived in vulnerable zone?' The styrene leak from the factory affected at least 2,000 residents in five villages around it. Eleven people have died. Written by Rahul V Pisharody | Hyderabad | Updated: May 7, 2020 10:08:18 pm Th e gas leakage was reported at 2:30 am. (Twitter/Srijana Gumalla)

Disaster & Development, 2013

an attempt to reveal the trend of chemical disasters in India for the past three decades (1980-2010). Retrospective and Preliminary Hazard Analysis (PHA), method was used to chart out the trend. The reported chemical disasters (RCD) from open access sources and websites were collated that enabled the study to know the trend in number of chemical disasters (CD) state, union territory and year-wise in India. RCD was chronologically identified ranked and termed as identified reported chemical disasters (IRCD). The types of CD was identified based on its origin, the hazardous chemicals (HAZCHEMS), natural and manmade origin was identified. It was clear that the trend of chemical disasters was varying for the time period; in year 1994 and 2003 the maximum number of CD was identified, Maharashtra state stood highest in CD and the RCD was 37. Crude oil, ammonia, chlorine, sulphur compounds are mostly reported HAZCHEMS. Oil spills, toxic gas leakage, explosion are the type of IRCD. Orissa super cyclone was only the natural calamity that triggered CD 99 percent of IRCD was manmade. Thus, this study reveals the status of CD that has occurred in India. The study will be beneficial to planners to plan better preparedness and mitigation strategies to mobilise resources, strengthen capacities for to cope up those chemical disasters not to occur again, lessons for to implement “Safety as Culture” in India’s developmental policies and planning. Help government to draw more guidelines, policies and regulations for chemical safety during manufacture, storage, transport of HAZCHEMS, to bring new technologies to early warn these situations