bhopal final
TRANSCRIPT
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Case: The Bhopal Disaster
Presented by :-
Arpit Sharma
Gaurav P. SwamiJitendra Pal Singh
Prayas Dogra
Priyank Singhvi
Rohit Chandra
Rohit Surana
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INTRODUCTION
In the case, it is derived that the companies have started
to revaluate their policies in the form of safety policies
and procedures to prevent the repeat of disaster which
occurred in Bhopal due to leakage of MethylIso Cynate
Gas in Union Carbide Factory.
This was to be done for investment in less developed
countries.
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W.R. GRACE & COMPANY
1.) In 1984,W.R. Grace & Company worked with mass combination ofheterogenous elements which was quite diversified.
2.) The company operated with chemical, energy production and services,
retailing, restaurant and other types of subsidiaries in 47 states and 42
countries.
3.) In 1984, the companys agricultural chemical divisions and speciality
accounted for 42 % of its 6.728 b$ in sales and 65% of its 322.6 m$ in
income.
4.) The company employed workers in Latin America , Far East and other less
developed regions where the chemical operations accounted for 10% of
chemical divisions sales and 20% of their profits.
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Continued
5.) The government of some countries held major interest in the operations
where Grace company operated its plants.
Example- 51% stake of anhydrous ammonia facility by government
( Trinidad Government )
49% stake by Company ( Grace )
6 .) In 1984, Grace company continued its operations in less developed
countries by opening a silica gel production plant in Brazil.
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ROLE OF CHEMICALS IN FEEDING THE
WORLDS PEOPLE
American chemicals had a lot to offerto the world people.
The agriculture chemicals like
fertilizers play a vital role in green
revolution.
Green revolution in turn made the
availability of additional food to the
poor nations.
According to the Nobel laureate
Norman Borlaug, increased in worldfood supply required the use of
pesticides.
Pesticides increased the crop yield in
tropics from 20
bushels to440
bushelsper acre.
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Continued.
Pesticides are also useful in protecting the harvested
crops,when they harvested they were vulnerable to rodents and
insects.
According to experts 25 percent of harvested crops would belost without pesticide
Rice crops with the aid of insecticides in the Philippines showed
yield increase of100 percent.
Economic growth necessary to raise standards of living was
facilitated by the increased agricultural efficiencies chemicals
made possible.
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RISK OF CHEMICALS
Unawareness of dangers of pesticide manufacture and use.
Inappropriate use of pesticides.
The boomerang effect that people in developed countries also
were affected. The regulatory apparatus in third-world countries was
completely inadequate to deal with the problem of increasing
concentration of deadly pesticides throughout the bio-shpere.
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THE BHOPAL ACCIDENT
{THE SETTING}
Bhopal, the most centrally located city in India it is the capital
of the least-industrialized states in the country.
The area had a fairly good base of natural resources like water
& timber . In the 1950 the Indian govt. had actively encouraged industrial
development in the Bhopal.
But the infrastructure of services like roads , utilities , and
communication services were poor .
By the 1980s, the thousands of people had driven to cities to
look for work due to stagnation in agricultural production
Bhopals population grew six fold between 1961 to 1981
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Continued.
The walls of union carbides Bhopal plant were crowded with
such squatters. The plant was originally built in 1960 in open fields .
At the time of start up, the plant was used to mix chemicalcomponents that had been manufactured overseas and shippedto Bhopal .
By 1978, under pressure from Indian govt. the company hadbuilt and begun operating the facilities necessary tomanufacture the precursors.
The plant was now much more of health hazard than before .
some local authorities objected to continued siting of the plantat its present location but the govt. officials overruled them .
Because the plant was too important a part of the localeconomy to risk losing.
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Continued
The pesticide components manufactured at the plant was highly
toxic compound called MIC .
It was manufactured at Bhopal in batches and stored in three
refrigerated tanks .
Each tank was equipped with pressure and temperature gauges
with a high temperature alarm and pressure alarm .
There were several safety systems designed to handle
accidental leaks , like vent-gas scrubber , a flare tower , the
refrigeration system and a set of water-spray pipes .
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THE EVENING OF DECEMBER 2,1984
Suman Dey control room operator
At 11:00 P.M. he did a routine check of the gauges and
noticed that pressure was in the range of 2 to
25 psi which was normal
At 11:30 P.M. a worker reported to day that there is an MIC
leak near the vent gas scrubber.
At 12:15 A.M. tea break was scheduled
Workers thought of fixing the leak after the tea break
But it was too late because the pressure in one of the tanks
reached to 30 psi after the break began and reached to 55 psi
in couple of minutes later. The pressure exceeded the gauges
upper limit of handling pressure. i.e. is 55psi
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Continued.
A crack of 60 feet long and 6 inches thick opened up due tothe excess pressure.
Height of the tower :120 feet
Water from the fire brigade was only able to reach 100 feet
so wasnt able to knock down the cloud of gas. Vent gas scrubber was was under maintainence and had not
been charged with caustic soda.
Did not use the flare tower for fear of igniting the large cloud
of gas. Did not have a empty tank to route the leaking gas into it.
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Continued
At 1:30 A.M. the gas permeated thecontrol room.
All the workers fled on foot in frenzy
and panic.
At 2:30 A.M. The gas has stoppedshooting out of the tank
At 3:30 A.M. Dispersed from the
plant and started spreading in the
near by areas. 45 tons of MIC spread over 25 miles
of the city and killed nearly 3,000
residents and seriously injured
40,000 more.
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THE COST OF ACCIDENT
Victims continued to sufferfrom lung diseases, eyedisorders as well aspsychological trauma.
Reproductive illnesses was also
found in women. Estimated economic losses in
the form of business loss was$65 million as 1500 plantrelated government jobs and650 high-paying jobs were lost.
The reputation of bhopal as abusiness vity was also lost.
$3 billion lawsuit was also filedby the indian government onbehalf of the victims.
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Continued..
Union carbide(UC) plant was under light of world media and
its location for new plant was also cancelled.
Companys stock dropped from $48 to $32 and th within
few weeks.(though it raised later to $52) Companys dept rating was reduced to lowest investment by
Standards and poors.
Company was sued by its own stockholders,for not informing
them regarding the risk involved.
There had also been 28 major MIC leaks at UC plant in
institute,west virginia preceding 5 years of this incident.this in
hence damaged the industrys reputition.
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INVESTIGATION
The investigation was started to find out the reasons for accident
by reporters, Indian govt. officials and union carbide technical
experts. Gradually it was clear that human errors and
organizational shortcomings were also factors other than
technical malfunction.
By analyzing the residue remaining in the tank E610 scientistsdetermined that somehow 1100 pounds of water was introduced
into the tank and chemical reaction occurred that led to leakage.
> water + MIC = hot, highly pressurized mixture of liquid, foam
and gas(exothermically)
> pressure in tank reached 180psi , that was more than enough
to blow open safety valve.
how water got into the tank????
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Continued.
Two main outcomes :-
(1)Investigations revealed that an employee failed to use a device
called slip blind while washing some of pipes leading to tank to
ensure water could not leak past a series of valves leading to tank.
(2)Union carbide argued that accident was result of sabotage by an
unhappy employee who deliberately unscrewed a gauge andstuck water hose into the tank.
> carbide cited statements of employees who have seen running
water hose near the tank after the accident.
> company also argued that such a huge amount of water wouldnot have been introduced into the tank with washing the pipes.
Whatever was the cause of accident but it was clear that there
was huge loss of lives and infrastructure.T
he safety policies andprocedures were not followed properly.
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CONDITION OF THE PLANT
Bhopal plant was an unprofitable unit in an unimportant division of the company.
Competitors introduced new and inexpensive products. Indian economy In downturnfor few years.
Companys profits fell, plants budgets were cut, maintenance was deferred,
employees laid off and training programs were scaled back. Only 6 operators left.
Because of layoffs morale was low and best employees were quitting.
A 1982 company safety inspection determined many basic safety rules were being
ignored like workers signing permits they were unable to read and working in
prohibited areas without permission.
Safety measures were inadequate- also one death in past. No plans for emergency so
when MIC leaked they reacted in disorganized manner shutting off warning siren.
Plant relied on manual operating system . Indian engineers designed the plant to use
more manual labor than comparable plants overseas partly to generate more jobs. Communication system was not good. Local police was not informed about the
accident until 3 am. Reasons :-
> phones werent working .
>plant mgt had policy of not involving local authorities with gas leaks .
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THE INDIAN GOVERNMENTS ROLE
1.) Government played a significant role to the condition that created thedisaster.
2. ) Many aspects of relatively primitive local and national system also
contributed to the severity of the accident which are as follows-
a. The department of labour understaffed.
b. The department personals less equipped.
c. Inspectors had little understanding of the hazardous of the chemical
plant.
3.) The government scareness .
4. )Negligency of the government.
5.) The primitive state of the local social services infrastructure contributed
to this tragedy.
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IS IT APPROPRIATE OR INAPPROPRIATE TECHNOLOGY??
The criticisms for high complex technology in the form of pesticide production is
inappropriate for a country where people are not familiar with the hazards of such
technologies. In the case of Bhopal gas plant , the people staying nearby thought
the company produced valuable plant medicine and they had no safety measures.
Even the workers were unfamiliar with the health threat caused by MIC Gas. So,
they were not able to advise the doctors who were treating the casualties.
But there are few views which argued that high complex technology is essential for
achieving worlds hope of achieving a better standard of living.
Mr. John analysed that for investment in developing nation like India , there is a
definite need for a list of guidelines for corporate involvement in the developing
world that would ensure that mistakes which occured in Bhopal would not be
repeated again.
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THANK YOU !!!!!