Bhopal disaster

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Coordinates: 23 ° 16 ′ 51 ″  N , 77 ° 24 ′ 38 ″  E

Map: India
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Bhopal disaster​
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View over the former factory site in the middle of Bhopal

The Bhopal disaster , even Bhopalunglück , occurred on December 3, 1984 at the Indian Bhopal , the capital of the state of Madhya Pradesh . At a plant owned by Indian listed company Union Carbide India Limited UCIL, several tons of toxic substances were released into the atmosphere due to human error . In 1984, UCIL was 51% owned by the US chemical company Union Carbide Corporation UCC. The remaining shares were owned by the Indian government, Indian financial institutions and private investors in India. The accident was the worst chemical disaster to date and one of the most famous environmental disasters in history. Thousands of people died as a result of its immediate consequences.

prehistory

From 1977, the group in Bhopal (Central India) had initially produced 2500 tons of the pest control Sevin per year . The plant was designed for a capacity of 5000 tons. However, since Sevin sales in India were declining in the early 1980s, cost-cutting measures had been implemented, such as: B. the saving of personnel, the extension of maintenance intervals, the use of cheap replacement parts made of simple steel instead of stainless steel. Closing the factory was also considered.

course

At the time of the accident, there was no production due to excessive inventory. Only maintenance and control work was carried out. After water got into a tank for methyl isocyanate (MIC) in the course of cleaning work due to an unfortunate chain of events as well as negligence in maintaining the system , an exothermic reaction occurred in which so much carbon dioxide was released that the internal pressure in the tank increased significantly increased and between 25 and 40 tons of methyl isocyanate and other reaction products (mainly dimethylamine , 1,3,5-trimethyl isocyanurate, 1,3-dimethyl isocyanurate) escaped through the pressure relief valves into the atmosphere . The entire contents of the tank evaporated in less than two hours.

Methyl isocyanate

Reversible reaction of MIC with glutathione

Methyl isocyanate caused when exposure burns the mucous membranes , eyes and lungs , but also severe burns internal organs were often found Bhopalopfern. This finding was surprising in that methyl isocyanate is too reactive to enter the cycle unchanged. Its direct toxicity results from its ability to attack numerous nucleophilic groups of metabolically active biomolecules . The mechanism for transport was discovered in 1992. According to this, glutathione , a tripeptide whose job it is actually to protect the organism from damage by toxic substances, can reversibly add methyl isocyanate to the mercapto group and thus transport it in the body.

Further causes and consequences

Reaction of the water with MIC

The basic cause of the accident was a strongly exothermic reaction of the stored MIC with water in the plant's storage tank 610. According to Union Carbide Corporation (UCC), between 450 and 900 liters of water must have entered the storage tank at that time. MIC reacts with water above 0 ° C according to the equation:

and thus with a strong increase in volume or pressure increase due to the formation of gaseous carbon dioxide and the highly flammable and also gaseous methylamine .

Quality deviations

The fact that the quality of the stored MIC was not in accordance with the specifications probably also contributed to the reaction. A significantly higher chloroform content than specified (about 20% instead of 0.5%) and the temperature of 100 to 200 ° C caused by the exothermic reaction apparently resulted in the formation of hydrochloric acid , which caused the tank to corrode on the surface. The released metal ions in turn catalyze further exothermic side reactions to the above-mentioned by-products.

Penetration of water

The 610 tank, raised from its foundation (2010)

The reason for the water penetration could not be conclusively clarified in either the investigation report by the Union Carbide Corporation (UCC) or the report by the trade unions. There are three hypotheses discussed:

  • Confusing a water pipe with a nitrogen pipe
  • Penetration through leaky valves when flushing lines
  • Intentional initiation to simply increase the pressure in tank 610

The blocked water pipes were not secured by an additional locking washer in the flange.

Failure of the security systems

The abandoned site of the Union Carbide factory in Bhopal
In the former Union Carbide MIC factory

Although a separate cooling system was installed to ensure that the MIC was stored at 0 ° C, it was switched off about five months before the accident; according to sources that cannot be further verified, possibly because the chlorofluorocarbons used were required for other purposes. A sodium hydroxide scrubber to remove any gases was demonstrably not functional. A gas flare used to remove gases from the scrubber had been off for three months and the connecting pipes between it and the scrubber had apparently been dismantled for maintenance reasons. Water fountains around the system did not reach the necessary height. However, even if they had functioned perfectly, none of these safety systems would have been remotely suitable for intercepting such a fault.

The official reports give reason to suspect that the plant personnel were also reduced and safety training was severely neglected for cost reasons. The alarm siren was initially switched off so as not to worry the population. After all, the tanks were too large and overcrowded by the standards of western industrial nations (filling level at the time of the disaster between 70 and 87%). Comparable systems work with tanks under 20,000 l and with a maximum fill quantity of 50% of the total capacity. Part of the reason for the high number of victims is also the fact that most of the victims fled towards the hospital and thus into the middle of the cloud; Disaster plans did not exist.

Up until 2010, no one was personally held responsible before the judiciary for the security deficiencies in Bhopal and the resulting consequences. Union Carbide's then chairman of the board, Warren Anderson , who was flown from the USA to India after the toxic gas disaster and arrested immediately upon arrival, was released on bail of $ 2,000 and evaded possible punishment by fleeing to the USA .

As a result of the accidents in Bhopal and Seveso , international security standards were tightened.

The victims

Admonishing wall painting in Bhopal

Estimates of the number of victims range from 3,800 to 25,000 dead through direct contact with the gas cloud and up to 500,000 injured, some of whom still suffer from the consequences of the accident to this day. The sometimes large deviations in the estimates can be explained primarily by the imprecise knowledge of the number of inhabitants of the affected slum during this period. Back then, around 100,000 people lived within a one kilometer radius of the pesticide factory. The Indian authorities had initially tolerated the settlement around the existing factory, later even legalized it with the transfer of the land to the residents. Thousands went blind, countless suffered brain damage, paralysis, pulmonary edema, heart, stomach, kidney, liver ailments and infertility. Later there were malformations in newborns and growth disorders in adolescent children. Epidemiological methods can be used to research the long-term effects , as is the case with other disasters, such as B. the Chernobyl nuclear disaster or the chlorine gas accident in Graniteville , South Carolina, happens.

Lack of liability

Demonstration of the victims of the disaster

Union Carbide had relocated the chemical plant to a low-wage country with low safety regulations for financial reasons . The Indian government demanded $ 3 billion in damages from the company, which appealed against it. After lengthy negotiations and against the waiver of prosecution, the company ultimately paid the Indian state $ 470 million (annual sales of the company at that time: $ 9.5 billion) to the Indian state in a judgment passed on February 14, 1989 by the Supreme Court of India spent in small parts on the victims. Insurance paid an additional $ 250 million. Many of those affected still suffer from the consequences of injuries and poisoning . One reason for this is that Dow Chemical refuses to this day to rid the industrial site formerly used by Union Carbide of the highly toxic remains and thus to end the poisoning in the air and groundwater. This is justified by the fact that the Union Carbide Corporation, which was acquired by Dow Chemical in 2001, took its 50.9% stake in Union Carbide India Ltd. had already sold in 1994. The site, which has been poisoned with mercury and cancer-causing chemicals, has not yet been remediated, although a Greenpeace study suggests that the costs would only be in the order of $ 30 million. All extradition requests the Government of India for the incumbent at the time of misfortune CEO of Union Carbide , Warren Anderson , were rejected by the US.

Rehabilitation and criminal investigation

On June 7, 2010 - more than 25 years after the accident - eight senior executives of the operating company UCIL were found guilty of negligent homicide for the first time by an Indian court and sentenced to two years' probation and a fine of the equivalent of 1,800 euros .

The residential areas adjacent to the plant have only been supplied with drinking water from a distant spring since 2014. A ruling by the Supreme Court of India was required for this. However, the water pipes are insufficiently laid, so that contaminated surrounding water penetrates after rainfall. This water is then also contaminated.

The state authorities have been making promises to clean up the contaminated area since the accident. Up to and including 2017, only superficial measures were taken.

literature

  • Alfred de Grazia : A Cloud over Bhopal - Causes, Consequences and Constructive Solutions. Metron Publications, 1985, ISBN 0-940268-09-4 .
  • International Confederation of free trade unions: Report of the trade unions on Bhopal. Geneva, July 1985.
  • Indian Government: Report on scientific studies on the factors related to Bhopal toxic gas leakage. 12/1985.
  • Dominique Lapierre , Javier Moro : Five past twelve in Bhopal. The incredible story of the greatest toxic gas disaster of our time. Europa Verlag, Hamburg / Leipzig / Vienna 2004, ISBN 3-203-79508-6 . (French original edition: Il était minuit cinq à Bhopal. 2001, translated by Sabine Grimm)
  • Charles Perrow: Normal Disasters. The inevitable risks of large-scale engineering. 2nd Edition. Campus, Frankfurt am Main / New York, NY 1992, ISBN 3-593-34125-5 . (German first edition 1987) (Original title: Normal accidents translated by Udo Rennert, with a foreword by Klaus Traube)
  • India: The Chemical Apocalypse . In: Der Spiegel . No. 50 , 1984, pp. 108-120 ( Online - Dec. 10, 1984 ).
  • International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal .
  • Incident Commission for the Federal Environment Agency: The 1984 Bhopal disaster , brief analysis, assessments, conclusions for the FRG. 8/1987.
  • Union carbide Corporation: Bhopal methyl isocyanate incident. Danbury, Connecticut, 3/1985.

Broadcast reports

Web links

Commons : Bhopal disaster  - collection of images, videos and audio files

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ James Reason: Human Error. Translated from the English by Joachim Grabowski. Spektrum, academic publishing house, Heidelberg, 1994, ISBN 3-86025-098-1 , p. 308.
  2. ^ W. Bogard: The Bhopal Tragedy: Language, Logic, And Politics In The Production Of A Hazard. Westview Press, 1989, ISBN 0-8133-7786-2 .
  3. ↑ Amnesty International Germany: 25 years after Bhopal: Victims wait for justice. ( Memento from February 10, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )
  4. ^ Students for Bhopal .
  5. ↑ Report by Schweizer Radio DRS on the occasion of the 25th anniversary
  6. ^ ER Svendsen, JR Runkle, VR Dhara, S. Lin, M. Naboka, TA Mousseau, C. Bennett: Epidemiologic methods lessons learned from environmental public health disasters: Chernobyl, the World Trade Center, Bhopal, and Graniteville, South Carolina. In: Int J Environ Res Public Health. 9 (8), 2012, pp. 2894-2909, Review. PMID 23066404 .
  7. ^ Fumigating Bhopal. In: The Hindustan Times. September 28, 2006, accessed on February 14, 2009.
  8. ↑ Olivier Bailly: Bhopal, 20 years later. Footnote. In: Le Monde diplomatique. December 10, 2004, accessed on February 14, 2009.
  9. ↑ Two years probation for 25,000 dead. on: wienerzeitung.at , June 7, 2010.
  10. ↑ Little newspaper . June 8, 2010, p. 11.
  11. ↑ Reproduction of the IAP report on Tagesschau.de ( Memento from June 10, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  12. ^ Bhopal disaster: First judgment after poison gas accident over 25 years ago. In: The world. June 8, 2010.
  13. ↑ a b Apoorva Mandavilli: The World's Worst Industrial Disaster Is Still Unfolding . The Atlantic , July 10, 2018