bhopal gas tragedy

After the Bhopal gas disaster in 1984, the Indian legislation governing safety and environment underwent significant changes.Specifically,the factories Act was amended to assign the responsibility of the “occupier”,who is legally responsible for the safety of the workplace and workers,to the highest level of management in an organization. For a company this meant that one of the directors on the board had to be designated as “occupier”.The Environmental legislation also underwent changes ,with the Environment protection Act introduced in 1986.Under this act, a number of new legislations were framed. The Manufacture, Storage and Import of Hazardous Chemical rules,1989 was introduced with the objective of preventing another Bhopal type of disaster.Specifically,this rule required safety audits to be carried out in hazardous chemical factories,storing more than a threshold limit of hazardous chemicals.
The Chemical Accidents(Emergency Planning,Preparedness and Response)Rules,1996 was also introduced.Preparation of on-site Emergency Plan by the Industry and Off-site Plan by the District Collector and the constitution of four-tier Crisis Groups at the centre,State,District and local level for management of chemical accidents are mandatory under these rules.These rules also focus on accident prevention,preparedness and mitigation for achieving adequate safety by minimizing risks while handling hazardous chemicals during production,storage,transport,trading and use of chemicals.
Under these rules,the industries have been identified as’Major Accident Hazard’ based on exceeding threshold quantities of hazardous chemicals specified in schedules 2 and 3 of the rules.
The public Liabbolity Insurance Act 1991 was also promulgated,which mandates compulsory insurance for the purpose of providing immediate relief to persons affected by accidents that occur in handling any hazardous substance..
Are the changes in the Indian legislation enough to prevent another Bhopal?
After Bhopal,a number of serious chemical incidents took place in India.
Some of them are listed in Table 1. The table indicates that incidents involving hazardous chemicals still continue to occur in India.Many of the near miss chemical incidents go unreported.
Meanwhile,in USA,after Bhopal and other disasters,the Process Safety Management System developed by Occupational Safety and Health Administration became mandatory in 1992 for industries handling,storing and manufacturing hazardous chemicals above a threshold quantity specified.