The Bhopal Gas Tragedy of December 3, 1984 is one of the most hazardous industrial accidents in history. The exposure of around 500,000 people to 42 tonnes of toxic methyl isocyanate gas was a nightmare come true for all resulting in deaths in numbers that could never have been imagined from industrial accidents. All this and the after-effects could have been prevented if proper precautionary measures had been taken beforehand. Despite of an accident on such a large scale, initially the company was in a denial mode about the whole matter and later compared the whole thing just to be a ‘tear gas like’ situation. Moreover they failed to provide any immediate antidote for the poisonous gases which had spread all over Bhopal affecting many more than initially imagined. The blame lies as to why no measures were taken regarding huge amounts of water entering tank 610? Why wasn’t there a person to look over the pressure and temperature statistics and control the pressure inside the container once the water had entered? The container should have been designed keeping in mind the sudden increase of pressure due to any such situation. Some margin must have been there to account for sudden such rises. But the industry never had such precautionary steps in mind which eventually led to this. Moreover, the industry should have practiced drills and should have been prepared for such an incident beforehand. They should’ve been aware of methods to control the spread of the toxic gas once it had leaked from the main container. Such a control measure would have restricted the spread. The tank’s alarm had not been working for the past 4 years. A timely check on all such measures would have been helpful for its prevention. The steam boiler used to clean the pipes that caused this leakage had been out of order since a long time. The responsible authorities should have been vigilant on such important issues. Timely cleaning of these pipes would have never caused
The Bhopal Gas Tragedy of December 3, 1984 is one of the most hazardous industrial accidents in history. The exposure of around 500,000 people to 42 tonnes of toxic methyl isocyanate gas was a nightmare come true for all resulting in deaths in numbers that could never have been imagined from industrial accidents. All this and the after-effects could have been prevented if proper precautionary measures had been taken beforehand. Despite of an accident on such a large scale, initially the company was in a denial mode about the whole matter and later compared the whole thing just to be a ‘tear gas like’ situation. Moreover they failed to provide any immediate antidote for the poisonous gases which had spread all over Bhopal affecting many more than initially imagined. The blame lies as to why no measures were taken regarding huge amounts of water entering tank 610? Why wasn’t there a person to look over the pressure and temperature statistics and control the pressure inside the container once the water had entered? The container should have been designed keeping in mind the sudden increase of pressure due to any such situation. Some margin must have been there to account for sudden such rises. But the industry never had such precautionary steps in mind which eventually led to this. Moreover, the industry should have practiced drills and should have been prepared for such an incident beforehand. They should’ve been aware of methods to control the spread of the toxic gas once it had leaked from the main container. Such a control measure would have restricted the spread. The tank’s alarm had not been working for the past 4 years. A timely check on all such measures would have been helpful for its prevention. The steam boiler used to clean the pipes that caused this leakage had been out of order since a long time. The responsible authorities should have been vigilant on such important issues. Timely cleaning of these pipes would have never caused