Bhopal Final

8/9/2019 Bhopal Final

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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 !!!!!

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Bhopal Final