Vocapedia > Countries > India > Bhopal disaster (1984)

warning: graphic

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Suraj Malam Singh at his home

in the Gareeb Nagar neighbourhood

next to the abandoned Union Carbide chemical plant,

an area in which the water supply is contaminated.

Suraj was born with cerebral palsy

and severe mental illness.

Photograph: Judah Passow

The Bhopal disaster victims

still waiting for justice 35 years on – in pictures

Demonstrators marching through the street of Bhopal

to mark the 34th anniversary of the disaster.

Photographer Judah Passow has documented those were affected

by the Bhopal disaster 35 years ago,

which killed an estimated 25,000 people

ad has left more than 150,000 suffering

from chronic medical conditions

G

Sat 7 Dec 2019    10.00 GMT

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/gallery/2019/dec/07/
the-bhopal-disaster-victims-still-waiting-for-justice-35-years-on-in-pictures

1984 > Madhya Pradesh, India >

Bhopal disaster        UK / USA

the gas leak (...) killed 20,000 people

(...)

phosgene spill.

The first world war gas was used

in the production of MIC (methyl-isocyanate),

a substance 500 times deadlier than hydrogen cyanide,

and so volatile that unless kept in spotless conditions,

refrigerated to 0C,

it can even react explosively with itself.

Cooling it slows reactions, buys time,

but MIC is so dangerous

that chemical engineers recommend not storing it at all

unless absolutely necessary

and then only in the tiniest quantities.

In Bhopal it was kept in a huge tank,

the size of a steam locomotive.

Far from the shining cathedral of science

depicted in Union Carbide adverts,

the Bhopal factory more closely resembled a farmyard.

Built in the 70s to make pesticides

for India's "green revolution",

a series of bad monsoons and crop failures

had left it haemorrhaging money.

Union Carbide bosses hoped to dismantle and ship

the plant to Indonesia or Brazil,

but finding no buyers,

went instead on a cost-cutting spree.

Between 1980 and 1984 the workforce was halved.

The crew of the MIC unit was cut from 12 to six,

its maintenance staff from six to two.

In the control room a single operator

had to monitor 70-odd panels,

indicators and controls, all old and faulty.

Safety training was reduced from six months to two weeks

– reduced in effect to slogans –

but as the slogans were in English,

the workers couldn't understand them.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2009/dec/04/
bhopal-25-years-indra-sinha

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jan/02/
india-toxic-waste-removal-bhopal-disaster-site-dismissed-as-farce

https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2023/06/17/
1181244389/the-worlds-worst-industrial-disaster-harmed-people-
even-before-they-were-born

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/jun/14/
bhopal-toxic-gas-leak-chemical-environmental-disaster-waiting-for-justice-
union-carbide-dow

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/gallery/2019/dec/07/
the-bhopal-disaster-victims-still-waiting-for-justice-35-years-on-
in-pictures - Guardian picture gallery

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/jun/07/
bhopal-disaster-india-sentences

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/jun/07/
bhopal-disaster-india-seven-convicted

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2009/dec/04/
bhopal-25-years-indra-sinha

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cif-green/2009/dec/03/
bhopal-india-industrial-disaster

https://www.npr.org/2004/12/03/
4199681/after-20-years-effects-of-bhopal-tragedy-linger

https://www.npr.org/2004/12/03/
4199775/remembering-the-bhopal-tragedy-on-a-small-scale

https://www.npr.org/2004/12/03/
4201566/bhopals-toxic-legacy-lingers-two-decades-later

https://www.nytimes.com/1985/12/01/
world/bhopal-is-in-midst-of-grim-recovery-a-year-after-leak.html

https://www.nytimes.com/1985/03/22/
business/gaps-seen-in-report-on-bhopal.html

https://www.nytimes.com/1985/01/31/
world/disaster-in-bhopal-where-does-blame-lie.html

https://www.nytimes.com/1985/01/28/
world/the-bhopal-disaster-how-it-happened.html

https://www.nytimes.com/1984/12/10/
world/india-disaster-chronicle-of-a-nightmare.html

https://www.nytimes.com/1984/12/05/
opinion/the-tragedy-at-bhopal.html

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