The Eruption The first leak of MIC was noticed on 02.12.1984 at about 23.30 hours in the MIC structure area near the VGS. The operators on the ground level in this area felt the presence of […]
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HUSH, BABY Beyond sleep and wakefulness Suspended in nightmare, a poisonous playground leaks endless terror Through air, ground and water Into lungs and veins and wombs, Tortured nerves and mothers’ breasts. And in Bhopal the births
J. Venkatesan in The Hindu It was sitting on a powder keg, agency tells court, justifying filing of curative petition UCIL was running the plant with structural and operational defects Tragedy cumulative result of series of
UCIL entirely responsible for Bhopal gas tragedy, says CBI Read More »
Towards Disaster The shutting off of the refrigeration system of the MIC unit in June 1984 signaled the beginning of the journey towards disaster. The crucial subsequent developments were as follows. According to UCIL: “…from 22nd
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It has been widely reported in the Indian media this week that the 2011 census has shown a national drop in child sex ratio. The 2001 census places girl:boy ratio in India at 927:1000; 2011 results
Sambhavna celebrates International Women’s Day Read More »
Management’s Gross Indifference The rising sense of insecurity forced Shahnawaz Khan, a Bhopal-based lawyer, to serve a legal notice on the UCIL management on 04.03.1983 complaining about the danger, which the UCIL plant posed to the
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Name: Nagendra Chaturvedi Age: 25 Job Title: Information in Charge (Since March) What are your first impressions of Sambhavna? “The staff at Sambhavna are like a big family. They adhere to a system of work and
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In Dec. 1984, right before midnight and without warning, the gas leaked from the Union Carbide factory. The cool night breeze blew the gas — extremely toxic methyl isocynate — over the city of Bhopal, India,
Bhopali a tough, gripping documentary Read More »
Early warnings The pesticide unit for manufacturing “SEVIN” (the brand name of one of the pesticides marketed by UCC) was commissioned at the Bhopal plant in 1977. It was initially operated by importing MIC (which was
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“It can’t happen here!” After the UCC Investigation Team had completed its presentation at the said press conference, Jackson Browning, UCC’s Vice-President for Health, Safety, and Environmental Affairs also addressed the press. He confined himself to
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UCC’s Report According to UCC’s own Report, on the night of 2/3.12.1984, all the critical safety systems at the Bhopal plant had either been shut off or were dysfunctional: (1) “The VGS had been removed from
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Violation of Safety Norms UCC’s own brochure on MIC had clearly stated that: (1) “Methyl isocyanate (MIC) is reactive, toxic, volatile, and flammable” (p.1); (2) it “is a hazardous material by all means of contact”; (3)
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