The Incident At Bhopal Essay Research Paper — страница 2

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reproductive disorders are so commonplace that they are seen as sterile.(5) It is unknown whether chromosomal damage will affect future generations.(8) TOTAL EFFECTS ON THE ENVIRONMENT are not yet known. Approximately 1,600 animals died on the first and second days after the incident. This was a terrible environmental health risk. Eventually this problem was solved by digging a giant one-acre mass grave. There was also damage to some vegetation, animal and fish species, but not to others. The Indian Council of Agricultural Research is studying this.(1) A VARIETY OF FAILURES were contributing factors in this lethal cloud of chemicals descending on the helpless, uninformed public. These failures include design failures, maintenance failures, operations failures, emergency response

failures, communications failures, governmental failures and last but not least management failures. In 1982, a safety audit by the Union Carbide parent company revealed a number of safety problems. The conditions that did not measure up were problems with the manual controls of the MIC feed tank, unreliable gauges and valves, and insufficient training of the operators. The Union Carbide of India division claimed to have fixed all of these, but management never had auditors go back and confirm. Another inherent problem is that the storage tanks were too large. They had a capacity of 15,000 gallons. The smallest amount of water introduced into the system would cause an exothermic reaction such as the one which occurred, on an extremely large scale, instead of on a smaller scale if

the tanks did not have such a high volume.(1) The parent company, according to Mr. Jackson Browning, Union Carbide?s Director of Health, Safety and Environmental Affairs, did not even have detailed plans of the Indian plant, and the design of safety procedures was left up to local managers.(9) When the vapor was released, it was released into a highly populated area. The grounds in the immediate vicinity were completely surrounded by vast numbers of shacks and homemade temporary dwellings, some of them right up against the fence line.(10) This was perfectly legal. The local government does not enforce zoning laws. The local government had actually had water and electricity installed in over 80% of these dwellings.(1,13) There was no buffer zone.(11) The local population was

completely uninformed concerning the hazards involved with living so close to a chemical plant. Had the general population been informed that in case of an accident they should breathe through a simple wet cloth, thereby preventing any harm from MIC, it is likely fewer deaths and injuries would have occurred. Instead, once awareness set in, hysteria prevailed, with people running to get away. Noone knew to cover their faces with a wet cloth. One small piece of information would have made a great difference. (8) Another factor to consider is that the Indian government insisted as a term of allowing Union Carbide to do business there, low qualified natives had to be employed at the facility. Many of them were friends or relatives of the government officials, instead of the

qualified employees who should have been working there.(12) The local state government had no oversight or regulation of the facility. This was likely due to lack of technical knowledge and lack of institutional ability to implement environmental control laws. Union Carbide took advantage of India?s less expensive and laxer safety standards.(12) The accident may not have occurred had proper maintenance been performed. The failure of the refrigeration equipment which should have kept the temperature low, so that the MIC did not vaporize, went completely unnoticed by unskilled maintenance workers.(13) This refrigeration equipment was supposed to keep the MIC close to 32? F, instead it reached approximately 200? F.(8) It had not been working for five months.(14) In addition, a labor

report shows that the maintenance department used a jumper line installed for cleaning purposes and that same cleaning water line may have been the source of the water injected into the MIC storage tank, causing the accident.(15) The Operations department played a role in the disaster as well. A vent scrubber, which was designed to neutralize escaping gas was turned off. There was a flare tower, designed to burn off escaping gases. It was also turned off. Noone has an explanation why.(13) The lack of emergency response was a contributing factor. The sirens at the facility were turned off. Noone knows why. The Bhopal community had no emergency plan. When the hospitals flooded with tens of thousands of seriously ill and dying patients, it was nearly impossible for them to receive