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Answer:
The Bhopal disaster, also referred to as the Bhopal gas tragedy, was a gas leak incident on the night of 2–3 December 1984 at the Union Carbide India ...
Deaths: At least 3,787; over 16,000 claimed
Cause: Methyl isocyanate leak from Union Carbide India Limited plant
Location: Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India
Answer:
Warning bell before the tragedy
In 1969, the UCIL factory was made to produce Sevin (a pesticide) using methyl isocyanate as an intermediate. In 1976, trade unions in Bhopal complained of pollution within the plant. A few years later, a worker accidentally inhaled a large amount of toxic phosgene gas, leading to his death a couple of hours later. Observing the events, a journalist began investigating the plant and also published his findings in Bhopal's local paper, saying - 'Wake up people of Bhopal, you are on the edge of a volcano'. Two years before tragedy struck Bhopal, around 45 workers who were exposed to phosgene were admitted to a hospital. Between 1983 and 1984, thee were leaks of phosgene, carbon tetrachloride, methyl isocyanate and mono methylamine.
How methyl isocyanate leaked happened
Union Carbide India's Bhopal facility housed three 68,000-litre liquid MIC storage tanks: E610, E611, and E619. Months before the tragedy, MIC production was in progress and was being filled in the tanks. No tank was allowed to be filled more than 50% of its capacity and the tank was pressurized with inert nitrogen gas. The pressurization allowed liquid MIC to be pumped out of each tank. However, one of the tanks (E610) lost the ability to contain nitrogen gas pressure, hence liquid MIC could not be pumped out of it. As per the rules, each of the tanks could not be filled with more than 30 tonnes of liquid MIC. But this tank had 42 tonnes. This failure forced UCIL to halt methyl isocyanate production in Bhopal and the plant was partly shut for maintenance. An attempt was made to make the defective tank functional again on December 1, however the attempt failed. By then, most of the plant's methyl isocyanate related safety systems were malfunctioning. According to reports, by December 2 eve, water had entered the malfunctioning tank, which resulted in runaway chemical reaction. The pressure in the tank increased five times by night. By midnight, the workers in the MIC area started feeling the effects of MIC gas. The decision to address the leak was to be made a couple of minutes later. However, by then the chemical reaction in the tank had reached a critical state. About 30 tonnes of MIC escaped from the tank into the atmosphere within an hour. Most Bhopal residents were made aware of the gas leak by exposure to the gas itself.