Industrial disease!!

MODEL/MEDIA LOG
Type of media: news
Date/time spent Thursday, December 3, 2009
It was about: 25 years after an industrial disaster, people in Bhopal, India are still suffering from the fallout

Read it on Global News: Industrial disease. It’s been a quarter of a century since India was rocked by a major industrial accident but people there are still feeling the effects of the disaster, physically and otherwise. In December 1984, an employee working at a pesticide-producing plant in Bhopal, the capital of the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, added a large amount of water to a tank holding a dangerous gas called methyl isocyanate. The resulting chemical reaction caused a major leak and 41 tonnes of the gas and other toxins traveled from the plant to densely populated communities nearby. Thousands of people died right away and thousands more fled the area in a panic. Overall, an estimated 20,000 people died and about half a million others suffered the effects of exposure to toxic gas. Many victims developed respiratory ailments or eye problems. Some went blind. In subsequent years, soil and water contamination led to chronic health problems and high instances of birth defects among local residents. Investigations later determined the catastrophe had been caused by inadequate operating and safety procedures at the plant, which was owned by a subsidiary of U.S.-based Union Carbide Corporation. The state of Madhya Pradesh took control of the site in 1998 but only cleared part of the plant. Hundreds of tonnes of toxic chemicals remained scattered around the site. Today, chemicals continue to leak and pollute the ground and water there. New research shows that groundwater three kilometers from the site contains nearly 40 times more pesticides than the level considered safe. Pesticide levels are 560 times higher around the factory itself.

What I found interesting: A year after the disaster, the Indian government passed an act allowing it to act as the legal representative for the victims. In 1989, Union Carbide paid $470 million (U.S.) to the Indian government for the victims. In return, the government agreed to drop criminal charges against the company.U.S.-based Dow Chemicals acquired the company ten years later, and stated that the settlement resolved all existing and future claims against the company. Executives blamed a saboteur for the disaster and claimed the factory was in good working order before the gas leak. The compensation money was used to make payments of up to $2,000 to those unable to work because of the disaster but many of those affected received nothing. In 2004, the Supreme Court of India admitted a plea by gas victims seeking to re-open the compensation issue. But three years later, the court rejected it, asking the victims to approach the state government instead.