The Bhopal Gas Tragedy: The World’s Worst Industrial Disaster
When the value of human life was estimated at just $342
India has a population of over 1.3 billion people. To organize such a large community, the country has been divided into 29 states: one such state is Madhya Pradesh, and its capital, Bhopal, is the city where a disastrous incident took place.
On the night of December 2, 1984, methyl isocyanate, or MIC, a highly poisonous gas, leaked out of the Union Carbide India Limited pesticide plant, causing those who were asleep to — well, sleep forever.
Around fifteen thousand people died immediately, with over six hundred thousand more affected. Those who survived the incident were not particularly lucky, either: they could not avoid its consequences. Three decades later, the secondary victims of the incident still face serious repercussions.
Before the incident
The Union Carbide factory manufactured the pesticide Sevin through the use of MIC as an intermediate, and factory workers have been witnessing gas leak occurrences for over a year before the incident took place. Around 50 workers of the factory were killed in the previous year due to the inhalation of the gas phosgene, used to prepare MIC.
