The 5 Worst Industrial Accidents of All Time
In light of the recent catastrophe in Beirut, where several tonnes of an industrial chemical fertiliser stored in a warehouse, triggered a giant explosion that sent shockwaves through the capital, killing at least 135 and injuring around 500, we find ourselves reflecting on some of the world’s worst ‘man-made’ industrial disasters in modern history.
Although industrialization plays a pivotal role in both, economic development and livelihoods, the production of certain goods can pose significant health & safety risks due to dangerous chemicals and/or machinery.
Simple but repeated acts of negligence, coupled with incompetence can cause substantial damage to not only the people, but also the environment — sometimes the impact is so severe that it can last generations. In this article we list down the top worst industrial accidents, the impact they caused, and their root causes.
1. The Bhopal Gas Leak — Chemical
Situation: On the night of December 2, 1984, at least 30 tonnes of a highly toxic gas called ‘methyl isocyanite’ was spewed from a pesticide plant owned by Union Carbide India Limited Chemical Plant in Bhopal, India. It turned the city in to a Gas Chamber, scorching throats, eyes and suffocating thousands of people.
Impact: Over 500,000 people were exposed to the toxic gas. The official death count by the Indian government is 3,787 (Source) however unofficial records state that more than 8,000 deaths are tied to the disaster.
Cause: It is believed that the tragedy was largely due to Corporate Negligence, with a lethal combination of undermaintained facilities, lack of trained workforce and a casual approach to safety.
The Plant was already in a very poor condition. Furthermore it was reported that it had broken several safety regulations prior to the accident.
On the day of the accident, due to aforementioned reasons, water had entered a malfunctioning tank containing the MIC which led to an exothermic reaction that caused a build up of gasses. The pressure in the tank increased by up to 5 times and the temperature increased reached over 200 degree celsius. The valve eventually gave way causing a huge quantity of gas to leak over the city of Bhopal.
2. Chernobyl — Nuclear
Situation: Perhaps one of the most well known and worst industrial disasters of all time was “Chernobyl”. On the early morning of 26th April 1986, an uncontrolled nuclear chain reaction was triggered at a nuclear plant that exploded one of the Reactors consisting of about 190 metric tons of uranium dioxide fuel and fissions products. Between 50–185 million curies of these radionuclides escaped into the atmosphere — several times more radioactivity than which was created by even the Atomic Bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. It contaminated parts of Belarus, Russia and Ukraine.
The Impact: Within just a few weeks, 31 people had died due to being severely exposed to radiation and thermal burns.
Radiation’s effects are however long-term, the high levels of radioactive iodine that was released in the early days of the explosion is believed to have been directed responsible for nearly 20,000 documented cases of thyroid cancer amongst boys and girls who were under the age of 18 across the most hit countries: Belarus, Ukraine and Russia.
The Cause: Ironically, the disaster had happened when a simulated safety test was being conducted. “The team were trying to determine how long turbines would spin and supply power to the main circulating pumps following a loss of main electrical supply”.
However serious human errors, significant breaches of safety protocols, coupled by a severely flawed Soviet-era reactor design would all contribute to a chain reaction in the core of the reactor to go out of control and trigger explosions that blew off the reactors lid allowing large amounts of radioactive material in the atmosphere. To make it matters worse, the winds would carry these toxic chemicals to great distances and neighbouring countries.
3. DeepWater Horizon — Oil
Situation: The Deepwater Horizon spill is regarded as the largest environmental disasters in industrial history. It began in April 20, 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico. An explosion in an Oil Rig, operated by BP, had led to an estimated discharge of five million gallons of Oil in to the Gulf of Mexico over a period of 87 days.
Impact: The initial fire explosion killed 11 workers and injured 17. The oil spill on the other hand caused devastating long-term environmental damage. Thousands of marine mammals and sea turtles were killed due to the exposure of oil that contaminated hundreds of miles of beaches, marshes and fish habitats.
Cause: The official report published by the U.S Government pointed blame on BP, its partners and supplier for cost cutting decisions and an inadequate safety system, that resulted in defective cement to be used which
It was found that the central cause of the explosion was defective cement — 18,000 foot deep — that failed to contain oil and gas within the well bore. This in turn, led to a plethora of human and mechanical errors that allowed high-pressure methane gas to ‘expand’ in to the drilling rig, causing the explosion and culminating the largest man-made environmental disaster in history.
4. Rana Plaza — Textile
Situation: The 2013 Dhaka garment factory collapse was the deadliest industrial disaster the world has ever seen. An eight-story commercial building in Dhaka, Bangladesh, that was being used as a manufacturing facility for garments production, collapsed.
Impact: The official toll of the accident was 1,134. Approximately 2,500 injured people were rescued from the building alive.
Cause: It was concluded that the key reasons for the collapse were use of substandard construction materials, illegal construction of 3 additional floors and a blatant disregard for building codes.
Alarm bells were sounded several times before the collapse of the building. In fact, a day before the collapse, workers at the Rana Plaza reported cracks in the structure of the building however authorities failed to take any precautionary measures. The owner of the building instead ignored the warning signs and issued a statement saying that nothing was serious. To add to the disbelief, on the day of the incident, workers were forced to work and threatened financial consequences if they did not comply.
5. Piper Alpha — Oil & Gas
Situation: In the evening of 06 July 1988, a series of explosions ripped through an offshore Oil Platform operated by Occidental Petroleum Ltd, located in the North Sea, approximately 190km of north-east of Aberdeen, Scotland. During the time of the disaster, the platform accounted for nearly 10% of North Sea Oil & Gas Production. It is regarded as the most lethal offshore disaster.
Impact: The explosion resulted in devastating fires that killed 165 out of the 220 crew members and 2 crew members from the standby vessel. It also led to financial losses of an estimated £2 billion.
Cause: A widespread of system failures led to the Piper Alpha Accident. The primary cause of the accident was ruled to out to be inadequate maintenance & safety procedures, in particular there was a failure of communication across teams performing maintenance work at the pumps within the rig.
During shift, the initial procedure involved the removal of one of the safety valves for maintenance, a condensate pipe remained temporarily sealed as the work was not completed. When the night crew came in, they were unaware of the maintenance carried out during day and hence turned on an alternate pump. The equipment ment to block of sections of the pipe such including the blind flange and firewalls couldn’t handle the sheer pressure that was created that eventually led to several explosions and oil & gas fires. Although the Piper Alpha had an automatic fire fighting system, it was switched to manual since the divers were in the sea.
Conclusion
It is sad that often something really bad needs to happen before authorities take steps for reform — much like every revolution. After the Beirut tragedy, concerns have risen over the tonnes of ammonium nitrate stored in other cities across the world.
We hope that the above information will serve as a reminder of the catastrophes that can occur due to negligence and turn motivate all individuals to take action to make their workplace a safer place. As the old adage saying goes, “Safety is everyone’s responsibility”.
Health & Safety Managers in particular can inspire a paradigm shift across the company. Whilst it is vital that managers schedule and perform regular routine inspections, create and monitor safety systems that minimise risk, we would like to also emphasise on the importance of effective safety training.
Conventional methods of safety training are often ignored by workers due to lack of engagement. Workers don’t believe that these accidents will happen to them, until they actually do. Making training programmes engaging, experiential and immersive can in turn, enhance the safety of workers.
