Union Carbide Research Paper

The night of December 2, 1984 could have been like any other night in Bhopal, but around 11:00 PM, one of the world’s largest industrial tragedies in history decimated the city and scarred its inhabitants for life. Imagine the feeling of waking up in the middle of the night, unable to breathe, eyes burning, and chaos erupting in streets. Death and disarray in every place you look and life as you know it ending in agonizing flooding of your lungs as they collapse in upon themselves. This terrible catastrophe set in motion decades of accusations, protests, lawsuits, ongoing death and disease and eventually led to radical changes in safety measures for the process industry. It all started when Union Carbide Corporation was asked to build a
Union Carbide claimed that an angry employee sabotaged the plant. Union Carbide also hired a consulting firm to investigate the gas leak, which concluded that sabotage may have caused the leak. The theory was never proven and no suspect was ever named. A key part of Union Carbides’ defense is based on the ownership of Union Carbide India Limited, Union Carbide only held slightly over fifty percent stake in the company while the rest of the company was owned by Indian investors (Chhabara). Union Carbide also claims it never controlled daily operations of the plant because of the ownership and thus should not be legally liable for the
This traumatic incident has influenced companies to adopt 'Responsible care' programs that include the community,impart better training for employees, and to reduce storage inventories. Governments around the world have adopted several and severe legislation. New designs must assure process and operator safety, sustained health of workers and community and viability of environment. This has also made local people assertive with their actions. At plants today, there are local people that have regular interaction with plant managers, and monitor safety and environment performance, encouraging inherently safer