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The World’s Worst Industrial Disaster

Just after midnight, on the night of 2nd/ 3rd December 1984, a catastrophic gas leak from a Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India saw the beginning of the worst industrial disaster in history. It has come to be known as the Hiroshima of the chemical industry.

40 tonnes of deadly methyl isocyanate gas, used in the manufacture of the pesticide Sevin, spewed from the plant into the surrounding areas. The effect on the people living in the shanty settlements, just over the fence, was immediate and devastating.

Many died in their beds, others staggered from their homes, blinded and choking, to die in the street. Many more died later after reaching hospitals and emergency aid centres. The best, accepted estimates say that 8-10,000 people died within the first 72 hours.

Since that day at least another 15,000 people have died as a result of their exposure to the toxic gas and another 120,000 have chronic medical conditions that require constant healthcare.

(For comparison, Chernobyl is estimated to have caused 57 direct deaths, with some 4,000 additional deaths from cancer).

'Still contaminated'

Campaigner Satinath Sarangi says he has ample evidence that the Union Carbide plant is still, after all these years, leaking toxins into the ground water supply on which many people still depend.

"We are talking about thousands of tons of waste that was dumped here and covered over. It has never been cleaned up," he says. BBC

This area is still contaminated and the people are still fighting for justice.

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