We’re at the anniversary of the deadliest global chemical disaster, harming more than half a million people in Bhopal, India . Most here in the US have forgotten it, although the perpetrator was a US company. On December 4,1984, in the dead of night, a Union Carbide pesticide factory making Sevin, in the Vijay Nagar neighborhood released a cloud of toxic methylisocyanate gas. The cause was absent and out of order safety systems which allowed components for the pesticide to mix and create an out of control, deadly reaction. The decisions to store large amount of toxins on site and to disable the safety systems were done as cost saving measures.

The heavy, odorless gas drifted through homes and across streets, waking people not with the smell but with the strangling effects of a respiratory poison. Within three days, 3,000 people and numerous animals were dead. The horror didn’t end there. Around 20,000 people slowly died from the toxin and the effects persist to this day.

Women suffered miscarriages (especially of male fetuses) and premature menopause. Males were born with an increased risk of cancer and developmental disorders, including intellectual disabilities. Many survivors suffered from complications like diabetes, high blood pressure, kidney failure ( a 7% increase), heart disease, pulmonary fibroids, intellectual disabilities, and cancer—especially oral, throat, and lung cancer. Another long term effect was irritant induced asthma.

Netflix made a movie about heroes of this incident, railway workers who helped people escape. The movie also implicates the Union Carbide (now part of Dow Chemical) for not taking action soon enough.

A statue of a mother covering her burned eyes and holding her dead infant commemorates the tragedy but has the lesson been learned? The people are still suffering.

Image from https://www.millenniumpost.in/h-upload/2023/12/01/747019-bhopal-gas-tragedy-memorial-statue-outside-union-carbide-factory-4-photo-aryani-banerjee.webp

A 1991 disaster in California released a similar toxin when a train car carrying deadly pesticide precursors fell directly into the Sacramento River. The resulting release of the deadly toxin killed all aquatic life in the river, which took up to 14 years to recover. Nearby residents, huddled in their homes with windows closed, developed irritant induced asthma, skin, and gastric problems.

Have we learned much? Not really. Our elected ones are rushing to lower regulatory standards so more drugs can be made in the US.

Prompted by a bought-off Congress, the EPA has been lax at regulating toxins, including pesticides, and their manufacturing. It’s only getting worse. With the current administration, we are axing safety regulations while pretending they hurt the economy. They don’t. The California disaster resulted in 38 million dollars worth of damage. Union Carbide settled for 470 million dollars, an amount so low and so inadequate that the decision sent the stock prices soaring.

In the long run, disasters caused by lack of stringent regulations exact a far higher price.

I would like to acknowledge this article for basic information about the largest global chemical accident.