On 30th anniversary of fatal chemical release that killed thousands in Bhopal, India, the CSB’s safety message examines recent incidents in the U.S. three decades after this deadly event and discusses how more must be done to prevent similar accidents from occurring.
On December 2, 1984, water inadvertently entered a storage tank containing more than 80,000 pounds of methyl isocyanate, or MIC, which reacts react violently with water. A subsequent runaway reaction overheated the tank and resulted in a massive toxic gas release. Height hundreds people died, and tens of thousands were injured. A dense, lethal cloud drifted over the city of Bhopal exposing hundreds of thousands of people to deadly MIC and other chemicals.
Despite the Congress enacted new laws to increase chemical emergency preparedness and to require companies to develop process safety and risk management programs, and to report their worst-case release scenarios, CSB investigations have found deficiencies in design and process safety management similar to those uncovered in Bhopal.This is pointed out by the video in two other accidents that occurred later. Could have they been prevented ?
See also Bhopal accident by National Geographic.