Case Study on Bhopal Gas Leak

Bhopal Gas Leak Case Study Summary
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CRISIS MANAGEMENT 2
Bhopal Gas Leak Case Study Summary
The Bhopal Gas Leak Case study serves as one of the most tragic cases of industrial crisis
management which occurred in 1984. It involved a toxic gas leak which occurred from a Union
Carbide India Pesticide Plant in Bhopal taking the lives of about 30, 000 individuals from its
long-term and immediate effects. Besides, about 575,000 individuals sustained some injuries
fostering the incident to be regarded as one of the worst industrial disasters globally. To maker it
worse, even of now, some people are still suffering the consequences of the tragedy.
The Background
An American enterprise, The Union Carbide Corporation set up a pesticide plant in India
citing the advantage offered by the place being located in a central location. Basically, the plant
was to produce a pesticide named Sevin and it kick started its operations in 1979. The production
of the pesticide included the production of Methyl Isocyanate (MIC) a very toxic chemical
prompting the presence of an effective maintenance (Bowonder, 1987). After sometime,
complaints concerning the maintenance of the plant were raised in regard to MIC leakages with
some previous incidents leaving some people dead and others nursing some injuries. However,
the authorities downplayed the concerns and thus the machines continued to wear out without
effective maintenance being done.
The Gas Disaster
In 1984, the worst of the cases happened with the MIC gas leaking from the plant and
mixing with the fresh air in Bhopal. Individuals started developing uneasy feelings, vomiting
while others were marked by troubles in breathing with some people losing their lives within the
first few minutes of their inhaling of the gas. According to reports, a worker who had gone to

CRISIS MANAGEMENT 3
investigate a leak noted a crack in the slab accompanied by a hissing sound. While he intended to
escape the leaking gas, he witnessed the gas shooting while drifting all over the plant spreading
to the neighborhoods where a lot of people were sleeping and withing a short period of time the
leak had gone out of control. The workers, who were dumbstruck by the incident realized that
things had gone out of hand. Afterwards, the public siren rang and surprisingly, it was shut down
as it was in the company’s procedure to avoid alarming the larger public living around the
factory following tiny leaks (Sen, 1991).
As such, the plant’s workers started evacuating the plant with the control room operator
turning on the vent has scrubber but it was too late as the gas had already started shooting the
scrubber out. Afterwards, a lot of people were being admitted in hospitals with calls from the
police into the plant receiving a cool response that everything was okay. Surprisingly, the
company had in place an informal policy whereby they could involve the local authorities in case
of gas leaks (Bowonder, 1987). This was uncalled for given at the time, a lot if individuals were
losing their lives while asleep and others being marked by difficulties in breathing. The lack of
timely exchange of information between the local authorities and Union Carbide India Limited
fostered loss of may lives as the hospitals weren’t aware of the nature of the gas.
Formal statements followed with the government indicating that vegetation, air, water
and foodstuffs were safe but issued warnings on fish consumption. Small children were the most
affected with approximately 200,000 exposed to the gas. According to a detailed analysis of the
consequent causes of the crisis, the company lacked effective disaster and safety management
cases at the plant level. As such, the incident was attributed to poor industrial and zoning citing
procedures, poor safety regulatory frameworks and poor emergency management procedures.
Among the errors noted was hard errors encompassing of a fault structural design. Also, the fact