Bhopal Gas Tragedy: Unethical Issues and Solutions

This report discusses the Bhopal Gas Tragedy, its unethical issues, factors contributing to the tragedy, and possible solutions. It highlights the impact on the environment and the need for ethical business practices.

Business Law and
Ethics

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
Main body........................................................................................................................................3
Bhopal Gas Tragedy....................................................................................................................3
Unethical Issues..........................................................................................................................4
Factors contributing to Unethical Issues.....................................................................................5
Solving Unethical Issues.............................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Business law is that law which defines standards on the expected behaviour of the
company. It is very important for any business to practice ethically. The law explains the way in
which a business should be carried, legal obligations of a business towards others and its
employees. There are several rules which are made under the law obligatory for the business.
The ethical behaviour directly impact the reputation of the companies (Bujaki and Durocher,
2019). If the activities in the business are not carried according to the framework then it is
termed as unethical behaviour and this unethical behaviour impact companies in many ways.
This report consist of the major Gas leak that ever took place in the world. It explains the
Bhopal Gas tragedy in details and the unethical behaviour of the parent company of the United
States (US) that contributed the major leak of Methyl Isocyanate (MIC).
Main body
Bhopal Gas Tragedy that happened in India is considered as the major gas leak incident
that ever took place in the world. It is considered as one of the worst industrial catastrophes. This
incident occurred in 1984 at Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL), which is a pesticide plant
situated in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India. In the pesticides plant of UCIL at Bhopal, there was
a major leakage of Methyl Isocyanate Gas (MIC) and other dangerous chemicals which resulted
in its exposure to number of people. This leakage also resulted in damaging environment by
affecting air, water and soil (Maslen, 2019). This case of leakage was result of poor maintenance
and failure of safety systems as the company was cutting of its expenses.
Bhopal Gas Tragedy
Bhopal is the capital city of an Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. It is famously known as
City of Lakes and is also famous for being the greenest cities in India. Bhopal is also one of the
industrial area. It has main industries that manufacture heavy electronic equipments, printing &
weaving of cotton clothes and flour mills. It was in 1969 when an American union Carbide
Corporation, which has its headquarters in Danbury, Connecticut, entered into an agreement with
Indian government to construct plant of Union Carbide in Bhopal. This agreement states that
Union Carbide will hold 51% shares ownership through its Indian Subsidiary. This agreement
was seen as an opportunity by the Indians to grow and increase its economy as this agreement

was a win situation for the India. Under the terms and conditions of this agreement, India had the
plant, jobs at the plant and also Pesticide that was being produced at the plant. This product was
in great demand by the Indian farmers to increase their agricultural productivity. In addition to
these terms, it was also agreed by the Union Carbide to appoint local managers to provide
training and skills that will be useful in the functioning of the plant.
To produce pesticides by the plant, it used Methyl Isocyanides (MIC) as part of its
production. MIC gas is very toxic and it reacts very strongly with other elements like water. It is
very important that the management take due diligence while dealing with MIC. It is to be
properly monitored in details and there should be high security system for the same. By the year
1980, it was realised that the plant was not generating profit. Union Carbide asked for permission
to Indian Government to close plant (Marcus and Hargrave, 2019). The Indian government did
not do it as there would be unemployment which will affect Indian economy.
On December 3, 1984, MIC came in contact with water which was stored in tank. The
cooling components and the backup at the plant was not working. This resulted in the leakage of
the mixture and workers at the plant started to feel burning sensation in eyes. The boiling of the
mixture caused safety valves to explode. Thousand of lives were lost and injured. Injury includes
blindness, burns, etc. Lawyers at US filed suit against the company on behalf of victims at
Bhopal. But court had no jurisdiction so it was dismissed. Indian government too imposed
charges on the company and Mr. Anderson. Indian court had no jurisdiction on him so he
returned to US and never returned.
There was a research done in which it was revealed that the residue of pesticide was
above the level that was permissible. More than 400 tons of waste is buried near the plant. Many
lawyers appeared at the meeting to get the clean up done there.
Unethical Issues
The plant at Bhopal has so many failures and there were no actions taken by the
company. Failures like: there was lack of environment safety, no environment standards were
followed, there was bad machinery maintenance and they were least concerned about the natural
environment around the plant and in the city. There are mainly three key parties to the MIC gas
leakage at Bhopal which badly impacted the environment. The leakage badly affected the people
around the plant (Chalakkal, 2019) . It also impacted badly on the ecosystem i.e. trees, water, soil
and air. The three parties are:

 Government of India: This is also one of the party as the government should have made
policies regarding the safety of environment and people living around the plant. Bhopal Union Carbide Corporation (UCIL): They are also responsible as they were
running business which was harming environment and they were not paying attention to
their corporate social responsibility (Visalakshi, 2018).
 Union Carbide Corporation (UCC): this is the parent company which is situated in US.
This company and its Chairman i.e. Anderson, is majorly at fault for the leakage of MIC.
The chairman of the company is the one who build the agreement with the government of
India for building a plant for pesticide.
Factors contributing to Unethical Issues
The company in order to do cost cutting made many decisions which were unethical and
lead to the leakage at the plant. The factors responsible are:
 There was no strict quality control at the plant.
 There was no proper training provided to the employees in controlling the functioning of
the plant.
 The company was not promoting its employees which was affecting their morale.
 Employees at the plant were forced to use English Manuals Book, which only few of
them understands.
The Unethical behaviour of the company badly affected the situations at the factory. The
tank alarm of the MIC was not in working condition since four years. The company had only one
manual backup system and US had four-stage system for the same (Bhattacharya, 2020). Only
one out of many gas scrubber was in operation and all the other were out of service before the
disaster. The company to save the cost was keeping MIC at 20 degrees Celsius instead of 4.5
degree Celsius. The gauge of the MIC tank was also malfunctioning for more than a week.
Instead of repairing it, the company started using other temporary tanks.
Solving Unethical Issues
The chairman of the company must have taken effective measures to solve the problems
caused by the explosion of gas. He must have invested in building rehabilitation centres and
hospitals. They should have also provided the compensation to the people around affected and
also to those who loss jobs.

The chairman must have taken help from the Government of India to help in solving
problem caused. The government of India did not had any policies or framework for the safety of
employees at industries. Anderson could have offered help in this regard to help support Indian
Economy.
The parent company was situated in US. As there were no safety measures and
environmental standards in India, the parent company should have implemented its own
country's measures and standards of the same. UCC claims that they had the same provisions for
the plant at Bhopal as they had in West Virginia. On comparing the provisions of the two it was
concluded that there were at least eleven very significant differences present which was related
to the safety and maintenance of the factory.
Initially UCC wanted to have control over both the projects and also on the technologies
in which they made an investment (Bhunia, 2017). FERA generally do not allow foreign
corporations to possess majority of shares in a project but UCC was made under an exception on
the grounds that it was helping India to increase its economy as the company was bringing new
technology to India.
CONCLUSION
It is concluded from this report that the leakage of Methyl Isocyanate (MIC) affected the
environment and the people around the industry very critically. There was no framework for the
employees working at the plant for their safety. There was no proper framework of the company
for its employees. The employees were not given proper training an the company was lacking its
ethical behaviour. An unethical behaviour of the parent company was majorly responsible for the
leakage at the plant. This had worse impact on the environment and its ecosystem. It affected air,
water, soil and civilisation all around the place where plant was situated.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Bhattacharya, S., 2020. Environment and Sustainable Development. Available at SSRN 3629134.
Bhunia, S., 2017. An Exploratory Study To Understand The Nature Of Relations Between
Corporations And Communities With Respect To Environmental Conflicts (Doctoral
dissertation).
Bujaki, M.L. and Durocher, S., 2019. Managing legitimacy following loss of human life: Loblaw
and Rana Plaza. Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal.
Chalakkal, K., 2019. Access to Justice Under International Law: Claims Against Environmental
Crimes of Transnational Corporations. Kavitha Chalakkal (2019),“Access to Justice
under International Law: Claims against Environmental Crimes of Transnational
Corporations”, ELCOP Yearbook of Human Rights.
Marcus, A.A. and Hargrave, T.J., 2019. Managing Business Ethics: Making Ethical Decisions.
SAGE Publications, Incorporated.
Maslen, S., 2019. Safety management through values: A critical engagement with the moral
labor of disaster prevention. Safety Science, 120, pp.484-491.
Visalakshi, V., 2018. Corporate Social Responsibility: An Analytical Study. IUP Journal of
Corporate Governance, 17(1), pp.62-77.