Bhopal Gas Tragedy: Ethical Issues and UCC's Responsibility

This report delves into the Bhopal Gas Tragedy, one of the deadliest industrial disasters in history, and examines the ethical position of the parent company, US Union Carbide Corporation (UCC). It discusses the various ethical issues surrounding the disaster, including the violation of ethical codes, negligence in safety measures, and the impact on public health. The report also highlights the failures and loopholes in UCC's operations and the lack of accountability. The Bhopal Gas Tragedy serves as a stark reminder of the importance of ethical conduct and responsibility in multinational corporations.

Business law and ethics

TABLE OF CONTENT
INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY.............................................................................................................................3
Ethical Issues..........................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION..........................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES...........................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
The case of Bhopal disaster is one of the deadliest industrial disaster in the history.
On the night of 3rd December 1984, when a poisonous gas named Methyl Isocyanate (MIC)
leaked into the atmosphere. This leakage was from the pesticide plant situated in the Union
Carbide India Limited (UICL) which operates under the UCC, USA. The gas released was
having more density of MIC in comparison to the air because of which the cloud of the toxic
gas was formed near the ground which made it hard for the humans in inhaling it. This report
provides an insight into the Bhopal disaster and the ethical position of the parent UCC.
MAIN BODY
Ethical Issues
Bhopal's disaster also referred as Bhopal gas tragedy was one of the worst gas leak
accident in history of industrial disaster where 40 tons of toxic gas leaked from factory,
where leakage has scorched throats, dry eyes, which hampered lives of thousands of people.
Over 5 lakh people were directly exposed to methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas, where highly
toxic gas made within its further way into small towns around located near plants. The
disaster raised various working horizons of urgent questions about multinational companies
respondance to varied aspects of unthinkable happens. The tragedy evidently generated focus
on ethical functional performance aspects to be accountable towards stakeholders and
external communities, on which US union carabride company has been widely lacking
ethical functional performance parameters. Bhopal plant was owned and operated by UCL
an Indian company in which UCC just held half the stock, where the stakeholders' life were
at risk. It can be understood that shares holders were at risk which also were at fundamental
risk as there is exclusively effective growth towards wider working domains (Le Menestrel,
2021).
Safety, health and welfare of the public is highly recognised as the most important
point where ethical codes were violated, on which rare poor quality of facility, lack of
instruments were the reason for the leak. Public were later never given any information
about MIC leakage, and the safety measures were not strictly adhered. Which has to be
taken, gas leakage which also potentially raised up risk factors. The final death toll was
estimated to be between 15,000 and 20,0000 where some half a million survivors were
suffering from varied respiratory problems, eye irritation and blindness resulting from
exposure to the toxic gas which has been recognized as one of the worst industrial disaster
which was due to negligence of mankind. The disaster had varied impacts far beyond the

boundary of ill fated city, where incident took place. People where it also made a difference
worldwide to the way that chemical and hazardous waste safety precautions mandated for
legislations within the strengthened environmental management practices. The problem was
that nobody knew much about the toxin gases or its antidote within weeks of accident many
claimed that worst was over which generated awareness, people were suffering from
common ailments of the poor such as tuberculosis and anaemia. Negligence of Union
Cambridge has widely impacted health of MIC gases and how patients were exposed to gas,
where the health burden is compounded by two more variables. Children born after the
disaster were are also its victims because of exposure to the deadly gas and the chemical
wastes remain dumped in and around premises of UCLIL factory contaminating the water
that people drink around.
MIC gas when reacts with water at high temperatures could release as many as 300 highly
toxic temperatures , where research was carried out to check the toxicity of pure MIC- which
was found as criminal negligence. Some independent research studies have pointed to
serious heath crises form cancer and mental problems to birth defects. The epidemiological
study has also analysed that there has been easy dismiss towards ailments caused by poverty
and lack of hygiene (Venkatesan, 2021)
The Bhopal Union Carbide Corporation was having many failures and loopholes
pertaining to the working condition, for instance, inadequate maintenance of the machine and
equipment, lack of security and environmental standards in order to save money and lack of
concern in regard to the surrounding environment. But the case was dismissed as the court
lacks the jurisdiction on the victims and the plant. In the year 1999, Dow Chemicals acquired
it and as the public corporation, the organization denied accepting the responsibility for the
catastrophe because of the share price (Kok and et.al., 2019). After which the Govt of India
sold the assets of the company for constructing hospital to take care of the victims. Also, the
business was not profitable which created a dilemma tic situation and the government asked
to run the business in order to support the productivity of the farmers and also the Indian
economy by this plant. This situation made the company disregard the environmental impact
it has and focused only on saving money by completely ignoring the work conditions and the
problems associated with it.
The Bhopal disaster can be analysed by the help ethical codes of the NSPE. The
security, well being and government assistance to the general population is the main point in
each code of ethics. In the event of Bhopal misfortune each one of them were disregarded.
The bad quality of the offices and nonappearance of various instruments were the

clarification behind the gas spill. Two out of three essential security structures couldn't adjust
to the conditions (Gupta and Varma, 2020). The flare towers alongside the water splashes
were not working appropriately, likewise a refrigeration unit was additionally intended to
keep the methyl isocyanate cool and to hinder substance response was at that point shut
during a few times back. Individuals by and large were never given any information about
MIC and safety efforts. The territory of the plant so close to the settlement is also one of the
moral inquiry to be raised. Along with that there is another point which should be taken into
consideration is that as mentioned in NSPE that perform services in the field of competency.
The leakage started because of the wash out of the pipe which was not appropriately fixed by
the specialist whose preparation neglects to satisfy with the set guidelines and was
additionally requested by the beginner chiefs. This portrays the nonattendance of talented
experts in the plant (Ramanathan, 2019). It was in like manner discovered that the positions
or occupations were decreased to diminish expenses, and the training time frame decreased
from a half year to just 15 days. General society or the people were never told about the MIC
and diverse substance compounds and in addition to this, the infrastructure and the other
medical facilities in the place was never ready for the misfortune of that scale.
Another code of ethics in NSPE is "Avoid Deceptive Acts". The Bhopal plant was
looked into by its parent association and the critical report was documented. Nevertheless, the
essential upkeep and improvements were never put forth by virtue of association's cost
cutting attempt and acquiring putting aside money need. After the cataclysm, the Unions
Carbide denial for commitment and communicating the mishap was a direct result of human
slip-up in the modern office which shows Unions Carbide and its organization falling behind
to act honourably, proficiently, morally and legitimately.
Ethical Negligence
The Corporate Negligence Argument: As per this point, the administration and to
some extent the local authority made less investment in regard to the security which led to
development of working in the dangerous environment.
Safety audits: In the period of September 1984, an inside UCC report on the West
Virginia plant in the USA uncovered different flaws and malfunctions (WHAT WAS BHOPAL
GAS TRAGEDY. 2020). It cautioned that "a runaway response could happen in the MIC unit
stockpiling tanks, and that the arranged reaction would not be opportune or powerful enough
to forestall disastrous let-down of the tanks". It has been determined that the report was not
delivered to the Bhopal plant, albeit the principle configuration was the same.

Dissatisfied Employee Sabotage Argument: Currently procured by Dow Chemical
Company, Union Carbide keeps a site focused on the adversity and cases that the event was
the delayed consequence of sabotage, communicating that sufficient prosperity systems were
set up and were set up and usable to hinder the interruption of water.
The key people who are responsible for this disaster are the design engineers as there
was a fault in the design which is the reason for this tragedy. This is because of the reason
that 2 of the 3 safety system which were installed was insufficient to deal with such situation
and it was built based upon the specification given by UCC. Another responsibility was of
UICL since the Bhopal plant was not making profit and therefore, the objective of the
company changed to making of money and reduction in the cost (Prajapati, 2018). For which
the company shut down its refrigeration as well. In addition to this, the number of operators
were also decreased from 12 to 6 and there was no effective training for the workers which
can eb utilized in the times of emergency. Another party is the local mangers and the
supervisor who failed to inform about the fault in the equipment and the related consequence
pertaining to it. They did not take relevant actions when the leakage was spotted initially and
the tank which was expected to be filled fifty percent was seventy percent filled. Apart from
this, the untrained staff were asked to operate the factory. The UCC didn't confirm whether
the issues brought up in critical report of 1982 was actually remedied or not. The association
among the UICL and UCC was not have been talked about in detail. Along with it, they
refused to assume the liability after the misfortune.
Ethical position of the parent US Union Carbide company
The UCC failed to make use of the various risk analysis techniques and tools which
should have been done on a timely basis. The risk modelling approach gives the early signal
about the threats and are useful to forestall and control such cataclysmic outcomes. Absence
of danger evaluation made the disaster happen. In saving the expense of production in order
to enhance the income, the natural morals and worry about humanities was completely
ignored and set aside. The site endorsement of the undertaking for setting up the plant was
expertly deceptive for an architect. The mishap was waited and allowed to occur. The
existence of the human life was not given the higher priority. The quality and the quantity of
security frameworks was decreased to expand investment funds. The faultlessness of the
items could not be checked or evaluated. The safety and security highlights of the plant were
wasteful and did not work on the debacle night. US specialists had proposed to fix a few
issues however neither of the suggestions were thought of or executed and is considered to
the greatest carelessness on the part of UCC (Bisht, 2018). The caution alarm to warn the

local area if there should arise an occurrence of a crisis was malfunctioning. The water
entered the tank on the grounds that the slip blind plate was not introduced and the tank was
not adequately pressurized because of the valve spillages leading to gas break to the
atmosphere. Therefore, UCC ethically failed to meet with the conde of conduct established
which has resulted into occurrence of this disaster which cannot be forget.
CONCLUSION
It can be inferred from the above that the Bhopal gas leak was actually the result of
the carelessness of the organization in regard to effectively meeting up with their ethical code
of conduct and standards. Along with this, it shows the ethical concept pertaining to the
engineering the designs. The UCC should have carried out relevant safety and risk
assessment by giving prime importance to it. The UCC even after getting warned about the
issues and the chances of disaster but then too it ignored the warning signals and caused the
disaster called as the Bhopal Gas Tragedy. The ethical position of US Union Carbide
company is very low as it failed to keep an eye on the issue pertaining to the working
conditions and also failed to comply with the business and environmental requirement of it.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
.Le Menestrel, M., 2021. Corporate Social Responsibility: The Bhopal Gas Tragedy (Video,
Case Study & Discussion)(October 2nd, 2012)–Marc Le Menestrel.
Bisht, P., 2018. Social movements and the scaling of memory and justice in
Bhopal. Contemporary South Asia. 26(1). pp.18-33.
Gupta, R. C. and Varma, D. R., 2020. Methyl isocyanate: the Bhopal gas. In Handbook of
Toxicology of Chemical Warfare Agents (pp. 389-402). Academic Press.
Kok, T. L. and et.al., 2019. Bhopal gas tragedy–the scar of process safety. Loss Prevention
Bulletin. 269. p.11.
Prajapati, T., 2018. Chemical industrial disaster Management. Fire Engineer. 43(1and2).
pp.39-44.
Ramanathan, U., 2019. The Bhopal case: retrospect and prospect. In Research Handbook on
Law, Environment and the Global South. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Venkatesan, S., 2021. Sites, Contexts and Beyond: Mapping Health Humanities. MEDIA
WATCH. 12(1). pp.3-6.
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