Oleum Gas Leak Case Tragedy: A Faulty Engineering Problem

Society,Sustainability and Engineering
XXX-X-XXXX-XXXX-X/XX/$XX.00 ©20XX IEEE

Abstract— The main focus point of the report is to take into
consideration different aspects of failure relating to the Oleum
Gas leak case tragedy. The concentration area which is related
to the concept can be in the field of the engineering problem
which was encountered into the event.
Keywords— Oleum Gas leak case tragedy, chemical,
mitigation, planning, concentration and engineering
I. INTRODUCTION
The event which is related to the Oleum Gas leak
case tragedy took place in the year 1986, which passed an
judgement that whoever would be affected by the event had
to compensate for the event and for the sector of the affected
people. [16]. The killer gas in the concept was spread
throughout the city directly sending the scurrying resident
throughout the dark streets. One of the factor which can be
stated here is that there was no alarm or plan of evacuation
planned to stop the attack. The event was no much
unplanned that when the victim of the attack reaches the
hospital having problem with the breathing and blindness,
the doctor did not have any idea how to treat them [15]. The
event which is discussed above can be considered as one of
the major faults which can be related to the engineering
work in recent times.
The main scenario which would be discussed in the
report is directly related to the event of the Oleum Gas leak
case tragedy. The focus point would be one on the factor
which directly lead to the incident and the consequences of
the attack which can be seen after the attack is initiated. At
the end of the report a rectifiable process would be focus
which could have been implemented which would have
stopped the attack.
II. REASON BEHIND THE ATTACK
The main reason behind the attack was that on the
night of 1986, a routine maintenance check was being
generated at the plant. At about 9:30 a large amount of water
directly entered into the air which contained over 40 tons of
toxic chemicals. Due to this event it directly triggered a
reaction which resulted in the high amount of increase of
temperature and pressure in the tank [10]. The products
which was generated burst past the disc which was ruptured
into the night sky of the city. The main components which
was released in the sector was the 40 tons of toxic chemical
along with hydrogen carbide and other reacted products.
The senior member of the factors and the engineering who
was posted in the plant almost one hour before the event
took place knew that the event would be taking place. They
did not take any form of counter measures which could
directly decrease the impact or provide a protective measure
which could directly stooped the attack [9]. The safety
system which was designed in the concept of the working of
the plant was seen to be under design and inoperative which
could have initiated a plan or countermeasures so that the
lethal gas would have reached the air of the city [17]. The
siren of warning in the event to inform the neighbors about
the leakage and the provide a precaution towards them was
placed almost one hour after the leak had already started and
poisonous gas was already into the air of the city and the
damage relating to the event had already started. The
chemical substances which was introduced into the air can
be very much lethal from the point of view of the people and
the animal who mainly reside in the area which is linked to
the factory. The catastrophic event mainly encountered
different section of the livelihood and it was a prolonged
sector of impact which prevailed for a long period of time
[3]. There are no methods which can be stated in the sector
of reducing the impact on the environment and it can be
stated to be very much a prolonged event.
III. CIRCUMSTANCES BEHIND THE INCIDENT
The main circumstances which can be related to the
event was detected with the interview of the workers and the
engineers who was posted in the site at the night when the
event had actually taken into consideration [14]. The main
sector which was detected was that the system was not ready
to deal with any form of event like this due to the factor that
the system was designed for a plant in the center of West
Virginia. On the other hand, it can be stated here that the
excessive amount of the MIC had been directly be stored in
the spare tank which made it nearly impossible to move the
different chemicals from the leaking tanks [6]. The
instruments which were present in the system relating to the
safety of the plant did not work properly which did not stop
the event which had taken place. It was seen earlier that
different forms of chemical event were leaked from factory
which affected the life of the people who was included into
the working of the different functionality of the plant [10].
Earlier inhaling of the phosgene gas had killed a labor who
had directly inhaled the gas and impacted the life. On the
other hand, later on about 18 months from the event there
was a linkage of the toxic gas which directly impacted the
life of the common people. hence it can be stated here that
the resources and the system which was involved into the
sector of the working of the plant and the different
engineering areas which was around the sector was not
working properly which was continuously leading to
different forms of event which directly impacted the life of
the common people and the working which was associated
with the sector. In most of the times it was seen that the
engineering maintenance sector of the working of the
different parts was not taken into consideration properly [2].
The main sector of consequences which can be
stated relating to the event was that there was excessive
amount of delivery of the toxic gas gas, due to this reason
the different plants was trying to cut on the cost which is
related to the carrying of the gas. The organization mainly
focused on the aspect of disrepair and the shutdown of
certain features which was related to the aspect of the
security and different procedures [6]. According to the
investigation it was stated that around 10 safety feature
aspect was compromised with and had been shut down
which directly impacted the standard of the precaution
which was seen in the sector of the working of the different
functionality of the plant. Among the various safety aspect
which was directly involved into the working of the concept