Business Ethics and Law: An In-Depth Report on Bhopal Gas Tragedy

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the Bhopal gas tragedy, a major industrial disaster that occurred in 1984. It begins with an introduction to business law and ethics, setting the context for the subsequent examination of the incident. The report details the events of the disaster, including the leakage of Methyl Isocyanate (MIC) gas, the causes of the incident, such as inadequate safety measures and worker training, and the devastating impacts on the environment, the population of Bhopal, and the local economy. It also explores the major ethical issues surrounding the tragedy, including the lapses in corporate responsibility, the lack of transparency, and the failure to prioritize human life and environmental safety. The report concludes with a summary of the key findings and a discussion of the lessons learned from the disaster, highlighting the importance of ethical business practices and robust safety regulations to prevent similar tragedies in the future. The report references various sources including books and journals to support its analysis.

Individual
Report

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
TASK...............................................................................................................................................3
Incident Day................................................................................................................................4
Major Cause of Incident..............................................................................................................4
Impacts of Disaster......................................................................................................................5
Major Ethical Issues....................................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Business law is the main key element in law as it provides various methods and the rules
with certain regulation through which the company and all the organisation can work. The law is
the embodiment of ideas and rules as the way any organisation should work and
follow(Aggarwal, 2018). It mainly covers various laws like Intellectual property rights,
Employment law, corporate law etc. these laws have the binding affect on all the organisation.
Business ethics provides certain methods and the conducts that are needed to be made in order to
frame the work and make it done in a well established way. The companies should always have
to follow the norms in order to maintain the growth of the environment and the culture. In this
report their will be a analysis of Bhopal gas disaster.
TASK
Bhopal Gas Tragedy is a well known disaster that has created a worse impact on the
country as well as well being. That incident has affected a huge number of population, nature and
also the well being of the individual. The incident was happened on 3 December,1984 as their
has been faced the major gas leakage of Methyl Isocyanate (MIC) in Bhopal Madhya Pradesh.
And that just took the life of number of people in certain time. By that incident there were about
800,000 people were affected in them about 2000 people faced death just at the time of incident
and about 300,000 were majorly affected by the poison that has been inhaled by them. Some of
the people lost their abilities and were physically disabled.
The main reason behind the incident was the Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) that
came in 1969in order to produce the pesticide Sevin which was made by MIC. The main leading
company behind this chemical was UCC that is Union Carbide Corporation. The company was
having approx 50.9% of then total subsidiary in that area and it covers the plant of UCC which
was being fixed earlier in Bombay. But after certain time the government of Madhya Pradesh
insisted as in order to set up that factory in Bhopal and make it as an important and the only plant
for producing the chemical(Ahmad, 2019). Thus in 1979 the factory and the company which
was set up[ in Bhopal started making various chemicals ans Sevin in that plant and the main
chemical use to be transported from America and the rest other mixing use to be done in Bhopal
plant.

Alert Raised
In 1976, the people around the factory started complaining about the pollution that is
being raised by the company. The first incident that has been noted was that the worker when
went to clean the tank has faced a phosgene splash and due to suffocation has inhaled the
chemical because of which the person died immediately.(Harrou, and et. al., 2020). There has
been faced on more major issue in which the company has faced that the workers went for
cleaning faced the chemical splashing and that made them affected by it as many of them went to
the hospital and the rest in which some workers faced death. In the time period of 1983-1984
there were several leakage noticed of carbon tetrachloride, methyl isocyanate, methylamine and
phosgene.
Incident Day
The day on which the incident happened their were observed that the tanks in the
factories were filled up from the heavy chemicals and their was been observed that abut 6800
litres Methyl isocyanate was being filled in the tanks. There was observed that there were 3 tanks
that are named as E611, E619 and E610 all three were loaded with MIC. The company has
already mentioned in their manual that the tanks cannot be filled with the chemical for more then
30 tonnes but on that same day the chemicals carelessly was filled with 42 tonnes and that just
made a huge pressure in the tanks which was merely 5 times increased then the actual
temperature of the tanks.
Major Cause of Incident.
 All the workers working in the factory use to do certain cleaning task and on that day
when the workers were cleaning the tanks there the water went in that chemicals tanks
and the workers being unaware about the danger did not knew that the water can also
react with the chemicals(Patil, and et. al., 2021). And that majorly affected and created
pressure in the tanks.
 All the vent scrubbers which were used by the factory in order to check the temperature
were not working properly and even though the factory supervision knew still they didn't
made it to fix.
 There were temperature sensors that are being made to know about the various raising
temperature and that were not also working properly. And even when the employees

know that the immense pressure has been raised in the btanks still they had not managed
it.
 Their has been appointed various teams which are for the supervising all the factories
work and on that day there has been seen that their was nor proper supervision taken
place in any of the area.
Impacts of Disaster
After this tragedy has taken place there has been seen that merely various life were
affected and people faced a lot of problem in their life as there has been seen that most of the
population in Bhopal was being affected by that disaster and the major impact is as follows:
 The environment was heavily affected by the disaster as the company has faced a major
impact on the company(Le Menestrel, 2021). There was about 3787 tonnes of gas has
been leaked in the environment and that created a huge impact on all the person and the
nature. The gas was led to be more poisonous and that it was difficult for all the
individuals and animals to survive in that environment.
 The Madhya Pradesh Government has faced the highest death rate on that time period. As
there was being observed that approx 8000 people died in Bhopal and that was the
highest mortality rate in that period of time.
 The farmers were not being able to do farming ion that area again as their was 350 tonnes
of pesticides got mixed in the air and that made it difficult for all the crops to grow and
also that crops cannot be used for eatable purpose.
 The person experienced breathing problems as most of the individuals were affre3cted by
the choking, neurological disorder, breathing problem, eye irritation etc.(Rodda, and et.
al., 2020).
 the birth rate was decreased in Bhopal as most of the women s were not being able to
conceive due to that gas affect and that also if in case there has been any birth given to
the child then the women faced that most of the children died just after the birth.
 The children which were born were affected by the breathing and the lungs problem as
they use to do breast feeding and through that they also got major issues regarding the
lungs problem. Most of the children faced various syndrome just after there birth.

Major Ethical Issues.
There has been observed that the companies has faced major ethical issue that implies
that all the ethics and the morals were lapsed on the side of UCC . It is the prime duty of all the
organisation that they should work in a proper manner and should not make any harmful impact
on the environment and also the cultures and norms.
When a report has been analysed then their has been observed that UCC even after
knowing all the drawbacks still tried to do all the various wrongs that can affect the environment.
As the company was of UK based so in that case most of the Indians were not being aware about
the functioning of certain equipments(Lokeshwari, and et. al., 2017). The company has not given
that proper training to the workers working over there neither they explained the workers about
the harmful impact that has been raised by the chemical.
The language barrier as most of the employees were not been aware about that language
as they do not know English. And in that case the manual that was being present in the factory
was also in English and that made the workers unaware about the danger that chemical may
cause. The UCC has not mentioned any of the harmful nature of the chemical rather then that
they were even avoiding these certain issue of the hazard.
When the claim being raised by the central government about the issue that has taken life
of the people and made them suffer for ages the UCIL and UCC tried to settle down in particular
by giving money. But when this can be observed the life of the people is more precious then the
money and the carelessness of the UCC has affected the living of the people of Bhopal. They ha\
d ethically break all the moral and conducts for the environment tow-heads the people and also
towards the nature(Thungon, 2018). UCC has made major fault by not following the ethical
dilemma that was important for all the people and that also created a huge impact on the
environment. As if they had taken the proper care and caution millions of life would have been
saved.

CONCLUSION
In this above report it has bee analysed that, business law is crucial for all the
organisation as they creates the major impact on all the companies and the organisations that are
being working. Their has been made that all the companies use top follow the rules being led by
the business law. Furthermore, business ethics is also the most important for all the organisation
as it helps the companies tp work in their moral values and conducts and their should be made
various areas that can be analysed. As the roles and the conduct of all the person towards the
environment is much more important. Bhopal gas tragedy has created a major ethical issue and
the worst human disaster in the world.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Aggarwal, S., 2018. Efficacy of compensatory laws. Research Journal of Humanities and Social
Sciences, 9(2), pp.469-474.
Ahmad, D., 2019. The Indian Constitution and the Role of Indian Judiciary System in Protection
of Environment in India. Available at SSRN 3375640.
Harrou, and et. al., 2020. Statistical process monitoring using advanced data-driven and deep
learning approaches: theory and practical applications. Elsevier.
Le Menestrel, M., 2021. The Individual, Business and Corruption: The Changmaï Case (October
5, 2012)–Marc Le Menestrel.
Lokeshwari, and et. al., 2017. Urban Air Pollution Impact and Strategic Plans—A Case Study of
a Tier-II City. In Materials, Energy and Environment Engineering (pp. 291-297).
Springer, Singapore.
Patil, and et. al., 2021. Towards Sustainable Business Strategies for a Circular Economy:
Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Performance and Evaluation. In An
Introduction to Circular Economy (pp. 527-554). Springer, Singapore.
Rodda, and et. al., 2020. Tools and Incentives for Implementing Codes of Ethics to Help Prevent
the Reemergence of Chemical Weapons. Journal of Chemical Education, 97(7),
pp.1731-1738.
Thungon, L., 2018. Seeking Justice and Keeping the Memory Alive. Violence and the Quest for
Justice in South Asia, p.128.