Bhopal Gas Tragedy: Examining Ethical Failures of Union Carbide

This report delves into the ethical failures of Union Carbide in the context of the Bhopal gas tragedy, a catastrophic industrial disaster that occurred in India in 1984. It examines the background of the incident, the role of Union Carbide India Limited, and the devastating consequences of the methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas leak. The report analyzes Union Carbide's ethical position, highlighting issues of mismanagement, cost-cutting measures that compromised safety, and inadequate compensation provided to victims. It also explores the approaches adopted by the company in response to the disaster and suggests alternative strategies for preventing similar tragedies in the future, emphasizing the importance of corporate responsibility, ethical decision-making, and proactive safety measures. The report concludes by underscoring the significance of business ethics in preventing such disasters and mitigating their impact.

Study case
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Part 2 Ethical issues at Union Carbide.............................................................................................3
Background of the case study.................................................................................................3
Ethical position of the Union Carbide Company...................................................................4
Approaches adopted by company...........................................................................................5
Approaches suggested to company........................................................................................6
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................6
References........................................................................................................................................7
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Introduction
Ethics is a division of philosophy which deals with moral values that determines
individual behaviour or management of actions. Business ethics is form of practical and
professional ethics which examines moral principles or problems that can originate in
environment of business (North-Samardzic, 2019). The given report is basically focused on
evaluating the ethical situation of US Union Carbide Company in the effect of Bhopal Gas
Tragedy happened in its ancillary company located in India. Union Carbide Corporation at
present entirely owned by Dow Chemical Company is an American corporation of chemical. It
produces polymers and chemical which before arriving to consumers undergoes further
variations. Various formulations adopted by company and moral issues developed in the
situation are studied in this report.
Part 2 Ethical issues at Union Carbide
Background of the case study
This report is based on the case study of Bhopal gas tragedy which happened in the town
of Bhopal. It is a small town in India and the mentioned incident happened in the night of
December 2-3, 1984. It is touted as one of the most tragic industrial disaster that has ever
happened in the world. In the background of this case, US company Union Carbide through its
subsidiary Union India Carbide Limited entered into partnership with government of India to
open and operate a pesticides plant in the town of Bhopal (Bloch, 2016). On the night of
incident, various chemicals and gases including Methyl Isocyanate (MIC) got leaked from the
plant in the form of white smoke. It was a lethal smoke that started spreading in the areas around
plant and started soiling environment and health of the people. Land, water and air around the
plant got polluted which acted as vector to carry harmful effects to the farther areas and in only
one night, there was white smoke all over the place. More than a thousand casualties were
reported and many thousands were left injured that resulted in permanent damages to their
eyesight, skin, respiratory system, etc. (Mladenovic, Martinov-Bennie and Bell, 2019)
Government launched an official investigation in the case. Company and its officials
were made primary accuse and criminal and civil charges were pressed against them. Even the
parent US company was made a party to the case and its Chairman at that time Warren M.
Anderson was accused. They were accused of mismanagement and non-maintenance of the
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safety systems at the site, which was also the reported cause of the leak in the official
investigation report of the government. On the other hand, company argued that it was an
intentional sabotage and their management was not at fault. They claimed that a disgruntled
employeed had deliberately failed the safety systems which made way for water to enter the tank
that contains MIC gas. MIC is one of the gases that is used by the company to produce pesticides
however, it is highly toxic and when it gets into contact with other agents such as water, it reacts
even more strongly (Johnsen, 2020). Company claimed that deliberately water was allowed into
the tank and where it got infused with it to produce a boiling effect. White smoke raised from
that boiling mixture which caused safety valves to burst and that smoke then start spreading
around.
Ethical position of the Union Carbide Company
Whenever any such situation arises that requires company and its officials to contemplate
the right and wrong, they enter into a position where they are faced with moral issues and
dilemmas. In the Bhopal disaster case, related party involved includes Union Carbide India
Limited, government of India and judicial system and employees of the company and common
local public that was affected by this tragic incident (Ta and et.al., 2020). All of them were
somewhere responsible for the ethical position of the parent US company.
 Mismanagement – Company claimed that it was intentional sabotage by a disgruntled
employee. It also hired an investigation and consulting firm however, the theory was
never proven. It also claimed that it only owned a little over than 50% stake in the plant
and it was not sole controller of daily operations and hence, should not be made sole
responsible for the disaster. However, the official investigation report claims that
company was solely monitoring daily operations and even the parent US company had
sold to its Indian subsidiary an unproven technology to manufacture MIC. It reported
number of safety lapses, poor maintenance of plant and equipment, etc. and blamed
negligence of management as the reason for the incident (Setó-Pamies and
Papaoikonomou, 2016). They took notice of the local journalists which had reported
safety lapses years before the incident and how company brushed them aside.
 Cutting cost and safety - It was reported that company was not getting much profits from
the investment they had made in the plant and to increase their profitability, they started
cutting cost even on safety and maintenance, which should have never been taken for
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granted as the company deals in highly toxic gases and chemicals. Company regularly
undertakes safety audits in all of its global operations but it chose to ignore safety lapses
reported in safety audit report conducted prior to the disaster. Company had reported $4m
loss from its Bhopal plant in beginning of 1984 and even its group profit reduced from
$800m three years back to only $79m (Bhopal gas disaster: Corporate negligence with
deadly consequences, 2010). To cut cost and save money, it started downsizing
maintenance department. Some local activist’s claims keeping safety concerns aside,
company has increased the volume ceiling of MIC storage to dangerous level by
amending the safety manual in April 1984 and reduced the training time for MIC plant
operators from six months to 15 days only. In August 1984, Plant Union had written to
the management for the pollution MIC plant was causing but plant general manager did
not pay a heed to it. However, company had denied all of these reports and claims of
investigators and activists (Mees, 2017).
 Paltry compensation – Company claims that it had asked local management to shut down
the plant and sell it to other interested buyer in October, 1984 only and had also
appointed local safety officer to study the feasibility of dismantling the MIC plant.
However, the officer warned against dismantling due to high level of corrosion at several
points. It is reported that company then to further cut cost, eliminated position of
maintenance supervisor on November 26 and on night of December 2 when operators
reported small leak, no preventive action was taken by supervisors and following night,
deadly gas exploded in the air. All this clearly showed non-ethical position of the
company but when government of India sued it for $3bn compensation, it offered only
$7m in relief and finally settled for $470m in 1989 on the condition that it would absolve
company and its officials from all civil and criminal liabilities in present and future.
Approaches adopted by company
As soon as company got to know about issues and dilemmas it must have approached to
face them to accomplish their responsibility towards society not just to secure their brand image
but to help the victims also. Company also faced legal proceedings in US as well as India and
fined $470 million to victims for compensation. Further government confiscated plant and
declared sale of its liabilities in 1992 (Manzoor and Ali, 2018). Union Carbide Corporation got
its shares of $17 million which it voluntarily immediately paid to government of India to build a
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hospital near by Bhopal especially to treat the victims of Bhopal Gas Tragedy. After this
company organised several audits for safety and announced to follow mandatory the plans of risk
and safety management. Company created, implemented and monitored all the safety measures
taken (Jang and et.al., 2017).
Approaches suggested to company
The company can avoid any disastrous incident by undertaking reports of feasibility of
environment and economics before starting. So it could have helped the company in estimating
the profitability and to decide whether it should have built their plant here or not and in
managing the safety standards by measuring the level of danger of its products without any
compromises (Ashton and Trapeznik, 2019). After tragedy, company as well as its chairman
should have taken moral responsibilities and for victims they should have started rehab centres.
They should helped economically to workers and the nearby villagers whose livelihood effected
due to this tragedy. Instead of fighting with government they should have collaborated with them
so the situation could have improved early and for showing their efforts and good will they could
have taken help from press so it could prevent them from financial juncture also.
Conclusion
The entire report is focused on business ethics taken into consideration in outcome of
disastrous tragedy. It is concluded that such tragedies happen because of fault in management
and safety measures not because of some errors. To avoid the repetition of such tragedies as well
as to minimize their harsh side effects the management should focus on business ethics.
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References
Books and Journal
Ashton, P. and Trapeznik, A. eds., 2019. What is public history globally?: working with the past
in the present. Bloomsbury Publishing.
Bloch, K., 2016. Rethinking Bhopal: A Definitive Guide to Investigating, Preventing, and
Learning from Industrial Disasters. Elsevier.
Jang, H.L. and et.al., 2017. Design and Implementation of an HNS Accident Tracking System
for Rapid Decision Making. Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment &
Safety. 23(2). pp.168-176.
Johnsen, C.G., 2020. Sustainability beyond instrumentality: Towards an immanent ethics of
organizational environmentalism. Journal of Business Ethics. pp.1-14.
Manzoor, S. and Ali, M., 2018. Disaster and mental health: A need for multipronged
approach. Indian Journal of Health & Wellbeing. 9(3).
Mees, B., 2017. Changing approaches to business ethics (pp. 373-82). The Routledge
Companion to Business History.
Mladenovic, R., Martinov-Bennie, N. and Bell, A., 2019. Business students’ insights into their
development of ethical decision-making. Journal of Business Ethics. 155(1). pp.275-
287.
North-Samardzic, A., 2019. Biometric Technology and Ethics: Beyond Security
Applications. Journal of Business Ethics. pp.1-18.
Setó-Pamies, D. and Papaoikonomou, E., 2016. A multi-level perspective for the integration of
ethics, corporate social responsibility and sustainability (ECSRS) in management
education. Journal of Business Ethics. 136(3). pp.523-538.
Ta, G.C. and et.al., 2020. A Proposed Integrated Framework for Chemical Safety and Chemical
Security. Journal of Chemical Education. 97(7). pp.1769-1774.
Online
Bhopal gas disaster: Corporate negligence with deadly consequences, 2010. [Online]. Available
through:<https://www.reutersevents.com/sustainability/supply-chains/bhopal-gas-
disaster-corporate-negligence-deadly-consequences>
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