Causes of the Disaster: Bhopal Disaster

Topic: The Bophal Disaster
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Causes of the Disaster
There are two key lines of theories about the Bhopal disaster. The "Corporate Negligence" theory claims that the disaster was caused by a compelling combination of poorly maintained and decaying infrastructures, a feeble approach towards safety, and incompetence workforce, resulting in worker activities that accidentally facilitated water to penetrate the MIC tanks in the lack of appropriately working safeguards (Eckerman, 2005).
This point of view also argues that management and to some degree, the local government invested inadequately in safety that allowed for a hazardous working setting. Factors mentioned include the filling of the MIC tanks way above the recommended levels, poor maintenance after the plant terminated MIC production at the end of 1984, leading to several safety organisms to be flawed due to poor maintenance, and turning off safety systems to save on expenditure. The most affected being the MIC reservoir refrigeration system which could have alleviated the disaster severity, and non-existent disaster plans (Eckerman, 2005). The government also, through inquiries, identified other factors such as undersized safety devices and the reliance on manual procedures. Particular plant management deficits that were identified include the unskilled operators, lessened safety management, inadequate maintenance, and scarce emergency action strategies.
The second theory "Worker Sabotage" argues that it was physically impossible for the water to enter the tank devoid of determined human effort, and that wide-ranging testimony and engineering investigation hints to a deduction that water entered the tank when a rogue individual operator attached a water pipe to a faucet located on the side of the MIC tank. The theory, additionally, argues that the Indian government took significant measures to conceal this likelihood in order to attribute blame to UCC.
However, theories contrast as to how the water entered the tank. At that time, employees were cleaning out a congested pipe with water about 120 meters from the tank. They assert that they were not instructed to segregate the tank with a pipe slip-blind plate. The workers assumed that due to poor maintenance and leaking faucets, it was possible for the water to seep into the tank (T.R. Chouhan, 2004). However, this water entry path could not be imitated in spite of persistent efforts by enthused parties. UCC states that a "discontented employee" intentionally hooking a hose to a pressure valve connection was the actual cause. On the next morning, a UCIL manager probed the apparatus engineer to change the gauge. UCIL's inquiry team found no indication of the obligatory connection; however, the analysis was entirely controlled by the government, not allowing the UCC investigators access to the tank or dialogs with the workers.
Long-term health effects
The ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research) was prohibited to publish health effects data of the disaster until 1994 (Eckerman, 2005). Eckerman describes expansively the long-term health effects recognized in the exposed residents and recommends what might be done to improve health care for the fatalities. The rareness of data on cer...