BHOPAL INDIA NEGLIGENCE & PROFIT MOTIVE

 I recently watched a televised dramatization of the 1984 Union Carbide disaster in Bhopal India. On the one hand there were references to corporate ideology regarding cutting corners on safety due to financial concerns while at the same time we were advised of various employees literally dying on site after the leak of toxic gas as they frantically did the best they could to stop the impending disaster. The actual chemical culprit I believe was MIC or methylene isocyanate. That said the movie/documentary was pretty clear that there had been serious concerns and threats for some time prior to the actual MIC becoming unstable and venting into the atmosphere.

I know here in Elmira, that the standard practice seems to be the use of rupture discs. I would almost compare them to frost plugs in a car's engine block which are supposed to be forced out if the engine coolant freezes. The idea is that the frost plugs breaking free reduces the pressure on the rest of the engine block. The same thing happens with rupture discs on a pressure vessel. We were advised by Chemtura back in 2010 that that is what occurred with the release of BLE 25. The pressure vessel either overheated or over pressurized and instead of exploding inside the building the rupture disc in an outside vent did its' job (ruptured) sending the contents of the pressure vessel up the stack to share with the rest of Elmira. How thoughtful.

One could be forgiven for seeing this as but one more externalization of costs from private manufacturers onto the public. Just as Uniroyal Chemical for almost twenty five years dumped untreated or partially treated wastes into the publics' air, groundwater and surface waters to save themselves massive treatment costs; these rupture discs spread the contamination far and wide versus an explosion inside their manufacturing facilities that would shut down future production and profits. I suggest that the Elmira cleanup of BLE 25 saved them money versus stopping production and having to rebuild their factory. 

Whether there is a comparison between the two (Bhopal/BLE 25) I am uncertain. Whether Union Carbide used rupture discs on their pressure vessels in Bhopal I am uncertain. What is more certain is that some corporate concerns for the publics' well being are mostly public relations.