The Bhopal Incident: A Catalyst to Environmental Awareness Case Study by Trish

This paper studies the incident that took place on December 2, 1984 in Bhopal, India when a series of mechanical and human failures led to the worst industrial disaster known to mankind--a gas leak of 40 tons of methyl isocyanate from a Union Carbide chemical plant that killed an estimated 10,000 people. The effects of this tragic incident were global. Corporate environmental awareness was raised to new levels as industrial giants worldwide scrambled to preemptively reevaluate the safety of their own chemical processes, while lawmakers put together new environmental regulations in response to Bhopal. Public environmental awareness was also brought to the forefront as the "right-to-know" movement gained impetus. Ultimately, these three factors paved the way for environmental auditing and management systems--because these were the controls that gave the chemical industry the tools to prevent another Bhopal, while also meeting expected new government regulations and gathering information to satisfy the public's newly awakened interest in industrial processes.