The Bhopal disaster
A pesticide plant leaks forty tonnes of gas over a sleeping city.
- When
- Era
- Contemporary, Holocene
Methyl isocyanate escapes from a Union Carbide plant in December 1984, killing several thousand people within days and an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 in total, with hundreds of thousands injured. Safety systems had been disabled or were non-functional. It is the worst industrial accident in history. Compensation was settled at a fraction of claims, the site was never properly remediated, and groundwater contamination continues.