Īfter the Bhopal plant was built, other manufacturers (including Bayer) produced carbaryl without MIC, though at a greater manufacturing cost. Another manufacturer, Bayer, also used this MIC-intermediate process at the chemical plant once owned by UCC at Institute, West Virginia, in the United States. The chemical process employed in the Bhopal plant had methylamine reacting with phosgene to form MIC, which was then reacted with 1-naphthol to form the final product, carbaryl. An MIC production plant was added to the UCIL site in 1979. The UCIL factory was built in 1969 to produce the pesticide Sevin (UCC's brand name for carbaryl) using methyl isocyanate (MIC) as an intermediate. 5.1 Charges against UCC and UCIL employeesĬlass=notpageimage| City of Bhopal in India, where the UCIL plant is located.4.1.4 Impossibility of the "negligence".4.1.2 Adequacy of equipment and regulations.3.4 Occupational and habitation rehabilitation.An eighth former employee was also convicted, but died before the judgement was passed. All were released on bail shortly after the verdict. In June 2010, seven Indian nationals who were UCIL employees in 1984, including the former UCIL chairman, were convicted in Bhopal of causing death by negligence and sentenced to two years imprisonment and a fine of about $2,000 each, the maximum punishment allowed by Indian law. Civil and criminal cases were also filed in the District Court of Bhopal, India, involving UCC, UCIL and UCC CEO Anderson. Dow Chemical Company purchased UCC in 2001, seventeen years after the disaster.Ĭivil and criminal cases filed in the United States against UCC and Warren Anderson, UCC CEO at the time of the disaster, were dismissed and redirected to Indian courts on multiple occasions between 19, as the US courts focused on UCIL being a standalone entity of India. Eveready ended clean-up on the site in 1998, when it terminated its 99-year lease and turned over control of the site to the state government of Madhya Pradesh. In 1994, UCC sold its stake in UCIL to Eveready Industries India Limited (EIIL), which subsequently merged with McLeod Russel (India) Ltd. In 1989, UCC paid $470 million (equivalent to $871 million in 2020) to settle litigation stemming from the disaster. The owner of the factory, UCIL, was majority owned by the Union Carbide Corporation (UCC), with Indian Government-controlled banks and the Indian public holding a 49.1 percent stake. Others estimate that 8,000 died within two weeks, and another 8,000 or more have since died from gas-related diseases. A government affidavit in 2006 stated that the leak caused 558,125 injuries, including 38,478 temporary partial injuries and approximately 3,900 severely and permanently disabling injuries. In 2008, the Government of Madhya Pradesh had paid compensation to the family members of 3,787 victims killed in the gas release, and to 574,366 injured victims. The official immediate death toll was 2,259. The highly toxic substance made its way into and around the small towns located near the plant. Over 500,000 people were exposed to methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas. The industrial disaster is considered the world's worst in history. The Bhopal disaster, also referred to as the Bhopal gas tragedy, was a gas leak accident on the night of 2–3 December 1984 at the Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) pesticide plant in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India. Methyl isocyanate leak from the E610 storage tank on the Union Carbide India Limited plant, of which the cause is disputed between corporate negligence or employee sabotage The Bhopal pesticide plant of Union Carbide India Limited in 1985, the year following the disasterĢ December 1984 ( ) – 3 December 1984 ( )