Plea for evacuation plan went plan unheeded

The Bhopal gas tragedy-II

“As events unfold, I believe that people everywhere will become convinced of two things about our corporation: First that our operations and technology are in the hands of competent managers who care about their responsibilities and about their fellow men. Second that Union Carbide has substantial strengths, which are helping us now and will add value to the corporation in the years ahead” wrote Mr. Warren M. Anderson, chairman of Union Corporation, in a letter to his shareholders on January 25, 1985, after the gas tragedy at Bhopal.

Carbide plant after the disaster

The visit to the plant of a safety auditor, Mr. Hull. Was followed by another safety surveyor Mr. G.E. Merryman, director, shares, of Agricultural Products. Company, a division of Union Carbide Corporation. He also drew the attention of Carbide’s “competent managers” towards the imminent danger of toxic release. And he was more precise and strong in his recommendations. His report was forwarded to the Bhopal plant by Mr. R. Natarajan of Union Carbide (Eastern), Hong Kong. The letter dated December 9, 1980 asked the Bhopal management with local authorities; need to be discussed between UCC/UCE/UCIL management before proceeding with such plans”. The quarterly status reports filed till October 25 1982 on the subject contained the same answer to this particular recommendation of Mr. Merryman. Copies of the status reports were sent at regular intervals to UCIL, Bombay, and UCE and the UCC, US. Subsequent events adequately prove that no discussions even took place and not even a single member of the management, right from UCIL to UCC to UCE, bothered to look into this vital safety matter.

Carbide, fearing that it might be asked to wind up its Bhopal plant, did not reveal the information. This attitude on its part which was guided by commercial considerations is understandable. But the Government’s inability to detect it cost Bhopal dearly. Apart from the above recommendations, Mr. George Merryman made observations on a number of other issuer in his report.

Commenting on the medical facilities at the plant. he wrote, “Good medical facility. Two knowledgeable doctors, short of equipment. The physicians are confined to planning and first aid work”.

“Compliance with safety procedures is a local issue”, said Union Carbide’s chairman, Mr. Warren M. Anderson, at a news conference called to release a report on the accident at Bhopal. “That plant should not have been operating without procedures being followed”. With this he asserted that the Indian subsidiary bears the legal responsibility for the accident.

The above statement creates the impression that UCC did not have any knowledge about the safety violations at its Bhopal plant. While the responsibility, of course, will have to be shouldered by the Indian management. UCC cannot get rid of it by pleading innocence. How could Mr. Warren Anderson make such a statement when both UCC. And UCE were sent quarterly status reports and they had copies of the reports given by Mr. Hull and Mr. Merrymen. The 1982 report of Mr. Poulson, Mr. Tyson and Mr. Kail also pointed towards deficiencies in the required safety measures.

Unless the UCC and UCE management deny having seen these reports what did they do about them? Since no action was imitated. The only inference that can be drawn is that they chose to suppress the recommendations, particularly the one about preparation of an evacuation plan.

The story does not end here. The UCC management seems to have adopted different approaches to the safety measures adopted for the Bhopal plant and its plant at West Virgina, USA. While it did not react to UCIL’s suggestion that an evacuation plan for Bhopal needed discussions between the three-tier systems of carbide management, it claimed to have a plan of some sorts for the residents of West Virgina, though without any satisfactory method of evacuating the residents.

In a field hearing conducted by Mr. Henry A. Waxman, chairman of the House sub-committee on health and environment of the US Congress, Mr. Warren Anderson and other company executives were questioned along with local government officials and residents of institute, West Virginia, about the emergency planning for area residents in case of any toxic release there.

Mr. H.J. Karawan, manager of the local plant, told the committee that in case of threat of disaster, the plan included a stream whistle to alert residents, telephone calls to the state police and a national weather station and communication by the police with emergency agencies such as hospitals.

Dick James, a union representative told the committee,” A proposed evacuation plan is to put a wet cloth over your face and go crosswind.”

The Kanawha valley, better known as ‘chemical valley’, where one of the two huge carbide complexes producing methyl isocyanides is situated, also had an evacuation plan.

Earl Wolfe, state director of the vocational rehabilitation Center, located next to the chemical facility, said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal that “We have a good evacuation plan. But with what happened in India, causes all of us concern”. The rehabilitation center practices evacuation drills once a month. And carried out one in real earnest a few years ago when hydrogen chloride leaked from a nearby tank car, reports the journal.

Dick James, a union representative told the committee,” A proposed evacuation plan is to put a wet cloth over your face and go crosswind.”

The Kanawha valley, better known as ‘chemical valley’, where one of the two huge carbide complexes producing methyl isocyanides is situated, also had an evacuation plan.

rkeswani100@gmail.com

(originally published in Indian Express, Nov. 1985 as part of of the series on Bhopal Gas Tragedy)