Voice 1
Thank you for joining us today for Spotlight. I’m Rebekah Schipper
Voice 2
And I’m Joshua Leo. Spotlight uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand no matter where in the world they live.
Voice 3
“The night the gas leaked, I was fixing clothes. I sat next to the door. It was around twelve o–clock at night. The children’s father had just returned from a poetry gathering. He came in and asked me, “What are you burning? It makes it hard for me to breathe.” And then it became very hard to breathe. The children sleeping inside began to cough. I spread a mat outside and made them sit on it. Outside we started coughing even more and became breathless. Then our friend and my husband went out to see what was happening. They found out that some gas had leaked. Outside there were people shouting, ‘Run, run, run for your lives.’”
Voice 1
Bano Bi was thirty–five [35] years old when the Union Carbide chemical factory in Bhopal, India experienced a gas leak. It was one of the world’s worst industrial accidents.
Today’s Spotlight it on the Bhopal disaster of 1984].
Voice 2
Bhopal is the capital city of the state of Madhya Pradesh in India. It is a busy city. One point four million [1,400,000] people live in Bhopal. In the late 1970’s the Union Carbide company built a chemical factory in Bhopal. This factory made pesticides, chemicals to kill insects. These chemicals helped farmers to protect their crops from insects. But some of the chemicals used to make pesticides can be very dangerous. Many of the people in Bhopal did not know how dangerous the chemicals are.
Voice 1
But the factory started to lose money. By 1984, the land had become dry. Farmer’s crops were not growing. They did not purchase pesticides from the factory any more. The factory officials tried to save money. They turned off safety devices. They made less safety inspections. Many workers lost their jobs.
Voice 2
In the early morning on December 3 1984, a worker cleaned the pipes in the factory. He sprayed water in the pipes. But he did not block the water like he was supposed to. The water mixed with the chemical Methyl Isocyanate in a holding tank. A chemical reaction happened. The chemical, also called M.I.C., began to heat.
Voice 1
The factory had many systems that would prevent chemical leaks. But none of the systems were working. Normally, the refrigerator system would cool the chemicals. But the refrigerators were not on. So, the M.I.C. continued to heat. The temperature rose to two hundred [200] degrees Celsius. The M.I.C. turned into a gas. The gas started to leak out of the tank. M.I.C.was among the most dangerous chemicals Union Carbide used.
Voice 2
A gas scrubber is a safety device that stops harmful gas before the gas can leak. But the gas scrubber at the Bhopal factory was not on. It did not stop the gas. Factory officials also turned off the warning alarm. They did not want people to worry. There was one last safety device in the factory. The flare tower burned leaked gas and stopped the danger. But the flare tower in the Bhopal factory was not working. The M.I.C. gas escaped into the air.
Voice 1
M.I.C. gas is heavier than air. It floated down to the ground. It blew through the streets. The gas floated through windows and under doors. Ramesh was sixteen [16] the night of the gas leak.
Voice 4
“People were shouting ‘Get up!’ ‘Run, run, gas has leaked!’ My brother got up and said ‘Everyone is running away, we too must run.’ I opened my eyes and saw that the room was full of white smoke. When I removed the blanket from my face, my eyes started to burn. Every breath burned my insides. I was scared of opening my eyes. The gas was getting in through my mouth and through my nose.”
Voice 2
The people of Bhopal did not know what to do when the gas leaked. They could have been safe. All they had to do was block their doors and windows with a wet cloth. But the Union Carbide company did not tell them this. The gas affected many people.
Voice 1
M.I.C. gas damages the soft tissue of the lungs. It causes a person’s lungs to fill with fluid. M.I.C. damages a person’s eyes and makes their stomach sick. The gas made people go blind. It made breathing difficult. The gas affected many young children because they were closer to the ground. When people went to the hospital to be treated, doctors did not know what to do. The Union Carbide factory told the doctors that the M.I.C. gas was not a serious problem. They did not give the doctors information about the chemical. Factory officials did not tell them how to treat people affected by the gas.
Voice 2
But the gas did not only make people sick. It did not only harm their eyes. It killed thousands of people. Many pregnant women lost their babies. The official number of deaths from the gas is three thousand eight hundred [3,800]. But no one can agree on a number. Some sources say that as many as ten thousand [10,000] people died from the gas. In the end, the gas harmed about five hundred thousand [500,000] people in Bhopal.
Voice 1
Today, people still feel the effects of the gas leak. People in Bhopal are more likely to have skin, lung, and stomach cancer. Pregnant women lose their babies more often. Many children are born with genetic problems. Many of the accident survivors have health problems. Their muscles lose coordination. They cannot move their bodies smoothly. They have memory loss. And many people’s bodies cannot fight sickness as easily. It has been estimated that every day, one person dies from the effects of the gas leak.
Voice 2
Union Carbide has never taken responsibility for the gas leak in Bhopal. They blamed the leak on an angry worker. They say that he poured water into the tank on purpose. But the company has not named the person responsible. Union Carbide gave money to many people affected by the gas leak. But the money was not enough to care for all the needs of all the victims.
Voice 1
After the accident, police arrested Warren Anderson, the president of Union Carbide. But he was released and he left India. India still wants to bring the president of Union Carbide to court. They want him to take responsibility for the accident in Bhopal.
Voice 2
Today, the Dow Chemical company owns Union Carbide. But neither of these companies can deny the gas leak. Every year, people protest in the streets of Bhopal. They mourn the people who died in the accident. They also fight for health care for all the people still suffering from the accident. They are searching for justice for the victims.
|