Review on Bhopal, Minamata and Fukushima Disasters

By: Agnes Ferinna 0906551451 Teknik Sipil-Program Internasional

The Bhopal Disaster

The Bhopal disaster was a gas leak incident in India, it is considered as one of the world's worst industrial catastrophes. It occurred on the night of December 23, 1984 at the Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) pesticide plant in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India. A leak of methyl isocyanate gas and other chemicals from the plant resulted in the exposure of hundreds of thousands of people. Estimates vary on the death toll. The official immediate death toll was 2,259 and the government of Madhya Pradesh has confirmed a total of 3,787 deaths related to the gas release. Others estimate 3,000 died within weeks and another 8,000 have since died from gas-related diseases. A government affidavit in 2006 stated the leak caused 558,125 injuries including 38,478 temporary partial and approximately 3,900 severely and permanently disabling injuries. As many as 25,000 deaths have been attributed to the disaster in recent estimates. UCIL was the Indian subsidiary of Union Carbide Corporation (UCC), with Indian Government controlled banks and the Indian public holding a 49.1 percent stake. In 1994, the Supreme Court of India allowed UCC to sell its 50.9 percent share. Union Carbide sold UCIL, the Bhopal plant operator, to Eveready Industries India Limited in 1994. The Bhopal plant was later sold to McLeod Russel (India) Ltd. which has been owned by Dow Chemical Company since 2001. Civil and criminal cases are pending in the United States District Court, Manhattan and the District Court of Bhopal, India, involving UCC, UCIL employees, and Warren Anderson, UCC CEO at the time of the disaster. In June 2010, seven ex-employees, 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 law. An eighth former employee was also convicted, but died before judgment was passed.

Factors of the Gas Leak

Storing MIC in large tanks and filling beyond recommended levels Poor maintenance after the plant ceased MIC production at the end of 1984 Failure of several safety systems (due to poor maintenance) Safety systems being switched off to save moneyincluding the MIC tank refrigeration system which could have mitigated the disaster severity

Short Term Health Effects

The leakage caused many short term health effects in the surrounding areas. Apart from MIC, the gas cloud may have contained phosgene, hydrogen cyanide, carbon monoxide, hydrogen chloride, oxides of nitrogen, monomethyl amine (MMA) and carbon dioxide, either produced in the storage tank or in the atmosphere.

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The gas cloud was composed mainly of materials denser than the surrounding air, stayed close to the ground and spread outwards through the surrounding community. The initial effects of exposure were coughing, vomiting, severe eye irritation and a feeling of suffocation. People awakened by these symptoms fled away from the plant. Those who ran inhaled more than those who had a vehicle to ride. Owing to their height, children and other people of shorter stature inhaled higher concentrations. Many people were trampled trying to escape. Thousands of people had succumbed by the morning hours. There were mass funerals and mass cremations as well as disposal of bodies in the Narmada river. 170,000 people were treated at hospitals and temporary dispensaries. 2,000 buffalo, goats, and other animals were collected and buried. Within a few days, leaves on trees yellowed and fell off. Supplies, including food, became scarce owing to suppliers' safety fears. Fishing was prohibited causing further supply shortages. A total of 36 wards were marked by the authorities as being "gas affected", affecting a population of 520,000. Of these, 200,000 were below 15 years of age, and 3,000 were pregnant women. In 1991, 3,928 deaths had been certified. Independent organizations recorded 8,000 dead in the first days. Other estimations vary between 10,000 and 30,000. Another 100,000 to 200,000 people are estimated to have permanent injuries of different degrees. The acute symptoms were burning in the respiratory tract and eyes, blepharospasm, breathlessness, stomach pains and vomiting. The causes of deaths were choking, reflexogenic circulatory collapse and pulmonary oedema. Findings during autopsies revealed changes not only in the lungs but also cerebral oedema, tubular necrosis of the kidneys, fatty degeneration of the liver and necrotising enteritis. The stillbirth rate increased by up to 300% and neonatal mortality rate by 200%.

Long Term Health Effects

It is estimated 100,000 to 200,000 people have permanent injuries. Reported symptoms are eye problems, respiratory difficulties, immune and neurological disorders, cardiac failure secondary to lung injury, female reproductive difficulties and birth defects among children born to affected women. The Indian Government and UCC deny permanent injuries were caused by MIC or the other gases.

The Minamata Disaster

In the 1950's, one of the most severe incidents of industrial pollution and mercury poisoning occurred in the small seaside town of Minamata, Japan. A local petrochemical and plastics company, Chisso Corporation, dumped an estimated 27 tons of methylmercury into the Minamata Bay over a period of 37 years. Mercury was used as a catalyst in the production of acetaldehyde, a chemical employed in the production of plastics. Methylmercury-contaminated wastewater, a byproduct of the process, was pumped into the bay, creating a highly toxic environment that contaminated local fish. Residents of Minamata, who relied heavily on fish for food, were at risk of exposure to methylmercury with every bite of fish they ate. The high contamination levels in the people of Minamata led to severe neurological damage and killed more than 900 people. An estimated 2 million people from the area suffered health problems or were left permanently disabled from the contamination. This form of toxicity in humans is now called Minamata disease. Symptoms include sensory disorders of the four extremities, loss of feeling or numbness, cerebellar ataxia, tunnel vision or blindness, smell and hearing impairments, and disequilibrium syndrome. More serious cases lead to convulsions, seizures, paralysis, and possibly death. In addition to the outbreak among the

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townspeople, congenital Minamata disease was observed in babies born to affected mothers. These babies demonstrated symptoms of cerebral palsy.

Doctors struggled to diagnose the mysterious disease when it first was noticed in the early 1950's. Local cats were seen acting strangely before falling over and birds would fall from the sky. In 1959, doctors at Kumamota University determined that organic mercury poisoning was the cause of the symptoms exhibited by so many of the townspeople. However, it was not until 1968 that the Tokyo government acknowledged that the mercury dumping by Chisso was the ultimate cause. Chisso finally stopped production of acetaldehyde in 1968, when an alternative technology for producing plastics was developed. Still, through the 1970's and 80's, new patients continued to surface. In some cases, the symptoms were partial (numbness or tingling in the extremities, for instance, or frequent headaches or the inability to concentrate) and it was hard to determine the exact extent of the mercury's effects. Five years later, Chisso admitted legal responsibility for the dumping. Yet the environmental impact on the bay had already occurred. In 1977, the Japanese government took on the huge task of cleaning the sediments in the bay by vacuuming up 1.5 million cubic meters of mercurycontaminated sludge. After $359 million dollars and 14 years, the project was completed in 1997.

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 The Fukushima Disaster

The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster is a series of equipment failures, nuclear meltdowns, and releases of radioactive materials at the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant, following the Thoku earthquake and tsunami on 11 March 2011. The plant comprises six separate boiling water reactor originally designed by General Electric (GE), and maintained by the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO). The Fukushima disaster is the largest of the 2011 Japanese nuclear accidents and is the largest nuclear accident since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. With no already observed nuclear death according to IAEA, the first catastrophe was likely that immediately caused by the quake and the tsunami with about 28 000 deaths and many material damages. Two important differences with the Chernobyl disaster are the absence of explosion of the reactor cores and of graphite fire. There were no deaths or serious injuries due to direct radiation exposures, but a few of the plant's workers were severly injured or killed by the disaster conditions resulting from the earthquake. At least six workers have exceeded lifetime legal limits for radiation and more than 300 have received significant radiation doses. Future cancer deaths due to accumulated radiation exposures in the population living near Fukushima have been estimated at between 100 and 1000 (much less than the approximately 20,000 people killed directly by the earthquake and tsunami). However the radiation exposure resulting from the accident for most people living in Fukushima is so small compared to background radiation that it may be impossible to find statistically significant evidence of increases in cancer. But fear of ionizing radiation could have long-term psychological effects on a large portion of the population in the contaminated areas. RADIATION RELEASES Radioactive material has been released from the Fukushima containment vessels as the result of deliberate venting to reduce gaseous pressure, deliberate discharge of coolant water into the sea, and accidental or uncontrolled events. Concerns about the possibility of a large scale radiation leak resulted in 20 km exclusion zone being set up around the power plant and people within the 20 30 km zone being advised to stay indoors. Later, the UK, France and some other countries told their nationals to consider leaving Tokyo, in response to fears of spreading radioactive contamination.The Fukushima accident has led to trace amounts of radiation, including iodine-131, caesium-134 and caesium-137, being observed around the world (New York State, Alaska, Hawaii, Oregon, California, Montreal, and Austria). Large amounts of radioactive isotopes have also been released into the Pacific Ocean. According to one expert, the release of radioactivity is about one-tenth that from the Chernobyl disaster and the contaminated area is also about one-tenth that that of Chernobyl. In March 2011, Japanese officials announced that "radioactive iodine-131 exceeding safety limits for infants had been detected at 18 water-purification plants in Tokyo and five other prefectures". As of July 2011, the Japanese government has been unable to control the spread of radioactive material into the nations food. Radioactive material has been detected in a range of produce, including spinach, tea leaves, milk, fish and beef, up to 200 miles from the nuclear plant. Inside the 12-mile evacuation zone around the plant, all farming has been abandoned. As of August 2011, the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant is still leaking low levels of radiation and areas surrounding it could remain uninhabitable for decades due to high radiation. It could take more than 20 years before residents could safely return to areas with current radiation readings of 200 millisieverts per year, and a decade for areas at 100 millisieverts per year.

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The total amount of iodine-131 and caesium-137 released into the atmosphere has been estimated to exceed 10% of the emissions from the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. The accidents were rated at level 7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale. On 24 August 2011, the Nuclear Safety Commission (NSC) of Japan published the results of the recalculation of the total amount of radioactive materials released into the air during the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. The total amounts released between 11 March and 5 April were revised downwards to 1.3 1017 Bq for iodine-131 and 1.1 1016 Bq for caesium-137. Earlier estimations were 1.5 1017 Bq and 1.2 1016 Bq. On 8 September 2011 a group of Japanese scientists working for the Japan Atomic Energy Agency, the Kyoto University and other institutes, published the results of a recalculation of the total amount of radioactive material released into the ocean: between late March through April they found a total of 15,000 TBq for the combined amount of iodine-131 and caesium-137. This was more than triple the figure of 4,720 TBq estimated by the plant-owner. TEPCO made only a calculation about the releases from the plant in April and May into the sea. The new calculations were needed because a large portion of the airborne radioactive substances would enter the seawater when it came down as rain. In the first half of September 2011 the amount of radioactive substances released from the plant was about 200 million becquerels per hour, according to TEPCO, this was approximately one four-millionth of the level of the initial stages of the accident in March. According to a report (published 29 October 2011) of the Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety in France the pollution of the Pacific Ocean was probably 30 times bigger than TEPCO reported in May 2011. The French institute calculated, that between 21 March 21 and 15 July around 27.1 quadrillion becquerels (= 27.100.000.000.000.000) entered the ocean, on 8 April 2011 already 82 percent of this unprecedented quantity had flown into the sea. The location of the plant on the coast with very strong currents contributed to the very fast pollution of a large part of the Pacific ocean, the contamination on marine life in remote waters would likely wane from autumn, but the radioactive pollution in the waters on the coastal area of the prefecture Fukushima, northeast of Tokyo will remain significant for a long time, regarding the 30 years half-life of this Ce137 isotope. Fukushima Cause Amount of radiation released Clean-up Cost Natural disaster, design flaws The amounts of radioactive iodine and caesium released have approached those at Chernobyl. Small amounts of radioactive plutonium have been found. Perhaps around $10-15 billion for site cleanup and mothballing.

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