ACT 4181

BUSINESS ETHICS AND CORPORATE GOVERNANCE

GROUP ASSIGNMENT
SEMESTER 2 2016/2017

REPORT CASE: BHOPAL UNION CARBIDE

LECTURER NAME : DR. MAZLINA BINTI MUSTAPHA

GROUP MEMBERS : SHEN XIAO YU (171615)
MOHAMMAD HANIF BIN MD ALI (173425)
MOHD DANIAL ZULFARIS BIN MOHD YAZID (173567)
MURAD AKHMETOV (01514)
Table of Contents

1 Summary of the case

1.1 Definition...1-2

2 References
2.1 References......3

1.0 Summary of the case

The explosion at the Bhopal Union Carbide factory in 1984 is still the worlds most
lethal industrial disaster. It is well established that in its immediate aftermath many
thousands of people died as a result of the inhalation of toxic fumes. A large
proportion of these deaths were probably due to acute respiratory damage. The
existence, nature and extent of chronic respiratory disease in the survivors is far less
well established. The results of the case study described above strongly suggest that
such disease exists independently of the background of disease in the citys
population.

At least 2000 people died immediately and another 200,000 to 300,000 suffered
respiratory and other injuries of varying severity. Property damage consisted mainly
of contamination to nearby areas by various chemical residues. The defoliation of
trees immediately afterward is clearly attributable to the gas leak; contamination in
the nearby settlements may have multiple sources, the contamination of the plant
site resulted from many years of general production activity.

2.0 Background
2.1 Union Carbide India Limited
Bhopal, the state capital of Madya Pradesh, is geographically at the centre of India.
About a third of its one million inhabitants live in tightly packed, shanty ('kucha')
housing in its northern and central districts. In 1969, Union Carbide (India), a
subsidiary of the large American corporation, set up a pesticide formulation plant on
the north edge of the city, originally to import, mix and package pesticides
manufactured in the United States. Ten years later, a 5000 ton methyl isocyanate
(MIC) production unit was installed, primarily to manufacture an effective and
inexpensive carbaryl pesticide marketed as 'Sevin'.

Figure 1. The Union Carbide factory

3.0 Ethical issues
https://www.uniassignment.com/essay-samples/construction/ethical-case-study-bhopal-
disaster-construction-essay.php

Firstly, Hazardous location of the factory must be mentioned. The Bhopal plant was
argued to be at the heart of the busy city. As a result, more people were involved when the
accident occurred.
Besides that, local government hesitates to take action. Equipment and safety
procedures were far below the standard. The cost and economic effects may be the main
cause and the government did not take any action to help Union Carbide India Ltd (UCIL) to
update the devices.
Then, the worse thing is safety systems were shut off to conserve money.
Refrigeration and cooling systems had been shut down five months before the disaster so that
the methyl isocyanate gas stored tank was boiling. And flare tower meant to burn off gas
emissions was under repair.
Other than that, no evacuation plans in case of emergency. From the factory point of
view, local authority like Fire and Rescue Department and hospital not aware how to treat in
case of an outbreak because they do not have standard operation procedure to handle the
upcoming problem.
In addition, UCIL pay no attention to the safety inspection. And work force was
downsizing by half from 1980 to 1984 also has bad effect on UCIL. Worker morale was
decreasing hence many left by volunteer. Due to the loss of workers, the plant hired much
less qualified workers.
Both UCIL and Union Carbide Corporation (UCC) neglected management. Factory
workers in Bhopal knew very little English but all equipment and manufacturing instructions
were all in English. The Standard Operation Procedure (SOP) should have been in a language
they would be able to understand.
To make matters worse, company took away employee incentives such as promotions,
bonuses, raises etc. It leads to theory of employee sabotage. UCC blamed the disaster entirely
on UCIL. UCC claimed UCIL was wholly built and operated by the Indian subsidiary. UCC
has no responsible with the disaster.