Topic > India: The Cause of the Bhopal Disaster - 2600

1] In 1984, the pesticide plant of Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, went down in history as witnessing the worst industrial disaster ever happened in the world. The Bhopal disaster (Bhopal gas tragedy) occurred due to a gas leak that occurred in the night between 2 and 3 am in December 1984. The result of this gas leak caused risks of over half a million of people exposing them to chemical risks; one of these chemicals is methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas. Not only that, it caused immediate death reaching more than 2,000 people. Beyond that, others estimate that 8,000 people died after two weeks due to gas illnesses. The cause of the Bhopal disaster was found to be "corporate negligence". The company did not have a good safety system in the workplace. They were filling the methyl isocyanate (MIC) tanks higher than the required or necessary level, allowing safety systems to be unfit for use due to poor maintenance, and deactivating the safety system to save money. In June 2010 and after investigating the whole incident, it was discovered that the UCIL chairman and Seven employees had been convicted for the Bhopal disaster. They received the maximum punishment under Indian law, which includes a fine of $2,000 each plus two years in prison.2] A better understanding of the Bhopal case requires a study of the country's code of ethics, and according to The Indian Institution of Engineers “IEI”, the code of ethics for professional engineers, is divided into three main articles. The first article contains codes on social responsibility in upholding the ethical values ​​of society. The second article contains codes on the responsibility to maintain high standards. However at the time problems… middle of paper… were common in India; the most common problem was lack of knowledge of the code of conduct as a whole. Managers are more aware of the code of ethics but when it comes to workers they seem to know nothing about the code of ethics. Since you don't have much knowledge about the code of ethics, this means that there are no other common problems. There are some tips to fix this problem. First, training sessions should be conducted regularly. Secondly, organizations must ensure that workers are also informed about the organisation's ethical position. Third, there should be top management advocates to promote ethics in companies, because it needs constant support; especially since ethics could conflict with profitability. These are the few suggestions that have been created based on the knowledge gained from studying engineering ethics.