9/19/12

A Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India suffered a major catastrophe on December 3,

1984. The plant released a poisonous cloud that killed thousands of people and is still the worlds
worst industrial accident in history. The cloud was made up of methyl isocyanate(MIC), its vapor
can cause eye damaged and birth defects. Today many are living with effects of the Bhopal
disaster, a disaster that was caused by serious of preventable failures.
Being a chemical engineer involves developing solutions to different problems that
involve chemical reactions. To solve these problems they use there knowledge of math and
science to design and construct different devices and facilities that can perform certain chemical
reactions. They take raw material and figure out how to transform it into a desired form. This
process has to be refined by chemical engineers to make it economical, efficient and safe. A
chemical engineer would learn a lot from the Bhopal disaster.
It was a chemical engineers job to design the plant in Bhopal. This includes things like
the warning system, the structure of the chemical tank, and safety alarms. The entire system that
was supposed to make sure that the large containers of MIC were not contaminated and were
kept safety was constructed with the help of chemical engineers. The Bhopal Disaster occurred
due to many different system failures. Some were due to human error and others due to poor
management. Some though were due to design flaws. Things like the gas scrubber that did not
turn on in time and an absence of contaminations prevention systems. If some of things worked
or were implemented the effects of the disaster could have been diminished.
Any major disaster one has to learn from it and make the necessary precautions so it does
not happen again. This responsibility falls upon the chemical engineers who design and build
these types of plants. Within their power chemical engineers can help decrease the chance of
another accident. Implementing better warning systems and design better containment systems

that are less prone to human error. Chemical engineers have after the disaster enhanced safety in
the chemical industry. Industrial accidents still happen but never in the severity of the Bhopal
disaster and each accident shows what needs to happen for chemical plants to be safer.