Talk:Bhopal disaster

Worst disaster in the history of the world?

The case is definitely very severe, but do we have a source on it being the world's worst?

No, it is not the worst disaster in wold history. For that you would probably want to be looking at rivers flooding in china over the last couple centuries, or, depending on whether you want to call them "disasters" or not, WWI and II.

As far as I understand, it is the world's largest INDUSTRIAL disaster - that depends on how you define Tjernobyl. I Eckerman [1]

Rewriting of Summary of Background and Causes Section

I believe that wording used in this section, especially "What we must focus on is the fact that those in power to make decisions that led to this disaster were all wealthy white Americans, or high-ranking non-Muslim Indian government officials, who never felt its effects. Certainly a case for distributive injustice." is something I believe is not up to par with wikipedia guidelines for writing articles. I am not doubting or denying any effects of this incident, just wanted to mention the style of writing.--قیصرانی (talk) 21:00, 11 May 2011 (UTC)

Good point. I removed the opinions and uncited material from this section. Sandcherry (talk) 23:45, 11 May 2011 (UTC)

Information on controversies completely missing

Some of them are listed here http://www.outlookindia.com/printarticle.aspx?262256 I have no experience in editing Wikipedia, but the biggest tragedy of Bhopal is that the victims have been exploited and refused their due by both DOW and the Indian Government. This page makes no mention of that. There are ongoing cases related with DOW bribing officials and neglecting responsibility, state brutality against protesters, lack of relief and apathy from both DOW and Indian Govt. There is information that is factually incorrect and part of DOW fabrications that the treatment for cyanide did not work on the victims. There has been research that proved that it helped, and the suppression of these treatment because of implications of their success magnified the tragedy beyond necessary.

DOW bought Union Carbide and it is now wholly owned by DOW, but they claim that they cannot send the accused wanted in cases in India - they have no authority it seems. Sportsmen of Bhopal have recently decided to boycott the London Olympics because DOW is one of the sponsors.

This page literally ignores most of the culpability of both DOW and Indian government - which is exceedingly well documented and frankly reads like "paid media" that has plagued this tragedy and contributed to silencing victims and perpetrating its own injustice. Apologies if I have not followed any format I am supposed to. I have no experience with this editing, but these things needed said.

Update: Adding some resources: Original class action suits planned by Americal lawyers had reached up to 35 billion dollars as reported by The Montreal Gazette on the 17th December 1984 http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=8A0vAAAAIBAJ&sjid=rqUFAAAAIBAJ&pg=3477,3280780&hl=en

Suits worth hundreds of billions of dollars were already filed when the Indian government decided to represent all victims http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=gDlVAAAAIBAJ&sjid=kJUDAAAAIBAJ&pg=2975,50512&dq=bhopal&hl=en

Settlement for 470 million http://www.bhopal.com/~/media/Files/Bhopal/1989_Settlement.pdf

"There is presence of a cyanide pool in the body of survivors. How it reached there is the question" even while adding ambiguity to reports already published saying cyanide was the cause of death. Toledo Blade 12th Nov 1985 http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=Og1PAAAAIBAJ&sjid=0QIEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6886,2423143&dq=bhopal+cyanide&hl=en

More reports of cyanide. There was considerable pressure by UC to rubbish claims of cyanide to the extent of disrupting treatment of survivors. Speculated reason being that their product reacting inside the body to create cyanide would mean further bad business and compensation claims:

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=WBwhAAAAIBAJ&sjid=JmMEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6985,8167738&dq=bhopal+cyanide&hl=en Fairly explicit

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=LyYuAAAAIBAJ&sjid=D88FAAAAIBAJ&pg=3139,8927887&dq=bhopal+cyanide&hl=en describes the initial acceptance of cyanide as a cause, later withdrawn, but no satisfactory alternative explanation.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=6UkjAAAAIBAJ&sjid=o84FAAAAIBAJ&pg=5958,2282880&dq=bhopal+cyanide&hl=en

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=G_ZVAAAAIBAJ&sjid=i-EDAAAAIBAJ&pg=4406,3333653&dq=bhopal+cyanide&hl=en

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=t-5cAAAAIBAJ&sjid=A1oNAAAAIBAJ&pg=2661,220775&dq=bhopal+cyanide&hl=en

Have to go. Will return with references for allegations of bribing govt officials to lower compensation settlement and reduce liability.

In contrast, "5 Workers Injured by Dow Herbicide to Share $1.4 Million" http://articles.latimes.com/1985-06-09/local/me-9913_1_chemical-workers

"Under the "polluter pays" principle enshrined in both Indian and US law, Union Carbide is responsible for cleaning up the contamination and compensating the thousands whose lives have been ruined." http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/jun/12/india

Twenty five thousand people dead, 5 lakh affected and the accused only get two years in jail and bail on a bond of Rs 25,000? http://www.tehelka.com/story_main45.asp?filename=Ne260610coverstory.asp "US agencies hauled up Dow for paying $200,000 in bribes to Indian officials; India did absoutely nothing"

DOW and bribing Indian officials. Paid fine for it in US http://zeenews.india.com/news/state-news/union-carbide-continues-to-operate-in-india_632266.html

Union Carbide and James Hardie: lessons in politics and power http://www.bmartin.cc/pubs/06globalsociety.html

--IVidyut (talk) 11:37, 3 December 2011 (UTC)

After reading through the article, I too feel that the article misses out on the culpability of UC and DOW. I've tried to address that by adding a couple of points based on some of the references given above. But, I feel that more needs to be done. -- Sundar ^{\talk \contribs} 19:30, 4 December 2011 (UTC)

Images

The two images were removed from the Italian Wikipedia and the original uploader seems to have been blacklisted for copyright violations. Are we sure they are available? Chemical Engineer (talk) 15:00, 10 January 2012 (UTC)