Word: bhopal
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During the unseemly scramble among American lawyers to sign up victims of the gas-leak disaster in Bhopal, India, the headlines were studded with the likes of San Francisco's Melvin Belli. But in a Manhattan federal court last week, when the government of India filed what could be the most significant of the Bhopal lawsuits, it was represented by a law firm that had not even sped to the scene. Its name draws a blank among nonlawyers: Robins, Zelle, Larson & Kaplan of Minneapolis. The choice, however, was no surprise to many in the legal profession. In the arcane field...
After poisonous vapors spewed from a Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, last December, killing some 2,000 people and injuring another 200,000, Chairman Warren Anderson flew halfway around the world to make a dramatic appearance at the site, promising to find out what had gone wrong. Last week, at a press briefing near the company's Danbury, Conn., headquarters, he made good his promise. The world's worst industrial accident had been caused, he said, by gross violations of established safety procedures. "That plant," Anderson declared, "should not have been operating...
Union Carbide's investigation in Bhopal focused on a partially buried tank holding more than 10,000 gal. of methyl isocyanate (MIC), a highly toxic chemical used in the manufacture of Sevin, Temik and other pesticides. The sealed tank was designed to keep the deadly MIC refrigerated and isolated from the environment. But on the night of Dec. 2, a series of runaway chemical reactions heated the interior of the tank to 400 degreesF, causing an escape valve to burst open and release a lethal cloud of vapor over the slums of Bhopal...
...India Ltd.) "We expected the company would try to palm off the blame," Kamal Pareek, an engineer familiar with the plant, told the paper. "But Union Carbide cannot escape responsibility." Indeed, suits totaling more than $250 billion have been filed against the firm on behalf of the residents of Bhopal...
Union Carbide last week moved to ease public concern over its MIC plant at Institute, W. Va., which was closed down immediately after the Bhopal tragedy. Conducting a press tour of the facility, it showed off the results of a $5 million program to improve safety measures. Some environmentalists were not entirely reassured. Says A. Karim Ahmed, a scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council in New York City: "It remains to be seen whether they learned the lesson of Bhopal...