Word: toxicants
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...advancement. India provided some specimen days last week. On Monday the death toll was 410. On Friday, more than 2,500. By the weekend, numbers had no meaning any more, since no one could tell how many of the citizens of Bhopal who managed to survive the leaking toxic gas would eventually be counted among the dead. Something went very wrong at the Union Carbide pesticide plant. Human progress came up against human frailty. The air was poisoned, and the world gasped...
...Indian officials began their investigations, details started to emerge about what went wrong at the plant. Methyl isocyanate, a colorless chemical compound that behaves in humans and animals like a potent form of tear gas (see box), is used by Union Carbide as an ingredient in producing relatively toxic pesticides known as Sevin and Temik. At the Bhopal facility it was stored in three double-walled, stainless steel tanks, buried mostly underground to limit leakage in the event of an accident and to help shield them from air temperatures that could soar to 120° F in summer. Refrigerated to keep...
...insect depredations. During World War II, German and Allied laboratories produced complex and lethal chemical compounds, including DDT and lindane. Since then new generations of pesticides such as carbamates (Bux Ten, Furadan and Mobam) have proved to be efficient at curbing insects and microscopic pests without producing the strong toxic effects of DDT on the environment. At the same time, however, these new silent killers still pose a potential threat to other forms of life, including human...
Last week's disaster in Bhopal focused world attention on two highly volatile and toxic gases, methyl isocyanate and phosgene. They, along with many other chemicals, are used in the production of pesticides. Methyl isocyanate (MIC) helps produce Union Carbide's Temik, a product marketed under Robert Gordon Haines, the company's manager for new pesticides. It is one of a group of chemicals called isocyanates that are used to make polyurethane, which, in turn, is used to make paint and varnish. The MIC compound also has been made in the U.S. at Union Carbide...
Phosgene, synthesized early in the 19th century and also known as carbonyl chloride, is a colorless, highly toxic gas. It is used to make chemicals like MIC, as well as dyes and resins. Phosgene first gained infamy during World War I, when the Germans used it alone or with chlorine in deadly gas attacks. Later, the gas came to be widely used in the manufacture of pesticides...