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Article: After Bhopal: tracing causes and effects. (Union Carbide accident)
- Article from:
- Science News
- Article date:
- March 30, 1985
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1985 Science Service, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Shortly after midnight on Dec. 3 last year, a cloud of deadly methyl isocyanate vapor escaped from a storage tank at a Union Carbide chemical plant in Bhopal, India. Within hours, more than 2,000 people died and tens of thousands were injured. Since then, two questions have dominated investigations of the Bhopal tragedy: Why did it happen, and could such as disaster occur in the United States?
The answer to the first question is slowly emerging, although findings so far are incomplete and controversial. Last week, Union Carbide Corp., based in Danbury, Conn., reported the results of its investigation. A team of seven engineers and scientists did about 500 ...