India for some years started to manufacture it in India by eliminating international shipping costs , taking advantage of cheap labor costs and to sell it in the Indian market with 550 million acres under cultivation .
Union Carbide promoted SEVIN as a safer alternative to DDT , less dangerous for humans , biodegradable and effective against a wide range of pests . It did not publicize the fact that its process for manufacturing SEVIN required a number of lethal chemicals including Phosgene ( one of the gases used during the trench welfare of World War I , along with mustard gas and chlorine ) and MIC . Made by combining phosgene and monomethylamine , MIC is a highly volatile chemical , it reacts with water and other substances and needs to be kept cool to prevent unwanted reactions . The only other UCC factory that was located in Institute West Virginia and this factory had its share of accidents especially leaks in the MIC unit . Most chemical companies avoided MIC and preferred a different , more expensive , way of producing similar to SEVIN . But UCC chose to manufacture SEVIN in India , a country with heat of high temperatures .
SEVIN came from an industry with macabre pest . Pesticides originated in chemical weapons and German firms , with their expertise in poisoning British and French soldiers during World War-1 . One such firm was BASF , part of World War-II ’ s notorious IG Farben group , the group ran a unit called IG Auschwitz and produced Zyklon B , a gas pumped in to the chambers at the death camps . Two decades later , the Dow Chemical company manufactured naphlm , so that the Vietnamese could be killed cheaply and easily in large number . The agricultural pesticides too have such consequences . That DDT , a popular pesticide - and one still widely used in India - is proved to be a non-biodegradable toxin that 18 remains present in fish and wildlife and even works its way in to human breast milk by 1962 itself .
Even then UCC of America intended to manufacture SEVIN at UCIL ’ s Bhopal plant and the Indian government had permitted it . After initially importing MIC from the West Virginia for production of SEVIN , the Bhopal factory installed its own MIC unit in 1979 ; to meet the heavy
demand for SEVIN .
2
But the market for SEVIN turned out to be far smaller than expected with Indian farmers unable to afford it . So through the early 1980s , the Bhopal factory had to be operated at half a production capacity . In its alpha-naphtol unit , UCIL directed the poorly paid contract workers to crush the alpha-naphtol with hammers and carry it to the reactor , the workers were unaware throughout their exposure to toxic vapours . UCIL had always adapted short-cuts in its safety procedures . It built the Bhopal factory in a densely populated urban area over protests of the people , and chose to store large quantities of MIC there even though electricy in the area was undependable to maintain constant and uninterrupted cooling system around MIC storage that too while the temperatures regularly crossed 110 0 F in the summer . With the failure of market to match its capacity , the company eliminated safety measures to save costs . An inspection team visiting from US in 1982 noted several safety problems , which were not attended and rectified . One of the visiting inspectors sent a telex stating that they ( UCIL ) ‘ had to destroy 1.8 metric tonnes of MIC due to water contamination / trimerization ’. But by 1983 , UCC in New York decided to sell the Bhopal factory and if it was unable to sell , the factory would be closed down . This decision again caused further elimination of safety measures . Most of the safety devices at Bhopal factory specifically intended to contain were inoperative by the time of the disaster . Though the production of MIC had halted , large amounts of MIC were stored in the underground tanks . The Cooling system had been shut off to cut costs . The scrubber unit that neutralized escaping chemicals was not functioning . The flare tower at the very top , meant to burn off toxic vapours if all else failed , had been dismantled for repairs . Water seeped in to one of the underground tanks stored with MIC , reacted with MIC , built up a flow of gasses . With the cooling system shut-down , the reaction was fast , and without scrubber and the flare tower , the gases entered in to atmosphere , the wind blowing the MIC gas towards JP . Nagar and railway station , killing and maiming people in large numbers .
Even as on today according to the samples tested separately by the green peace , the Boston-based citizen ’ s Environmental Laboratory and the people ’ s science institute , an independent Indian organisation , there is the presence of toxins in the drinking water of near by slums , and farmland in the area remains unusable . This is the devastation created by capitalist , foreign private capital investment of UCC in collaboration with its Indian comprador capitalists and politicians of Indian ruling parties .
When the CEO of UCC , Warrent Anderson visited India at the time of Bhopal gas disaster , he was easily bailed out with impunity and facilitated to escape from India with Royal treatment , from the wrath of gas victims and people of India , by the Indian government both at centre and in M . P . state at that time .
Correcting the facts related to the Bhopal gas disaster , UCC , at first described MIC as more dangerous than tear gas ; began its search for a scape goat by blaming Sikh terrorists . It then changed course to argue , that the factory was
Class Struggle