Eight Former Executives Convicted in Bhopal Case

Nearly 41 tonnes of methyl isocyanate (MIC) and Phosgene gas, both noxious and lethal chemicals that are used as intermediates in the manufacture of fertilizer Sevin, leaked out after midnight on December 2 from an underground storage tank that had been installed at the Indian subsidiary of Union Carbide Corporation in Bhopal.

The leak lead to the largest industrial catastrophe in the world's history that killed some 15,274 (official figure as per a judicial review) and affected some 6 lakh --of Bhopal's total population of 9 lakh in 1984 of the town's populace who suffer from chronic joint pains, itchy skin, muscle weakness, poor eyesight, lung cancer to this day.



It was not just the MIC that wreaked havoc. Another poisonous chemical agent Phosgene also leaked into the air and spread fast as the winter winds blew across the plant and spread the gas fumes to other parts of Bhopal.