Methyl isocyanate gas release from Union Carbide in Bhopal, India (1984)

On the night of December 2nd, 1984, at the Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal India, there was a gas leak that released at least 40 tons of methyl isocyanate gas. This highly poisonous gas leak affected at least 600,000 people overnight and killed as many as 16,000. Union Carbide was responsible for the gas leak and it happened due to many safety protocols being violated. A lot of individual factors add up to the gas leak. An operator noticed that there was a gas leak but it should have been prevented by a vent-gas scrubber but it was turned off 3 weeks prior. A refrigeration unit that was suppose to keep the system cool was drained of its coolant and utilized elsewhere. The gas flare safety system was not working for 3 months already. All this lead to the gas leak and nearly 4,000 within hours.