The New York Times reminds us of a tragic anniversary today.
| Thirty years ago today, water seeped through a pipe and into a tank at a Union Carbide pesticide plant in central India, setting off a runaway reaction with chemicals that released 30 metric tons of toxic gases. |
| It turned into the world’s deadliest industrial accident. |
| The enormous cloud of poisonous gas drifted through the nearby city of Bhopal. By morning, more than 2,000 people had died. Another 6,000 were dead in a week. |
| Since then, 20,000 more deaths resulted from health issues brought on by the disaster, activists claim. Birth defects and other injuries continue to afflict more than half a million others, they say. |
| In 1989, Union Carbide paid $470 million in a settlement to the victims of the disaster. |
| Survivors have long sought further compensation and executive culpability. |
| Warren M. Anderson, the chief executive of Union Carbide at the time, was arrested and charged in the case but never extradited. He died two months ago at age 92 in a Florida nursing home. |
Garvan Hill 