BOOKS
Two Views of India's Chemical Disaster Reviewed by Wil Lepkowski
In the three years since the Union Carbide methyl isocyanate (MIC) disaster in Bhopal, India, a small but steady parade of books has appeared, each attempting to describe the calamity and derive lessons from it. The magnitude of that disaster, which killed thousands and seriously injured tens of thousands, guarantees the generation of such a body of literature. More books will be forthcoming, certainly, each in its progression telling the story more fully. For the story of the Bhopal disaster and the impact it had on people and public policy is not yet fully spun. It cannot be unless a trial is held in which all sides are required to tell their versions of the truth. But a trial, of course, will only delay compensation to the victims. One hankers for the truth, for example, of the question of sabotage, of the exact number of deaths that resulted, of the actual cause of the accident, of Indian culpability in providing a climate that helped make such an accident more probable than it might have been. One wishes, too, for the truth of the issue of Carbide's curious insensitivity to Indian values and culture, of the long-term toxic effects of MIC, of the infighting among the teams of lawyers struggling for justice and for their own aggrandizement, of the personal impact of the disaster on the officers of Union Carbide India, who appeared as pawns in the legal maneuvering. Over the past year, two books have appeared that raise the level of insight on the tragedy. One is "The Killing Wind," by journalist Dan Kurzman, published in October. The other, "Bhopal—Anatomy of a Crisis," was issued about a year ago. Its author is industrial safety scholar Paul Shrivastava. Both books serve different but equally effective purposes. Kurzman's is a factfilled account of the actions and 24
January 11. 1988 C&EN
A journalist writes of Bhopal in human terms, a management expert sees it as a lesson in industrial crisis control "A Killing Wind: Inside Union Carbide and the Bhopal Catastrophe" by Dan Kurzman, McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1221 Ave. of the Americas, New York, N.Y. 10020, 1987, 297 pages, $19.95; "Bhopal: Anatomy of a Crisis" by Paul Shrivastava, Ballinger Publishing Co., 54 Church St., Cambridge, Mass. 02138, 1987, 184 pages, $19.95 Wil Lepkowski, news editor for C&EN, has written extensively about the Bhopal disaster
t h o u g h t s of the individuals involved; Shrivastava's is an analysis of the multidimensional factors that turned an accident into a calamity. Both are essential to any bookshelf reserved for Bhopal and international chemical safety. Kurzman, a full-time author, is an experienced journalist with top credentials, having served for several years as a foreign correspondent with the Washington Post. His effort reflects both the thoroughness a seasoned reporter exercises while going about his task and the limitations of trying to tell a story about an event for which there is not yet a sufficiently complete historical record. Those limitations are, however, minor and indeed expected for a story so emotional and incomplete. His description of the fateful evening, done via the experiences of individuals affected, is first class. He describes what was happening at the plant before the leak occurred
and after it was discovered, how the managers responded when told, how the residents of the slum reacted on breathing the gas. He does especially well in describing the effects of MIC and the controversy over whether cyanide was involved in the pathology of the victims. His account of theories of how water entered MIC tank 610 and triggered the violent reaction is excellent (save a statement that attributes water as heavier than MIC). His treatment of the activity of the Indian protest groups honestly sets forth the facts of their work on behalf of the victims. His descriptions of the legal invasion of Bhopal is enviably good. And his inside look at the wrangling among the lawyers and Carbide in early attempts at settlement is a fascinating chronicle. It is obvious that Carbide officials, to their credit, gave him sufficient time to provide him with their feelings and perspectives as postdisaster events wore on. One major player, attorney John B. Coale of Washington, D.C., shared his diary and a great deal of anecdotal-filled time with Kurzman. Conspicuously absent, however, is any personal time with attorney Michael Ciresi, the American lawyer who represents the government of India in the legal skirmishing that went on in the U.S. The novelistic, personalized style of Kurzman may put the more technologically oriented readers off. His prologue sets the stylistic flavor as he establishes the scene in the early hours of Dec. 3, 1984, when MIC gas began moving from Carbide's carbaryl plant toward the shantytowns adjacent to it. In the shacks are the unknowing victims who "lie on sweat-stained mats or cots beside their goats and dogs, their frail, sore-ridden bodies soothed by the gentle wind that wafts through open doors lulling them to sleep. Sleep eases their hunger and transports them to a world of plenty, a fantasy
world of wondrous comforts and miraculous cures, dangled before their covetous eyes by an American corporation called Union Carbide." Such a style isn't my cup of literary tea. But if one focuses instead on the reporting effort that went into Kurzman's book, praise can be the only verdict. For example, I am familiar with some of Kurzman's main actors in the Bhopal story. One is R. K. Bisarya, Bhopal's engaging and hospitable mayor at the time and successful surgeon in the city. Kurzman skillfully paints a picture of Bisarya that to me, who visited him on each of two trips to Bhopal, is wholly new. Bisarya, it turns out, played a major role in helping Coale assemble victims to represent in his suit against Carbide. And it is fascinating to read how a local individual, so sensitive to the needs of his patients and constituents, also could have assisted one of those American "ambulance chasers" who became such despicable figures to Indian and world opinion. Although he does exceedingly well with Bisarya, a keen and willing interviewee, Kurzman falls a bit short with India's chief scientist at the time, Srinivasan Varadarajan, director of the Council for Scientific & Industrial Research. Varadarajan has had his own story to tell about the role of Indian scientists in planning for "Operation Faith," the tense, successful processing of remaining MIC a few days after the leak. Kurzman seems to rely more on Carbide's account of that event rather than that of Varadarajan, who has claimed that Carbide gave his team almost no help whatever in understanding MIC and its processing. A shortcoming of Kurzman's book is the lack of any major statement of impact the disaster and its aftermath personally had on him. Kurzman labored impressively to capture the feelings and thoughts of his sources, but we are offered no feelings of his own. Empathetic toward others to the end, the book closes with Carbide's beleaguered chairman, Warren Anderson, just retired and musing on his intentions to have time, finally, to tend his garden, regretting his inability to
"tie a ribbon" around the Bhopal package through a financial settlement. We do get one little peek at the personal impact the catastrophe had on Kurzman in his preface. His book, he says, tells the story of "corporate executives and workers, doctors and lawyers, politicians and bureaucrats; of men who, through misfortune, indifference, or possible negligence, helped turn the dreams [of Bhopal's poor] into nightmares; of men pressed by conscience, driven by ambition, or ridden with guilt, some in desperate conflict with themselves as compassion vied with material interest for their souls." Shrivastava's book, meanwhile, is a much different treatment. Essentially a primer on industrial crises, it is a scholarly effort to grapple with the social and economic roots of the disaster. Shrivastava is an associate professor of management at New York University and has recently founded the Industrial Crisis Institute, which studies the causes and prevention of disasters. Thus, he comes at his subject from a scholarly perspective through an analysis of the disaster and its lessons for the future. But also, as a native of Bhopal, he brings to the subject a personal stake in drawing lessons from it. Shrivastava underscores the need to coordinate the interests of the various "stakeholders" in industrial operations—government at all levels, the corporation, and the public that will be affected by any crisis. "The Bhopal accident," he writes, "escalated to a crisis because of the activities of the government of India, Union Carbide, and many other stakeholders, both before and after the event." He is particularly hard on Carbide, when he says, "Union Carbide's rigid and narrow frame of reference, which was concerned primarily with the technical and financial consequences of the accident, also hurt the company by making it seem unsympathetic to victims and uninterested in the root causes of the accident." Shrivastava discusses the steps needed to create what he terms a "socially responsible corporate frame of reference" for any company operating anywhere. The items include
a system of dispute resolution, preconceived compensation plans to care for possible victims, mediation processes to resolve disputes between stakeholders, sharing of information with public authorities and neighboring communities, contingency planning, better selection of technologies, hazard location and management policies, decentralized industrial locations, a crisis information system, socially responsible thinking in corporations, environmental impact assessments in plant siting, and safety audits. If anything, Shrivastava is compellingly complete in so relatively short a book. "Industrial crises," he says, "are likely to become more frequent and larger in scope. The Chernobyl nuclear plant accident, the Challenger shuttle explosion, and the Bhopal disaster are grim reminders of the fact that these crises are universal. They can occur in the most advanced countries and originate in the most sophisticated organizations. They are compelling arguments for the urgency of developing long-term solutions to industrial crisis problems." One could not find a more sensible book on industrial safety. It is broad and detailed in concept, besides being noble in purpose. The difficulties and the expense involved in implementation, however, are not discussed, and some minds might regard Shrivastava's prescriptions as Utopian here and commonsensical to the point of obviousness there. But as he shows, the Bhopal disaster demonstrated that in these days of super technology, super accidents will happen, bringing about super misery for victims and shame for those blessed with intelligence and money to know better and to do better. D Adhesives for the Composite Wood Panel Industry. G. S. Koch, F. Klareich, B. Exstrum. viii + 144 pages. Noyes Publications, Mill Rd. at Grand Ave., Park Ridge, N.J. 07656. 1987. $36. a-Aminoacid-N-Carboxy-Anhydrides and Related Heterocycles. Hans Rytger Kricheldorf. ix + 213 pages. SpringerVerlag New York Inc., 175 Fifth Ave., New York, N.Y. 10010. 1987. $88. Applied Geothermics. Michael J. Economides, Pierre O. Ungemach, editors. January 11, 1988 C&EN
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Books Americas, New York, N.Y. 10020. 1987. $69.50.
& Sons Inc., 605 Third Ave., New York, N.Y. 10016. 1987. $44.95.
Biophosphates and Their Analogues. K.S. Bruzik, W. J. Stec, editors, xiii + 597 pages. Elsevier Science Publishers, 52 Vanderbilt Ave., New York, N.Y. 10017. 1987. $155.50.
Epoxy Resins Curing Agents, Compounds, and Modifiers: An Industrial Guide. Ernest W. Flick, xxxiii + 620 pages. Noyes Publications, Mill Rd. at Grand Ave., Park Ridge, N.J. 07656. 1987. $78.
Hypercarbon Chemistry. George A. Olah et al. xvi + 311 pages. John Wiley & Sons Inc., 605 Third Ave., New York, N.Y. 10016. 1987. $49.95.
Biosurfactants and Biotechnology. Nairn Kosaric, W. L. Cairns, Neil C. C. Gray, editors, viii + 342 pages. Marcel Dekker Inc., 270 Madison Ave., New York, N.Y. 10016. 1987. $89.75.
Essentials of Nuclear Chemistry. 2nd Edition. Hari Jeevan Arnikar. xii + 343 pages. John Wiley & Sons Inc., 605 Third Ave., New York, N.Y. 10016. 1987. $24.95.
Catalyst Design: Progress and Perspectives. L. Louis Hegedus et al. xi + 288 pages. John Wiley & Sons Inc., 605 Third Ave., New York, N.Y. 10016. 1987. $47.50.
Flow Visualization IV. Claude Véret, editor, xvi + 918 pages. Hemisphere Publishing Corp., 79 Madison Ave., New York, N.Y. 10016. 1987. $149.95.
xiii + 238 pages. John Wiley & Sons Inc., 605 Third Ave., New York, N.Y. 10016. 1987. $69.95.
Catalyst Supports and Supported Catalysts: Theoretical and Applied Concepts. Alvin B. Stiles, xvii + 270 pages. Butterworths, 80 Montvale Ave., Stoneham, Mass. 02180. 1987. $54.95. Chemical Additives for the Plastics Industry, xii + 884 pages. Radian Corp. Noyes Publications, Mill Rd. at Grand Ave., Park Ridge, N.J. 07656. 1987. $64. Chemicals from Coal: New Processes. K. R. Payne, editor, vii + 114 pages. John Wiley & Sons Inc., 605 Third Ave., New York, N.Y. 10016. 1987. $57.95. CODATA Thermodynamic Tables. D. Garvin, V. B. Parker, H. J. White Jr., editors, xx + 356 pages. Hemisphere Publishing Corp., 79 Madison Ave., New York, N.Y. 10016. 1987. $69.95. Dynamics of Polymeric Liquids. 2nd Edition, Vol. 2: Kinetic Theory. R. Byron Bird et al. xxi + 437 pages. John Wiley & Sons Inc., 605 Third Ave., New York, N.Y. 10016. 1987. $65. Emergency Response to Chemical Accidents: Planning and Coordinating Solutions. James T. O'Reilly, vi + 375 pages. McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1221 Ave. of the Americas, New York, N.Y. 10020. 1987. $39.50.
Fuel Cells: Trends in Research and Applications. A. J. Appleby, editor, ix + 295 pages. Hemisphere Publishing Corp., 79 Madison Ave., New York, N.Y. 10016. 1987. $64.50. Fundamentals of Adsorption. Athanasios I. Liapis, editor, χ + 668 pages. American Institute of Chemical Engi neers, 345 East 47th St., New York, N.Y. 10017. 1987. $40 AIChE members, $60 nonmembers. Gardner's Chemical Synonyms and Trade Names. 9th Edition. Jill Pearce, editor. 1081 pages. Gower Publishing Co., Old Post Rd., Brookfield, Vt. 05036. 1987. $149.95. Handbook of Polyester Molding Com pounds and Molding Technology. Ray mond W. Meyer, vii + 367 pages. Chap man & Hall, 733 Third Ave., New York, N.Y. 10017. 1987. $42.50. Handbook of Separation Process Tech nology. Ronald W. Rousseau, editor, xiv + 1010 pages. John Wiley & Sons Inc., 605 Third Ave., New York, N.Y. 10016. 1987. $69.95. Heat Transfer in Turbulent Fluid Flows. A. Zukauskas, A. Slanciauskas, J. Kami, xii + 282 pages. Hemisphere Pub lishing Corp., 79 Madison Ave., New York, N.Y. 10016. 1987. $89.95.
Encyclopedia of Polymer Science and Engineering. 2nd Edition, Vol. 8. Herman F. Mark et al. xxiv + 852 pages. John Wiley & Sons Inc., 605 Third Ave., New York, N.Y. 10016. 1987. $200.
High-Performance Liquid Chromatog raphy in Enzymatic Analysis. Edward F. Rossomando. xv + 253 pages. John Wiley & Sons Inc., 605 Third Ave., New York, N.Y. 10016. 1987. $39.95.
Engineering Design for the Control of Workplace Hazards. Richard A. Wadden, Peter A. Scheff. xiv + 735 pages. McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1221 Ave. of the
How to Find Chemical Information: a Guide for Practicing Chemists, Educa tors, and Students. 2nd Edition. Robert E. Maizell. xvii + 402 pages. John Wiley
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Intermediate Physical Chemistry: Sta tionary Properties of Chemical Sys tems. Joseph B. Dence, Dennis J. Diestler. xi + 344 pages. John Wiley & Sons Inc., 605 Third Ave., New York, N.Y. 10016. 1987. $37.50. Laser Scattering Spectroscopy of Bio logical Objects. Josef Stëpanek, Pavel Anzenbacher, Blahoslav Sedlacek, editors, xvi + 623 pages. Elsevier Science Publishers, 52 Vanderbilt Ave., New York, N.Y. 10017. 1987. Dfl. 395.00. Light-Activated Pesticides. ACS Symposium Series 339. James R. Heitz, Kelsey R. Downum, editors, χ + 339 pages. American Chemical Society, 1155—16th St., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036.1987. $69.95. Liquid-Liquid Equilibria. Josef P. No vak, Jaroslav Matous, Jiri Pick. 321 pages. Elsevier Science Publishers, 52 Vanderbilt Ave., New York, N.Y. 10017. 1987. $100. Mechanisms of Inorganic Reactions. Dimitris Katakis, Gilbert Gordon, xxiii + 384 pages. John Wiley & Sons Inc., 605 Third Ave., New York, N.Y. 10016.1987. $39.95. Methods in Protein Sequence Analy s i s - 1 9 8 6 . Kenneth A. Walsh, editor, xxxv + 658 pages. Humana Press Inc., P.O. Box 2148, Clifton, N.J. 07015. 1987. $79.50. Microemulsion Systems. Henri L. Rosano, Marc Clausse, editors, xix + 433 pages. Marcel Dekker Inc., 270 Madison Ave., New York, N.Y. 10016. 1987. $99.75. Multiphase Science and Technology. Vol. 3. G. F. Hewitt, J. M. Delhaye, N. Zuber, editors, χ + 501 pages. Hemi sphere Publishing Corp., 79 Madison Ave., New York, N.Y. 10016. 1987. $70. National Standard Reference Data Ser vice of the U.S.S.R.: A Series of Proper ty Tables. Vol. 1—Helium; Vol. 2—Ni trogen; Vol. 3—Methane; Vol. 4—Eth ane; Vol. 5—Oxygen; Vol. 6—Air; Vol. 7—Ethylene; Vol. 8—Fréons, Pt. 1; Vol. 9—Freons, Pt. 2. Hemisphere Publishing Corp., 79 Madison Ave., New York, N.Y. 10016. 1987. $120 each.
