Given the concern that industrial disasters invoke the Wikipedia entry on them turns out to have surprisingly few entries. An Internet search too doesn’t generate many unique entries. Another website has very few industrial disasters listed as happening in the past 50 years. Admittedly these lists are not exhaustive (and they largely omit the plant-level accidents in the former USSR, China and Eastern Europe) but nevertheless it is unlikely that a major disaster affecting the general public would have been excluded.
The list includes several infamous accidents such as Bhopal (undeniably the world’s worst ever industrial disaster), Chernobyl, Seveso and Minamata. Three Mile Island is not even mentioned on the Wikipedia list, presumably due to lack of mortalities, though it crops up frequently in public discussions. See the Wikipedia links cited above for information on fatalities from accidents.
At this stage it is useful to distinguish between several kinds of accidents/disasters.
Bhopal and Chernobyl are examples of (one-time) accidents that had an immediate (and also long-term) massive impact which extended well beyond the plant premises. In the second category are accidents where the impact is confined to the plant premises.
The word disaster is also sometimes used for damage due to pollution (discharge of effluents on a near-regular basis) and which has long-term impacts outside the plant - e.g. - Minamata. It is also used, though less frequently for occupational hazards in work places due to dangerous practices and exposure to toxins.
These four categories differ in origin, causes and their impacts and consequences. Colloquially the word disaster refers to the first category though perhaps the big plant-level accidents too ought to be considered as disasters especially the mining accidents which historically and presently continue to take a heavy toll of human life.
It is because of the immediate and huge consequences that we remember Bhopal and not the other smaller accidents. It is by no means certain that accidents (within and outside plants) cause the bulk or majority of the fatalities. Long-term exposure to toxins among workers and adverse health consequences due to exposure to pollutants among public have grave health consequences and in the aggregate they may match or exceed the fatalities due to accidents.
Industrial disasters which affect the general public grab headlines and comprise most of the discussion on the subject, the horrible consequences of other events notwithstanding. It is not only in popular press that they dominate. Consider for example, the year 2007 publication, Environmental Issues in India, edited by Mahesh Rangarajan. While otherwise very comprehensive in its treatment of subjects it has practically nothing on pollution, occupational health and plant-level accidents.
As mentioned earlier it seems that industrial accidents/disasters affecting the public have mercifully been very rare though it may seem otherwise given the attention that they receive in public discussions.
The rarity of accidents is also somewhat remarkable given the level and growth of industry and the millions of hours of operations at multiple sites all over the world. The Indian chemical industry (broadly defined to include inorganic and organic chemicals and also petroleum refineries, petrochemical plants, fertilizers and pharmaceuticals) too has grown by leaps and bounds and doesn’t seem to have slowed down since 1984 when the Bhopal accident took place. In fact growth has accelerated in the past two decades.
Despite the risks, growth has taken place in several countries and across ownership categories - private, public, MNCs and even co-operatives. And while the profit motive is usually blamed for accidents the continuous process chemical plants actually need to run for long, accident-free, uninterrupted stretches to turn in profits. Hence, the desire for profits is well-aligned with the necessity to avoid accidents and plant shutdowns.
(In the next post I will look at the Bhopal gas leakage)
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