Loss Prevention Bulletin Improving Process Safety by Sharing Experience
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Loss Prevention Bulletin Improving process safety by sharing experience Issue 240, December 2014 Remembering Bhopal – 30 years on ADVANCING CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WORLDWIDE LPBsepcover240.indd 1 17/11/2014 10:22 Process safety training Courses to help you, your staff and your organisation improve safety, reduce risk and make the working environment safer. 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LPB240 ADVANCING CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WORLDWIDE processsafetyad.indd 1 17/11/2014 10:41 Loss Prevention Bulletin 240 December 2014 | 1 Contents 2 Editorial – Lessons from 25 A review of UNEP Loss Prevention Bulletin Bhopal programmes on industrial Iqbal Essa and David Brown risk reduction Articles and case studies introduce this special Johanna Suikkanen and Jérome from around the world commemorative issue Leroux highlight the UNEP programmes that have been Issue 240, November 2014 3 Impressions of Bhopal promoting a participatory and multi- Fiona Macleod summarises the Editor: Tracey Donaldson stakeholder approach to chemical theories and aftermath of the accidents and preparedness. Publications Director: tragedy and explains why, thirty Claudia Flavell-While years on, controversy and division Subscriptions: Hannah Rourke 29 Site contamination threat remain strong. remains for Bhopal Copyright: The Institution of Chemical 10 A call for extending the The Centre for Science & Engineers 2014. A Registered Charity in Environment, India, set out their England and Wales and a charity registered Safety Case approach action plan for remediation and in Scotland (SCO39661) Judith Hackitt highlights how the waste disposal at the contaminated ISSN 0260-9576/14 safety case approach, coupled with Union Carbide site in Bhopal. open and transparent enforcement, The information included in lpb is given in forms a strong basis for successful 30 Are we still doing enough good faith but without any liability on the process safety management. part of IChemE to reduce hazards at source? Photocopying 11 Thinking about Bhopal – the role of education Graeme Ellis explores the reasons lpb and the individual articles are protected why inherent safety principles by copyright. Users are permitted to Vijaya Varma argues how good have not being applied as widely as make single photocopies of single articles quality science education, available might be expected, and introduces for personal use as allowed by national to all sectors of society, plays a new guidance that might help copyright laws. For all other photocopying vital role in facing future global overcome this. permission must be obtained and a fee challenges. paid. Permissions may be sought directly from the Institution of Chemical Engineers, 13 Understanding the impact 32 Medical comment on the or users may clear permissions and make Bhopal tragedy payments through their local Reproduction of unreliable machinery Paul Cullinan summarises, from a Rights Organisation. In the UK apply Kenneth Bloch and Brianna Jung medical perspective, what is known to the Copyright Licensing agency describe how a complex series of about the effects of the methyl Rapid Clearance Service (CLARCS), 90 interacting events – design defects, Tottenham Court Road, London, W1P isocyanate gas cloud on the local repeat failures, missed warning 0LP (Phone: 020 7631 5500). In the USA population. apply to the Copyright Clearance Center signs – sowed the seeds of the (CCC), 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA disaster. 33 A local perspective from 01923 (Phone: (978) 7508400, Fax: (978) 7504744). 17 Land use planning in India the Chingari Trust Anadita Sengupta discusses the An interview with Mohammed Multiple copying of the contents of challenges that India faces in Shifon, talking about his treatment this publication without permission is and rehabilitation at the Chingari always illegal. developing land use methods that are already in place in other Trust centre in Bhopal. Institution of Chemical Engineers counties. Davis Building, Railway Terrace, 34 Bhopal literature review Rugby, Warks, CV21 3HQ, UK 21 Export inherent safety – Mark Hailwood and Fiona Macleod not risk review a range of books and journal Tel: +44 (0) 1788 578214 papers covering various aspects of Fax: +44 (0) 1788 560833 David Edwards warns how risk is the tragedy. increased when larger plants are Email: [email protected] built in localities that are less able or [email protected] www.icheme.org to handle the increased hazards, With special thanks to the children of the and argues the case for inherently Chingari Trust for their illustrations used Printed by Lock, Stock & Printed safer design. on the cover of this issue. © Institution of Chemical Engineers 0260-9576/14/$17.63 + 0.00 contentsdec.indd 2 17/11/2014 11:26 2 | Loss Prevention Bulletin 240 December 2014 Editorial Lessons from Bhopal This issue of LPB should also be given to education and how we train up and commemorates the coming chemical engineers in our education establishments 30th anniversary of so that they understand and appreciate the challenges that lie the world’s worst ahead of them in industry. industrial accident Finally, I would like to extend thanks to my Editorial Panel on record. The tragic colleagues, Fiona Macleod and Mark Hailwood, for the leading incident happened roles they have played in enabling this commemorative issue to at the Union Carbide come to fruition. India Limited (UCIL) pesticide production plant in Bhopal, India in the early hours of the 3rd December 1984. Many of us recall that this incident was caused by the unintended violent reaction between methyl isocyanate and M Iqbal Essa water, which led to the release of approximately 40 tonnes of Chairman, LPB Editorial Panel this highly toxic gas into the atmosphere. This fateful release caused thousands of deaths and hundreds of thousands of injuries, and an unknown number to suffer continued physical and psychological conditions. An on-going tragedy is that Thirty years on, much of the site of the incident remains contaminated and the Bhopal tragedy unremediated to this day. should give every Much has been learned as a result of the terrible accident: A process industry number of countries have taken proactive steps in formulating professional cause more stringent controls on the use of land around hazardous for sober reflection. industries in light of Bhopal. Anandita Sengupta (see page Our industries have 17) explains how the experience in land use planning in the brought, and will bring, Netherlands could equally be applied to similarly densely immense benefits to populated, industrialised areas of India. the world: but that Johanna Suikkanan outlines on page 25 how international which has potential organisations such the United Nations Environment for much good also Programme (UNEP) have been developing policies, has potential for great harm. It is our responsibility programmes and guidance for governments and industry to as chemical engineers to make safety our top priority, help reduce industrial and chemical accidents worldwide, as a in actions and in resources and not just in words; to result of incidents such as Bhopal. place the highest standards of ethics at the core of our If anything good came out of this tragically fateful accident, professional values; to live those values and to inculcate it is the realisation of the importance of safety by design. As them in future generations of engineers. The process the late Professor Trevor Kletz said, “what you don’t have can’t industries are safer, thirty years after Bhopal – but there leak” and he urged designers to adopt concepts of inherently is much more to do. safer plants by design. Trevor went on to state that it is devastating that it took such a huge loss of life to shatter the complacent reliance on bolt-on safety systems. Inherent safety is discussed by Graeme Ellis (page 30) and David Edwards (page 21). Thirty years on, it is imperative for industry to develop a culture that fosters the installation of well-structured inherently safer designed processes and plants. Leaders within these industries should encourage all, including scientists, David Brown engineers, managers and operators, to contribute in all aspects Chief executive, IChemE of their operations without inhibition or recrimination. Focus © Institution of Chemical Engineers 0260-9576/14/$17.63 + 0.00 editorial.indd 2 17/11/2014 10:26 Loss Prevention Bulletin 240 December 2014 | 3 Overview Impressions of Bhopal Fiona Macleod Introduction I had not realised how beautiful Bhopal is. View of Upper Lake, Bhopal (FM) Sambhavna Clinic Bhopal (FM) When news broke of the Union Carbide accident in India, Afterwards I went to the factory. It is still there. I had just started my first job as a chemical engineer in What remains of the Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) Scotland. Many years later, I found myself involved with a pesticide factory is invisible from the road, lost inside a major investment program in India along with a team of well- jungle of greenery. It would be easy to miss it, along with the educated, hard-working, ingenious and inventive Indian memorial on Kali Parade. The brutalist modern representation colleagues. Despite the common language (English), I was of a grieving mother with her dead infant was being used to struck by the cultural differences and it awoke an intense dry jeans; the squat statue was artistically improved by the curiosity to understand what had really happened in the early denim decoration.