期刊名称：Hyle : International Journal for Philosophy of Chemistry
印刷版ISSN：1433-5158
出版年度：2018
卷号：24
期号：1
页码：29-53
出版社：HYLE Publications, Karlsruhe and University of Karlsruhe
摘要：In the evening of December 2nd, 1984, a series of unfortunate eventsled to 43 tons of methyl isocyanate being vaporized and spread over the city ofBhopal in central India. The accident, which continued throughout the earlyhours of December 3rd, resulted in the deaths of several thousand people andleft hundreds of thousands more with permanent injuries. The Bhopal toxicleakage is widely regarded as the largest chemical industrial disaster in theworld. It is also one of the most publicly scrutinized disasters, leading to vividevidence about the threat to public health posed by the chemical productionindustry. This paper argues that Union Carbide Corporation, through its localsubsidiary Union Carbide India Limited, as well as the governments of Indiaand Madhya Pradesh, are those who were most accountable for the leakage.Furthermore, the paper shows that several ethical rules such as: the GoldenRule, the human rights to safety, the precautionary principle, and the principlesfor a sustainable society were violated. In the final sections, the paper discussesthe measures that should be taken to prevent future exposure to toxicchemical substances which may occur due to accidents at chemical productionfacilities.
关键词：Bhopal disaster; chemical industry; methyl isocyanate (MIC); corporate;ethics; sustainability; human rights.
