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Today In History December 3 Bhopal Union Carbide Disaster · Gil I Am

• 0:06
  Speaker 1: The scenes are simply hellish, so much suffering from India's
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: invisible killer. At one point, an official said one death
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: with being recorded every minute from the poison gas leak
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: in the city of Beaupaul.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: The enormity of the tragedy of Beaupaul, India is becoming
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: more apparent this morning. Authorities now say the toxic gas
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: that escape from a Union carbide plant on Monday has
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: killed at least sixteen hundred people, and they say another
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: fifty thousand people may suffer serious after effects such as
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: blindness and sterility. The Union Carbide insecticide plant has been closed,
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: of course. Now outside vultures devour the carcasses of animals
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: killed by the fumes. Doctors are working around the clock
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: at hospitals that are filled to overflowing.
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: Since the accident, one hundred doctors in beaupar have been
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: working without rest, but the number of people needing treatment
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: continues to grow as more and more victims are found
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: lying helplessly in their homes. Entire streets near the factory
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: are nearly deserted, with houses locked up and empty.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: All this is being watched very carefully in the little
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: town of Institute, West Virginia. The people there live hard
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: by another Union Carbide plant which produces the same poisonous
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: gas which swept over Beaupol.
• 1:26
  Speaker 4: India Institute, a gritty little petrochemical town tucked into the
• 1:31
  Speaker 4: West Virginia Mountains, home of the only other Union Carbide
• 1:34
  Speaker 4: plant in the world that produces methyl isocyanad. Yesterday, Union
• 1:39
  Speaker 4: Carbide suspended production of methyl iso cyanate here to check
• 1:42
  Speaker 4: the safety system, and suspended shipments of the substance to
• 1:46
  Speaker 4: other plants in Beaupol.
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: Today, the survivors of the poison gas disaster were visited
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: by Nobel Peace Prize winner Mother Teresa.
• 1:54
  Speaker 5: At seventy four. She has built, but hardly broken by
• 1:56
  Speaker 5: what she has seen. She tries to comfort final these men, saying,
• 2:02
  Speaker 5: we can hardly see anymore.
• 2:05
  Speaker 6: Have faith, Have.
• 2:06
  Speaker 7: Faith, she said, Let us learn during this time to forgive.
• 2:11
  Speaker 7: It's very important that no bitterness, no anger, verse in
• 2:16
  Speaker 7: our hearts.
• 2:18
  Speaker 5: But hundreds in Beaupol were not in a forgiving mood,
• 2:21
  Speaker 5: chanting Union Carbide is a killer.
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: Union Carbid acknowledged today that two years ago the company
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: had major concerns about the safety conditions for methyl isocyanate
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: at its plan in Beopol, India.
• 2:33
  Speaker 4: New documents show that a Union Carbide safety team warned
• 2:36
  Speaker 4: of problems handling methyl isocyanate three months before the deadly
• 2:40
  Speaker 4: leak in Beaupol, India, but the warnings were about Carbide's
• 2:43
  Speaker 4: plant in Institute, West Virginia. A report by one of
• 2:46
  Speaker 4: the company's own safety teams there warned a runaway reaction
• 2:49
  Speaker 4: could occur and cause a catastrophic failure of the tank
• 2:53
  Speaker 4: At the West Virginia plan. It said tanks with methyl
• 2:55
  Speaker 4: isocyanate weren't being inspected often enough to guard against contamination.
• 3:00
  Speaker 4: A little water in the tank, for instance, could cause
• 3:02
  Speaker 4: the chemical to heat rapidly, turn to gas and blow.
• 3:06
  Speaker 4: Corrective action was taken at Institute, but the plant in
• 3:08
  Speaker 4: Beaupal wasn't told about any of this.
• 3:11
  Speaker 5: I am confident that the victims can be fairly inequitably
• 3:14
  Speaker 5: compensated without a material adverse effect on the financial condition
• 3:18
  Speaker 5: of Union Carbide Corporation.
• 3:20
  Speaker 6: But on Wall Street, Union Carbide had another bad day.
• 3:23
  Speaker 6: In the last six trading sessions, its stock has plunged
• 3:26
  Speaker 6: more than thirteen points, a loss on paper of almost
• 3:30
  Speaker 6: a billion dollars. The reason fear on the part of
• 3:33
  Speaker 6: investors that lawsuits totaling hundreds of millions of dollars might
• 3:37
  Speaker 6: push the company into bankruptcy. Anything in
• 9:00
  Speaker 5: Attatatatatastasattattattattattat