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In case you haven't noticed, Americans have a preoccupation with the silly stuff which plagues electronic media causes of all sorts. As a result, we often ignore important problems and their roots, environmental and otherwise.
Yet, if one is able to filter out the Kardashians, conspiracy theories and political vitriol, electronic media of all sorts can still provide worthwhile insights and lessons.
My recent revelation came from a miniseries and several reports which examined the root causes of a pair of environmental calamities. Though separated by 40 years and nearly 8,000 miles, the Bhopal, India, chemical disaster and the East Palestine train derailment were avoidable accidents. Both resulted from the production and careless handling of extremely toxic chemicals.
The Bhopal chemical disaster at the Union Carbide plant in central India, officially killed at least 3,800 people (though unofficial estimates are four times that amount) in late 1984. Many thousands more were blinded, sickened, or met a premature death, while unborn children were born with a host of chemically induced birth defects.
An Indian-produced miniseries, "The Railway Men: The Untold Story of Bhopal 1984," is being aired on Netflix and recalls the story of a band of heroic rail workers trying to save as many people as possible. The story takes some theatrical liberties to be sure, but remains true to the basic story.
An internal Union Carbide analysis more than two years before the disaster warned of "potential for the release of toxic materials" and "runaway reaction" due to "equipment failure, operating problems, or maintenance problems." The subsequent disaster occurred when a number of valves and warning alarms failed, resulting in the very sort of reaction foretold in 1982. Close to forty tons of methyl isocyanate (a cyanide-based chemical used in pesticides and plastics) was released in a cloud over the city when the storage tank exploded.
Incomprehensibly, the plant was abandoned after the accident and no cleanup was ever undertaken by Union Carbide. Dow Chemical bought the assets and liabilities of the original owners in 2001, but have also refused to remediate any part of the facility, according to reports from the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal
The East Palestine, Ohio, train wreck recently commemorated its one-year anniversary and shared some common threads with the 1984 disaster. (Monday's Mirror had a full page report on the accident.) Just as in Bhopal, Norfolk Southern's warning systems failed and the corporation's response was slow and not particularly effective. Just as internal reports identified problems in India, rail unions and safety experts have raised concerns over practices and staff cuts which they say have compromised safety.
A much less dense population (5,000 compared to Bhopal's 850,000) and lower volume of toxins translated into a much less horrific end result in East Palestine. But derailments increased to 4,845 in 2023 and resulted in more than 600 deaths across the country, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.
It would seem that some bad corporate players would rather gamble with public health than take sensible preventive measures.
These two tales should teach us a valuable lesson. We should endeavor to recognize and address the roots of such debacles. As the rail and chemical industries continue to lobby against changes in the law, it would seem that some have still not learned the lesson Bhopal taught us four decades ago.
John Frederick (www.johnjfrederick.com) writes about environmental issues twice each month for the Mirror.