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- [00:01]
Narrator
There are more ways than ever to listen to History Daily ad free. Listen with Wondry plus in the Wondery.
- [00:06]
Lindsey Graham
App as a member of Noiser plus at noiser.com or in Apple Podcasts.
- [00:11]
Narrator
Or you can get all of History Daily plus other fantastic history podcasts@intohristory.com A.
- [00:17]
Lindsey Graham
Listener note this episode contains descriptions of harm to children and may not be suitable for all audiences. It's December 3, 1984, on a cold night in Bhopal, a city in central India. In a tiny, ramshackle house, a young mother rocks her baby to sleep. She's exhausted. As she hums a lullaby, she prays her husband won't wake the baby when he gets home from work. He's a packer at the Union Carbide pesticide factory. The walls of the compound are just a few hundred yards from their home. She stands on the roof. She can see the men at work on the metal gantries above the forest of pipework and tanks. Finally, her son drifts off to sleep, and gently the young woman lowers him to the sleeping mat on the floor and lies down beside him. The room is cold, so she draws the baby closer and starts to drift off herself. But as she closes her eyes, the baby stirs. She ignores him at first, hoping he'll drift off again. But then she realizes her baby isn't crying. He's choking. Her eyes bolt open. Her son is frothing at the mouth. She snatches him up as he coughs, his whole body shaking. It takes her a moment to notice the ghostly pale mist rolling across the floor and filling the room. And then she tastes it. The poison. It sears her mouth, her nose, her throat. She knows she has to get out. Holding her baby, she stumbles out of her home and into the alleyway. But the haze is even thicker here. A neighbor staggers past her, vomiting green bile. Someone from the crowd shouts, it's coming from the factory. The young woman stares with thoughts racing to her husband. Then a stranger grabs her hand. Run. She is pulled into a torrent of people flooding down the street. Animals, wild with panic, charge past, desperate to escape the toxic haze. Some in the crowd can't keep up and fall in the stampede, their desperate faces lost in the crush. Others convulse in agony, their bodies shutting down as the poison takes hold. By daybreak, the streets of this slum will be carpeted with thousands of bodies, but the suffering of the survivors will continue long after the gas is cleared. They will face a future scarred by cancer, disease, stillbirths and miscarriages and they will be tortured by questions about what truly happened that night, what led to the disaster, and who were to blame for the toxic cloud that destroyed their community on December 3, 1984.
- [03:04]
Narrator
Hey prime members, have you heard? You can listen to your favorite podcasts ad free. That's good news. With Amazon Music, you have access to the largest catalog of ad Free top podcasts included with your prime membership. To start listening, download the Amazon Music app for free or go to Amazon.com ADFreePodcasts that's Amazon.com ADFreeP Podcasts to catch.
- [03:27]
Lindsey Graham
Up on the latest episodes without the ads.
- [03:31]
Narrator
History Daily is sponsored by Audible, whose best of 2024 picks are here. Discover the year's top audiobooks and originals in all your favorite genres, from memoirs and sci fi to mysteries and thrillers. Audible's curated list in every category is the best way to hear 2024's best in AUD audio entertainment, like a stunning new full cast production of George Orwell's 1984 heartfelt memoirs like Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson's lovely one, the year's best fiction, like the Women by Kristin Hannah and Percival Evert's brilliantly subversive title James, or a personal pick of mine, Malcolm Gladwell's latest audiobook, Revenge of the Tipping Point. Find a new favorite and get listening with Audible because there's more to imagine when you listen. Go to audible.com historydaily and discover all the years best waiting for you.
- [04:22]
Lindsey Graham
From Noiser and Airship. I'm Lindsey Graham and this is History Daily. History is made every day on this podcast. Every day, we tell the true stories of the people and events that shaped our world. Today is December 3, 1984. The Bhopal disaster. It's 1969, 15 years before the disaster at Bhopal. A skinny teenage boy with a pencil thin mustache struggles through a large crowd outside the Union Carbide offices. There's excitement in the air. The wealthy American corporation has chosen this city for its newest factory. Union Carbide promises good jobs and high salaries for its workers. The skinny teenager hopes to be one of the first hires. This site in North Bhopal will be Union Carbide's 14th chemical plant in the country. It's all part of what the Indian government calls its Green Revolution. Since gaining independence from the British in 1946, India's population has grown by 50%. But droughts and poor harvests have led to repeated famines. If the country is to feed itself in the future, then the way it farms has to change. So throughout the 1960s, the government promoted new methods to drive up crop yields using modern machinery and pesticides. Now, in 1969, the Indian government is thrilled to welcome Union Carbide to Bhopal. Their new factory, which is run through a subsidiary, will import raw materials from America, process them into pesticides and distribute them all across the country. Union Carbide has promised to employ up to 1000 lucky locals. Which is why hundreds of men have descended on the Union Carbide offices today. Including the skinny teenage boy with the pencil thin mustache. He elbows his way through the mass of bodies, ducking under armpits, scrambling under legs. He's friends with one of the men at the gate. He just has to reach the front to catch his eye. The boy doesn't want to go back to hauling sacks of wheat for a pittance or selling chai on the streets. He wants to work for the Americans. So with a final push, the boy shoves his way to the front of the crowd. He spots his friend on the other side of the gate and calls out to him. His friend turns and flashes him a reassuring smile. The teenage boy with the pencil mustache will be one of the lucky ones. He'll join a thousand other workmen at the new plant and the men will be proud of their work and the prestige it gives them. But as the years go by, the American parent company will grow unhappy with the factory in Bhopal. The process of making pesticides will be far more expensive and time consuming than Union Carbide anticipated. As a result, the company will make a fateful decision. One that will decide the future of the plant and change the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. It's September 1982. 31 year old journalist Rajkumar Keswani sits at his desk in the offices of the local weekly newspaper in Bhopal. He flicks through the pages of his article one last time, his fingers greasy with sweat and ink. Every detail has to be right. He can't afford a slip up. What he has to say is too important. Qrswani has been working on this story for months. His friend Mohammad Ashraf worked at the Union Carbide factory in Bhopal. One day he was performing a routine maintenance job when he was sprayed with a dangerous chemical, phosgene. Mohammed panicked and took off his gas mask. 72 hours later he was dead. Phosgene is highly toxic. It was used as a weapon by the Germans in the First World War. But Union Carbide needs it at the factory in Bhopal. It's used to produce a gas known as mic, a crucial ingredient in the pesticide they sell to farmers. But it's just as toxic as its precursor, phosgene. Before 1980, they imported mic ready made from America. But following a review of the business, Union Carbide made the decision to move production of MIC to Bhopal. After Mohammad's death, Keswani began investigating the plant. Sources there told him that the plant was losing money and that to cut costs, Union Carbide was making decisions that put the safety of workers at risk. After nine months of nailing down the facts, his article is finally ready for press. Keswani reads it over just one last time. His newspaper is a small local publication. Only 2000 people read it each week. But he knows if he gets this right, there's a chance his story could gain national or even international attention and potentially save lives. On September 26, 1982, Keswani publishes his article titled Please Save this City. But Union Carbide ignores his story and so does the Indian government. Still, Keswani does not give up. He spends the next two years digging deeper into the story. He uncovers and reveals staggering safety lapses at the plant and he begs authorities to intervene. But no one listens. Finally, in the summer of 1984, Keswani publishes one last article, one final warning. The ominous headline predicts the tragedy to come. Bhopal on the Brink of Disaster History.
- [09:54]
Narrator
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- [10:09]
Lindsey Graham
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- [10:10]
Narrator
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- [11:02]
Lindsey Graham
But if you need to hire, you need indeed.
- [11:04]
Narrator
History Daily is sponsored by Mint Mobile. If you and I were walking down the street, total strangers though, and I was about to fall into a manhole, you'd yell or try to grab me or something before I sustained horrible injuries. Or if I was about to sit on a freshly painted bench, you'd warn me, look out. Wet paint, right? What if I dropped a $20 bill? You'd let me know, I'm sure. So let me return the favorite Mint Mobile offers Premium Wireless for 15 bucks a month when you purchase a three month plan 15 bucks a month. Think about how much you're paying now and you'll realize you're dropping dollar bills all over the place. Mint Mobile was perfect for resurrecting an old phone for my daughter, who you know what? I bet she would return any money I dropped too. I'm proud of that kid. To get this new customer offer and your new three month premium wireless plan for just 15 bucks a month, go to mintmobile.comhistorydaily that's mintmobile.comhistorydaily cut your wireless bill to 15 bucks a month at mintmobile mintmobile.comhistorydaily $45 upfront payment required equivalent to $15 a month new customers on first three month plan only speed slower above 40 gigabytes on unlimited plan. Additional taxes, fees and restrictions apply. See Mint Mobile for details.
- [12:19]
Lindsey Graham
It's December 3rd, 1984, just after midnight in the control room of the Union Carbide Chemical factory in Bhopal. The phone rings. Soo man Dae, a 26 year old night shift supervisor, leans forward in his chair and picks up the receiver. It's one of the engineers from the plant, he tells Suman. They've detected a leak by one of the storage tanks. But this isn't the first time something like this has happened. It's a running joke among workers that they're used as human gas detectors. Soo man gets up to check the readings. A wall of sickly green metal cabinets dominates the room. It's studded with dials and indicators, and from here operators can monitor the performance of the entire plant. Soo man checks the pressure and temperature gauges for the tanks. He tells the man on the phone they all look normal. Then he hangs up, returning to his chair and to his conversation with another operator. But then the phone rings again. It's the same engineer, but he sounds even more worried. He asks Suman to check the dials one more time. Soo man sighs and gets up from his chair Again. This time, what he sees makes his eyes go wide. The pressure gauge for tank 610 has shot up from one end of the scale to the other. Soo man thinks it must be a mistake, but he also knows the only way to be sure is to inspect the tanks himself. He leaves the other technician in charge and hurries out into the compound. Soo man is proud of his job here, even if the factory has seen better days. Despite the endless rounds of cost cutting, layoffs and redundancies, the plant hasn't made union carbide any money in years. Even after the forced production slowdown, the plant still makes more chemicals than it can sell. Suman knows this is a recipe for disaster. MIC is poisonous and volatile. It has to be kept cool. And the regulations say no storage tank should ever be more than half full. Since late October, though, One of the MIC storage tanks has been almost 3/4 full. The workers have tried everything to empty the tank, but there's a fault somewhere and the engineers haven't been able to pump it out. So for weeks, 42 tons of toxic MIC has lain buried under the earth in a malfunctioning storage tank in a crumbling, undermanned factory. As soon as he steps outside, Suman smells the sharp odor of the gas. His eyes begin to water, and as he walks the hundred feet from the control room to the storage tanks, he realizes something is very wrong. The tanks are buried under 6 inches of solid concrete, but Suman can feel heat radiating up through his shoes. Pipes begin to shake and hiss. Frightened, he turns back. As he sprints towards the control room, Suman hears a crack of breaking concrete behind him. Once in the control room, Suman desperately tries to avert disaster. But the plant's safety features are either offline for maintenance, malfunctioning, or simply incapable of coping with a leak of this size. Soon, a plume of deadly white vapor rises into the air above the factory. Swept along by the wind, it tumbles down through the night sky towards the streets of Bhopal. In the first hours of the disaster, at least 2,000 people will perish in the streets around the factory. The gas, heavier than air, will sink close to the ground, affecting children most of all. By the end of the first week, the total death toll will push towards 10,000. And as the weeks turn into months and then years, that number will only grow. And even those that live are not spared. Some will go blind. Others will lose their minds or their memories. Many will develop cancer. Hearts and lungs will be permanently scarred. Infant mortality will soar, and the rate of stillbirth will triple. The toxic MIC gas from the Union Carbide factory will clear in a night, but the fallout of the Bhopal disaster will continue for decades.
- [16:20]
Narrator
History Daily is sponsored by Greenlight. We all know the old saying, give a man a fish, he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish, he eats for life. And I'll admit I haven't taught my daughter much about fishing. But as a broader metaphor, I am trying to follow that advice and teach her important skills that will set her up for success, like how to handle money. That's where Greenlight comes in. Greenlight is a debit card and money app made for families. Parents can send money to their kids and keep an eye on kids spending and saving while kids and teens build money confidence and lifelong financial literacy skills. You can also send your kids instant money transfers, get real time notifications of spending, manage chores and automate allowance. Millions of parents and kids are already learning about money with Greenlight, the easy, convenient way to raise financially smart kids. And right now is the perfect time for you to start and get set up for a new year of Financial smarts. Sign up for greenlight today@greenlight.com historydaily that's greenlight.com historydaily to try greenlight today greenlight.com.
- [17:19]
Commercial Voice
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- [17:55]
Lindsey Graham
It's February 1989, just over four years since the Bhopal disaster. A young mother sweeps the floor of her small home. Her 5 year old son dodges around her, pulling a toy car along by a string. His giggles though, stop as something catches in his throat and he breaks into a hacking cough. His mother drops what she's doing to comfort him. This is a daily ritual for the young mother and her son, and it has been ever since the mist crept into their home some four years ago. As she goes to fetch him water, she tries to remind herself that she and her son are among the lucky ones, the survivors of the Bhopal disaster. She glances at the door. Her husband, the young man with the pencil mustache, will be home from work soon. The factory is long gone. These days he works at the market. He still has that mustache, but he's not as skinny or as young as he once was. She comforts her son and wonders if her husband has heard the news. Earlier in the day, a neighbor told her that the American company has finally agreed to pay for what happened here. Every survivor will receive as much as 25,000 rupees. The families of those who died will get even more, up to 50,000 rupees. More money than most people here will ever know. The young woman helps her son drink some water, stroking his back, willing the cough away. She knows the money will not fix his lungs or chase off the nightmares they both still have of the running and the screaming or the fog that obliterated the sky. The total numbers of victims of the Bhopal disaster will never be confirmed. But from a population of less than a million, it will be estimated that 500,000 people in the city were poisoned by the gas. Years after the fact, the disaster will continue to find victims as families drink water still laced with the chemical and children play in the toxic abandoned ruins of the Union carbide factory. The $470 million out of court settlement between the American company and the Indian government will not be the end of legal proceedings. Survivor groups, outraged by the tiny compensation will continue to press their case in courts in India and America for years to come, but with no success. The American chemical manufacturer, Union Carbide will never admit responsibility for the tragedy. They will claim that all safety regulations were followed and that the disaster was the result of sabotage by a disgruntled employee. But survivors and campaigners will tell a different story, one of corporate greed and carelessness that cost the lives of thousands. And the worst industrial disaster in History on December 3, 1984. Next on History Daily, December 4, 1991. After 64 years dominating the skies, the once great Pan American Airways shuts down its entire operation. From Noiser and Airship, this is History. Daily Hosted, edited and executive produced by me, Lindsey Graham Audio editing by Molly Bach Sound design by Misha Stanton Music by Lindsey Graham this episode is written and researched by William Simpson. Executive producers are Stephen Walters for Airship and Pascal Hughes for Noiser.
- [21:35]
Commercial Voice
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