Methyl Isocyanate

As federal and state experts kept a careful watch, Union Carbide Corp. on Thursday began disposing of the last 3,000 pounds of deadly methyl isocyanate at its plant here. Officials said the neutralization process employed by Carbide had never been used to dispose of such large quantities of the chemical, but they expressed confidence it would pose little danger. "We believe it's safe," said Tim Laraway of the state Department of Natural Resources. "We're going there to observe as a contingency.

Tens of thousands of panic-stricken residents of Bhopal, India fled their homes after ammonia gas leaked from an ice factory adjacent to the Union Carbide plant where a leak of methyl isocyanate killed more than 2,000 people in 1984. Police said that ammonia fumes, which cause eye irritation but are non-toxic, leaked from a valve on cooling equipment. Police said no casualties were reported but that several people were injured as residents rushed to get out of the area.

Federal officials probing last month's gas leak at a Union Carbide plant in Institute, W. Va., said Wednesday that they are testing to determine whether methyl isocyanate, the chemical linked to last December's disaster in Bhopal, India, was present in the storage tank in which the Institute accident occurred.

As a critical decision approaches in a federal court in New York on whether billions of dollars in legal claims against the Union Carbide Corp. should be tried in the United States or India, the company's senior executives have taken the position that sabotage may have been the cause of the poison gas disaster in Bhopal that killed more than 2,000 people.

The Labor Department said Friday it has issued citations for safety violations at two of the five U.S. plants that make or use methyl isocyanate, the deadly chemical that killed more than 2,000 persons in Bhopal, India, last Dec. 3. The department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which inspected all five plants in December and January, said in a report, however, that the odds are "extremely remote" that a similar chemical disaster could occur in this nation.

Union Carbide Corp. has started preliminary construction work needed to reopen its methyl isocyanate unit in Institute, W. Va., which has been closed since more than 2,000 persons died in a Bhopal, India, accident Dec. 3, company spokesman Thad Epps said. Epps said that the company will spend $5 million to $10 million for facilities to convert methyl isocyanate, a pesticide ingredient, to a safer state.

Three months before toxic gas leaking from a Union Carbide Corp. plant in Bhopal, India, killed more than 2,000 persons and injured thousands more, the company's own safety experts warned that "real potential" existed for a catastrophic leak of the same chemical from Carbide's plant in Institute, W.Va., according to an internal company report.

Water entering an underground storage tank probably caused last month's Bhopal gas disaster in which more than 2,000 people died, a top-level Indian government scientist was reported as saying Friday. The Press Trust of India said Dr. S. Varadarajan, scientific adviser to the government, told a meeting of the Indian Science Congress in Lucknow that the water set off a violent runaway reaction in liquid methyl isocyanate stored in the tank at a pesticide factory owned by Union Carbide Corp.

Tens of thousands of panic-stricken residents of Bhopal, India fled their homes after ammonia gas leaked from an ice factory adjacent to the Union Carbide plant where a leak of methyl isocyanate killed more than 2,000 people in 1984. Police said that ammonia fumes, which cause eye irritation but are non-toxic, leaked from a valve on cooling equipment. Police said no casualties were reported but that several people were injured as residents rushed to get out of the area.

A trailer carrying 3,000 gallons of deadly methyl isocyanate cracked on one side near Morgantown, W. Va., nearly separating from the truck carrying it to New York, but none spilled, officials said. A shower of sparks followed the truck when metal began scraping the ground after the 14-inch crack opened, officials said. The driver, however, was able to stop the truck, and workers transferred the 30,000-pound chemical tank to another truck sent from a Union Carbide Corp. plant in Institute, W.

Federal officials probing last month's gas leak at a Union Carbide plant in Institute, W. Va., said Wednesday that they are testing to determine whether methyl isocyanate, the chemical linked to last December's disaster in Bhopal, India, was present in the storage tank in which the Institute accident occurred.

Aldicarb, the potent insecticide marketed exclusively by the Union Carbide Corp. under the trade name Temik, is the most toxic agricultural chemical sold in the United States, as measured by the dose needed to kill test animals. So effective is the chemical that it sometimes has been called it a "magic bullet" for its ability to destroy a variety of insect pests.

The Labor Department said Friday it has issued citations for safety violations at two of the five U.S. plants that make or use methyl isocyanate, the deadly chemical that killed more than 2,000 persons in Bhopal, India, last Dec. 3. The department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which inspected all five plants in December and January, said in a report, however, that the odds are "extremely remote" that a similar chemical disaster could occur in this nation.

Union Carbide Corp.'s plant here is preparing to resume production of the same chemical responsible for the deaths of 2,000 people in Bhopal, India, last year, the company said today. The company released a statement saying it will resume production of methyl isocyanate April 1, when it said it expects its internal investigation of the Dec. 3 Bhopal incident to be finished.