41 years ago today, December 3, 1984 (October 11, 1984, the 1984 lunar calendar), the tragedy of gas leakage in Bhopal, India, shocked the world. Children in India demonstrated in front of the company building of Chemical Konzen. After this unfortunate accident, women in Bhopal also took to the streets to demonstrate. Bhopal is the capital of Madhya Pradesh, India. On December 3, 1984, it was here that a serious poison gas leak occurred at a pesticide factory run by Union Carbide, a multinational company in the United States, causing a huge disaster to local residents and shocking the world. 1. Night of Death At midnight on December 2, the pressure at a gas tank at the Union Carbide pesticide factory in the suburbs of Bhopal was rising sharply. The gas tank contains forty-five tons of liquid highly toxic methyl isocyanate, which is used to make pesticides carbaryl and aldicarb. At 0:56 on the 3rd, the valve of the gas storage tank failed, and the highly toxic chemicals in the tank leaked out and quickly spread outward in the form of gas. An hour later, heavy smoke formed by the poison gas shrouded the city. Toxic gas leaking from the pesticide factory crossed the factory wall and first entered the adjacent slum area. Hundreds of residents immediately died in their sleep. There are many beggars crowded together near the train station because of the cold. The poison gas spread there, and within a few minutes, more than ten people were killed and more than 200 people developed severe poisoning symptoms. The poison gas traveled through temples, shops, streets and lakes and floated across twenty-five square miles of the city. There was no wind that night, and the air was filled with heavy fog, allowing the poison gas to continue to spread slowly at a relatively large concentration, spreading death. A few hundred meters away from the pesticide factory, a farmer heard a dull purr nearby and thought it was the sound of a cow ruminating. He got up and went out to inspect and found that two cows had died on the ground. The other end was crying in pain and soon fell at his feet. At this time, his eyes also began to ache. He later closed his eyes in the hospital, burst into tears, and told people: "I thought it was a plague." Many people thought that the city had been hit by an atomic bomb or a major earthquake and lamented that the end of the world had arrived. Later, people learned that poison gas had leaked from the factory, so they hurriedly fled. People fled at their fastest speeds in cars, wooden carts, and bicycles. However, the poison gas is ruthless. Many people went blind while fleeing and fell headlong on the roadside, unable to get up again. On the streets and along roads, cows and dogs and other livestock struggled in pain. In just a few nights, 2,500 people lost their lives, and about 3,000 people were on the verge of death. 125,000 people were poisoned to varying degrees, and it is estimated that 100,000 people will be disabled for life. 2. The morning after the accident occurred in the horrific city, Bhopal seemed to have been attacked by a neutron bomb. Houses were intact, but bodies of people and livestock were everywhere. The good city has become a city of terror. The dead were placed on the ground and barely covered with quilts. People found that on a street in the city, at least 200 people had died, more than half of them were children. Among them, those with small bodies and stunted development became the most vulnerable victims of poison gas. Many of the dead were discovered only after authorities ordered the doors of residents to be broken open. People were sleeping soundly when the poison gas invaded people, and they passed away in their sleep. Some people, when sensing the intrusion of strange gases, closed doors and windows tightly, thinking that this could resist the uncomfortable gas. As a result, their houses became gas chambers, and hundreds of people died like this. On the street, there were dead bodies lying next to them. The blind people pulled me and I pulled you. Zhang Huangdi cried out, not knowing where the safe place was. A large number of livestock were lying across the street with swollen bellies. Plants cannot escape the clutches of death. The leaves trembled. The leaves of radish and spinach are covered with yellow spots and covered with a white film. The lake water also changed color and became turbid. The smell of decomposition suspended in the air, mixed with the smoke from the crematorium, making it disgusting. Gravediggers dig long graves; tailors sew bodies; medical staff try to prevent the epidemic. The entire city mourned for the victims of the poison gas. Most of the victims lived in poverty and lacked education. They had never been able to figure out what was happening in their low mud house, and they did not know which pesticide factory had released what evil spirit. Many people don't know what poison gas is. Before the disaster hit, they only heard that it was a factory that produced drugs, and could not imagine any connection between drugs and poison gas. At the crematorium, bodies are piled up and incinerated together. This was originally against Hindu customs, but we couldn't find enough wood, so we had to. The women cried and cursed. In the new Muslim cemetery, groups of wild dogs tore open the shallow dusk cave, dragged out human bodies, and competed and bit each other. A father tried to drive a group of dogs away from the grave of his four-year-old son, but they came back. How could the wild dogs know that if they ate these dead bodies, their fate of death would fall on them? 3. Fight against Death Hamidi Hospital is the largest hospital in Bhopal City. Hours after the gas leak occurred, hundreds of poisoned people lined up in the hospital. At the same time, cars of large and small continue to drive here, most of them children and the elderly. The 350 doctors and 1,000 nurses in the hospital had been mobilized long ago, but they still couldn't take care of the batches of patients who came in. In the end, 500 medical students had to be assigned to the medical team. All 750 beds in the hospital are filled with poisoned patients. The open space around the hospital was full of patients, their moans, coughs and sobs resounded in the air. Many patients fainted to the ground as soon as they arrived at the hospital, as if they had completed the last journey of their lives. They were exhausted, like soldiers who had just fought a bad battle. After some waiting, they are generally patient and rescued by doctors and nurses. The army was also mobilized, and their responsibility was to maintain order in the flow of people and prevent crowds and collisions. They set up twenty tents near the hospital as temporary wards, and each tent can accommodate twenty people. They also organized a morgue to gather unclaimed dead people together and wait for relatives to claim them. If no one claims it in the end, they send the Hindus to be cremated and the Muslims to be buried. The university hospital in Bhopal also carried out intensive rescue work. Seven children, aged one to seven, were taken to the emergency room just after the accident. In the hospital bed, the children were very irritable, coughing and vomiting, opening their mouths wide, and panting loudly. Parents and relatives stared at the doctor treating the children. The doctor whispered to them: "The children have only half a chance of survival." The 450 doctors in the university hospital saved thousands of lives in two days on December 3 and 4. There are five hospitals in the city. Hospitals are crowded. Volunteer organizations work everywhere to assist in caring for patients and comfort those who are in shock. One doctor said: "We were so scared that we thought they would all die here. Because when they first arrived, they seemed to be about to stop breathing." The methyl isocyanate that poisoned the city of Bhopal is collectively referred to as the two major killing gases, together with the "Verkian" gas used by the German army in World War I. The medical department in Bhopal City is very worried about the possible long-term effects of the poison gas. Doctors believe survivors of the incident will develop emphysema, asthma and bronchitis. Some experts point out that the damage to the liver and kidneys may be more serious. A doctor at Hamidi Hospital said: "The poison gas acts on the central nervous system, which will cause lifelong dullness in many patients." The day after the incident, several cases of stomach pain in pregnant women have occurred. After examination by a doctor, the fetus was dead in the abdomen. News of the accident was reported to Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, who hurriedly stopped his campaign trip in northern India, rushed to the city of Bhopal to inspect and allocate US$4 million to relieve the victims. The Madhya Pradesh government also provides relief to every family that has suffered damage. The dead can no longer be brought back to life, and the injured may be paralyzed for life. What lessons will people learn from the biggest tragedy of the war? 4. Where are the lessons? After the disaster in Bhopal, news spread quickly, causing world public opinion to explode. Many newspapers have published articles accusing Union Carbide of the United States, pointing out that its factory in India and its factory in West Virginia adopt "double standards" in environmental safety maintenance measures, with two different levels: the Bhopal pesticide factory only has general safety devices; the factory in the United States is also equipped with a computer alarm system. In addition, the site of this factory in India is located in a densely populated area, while the similar factory in the United States is far away from the densely populated area. One environmental protection official from a third world country put it well: "Multinational companies often open more dangerous factories in developing countries to escape the severe restrictions they must comply with at home. This has now become a clearly tendentious issue." On behalf of the Indian government, Prime Minister Rahma Gandhi asked Union Carbide of the United States to compensate for the losses, and solemnly announced that the Indian government will not allow the production of any dangerous substances in densely populated areas in the future. Melvin Bailey Law Firm and two other law firms jointly filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Indian victims, demanding compensation of US$15 billion from Union Carbide, accusing the multinational company of improper design and operation, causing the leakage of toxic gas from the factory and causing a large number of deaths in an industrial accident. Union Carbide is a multinational company, ranking 37th among all major companies in the United States. It has subsidiaries in 38 countries around the world and is engaged in the production of multiple products, employing 100,000 people and assets of 10 billion US dollars. After the poison gas leak at the Bhopal Pesticide Factory, the value of the company's stock per share has dropped by US$10, and the value of all stocks has dropped by US$440 million. Some experts predict that Union Carbide will find it difficult to protect itself without resorting to federal bankruptcy laws. The poisonous gas dissipated, and the last fire that burned the victims died out. Measures have also been taken to neutralize the highly toxic gas in another gas storage tank and make it non-toxic. The fleeing Bhopal residents returned home one after another. But the wounds left by the Bhopal disaster will linger in people's hearts for a long time. People hope that the Bhopal tragedy, which occurred in the current unreasonable state of the world economic order, will provide everyone with the opportunity to learn sufficient lessons. Children poisoned to death waiting to be buried/We recall the young victims of the Union Carbide chemical accident in Bhopal, India. The child's face was pale and his eyes had lost their luster, like a stiff death mask, a lifeless muscular structure.