Poison gas leak
On 2 December 1984, there was a gas leak at a pesticide plant in Bhopal, India. It was caused by malfunctioning safety systems, and a runaway pressure increase saw 40 tonnes of a chemical called methyl isocyanate leak into the atmosphere. That’s a huge amount of toxic material, and the plant was surrounded by densely packed housing, so more than 500,000 people were exposed to the toxic cloud. The people living around the plant were not informed quickly, and hospital staff were given conflicting information about the situation. Many people living in the area suffered from coughing, eye irritation, burns, breathlessness, vomiting and worse. Thousands of animals suffered, too.
Longer term studies since the accident have confirmed that the health of many local people is still affected by the incident. Some effort has been made to clean up the soil and water around the plant, but the area is still contaminated today.