True Story of Loyality: Hachiko

Hachikō ( November 10, 1923–March 8, 1935), known in Japanese as chūken Hachikō ("faithful dog Hachikō" ('hachi' meaning 'eight', a number referring to the position within the nest the dog came from, and 'kō' being a Japanese familiar or derogatory suffix)). Hachikō was an Akita dog born on a farm near the city of Odate, Akita Perfecture remembered for his loyalty to his owner, even many years after his owner's death.

In 1924, Hachikō was brought to Tokyo by his owner, Hidesaburō Ueno, a professor in the agriculture department at the University of Tokyo. During his owner's life Hachikō saw him out from the front door and greeted him at the end of the day at the nearby Shibuya Station. The pair continued their daily routine until May 1925, when Professor Ueno did not return on the usual train one evening. The professor had suffered a stroke at the university that day. He died and never returned to the train station where his friend was waiting.

Hachikō was given away after his master's death, but he routinely escaped, showing up again and again at his old home. Eventually, Hachikō apparently realized that Professor Ueno no longer lived at the house. So he went to look for his master at the train station where he had accompanied him so many times before. Each day, Hachikō waited for Professor Ueno to return. And each day he did not see his friend among the commuters at the station.

The permanent fixture at the train station that was Hachikō attracted the attention of other commuters. Many of the people who frequented the Shibuya train station had seen Hachikō and Professor Ueno together each day. They brought Hachikō treats and food to nourish him during his wait.

This continued for 10 years, with Hachikō appearing only in the evening time, precisely when the train was due at the station...

Jeannie Mae Millar (1974 - 2008)

On May 29, 2008, Jeannie Millar committed suicide in Los Angeles, California. During the last couple of years, Jeannie scaled back her acting career, married her third husband, and became a mother to Hannah - a cute baby with Downs Syndrome. Then two months later, Jeannie ended her life. Jeannie did not OD on drugs or prescription meds, but it wasn't accidental either. After autopsy, the Los Angeles Coroner classified her death as "Suicide by Hanging."

Jeannie grew up in a dysfunctional family, and she never knew her real mother, who died when Jeannie was an infant. She dropped out of Clark High School, and got caught up in the fast lane lifestyle of Las Vegas, Nevada, with all its vices. Throughout her life, there were times when Jeannie suffered from severe depression, suicidal thoughts, and substance abuse. In her youth, she had two broken marriages that lasted one month apiece. Yet, when Jeannie was happy, she radiated with friendliness to those around her.

Eventually, Jeannie headed to Los Angeles to pursue a career as an actress and model. Although Jeannie achieved some success and film credits, her career was stagnant in recent years. Occasionally, Jeannie booked Background roles, but she was flustered that producers offered her just sleazy parts in their films. 

Initially, Jeannie used her physical beauty and sensuality to seek recognition, but she realized later that it typecast her, and limited future opportunities. Jeannie wasn't the first Hollywood actress to use her sexuality to promote herself, and then protest that she wanted to be considered a 'serious' actress! After her baby, post-partum psychosis may have combined with pre-existing personal issues to cause Jeannie to commit an irrational act. We speculate that Jeannie was stunned that her first child was born with a mental deficiency, too. Concurrently, Jeannie was troubled and upset by the recent death of Charles Millar, her father, with whom she maintained a tumultuous love-hate relationship during their lives. (Jeannie's dad was a Vietnam-era veteran, and Jeannie's mom was his Thailand girlfriend.)

On May 26th, 2008, she was admitted to Brotman Medical Center Psychiatric Ward in Culver City, California, on a three-day suicide watch. On May 29th, Jeannie was released, returned home, spent 3.5 hours there, kissed her baby, took the family car, and traveled to the Ramada Inn on Sepulveda Boulevard.

In Room 306, Jeannie wrote two suicide notes, and sent a text message to family and friends. "I'M DEAD!" were her blunt, final words. Then Jeannie hung herself from the bathroom door. When police were notified, they did a location fix on her cell phone, rushed to the hotel room, forced entry through a window, and cut her down. The Fire Department Paramedics declared her dead at the scene. Jonathan Pruett, her third husband of just ten months, chose to cremate her body, and he withdrew to Minnesota to live with his parents there.

Jeannie was a beautiful female with flawless Eurasian features. She dazzled men with her beauty, and sweet, friendly personality. Her friends are saddened, shocked, and puzzled by her behavior in the end.

Quoting Alan, a very close friend, "What was going through your precious heart and brain that was so awful that you had to commit suicide? AND, in such a horrible way?" We don't fully comprehend an answer to that question.


 

(source: http://jeannie-millar.gonetoosoon.org/)

Massacre of the Russian Royals: Horrific last hours of a Dynasty

As the light faded, a train halted in the siding near the remote railway station of Lyubinskaya on the Trans-Siberian railway line. Gunned down: The Tsar and Tsaritsa with their five children who were executed by the Bolsheviks

It was the evening of April 29, 1918, and there was nothing outwardly remarkable about these first-class railway carriages, except the presence of a heavily armed guard outside their doors.
Inside sat a family whose faces have been immortalised through history book pictures. Four pale girls, in white lace, their hair tied back with satin ribbons. A sickly little boy in a sailor suit.

This was the moment of truth for the Romanovs, the Russian Imperial Family deposed by the Soviet revolution. Now, they were making their final journey. The young and beautiful Grand Duchesses, Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia, sat beside their mother, the haughty Tsaritsa Alexandra, granddaughter of Queen Victoria.
The young Tsarevich Alexey lent on his father, the former Tsar Of All The Russias, Nicholas Alexandrovich Romanov. The engine started, and the train took a decisive turn. The lingering hope inside Special Train No. 8 evaporated. The train was lumbering not towards a trial in Moscow or foreign exile, as they had believed, but to the bleak Urals. The Romanovs were being taken to Ekaterinburg, the historic hub of Russia's old penal system. There they would face a firing squad just 78 days later  -  and exactly 90 years ago this week.

To coincide with that anniversary, their last wretched days have been chronicled in an explosive new book. Using previously overlooked documents and witness accounts, it tells the story of the family's final moments in unprecedented detail.

So just how did these most aristocratic of aristocrats fall so decisively from glory?
A man of limited political vision and ability, Nicholas was an unlikely king. Even in stature, at 5ft 7in, he was lacking. Fatally, he turned a blind eye to social unrest. He left his deeply unpopular wife, Alexandra, in effective political control.
She was increasingly spellbound by Grigory Rasputin, the charismatic 'holy man' she believed could save her haemophiliac son Alexey from bleeding to death.Faced with escalating political turmoil, Nicholas believed he had no option but to abdicate 'for the good of Russia' in 1917.

He did so also because he believed it would guarantee the safety of his beloved family.
Again, in this he proved calamitously naive. The family were initially placed under house arrest and then transferred to a small rural town, Tobolsk, where they retained a substantial entourage of 39 courtiers and servants. They brought many of their Imperial Palace treasures with them, including leather-bound volumes of photographs and vintage wines from the court cellars. Eventually, the new revolutionary high command decreed that such privilege could not be allowed in the emerging communist state.

Instead, a house in Ekaterinburg was secretly prepared. It would be a far cry from the sumptuous winter and summer palaces, banqueting halls and glorious gardens the Imperial Family had previously enjoyed. Ominously, it would be referred to by a Bolshevik euphemism, dom osobogo znachenie -  The House Of Special Purpose.



Stepping off the train in Ekaterinburg after a bone-rattling five-day journey, an exhausted Nicholas and his wife were received into the hands of local soviets, along with their doctor, maid, valet and footman. As their car drew up to The House Of Special Purpose, they looked their last on the outside world.

It was Passion Week, and the Easter bells of the Orthodox Church rang out across the city.
As the gates to his new prison slammed shut, the Tsar was curtly told: 'Citizen Nicholas Romanov, you may enter.'

From now on, there would be no more acknowledgement of Romanov status and titles, much to the Tsaritsa's disgust. Gradually, the Imperial Family settled in to their new lodgings, a private house which, though hardly a palace, was nonetheless regarded as one of the most modern in the city, as it possessed a flushing toilet. Hidden behind a high wooden fence, its windows blacked out, it was now a gloomy prison. The Romanovs were confined to a suite of five rooms.

Spirited and bored, the Romanov girls, aged between 17 and 22, ignored warnings not to peek out of an unsecured top-floor window, until a sentry fired a warning shot at Anastasia's head.
The young princesses' clothes were becoming increasingly threadbare  -  there were no more white dresses and pretty hats like they used to wear every summer at their palace in the Crimea, a seaside paradise where the air was thick with the scent of roses and honeysuckle.
Lively and vivacious, they still beguiled their guards, however, with one saying they could not have looked prettier 'even if they had been covered in gold and diamonds'. The family were allowed to keep their bed linen, bearing personalised monograms and the Imperial crest, as well as fine porcelain dinner plates bearing the name Nicholas II. Alexandra had also brought supplies of her favourite English eau de cologne by Brocard, as well as cold cream and lavender salts.

These were not the only potions on which the Tsaritsa was reliant. Plagued by migraines, heart palpitations, insomnia and sciatica, she was hopelessly addicted to a whole range of drugs.
She had long ago admitted to being 'saturated' with Veronal, a barbiturate. She also took morphine and cocaine for menstrual pain.

It has been speculated that the Tsar, too, was cushioned from reality by narcotics. It was said that his childlike indifference to losing the throne was the result of smoking a mixture of hashish and the psychoactive herb henbane, administered by a Tibetan doctor, recommended by Rasputin, to counter stress and insomnia. Life in The House Of Special Purpose was severely restrictive. They were not allowed visitors, nor to go outside except during a proscribed hour.
And they were to talk no language other than Russian 54 -  the Tsaritsa liked to speak to her children in English. However, she refused point blank to obey an edict to ring a bell every time she went to use the bathroom. Daily life had become a matter of endurance. The family had one consuming obsession, however: Alexey's fragile health. Since April, the 13-year-old had been suffering from a recurring haemorrhage in his knee, causing him agonising pain.

Doctors had already cautioned that Alexey would not reach 16 because of his debilitating illness, but he seemed now at death's door. The family was exhausted by a relentless round of all-night sessions at his beside. Eventually, the splint was taken off his leg, and he could be carried out to the garden, but he would never walk again. By early July, the daily ritual of life at the House had taken on a numbing predictability. The family rose at eight in the morning, and breakfasted on tea and black bread.

The days were filled with endless games of cards, patience and the French game bezique, which was a family favourite, while Alexey played with his model ship and tin soldiers. The family dogs, Ortino, Joy and Jemmy, provided a much-needed diversion. During their hour in the small garden, the girls and their father would walk the 40 paces back and forth, eager to make the most of their exercise time. It was a sorry picture: the man who had once ruled 8.5 million square miles of empire, now master of a single room of his own and a small, scrappy garden.

The evenings were filled with a meagre supper, prayers and Bible readings, more games, and embroidery and sewing 55 -  the women spent long, furtive hours concealing gemstones and pearls into the linings of their dresses, to fund the life in exile of which they dreamed.
On July 4, there was an abrupt change in the House. The authorities were concerned that a rescue attempt was being plotted by royalists, and the guards were changed.

There was another reason for this, and for the Tsar and Tsaritsa, it was a shocking one.
On June 27, Maria, the most flirtatious and attractive of the Grand Duchesses, had been discovered, during an inspection by commanders, in a compromising situation with guard Ivan Skorokhodov. He had smuggled in a cake for her 19th birthday, and their friendship had developed quickly in the boredom of the house.

Skorokhodov was sent to the city's prison, while Maria, an elegant young woman with light brown hair and mischievous blue eyes  -  was reprimanded by her family. Tragically, in their final weeks together, her eldest sister, Olga, and her mother froze her out, refusing to speak to her as punishment for disgracing them. Outside, civil war raged. The ranks of the White Army, which opposed the Bolsheviks, had been swelled by Czech deserters from the Austro-Hungarian army. They were rapidly gaining ground on Ekaterinburg. Food in the city was rationed, and typhus and cholera had taken grip. The mood grew increasingly ugly  -  45 members of the local Orthodox diocese were murdered, their eyes gouged out, tongues and ears hacked off and their mangled bodies thrown in the river.

But inside the House Of Special Purpose, an air of unreality reigned. It was getting hotter and hotter, and the inhabitants of the building had now settled into a state of restless boredom.
The atmosphere was increasingly claustrophobic.  The Tsar and Tsaritsa continued to write their diaries every evening, although there were no grand banquets, affairs of state, or court gossip to relate.

Only their joy when the frail Alexey had been well enough to take a bath. 'Very hot, went early to bed as awfully tired and heart ached more,' wrote Alexandra on Thursday, July 4, 1918.
A guard described the Tsar's 'melancholy' aspect, of outward calm and dignity, that crumpled when he though he was unobserved. He would watch his children play, his soft blue eyes full of tears. For her part, the Tsaritsa was a broken woman. Gone were her delicate features and lovely golden hair. The family had learnt to be stoical, but their awful fate loomed. In America, the Washington Post published rumours that they had already been executed.

In Britain, George V had withdrawn his earlier offer of asylum for the family, and three days' before the execution was blithely attending a cricket match at Lord's In fact, the Romanovs' fate at this point hung in the balance. Bolshevik leader Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was aware that their demise would anger the Kaiser, because of the Romanov's links with the German royal family.

But his advisers were telling him that Ekaterinburg could soon fall to the Czechs, and the Imperial Family could prove a rallying point against communism. The deeply religious Tsaritsa wrote to a friend that she and her family were: 'Readying ourselves in our thoughts for admission to the Kingdom of Heaven.'

At the House Of Special Purpose, the guard book recorded as it had for many days: 'Vse obychno' -  ' Everything is the same'. But ominous preparations were in hand to ' liquidate' the Romanovs and to keep the matter a state secret.
A nearby mineshaft had been identified as a suitable burial place, and a doctor had been ordered to procure 400lb of sulphuric acid to destroy the bodies.

Tuesday, July 16 began uneventfully for the Romanovs, but their guards were putting into place the last plans for their execution, assembling an armoury of guns in order to carry out their task, and ordering 50 eggs from local nuns to help give them strength for the task ahead. On one occasion, a laundrywoman witnessed 17-year-old Ansastasia sticking out her tongue at the head of the hit squad, Yakov Yurovsky.

And while there is no indication that the children were aware of their impending fate, two of the guards got cold feet and said they would not shoot the girls. They were sent away. At 3pm, the family walked around the strip of unkempt garden for the last time.

After evening prayers, they went to bed. In the early hours of the following day, they were wakened and told that the White Army was approaching and might launch an artillery attack on the house. They were to go downstairs for their own safety. The Tsar got up immediately, the women put on their camisoles sewn full of jewels and pearls, as they had rehearsed for a rescue attempt or sudden flight.

Soon they emerged, 'all neat and tidy' as one guard observed. At 2.15am on July 17, they were led down to the basement. The Tsar was heard to turn and say to his daughters reassuringly: 'Well, we're going to get out of this place'  -  proof, some say, that he was a true martyr who was fully aware of the horror ahead.

Anastasia carried her sister Tatiana's little Pekinese, Jemmy, down the stairs. They were ushered into a storeroom, lit by a single naked bulb. The windows had been nailed shut. True to form, Alexandra complained that there were no chairs. Next, the family and their servants were lined up as for a last, sinister official photograph. Then they were left alone for half an hour, as their assassins downed shots of vodka.

Re-entering the room, a guard read out a statement sentencing the family to death. The faces before him registered blank incomprehension. The family crossed themselves, and a man walked towards the Tsar and shot him at point-blank range in the chest. Other guards fired, as his body crumpled to the floor. Half drunk, the guards shot clumsily, hitting the Tsaritsa in the left side of her skull.

Next to her, poor lame Alexey, too crippled to move, sat transfixed with terror, his ashen face splattered with his father's blood. The moans and whimpers from the floor testified to a botched job. But it was the children who suffered most.

None of the Romanov girls died a quick or painless death. Maria was felled by a bullet in the thigh, and lay bleeding until repeated stabbing in the torso snuffed out her life.
Her sisters were eventually finished off with an 8in bayonet, Olga having been shot in the jaw, and Tatiana in the back of the head as she tried to escape.
What should have been a quick, clean execution had turned into an orgy of killing, with only the thick clouds of gunpowder smoke obscuring the full horror of it.
Last of the women to die was Anastasia. A drunken guard lunged at her like an animal, attempting to pierce her chest with his bayonet.
Eventually, the head of the hit squad, Yakov Yurovsky, took his gun to her head.
Alexey alone was still alive, the young heir to the throne. He was wearing an undergarment sewn with jewels, which acted as a flak jacket. Yurovsky fired his Colt into the boy's head, and he slumped against his father.
It had taken a frenzied 20 minutes to kill the Romanovs and their servants. In the panicked moments that followed, Yurovsky's men staggered from the room, choking and coughing.
Shaking and disoriented, one of them vomited as he emerged into the cool night air.
Meanwhile, upstairs, in the House Of Special Purpose, Alexey's King Charles spaniel, Joy, barked, his ears pricked, waiting for his young master to return.

(Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1036404/Massacre-Russian-royals-Horrific-hours-dynasty.html#ixzz0iSBuvLdc )

Russian Royal Family Mystery 'Solved'

British scientists believe they have helped solve a 90-year mystery surrounding the massacre of Russia's last royal family.For decades there was speculation that some members of the Romanov family escaped the 1918 Bolshevik massacre.

However, the theory was challenged recently when the remains of two people were discovered in a grave in Siberia.

They were found close to the remains of Tsar Nicholas II, his wife Tsarina Alexandra and three of their four daughters, which were discovered in the 1990s.DNA tests by scientists from the US and Austria earlier this year suggested they were the missing family members, the fourth daughter Maria and the heir apparent Alexei.

Dr Peter Gill, from Strathclyde University's Centre for Forensic Science, said he had "close to definite proof" that the remains were those of the two children.
Dr Gill said his job had been to ensure correct protocol had been followed during the research, and that the findings from Austria and the US were "consistent with each other in every detail".

He said: "We now have close to definite proof that the entire family was executed by the Bolsheviks and no one escaped. "There is overwhelming evidence to support the contention that the remains found in the second grave are those of Alexei and one of the Romanov princesses."

The scientists were able to confirm the original remains to be found as those of the tsar and his family by using blood samples from living people.They include Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, who is a direct maternal descendant of the Tsarina.

Russian pathologists last year also investigated the remains and expressed confidence that they were those of the children. Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra were killed with several of their children and servants during the Bolshevik massacre.

In Moscow, ceremonies are being held to mark the 90th anniversary of the murder of the last tsar and his family. The family have been canonised as saints, and the remains identified as those of Nicholas II, his wife and three of their daughters were buried in 1998 in the former imperial capital of Saint Petersburg.



(source: http://itn.co.uk/67c38d856ad76811760b043d2b55d178.html)

Bhopal's Gas Tragedy

The Bhopal disaster was an industrial catastrophe that took place at a pesticide plant owned and operated by Union Carbide (UCIL) in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India. Around midnight on December 3-4, 1984, the plant released methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas and other toxins, resulting in the exposure of over 500,000 people. Estimates vary on the death toll. The official immediate death toll was 2,259 and the government of Madhya Pradesh has confirmed a total of 3,787 deaths related to the gas release. Other government agencies estimate 15,000 deaths. Others estimate that 8,000 died within the first weeks and that another 8,000 have since died from gas-related diseases.

Some 25 years after the gas leak, 390 tonnes of toxic chemicals abandoned at the UCIL plant continue to leak and pollute the groundwater in the region and affect thousands of Bhopal residents who depend on it, though there is some dispute as to whether the chemicals still stored at the site pose any continuing health hazard.There are currently civil and criminal cases related to the disaster ongoing in the United States District Court, Manhattan and the District Court of Bhopal, India against Union Carbide, now owned by Dow Chemical Company, with an Indian arrest warrant pending against Warren Anderson, CEO of Union Carbide at the time of the disaster. No one has yet been prosecuted.

Summary of background and causes

The UCIL factory was established in 1969 near Bhopal. 50.9 % was owned by Union Carbide Corporation (UCC) and 49.1 % by various Indian investors, including public sector financial institutions. It produced the pesticide carbaryl (trademark Sevin). In 1979 a methyl isocyanate (MIC) production plant was added to the site. MIC, an intermediate in carbaryl manufacture, was used instead of less hazardous but more expensive materials. UCC understood the properties of MIC and its handling requirements.

During the night of December 2–3, 1984, large amounts of water entered tank 610, containing 42 tonnes of methyl isocyanate. The resulting exothermic reaction increased the temperature inside the tank to over 200 °C (392 °F), raising the pressure to a level the tank was not designed to withstand. This forced the emergency venting of pressure from the MIC holding tank, releasing a large volume of toxic gases into the atmosphere. The reaction sped up because of the presence of iron in corroding non-stainless steel pipelines. A mixture of poisonous gases flooded the city of Bhopal, causing great panic as people woke up with a burning sensation in their lungs. Thousands died immediately from the effects of the gas and many were trampled in the panic.

Theories of how the water entered the tank differ. At the time, workers were cleaning out pipes with water, and some claim that owing to bad maintenance and leaking valves, it was possible for the water to leak into tank 610. In December 1985 The New York Times reported that according to UCIL plant managers the hypothesis of this route of entry of water was tested in the presence of the Central Bureau Investigators and was found to be negative. UCC also maintains that this route was not possible, and that it was an act of sabotage by a "disgruntled worker" who introduced water directly into the tank. However, the company's investigation team found no evidence of the necessary connection.

The 1985 reports give a picture of what led to the disaster and how it developed, although they differ in details.

Factors leading to this huge gas leak include:

* The use of hazardous chemicals (MIC) instead of less dangerous ones
* Storing these chemicals in large tanks instead of over 200 steel drums.
* Possible corroding material in pipelines
* Poor maintenance after the plant ceased production in the early 1980s
* Failure of several safety systems (due to poor maintenance and regulations).
* Safety systems being switched off to save money - including the MIC tank refrigeration system which alone would have prevented the disaster.



Plant design modified by Indian engineers to abide by government regulations and economic pressures to reduce expenses contributed most to the actual leak[citation needed]. The problem was then made worse by the plant's location near a densely populated area, non-existent catastrophe plans and shortcomings in health care and socio-economic rehabilitation. Analysis shows that the parties responsible for the magnitude of the disaster are the two owners, Union Carbide Corporation and the Government of India, and to some extent, the Government of Madhya Pradesh.

Public information

Much speculation arose in the aftermath. The closing of the plant to outsiders (including UCC) by the Indian government, and the failure to make data public contributed to the confusion. The CSIR report[19] was formally released 15 years after the disaster. The authors of the ICMR studies[21] on health effects were forbidden to publish their data until after 1994. UCC has still not released their research about the disaster or the effects of the gas on human health. Soon after the disaster UCC was not allowed to take part in the investigation by the government. The initial investigation was conducted entirely by the government agencies - Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) under the directorship of Dr. Varadajan and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

UCC and the Government of India maintained until 1994, when the International Medical Commission on Bhopal met, that MIC had no longterm health effects.

Contributing factors

* The deficiencies in the Bhopal plant design can be summarised as: choosing a dangerous method of manufacturing pesticides; large-scale storage of MIC before processing; location close to a densely populated area; under-dimensioning of the safety features; dependence on manual operations.
* Deficiencies in the management of UCIL can be summarised: lack of skilled operators due to the staffing policy; reduction of safety management due to reducing the staff; insufficient maintenance of the plant; lack of emergency response plans.

Plant production process

Union Carbide produced the pesticide, Sevin (a trademarked brand name for carbaryl), using MIC as an intermediate. Until 1979, MIC was imported from the USA.[4] Other manufacturers, such as Bayer, made carbaryl without MIC, though at greater manufacturing costs.

The chemical process, or "route", used in the Bhopal plant reacted methylamine with phosgene to form MIC (methyl isocyanate), which was then reacted with 1-naphthol to form the final product, carbaryl. This route differed from MIC-free routes used elsewhere, in which the same raw materials are combined in a different manufacturing order, with phosgene first reacted with the naphthol to form a chloroformate ester, which is then reacted with methyl amine. In the early 1980s, the demand for pesticides had fallen though production continued, leading to buildup of stores of unused MIC.

Work conditions

Attempts to reduce expenses affected the factory's employees and their conditions.

* Kurzman argues that "cuts ... meant less stringent quality control and thus looser safety rules. A pipe leaked? Don't replace it, employees said they were told ... MIC workers needed more training? They could do with less. Promotions were halted, seriously affecting employee morale and driving some of the most skilled ... elsewhere".
* Workers were forced to use English manuals, even though only a few had a grasp of the language.
* By 1984, only six of the original twelve operators were still working with MIC and the number of supervisory personnel was also cut in half. No maintenance supervisor was placed on the night shift and instrument readings were taken every two hours, rather than the previous and required one-hour readings.
* Workers made complaints about the cuts through their union but were ignored. One employee was fired after going on a 15-day hunger strike. 70% of the plant's employees were fined before the disaster for refusing to deviate from the proper safety regulations under pressure from management.
* In addition, some observers, such as those writing in the Trade Environmental Database (TED) Case Studies as part of the Mandala Project from American University, have pointed to "serious communication problems and management gaps between Union Carbide and its Indian operation", characterised by "the parent companies [sic] hands-off approach to its overseas operation" and "cross-cultural barriers".
* The personnel management policy led to an exodus of skilled personnel to better and safer jobs.

Equipment and safety regulations
Union Carbide MIC plant

* It emerged in 1998, during civil action suits in India, that, unlike Union Carbide plants in the USA, its Indian subsidiary plants were not prepared for problems. No action plans had been established to cope with incidents of this magnitude. This included not informing local authorities of the quantities or dangers of chemicals used and manufactured at Bhopal.
* The MIC tank alarms had not worked for 4 years.
* There was only one manual back-up system, not the four-stage system used in the USA.
* The flare tower and the vent gas scrubber had been out of service for 5 months before the disaster. The gas scrubber therefore did not treat escaping gases with sodium hydroxide (caustic soda), which might have brought the concentration down to a safe level.Even if the scrubber had been working, according to Weir, investigations in the aftermath of the disaster discovered that the maximum pressure it could handle was only one-quarter of that which was present in the accident. Furthermore, the flare tower itself was improperly designed and could only hold one-quarter of the volume of gas that was leaked in 1984.
* To reduce energy costs, the refrigeration system, designed to inhibit the volatilization of MIC, had been left idle — the MIC was kept at 20 degrees Celsius (room temperature), not the 4.5 degrees advised by the manual, and some of the coolant was being used elsewhere.
* The steam boiler, intended to clean the pipes, was out of action for unknown reasons.
* Slip-blind plates that would have prevented water from pipes being cleaned from leaking into the MIC tanks through faulty valves were not installed. Their installation had been omitted from the cleaning checklist.
* Water sprays designed to “knock down” gas leaks were poorly designed — set to 13 metres and below, they could not spray high enough to reduce the concentration of escaping gas.
* The MIC tank had been malfunctioning for roughly a week. Other tanks had been used for that week, rather than repairing the broken one, which was left to “stew”. The build-up in temperature and pressure is believed to have affected the magnitude of the gas release.
* Carbon steel valves were used at the factory, even though they corrode when exposed to acid.On the night of the disaster, a leaking carbon steel valve was found, allowing water to enter the MIC tanks. The pipe was not repaired because it was believed it would take too much time and be too expensive.
* UCC admitted in their own investigation report that most of the safety systems were not functioning on the night of December 3, 1984.
* Themistocles D'Silva contends in the latest book - The Black Box of Bhopal - that the design of the MIC plant, following government guidelines, was "Indianized" by UCIL engineers to maximize the use of indigenous materials and products. It also dispensed with the use of sophisticated instrumentation as not appropriate for the Indian plant. Because of the unavailability of electronic parts in India, the Indian engineers preferred pneumatic instrumentation. It also discredits the unproven allegations in the CSIR Report.

Previous warnings and accidents

A series of prior warnings and MIC-related accidents had occurred:

* In 1976, the two trade unions reacted because of pollution within the plant.
* In 1981, a worker was splashed with phosgene. In panic he ripped off his mask, thus inhaling a large amount of phosgene gas; he died 72 hours later.
* In January 1982, there was a phosgene leak, when 24 workers were exposed and had to be admitted to hospital. None of the workers had been ordered to wear protective masks.
* In February 1982, an MIC leak affected 18 workers.
* In August 1982, a chemical engineer came into contact with liquid MIC, resulting in burns over 30 percent of his body.
* In October 1982, there was a leak of MIC, methylcarbaryl chloride, chloroform and hydrochloric acid. In attempting to stop the leak, the MIC supervisor suffered intensive chemical burns and two other workers were severely exposed to the gases.
* During 1983 and 1984, leaks of the following substances regularly took place in the MIC plant: MIC, chlorine, monomethylamine, phosgene, and carbon tetrachloride, sometimes in combination.
* Reports issued months before the incident by scientists within the Union Carbide corporation warned of the possibility of an accident almost identical to that which occurred in Bhopal. The reports were ignored and never reached senior staff.
* Union Carbide was warned by American experts who visited the plant after 1981 of the potential of a "runaway reaction" in the MIC storage tank; local Indian authorities warned the company of problems on several occasions from 1979 onwards. Again, these warnings were not heeded.

The leakage

* In November 1984, most of the safety systems were not functioning. Many valves and lines were in poor condition. Tank 610 contained 42 tonnes MIC, much more than safety rules allowed.
* During the nights of 2–3 December, a large amount of water entered tank 610. A runaway reaction started, which was accelerated by contaminants, high temperatures and other factors. The reaction generated a major increase in the temperature inside the tank to over 200°C (400°F). This forced the emergency venting of pressure from the MIC holding tank, releasing a large volume of toxic gases. The reaction was sped up by the presence of iron from corroding non-stainless steel pipelines.
* It is known that workers cleaned pipelines with water. They were not told by the supervisor to add a slip-blind water isolation plate. Because of this, and of the bad maintenance, the workers consider it possible for water to have accidentally entered the MIC tank.
* UCC maintains that a "disgruntled worker" deliberately connected a hose to a pressure gauge.
* UCC's investigation team found no evidence of the suggested connection.

Timeline, summary

At the plant

* 21.00 Water cleaning of pipes starts.
* 22.00 Water enters tank 610, reaction starts.
* 22.30 Gases are emitted from the vent gas scrubber tower.
* 00.30 The large siren sounds and is turned off.
* 00.50 The siren is heard within the plant area. The workers escape.

Outside

* 22.30 First sensations due to the gases are felt — suffocation, cough, burning eyes and vomiting.
* 1.00 Police are alerted. Residents of the area evacuate. Union Carbide director denies any leak.
* 2.00 The first people reached Hamidia hospital. Symptoms include visual impairment and blindness, respiratory difficulties, frothing at the mouth, and vomiting.
* 2.10 The alarm is heard outside the plant.
* 4.00 The gases are brought under control.
* 6.00 A police loudspeaker broadcasts: "Everything is normal".