An etiological investigation of micro- and macroergonomic factors in the bhopal disaster: Lessons for industries of both industrialized and developing countries

Abstract

The catastrophic accident at the Union Carbide Corporation's pesticide plant in Bhopal, India (1984) is investigated and its micro- and macroergonomic causes are identified. It is demonstrated that this accident was not prototypical, and there were numerous similarities with respect to the of lack of human factors considerations between the Bhopal plant and other industrial facilities which have had major accidents, including the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant (1979). This analysis can, by extrapolation, be applied as well to many other comparable plants around the world which because of sheer luck and/or coincidence, fortunately, have not had a major accident, yet. It is concluded that only through a proactive, systematic, and integrated micro- and macroergonomically-based policy can one control the safety and ensure the efficiency of the operations of industrial plants and facilities, both in industrialized and developing countries.