t burned their lungs. About nine thousand people died immediately, and many more were trampled under others who were fleeing.
Theories for how the water entered the chemical storage tank differ. At that time, workers at the plant were cleaning out some chemical pipes with water, and some authorities claim that because of bad maintenance and leaking valves, it was possible for the water to leak into the tank E610. The Union Carbide Corp. maintains that this was not possible, and that the disaster was an act of sabotage by a "disgruntled worker" who introduced water directly into the tank. Much speculation arose in the aftermath, since the government of India and the Union Carbide Corp. did not release the results of their own investigations. A recently published highly researched book, entitled "The Black Box of Bhopal", which has also appended several original documents not scrutinized before, presents a more complete picture about the events on the morning of 3 December 1984, the various investigations and the litigation that followed. It discredits the unproven allegations of the government sponsored CSIR Report of 1985.
The deciding factors that contributed to the disaster included:
• The chemical plant's poorly chosen location—located near a densely populated west city area, instead of the other side of Bhopal City where the company had been offered land.
• Using hazardous ingredient chemicals (methyl isocyanate) instead of less dangerous ones
• Storing these chemicals in large tanks instead of several smaller storage tanks.
• Possible corrosion of the metals in the pipelines
• Poor maintenance at the chemical plant
• Failure of several safety systems, which were not in operation at the time.
• Deficient staffing policies, such as in the number of employees
