IV 
118TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. RES. 1604 
Recognizing the 40th year since the 1984 Bhopal chemical disaster and 
helping to ensure that no other community suffers another chemical 
disaster, by supporting the designation of December 3 as National Chem-
ical Disaster Awareness Day. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
DECEMBER 3, 2024 
Ms. JAYAPAL (for herself, Ms. TLAIB, Ms. LEE of California, Mr. MCGOVERN, 
Ms. NORTON, Ms. OCASIO-CORTEZ, Ms. OMAR, and Mr. RASKIN) sub-
mitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on 
Foreign Affairs 
RESOLUTION 
Recognizing the 40th year since the 1984 Bhopal chemical 
disaster and helping to ensure that no other community 
suffers another chemical disaster, by supporting the des-
ignation of December 3 as National Chemical Disaster 
Awareness Day. 
Whereas, on December 3, 1984, a Union Carbide pesticide 
factory released a dense cloud of toxic methyl isocyanate 
gas into the Indian city of Bhopal, killing 8,000 people 
within 72 hours and permanently injuring 500,000 more 
in what is considered to be the world’s worst industrial 
disaster; 
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•HRES 1604 IH 
Whereas this catastrophic chemical leak in Bhopal strongly 
influenced the Government of the United States to pro-
tect communities from toxic exposure by enacting legisla-
tion such as the Superfund Amendments and Reauthor-
ization Act of 1986 (Public Law 99–499; 100 Stat. 
1613), the Emergency Planning and Community Right- 
To-Know Act of 1986 (42 U.S.C. 1101 et seq.), which 
authorized the Environmental Protection Agency to es-
tablish and maintain a Toxic Release Inventory, and the 
Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 (Public Law 101– 
549; 104 Stat. 2576), which authorized the Environ-
mental Protection Agency to implement the Risk Man-
agement Program and established the Chemical Safety 
and Hazard Investigation Board (referred to in this pre-
amble as the ‘‘CSB’’), and prescribing regulations such 
as the Process Safety Management standard published by 
the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in 
1992; 
Whereas major risks to the public remain, with approximately 
12,000 hazardous industrial and commercial facilities 
across the United States, putting some 131,000,000 peo-
ple at risk for toxic exposures resulting from any lapses 
which lead to dangerous conditions or procedures; 
Whereas a CSB investigation identified dangerous conditions 
and deficiencies as responsible for a 2008 explosion at a 
pesticide manufacturing plant at Institute, West Virginia, 
which came so close to igniting a stockpile of methyl 
isocyanate that a Congressional inquiry concluded that it 
could easily have been ‘‘a catastrophe rivaling the Bhopal 
disaster’’; 
Whereas data received from the CSB’s Accidental Release 
Reporting Rule indicates 445 hazardous chemical inci-
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•HRES 1604 IH 
dents, including fires, explosions, and harmful chemical 
releases, occurred in the United States between April 
2021 and October 2024; 
Whereas these hazardous chemical incidents include a train 
derailment near East Palestine, Ohio, that released ethyl 
hexyl acrylate, isobutylene, and vinyl chloride into nearby 
air, soil, and water, requiring the emergency evacuation 
of over 2,000 residents, who now face ongoing health 
issues; 
Whereas the health and economic impacts of chemical disas-
ters have multigenerational effects, such as in Bhopal 
where survivors suffer significantly higher mortality 
rates, with over 150,000 survivors battling chronic ill-
nesses related to their exposure or that of their parents, 
and approximately 500,000 people remain physically and 
economically devastated by the disaster; 
Whereas a University of San Diego study found that men 
who were in utero in Bhopal at the time of the disaster 
have higher rates of cancer and disability precluding em-
ployment, and lower levels of education; 
Whereas the Bhopal disaster survivors have undertaken hun-
dreds of protests and dozens of legal petitions for ade-
quate compensation, medical care, rehabilitation, and 
criminal justice, and to achieve their goal of establishing 
a serious deterrent against the possibility of other Bho-
pal-level disasters; 
Whereas the Government of India charged Union Carbide 
and its former Chief Executive Officer Warren Anderson 
with culpable homicide, equivalent to criminally negligent 
manslaughter under United States law and an extra-
ditable offense; 
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