Descriptive Beach Trip Essay

I had five hours until my sister was off work, check in was at three o’ clock and she had to be present to do so anyway, I had to find something to do for those next hours. The Tahoe was roomy and I was exasperated, only running on two hours of sleep, so I climbed to the back and dozed off only to wake up in a cold sweat thirty minutes later; there was no way I was going back to sleep with the bright and early sun beating down on the black truck. I needed to go somewhere I could stay cool and entertained for six hours. But where, I had no idea what there was to do in Orange County let alone how to get anywhere. Then it dawned on me, we drove three hours away from home, I had to be close to some sort of beach. I googled the distance from my destination to the closest beach, only a fifteen minute drive to what I call paradise. I typed New Port beach in the GPS, started the truck, turned up the music, and turned Right onto Mac Arthur Street. After driving for about thirty minutes I heard my GPS robotic voice announce â€Å"you have reached your destination.† Pretty disappointing words to hear when the only water you see is filling the gutters. I turned into a gated community and rolled down my windows to ask directions; instantly knew I was close as the humid, hot, salty air hit my face, and ran through my nostrils. The scent sent a smile from cheek to cheek, enabling me to greet the vale with a pleasant hello. I was directed to take a left at the light and follow the road, â€Å"You’ll know when your there, it’s hard to miss.† I followed the road becoming more irritated with every building I passed. Fed up I came to the conclusion at the next light I will just turn around and find something else to do. At the thought of giving up it came into eyesight, there it was unbelievably blue waters with white waves washing up on the shore. I finally made it to my little piece of heaven. After circling those narrow crowded streets for what seemed like forever, I got lucky with a car leaving right in front of the beach. I slipped on my bathing suit, slapped some sunblock on, grabbed my purse, water, and fruit and was on my way. Less then a minute walk to finally feel the warm sand against the bottom of my bare feet. The only thing between my mini vacation and I was a bike lane, I gent ly kicked off my sandals one by one, smirking as my feet hit the hot concrete and crossed the lanes into the soft, warm, light golden sand. With every step a sense a peace fell over me, taking in every grain of sand between each toe. Settling  for the perfect spot, right next to the hundreds of huge dark brownish red boulders. They provided a walkway about twenty feet into the blue waters. I laughed watching the little kids scream as a wave slammed into the rocks splashing up and over the top of them. I whipped my blanket into place and watched it slowly take form of each crater in the sand, sliding my dress downward, feeling every ray of the sunshine hit every inch of my skin in the most perfect way. I take a seat at the edge of my blanket allowing my feet to explore the roasting sand while my eyes observe every bluish green curl of water spiral over into white splashes, racing up onto the shore line then slip back into the waters just in time to see the next wave fold over into white splashes again. I closed my eyes as I lay back, soaking up the sun taking in every sound, picturing everything going on around me. In the distance I could still hear the joyful screams of the children after the sound of the wave crashing into the rocks. To the right of me I could hear the group of a few teenage boys trying to impress each giggling giddy girl; whatever they were doing was working. Right above me was the sound of about eight or nine gossiping young ladies, a few chuckling as they hit a volleyball back and forth with no net. To left of my feet was the faint unclear chatter of a younger couple, to the right was a mother with her children and her mother, talking to the family next to them about a wagon that had heavy-duty tires. She got it at Costco on sale for 49.99 it was the best thing she had ever invested in. As a bead of sweat ran in between the roots of my thrown up hair I realized how hot I was and how amazing the water would feel against my toasting skin right then, at that thought I heard the sound of eager excited screams from children in the water and popped up to see what all the commotion was about. I look over to see the kids on the rocks jumping up and down pointing to the water with mouth wide-open smile s, then look straight ahead confused at what they were so happy about. I slide my glasses to the top of my head just in time to see a pale-blue dolphin plunge out of the water and drop back in so smoothly, then another and another. The sun reflected on their silky blue skin giving them a shine each time they sprung out of the blue swell. My mouth dropped into an amused smile, I sat and watched them as they disappeared into the depths of the waters. Only 3 more hours to enjoy this amazing place, I wiped the sweat off my forehead and sauntered to the shoreline scanning for any more  wildlife as the water crept up to my feet. I let out a mild squeal when cold dirty white water rushed up mid calf. I began to walk out further as the waves came crashing down around my waist splashing onto my face and chest, causing goose bumps to cascade from my arms down to my legs. Past the tide, I stood still as the water softly sways me from side to side, enjoying the view of the sun shining down on the calm blue waters. I winced at the small knot forming in the pit of my stomach as the thought of sharks cross my mind. I watched the ocean start to shape and create a cerulean blue wave, curling over into a roaring hefty wave. I wait until the very last second to dive in as the white waters swallow me up me, feeling the heavy wave rip right over my body from head to toe. I pop out inhaling while I wipe away the water, with a harsh salty taste left in my mouth, I was ready to do that again. The current was strong I was a bit to close to the rocks so I swam opposite direction, either jumping with motion of the ocean or diving under each flood stream. I stayed out there enjoying every wave for a while. I lost track of how long I was out there but I knew I had to be leaving soon so I rode the waves back until the water was running past my thighs, fighting the waters trying to suck me back in. I got back to my blanket and realized I was only in the water for maybe forty-five minutes, two more hours to appreciate this place. I didn’t have a towel so I went to go air dry out on the rocks. I climbed bare foot and chose each rock carefully but quickly. I hope from rock to rock far enough to a silent spot whe re no one was around. As it got later in the day the waves got stronger, so I sat on the biggest rock amongst the middle to not get wet. I lay down with my shades guarding my eyes, keeping me from squinting and enjoyed the view of the open waters. I looked down and watched as the clear droplets slowly glide down the notably darker skin tone of my thighs. It was a pretty hot day; I dried up hastily and went back to my blanket. Four o clock, only an hour left to cherish this trip. I went back in the water one last time leaving just to feel the waves cascade over my head and leap over each ripple of water. I walked back to my blanket with thirty minutes left; I taste the variety of cold fruit and every so often the crunch of bits of sand. I watch the sun get lower, bitter sweet that I had to leave soon. Much more bitter then sweet in fact lets just say only bitter; I could have stayed forever. Such a sweet escape, with the sand sticking to every wet  portion of skin it comes in contact with, sea creatures popping in and out of water, the exquisite salty blue waters tossing and turning, the sound of children screaming as the tide collides with them. Everything about it is blissful. It was time to go, I picked up my bag, shook off my blanket and started to walk back towards the car. Started to walk back towards reality and further away from the worlds sweetest escape â€Å"At the beach, life is different. A day moves not from hour to hour but leaps from mood to moment. We go with the currents, plan around the tides, follow the sun. We measure happiness by nothing we can hold†¦ nothing we can catch. Everywhere†¦Life is jumping and elusive and momentously momentary. We want to stretch the day, distill the memories, make them last. At the same time, we know that the beauty is in the evanescence.†(Gingras, 24) Cites Gingras, Sandy. How to live at the beach. New Jersey: Down Shore Publishing, 2001.

Reason for Seeking a College Degree

The purpose of this essay is to discuss why I chose to seek a college degree, my learning style as discovered by the results of questionnaires, and the fact that I feel the results are accurate for me personally. Everyone has their own individual reasons for pursuing a college degree. For me, it is the desire to become a state Game Warden after retiring from the military. Being a state Game Warden requires that I have a degree in the biological or wildlife sciences. In a profession like this, it is important that one has a clear and concise understanding of wildlife biology at a collegiate level.To be a viable candidate in this profession, a college degree is necessary to present myself as a competitive individual for the job I am seeking to fill. Whether or not I have on the job training or experience, the college degree will show that I have the knowledge base to help me succeed as a warden. The end goal in my pursuit of a college degree is to not only broaden my scope of knowledge and skills, but to unlock career aspirations that would otherwise be unattainable for me without a degree. But before I put the cart before the horse, graduating with degree in hand requires I truly know myself inside and out.Basically I need to understand what my personal learning style is. Learning styles are not exactly chosen, they are natural and inherent to each learner. According to Felder & Soloman (n. d. ) there are several different learning styles: Active, Reflective, Visual, Auditory, Tactile, Sensing, Intuitive, Verbal, Sequential and Global. To find out what kind of learner you are, a simple questionnaire or quiz can be taken to narrow these options down. In taking Felder & Soloman’s Index of Learning Styles Questionnaire (n. d. and the Learning Style Inventory (Penn State, 2010) questionnaire, I have discovered that I am an active learner and a visual learner. An active learner is one who gravitates toward interpreting, comprehending, and retaining information in a â€Å"hands on† or active fashion. In other words they discuss or apply and explain the information to others (Felder & Soloman, n. d. ). The degree program I am enrolled in is online; which presents me with challenges and difficulties in using the active learning style that I normally rely upon.An alternative to active learning for me is visual, which will serve me well because online course material is something I can see to interpret and retain. Visual learners are those who absorb and maintain information efficiently through methods such as charts, diagrams, pictures, films or demonstrations (Felder & Soloman, n. d. ). Suggestions for success as a visual learner include writing out ideas and information for memorization and fully utilizing all course materials, whether they are maps, flashcards, charts or filmstrips (Penn State, 2010).I am someone who always reads the directions prior to completing any task, therefore this fits me perfectly. I fully agree with the r esults of these questionnaires. I am a mechanic- someone who works day in and day out with my hands. The things I am trying to accomplish or figure out require me to read texts, diagrams and pictures and solve the problem using these resources. I also discuss and apply the information found with those who are masters of the mechanic profession. My reasons for seeking a college degree are simple.I need to hold at minimum at Bachelor’s in the wildlife or biological sciences to reach my goal of being a state Game Warden after retirement from the military. To be successful in this means that I understand I am a visual and active learner, as realized after taking the learning styles questionnaires. References Felder, R. M. , & Soloman, B. A. (n. d. ). Index of learning styles. Retrieved from http://www. engr. ncsu. edu/learningstyles/ilsweb. html Penn State. (2010). Learning style inventory. Retrieved from http://www. personal. psu. edu/bxb11/LSI/LSI/htm

City of God(Meirelles, 2002) Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

City of God(Meirelles, 2002) - Research Paper Example City of God by Fernando Meirelles is a sweeping tale that shows how crime negatively affects Rio de Janeiro’s poor population. It was screened at Cannes Film Festival 2002, but it is set in a Brazilian slum, City of God. He is a young boy who manages, in a way, to stay out of the gang, and yet he follows and knows everything that is happening in the gang. The main focus of this narrative is on Cabeleira, the founder of Tender Trio gang. Together with his best friend, (Philippe Haagensen) Bene, they become the lords of crime for over a decade. The death of Bene before his retirement makes Lil’Ze attempt to take his arc enemy, (Matheus Nachtergaele) Sandro Cenoura, for an outing. However, Sandro and another youngster called mane make an alliance, where they start fighting Lil’ Ze, in yet another gang war. Amateur photographer, (Aleixandre Rodrigues) Buscape, takes the brutal crime war pictures, making their story very popular (Meirelles 14). This narrative can be l ikened to slum dog who becomes a millionaire (Smith 21). In this narrative, a slum orphan faces brutal accusations after winning 20 million rupees, since people could not believe that a slum dweller could ever become a millionaire. Accused of being desperate and cheating in an attempt to prove that he was innocent, an orphan, eighteen years old, from Mumbai slums, he recalls his tumulus life when he was competing in India in an attempt to win twenty million rupees, in the movie, who wants to be a millionaire competition in Boyle’s Danny inspirational drama. ... Li’l Ze prospers and becomes the lord of the city. He causes fear and violence as he mercilessly wipes out gangs that are rivals. Bene, his best friend keeps him on sanity’s good side. Rocket has seen them get power for years but he does not want to engage himself in any part of it. However, he is constantly swept up by this madness and therefore takes all the pictures. Things are beyond control in the 1980s, between the only two remaining gangs. Two boys grow together in the same neighborhood but decide to take different life paths (Anonymous 2). The tale is told via Buscape’s eyes, young son of a poor fisherman who aspires to be a photographer in the future. The story tells about corruption and violence in the slum, and ups and downs of Li’l Ze. With increased street wars, Buscape tries to find a way to get out of this violent life by exposing the world’s brutality through his pictures. Movie Analysis/ Review Meirelles had the best intentions in m ind when making his famous movie, City of God. Smith (36) says that there are two relevant things in a cinema that each film maker should serious focus on. These are other peoples’ reaction to the film and his intentions. The City of God is a masterpiece that brings the makers intentions (Salis 37). The director’s intentions should affect the audience at first sight, by trying to picture out what the director wants to achieve, and what the film will actually achieve at last. There is doubt that Meirelles’ had very positive intentions in this movie and the efforts and passion he puts into this movie is highly recommendable. Unfortunately, cinemas only judge the final results, which is of course when considering films’ lost fragments, and cut of greed among others. City of God is a full

Role of Higher Education Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Role of Higher Education - Research Paper Example The role of higher education in changing our cultures and integration can be addressed in different perspectives. Globalization is the description of the new changes, ideas and developments that are coming up to change and improve peoples’ cultures, politics, businesses and generally the way of life. It is under globalization that the society is able to utilize the global trends and take advantage of the new ideas, to plan for the future. With the emerging competition due to globalization, higher education institutions are introducing topics to help students be in line with the developing world. Societies that invent or create new products and business ideas are considered to be responsible for the future development and well being. In that case, colleges and universities are required and faced with the demand for spreading knowledge and creating entrepreneurial skills to the students and potential business merchants. It has become essential for universities to develop cultures that are beneficial to the market trends, a demand that has also led to competition among universities. This creates a very competitive environment, with each institution striving to find unique and quality skills. All higher education institutions have a vision. It is in every culture of every society to have a vision, for the present and future generations. All the great and international universities let the world know their future plans, or vision, especially about what they intend to develop for the benefit of the society. The higher education institutions have the role of preparing and enlightening the society and their students, about the opportunities, changes and effects that come as a result of globalization. Universities and colleges also have the role of providing the market with knowledge and the workers to serve and develop the world. Transformation involves developing from the ancients or past ways of doing things and from

Professional Development Plan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Professional Development Plan - Essay Example Different determinants have contributed to my improvement of time management skills (Forsyth, 2013). Being in a time controlled facility is one of the motivating factors. Classes are allocated precise time frames where one has to comprehend all that is planned for by the lecturer. Additionally, consultation hours by the lecturers are set during specific sessions when he/she is available. Without a proper timetable, one can easily miss the lecturers appointments leading to deterioration of performances in the subject. The attained skills will also help in both academic and business fields. My undergraduate has been an eye opener providing knowledge on the importance of time management. Firstly, it will help me meet other personal set goals. A suitable timetable will help me make time for all my goals presenting them with appropriate periods to ensure equity. Personally, it will also enhance my self-confidence by reducing time related stresses. Most of these stresses include late presentation of assignments and attendance of classes. It will also provide me with more free time that I can use in research or work. Time management lets an individual to venture in productive activities while learning. It also assists resource control and monitoring. Planning – one has to make a plan that caters for all the activities that need to be accomplished (Forsyth, 2013). It will help me help me identify and separate school work from other activities that may come up during free time. Planning will aid in the setting of personal ambitions that will contribute to my studies. Assessing – it will review how I am currently using my time hence exposes areas that need changes or improvement. Assessing also provides information of the current trends such as school timetables. I have to set my timetable depending on constant schedules. Prioritizing – leads to allocation of time

Systems Analysis, Design and Development (Object Oriented using UML) Term Paper

Systems Analysis, Design and Development (Object Oriented using UML) - Term Paper Example Resources The resources that need to be made available to the analyst are a separate secluded environment with an up-to-date computing system that is connected to the rest of the computing devices of the organization. The computing system needs to be equipped with the latest and most comprehensive analytical software that would enable the provision of precise and timely analytical assessment as and when required. The time given to the analyst for conducting his assessment should be ample so that the process gets done in its due time thus guaranteeing its error freeness. 1 SUMMARY The current report is intended to be a feasibility report for the development of the online auction system for vehicle selling and purchase. The vehicles purchase/selling system will work on the basis of online auctions. Bidders of the vehicles will gradually increase the bid cost for a specific time period. The system will monitor the auction end time. At the end of auction period highest bidder will be the winner of the bid. Subsequent notifications to the respective seller and highest bidder will be generated by the system automatically. Since it would be online and less cumbersome than a real world vehicle auction scenario, the online auction management system will attract both purchasers and sellers to use it. The system would, in turn, get benefited from both the participants. The proposed system will not only provide an operational platform for such convenient buying, but would also maintain the bidder and seller profiles in order to produce future follow ups. The system will comprise of the following core modules a brief summary of which is provided as follows: Customer (Seller/Bidder) Profiling: This module maintains and manages the details of each purchaser (bidder) and... The paper tells that an online auction mechanism is intended which attracts sellers and buyers of vehicles. The system will be a reliable e-commerce system and will provide opportunity for online sales through auctions. Both the seller and the buyers will be the customers of the system. The system will maintain the personal information of both participants. After registering a vehicle by a seller the bidder will be able to bid on it until the bidding time expires. All bidders will have equal opportunity to increase the bid with equal rate, that is, 100 $ for car and 50 $ for motorcycle. After ending the bidding process, the bids will be evaluated and decision will be made accordingly. The bidder with highest bid among all the other bidders will win the vehicle auction; however, the biding price must be greater than the base price as provided by the seller. The successful bidder will be notified by the system automatically then he has to perform personal visit to the vehicle and payme nt will be made. In case of the failure of the auction i.e. the highest bid could not cross the minimum price of the vehicle or in case of no bid, the system will automatically notify the seller about the situation and the vehicle information will be removed in both cases. Such system will allow purchasers to have a fair market survey and will provide ample vehicle selection opportunities. Due to the effectiveness of system both the purchaser and seller would not be able to acquire undue benefits in any case. With the optimized vehicle price (as desired by the seller) the bidder will not have to pay exorbitantly.

Personal statement Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 5

Personal statement - Essay Example Creativity, the feature that distinguishes a human from an animal, is the gift given to people for making their lives full of joy and excitement, that allows to not only enjoy the beautiful creations of nature, but to be creators of beauty ourselves. Creativity is what makes my life brighter through the art of painting. Surely, we cannot compare creations of nature with those of ourselves, but at least in the weak attempts for creating perfect pieces, we get closer to the divine powers of nature, the deeds of which are as great and magnificent, as it is itself. Charming and bewitching, inspiring and fascinating, painting has always been the passion of my life. From the earliest years I’ve been admiring the works of great artists, all so different, but all providing a never-ending space for imagination, and allowing us to leave the daily material world and enter the illusive world of fantasies, emotions and reflections. I haven’t stopped at just silent observing the great art works: once I took a brush myself. Being young, but enthusiastic, I used to immerse into work forgetting everything, and paying no attention to the surrounding people and events. I was in a completely different world. Stroke after stroke, line after line, the dance of color with color – the magic of creativity, the miracle of creating†¦ Having grown up I haven’t abandoned my hobby, which became a passion with time, and devoted 8 years to studying the art of drawing, since I understood that art takes not only your mind and imagination, but hours of studying, hard work and patience as well. However, I never felt sorry for the spent time – it gave me an opportunity to become more self-confident and more patient not only when painting, but in everyday life too. Besides, my passion gives me a chance to put everything that cannot be said into a picture - the deepest feelings and emotions, the secret wishes and hopes. Though it is not my

Marketing's role is to encourage consumption (Lazer, 1969). This Assignment

Marketing's role is to encourage consumption (Lazer, 1969). This statement is as true now as it was in 1969 - Assignment Example The main role of marketing is to encourage the consumption. In order to increase the consumption of a product or service the company has to first of all develop interest in the minds of the consumers to go for the product. This is the context where the modern definition of marketing is applicable. â€Å"Marketing is the process of interesting potential customers and clients in products and/or services†. The interest created in the minds of the prospective consumers compels them to go for the product and later increases the consumption to a grater extent. A company has to concentrate on the following four components of marketing mix to encourage the consumption. They are products and services, promotion, distribution and pricing. These are the four sensitive areas that a company has to sensibly deal with while marketing is carried out to increase the consumption. When any one of these areas is not properly regarded it is going to affect a company’s growth as it adversely influences the interest of the customer to consume the product and will result in the decline of overall consumption. The paper under discussion tries to prove that the statement ‘Marketing’s Role is to Encourage Consumption’ is as true now as it was in 1969. The main role of marketing is to encourage the consumption even though it has many other functions. All these functions mutually focus on encouraging consumption and thereby increasing the sales and profit. A company’s marketing efforts are directed at the objective of encouraging consumption through customer satisfaction and customer relationship. Maintaining a satisfactory relationship with the consumers is necessary to keep the consumers as customers for ever. A good customer relationship is essential for encouraging the volume of consumption. When a company tries to develop customer relationship, the company actually wants to retain the customers as long as possible. A marketing company would go on

To Kill a Mockingbird Songs Essay Example for Free

To Kill a Mockingbird Songs Essay Dont Matter: Akon The society didnt want to see the African Americans and White folks living together. However, some wanted to be equal. Talk about the prejudice and how separated they two were and how some tried to stay equal. (Atticus and Calpurnia, and Scout and Jem sitting with the African Americans during the trial are two examples.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIktHTbtn2o Tiptoe: Imagine Dragons- In Maycomb County, everyone always kind of sneaks around, never letting anyone really know what theyre up to, so in a way theyre always tiptoeing and never letting anyone know that theyre there. Little Bird: Ed Sheeran- A way this can Relate to to kill a mockingbird i by saying that if you do reckless things without thinking, youll often regret the. Like when he says And its not complete yet, mustnt get our feet wet,†¨Cause that leads to regret, diving in too soon hes saying that you need to really plan out and think before diving head over heels in something, and thats exactly what Atticus did. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkscjEBaEPc Atticus: The Noisettes- In the beginning it says to kill a mockingbird is to silence the song that seduces you why? Which is saying that when you kill the free flying, joy-bringing mockingbird, youre silencing it forever and selfishly ridding the world of a happiness that it could have potentially brought to others. Waiting on the world to change: John Mayer- At one point he says So we keep waiting (waiting) Waiting on the world to change We keep on waiting (waiting) Waiting on the world to change Its hard to beat the system When were standing at a distance So we keep waiting (waiting) Waiting on the world to change and by saying this he is relating it to how Scout and Jem are just kids and although they can grasp the concept somewhat of what is going on, they are too young to actually be able to do something about it Fix You: Coldplay- This song just kind of totally describes To kill a mockingbird because eventually time will help fix the situation while people just keep trying and failing, which is extremely discouraging inside the book. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pY9b6jgbNyc For the love of a daughter: Demi Lovato-

International Marketing Research Essay Example for Free

International Marketing Research Essay 1. Identification of Case Issues Base your issues on theoretical international ethics concepts. As the international marketing manager, what are the ethical issues to be considered in this case? Use journals to help give your response depth The report aims at launching the new fair trade chocolate brand Mars, and analysing the current ethical understanding of the Japanese marketing environment. The business viewed the ethical issue which child slavery has created an unethical comparative advantage, and the current market for chocolate lies in the ethical ruin (Nicolas and Gittens, 2010). The result of the influence of fair-trade foods among Japanese shows that the participants in Japan do the ethical purchasing in observable condition much more than the anonymous condition (Kimura et al., 2012; Swaidan, 2012). The ethical purchasing of observable condition is about that about making products in an environment where there is no child abuse or child labour, that is environmentally conscious and where there is a value placed on workers and their safety (Nicholls and Opal, 2005; Impact of adverse economic shocks on the Indian child labour market and the schooling of children of poor households, 2012). Furthermore, the report claimed that is not only the purchasers’ participation of ethical â€Å"fair deal†, but also the corporation participations impact on fair trade as well; especially under the effect of the global economic recession, businesses have great potential to benefit or threaten at the market (Lynch, 2012; McCall-Rosenbluth and Thies,2011; Reed, 2009). According to the report of Swaidan (2012), Japan has suffered painful economic recession and a series of corporate misconducts and scandals over the last decade. In the meantime, peoples interests in business ethics and corporate social responsibility have remarkably increased (Tsalikis and Seaton, 2011). There are many similarities exist between Japanese and American managers which including the respective views on corporate social responsibility and unethical business practices (Tae and Nakano, 2008). Thus the marketing strategy should to consider the nation’s business ethical understandings. Furthermore, according to a personal perspective, the correct ethical behaviour differs, which includes the relativist, utilitarian, and Universalist perspectives and based on socio-economic status (Fletcher and Crawford, 2011; Lynch, 2012). It states a market where corruption is an issue as Japan ranked eighteenth on the Corruption Perception Index of major emerging markets (Tae and Nakano, 2008; Tsalikis and Seaton, 2011). In Japan, the primarily views business ethics are through relativist and utilitarian perspectives (Fletcher and Crawford, 2011; McCall-Rosenbluth and Thies, 2011; Nicolas and Gittens, 2010). It will evoke the previous ethical perspectives when business markets a fair trade product to the Japanese. The ethical behaviour differs across nations, influenced by popular attachments to governments, popular customs, level of economic development, relative size of public sector, low income for public servants, obscure legal and political environments, high level of government control and state ownership (Kimura et al., 2012; McCall-Rosenbluth and Thies, 2011; Swaidan, 2012). Moreover, according to Hofstede’s four cultural dimensions, Japan outranks all other countries in the measure of masculinity (Fletcher and Crawford, 2011). Hence, the marketing strategy must cater to the nation’s business ethical behaviours, and cultural dimensions facing fair trade products. 2. Formulation of alternatives or possible solutions with respect As the International marketing manager what are some alternative solutions, based on an ethical platform? Use journals to support your alternatives. Mars’ first entered the Asian market with a marketing strategy of sponsoring and becoming the official snack food of the 1990 Asian Games in Beijing (McElhatton, 2012). In addition, it claims that Mars has a legacy for aggressive instincts in international expansion, entering the Eastern European markets after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 (Allen, 2010). These movements lead to factories being opened in the Asian markets to better understand the domestic environments, and it is the solid foundation for Mars to target and market the Japanese market which it was successful in combining investment with community activities to relay positive company behaviour in the political environment (McElhatton, 2012). Additionally, it proved that a link exists in successful brands between company ethical and social requirements, and the company’s commitment to protecting consumer rights and interests (Castaldo, Perrini, Misani and Tencati, 2011; Fletcher and Crawford, 2011; McCall-Rosenbluth and Thies, 2011). Thus, Mars must show it is not only has corporate social responsibility but its interest in the rights of its consumers, in order to market a new fair trade brand of chocolate in Japan (Nicolas and Gittens, 2010). Further, the right for Mars’ consumers to have access to chocolate is fair trade that gives added value and competitive price (Allen, 2011). From the perspective of economies, fair trade marketing may be successful if it is existed that consumers whose additional willingness to pay for fair trade products are greater than the additional marginal costs (Lynch, 2012). However, the consumers who felt greatly affected by the global recession yet want to consume ethically, marketers must deliver value without compromising these social values (Castaldo, Perrini, Misani and Tencati, 2011). The report confirmed that the Japanese expect companies to stand behind their product well after a sale is made. They are not particularly price conscious, but rather rely on trust (McCall-Rosenbluth and Thies, 2011; McElhatton, 2012). Moreover, there are restraining forces in the market such as political systems, legal requirements, cultural norms and economic development, that hinder the free flow of fair trade in the market (Fletcher and Crawford, 2011). In Japan, it is not simply enough to support the goods, but marketing mix is more important to the Japanese consumers who demand the after-sale services on financial resources, and the weakness of service is not tolerated in the Japanese market (Slavery involved in food production, 2008; Swaidan, 2012; Tsalikis and Seaton, 2011). On the other hand, the benefits of lowering 20 percent tariff of chocolate imports in Japan which is almost three times of the USA levy on imported candy (McCall-Rosenbluth and Thies, 2011; Reed, 2007). The chocolate potential market for Mars grows as the high tariff is getting lowered, and allowing a new fair trade chocolate brand greater entry. If Japan is a significant leader in the Asian region drops its tariff, Korea as the other major potential market may follow (Allen, 2011; Tae and Nakano, 2008). Japanese have their own take on Valentines Day which is a big chocolate buying frenzy (Tsalikis and Seaton, 2011). Gifts of chocolate from women to men on St Valentines Day have become a subtle key to gender empowerment in Japan. In Japan, women nationwide buy chocolates for their male co-workers rather than husbands and loved ones (Lewis, 1995). With this custom, women have successfully monopolized the means of socially defining chocolate, which is a large promoter for the industry. Being a custom based on culture, chocolate sales in Japan on Valentine’s Day continue to increase as cocoa prices soar. It means that the duty is expanding, which could offer the new opportunities for an ethical fair trade choice in the region (Allen, 2011; Fletcher and Crawford, 2011). Thus, marketing to the Japanese based on custom rather than the individual consumer is advised. 3. Recommendation or choice of solution Make a stand. What would you do as the International marketing manager for this company, based on an ethical platform? What are you going to recommend to the board? First of all, Japan is a rapidly growing market where corruption is an issue. The stakeholders should be the focus, and holistic and corporate social responsibility marketing is a strategic consideration (Tae and Nakano, 2008; Tsalikis and Seaton, 2011). The chocolate company Mars is recommended to use value-based labelling in order to increase consumer awareness of the brand. Moreover, individuals’ motivations from extrinsic social factors such as reputation-enhancing opportunities should be moulded around brand appearance and marketing strategy, which is rely on the product add value to the consumer thereby further building and maintaining the loyalty of the consumers (Fletcher and Crawford, 2011; McCall-Rosenbluth and Thies, 2011; Nicolas and Gittens, 2010). Secondly, a market-oriented solution is best for entering and marketing a fair trade chocolate brand in Japan, because Japan is a viable market to launch a brand, currently ranked third in world GDP (McCall-Rosenbluth and Thies, 2011; Tyler, 2012). The chocolate company Mars should consider about the ownership attributes, the location attributes and the internalisation for market entry (McElhatton, 2012). Mars could use the host marketers for the purpose of launching the market strategy from within the domestic environment. Furthermore, Mars could report the ethical practises to consumers which include ethical initiatives such as discontinuing marketing to children under age 12, and it is rely on brand integrity through Mars’ philosophy of â€Å"mutuality of benefits† for all stakeholders (Reed, 2007). It might offset distribution regulations and prevent ethical, legal and cross-cultural misunderstanding in brand marketing and promotion (Fletcher and Crawford, 2011; McCall-Rosenbluth and Thies, 2011). Thirdly, Countries differ greatly in their ethical standards and consumer expectations (Tae and Nakano, 2008). In Japans political system, dominant economic interests caused deep changes, so in the other word, Japan is the very embodiment of stability (Tsalikis and Seaton, 2011). On the other hand, as approximately ten percent of sales are from the Australasian region, Mars success has resulted from a simply philosophy â€Å"go where the consumer economy is growing† and â€Å"the consumer is our boss.† (McElhatton, 2012; Tyler, 2012). Thus, the assessment predicts a minor political could impact of the new product brand and low transaction cost (Fletcher and Crawford, 2011). Last but not least, Japan has greater equality of incomes between higher and lower incomes and market incomes (Kimura et al., 2012). This is ever more present as Japanese consumer social awareness grows and the distance is shortened between company and customer, due to communication advancements (McCall-Rosenbluth and Thies, 2011). The chocolate company Mars could potentially take a large market segment by marketing a CSR strategy in this high-income country via differentiation (Allen, 2011). Besides, the growth of e-commerce has diminished national barriers, thus advertising campaigns directed at the Japanese market can be optimised online (Fletcher and Crawford, 2011; McElhatton, 2012). References Allen, L.L. (2011). Chocolate fortunes: the battle for the hearts, minds, and wallets of Chinese consumers. Retrieved from http://site.ebrary.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/lib/qut/docDetail.action?doID=10342364 Castaldo, S., Perrini, F., Misani, N., Tencati, A. (2011). The missing link between corporate responsibility and consumer trust: the case of fair trade products. Journal of Business Ethics, 84, 1-15. doi: 10.1007/s10551-008-9669-4 Fletcher, R., Crawford, H. (2011). International marketing: an Asia-Pacific perspective 5th edition. Frenchs Forest, NSW: Pearson Australia. Kimura, A., Mukawa, N., Yamamoto, M., Masuda, T., Yuasa, M., Goto, S., Oka, T., Wada, Y. (2012). The influence of reputational concerns on purchase intention of fair-trade foods among Japanese adults. Food Quality and Preference, 26(2), 204-210.

Combined Pulmonary Fibrosis and Emphysema (CPFE)

Combined Pulmonary Fibrosis and Emphysema (CPFE) Ong Wei Jun Dan The Causes, Consequences and Differences Between Pulmonary Fibrosis or Emphysema Alone   Abstract Combined pulmonary fibrosis and emphysema (CPFE) is a complicated disease and untreated disease which consists of two diseases. It is difficult for respiratory therapists or respiratory physicians to differentiate between CPFE versus idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF)/emphysema alone. There is an increased recognition of the coexistence of emphysema and pulmonary fibrosis in individuals. The association of two diseases results in chronic dyspnea, upper-lobe emphysema and lower lobe fibrosis, and severely diminished diffusion of gas exchange with preserved lung volumes. CPFE is also frequently complicated by pulmonary hypertension, lung injury and even lung cancer. This causes CPFE patients to feel have a low quality of life and a low 10-year survival rate. Currently, there are no known treatments for CPFE patients with the exception of lung transplantation. Thus, clinical evaluations are needed to differentiate between chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and pulmonary fibro sis, and to recognize that CPFE is a unique entity by looking at the difference in radiological, pathological and metabolism features in order to find better treatment for CPFE. Introduction About 11 million Americans have Chronic Pulmonary Obstructive Disease (COPD) and out of these, most are diagnosed with pulmonary emphysema. The etiology of emphysema found that 80% of cases are caused by cigarette smoking, which causes alveolar membranes to break down, creating huge alveoli (called blebs) that lesser surface area and weaker walls than normal alveoli. This causes the low perfusion of oxygen due to decrease in surface area. In addition, approximately 50,000 new cases of Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF) are diagnosed each year.   IPF is a restrictive respiratory disease, and it is the most common of the idiopathic lung diseases. IPF causes thickening of the alveolar capillary membrane, which results in minimal gas exchange between the alveolar and the blood capillaries. Both diseases lead to the decreased efficacy of oxygen delivery. CPFE is a combination of both IPF and emphysema. However, it is usually treated as IPF and ignored or excluded in the diagnosis of emphysema.   COPD and pulmonary fibrosis have different pathologies, metabolic pathways and radiological characteristics, and were therefore regarded as separate entities for a very long time. However, in recent years, there is some recognition of the coexistence of pulmonary fibrosis and emphysema in patients. As such, it is very important to know the differences between CPFE versus emphysema or pulmonary fibrosis alone in order to find a treatment or prevent the patients conditions from further deteriorating. In the following years, studies had shown that CPFE patients have a coincidental occurrence of early emphysema and at later age of IPF, especially for smokers with many pack years.1   However, in recent studies there is a correlation between the occurrence of the combination between lower lobe pulmonary fibrosis and upper lobe emphysema. These two diseases have been observed coexisting in greater frequencies which are therefore called combined pulmonary fibrosis and emphysema (CPFE) and there is a need to distinguish them as distinct entities. There are some studies taking place to better understand the pathophysiology of the condition and find the possible causes of CPFE such as genetic factors or any biological metabolism pathways which may encourage its development. CPFE is normally caused by heavy smoking, exercise hypoxemia, upper lobe emphysema and lower lobe pulmonary fibrosis, unexpected lung volume and severe reduction of carbon monoxide transfer.2 Whether the combination of both emphysema and pulmonary fibrosis is a unique clinical entity still remains unknown. For some of the population in the medical community, it is a coincidental occurrence of two smoking-related diseases on one person, versus the coexistence of the similarities of COPD and lung cancer. However, many different studies have shown and suggested that interstitial lung abnormalities, which are normally caused by IPF, have are inversely related to emphysema in smokers. In fact, based on the chest X-Ray images, most patients who have many pack years with IPF do not have any signs of having emphysema. Similarly, most patients who have emphysema do not have any signs of IPF in their chest X-Ray. Hence, the combination of both pulmonary fibrosis and emphysema may be a direct result of heavy smoking or many pack years which reflects the uniqueness in individual susceptibilities. Even though medical professionals tend to use chest X-Rays for any respiratory distress, as it is inexpensive and considered a fast diagnostic tool, it is unable to properly diagnose the CPFE syndrome. Another alternative would be to use High-Resolution Chest Computed Tomography (HRCT), which is the only tool to diagnose the syndrome. The CPFE syndrome consists of heterogeneous syndromes, in which syndromes differ from one individual to another and resulting in no actual definition of the syndrome for CPFE. This makes it difficult to diagnose CPFE with the current pulmonary function test, as CPFE patient results look similar to those of patients diagnosed with pneumonia. From past research and observations, CPFE is frequently complicated with pulmonary hypertension, acute lung injury and the possibility of lung cancer, resulting in very poor prognoses. Treatments for CPFE patients with severe pulmonary hypertension have not been found and have largely proven ineffective in curing the disease apart from a wholesale lung transplant. The identification of patients with CPFE is needed due to the uniqueness and complication of the diseases history. Since CPFE has not yet attracted the attention of researchers and healthcare practitioners, there have not been many studies focused on finding the differences between pulmonary fibrosis, emphysema and CPFE. Currently, there is no consistent way to differentiate the factors, signs and syndromes when diagnosing CPFE patients from other obstructive respiratory diseases. This has resulted in many medical practitioners failing to immediately recognize CPFE in patients diagnoses. Population distribution of Emphysema, IPF and CPFE The prevalence of the disease emphysema was reported to be at about 24.5 per 1,000 in America, while the prevalence of IPF varied from 14 to 42.7 cases per 100,000. Therefore, emphysema is a more common disease as compared to IPF. However, there are no studies that account for the prevalence of CPFE. Some of the reported observations show that the proportion of patients with CPFE detected on HRCT scans range from 8% to 51% in IPF patients. On the other hand, the proportion of pulmonary fibrosis found in patients with emphysema is less than 10% using the HRCT. This variation of proportion of prevalence in CPFE may be due to the different types and complications arising from the diagnosis of emphysema when evaluated by chest X-Ray and HRCT. Patients with CPFE tend to be older men who tend to have many pack years of smoking. Previous studies have shown that there is no significant difference when varying the number of pack years against the occurrence of COPD such as emphysema and CPFE. However, patients with CPFE and those with COPD usually have a long history of smoking as compared to patients with IPF.   Many studies have reported that male have higher prevalence then female in having respiratory disease syndrome, and could be due to men tending to have more pack years as compared to females. It may also be due to the genes of men which predispose them to succumbing to COPD or CPFE. Even though both IPF and emphysema have proven to be more common in male smokers than female smokers, it does not necessarily mean that gender plays an important risk factor in the contraction of CPFE. More studies are needed to determine how gender differences affect this syndrome. Pathology pathway of CPFE Till now, there are no conclusive findings for pathogenies of CPFE. There are no clear conclusions on the development of CPFE, whether emphysema and or pulmonary fibrosis progress independently or whether there are synergistic qualities between the two. There may be some mechanisms involving cytokines, beta receptors or signaling pathways which have not been discovered. Thus, both pulmonary fibrosis and emphysema may tend to occur in genetic susceptibility individuals with from exposure to environmental factors such as smoking or occupational hazard and chemicals. Case Study of a CPFE patient (Occupational exposure) A case study journal report on a male patient aged 73 years old in 2015 gives one of the more detailed analysis of Microscopic Polyangiitis (MPA), a disease that precedes by CPFE. The patient worked as a metalworker and had 25 pack years. He was admitted to the hospital due to progressive dry coughing and he was later diagnosed with CPFE. He eventually died due to complications from CPFE, which resulted in severe pneumococcal pneumonia with acute lung injury. His arterial blood gas result was normal with a fairly abnormal range in his pulmonary function test (PFT). There were clear signs of emphysema and IPF from his CT scan and Chest X-Ray (Kyoko Gocho, 2015). MPA is a systemic necrotizing vasculitis of small vessels associated with numerous types of antibodies in particular myeloperoxidase- antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (MPO-ANCA). Oxidation induced by MPO-ANCA may trigger pulmonary fibrosis due to alveolar hemorrhage, resulting in pulmonary capillaritis (an inflammation of p ulmonary capillary). This causes pulmonary fibrosis as the alveolar capillary wall thickens (Kagiyama, 2015) Correlation of smoking with CPFE patients A common etiology factor for CPFE is smoking. Tobacco smoke contains 4000 chemical substances, including Kaolinite or aluminum silicate, an organic industrial material. Studies show that inhalation of this organic industrial substance will result in hyperactive macrophages, which in turn will lead to respiratory bronchiolitis and emphysema (King, 2005). Currently, there are no studies for the association of tobacco smoking resulting in IPF, other factors such as environmental factors in genetically-predisposition individuals may play a key role in resulting IPF. The association between CPFE and lung cancer may reflect the susceptibility linked to long term smoking which causes chronic smoking-induced inflammation. These were done on several other studies on the relationship between emphysemaand IPF.3,4 Pathological findings (Diagnostic Imaging) Patients who have acute respiratory distress syndrome such as COPD, pulmonary fibrosis or even CPFE, will tend to have more difficulty breathing due to the use of accessory muscles and the need to constantly supply supplemental oxygen to meet the oxygen level demanded by the body. For some of the patients, a high flow of oxygen is required (flow rate of more than 60L/min) to meet their inspiratory demand. Patients with CPFE have a confused and undetermined ventilation/ perfusion ratio due to emphysema causing low perfusion and IPF having low ventilation. This results in both ventilation of oxygen to the alveoli and perfusion of capillaries to be diminished, leading to dead space and shunt. Emphysema results in the reduction of alveoli-capillary surface membrane by forming a bleb that causes air-trapping, whereas pulmonary fibrosis scars the alveolis tissue, creating a shunt that causes ventilation of the oxygen to the alveoli to be inefficient, resulting in the patients body tissue b eing unable to get a sufficient amount of oxygen. Other remarkable syndromes found in COPD patients are chronic cough and sputum production in volume greater than one shot full glass due to inflammation of bronchi and impairment of the mucociliary clearance, presumably due to the effects of smoking. Patients with IPF may show progressive shortness of breath, loud expiratory wheezing sounds and if the condition is worse cyanosis may appear on the patient. CPFE from previous clinical studies shows that it is similar to IPF. On close physical examination, by doing chest auscultation, it was found that more than 80% of CPFE patients will emit inspiratory dry crackles sounds due to the underlying pulmonary fibrosis. About 40 to 50% will have digit clubbing and poor capillary refill. As of now, there is no consistent definition for CPFE. However, it is very important to diagnose it early. Diagnostic criteria for CPFE include radiological findings by using either chest X-Ray or HRCT these images will appear as upper-lobe emphysema with fibrosis like blebs, lower-lobe honeycombing with subpleural reticular opacities, thick wall cystic lesions, and sometimes ground glass opacities.2 Table 1: Comparison of clinical characteristics difference between CPFE, emphysema and IPF patients group (measures of Framingham variables) CPFE IPF Emphysema p-value Sample size 22 8 17 Age (in years) Median 73.5 74 78 0.7 Range 59-96 56-89 48-86 Number of pack years Median 64 43 75 0.64 Range 20-50 30-80 15-65 Table 2: Comparison of clinical characteristics difference between CPFE, emphysema and IPF patients group (Pulmonary Function Test) CPFE IPF Emphysema p-value Vital capacity 2.52 ±0.72 2.34 ±0.86 2.85 ±0.61 0.52 Vital capcity (%) 83.1 ±22.1 68.0 ±27.7 87.0 ±12.4 0.29 FEV1 2.01 ±0.19 1.60 ±0.24 1.57 ±0.22 0.28 FEV1/FVC(%) 76.8 ±3.31 81.8 ±4.45 55.6 ±4.06 70%, this results being emphysema to be ignored or overlooked. Physician, healthcare workers and respiratory therapists should be aware of its existence. More autopsies should be recognized such as thick-walled cystic lesion and idiopathic interstitial pneumonia should be recognized as both of these can be found in CPFE patients but are seldom found in emphysema/IPF alone patients. A deeper understanding of the pathophysiology is needed for CPFE and the factors that causes the syndrome of CPFE should be explored further with more clinical studies so as to develop effective treatments or therapeutic strategies for CPFE patients. References       Hiwatari H., S. S. (1993). Pulmonary emphysema followed by pulmonary fibrosis of undetermined cause. Respiration, 60(6). Cottin V., H. N. (2005). Combined pulmonary fibrosis and emphysema: a distinct underrecognised entity. European Respiratory Journal, 26(4). Kaplan R. M. (2015). Quality of Well-being Outcomes in the National Emphysema Treatment Trial. Chest Journal, 147(2). Kagiyama C., N. T. (2015). Antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody-positive conversion and microscopic polyangiitis development in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. BMJ Open Respiratory Research, 2(1). Inomata M., A. M. (2013). An autopsy study of combined pulmonary fibrosis and emphysema: correlations among clinical, radiological, and pathological features. BMC Pulmonary Medicine, 104(14). King, C. G. (2005). COPD: a dust-induced disease? Chest Journal, 128(4). Kyoko G. (2015). Microscopic polyangiitis preceded by combined pulmonary fibrosis and emphysema. Respiratory Medicine Case Reports, 10(2). Papaioannou A. I., E. A. (2016). Combined pulmonary fibrosis and emphysema: The many aspects of a cohabitation contract. Respiratory Medicine, 117(10). 9.  Ã‚   Portill K., J. M. (2011). Combined Pulmonary Fibrosis and Emphysema Syndrome: A New Phenotype within the Spectrum of Smoking-Related Interstitial Lung Disease. Pulmonary Medicine , 2012(1).

Italia Essay -- Italy Vacation Tourism Papers

Italia This trip started out in the usual frantic last minute preparation that is customary to me. I ran around Wal-Mart buying travel shampoo and extra film before rushing home to pack less than twelve hours before leaving. However, not all the planning for this trip was last minute. In fact, this was a trip that had been planned out for a good six months before leaving. After finishing my last final for the spring semester, I am heading out on a plane with my parents and three of their best friends to take on Italy for two weeks. It is my parent's thirtieth wedding anniversary, and to celebrate we are going to the land they love most in the world. This is going to be their third trip there, the first being for their twenty-fifth anniversary and the second being with Jerry and Gayle, who are tagging along again. Their friend Jan, who has never been overseas before, is also coming and I am rounding out the group. I have been overseas before, but never to Italy, and I am excited to see for m yself the beautiful landscapes my parents are always showing people from the pictures they bring back. I awake somewhere over the Swiss Alps. My dad continuously points out different mountains and geographic locations like I actually know what he is talking about. The Alps are beautiful; blinding white tops above a mist of clouds that block the rest of the mountain from plain sight. Soon we are flying into Italy and the fear and excitement of visiting a place for the first time kicks in. I begin to worry that I didn't study the language enough. Oh well, too late now. I glance at my mom finishing her breakfast in the seat in front of me. I am glad that she seems to know a lot more Italian than the rest of us. She will become our interpreter... ...a small enclosed patio and views of the hills beyond. To the right are the cobbled streets of the town we just left. The bells of the church ring out and the sound of children yelling as they play in the streets fill the air. Our guide lets us into the house and we explore the spacious rooms of the home that will be ours for the first week. Everything is simple, but charming and everyone wants to quickly unpack. We walk the guide back out to her car and as I'm standing there exploring the view, I feel something hit my shoulder from above, bird droppings. As I am just about to launch into a spiel about how unlucky I have been since arriving, the key holder looks over at me and exclaims at the luck I have. Apparently bird poop landing on you is considered a blessing. I laugh at the absurdity of it all, but in the end I think this might just turn into a great trip yet.

Deception in Hamlet :: essays research papers

Deception is a recurring theme in Hamlet. In a tale of murder, love, and politics, deception could have no more fitting place. The lies and pretensions interweave each other, and there is no character left out of this web. All the central characters have their secrets to hide and mistruths to spread, and this is central to the plot and its progression.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  King Claudius deceives all those around him with his mourning and celebrating demeanor, and his strange celebration and waking. He seems to grieve for the brother that he slew, and works to console all others that may or may not grieve for his brother’s death, such as his nephew and step-son Hamlet. His pretense is great, and forces Hamlet to investigate the truth of the ghost’s tale, unraveling the mystery of his father’s death and others’ involvement.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Prince Hamlet has perhaps the most devious series of deceptions in the tragedy. He feints madness, in order to soften up the minds of those he seeks to learn information from, by putting them off their guard. Hamlet also sets in motion a plan to discover his uncle’s guilt in the murder of his father through a play within a play within a play, aptly named â€Å"The Mousetrap.† His clever pretension also leads Polonius astray in his presumption as to the cause of Hamlet’s supposed strange manner and Ophelia to believe that his love for her has gone with his sanity.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ophelia is also key in the theme of deception in the play. However, she is more so privy to the intentions of others to deceive than to her own. Her lies are merely a sense of self-preservation in a world dominated by men. She deceives Hamlet on her feelings for him at the behest of her father, Polonius, in his scheme to determine the true cause of Hamlet’s strange behavior. Ophelia in turn is actually herself deceived by Hamlet’s scheme to feint madness. Essentially she is the channeling of Polonius’ plot of political investigation, and as used as she may be by all sides, she is not seriously affected by it towards the end of Act III, other than through the death of her oppressive father.

Bhopal Gas Tragedy

Bhopal as a Case Study – Union Carbide Corp. INVESTIGATION OF LARGE-MAGNITUDE INCIDENTS: BHOPAL AS A CASE STUDY Ashok S. Kalelkar Arthur D. Little, Inc. Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA Presented At The Institution of Chemical Engineers Conference On Preventing Major Chemical Accidents London, England May 1988 ABSTRACT The investigation of large-magnitude incidents is fraught with difficulties and the process of establishing the primary cause of an incident often requires an understanding of human nature in addition to the necessary technical and engineering skills.The salient non-technical features that are common to the investigation of large-magnitude events are discussed in general. The investigation of the Bhopal disaster is discussed as a specific case study in light of these salient features. The results of the overall investigation are discussed and it is demonstrated that the commonly-held view that water-washing of a certain header caused the disaster is physically impo ssible. Evidence is presented which indicates that direct water entry into the methyl isocyanate storage tank was the likely initiating cause of the Bhopal disaster.I. INTRODUCTION In the aftermath of a major accident or incident in the chemical industry, it is common practice to ascertain the cause of the event through an investigation. If the magnitude of the incident is very large in terms of its impact on people, property, or the environment, it is not uncommon to assemble several teams of investigators to seek the cause of the incident independently. In the United States, a large-magnitude event may be investigated by the company that owns the facility, the insurance group that rovides the liability coverage, federal investigators (e. g. , OSHA, EPA), and state and local regulatory agencies. When several investigations are being conducted concurrently, in spite of the differing interests that are represented by each investigating team, cooperation and fact-sharing generally occ urs among the investigating teams. This cooperative spirit was evident to some extent, for example, in the investigation of the LPG disaster in 1984 in Mexico City l. Page 1 of 16 Bhopal as a Case Study – Union Carbide Corp.Given the significant amount of damage that is typically associated with a large-magnitude event, coverage by the news media is both extensive and exhaustive, especially if a number of fatalities have occurred. The news media represent yet another group of separate investigators and tend to focus on the human interest aspects of the tragedy. In addition, often with little hard information available, they actively speculate on the cause of the event in an attempt to â€Å"scoop† the story; that is, to be the first to report the cause to the world at large.In recent years, the news media with their surfeit of investigative reporters have become a predictable presence at the site of an incident. Although no two major disasters are the same, our involve ment in the investigation of more than a dozen events of significant magnitude has led us to believe that there are certain salient features that are common to most investigations. They include: 1. Media Pressure – In the immediate aftermath of a large-magnitude incident, both nontechnical and technically trained reporters converge on the site, looking for quick â€Å"answers† to the question of what caused the event.Most reporters are responsible, restrained, and unbiased in their reporting. However, a fringe group usually appears on-site that is more interested in developing causation theories, which seem to have great public appeal, regardless of their veracity. In the case of the disaster at Bhopal in 1984, the cause celebre was the â€Å"missing slip-blind† during a water-washing operation. An assertion was made that failure to insert a slip-blind prior to water-washing of some filters ultimately led to water entering the MIC tank and starting a reaction. T his assertion proved to be false, as will be demonstrated later in this paper.The difficulty with these incorrect causation theories is that, because the public and the media have a short attention span, the theories can become the conventionally accepted versions of what occurred. When a technical investigation discloses the actual cause much later, there may be less coverage, because the event is â€Å"old news† by then. 2. Psychological Issues – It has also been our experience that those people associated with a large-magnitude incident seem to evince an internal need to put some psychological distance between themselves and the incident.For example, there are those who feel — in hindsight — that even though they were not responsible for the event, they could have done more to reduce the magnitude of the event. And there are those who just wish it had not occurred on â€Å"their watch†. There are also occasions when persons on duty distort and o mit major facts to establish a reduced responsibility for the event. There is substantial evidence that such distortions and omissions occurred in Bhopal. 3. Eyewitness Accounts – When eyewitnesses are questioned about a major accident or incident, they tend to reveal only those facts that they personally consider important and pertinent.Thus, a good investigator must draw people out, using a line of questioning which elicits all pertinent facts. We have found that an eyewitness is most likely to be forthcoming and helpful if he or she is questioned immediately after the event. Once a story is told, whether accurate or inaccurate, it tends to harden. Further, where a deliberate distortion occurs, with the passage of time, the persons involved tend to coordinate their stories better. This puts a substantial premium on talking to persons involved quickly.In the Bhopal situation, the Union Carbide investigation team was blocked from doing this by the Indian Government for over a year. As a result, Union Carbide was unable to uncover the ultimate cause of the event until 1986. 4. Contradictory Accounts – When faced with contradictory statements from various Page 2 of 16 Bhopal as a Case Study – Union Carbide Corp. witnesses, an investigator has to weigh various accounts and then judge which account is likely to be correct, discarding the false account.This may require gaining an understanding of the probable motives of those persons who, knowingly or unknowingly, provided the incorrect accounts. It is also often possible to assess the accounts against known or technically established facts, to determine their accuracy. We encountered numerous cases of directly contradictory accounts of various situations that transpired during the Bhopal incident from those who were present during the event. 5. Time Perception – Although witnesses in a traumatic incident often recall the sequence of events with remarkable clarity, their perceptions of t ime during the actual incident sometimes differ.Therefore, when establishing the true chronology, witnesses' time perception must be evaluated against objective evidence. In the case of the Bhopal investigation, piecing together the correct chronology required that perceptions of time among different witnesses be accounted for in a consistent manner. The above list of features is by no means complete. However, it does identify some significant issues that are manifest in incident investigations, and which should be considered by investigators of large-magnitude incidents. The very presence of these issues makes an incident investigation more than a purely technical exercise.In many ways, one can liken the investigation to attempting to correctly piece together a complex jigsaw puzzle, with the added challenge of having several pieces that are hidden, others yet to be discovered, and several extraneous pieces that do not belong in the completed puzzle at all and have to be discarded. To add to the investigator's difficulties, the â€Å"puzzle† has to result in a clear picture, even though assembled in a background of human tragedy and suffering, media attention, and a general aura of suspicion and hostility towards the plant and company investigation teams.The above factors are those which we have identified in our investigation of large-magnitude incidents, and many of these factors played a role in the investigation of the Bhopal incident. The following sections will give a brief background of the investigation, elaborate upon some of the factors which were encountered and resolved during the investigation, and present some of the evidence and the conclusions of the investigation. II. BHOPAL INVESTIGATION BACKGROUND To the best of our knowledge, two separate major detailed technical investigations of the Bhopal event were authorized.One investigation 2, sponsored by the Government of India (GOI), was conducted by a staff of scientists and engineers fro m the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), and it included other experts as well. A second investigation3, sponsored by the Union Carbide Corporation (UCC)*, was conducted by scientists and engineers from UCC, Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL), outside experts, and attorneys. The two investigations went forward entirely independent of one another. (The Indian Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) also conducted its own investigation. )In addition to these major investigations, dozens of opinions, purportedly based on investigations of the incident, were offered by various newspapers, magazines, television and radio commentators, authors, organizations, consultants, and politicians. Such accounts generally proved Page 3 of 16 Bhopal as a Case Study – Union Carbide Corp. to be quite flawed and incomplete. Union Carbide investigators were at the site of the incident at Bhopal within days of the event to provide assistance and to conduct an investigation, but fo und that the plant had been sealed and placed under the control of the CBI.The cause of the incident was not then apparent. The methyl isocyanate (MIC) production unit had been shut down six weeks prior to the incident and the storage tank (Tank 610) had been isolated at that time; all that was known was that the pressure had risen in Tank 610 during the third shift on a Sunday night, December 2-3, 1984, and that MIC had been released into the atmosphere. It was unknown whether the release had been triggered by the entry of a contaminant, water, or some other agent.The search for the cause of the incident at that point was, however, a secondary consideration; a second tank (Tank 611) containing some 20 tons of MIC remained, and the first order of business was to assist in its safe disposal. It was determined that the safest route would be to process the MIC and SEVIN carbaryl pesticide, which was then done promptly. The processing of this tank of MIC was conducted jointly by UCIL an d the CSIR, with the assistance of UCC's technical team, in an activity labeled Operation Faith by the Indian Government.Following the safe disposal of the remaining MIC in December of 1984, the UCC investigation team attempted to begin its investigation. However, the legal skirmishes had commenced in both the United States and India and the CBI essentially maintained complete control over the records of the MIC unit. Although the investigation team was permitted to see copies of records in the period immediately following the event, it was allowed to do so only by specifically requesting a copy of a particular record or document. *The author of this paper and the organization he represents were a part of this investigation team.Thus, if the team was unaware that a particular document existed, the document would never come to its attention, even though it might have a significant bearing on the outcome of the investigation. Moreover, the CBI prohibited interviews with the plant's em ployees. The team submitted to the CBI a list of 193 plant employees whom it wanted to interview, but permission was refused. The CBI would only authorize discussions with the Plant Manager and the MIC Production Superintendent, neither of whom was on duty the night of the incident.In fact, the CBI was conducting a criminal investigation into the incident, and it contended that attempts by Union Carbide's investigating team to formally interview the workers would constitute â€Å"tampering with evidence† in the criminal investigation. The problem of access to information was further magnified by this threat of criminal prosecution by the Indian government, Union Carbide's Chairman, Warren Anderson, who went to Bhopal to offer assistance and relief immediately after the incident, was placed under arrest upon his arrival in the city, and seven UCIL officers and employees were also arrested.This posture, in addition to physically preventing an investigation by Union Carbide, cre ated an atmosphere of fear of criminal sanctions among the plant workers. Such an atmosphere, together with the sheer magnitude of the disaster, made witnesses even more defensive and uncommunicative than is usually the case in such investigations. Further, the CBI conducted its criminal investigation into the incident using aggressive tactics. We believe this treatment played a major role in the development of a â€Å"cover-up† by plant employees.As noted earlier, there is a reflexive tendency among plant workers everywhere to Page 4 of 16 Bhopal as a Case Study – Union Carbide Corp. attempt to divorce themselves from the events surrounding any incident and to distort or omit facts to serve their own purposes. This is especially so where the investigation is criminal in nature. In addition, once an eye-witness has taken a defensive position under aggressive questioning by police making a criminal investigation, it becomes, as a practical matter, nearly impossible for the witness to later change that position to state the actual facts.The team was permitted access to samples of the tank residue, and, after several months of extensive analysis of the residue of Tank 610, including more than 500 experiments, the UCC investigation team issued its report in March 1985 3. The team concluded that the incident was caused when 1,000 to 2,000 pounds of water entered the tank. After subsequent experimentation and more extensive sampling much later, the amount of water was determined to be even greater.This large quantity of water reacted with the MIC in the tank, causing its temperature to rise to over 100 °C, leading to a vigorous exothermic trimerization of MIC, resulting in rapid rises in temperature and pressure, and ultimately causing the major release. The incident occurred, despite the fact that the system had been designed and operated to keep out even small amounts of water, and the fact that no water had ever entered the tanks during the five y ears the plant had been in operation. Moreover, it was clear upon subsequent sampling and analysis that no water had entered either of the other two MIC storage tanks.Because the MIC production facility had been shut down for over a month prior to the incident, and for a variety of other reasons that will be discussed, the investigation team concluded that direct entry of the water — that is, by a direct connection to the tank rather than through the plant's piping system — was likely. However, because the team had not been permitted to interview the plant employees and did not have full access to the records, it was unable to develop this theory further at that time. The CSIR publicly issued its report 2 in December of 1985, approximately one year after the incident.The CSIR report also concluded that the event was caused by the entry of a large quantity of water into Tank 610. The CBI has not, to date, issued a public report of the findings of its own investigation. LITIGATION For more than a year, the CBI continued to prohibit interviews with the plant's employees. In the interim, a new aspect to the investigation developed. The Indian Government filed a civil suit against Union Carbide Corporation in the United States, asserting that the Government was the sole representative of the Bhopal victims.Thus, the Government acted as the plaintiff in a civil case with an interest in proving Union Carbide Corporation to be liable, yet, in its institutional role, it continued to exercise complete control of access to the sources of proof, restricting Union Carbide's ability to learn the truth, and fostering a version of the facts which supported its own litigation interest. The Government's position as a party to the civil suit ultimately provided certain benefits to Union Carbide's investigation. In December 1985, a U. S. agistrate 4 ordered the Indian Government to turn over copies of certain of the plant's records that had been seized, and these th en became available for analysis by Union Carbide for the first time. Moreover, while it was before the U. S. court seeking information from Union Carbide, the Indian Government could not, as a practical matter, continue to restrict access to plant employees, which enabled Union Carbide to finally begin interviews. Despite having been denied access to the evidence for more than a year and despite being viewed with a great deal of hostility and suspicion, Union Carbide investigators Page 5 of 16Bhopal as a Case Study – Union Carbide Corp. conducted a thorough review of the incident which included detailed interviews with virtually all of the relevant plant employees. INTERVIEWS Union Carbide employees and representatives began to interview the plant's employees in January 1986. Many people spoke openly and willingly. However, the team anticipated that there would be problems in interviewing the plant's employees, and the team therefore was assisted by a person familiar with mo st of the employees. This proved advantageous because the team found that many would speak to him, even if they were unwilling to speak to the entire team.It also proved beneficial in assessing the credibility of each individual. Language also loomed as a potential problem, although ultimately it did not prove to be troublesome. Although all operators spoke English, many were more comfortable speaking Hindi. Several members of the team were fluent in Hindi and, by translating each question and answer, the interviews progressed smoothly. However, the team did encounter some problems in locating the involved employees and persuading them to talk about a traumatic incident that had occurred a year and a half earlier.The Bhopal plant had been shut down since the incident, and the employees, by and large, had sought other employment. Many of the former operators and other employees had departed Bhopal without leaving any forwarding addresses, and it took weeks of questioning former landl ords and neighbors to determine their whereabouts. Several had relocated as far away as Nepal and remote areas of India. This required lengthy journeys — in one case, only to find the wrong individual with the same name. Careful advance preparation was therefore necessary.Many of the former MIC operators were later employed by the State Government as plant safety inspectors. Some of those who had been most directly involved refused to talk to the team and eluded many attempts. Because politeness is an Indian trait, in fact, some would make appointments for interviews, but then disappear just prior to the appointment. Once found, however, the customary politeness proved to be an advantage, and the investigators learned it was wise to nurse the obligatory cup of tea for hours to prolong the interview in order to obtain bits and pieces of new information.Although the Indian Government has continued to refuse access to the original plant records, copies of some of them were produ ced in the civil suit, and the investigators were able to analyze them and use their content in the interviews. The investigators conducted well over 70 interviews over the course of a year and a half. The significant aspects and findings of this investigation are presented in what follows. To better understand the findings, however, a basic understanding of the plant's layout and operation is necessary. III.BHOPAL PLANT LAYOUT AND OPERATION The plant layout is shown in Figure 1. Methyl isocyanate (MIC) was produced at the Bhopal Page 6 of 16 Bhopal as a Case Study – Union Carbide Corp. plant by reacting monomethylamine and phosgene in the plant's MIC production unit. The refined MIC was then transferred to a separate MIC storage area (see Figure 2) where it was stored in two horizontal, mounded, 15,000-gallon, stainless-steel tanks. A third storage tank was kept empty for emergencies and for off-specification material awaiting reprocessing.The MIC was used to make SEVIN carb aryl and several other carbamate pesticides. The MIC was processed into SEVIN carbaryl pesticide in the SEVIN unit. The MIC was transferred in one-ton batches to a charge pot in the SEVIN unit using nitrogen pressure. A nitrogen pressure of at least 14 psig in the MIC storage tank was necessary to move the material from the storage area to the SEVIN unit charge pot at a reasonable rate. From there, each batch would be reacted with alpha-naphthol to make SEVIN carbaryl.On the night of December 2-3, 1984, the 41 metric tons of MIC in one of the storage tanks (Tank 610) underwent a chemical reaction which was initiated by the introduction of water to the tank. The reaction caused the release of MIC through the relief-valve system. This, in turn, resulted in the Bhopal tragedy. The exact means by which water entered Tank 610 that night was the subject of the investigation described in this paper. The team first considered and analyzed the purported cause of the incident which had been p ublicly reported by the media.This was the socalled â€Å"water-washing theory. † This story is discussed next. IV. THE ORIGIN OF THE WATER-WASHING THEORY As discussed in Section I, the media generally play a significant role in establishing public perception of the cause of large-magnitude incidents, often drawing conclusions before the facts can be established. In the days immediately after the incident, the story that emerged from the plant workers, as reported by the press (much of which ultimately provided to be fallacious), was as follows: Shortly before the end of the second shift, at 10:20 p. . , the pressure in Tank 610 was reported to be at 2 psig. The shift change occurred at 10:45 p. m. , and everything was normal until 11:30 p. m. , at which time a small leak was reported downwind and in the area of the MIC production unit. The MIC supervisor said that he would deal with the leak after tea, which began at 12:15 a. m. The tea lasted until 12:40 a. m. at which time all was normal. At that point, the control room operator observed the pressure rise suddenly in Tank 610, and within minutes the indicator was off the gauge's scale. At 12:45 a. . , the safety valve on the tank opened, and gas came out of the stack of the vent gas scrubber. The operators ran to the tank and found it rumbling, and the concrete over the tank was cracking. The fire squad sprayed the stack to knock down the gas, and the reaction subsided an hour or so later. The workers claimed to have no idea as to why the pressure rose in the first instance. According to this account, the incident occurred suddenly and inexplicably. There was, however, intense media pressure to quickly identify the cause of the incident.As noted above, some journalists tend to try to uncover a cause that is easy to understand and easy to explain; they also show a tendency to find and publicize an explanation that will have popular appeal. In the case of Bhopal, this caused the media to seize upon rep orts of an improper waterwashing of a pipeline in the MIC production structure — a report that first began to circulate only days after the incident. According to this story, an MIC operator was told to wash a section of a subheader of the relief valve vent header (â€Å"RVVH†) in the MIC manufacturing unit. Because he Page 7 of 16Bhopal as a Case Study – Union Carbide Corp. failed to insert a slip-blind, as called for by plant standard operating procedures, the water supposedly backed up into the header and eventually found its way into the process vent header (â€Å"PVH†) through a tubing connection near the tanks. It then was supposed to have flowed into the MIC storage tank, located more than 400 feet by pipeline from the initial point of entry. This was, to a layman, an apparently plausible, easily understood explanation of the water source, which did not require any detailed knowledge of the plant process or layout.It also was a theory that had popu lar appeal because it focused on a simple, minor human inadvertence which caused a great tragedy — a â€Å"for-want-of-a-horseshoe-nail-the-kingdom-was-lost† explanation. It was readily accepted by those eager to believe the incident had been caused by improper operating practices at a purportedly shoddy chemical plant in a Third World country. The waterwashing theory was also publicly embraced by the Indian Government. Although the water-washing theory has superficial appeal, those engineers most familiar with the plant — its valving, piping, and layout — found the theory highly implausible.When Union Carbide finally gained access to the plant, talked to witnesses, and considered all the evidence, it concluded that the theory could not withstand even minimal scientific scrutiny. And, although the Indian Government holds in its possession records and test results that completely discredit this theory, it continues to embrace it nonetheless. Several indepe ndent pieces of evidence demonstrate that water-washing of lines in the filter area could not possibly have been the cause of water entry into Tank 610. This evidence is discussed next. V.EVIDENCE REFUTING THE WATER-WASHING THEORY The details of the pertinent parts of the plant vent systems, shown in Figure 3, will be helpful in understanding the material presented in this section. The water-washing theory assumes that water from an operation designed to wash a sub-header near four process filters (Point â€Å"A† of Figure 3) went through the relief valve vent header (RVVH), then through a connection to the process vent header (PVH) and then into Tank 610 (Point â€Å"B†). At least three independent, objective pieces of evidence establish that this could not have happened. . BLEEDER VALVE HYDRAULICS The water was introduced using a hose with a 1/2-inch inlet. Even assuming all intermediate header-system valves to have been wide open, for water to have reached the top o f the PVH riser near Tank 610 (Point â€Å"B† of Figure 3), it would have had to be under sufficient pressure near the point of introduction (Point â€Å"A† of Figure 3) to enable it to climb 10. 4 feet. Associated with the filters near the washing operation, however, there are four 1/ 2-inch bleeder valves in parallel (see Items 18 of Figure 4).Of these, one was reportedly mechanically plugged, but the other three were reported by five eye-witnesses to be wide open and draining freely. With the 1/2-inch hose connection to the washing operation limiting the flow to about 10-15 gallons/minute, the three open bleeder valves would limit the water back-pressure above them to no more than about 0. 7 foot of hydraulic head, clearly not enough to raise the water by 10. 4 feet. Page 8 of 16 Bhopal as a Case Study – Union Carbide Corp. 2. CLOSED INTERMEDIATE VALVEIn the above paragraph, we assumed for the sake of argument that all intermediate valves in the header system s between the water connection and Tank 610 were open. It should be noted that if any one of these valves was closed (and leak-tight), the waterwashing theory must fail. One such valve is the valve close to the water-washing operation, connecting it to the RVVH (see Item 19 on Figure 4). A plant mastercard (a detailed record of steps taken during maintenance) shows it to have been shut since November 29, 1984.The mastercard also reflects that the valve was physically tagged closed; after the incident, the tag was found to be still present on the valve. Furthermore, with the authorization of the Indian Government, the integrity of this valve was tested in a July 1985 simulation of the waterwashing operation; in this one-hour test, no water leaked past this valve into the RVVH. There is no way that water from the water-washing operation could have reached Tank 610 without first passing through this valve, which is documented to have been closed and leak-tight. 3.DRY HEADER PIPING For water to have penetrated to Tank 610 from the water-washing area, it would have had to fill the 6-inch diameter connecting pipe, then a 65-foot length of 8-inch RVVH (with more than a dozen branches running off this line), and then some 340 feet of 4-inch RVVH. It would then have had to fill a 120-foot length of 2-inch PVH and a last 220-foot section of 2-inch PVH with the vertical legs at each end of this section. Calculations show that some 4,500 pounds of water would have been needed to fill all this piping, before any could get to Tank 610.Thus, if the water-washing operation were the source of the water, large quantities of water would have filled the associated piping. As the incident later progressed and gases were ejected from Tank 610, the gases would have cleared the water from the main RVVH flow path out of the vent gas scrubber. On the other hand, all of the branch downlegs, as well as the 220-foot section of the PVH with the downlegs on either end of it, would have rema ined full of water, as the connection between the PVH and the vent gas scrubber had been previously blinded off to allow replacement of some sections of PVH.And, even though the vented gases were hot, the water in these sections could not have boiled or evaporated away, because these sections were dozens of feet away from the piping in which hot gases were flowing. When the branch vent lines on the ground floor of the production unit and the branch vent lines connected to Tank 611 and to the spare tank were drained, only normal, small amounts of water (or no water al all) were found. On February 8, 1985, the Superintendent of Police, CBI, ordered (see Figure 5A) that a hole be drilled in the lowest point of this 220-foot length of the PVH, to determine how much water was contained therein.The authorization acknowledges that this section of pipe had no bleeders or flanged joints. For the water-washing theory to have been true, there should have been hundreds of pounds of water still in this section of pipe, and so some empty 55-gallon drums were made available to collect whatever amounts of liquid would issue from the drilled hole. When the hole was drilled, however, the pipe was found to be bone-dry. The line was Page 9 of 16 Bhopal as a Case Study – Union Carbide Corp. immediately purged with nitrogen to force any liquid out, but not a drop was obtained (see Figure 5B).Thus, the water-washing theory is clearly untenable. The bleeder valves in the waterwashing area would have had to be closed (but three were witnessed to have been open), the intermediate header valves would have had to be open (but at least one is documented to have been closed and leak-tight), and there would have had to be hundreds of pounds of water in the 220-foot section of the PVH drilled after the incident was over (but not even a single drop was found). VI. SIGNIFICANT ASPECTS OF THE UCC INVESTIGATIONAs indicated in Section V, it was clear to those investigating the event that i t had not been caused in the manner that had gained popular acceptance — inadvertent failure to place a slipblind during water-washing of lines near the process filters. The UCC team also thoroughly considered other possible routes of water entry and became convinced that this incident had been initiated by the entry of water to the tank by means of a direct connection. Evidence of a direct-connection entry was gathered only gradually, however, in large measure because of some of the psychological factors and motivations discussed earlier.PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTORS Perhaps because of the enormity of the event, many people, even those only peripherally involved, tended to remember in detail and with great clarity the sequence of events of that night. Nevertheless, people experienced the event in different ways, thus yielding, for example, varying estimates of the duration of the actual release. The tendency of plant workers to omit facts or distort evidence was also clearly evident after the Bhopal incident, making the collection of evidence a time-consuming process.In investigating any incident in which facts seem to have been omitted or distorted, it is necessary to examine the motives of those involved. The story that had been initially told by the workers was a preferable one from their perspective, because it exonerated everyone, except perhaps the supervisor. According to this version, the reaction happened instantaneously; there was no time to take preventive or remedial measures, and there was no known cause. Without a cause, no blame could be established.Because critical facts were being deliberately omitted and distorted, the investigation team had to continually review and reanalyze each new piece of evidence and to assess its consistency and veracity with hard evidence and known facts. Ultimately, several firm pieces of evidence came to light — evidence that simply did not fit the story told initially by the workers, and that eventually led to the conclusion that a direct water connection had been found by the workers, but had been covered up. Page 10 of 16 Bhopal as a Case Study – Union Carbide Corp.LAST TRANSFER OF MIC TO THE SEVIN UNIT The plant records show the following sequence of events. Although in the weeks prior to the incident the MIC manufacturing unit had been shut down, the SEVIN unit was operating, using the MIC that had been stored in the tanks. The operators were transferring MIC from Tank 611 to a one-ton charge pot for subsequent conversion to SEVIN. Plant procedure was to exhaust the contents of one MIC storage tank before using the MIC in the second tank, and 21 tons remained in Tank 611.Thus, although they experienced some difficulty in pressurizing Tank 610, which had been at atmospheric pressure for the previous six weeks, there was more than enough MIC in Tank 611 to meet the SEVIN production requirement and there was no need to use the MIC in Tank 610. During the early period after the incident, when the Union Carbide investigation team was about to assist in safely disposing of the MIC remaining in Tank 611, the MIC in the SEVIN charge pot and the transfer line between the tank and the charge pot was sampled.The MIC was found to be greenish, with a higher-than-normal chloroform content (consistent with that of the MIC stored in Tank 610 prior to the incident), and with evidence of the presence of non-volatile reaction products of a water-MIC reaction. These samples caused a substantial amount of concern because it was then feared that there might also be a major problem with the MIC in Tank 611 as well. Precautions were taken to sample the MIC in Tank 611 and extensive analyses of the contents of Tank 611 were conducted.The MIC in Tank 611, however, proved to be onspecification and clear, with normal levels of chloroform, and no non-volatile reaction products. The investigation team, therefore, concluded that the last transfer to the SEVIN charge pot must have c ome from Tank 610, before its contents had severely reacted, rather than from Tank 611. This piece of evidence was surprising because everyone had assumed that all transfers had come from Tank 611 during the period prior to the event. This assumption had been made because the last transfer, as logged by the SEVIN unit operators, occurred from Tank 611 at 23:30, or 11:30 p. . , just prior to the incident. In addition, prior to the time the pressure had begun to rise in Tank 610, there had been insufficient pressure to make a transfer from Tank 610. No operators had reported a transfer that night from Tank 610, although several stated a transfer from Tank 611 had occurred. The team was well aware of the tendency of operators, after an incident of such magnitude, to distance themselves and minimize their involvement, and therefore it continued to explore the possibility that a transfer had been made from Tank 610.Some of the copies of records released to Union Carbide in December 1985 were copies of the MIC inventory records, including those for the night of the incident. One log, which had been previously unavailable to Union Carbide's investigation team in December 1984, showed a final transfer of MIC from Tank 611 between 10:15 and 10:30 p. m. , the evening of the incident. Although, initially, the log did not appear out of the ordinary, several unusual factors were noticed upon closer examination (see next-to-last entry in Figure 6): 1) The transfer was logged as having started at 10:15 p. . on the second shift but between two operators who did not arrive until the third shift began at 10:45 p. m. later that night. It was logged in the handwriting of one of those third shift operations. 2) The logged time of the transfer was out of sequence with the remaining entries. 3) The operator who logged it normally used the 24-hour clock convention in recording transfers. The investigators studied these records, and finally determined that the transfer had been origin ally logged at â€Å"0:15† to â€Å":30†, or 12:15 to 12:30 a. m. and had been altered later that morning Page 11 of 16 Bhopal as a Case Study – Union Carbide Corp. in an attempt to cover up the events and to move the time of the transfer back to a period of time in which the MIC operators could not be blamed. The team thus concluded that the logs showed there had been a transfer from Tank 610 at 12:15 a. m. to 12:30 a. m. — 15 minutes before the major release occurred. In addition to its proximity to the release, the transfer also occurred during the time of the tea break, which was highly irregular.Water is known to be heavier than MIC, and the transfer line comes up from the bottom of the tank. With the discovery of this log, together with the results of the charge pot analysis, the UCC team concluded that there had been an attempt by the MIC operators to remove water from the tank just prior to the time the safety valve lifted, after the pressure had increased sufficiently in the tank to move the material out. This completely refuted the story that the workers had originally told regarding the instantaneous reaction.Moreover, it showed that the operators knew water had entered Tank 610. The transfer of one ton of material would have been wholly and obviously ineffective to relieve pressure in the 45-ton tank; the only reason for a transfer at that time was to get water known to be in the tank out of the tank. This conclusion was further supported by the logs recorded that night in the SEVIN unit. These were made in duplicate, and one copy showed the time of an MIC transfer as 23:30, whereas on the other copy, found in the accounting records, the time of the transfer was missing.We believe that the SEVIN supervisor may have filled in the time of the transfer after the incident to make it appear that the transfer had not occurred close to the time of the major release, but was unable to do so on all copies because the second copy had already been sent (as required by plant procedure) to the plant's accounting office. When the investigating team interviewed the SEVIN supervisor, he at first would not admit that he had gone into the SEVIN unit that morning at all, but he later admitted that he had entered there briefly to complete his logs.The morning after the incident he reportedly discussed the possibility of reacting the MIC in the charge pot into SEVIN, perhaps in an attempt to destroy any evidence of a charge from Tank 610. CONTRADICTIONS Meanwhile, as the interviews with the operators and supervisors directly involved progressed, it became apparent that there were massive contradictions in their stories. For example, operators and employees from other units and another plant downwind of the MIC unit, together with some MIC operators, reported sensing small MIC leaks well before the major release occurred, and they notified their shift supervisors.However, those Bhopal plant supervisors denied hearing an y reports about earlier leaks. In addition, the supervisors were unable to plausibly account for their activities during the 45-minute period prior to the release. They placed themselves with people and in locations for reasons that were entirely different from those that had been given by those individuals they were supposedly with. Ultimately, the reasons for this became clear: witnesses from other units reported that these supervisors and the plant superintendent were taking a break in the plant's main canteen when they received word of the incident.Because previously they had been instructed not to take their breaks together, they masked their actions by claiming to know nothing until just prior to the major release. Page 12 of 16 Bhopal as a Case Study – Union Carbide Corp. The operators in the MIC unit also gave widely contradictory accounts. For example, some stated that the alarm signaling the major release went off only several minutes after tea began at 12:15 a. m. , whereas others stated that the tea period in the control room was entirely normal, and they had not noticed anything to be amiss until just a few minutes prior to the major release.The control room operator initially told the media that he noticed the pressure in Tank 610 was 10 psig when the shift began; however, he later stated that the pressure remained at 2 psig until after tea. Because some of the witnesses directly involved in the incident were initially unavailable for interviews, and because others were rendering obviously contradictory accounts, reports given by the more peripheral figures during the incident became highly important.For these individuals, primarily operators from other units or those who were not present at the time of the incident, there was no motive to distort or omit facts, and their accounts were thus deemed more reliable. Ultimately, it became clear that the MIC operators knew at least 30 to 45 minutes before the release that something was seriously wrong, and that several had acted in an attempt to forestall the problem. One of the more reliable accounts came from a witness who had no motive or reason to distort or omit the facts. He was the â€Å"tea boy†, who served tea in the MIC control room just prior to the major release.With some difficulty, he was located in Nepal, in the Himalayas, and brought to Delhi. Despite the MIC operators' claim of a normal tea period, the tea boy reported that when he entered the unit at about 12:15 a. m. , the atmosphere was tense and quiet. Although he attempted to serve tea, the operators refused it. After detailed questioning of scores of operators, it became apparent that those directly involved were unable to give consistent accounts because they were attempting to give very specific details of events that never occurred.Therefore, the investigation team made an intensive effort to find logs that might have been initially overlooked and that might shed some light on the cause or course of the incident. Two of the significant findings were: 1) While reviewing the daily notes of the MIC unit for the period prior to the incidents, a sketch was found on the reverse side of one page, the first page available for writing. This sketch showed a hose connection to an instrument on a tank, and it appears to have been made to explain how the water entered the tank. ) This effort to search the records brought to light even further evidence of attempts to cover up the story. For example, the time of the occurrence had been altered in log after log to reflect the incident occurring at a different time than had been initially recorded. This was true of the foam-tender log, the assistant security officer's log, the utilities log, and the stores register. Further, in some logs, the pages relevant to the period in question had been either completely, or partially, ripped out. It appeared clear: there had been a systematic effort to alter and destroy logs.In many cases, the t eam found that the witnesses, especially the peripheral ones, were not aware of which facts were pertinent, and they revealed only those they considered important. Thus, it was necessary to talk at length to witnesses about all the facts and circumstances involved to draw out relevant facts. For example, during a series of routine interviews with a variety of former plant employees held in the winter of 1986, an instrument supervisor, who was not on duty that night, offered a telling observation.Casually, he mentioned that when he arrived at the scene early on the morning following the incident, upon checking the instruments on the tank, as he had been instructed to do, he noticed that the local pressure indicator on Tank 610 was missing. This fact was of crucial importance because the instrument is on the tank manhead, and was one of the few places to Page 13 of 16 Bhopal as a Case Study – Union Carbide Corp. which a water hose could be connected (see Item 10 of Figure 7). T he witness was wholly unaware of the significance of his statement.Upon further questioning, the team learned that the indicator was not only missing, but a plug had not been inserted in its place, as would have been the case if it had been removed in the course of plant maintenance. Plant logs showed that the local pressure indicator had been present as of Friday, November 30, 1984, two days prior to the incident. The same instrument supervisor stated that he also found a hose lying beside the tank manhead that morning, and that water was running out of it.Other witnesses questioned later also recalled that the local pressure indicator on Tank 610 was found to be missing after the incident. After his statements subsequently became public in the litigation between the Indian Government and Union Carbide, the CBI subjected the instrument supervisor to six days of interrogation and intimidation during which they attempted, without success, to force him to change his testimony 5. Addit ional significant evidence of direct entry of water came from other peripheral witnesses.Within hours of the incident, reports of a direct water connection to the tank began to circulate among the plant employees. These were reported to the Indian Government by plant management but they could not be pursued at that time because the CBI had prohibited interviews of plant employees. As it became evident that a massive cover-up had occurred among the more directly involved witnesses, these reports became more credible. The investigators, therefore, traced the origins of this report and spoke to an off-duty employee of another unit, who had reached the plant at approximately 2:00 a. . the morning of the incident. He stated that he had been told by a close friend of one of the MIC operators that water had entered through a tube that had been connected to the tank. This was discovered by the other MIC operators, who then tried to open and close valves to prevent the release. Although the MIC operators used technical terms to describe the connection that the interviewee did not understand, he was able to draw the exact location of the connection, which proved to be the location of the local pressure indicator on Tank 610.Another peripheral witness whose testimony proved to be of significance was an operator from a different unit who was on duty that night. He stated that, shortly after the release had subsided early that morning, at approximately 3:00 a. m. , the workers from other units were discussing the incident in the plant. Two MIC operators told them that water had entered the tank through a pressure gauge. VII. THE DIRECT-ENTRY CHRONOLOGY The results of this investigation show, with virtual certainty, that the Bhopal incident was caused by the entry of water to the tank through a hose that had been connected directly to the tank.It is equally clear that those most directly involved attempted to obfuscate these events. Nevertheless, the pieces of the puzzle ar e now firmly in place, and based upon technical and objective evidence, the following sequence of events occurred. At 10:20 p. m. on the night of the incident, the pressure in Tank 610 was at 2 psig. This is significant because no water could have entered prior to that point; otherwise a reaction would have begun, and the resulting pressure rise would have been noticed. At 10:45 p. m. , the shift change occurred.The unit was shut down and it takes at least a half hour for the shift change to be Page 14 of 16 Bhopal as a Case Study – Union Carbide Corp. accomplished. During this period, on a cold winter night, the MIC storage area would be completely deserted. We believe that it was at this point — during the shift change — that a disgruntled operator entered the storage area and hooked up one of the readily available rubber water hoses to Tank 610, with the intention of contaminating and spoiling the tank's contents. It was well known among the plant's operators that water and MIC should not be mixed.He unscrewed the local pressure indicator, which can be easily accomplished by hand, and connected the hose to the tank. The entire operation could be completed within five minutes. Minor incidents of process sabotage by employees had occurred previously at the Bhopal plant, and, indeed, occur from time to time in industrial plants all over the world. The water and MIC reaction initiated the formation of carbon dioxide which, together with MIC vapors, was carried through the header system and out of the stack of the vent gas scrubber by about 11:30 to 11:45 p. m.Because the â€Å"common valve† (Item 16 of Figure 7) was in a closed position before the incident and the tank held a strong vacuum when it cooled down after the incident, it is clear that the valve was temporarily opened to permit the entry of water. This also permitted the vapors initially generated to flow (via the PVH) out through the RVVH. It was these vapors that were sen sed by workers in the area downwind as the earlier minor MIC leaks. The leak was also sensed by several MIC operators who were sitting downwind of the leak at the time. They reported the leak to the MIC supervisor and began to search for it in the MIC structure.At about midnight, they found what they believed to be the source, viz. , a section of open piping located on the second level of the structure near the vent gas scrubber. They fixed a fire hose so that it would spray in that direction and returned to the MIC control room believing that they had successfully contained the MIC leak. Meanwhile, the supervisors went to the plant's main canteen on break. Shortly after midnight, several MIC operators saw the pressure rise on the gauges in the control room and realized that there was a problem with Tank 610.They ran to the tank and discovered the water hose connection to the tank. They discussed the alternatives and called the supervisors back from the canteen. They decided upon tr ansferring about one ton of the tank's contents to the SEVIN unit as the best method of getting the water out. The major release then occurred. The MIC supervisor called the MIC production manager at home within fifteen minutes of the major release and told him that water had gotten into an MIC tank. (It later took UCC's and GOI's investigating teams, working separately, months to determine scientifically that water entry had been responsible. Not knowing if the attempted transfer had exacerbated the incident, or whether they could have otherwise prevented it, or whether they would be blamed for not having notified plant management earlier, those involved decided upon a cover-up. They altered logs that morning and thereafter to disguise their involvement. As is not uncommon in many such incidents, the reflexive tendency to cover up simply took over. VIII. CONCLUSION By their nature, large-magnitude incidents present unique problems for investigators.In the case of the Bhopal inciden t, these problems were compounded by the constraints placed on the Union Carbide investigation team by the Indian Government and, most significantly, by the Page 15 of 16 Bhopal as a Case Study – Union Carbide Corp. prohibition of interviews of plant employees for over a year. Had those constraints not been imposed, the actual cause of the incident would have been determined within several months. Because the investigation was blocked, a popular explanation arose in the media as to the cause of the tragedy.A thorough investigation, which included scores of in-depth witness interviews, a review of thousands of plant logs, tests of valving and piping, hundreds of scientific experiments, and examinations of the plant and its equipment, was ultimately conducted over a year later. That investigation has established that the incident was not caused in the manner popularly reported, but rather was the result of a direct water connection to the tank. IX. REFERENCES 1. Pietersen, J. M . , â€Å"Analysis of the LPG Incident in San Juan Ixtahuapec, Mexico City, 19 November 1984†³, TNO Report 85-0222, 1985. 2. Report on Scientific Studies on the Release Factors Related to Bhopal Toxic Gas Leakage†, Indian Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, December 1985. 3. â€Å"Bhopal Methyl Isocyanate Investigation Team Report†, Union Carbide Corporation, Danbury, Connecticut, U. S. A. , March 1985. 4. In re: Union Carbide Corporation Gas Plant Disaster at Bhopal, India in December 1984. MDL Docket No. 626, U. S. District Court, Southern District of New York, Ordered November 8, 1985. 5. Interlocutory Application No. 19, Filed in Court of District Judge, Bhopal, in Regular Suit No. 1113 of 1986, Date, February 4, 1986. Page 16 of 16