"Methyl isocyanate" is a chemical compound that is used in various industries to make products like plastics and pesticides. It can be harmful if someone is exposed to it, so it is important to handle it safely. Full definition
More than 40 tons of methyl isocyanate spilled from a Union Carbide - owned pesticide factory in Bhopal, India, in 1984, killing more than 20,000 people in the world's worst chemical disaster. (discovermagazine.com)
-- Charlene Colchester, via e-mail Bhopal should have been a wake up call, but it is unclear whether chemical plants around the world are any safer a quarter century after the December 1984 disaster — during which some 40 tons of toxic methyl isocyanate gas leaked from a pesticide plant owned by Union Carbide (now part of Dow Chemical), killing 2,259 people immediately and causing lifelong health problems and premature death for tens of thousands more. (scientificamerican.com)
Its plant in Bhopal, India, was making aldicarb when a pesticide called methyl isocyanate leaked, killing several thousand people in 1984. (scientificamerican.com)