The Union Carbide Company, a subsidiary of The Dow Chemical Company, is responsible for the event, with over 22,000 deaths and over 570,000 people experiencing chemical exposure. Bhopal's cancer rates and fetal impact remain high to this day.

While many chemical and pharmaceutical companies around the world lack adequate safety measures, and there have been many different accidents across multiple sites, the accident in Bhopal brings the issue onto the front pages and into the living rooms of many people around the world. The accident serves to raise awareness about the lack of global safety standards, and the differing regulations corporations implement based on the wealth of the country where they are operating.