Given below is a diary of disasters involving hazardous chemicals. Which one of the following is correctly matched?

Answer: (d) 1987, Kotka, Finland: Monochloro-benzene spill in harbour

Kotka (Finland, 1987): monochlorobenzene spilled in the harbour — the only right match.

The idea

Each famous disaster has one chemical. The question keeps the place and year right and swaps the chemicals among them.

Minamata, Japan (1950s): methylmercury in factory waste water → poisoned fish → Seveso, Italy (1976): dioxin cloud from a chemical plant → Bhopal, India (1984): methyl isocyanate gas from a pesticide plant → Chernobyl, USSR (1986): nuclear reactor explosion

Why the others are wrong

(a) Minamata was mercury poisoning from a chemical factory (Chisso), not a pesticide leak.

(b) Seveso (1976) released dioxin, not mercury.

(c) Bhopal (1984) leaked methyl isocyanate, not dioxin.

The trap

The other three swap chemicals between famous disasters. Know Minamata = mercury, Seveso = dioxin, Bhopal = MIC.

Also know

Bhopal: the gas leaked from the Union Carbide plant on the night of 2–3 December 1984; 2 December is observed as National Pollution Control Day. It led to the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 and the Public Liability Insurance Act, 1991. Seveso gave its name to the European Union’s rules on industrial accident hazards. Itai-itai disease in Japan was cadmium poisoning.