'Local studies, international research evidence to long-term health impact of Bhopal gas tragedy'

From obesity to thyroid disorders and from severe lung and kidney diseases to diabetes and acidosis, survivors are reportedly facing serious long term health impacts of exposure to the deadly methyl isocynate (MIC) gas that leaked on night intervening December 2 and 3, 1984, from the Union Carbide factory in Bhopal, killing hundreds and maiming thousands for life.

On the eve of 36^th anniversary of the Bhopal gas tragedy, local studies as well as international level research details have been put forward to underline these long-term health effects of the exposure to the deadly methyl isocyanate (MIC) and to demand that enhanced compensation should be paid accordingly to the survivors.

The Sambhavna Trust Clinic that has been providing free medical care to affected people since the last 24 years, has claimed that their studies show significantly higher prevalence of obesity and thyroid disorders among the survivors of the disaster. 

“Our analysis of data on Body Mass Index (BMI) and diagnosis of thyroid malfunction of 27,155 persons under care for the last 15 years at the clinic, shows that persons exposed to Union Carbide’s poisonous gases were 2.75 times more likely of being overweight or obese and 1.92 times more likely to suffer from thyroid disease compared to those who had not been exposed to gas,” said Dr Sanjay Shrivastav, physician at the clinic.

According to Satinath Sarangi, Managing Trustee of the Sambhavna Trust, higher obesity due to gas exposure is likely to have made survivors vulnerable to diabetes, hypertension, coronary heart disease, osteo-arthritis and cancers of the liver, kidney, breast and ovary and other diseases. “Survivors having thyroid diseases at almost double the usual rate, indicates that in addition to several other systems in human bodies, the endocrine system has also been damaged due to exposure to Union Carbide’s gases,” he said.

Meanwhile, the US-based National Library of Medicine (NLM), considered the biggest medical library in the world, has recently collated research documents on diseases and disorders related to exposure to MIC.  The research documents establish that hyperglycaemia (diabetes), uremia (kidney diseases), pulmonary fibrosis (severe scarring of lungs), other lung diseases and acidosis are associated with long term damage,Rachna Dhingra of Bhopal Group for Information and Action (BGIA), an organisation working for survivors, said, while sharing the online link to the research collation by the NLM with The WEEK.

Dhingra said that these new evidences, together with the fact that gas-exposed population in Bhopal reported 6.5 times higher death rate due to COVID-19 infection and that the Union Carbide management in its own internal document (of 1974) had put the risk factor of exposure to MIC at level 4 meaning 'major residual (long term) injury may result in spite of prompt treatment', should be enough to prove the serious long term health impact being faced by gas tragedy survivors.

"It is therefore a grave injustice that over 90 per cent of the gas-exposed persons were compensated with sum equivalent to mere US dollars 500 (about Rs 35-36,000) by terming their 'injuries' as temporary," Dhingra said.

“We feel that the Madhya Pradesh government should put forward these evidence before the Supreme Court to demand enhanced compensation for the survivors. We also hope that the apex court expedites the hearing of the curative petition for enhanced compensation filed by the Union government in the year 2010,” she said.

Dhingra also pointed out that the figures released in the annual reports of the MP Gas Relief and Rehabilitation Department show that between 1985 and 2015, on average 3.5 to 4.0 lakh survivors of the tragedy with chronic diseases were annually visiting the gas relief health institutions in Bhopal. “This also indicates the number of people facing long term health impact due to exposure to gas,” she said. 

Minister for Bhopal gas tragedy relief and rehabilitation, Vishwas Sarang, while talking to The WEEK, said that the BJP government in the state is quite sensitive to the issues of the tragedy survivors right from their compensation, rehabilitation, health requirements, employment and their social uplift and will continue to work for them. “Whatever authentic and useful data and information comes forth, we will certainly put it before the Supreme Court. It is the BJP government that became a party to the curative petition in SC to make efforts for enhanced compensation for the survivors, while the previous Congress government always tried to wash itself off the issue. If the Congress governments in the state had taken steps at the right time, the compensation scenario would have been different,” Sarang said.