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From: Doctor Fill <DF@cocks.net>
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Subject: =?UTF-8?Q?Why_the_Legacy_of_=E2=80=9CKiller_Carbide=E2=80=9D_in_Bho?=
 =?UTF-8?Q?pal_Must_Not_Fade_from_Public_View?=
Date: Thu, 5 Jun 2025 12:46:15 -0600
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Excellent article on the Bhopal chemical disaster and its ongoing health 
consequences for people living around the site of the chemical leak. As 
one reader commented, these are the chemicals sprayed on crops that end 
up being consumed by humans.

https://off-guardian.org/2025/06/03/grief-guilt-and-graffiti-why-the-legacy-of-killer-carbide-in-bhopal-must-not-fade-from-public-view/

In part:

Health crisis
Survivors of the gas leak continue to endure a broad spectrum of severe, 
long-term and chronic health consequences. These include debilitating 
respiratory problems such as pulmonary fibrosis, asthma and chronic 
obstructive pulmonary disease, alongside neurological, musculoskeletal, 
ophthalmic issues like eye irritation, blindness and cataracts and 
various endocrine disorders. The immediate physical damage was 
relatively easier to assess, but the full extent of health-related 
damages, particularly chronic conditions, took many years to manifest, 
often emerging long after initial legal settlements were finalised.

This means that the true human cost of the disaster was severely 
underestimated during the early compensation frameworks, leading to 
inadequate and insufficient medical support for a population whose 
health was progressively deteriorating.

A significant challenge was the limited understanding of methyl 
isocyanate (MIC)’s toxicity in humans. No population had ever been 
subjected to such a massive quantity of MIC. The initial ignorance about 
MIC’s long-term toxicity, combined with the delayed manifestation of 
chronic health conditions, directly contributed to the severe 
underestimation of the true human cost. This profoundly affected the 
adequacy of compensation and the provision of ongoing medical care, 
leaving a legacy of unaddressed suffering.

Men who were in the womb at the time of the disaster exhibited a 
significantly higher risk of developing disabilities that affected their 
employment 15 years later. More strikingly, after 30 years, these 
individuals faced an eightfold higher risk of cancer compared to 
unexposed cohorts. For men who never relocated from the affected area, 
the cancer risk was even more alarming, reaching a 27-fold increase. 
This quantitative evidence of inherited health burdens unequivocally 
demonstrates that the disaster’s consequences are not limited to those 
directly exposed but extend to their descendants.

The disaster had devastating effects on the reproductive health of 
women. Academic studies document a fourfold increase in miscarriage 
rates following the gas leak, along with an elevated risk of stillbirth 
and neonatal mortality. Decades later, menstrual abnormalities and 
premature menopause have become common problems among exposed women and 
their female offspring.

Women residing within 100 km of Bhopal experienced a relative decrease 
in male births in 1985, with the proportion dropping from 64% in 1981-84 
to 60%. This suggests a higher vulnerability of male foetuses to the 
external stressor of toxic gas exposure.

The most visible manifestation of intergenerational harm is the reported 
incidence of birth defects across three generations. These include 
severe conditions such as cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, Down’s 
syndrome, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, blindness, learning 
difficulties and gross motor delay. Compelling evidence indicates that 
genetic damage and chromosome instability persist in survivors, 
potentially playing a definitive role in the progression of cancer and 
other genetic diseases in subsequent generations. The consequences of 
toxic exposure are literally encoded within the genetic material of the 
affected population and their descendants.

Moreover, reports indicate high levels of mental stress, behavioural 
disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety and 
depression. These mental health burdens are often exacerbated by the 
ongoing socioeconomic challenges faced by the affected communities.

The gas leak affected people across a substantially more widespread area 
than previously demonstrated, with health impacts visible in a 100 km 
radius around Bhopal. The original understanding of the gas leak’s 
impact was often confined to a 7 km radius. However, the documentation 
of impacts up to 100 km fundamentally alters the scale of the disaster, 
underscoring the inadequacy of historical relief efforts and the need 
for a re-evaluation of the affected population for medical and 
compensatory purposes.

Reports indicate that governmental interference has hindered systematic 
investigations into persisting and emerging health problems. Findings 
from critical studies, such as those by the Indian Council of Medical 
Research (ICMR) and the Sambhavna Trust, have sometimes been contentious 
or even suppressed, raising concerns about transparency and the 
integrity of public health data.

A major impediment to effective treatment has been Union Carbide’s 
persistent refusal to fully identify all leaked reaction products and 
their precise toxicity. This lack of crucial information has actively 
prevented doctors from developing appropriate and targeted treatment 
protocols for victims. Furthermore, workers at the plant were reportedly 
denied access to their own medical reports, with the corporation 
asserting its right to withhold this vital medical information as 
protected trade secrets.

This corporate secrecy and alleged governmental suppression of data 
highlight a critical dimension of the ongoing disaster: the active 
suppression of information that could alleviate suffering and improve 
long-term outcomes.

Environmental crisis
Decades after the initial gas leak, thousands of tonnes of toxic waste 
remain buried in and around the abandoned Union Carbide plant site. 
Although the former factory site was officially turned over to the state 
of Madhya Pradesh in 1998, neither Dow Chemical, which acquired UCC in 
2001, nor the Indian government has properly cleaned the site.