December 20, 1996
Suffering Continues for Bhopal Survivors
Twelve years after the Union Carbide gas leak disaster in
Bhopal, India, serious medical, economic and social problems
among survivors and their children persist, according to the
final report of the International Medical Commission on
Bhopal (IMCB). The IMCB, an international volunteer
organization comprised of physicians and public health
experts, has investigated a range of issues related to the
Bhopal disaster. In December 1984, a mixture of toxic gases
leaked from a Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal,
killing thousands and injuring hundreds of thousands.
The Commission demands that Union Carbide acknowledge its
negligence in causing this disaster. The IMCB points out that
Union Carbide's admission of responsibility and its
appearance before the Magistrate Court of Bhopal to answer
charges of culpable homicide would be a first step in helping
survivors feel that justice has been done.
According to the final report issued in December 1996, as
many as 50,000 people including children of survivors
continue to suffer as a result of the gas leak. The
Commission identified several key issues for survivors that
should be addressed by the Indian government and/or Union
Carbide, including chronic physical and phychological
illness, inadequate or misdirected medical treatment, lack of
community-based primary health care systems, inadequate
compensation for death and injury, and a range of challenges
related to job loss, poverty and prejudice against victims of
the disaster.
The Commission stated that many survivors suffer chronic
neurological problems such as loss of memory, speech or fine
motor skills. Many survivors also suffer from post traumatic
stress disorder, a condition that the Indian government does
not recognize as an effect of the gas exposure requiring
compensation. In addition, many suffer from severe depression
and a sense of hopelessness related to their disrupted lives
and their loss of loved ones.
Compounding these problems, the health care system in Bhopal
consists primarily of hospitals and does not provide
community-based clinics. The Commission believes such clinics
are essential to continuity of care and communication between
patients and medical providers. Under the current system, the
report indicated that health practitioners have tended to
overlook the underlying causes of survivors' chronic
illnesses, preferring to treat the acute symptoms of chronic
pain with drugs that are frequently very expensive or
inappropriate.
The IMCB's report calls for the Indian government to make the
development of community based clinics a top priority rather
than more hospitals. The number of hospital beds in Bhopal is
almost twice the World Bank's recommendation. In addition,
the Commission demands that the government provide these
clinics with the means to keep complete patient records,
develop appropriate medical protocols for treating various
gas related disabilities, and monitor patients for a range of
disorders including reproductive effects, cancer and other
impacts which may have long latency periods. The Commission
stated that the government has begun taking steps to
implement these changes, but that they have been very slow.
The report also outlined a range of social and economic
challenges, including poverty due to job loss or death of
family providers, poor sanitation in the slum areas most
affected by the gases and social stigmatization of survivors
-- especially for girls. The IMCB calls for improved housing,
clean water and opportunities for work to meet the needs of
survivors. It also recommends assigning responsibility for
survivors' needs to the Ministry of Health and Welfare rather
than the Ministry of Chemicals and Petrochemicals, the agency
currently charged with this responsibility.
Sources: Pesticides Trust press release, December 4, 1996.
International Perspectives in Public Health, Volumes 11 and
12, 1996.
Contact: Barbara Dinham, The Pesticides Trust, Eurolink
Business Centre, 49 Effra Road, London, SW2 1BZ, England; fax
(441 71) 274-8895; email pesttrust@gn.apc.org.
Note: The next PANUPS or Resource Pointer will not be issued
until after January 1, 1997.
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