Bhopal, India

Dec. 3, 1984

The world's worst industrial disaster took place in India, when large quantities of methyl isocyanate gas from the Union Carbide pesticide plant leaked out and affected the whole city and its surrounding areas. More than 2,500 people died, and 180,000 residents surrounding the factory have been severely affected for life.

The residents of Bhopal and even many of the workers of U.C.C. did not fully know the seriousness of the hazard they were living with. How the gas leaked, what was the gas, what are its effects on human and other living organisms, what are the medical treatments possible - remain unanswered, as we, the people, have no right to information.

Report from Bhopal

"Six months after the gas leak incident, those who were affected complain of a number of health problems. These range from severe breathlessness, weakness, nausea, giddiness, loss of appetite, blurring of vision, burning in the eyes, pain in the chest, abdomen, back, head, limbs and ribs, palpitation, hyperacidity, cough, vomiting, insomnia, diarrhea, swelling of the body and many others. Also very common is restlessness, forgetfulness, sudden panic and fear, acute depression, anxiety, apprehension, numbness or a feeling of apathy.

"Most shocking however, is the variety of women's problems relating to their reproductive system. Many women suffer from painful menstrual periods. While some women have had very scanty and irregular periods, others have had more frequent and heavy periods. A few women have had no periods at all for six months (since the gas leak), though they are not pregnant. Many women complain about excessive white discharge. Women also suffer due to the burning sensation they experience while passing urine and due to the itching of the vulva. Another very common problem is that of reduced lactation.

"The pain, the discomfort and the utter exhaustion women experience in coping with these problems is something a simple list like this cannot ever convey."

Reproductive health hazards

A team of doctors belonging to the Medico Friends Circle advised the victims of the gas tragedy to practice contraception until the current symptoms of cyanide poisoning disappeared. Conception in their diseased condition could lead to deformed babies.

But what about those babies who had been conceived before the gas leak? Most toxic substances reach the fetus by crossing from the mother's bloodstream through the placenta. Inside the fetus, these teratogens (substances that cause damage directly to the fetus) can interfere with its growth and development. Where this interference has been severe, the pregnancy may have led to a miscarriage. If the interference is less severe, the end result may be low birthweight, birth defects, or developmental or behavioral defects that may not become apparent until well after the birth.

The particular effect will depend on the toxin, the dose, and the time of the exposure. If a mutation occurs in an egg or sperm cell this change can be passed on to future generations. A mutation can result in the death of the embryo, a miscarriage, a birth defect that may or may not be apparent right away, or a genetic defect that does not show up until several generations later.

But graver still are the social implications of these problems and the way they affect the entire lives of the women.

There is Rukmibai from Chola. She had 5 children - four daughters and one small son. The son and one daughter died on the 3rd December. Rukmibai had already undergone tubal ligation. Now they don't have a son. Rukmibai's husband wants to marry again. He wants a son. His parents keep pressurising him to marry again. Rukmibai panicked. She went and got her tubal ligation reversed. Now, in addition to breathlessness, body ache and weakness, she also suffers from acute abdominal pain. Though she loves her daughters very much, she desperately talks about their death being preferable to that of her son. Her daughters of 13, 10 and 7 listen to her lamentations, while sitting crouched up in the corner. Rukmibai is also living with the tension of whether she will be able to conceive again at all!

Zeenatbee from Kazi Camp has 5 young daughters. "It is difficult, very difficult get these girls married. Men are not prepared to marry them - they have the gas in them, they keep saying. People from outside won't marry our girls; they might die soon, they won't be able to work, they might produce deformed babies. But men from here are getting outside girls."

"Or they ask for more money to marry our girls," adds Vaijayantabai.

"See, families have been destroyed. When a woman dies, her husband is grief-stricken. But sooner or later, life has to resume. He takes the Rs 10,000/- and marries again. But for women whose husbands have died, there is no resuming of life. Life has ended when the gas leaked," says Kesarbai from Shakti Nagar.

Laxmibai from Risaldar Colony whispers at the clinic, "Do you know why we get so much pain during intercourse? It has happened since the gas. I feel the lower part of my body is tearing away from me. I pray that he would not demand it at night. I am tense the whole day."

"Yes, everything has changed. You don't feel like it at all. This is also true of him. He can hardly do it any more. As if he is not a man now, "says Sonabai.

Asgari Begum is in tears. "His [her husband's] leg hurts so much because of the frost-bite... He screams, shouts, tears off all the clothes he lays his hands on, throws things about. The death of our two sons has also affected him badly. Her husband was 'mistaken' to be dead and thrown in the morgue, where he developed frostbite. He has never been so violent before-never to me."

Gayabai from Teela Jamalpura: "I don't know what's happened. I feel so irritated. He too. There are constant fights, and we take it out on each other and on the children."

As the first trimester babies of Dec. 3, 1984 are due for delivery in mid 1985, we in Saheli are on our way to participate in a pregnancy monitoring survey to study stillbirths, abortions and birth defects in affected women.

Press reports are bringing in stories of deformed babies each day, even as the activist social workers face police repression and have been under arrest since 25th June, 85. Their crime? Attempting to deliver sodium thiosulphate, the officially announced antidote to cyanide poisoning, at the People's Relief Clinic set up by voluntary agencies.

Our Demands

1. Union Carbide should provide compensation and rehabilitation to all the victims (living and dead) equal in amount to compensation that would be given to US citizens under similar circumstances.
2. The antidote sodium thiosulphate must be administered to all those affected at the cost of Union Carbide.
3. Information regarding the extent of the health damage and continuing potential dangers to the health of the people in Bhopal and other industrial areas should be made known to the workers and the public.

Sisters, We Need Your Help to Achieve These Demands

1. Publicise the Bhopal disaster and our demands in your region and through your networks.
2. Pressure Union Carbide to accept our demands.
3. Work for the establishment of an independent international committee to monitor and evaluate adherence to international health and safety standards by multinational corporations in all countries and demand that full cooperation be given by governments concerned and the MNCs.