Nightmares and Hope in Bhopal

by Gary Cohen

India - On December 3, 1996, the 12th anniversary of the world's worst industrial accident, women in saris and veils lead symbolic funeral processions through the streets of Bhopal. In the ghetto opposite Union Carbide's abandoned pesticide factory, children carried handmade puppets of Warren Anderson, the company's former chief executive officer.

Bhopal's people marched in remembrance of the 4,000 people killed and 500,000 injured when Union Carbide's factory spewed poisonous gases over the sleeping city. They marched to end the nightmare of injustice that began when a company based 12,000 miles from India devastated their world.

Then the Indian government undermined their claims by making a private, out-of-court settlement with Union Carbide covering only a fraction of the damages - but effectively limiting the company's future liability.

In Bhopal, the "Hiroshima of the Chemical Industry," perhaps 15,000 additional people have died since the accident, from illnesses linked to that one night of chemical exposure. But Union Carbide has failed to respond to a Bhopal court summons to face charges for culpable homicide. The company also has refused to address the groundwater and soil contamination caused by "normal" factory operations. Independent chemical analyses have shown that toxins continue to leach into drinking water wells near the plant.

Bhopal's survivors have discovered that their compensation settlements barely cover health care costs and do not provide enough funds to help them develop new means of employment; so the people have continued to agitate for adequate health care and compensation.

In response to the ongoing health crisis, a team of experts from 12 countries formed the International Medical Commission on Bhopal (IMCB) and visited the affected city in January 1994. Their mission was to assess the health of people exposed to toxic gases and make recommendations to improve health care delivery and compensation systems set up for survivors.

The IMCB determined that the situation in Bhopal remains serious indeed. The commission found that:

Ninety-four percent of gas-exposed subjects interviewed still experience health problems, with a broad range of respiratory, reproductive, neurological, ophthalmic and psychological symptoms. The Indian government ignored the survivors' neurological problems during the previous decade.

Gas-exposed people have weakened immune systems, making them more susceptible to illnesses such as tuberculosis.

The compensation courts, set up to allocate the $470 million paid by Union Carbide to more than 550,000 claimants, have little understanding of health problems related to toxic exposure. The courts have neither recognized nor compensated people suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, neurological diseases or reproductive abnormalities. The courts do not recognize children seeking health-related claims.

Medical treatment for gas-related illnesses has been both expensive and ineffective, relying on inappropriate uses of steroids, antibiotics and pain relievers. In many cases, health conditions worsened with treatment.

Union Carbide contributed to the lack of effective medical care by failing to provide information about the toxicology of the chemicals released from its Bhopal factory.

The Indian government adopted a policy of complete secrecy regarding its own health studies conducted over the decade following the disaster. The IMCB determined that the government's focus on building additional hospitals in Bhopal is ill-conceived and that out-patient, community-based clinics should be established in their place.

The Bhopal accident highlights the fact that current legal and medical mechanisms cannot cope with the long-term consequences of toxic industrial disasters where the resulting health and social problems span decades and even generations.

So it remains a miracle that, despite all the death and suffering, Bhopal's people have never given up hope.

Consistent with IMCB's recommendations, the Bhopal People's Health and Documentation Clinic - a community-based health center set up by survivors in the poor neighborhood beside the factory - recently opened its doors. The clinic, which offers traditional Indian medical care as well as Western medicine, treated nearly 600 people during its first month of operation. Satinath Sarangi, the clinic's administrator, said that the survivors realize that "we need to take care of our own, because neither the Indian government nor Union Carbide is going to help us."

Wherever you are, light a candle for the people in Bhopal and pray for the power of the human spirit that refuses to be extinguished.

Gary Cohen is an environmental health organizer with the Learning Alliance in New York and sits on the international advisory board of the Bhopal People's Health and Documentation Clinic.

Reported from the Corporate Watch website, PO Box 29344, San Francisco, CA 94129, http://www.corporatewatch.org.