Poisons Continue to Drip Into Bhopal’s 40 Year Wound
On the night of December 2nd, 1984, a Union Carbide pesticides factory in Bhopal, India, leaked a deadly cloud of methyl isocyanate gas as people slept. Thousands died in a single night in the most horrific ways.
More than half of a million people were left with residual injuries from gas exposure. The death toll has now exceeded 23,000, at least 120,000 continue to suffer with chronic health conditions, survivors are now twice as likely to die of cancers, diseases of the lungs and tuberculosis, and three times as likely to die from kidney diseases. Congenital disorders have been found at levels seven times higher than normal.
Survivors and their families struggle on still without adequate medical care, or fair compensation, or even a healthy environment, as thousands of tons of poisonous chemicals abandoned at the decaying factory site continue to pollute the drinking water of thousands more families. Heavy metals including mercury and arsenic, as well as eight Persistent Organic Pollutants, are causing a new wave of life-limiting health conditions, including cancers and congenital disabilities.
‘My sister-in-law has not been able to have any babies… This is because of the water contamination. My four children have constant headaches and body aches and hands and arms and limbs… My mother-in-law’s sister has developed cancer of the throat after drinking this contaminated water. She was 45 years old when she passed.’
Resident of Nawab Colony, Bhopal
Through the work our partners in Bhopal, The Bhopal Medical Appeal supports families suffering intergenerational harms from gas exposure, and also families exposed to contaminated water.
Founded in 2006 by two women survivors, The Chingari Trust provides hands on care to children born with physical and mental disabilities. Chingari’s Children’s Rehabilitation Centre offers a comprehensive range of services including physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, special education, and sports activities to over 200 children from families with nowhere else to turn, all free of cost. It is a safe place where the children can socialise and feel supported, stimulated and encouraged. Donors in the UK sustain this life-changing care, where every year at the centre children learn to speak, stand, walk, and face the world’s challenges.
‘For forty years Bhopal has remained an open wound, untreated and unhealed. We are now beginning to understand the devastating extent of Bhopal’s second poisoning, a contamination disaster Union Carbide planted into the ground years before its factory gushed poison gas into the city. Nine in ten gas survivors received a paltry £380 for lifelong injuries, but it looks a fortune to those forced to drink poisoned water who, just like the 2nd and 3rd generation victims of Carbide’s poisons, have received not even a penny. Until Carbide and its owner Dow Inc take full responsibility for their endless disaster in Bhopal, the compassion of thousands of ordinary people across the UK is all that stands between many and the abyss. Our thanks to these supporters can never be enough.’
Tim Edwards, Executive Trustee
The Bhopal gas leak happened 40 years ago; the disaster continues today. For further information about The Bhopal Medical Appeal and our work, the services on offer at the Chingari Trust Clinic, or the gas disaster and ongoing water contamination, please email [email protected]
