- Children of victims suffer but have no health cover
- 23 years after disaster, site has still
not been cleaned
Hundreds of children are still being
born with birth defects as a result of the world's worst industrial
disaster 23 years ago in the central Indian town of Bhopal, say
campaigners. They are demanding that the Indian government provide
immediate medical care and research the "hidden" health impacts.
More than two decades ago, white clouds of toxic gas escaped from
American multinational Union Carbide's pesticide plant. The gas killed
5,000 people that night and 15,000 more in the following weeks - and
doctors say that a new generation is being affected.
The true legacy of the disaster is only now coming to light. The Indian
government stopped all research on the medical effects of the gas cloud
14 years ago, without explanation. Despite the country's supreme court
ordering that the children of victims receive insurance, more than
100,000 remain without cover.
Satinath Sarangi of the Sambhavna Trust, which helps to rehabilitate
victims, said that the Bhopal victims' penury and low social status
meant few are prepared to help.
No one, he says, has taken responsibility for cleaning up the site and
paying the high cost of medical bills.
"Because these people are poor or from a minority or lower caste no one
seems to care. Their lives and their children are being sacrificed for
the cause of industrial progress," Sarangi said.
Medical experts who had studied the effects of the gas on children born
in communities affected by the gas cloud said there was now "no doubt
of increased chance of the negative effects in children".
A 2003 study by the American Medical Association found that boys who
were either exposed as toddlers to gases from the Bhopal pesticide
plant or born to exposed parents were prone to "growth retardation".
Yesterday campaigners, who marched the 500 miles from Bhopal last month
and vow to sit in protest in Delhi until the government acts, held a
press conference to highlight a new fight for compensation for families
whose children have been born with "congenital birth defects".
One of the mothers, Kesar Bhai, held her 12-year-old son Suraj in her
arms. She had inhaled the noxious fumes in 1984 and was hospitalised
but recovered. Her son, Suraj, was born brain damaged and cannot sit or
talk.
"My husband is a labourer. We have no money to spend on our son. He
cannot even eat on his own. I get free medical care for my breathing
difficulties because I am a gas victim. My child does not get any help
but he has been affected," she said.
Other children's growth had been stunted, said campaigners, because
there has been still no clean-up of the Bhopal plant despite a promise
from the prime minister in 2006. So far, less than 20% of the funds set
aside to dismantle and make safe the plant have been spent.
The disused Union Carbide factory contains about 8,000 tonnes of
carcinogenic chemicals which continue to leach out and contaminate
water supplies used by 30,000 local people. The clean-up has been
stalled by a mixture of bureaucratic indifference, legal actions and
rows over corporate responsibility.
Dow Chemicals, which bought Union Carbide in 2001, says it is not
responsible, arguing that because the plant is on government land it is
up to the state to clean it up. However, the Indian government's
chemicals and fertilisers ministry has said in court that Dow should
pay 1 billion rupees, or £13m, to dismantle the factory and
restore the fields.
Backstory
On December 2 1984, the sleeping citizens of Bhopal were enveloped by a
lethal fog of poisonous gas spewing from a pesticide plant owned by
American multinational Union Carbide. The gas was methyl isocyanate,
which when inhaled produces an extremely acidic reaction attacking the
internal organs, especially the lungs. This stops oxygen entering the
blood, and victims drown in their own body fluids. The Indian
government is still pursuing Warren Anderson, the former chief
executive of Union Carbide, who keeps a low profile in retirement in
New York and Florida. Union Carbide paid a lump sum of $470m in an
out-of-court settlement with the Indian government in 1989. When the
money was distributed among 570,000 people in 2005, most recipients got
little more than £600. Dow, one of the world's largest chemical
companies, purchased Union Carbide in 2001. Campaigners then covered
its Mumbai offices with red paint, saying it was the "blood of Bhopal".
Dow says it never owned or operated the Bhopal plant and it has no
responsibility for the events in 1984.
