A mushroom cloud of poison

Since the Bhopal disaster, we’ve learned that we all carry the chemical industry’s toxic products in our bodies. Every man, women and child on the planet has a ‘‘body burden’’ of chemicals that are linked to cancer, birth defects, asthma, learning disabilities and other diseases. Since September 11th, we have also learned that in addition to our routine chemical exposures, chemical factories are perfect targets for terrorists. According to federal government sources, there are 123 chemical facilities in the US that put at least one million people at risk if they accidentally exploded or were attacked by terrorists. Some of these chemical factories are located in major American cities. Yet the chemical industry continues to resist any meaningful regulation that would require them to replace the most dangerous chemicals with safer alternatives. A recent ‘‘60 Minutes’’ expose vividly showed many of these American facilities lack even the most basic security protection, yet the US government is spending billions of American tax dollars invading other countries and looking for chemical terrorists overseas.

Twenty years have passed, but today in Bhopal thousands of people remain sick from chemical exposure, while more than 50,000 are disabled due to injuries. The amount of compensation Union Carbide paid to the survivors has not been enough to cover basic medicines, let alone other costs associated with disabilities and a lack of ability to work. The abandoned factory site remains essentially the same as the day that Carbide’s employees ran for their lives. Sacks of unused pesticides lay strewn in storerooms; toxic waste litters the grounds and continues to leak into the neighborhood well water supply. Officials at Dow Chemical, the new owners of Union Carbide, claim they have nothing to do with the ongoing disaster in Bhopal. Yet Dow may soon be faced with a subpoena from the Bhopal court to present its subsidiary Union Carbide in a criminal case or face action for obstructing justice. And the New York District court may soon order Dow to clean up the toxic mess left behind by Carbide twenty years ago.

The Bhopal survivors are not only speaking for themselves, but for people all over the world. Their voices are haunting reminders that we are all living under a similar poison cloud.

The writer is Executive Director of the Environmental Health Fund in Boston. He serves on the international advisory board of the Sambhavna Trust, which operates a free medical clinic for survivors in Bhopal.