TOXIC QUESTIONS

FOLLOWING the tragedy, the Indian Council for Medical Research ICMR had taken up 24 studies to evaluate the effects of MIC on the victims. Of the three proposed studies that were to be published, only one saw light of the day. The ICMR stopped its work in 1994. After the baseline study, the sub sample for clinical study was never carried out. The project was terminated before this study could be shed light on the precise nature of the high morbidity.
This work involving 200 scientists and Rs 20 crore was to be published under three heads 8212;toxicological, clinical and epidemiological. Only one report out of the three was published and most of the other valuable scientific work is lost. Following this sudden decision in 1994, the state government hired 53 scientists of the original 200 and gave them a corpus of Rs 5 crore to carry out research work under the Bhopal Gas Tragedy Relief and Rehabilitation Department.
Dr Nalok Banerjee, a former research hand with the ICMR project was a young MBBS student when the tragedy struck. He had made up his mind to stick to research around the effects of MIC. After the premature closure of ICMR work, he was asked to be the officer-in-charge of the new epidemiological research cell. With their limited resources, his team has continued the epidemiological study on the same cohort identified by ICMR8212;one lakh of the 55 lakh affected people. Plus a control group not affected by the gas.
In the last 10 years, they have found morbidity to be high in the gas-affected population compared to the control group. 8220;We have tried our best but there was no senior scientist to help us,8221; says Banerjee.
When this fact was brought to light, the Supreme Court set up a monitoring committee to look into the issue. An Advisory Committee was set up to look at the structure and content of studies taken to document long term health consequences of toxic exposure.
While there is a plethora of committees on paper, the situation on the ground has been stagnant since 1995 after the exit of ICMR from the scene. Bhopal victims have not been on the radar of the top scientists of the country despite the following facts:
The morbidity rate has been found to be high in the studies done by the state government but the Centre refuses to probe further. In studies, it shows morbidity to be 18.99 per cent in gas-affected areas compared to 5.02 per cent in the control group. It is the lungs, the eye and gastrointestinal problems that are most commonly reported.
Scientists consider a genetic study to be the most important. A study was sanctioned but it was not even begun as the state government could not procure chemicals.
The ICMR study done immediately after the disaster did not show abnormal incidence of congenital malformation. However, there were other indicators that required a probe. They found that babies born of parents exposed to the gas showed delay in learning a language. 8220;We wanted to follow the same children to see them through puberty and after it but it was shut down. We needed to find the chromosomal aberrations responsible for this,8221; said Prashant Pathak, one of the doctors associated with the research then.
Out of the six studies proposed to the ICMR, they have rejected four and are sitting over two for the last four years.

IT is not all about gas. Activists working with the affected population believe that the toxic waste has contaminated the groundwater that is causing a whole host of diseases for people consuming it8212;from itching to other serious developmental issues in the body.
Since 1984, there have been 10 studies by the MPCB and NEERI and each one has concluded that the water is of drinking quality. However, the daily monitoring figures show high levels of heavy metals in several of the sites they monitor around the factory site.
8220;If you see the area you will know where these heavy metals are coming from. People maintain unhygienic conditions there. There is filth all around. Obviously the readings will show a presence of heavy metals,8221; said S.P. Gautam, chairman, MPCB. The Board claims to have analysed it and found no clear trend.
The activists do not buy this after they procured monitoring data through RTI from the MPCB. 8220;The Board actually stops lifting samples from areas that show heavy presence of contaminants. Their own data shows a presence of heavy metals such as nickel, chromium, mercury, and lead, along with other toxic materials such as dichlorobenzines, all of which were used at the Union Carbide plant,8221; said Rachna Dhingra of the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal.
After several protests, the government has started supplying water to residents but it is inadequate and comes only once in four days. The Prime Minister has given an assurance that the pipeline work would be expedited in 2006 but little has moved.
The latest in the long series of government reports has been a state government commissioned study by a Bhopal-based medical doctor to see if the contaminants led to health impacts. Still under wraps, according to sources, it has the same conclusions: There is no causative factor with morbidity. In other words, there is no link between contaminants in water and high incidence of morbidity.
8220;When there is no evidence of contaminants in water, how can there be morbidity because of that,8221; said a scientist who was part of the study. 8220;When there is no cause, there is no effect,8221; he said.
This group has not collected samples of water but has relied on reports done previously. The report gives two explanations on why there are no contaminants: the polythene layer that was put in the solar ponds where the Union Carbide disposed off its waste and the black cotton soil of Bhopal. 8220;At that time, NEERI had said, it would take 23 years for these to leach to the groundwater,8221; he says. When reminded that it is 25 years since the tragedy, he says 8220;Well, maybe then there should be a study to see whether the contaminants have reached the aquifers and then if they have reached the human body,8221; he says.
Another study. Another copy-paste conclusion. The activists are on hunger strike in Delhi pressing for clean drinking water and revival of ICMR research, among other things. So far, there are no indications from the government to believe that Delhi has seen the last of their protests. The Bhopal gas tragedy is still to be put to rest.