Bhopal: A Continuing Tragedy >> Effects >> Health Effects

Health Effects

Introduction

     The ongoing effects of the tragedy, even over twenty years later, are apparent as most citizens' health has been affected significantly. On the night of the tragedy, one of the most toxic substances to the human body, the gas methyl isocyanate, was released. The most perceptible effects are discernable in the generations after the tragedy.

Infants and Children

Women who had conceived before and after the tragedy have given birth to children with very many different ranges of birth defects. Some of these effects include webbed fingers and/or toes, missing or extra limbs, limited growth, artificial aging or youth, cleft palate, and dysfunctional reproductive systems. Another frequent occurrence is that of a disability, the most common one being down syndrome, or a mental disorder, such as bipolarity, depression, or anxiety. Although most children in Bhopal are born with many birth defects, the gas tragedy also contributes to a high infant mortality rate. Over 8% of all born children die as infants. In the next generation, many women have lost the ability to menstruate, disabling them from having children.

The Generation That Lived

In fact, although the younger age group has much to suffer from, the older one still has just as much to be ailed from. As they had lived before the incident in 1984, they had experienced the times of when all their body was functional, making the current days much longer and harder to bear. Some of the health effects such as loss of vision, fatigue, mental illnesses (i.e. depression, or anxiety), breathlessness, early age cataracts, and body aches contribute to the loss of employed citizens, as many of the working options available to the people in Bhopal are diminished because of the inability to endure tough and hard labor. Among those, however, they also suffer from persistent coughs from damaged lungs, loss of appetite, limited feeling in their limbs, menstrual irregularities, and artificial aging.

Short Term

On the night of the gas tragedy, the most evident effects to their health was the loss of vision, and fatigue. A lot of the long term and short terms effects are similar, if not the same. The most apparent however, were the stinging of the eyes, weakness in the limbs, and loss of stamina.

Long Term

It is unknown as to when the long term effects of the tragedy will cease, but till the current date it has continued to affect generations. As the people of Bhopal have no clean source of water, the only one available to them for daily use is the water contaminated by the gas tragedy. The citizens need the water for many daily things, such as bathing, the cleaning of crockery, washing of clothes, and such. Each time they come into contact with something cleaned by the water, or with the water itself, they re-infect themselves with the toxins in the gasses, starting the whole cycle all over again. Although there have been efforts to give the citizens clean water, filters, or medicine to negate the effects of the water, most of this is too costly to implement for all of Bhopal, and keep it going. And even though there has been medicine given to try and allay the effects of the toxins, the overuse of the water makes the medicines ineffective. It is said, that the long term effects will come to an end when the usage of the impure water is discontinued.

"We must embrace pain and burn it as fuel for our journey."

-Kenji Miyazawa