NEW DELHI India Female survivors of the Bhopal gas disaster have shown a high rate of miscarriages, still births and infant mortality, India’s premier medical research organization has concluded.
About 22 percent of the population studied also suffers from mental disorders, especially neurotic depression and anxiety, the Indian Council of Medical Research said in a report made available Thursday.
Doctors found the rate of miscarriages at 24.2 percent, three times the national average of 8 percent, the report said. The study ‘was conducted among 2,566 women who were pregnant at the time of the gas leak, Dec. 2-3, 1984.
More than 2,000 people were killed and 200,000 injured when lethal methyl isocyanate gas leaked from a union carbide plant in Bhopal, central India,
“The nature of the killer gas that descended on the unfortunate citizens of Bhopal remains to be established but the suffering of the afflicted continues unabated,” the report said.
“The intense human suffering this accident has produced among the victims cannot be described sufficiently … The severe trauma of these sufferings is beyond any description or compensation,” the report said, Specialist from ICMR launched 24 long-term projects to study the after-effects of the leak, the world’s worst industrial disaster,
The still birth rate among victims was determined at 26.1 Per 1,000 deliveries compared with the usual 7.9 Per 1,000.
Article extracted from this publication >> April 18, 1986
