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Women still suffer due to Bhopal gas leak

Vanita Srivastava in Bhopal

Banu Bi, a victim of the Bhopal gas leak tragedy, still shudders while recalling that fateful night of December 3-4, 1984, which left her with blurred vision and a host of other health problems.

''Given up for dead, I had been thrown into the mortuary of a local hospital,'' the 45-year-old said recalling her traumatic experience.

When she regained consciousness, she found herself lying in a heap of bodies. ''In total darkness, I screamed for help and was taken out when two policemen heard my cries.''

She lost her two-month-old infant in the gas disaster 15 years ago, and trudges on groping with a host of medical problems.

With blurred vision and respiratory problems the latest in the array includes several gynaecological complications. ''I attribute all this to the toxicity of the gas inhaled,'' she asserts.

Eighteen-year-old Shabina Banu too has a similar problem which she ascribes to the disaster. Shabina did not start her menstrual cycle long after she was 16 years of age. Medicines started the cycle, which stopped as soon as she discontinued the medication.

''She was almost four years old when the disaster occurred and was severely affected by the gas,'' her mother says.

Reproductive disorders have been cited as some of the pernicious health problems caused by the toxic methyl isocyanide gas that emitted from the Union Carbide factory on the fateful December night.

Despite the absence of concrete ''statistical evidence to unfold the veracity of this theory'', women inflicted with reproductive and gynaecological problems candidly confess that the ''noxious gas'' was responsible for their ailments.

The Indian Council of Medical Research had established that the toxins from the carbide factory had caused damage to the lungs, brain, kidneys, muscles, reproductive and other immunological systems.

Dr Smita Khandekhar, who works among the gas-affected females, concurs saying there is no precise co-relation which can establish a scientific equation between the female-related problems and the inhalation of the gas. However, it has been found that the patients were from the severely affected areas.

Vaginal discharge, pelvic inflammation, menstrual disorders and abdominal pain were common among these women, she said, adding the results of the multi-factorial treatment had been encouraging. ''The basic problem with these patients was that they do not take the medicines regularly and leave the treatment midway,'' she conceded.

Corroborating these co-relations, an international study titled 'Occupational and environmental reproductive hazards' maintains that the female reproductive system is a complex system that required regulated local and circulating hormones for proper functioning.

Normal reproductive function in the female requires integration of the hypothalmic-pituary-ovarian axis and proper functioning of each of its components. Interference at any level by a xenobiotic (toxic chemical) may ultimately impair the normal ovarian processes. Clinical disruption of the axis could manifest as amenorrhea, menstrual disorder or reduced fertility.

UNI

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