Amir Khan. Date: 02.15.2009 Bhopal Medical Appeal By SARA GOODMAN of Greenwire
Published: December 1, 2009

Twenty-five years after a toxic gas cloud from a pesticide factory killed thousands of people in Bhopal, India, groundwater at the accident site — a drinking water supply for 15 communities — remains contaminated, according to a report [pdf] released today by an advocacy group and a medical clinic. The U.K.-based Bhopal Medical Appeal and the Sambhavna Clinic say water contamination is worsening as chemicals leach through soil into the aquifer. “A huge proportion of the factory site is full of very toxic waste,” said Colin Toogood, the report’s author. “There are parts of the factory where the soil you walk on is 100 percent toxic waste, and there are areas where you still see pools of mercury on the ground.” At issue is one of the most famous industrial accidents of all time. On the evening of Dec. 2, 1984, methyl isocyanate gas escaped from the former Union Carbide pesticide factory in Bhopal, killing at least 3,000 people immediately. Thousands more are said to have since died or been injured as a result of the toxic cloud, although the exact death toll remains unclear. … …the new report claims site contamination has had lasting consequences on people exposed to it. “Not surprisingly,” the report says, “the populations in the areas surveyed have high rates of birth defects, rapidly rising cancer rates, neurological damage, chaotic menstrual cycles and mental illness.” Researchers collected groundwater samples from 20 locations and sent them to a lab in Delhi, India. The lab did not report finding chemicals in its samples, so researchers sent duplicate samples to a lab in Switzerland, which reported high levels of chlorinated compounds in two of its three samples. “It would be nice to think the contamination had cleared up, but it does make you wonder,” Toogood said. “The Swiss results just confirmed what we were expecting to find. There’s absolutely no doubt their [the Indian lab’s] samples were flawed, but we’re not able to speculate why that is.” Swiss lab results show chloroform concentrations as many as 3.5 times higher than drinking-water guidelines from the World Health Organization and U.S. EPA, and carbon tetrachloride at up to 2,400 times higher than the guidelines. …

Poisoned Water Haunts Bhopal 25 Years After Deadly Accident – Report