Bhopal Gas Tragedy and its Impact on Vulnerable Groups

Background and Objectives: The Bhopal gas tragedy of December ۱۹۸۴ is undoubtedly one of the worst industrial disasters in the history of mankind resulting in mortality of ۲۵۰۰–۶۰۰۰ and debilitating over ۲,۰۰,۰۰۰ people. Inhabitants of the township were exposed to different degrees of Methyl Isocyanate Exposure. More than ۵۰۰,۰۰۰ registered victims survived the tragedy. This study is aimed to identify the challenges of vulnerable groups in the Bhopal accident and provide implications for vulnerable group management for similar tragedies in the future.Material and Methods: A narrative review was conducted by searching databases such as web of sciences, PubMed, Scopus, Springer, ProQuest). The keywords included Bhopal Gas Tragedy, Vulnerable Groups, Women, Children, Elderly and Disabled people. The study included all papers that studied the Bhopal and at least one vulnerable group and excluded all the articles that considered Bhopal as one of their settings for studying non-vulnerable groups. The research team screened the articles and selected the final papers for analysis.Results: Based on our findings, among those who suffered from the Bhopal accident and its consequences, two vulnerable age groups, particularly women and children suffered not only from the general chronic effects associated the with the accident, such as pulmonary fibrosis, bronchial asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), emphysema, recurrent chest infections, keratopathy and corneal opacities, but suffered additional and unforewarned illnesses. Women in particular suffered from Spontaneous miscarriages, menstrual irregularities, increased pregnancy loss, and decreased placental/fetal weight. Besides affecting the reproductive health of the women, these conditions also lead to social problems in conservative communities as many could not conceive at all.Conclusion: India has been experiencing rapid industrialisation and though rapid industrial growth has contributed immensely to the economic growth, there has been significant cost in the form of environmental degradation and increased public health risks. Increasing awareness of potential exposures to exogenous non-biological agents arising out of human activity will become an important issue for this century. Existing public health infrastructure needs to be considered when hazardous industries choosesites for manufacturing plants. People staying in vicinity of such industries should be trained about the evacuation drills. Hospitals in the vicinity of such industries should be trained to deal with such disasters at a short notice. Healthcare staff preparedness to manage such disasters and drills should be carried out from time to time. Government’s stringent monitoring of such industries and enforcement of industrial laws against environmental pollution is strongly mandated. The authors recommend formulation of guidelines for preparation at health care level for better acute and long term management of such similar accidents in future.Children do not exist in isolation and parents, especially mothers play an important role to help them prepare for, evacuate and recover from disasters. In particular, mother’s mental health status is a significant predictor of children’s physical and emotional well-being. The few databases and studies that were available on women and children mostly focussed on the physical toxic effects while insufficient studies were available on the psychological aftermaths of the disaster. Further, no databases were available for the elderly and disabled. The authors recommendfurther research to explore the effects of such a tragedy on the elderly, disabled people and the other vulnerable groups with special focus on the psychological aspects.