Between Scylla and Charybdis: The COVID-19 Struggle of Bhopal Gas Tragedy Survivors

In December 1984, toxic Methyl Isocyanate (MIC) gas leaked from the Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, resulting in mass casualty. The largest industrial chemical disaster in the world, it led to thousands of deaths and left over half a million people injured. In the years since, it has become apparent that the survivors have multi-system disorders, likely associated with the gas exposure. In addition to pulmonary diseases, the survivors continue to suffer from metabolic and endocrine disorders, cardiovascular diseases, cancers, and immune dysfunction.

The harmful impact of the gas has not spared subsequent generations; children born to the survivors have been noted to have skeletal deformities and chronic ailments. Subsequently, it was noted that the ground water in some areas has been contaminated, making the issue of toxic exposure a more widespread and chronic problem affecting a wider population.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit Bhopal, the gas tragedy survivors proved to be especially susceptible to it. Estimates from publicly available data indicate that the death toll in the gas tragedy survivors was much higher than that in the general population. This was not entirely unexpected, as initial experience from other countries had shown that individuals suffering from chronic, non-communicable diseases, such as diabetes or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), were at higher risk of suffering from severe COVID-19. Given the relatively higher burden of these conditions in the gas tragedy survivors, the risk of adverse outcomes following COVID-19 infection was always quite high.

This project aims to highlight the experiences of the gas tragedy survivors as they dealt with the COVID-19 pandemic, while exploring the factors contributing to the disproportionately higher toll of COVID-19 in this group.