Bhopal survivors succumb to pandemic 35 years after gas leak

EVEN before the disaster in 1984, Irfan Ali knew the dangers of working in Bhopal’s Union Carbide factory.

He would come home in pain from his shift as packer at the US chemical firm plant, his eyes burning and crying.

“But, then he would go back to the factory for work because he was the only earning member of our family,” remembers his brother Salmaan, 44.

When the pesticide plant leaked methyl isocyanate gas on Dec 2 1984, killing more than 3,000 people overnight and an estimated 17,000 since, Irfan took it upon himself to notify his neighbours of the dangers the vapour posed.

He went from door to door in Budhwara, telling residents to stay indoors and cover their eyes, nose, and mouth.

His actions exposed him to a large quantity of MIC gas, causing diabetes and lifelong breathing problems.

On April 27, Irfan was admitted to hospital with a fever, and died four days later from Covid-19 – his immune system depleted by exposure to the MIC gas some 35 years previously.

More than three quarters of the coronavirus fatalities in Bhopal until June 11 – 48 out of 60 documented – were exposed to the gas leak. Yet, only a third of the city’s 1.8million residents were affected in 1984. “This clearly establishes the fact that gas victims’ injuries as a result of toxic exposure to MIC have caused long-term damage,” said Rachna Dhingra, of the Bhopal Group for Information and Action.

The group wrote to the state government in March, warning that survivors’ settlements would be particularly vulnerable to the spread of coronavirus but did not receive a response.

A petition is pending with India’s supreme court to obtain further compensation for 574,376 Bhopal survivors, as the majority only received 25,000 rupees (£265). The Indian government claims 500,000 people exposed to the gas only suffered “temporary injury”, but Ms Dhingra and Mr Ali say the victims’ lifelong complications are now being exposed by the pandemic.