Lack of Information
Union Carbide (now Dow Chemical, following the February 2001 merger) continues to claim over 60 years of research (including research on human ‘volunteers’) on methyl isocyanate (the gas that leaked from the Bhopal pesticide plant) as “trade secrets”. There is more than enough research to suggest that by withholding information, propagating misinformation and the withdrawal of funds meant for medical care, Union Carbide has impeded the healthcare efforts of the victims to help themselves. The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) in turn stopped all research into the health effects of the gas in 1994 and is yet to publish the findings of the 24 research studies it had carried out up to that point involving over 80,000 survivors.
In the absence of medical information, no treatment protocols specific to exposure-induced, multi-systemic problems exist. Of the two official publications resembling treatment protocols, one covers little except the management of respiratory problems, and the vast majority of the medical community in Bhopal is not even aware of its existence. As a result, drugs for temporary symptomatic relief have been the mainstay of medical care ever since the morning of the disaster. This indiscriminate prescription of steroids, antibiotics and psychotropic drugs continues to compound the damage caused by gas exposure.
