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When I see images of the Vizag gas leak from the LG plant and hear about the deaths and injured people, it is a strange memory of the time I visited Bhopal in 1985, a few weeks after the toxic gas escaped from the Union Carbide plant in December. 1984. I was surprised to see the number of sick and dying people in Bhopal hospitals.
In both cases, the accident occurred at night and the gas column that escaped from the plant affected the nearby community. Both plants resumed production after a period of inactivity, and it is clear that errors occurred in the protocols.
As it turned out, the methyl isocyanate gas from the Union Carbide plant was more toxic than the styrene that leaked from the LG plant. However, the 11 deaths so far and hundreds of affected people in the hospital indicate that styrene must have escaped in extremely high concentrations and affected the nearby population.
Styrene is a chemical used in the manufacture of plastic and rubber, and is toxic to the brain and lungs. The permissible exposure level (PEL) required by the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration. USA (OSHA) is 100 ppm (parts per million) for an adult worker for eight hours and the Immediately Dangerous for Life and Health level is 700 ppm. This level has been severely exceeded, indicated by the number of deaths and injuries.
The health effects of styrene on the lung include irritation of the eyes, nose and throat, cough, shortness of breath, chemical inflammation of the lung tissues, and the possible accumulation of fluid that can lead to death, a condition known as pulmonary edema. Brain effects include a drunken feeling, changes in color vision, tiredness, confusion, slow reaction time, problems with concentration and balance.
The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has classified styrene as a possible carcinogen. There is no known antidote for this toxin, so aggressive supportive treatment and treatment is the need of the hour. Supportive treatment is typically skin washing to remove the chemical, oxygen administration, and symptomatic treatment.
The questions that must be answered immediately are: How much of the toxin escaped into the environment? What were the wind emission levels of the plant? Are there other toxins that also escaped? What is the area of propagation of the gas? What neighborhoods are affected? Was the toxin leaking into the soil and water? And how many people were at risk of exposure to this cloud of toxic gas?
Some of these questions can be answered by urgently modeling the dispersion of the gas column.
Keep in mind that the 100 ppm PEL is for a healthy adult worker, but the exposed population at Vizag would certainly comprise children, pregnant women, the elderly, and people with heart, lung, and other disabilities, making them more vulnerable to the toxic effects. Styrene In addition, in people with Covid-19 infection, the inflammatory effects of styrene could be much worse.
Simultaneously with immediate treatment, a search should be made for the population potentially exposed to styrene, so that they can be monitored immediately afterward, as well as in the medium and long term.
Thirty-six years after the Bhopal disaster, it is distressing to see accidents from dangerous industries. The fields of occupational and environmental medicine, toxicology and epidemiology that study and prevent industrial accidents have not yet been adequately developed to address the amount of industrial development that has occurred in India. After the Bhopal disaster, I was frustrated that this field was not available in India and I had to go abroad to study these subjects. In 2020, I’m not sure that much has changed.
(The writer is a specialist in occupational and environmental medicine and is a member of the Bhopal International Medical Commission. He teaches classes at the Indian Institute of Public Health in Hyderabad).
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