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New Delhi: When Bhopal resident Rasheeda Bee woke up on Thursday morning and saw the news of the gas leak in Visakhapatnam, it brought back painful memories. On the night of December 3, 1984, Bee fled home when poisonous methyl isocyanate gas leaked from the Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal.
“In every way, it reminds me of what we went through 35 years ago,” says Bee, 65. He is aware that the gas is not the same: styrene leaked from LG polymers in RR Venkatapuram village, Visakhapatnam, around 3 am on May 7. “But he says the scenes have caused painful memories.”
“From what I’m seeing, people slept, like us, and suddenly woke up with screams and screams. People ran like a storm was coming. I saw people losing consciousness, struggling to breathe, feeling nauseous, raking their eyes hot, it feels the same. We know how it feels, “she says, who was 30 at the time.
She lived 3 km from the Union Carbide plant. “My eyes were flowing, I felt my skin was on fire. I was looking for water to wash our faces and eyes. We ran to the bus stop but there was gasoline; then the railway station, the gas was also there. When people fell, we had no strength to raise or revive them, “she says, describing the leak, now considered the world’s worst industrial disaster. Bee survived, but lost her son to a disease she says she developed after breathing the gas. that night. .
About 40 tons of chemicals leaked from the factory that night, and the official death toll that night stood at 4,000. Decades later, people in the area suffer from kidney and lung disease and cancer, while women have a number of menstrual and reproductive health problems, according to reports. More children with disabilities are born here, too, she says. Bee and her friend Champa Devi Shukla, who lost her husband to gas, have spent the past 35 years organizing local women to demand compensation and cleanup of the site. Bee and Shukla shared one of six Goldman Environmental Awards in 2004.
“The government has not learned from Bhopal. We are very insensitive in India; governments don’t value people’s lives, “says Bee, president of Bhopal’s Gas Station Workers Union of People Affected by Gas.” We especially do not value the lives of workers. Look at the way we treat migrant workers during this blockade, “she says, referring to the millions of salaried workers who have no food or money during the last six weeks of the blockade to curb the coronavirus and are trying to return to their states. originally.
Medical treatment is an immediate necessity, but it is also important to have experts who can advise local government on the long-term impact of gas on health and the environment. Polymer chemists at the Bengaluru Indian Institute of Science, who did not want to be identified, said that styrene, which is a component of the polystyrene packaging material, is not as toxic as methyl isocyanate, but the effect on the lungs. and the health after such a leak needs to be examined.
Although Bee and her fellow activists continue to fight for compensation and cleanup of the site, she says she hopes the government will do better this time. “Now medical treatment is better, there is more money in India, I hope the government does more and takes responsibility for protecting future generations.”
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