Men in womb during Bhopal gas tragedy 8 times more prone to cancer: International Study

Men, who were in the womb during the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy, are eight times more prone to cancer, a recently published international study has shown. They also have lower education levels and a higher percentage of them are not able to work to earn livelihood due to health issues.

The study refers to the male children born in and around Bhopal in the year 1985 as the 'in-utero men (men in womb)'. 

The study also shows that the gas tragedy affected people in a far larger geographical area – as much as 100 kms from the Union Carbide factory site from where the poisonous gas leaked - as opposed to the 4.5 km radius that was considered 'exposed' by public health officials and researchers.

The study by a team of University of California San Diego (UCSD), United States of America, has been published in the June 13 issue of BMJ Open - a prestigious open access medical journal published by BMJ, a company affiliated to the British Medical Association.

Interestingly, the study has analysed Indian data from the fourth edition of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4) of 2015-16 and the 1999 socio-economic survey of the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) to reach the conclusions. 

Presenting the results of the study at a press conference on Saturday, representatives of five organizations working for the Bhopal gas tragedy survivors have said that the research proves that the impact of the 1984 disaster was long-term and inter-generational. They have again demanded that the Indian government make the Union Carbide Company and its current owners Dow Chemical pay the damages to affected people.

Rachna Dhingra of the Bhopal Group for Information & Action said, “This scientific publication should be a wakeup call for the governments at the state and the centre. The findings of the research are all based on data published by government agencies. The government has taken away the Bhopal survivors’ rights to sue Union Carbide in exchange for a promise to protect the interests of the victims of the corporation. If the governments do not take legal steps to make Union Carbide pay for damages to the next generation it will be a betrayal of that promise.”

Nousheen Khan of Children Against Dow Carbide, Rashida Bee, President of Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationery Karmchari Sangh, Balkrishna Namdeo of the Bhopal Gas Peedit Nirashrit Pensionbhogee Sangharsh Morcha and Shahzadi Bee of Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Purush Sangharsh Morcha were also present at the press conference.

Study details

The study has been conducted by Gordon C McCord of the School of Global Policy and Strategy with Prashant Bharadwaj and Arushi Kaushik of Department and Economics; and Lotus McDougal and Anita Raj of the Center on Gender Equality and Health of the UCSD.

The researchers have said in the paper, “This analysis documents long-term, intergenerational impacts of the Bhopal Gas Tragedy (BGD), showing that men who were in-utero (in the womb) at the time of the BGD were more likely to have a disability that affected their employment 15 years later, and had higher rates of cancer and lower educational attainment over 30 years later.” Importantly, these results indicate social costs stemming from the BGD that extend far beyond the mortality (deaths) and morbidity (health impacts) experienced in the immediate aftermath. 

The study found that men currently living within 100 km of Bhopal and born in 1985 (and thus in womb during the tragedy of December 1984) have an eightfold higher risk of cancer than men born before or longer after the tragedy. And among these 1985 born men, those who never changed residence since the BGD have a 27-fold higher risk of cancer, the study shows. 

The study further shows that employment disability was one percentage point more likely among men who were in-utero in districts within 100 km of Bhopal during the tragedy than those born prior to or residing farther. “This is a meaningful impact since baseline employment disability rates are quite low (0.4%) and men’s employment at the time of study was nearly universal at 98%,” the study says.  

The researchers used the response to the question whether ‘the respondent was economically inactive because of disabilities or… other health-related reasons’ from the NSSO data to classify the person as suffering from employment disability.

The study also found that men who were in the womb and within 100 km of Bhopal during the BGD received more than two fewer years of education than others. “This is a large impact since the average number of years of education in the affected group is only 5.6 years, and because education has such a direct association with subsequent wages and consumption,” the study says.

In another important outcome, the study also found that women who lived within 100 km of Bhopal during the tragedy experienced a relative decrease in the birth of males in 1985 (64% of children born from 1981 to 1984 were male, a proportion that drops to 60% in 1985). This suggests that male foetuses were more affected by external stress due to the tragedy.

Five organizations of the survivors of the Union Carbide disaster today addressed a press conference on the recently published scientific study on the health impact of the disaster on children who were in the wombs of their mothers when they inhaled the poisonous gas.