Word: poison
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Doctors in Bhopal were growing increasingly concerned about the long-term effects of the chemical. Many of the early victims of the poison gas were suffering from secondary infections, especially pneumonia. Even soldiers who had arrived in the city 30 hours after the gas escaped began to develop swollen eyes and debilitating coughs. Indeed, at times last week it seemed that the Bhopal tragedy might never end. When refugees from the city arrived in the neighboring state of Uttar Pradesh, they were suspected of carrying fatally contagious diseases. In many cases, family and friends shunned them. -By Pico Iyer...
Others thought it was a nuclear bomb or an earthquake or the end of the world. As word of the cloud of poison began to spread, hundreds, then thousands, took to the road in flight from the fumes. In cars and rickshaws, on foot and bicycles, residents moved as fast as they could. As in some eerie science-fiction nightmare, hundreds of people blinded by the gas groped vainly toward uncontaminated air or stumbled into one another in the darkness. Others simply collapsed by the side of the road in the crush. At least 37 people who had inhaled...
...surrounding communities. Most of the dead had succumbed because their lungs had filled with fluid, causing the equivalent of death by drowning. Others had suffered heart attacks. The disaster struck hardest at children and old people, whose lungs were either too small or too weak to withstand the poison. A number of the survivors were permanently blinded, others suffered serious lesions in their nasal and bronchial passages. Doctors also noticed concussions, paralysis and signs of epilepsy, suggesting, they said, the presence of some other chemical-perhaps phosgene, which is used to make methyl isocyanate. Six days after the accident, patients...
...resolutions, perhaps the most poignant comments came from agonized survivors like A. Raoof, a Bhopal farmer. "We never understood why they would build a factory containing poison gas close to where people live," said Raoof, still choking 30 hours after the gas seeped through his home. "They could have gone out in the jungle where no one lives. Now we are mourning our dead." As he spoke, silent processions of survivors carried the dead, wrapped in white cotton shrouds and covered with flowers, through the streets of the poisoned city to the nearby Chhola Vishram cremation site. There, four, five...
Trucks used for shipping chemicals must be strong enough to survive a rollover without breaking open, and tank cars a derailment. Hydrogen cyanide, a lethal poison, can be transported only in carriers with 1-in.-thick, high-strength steel bulkheads. When a railroad car carrying petrochemicals overturns, the reason may be loose rails, which can break off from their ties and puncture the front of an oncoming tank car. Therefore, industry rules were established that call for adding more insulation and head shields. Cost: $452 million...