Also, her mother was eight months pregnant, so they couldn't really run very fast. And so Rehana Bi and her family joined their neighbors on the street, trying to run away from the gas, but they couldn't escape it. She says the air felt as if someone was burning tons of chilis. And she told me that she remembers waking up that night to the sounds of neighbors banging on their door, calling her father's name.ĬHATTERJEE: She says when they opened the door, they saw lots of people outside, all coughing and blinded by the gas. And I spoke with this woman named Rehana Bi on the phone, who was only 16 at the time and lived very close to the factory - still does. And, you know, there was panic on the streets. And, you know, people started waking up with their eyes and throats burning. And an estimated 40 tons of it leaked out and spread through Bhopal, exposing half a million residents. The gas was methyl isocyanate, an extremely toxic chemical used as an intermediary to make pesticides. The gas leak started shortly after midnight, when everyone was fast asleep. So this was on the night of December 3, 1984. Hi, Rhitu.ĬHANG: So can you just first tell us a little more about what happened back in 1984? And before you do, I just want to warn listeners that the details here are intense and devastating.ĬHATTERJEE: Yeah. NPR's Rhitu Chatterjee joins us now to explain these new findings. Researchers show that the disaster has burdened people who were born in the year after the accident with cancer, disabilities and poverty. Now a new study finds that the impacts of that horrific accident span generations. Thousands died immediately after that accident, and tens of thousands more have died since. Toxic gas leaked out of a pesticide factory run by the Indian subsidiary of an American company called Union Carbide. Nearly 39 years ago, the central Indian city of Bhopal was hit with what's still considered the world's worst industrial accident.
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