Mobile UPI  |   About UPI  |   UPI en Español  |   UPI Arabic  |   UPIU  |   My Account
Search:
Go

Study: Bhopal's drinking water still toxic

|
|
 
  
Published: Dec. 1, 2009 at 12:01 AM
Advertisement

BHOPAL, India, Nov. 23 (UPI) -- A report issued in connection with the 25th anniversary of the Bhopal, India, chemical disaster says the area's drinking water remains toxic.

The report, released Tuesday by the Bhopal Medical Appeal, says there are still high levels of toxic chemicals in the drinking water supply of 15 communities near the old Union Carbide pesticide plant where the catastrophe occurred.

The report that includes test results from June sampling says the water in and around the Union Carbide factory site in Bhopal still contains extremely unsafe levels of carbon tetrachloride and other persistent organic pollutants, solvents, nickel and other heavy metals. And officials said people in the area suffer high rates of birth defects, rapidly rising cancer rates, neurological damage, chaotic menstrual cycles and mental illness.

The disaster occurred at midnight Dec. 3, 1984, when the plant accidentally released 27 tons of lethal gases, which the government said immediately killed 3,787 people. Others estimate up to 10,000 people died within 72 hours and 25,000 others have since died of gas-related diseases, Wikipedia said.

Recommended Stories
© 2009 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

Order reprints
  
Join the conversation
Most Popular Collections
The making of the Oscars The Chicago Auto Show 2011: The year in space
Mercedes-Benz fashion week In New York Tu Bishvat Migron settlement The Tibetan Moniam Festival in China
Additional Science News Stories
1 of 21
President Obama Signs Smuggling Prevention Act at White House
View Caption
fark
Weepy eyes, hot chix, Jersey Shore Ronnie and a guy with mini fishing reels stuck in his beard....
French roadbuilders find 21 German WWI soldiers...and 1 goat
Photoshop this crazy old coot in the cold
Anonymous ends the week by bringing down the CIA webpage. *golf clap*
You can lead a horse to a hyperbaric chamber, but you can't make him not blow up
Man breaks into home, then vacuums and folds laundry (possibly with a menacing scowl on his face)...