ARTICLES ON INDUSTRIAL OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH
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- ARTICLES ON INDUSTRIAL OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH
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RF_OH_7_SUDHA
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ASIAN REGIONAL EXCHANGE FOR NEW
ALTERNATIVES
A4 2F. C-Btack, Hunt Uom
Centre
I04-103 Bokcr Street
llwig Hom, Kowloon
Hong Kong
. BHOPAL ACTION RESOURCE CENTER
Suite 9A, 777 United Nations Plata
New York. NY 10017
0H7 :)
INTERNATIONAL COALITION FOR JUSTICE IN BHOPAL
A network of seven groups campaigning on behalf of the Dhopal victims
For further information:
Contact the ICJIB Member
Nearest You
FOR RELEASE:
28 July 1987
r
IMMEDIATE RELIEF FOR VICTIMS URGED
BHOPAL DISASTER MONITORING GROUP
International Coalition of Voluntary Organizations
Charges Union Carbide and Indian Government
with Neglect of Victims
BHOPAL NEVER AGAIN ACTION CROUP
Oudegrecht 36
3SI1 AP Utrecht
Nether land*
o ^fcpAL TRADE UNION SOLIDARITY GROUP
a^^’rcncnailonab Inforrootkai Centre
9 Poland Street
London WIV 3DG
U K
o BHOPAL VICTIMS SUPPORT COMMITTEE
c/o Southall Monitoring Group
Top Floor. 50-52 King Street
Southall. Middlesex UB2 4P3
U K
a INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION OF
CONSUMERS UNIONS
Regional Office for Ada and
the Pacific
P O Box 1045
10630 Penang
Malayda
A worldwide coalition of voluntary organizations called
today for the creation of an independent Bhopal Gas Victims
Relief Commission to administer a vigorous and comprehensive
program of interim relief for victims of the worst industrial
disaster in history.
Citing widespread evidence of neglect and abuse of the
200,000 surviving victims of this disaster, a Special Report
released; simultaneously around the world by the seven member
groups of the International Coalition for Justice in Bhopal
urged that an independent body be created as soon as possible
to undertake responsibility not only for the health care,
nutrition, and other basic needs of the victims, but also their
vocational rehabilitation and the creation of opportunities
for employment.
The Commission, which should be governed by eminent Indians
with significant experience in conducting relief operations,
must be completely independent of local government, the ICJIB
report insisted, because of widely reported failures by local
government agencies to meet victim needs.
The Commission would
assume full accountability for proper use of funds, which should
be provided by Union Carbide.
Funding of such interim relief operations is entirely in
accordance with established common law principles in both India
and the United States that any party responsible for causing
- 2 widespread pain and suffering is under obligation to mitigate that pain
and suffering.
The Bhopal disaster occurred on December 2-3, 1984, when a Union
Carbide pesticide plant leaked poisonous gases over large sections of the
City of Bhopal.
The official death toll stood at 2,253 as of last
October, and continues to climb.
Unofficial estimates place the toll
much higher; between 5,000 and 10,000 is regarded as a conservative
figure by these sources.
The ICJIB Special Report, We Must Not Forget: A Plea for Justice for
the Bhopal Victims, is based on an independent investigation undertaken
since the formation of ICJIB on Che second anniversary of the disaster in
December 1986.
It examines Union Carbide's tactics to minimize its
liability and to delay legal redress of the victims' claims, its aggresive
public relations campaign, and the substantial reduction in its capacity
to satisfy a meaningful judgment for the victims through sale of its
assets.
The Special Report also looks at the Indian government's relief
efforts thus far, the impediments to voluntary relief efforts by the local
government, and other evidence of neglect of the victims.
Simultaneously with the release of this Special Report, ICJIB has
issued a statement on its campaign for justice for the victims.
The
Coalition, which is comprised of voluntary groups in Britain, Netherlands,
Malaysia, Hong Kong, Japan, and the United States, has collected close to
2,000 signatures and enlisted the active support of over 70 concerned
groups around the world in urging both Union Carbide and the Government
of India to release previously unavailable information crucial to achieving
justice for the victims.
ICJIB strongly endorses the initiative of the judge in Bhopal
handling the major litigation over the disaster, M.W. Deo, when he recently
urged that "conciliatory substantial interim relief" be provided to the
victims.
According to press accounts, he made this proposal because of
both the serious plight of the victims and his recognition that the
litigation is still, even after almost three years, in the preliminary
stages.
The Coalition continues to seek the support of other groups, the
media, and concerned citizens throughout the world in confronting five
- 3 -
tragic lessons from the Bhopal disaster that compel immediate global
action:
—Corporate irresponsiblity in exposing workers and communities
to highly hazardous substances and processes.
—Corporate ability to evade responsibility for harms inflicted
and to defraud victims of corporate misconduct.
—Corporate ability to coopt and indeed suborn Third World
professionals.
—Corporate ability to fabricate and promote misinformation
through public relations' efforts and unequal access to
media by corporations as compared with their victims.
—Bureaucratic apathy and governmental irresponsibility and
lack of accountability in dealing with victims.
#
#
#
Telephone numbers and addresses of the members of the International
Coalition for Justice in Bhopal are attached.
INTERNATIONAL COALITION FOR JUSTICE IN BHOPAL -
Asian Regional Exchange for New Alternatives
A4.2/F., G-Block
Hung Hom Bay Centre
104-108 Baker Street
Hung Hom, Kowloon
HONG KONG
Phone:
(3) 337737
Bhopal Action Resource Center
Suite 9A, 777 United Nations Plaza
New York, New York 10017
UNITED STATES
Contact: David Dembo or Ward Morehouse
Phone: (212) 972-9877
Bhopal Disaster Monitoring Group
7-26-24 Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku
Tokyo 160
JAPAN
Contact: Nobuo Matsuoka
Phone: 03 (202) 8031
Bhopal Never Again Action Group
Oudegracht 36
3511 AP Utrecht
NETHERLANDS
Contact: Twen Custers
Phone: (030) 321 340
Bhopal Trade Union Solidarity Group
Transnationals Information Centre
9 Poland Street
>
London W1V 3DG
UNITED KINGDOM
Contact: Barbara Dinham
Phone: (01) 403 7550
Bhopal Victims Support Committee'
Southall Monitoring Group
Top Floor, 50-52 King Street
Southall, Middlesex UB2 4PB
UNITED KINGDOM
Contact: Suresh Grover or Gita Sighal
International Organization of Consumers Unions
Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific
P.O. Box 1045
10830 Penang
MALAYSIA
Contact: Hazardous Technologies Programme Coordinator
Phone: (04) 20391
Contribution: Rs.lO/US S5
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HF' The Bhopal Special
..........................
'
''
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Between Despondence And Despair in lieu of an introduction
ore has been written about Bhopal than
on any previous accident. Ironically,
Bhopal’s victims would have read little of it.
Not that it matters, for whatever the media has
printed, has at best affected their lives in not
very tangible ways.
M
only in passing in the article need to be stressed
•
A proper definition of who is a gas vic
tim is yet to emerge.
recent MP High Court judgment for "standing
law on its head". The second one explains just
how difficult it is to bring multinationals
(MNCs) to book and suggests some possible
remedies.
Besides the procedural and legal questions
Bhopal poses one major question. Can law in
corporate the concept of open-ended liability?
By its very nature, the cost of Bhopal to its vic
tims and their environment cannot be com
puted either with any degree of accuracy for
decades to come. Today, law has no device to
2.
One of the more important aspects of living provide a remedy for such episodes doing any
in dignity is to be able to work and earn one’s
degree of justice.
livelihood. The victims are doubly hand
icapped. To start with, a vast majority of them
Carbide’s various ploys to dodge liability and
Basic issues
were economically depressed. Now their
maintain the "good guy" image in public eye are
bodies and minds have been ravaged. Even
well brought out in ‘Merchants of Mendacity".
f a swath were to be cut through the myriad
those who held regular employment stand to
of confusing developments, the basic im
lose their jobs to those who are fitter. The
Unanswered questions
mediate issues of Bhopal stand out glaringly
health of those who work in hazardous work
tell.
places, is further impaired with work. Wives
rigorous accident analysis is yet to see the
arc unable to perform the usual functions of
*flight of day. Chauhan throws some light
1.
In a trice, a fourth of Bhopal’s population housework properly and children’s’ perfor
on the cascade of events that led to the runaway
was hit in the stealth of night by a killer gas,
mance in school is probably retarded.
shattering their lives forever. The foremost
reaction. He also pooh-poohs Carbide's
task is to restore their health to the nearest to
sabotage theory (for which Carbide has yet to
Yet, government has done vciy little to remedy
normal using the best devices that medical
offer the slightest shred of proof) with some
this situation. To tackle this problem, a proper
science can offer.
good arguments.
assessment of the nature and degree of health
impairment is required. From here flows an
Moreover, as in Chernobyl, the Thalidomide
Was it only methyl isocyanate (MIC) that
understanding of the nature of work and de
leaked or were some other gases (hydrogen
case, and many such episodes, toxins have
gree of exertion each health-impaired group of
cyanide, monomethyl amine, carbon dioxide,
proved their disrespect for boundaries - na
victims can perform. There is little point in
tional, temporal or class. The toxins that
carbon
monoxide, etc.) as well? What were
training 10,000 painters when there is work
their concentrations at various distances from
leaked could well have mutagenic and
available for very few of them. So the next step
the plant in the land-bowl into which they dif
teratogenic effects. If one believed that today’s
would be to understand the labour market, in
world has no right to bequeath the effects of
fused? Did MIC continue to react once it was
cluding that which government establishes
in the ambient atmosphere? What was the
its wrongs on its progeny, it becomes absolute
specifically for the victims. A viable job
total affected area?
ly binding on us to protect the health-rights of
rehabilitation programme involves marrying
future Bhopal children.
the last two elements.
What was the effect of the leak on biota, par
ticularly humans? The controversy between 2
Three specific medical programmes flow:
Little could be achieved in easing the burden
medical theories that gained currency in India
of housework unless government spends more
(see 'Health Issues In Bhopal") ultimately con
• developing a proper toxicological
on infrastructure like water, housing, sanita
tributed
to the victim-toll as treatment
perspective;
tion, etc. Children in particular, require addi
remained symptomatic and never became sys
tional attention. Classes where they can learn
temic. Recent research findings show that MIC
• continuous medical monitoring of the
at differential paces are needed. And for those
has dclnyed-effect potential an animals. This
victims and their offsprings till as long
with mental disorders, the best remedy lies in
was not public information earlier. If this is so,
as the toxic effects last;
community support programmes which give
in what manner and to what extent does MIC
them a sense of belonging and hope. With its
• gearing the health care delivery system
affect humuns ?
orientation, government can do little in this
to offer the best available treatment at
sphere except provide some infrastructure.
Why is Government of India dragging its feet
the victims’ doorstep.
in battling Carbide? Theories like
The Bhopal Special merely focuses on some is
government’s compulsions to hide its own
No health care delivery system in the world
sues of victim rehabilitation, a sad reflection
could have done very much better than that
complicity or the need for US technology are
on the extent of attention public interest
Bhopal’s did. With an already overstretched
not
altogether convincing.
groups involved with Bhopal have given to this
system and lack of toxemic information
crucial problem.
Why is it that we have collectively lacked the
Bhopal’s medics courageously fought death
and acute injury for the first few weeks after
3.
Catching Carbide is no easy task. When Car political will to meet a problem like Bhopal
head-on? Are we too confused? Do we lack
the episode. Yet, Bhopal’s medical estab
bide was first taken to the court in the US,
the expertise or access to a certain minimum
lishment was hardly equal to the task of tack
statements like "we will force Carbide into liq
amount of information? Can we not organise
ling the long-term chronic effects of the
uidation and teach multinationals and the
ourselves? Do we lack the infrastructure or
poisoning. The rap for this has to be shared all
chemical industry a lesson they would not for
the
finances? Or are we, as individuals, too
•round - Carbide, for withholding critical
get" floated around. Three years on, Carbide
atomised to take on a problem as big as
toxicological information; the R & D estab
with its vastly superior resources, has made the
Bhopal? A deeper introspection is called for
lishments for dragging their feet in developing
over-confident eat crow.
to find an honest answer to these questions.
a toxicological perspective; the medical estab
The result is there for all to seem • the shame
lishment for not developing the wherewithal to
In its essence, the basic issue is quite simple.
faced manner in which the professional and the
cope with the mass injury; and societal values
For individuals committing murder or theft
common man have deserted the Bhopal vic
which have influenced medical ethics to put
the legal remedy is quite clear. Why is it so
tims.
primacy on money and ego.
fuzzy when a corporation kilts thousands and
steals the health and well being of lakhs? At
These are but some of the unanswered Bhopal
In the 2 articles in the medical section it would
the moral plane th; answer seems obvious. But
questions.
have been well nigh impossible to cover the en
the world does not move by morality alone.
tire range of medical issues. They provide
some understanding on the health-status of
The media has covered the torturous twists of
the victims, the medical issues and controver
litigation against Carbide in some degree. We
sies and the lacunae of the medical estab
have, therefore, avoided a retrospect. Thus
'continued on page 25)
lishment. Two points that have been dealt with
first article in the law section attacks the
•
The first article in this issue is written by an ac
tivist who devoted 3 years to the cause of the
victims.The event that occurred on that dread
ful winter night in December 1984 has become
distant to its perpetrator-Carbide, the victims’
‘savior
*
- Government of India and in public
eye. The victims’ despondence is something
only they really understand.
I
A proper head count of the gas victims
has still to be done.
Despite the problems involved, there is certain
urgency in performing these tasks; and with
diligence too.
victims
The fihopatSpecta'rO'W
Bhopal - The City Of Despair: An Activist’s Retrospect
Ina sense.the collective emotions of people
-“-of Bhopal have passed through several
phases in last three years. On the night of the
disaster and for the next few days, there were
so many bodies all around; bodies of people
they knew, bodies with signs of the final strug
gle for life, bodies piled on top of each other
in the morgue, in mass graves and at funeral
pyres. With mcgadeath all around, Bhopal was
soshockcd that it had become numb toall pain,
in fact to all emotions.
A few days later,the Prime Minister blew the
all-clear whistle as he flew back to Delhi the
same day he visited Bhopal. But the smell of
burnt chillies still haunted the nostrils. All
India Radio (AIR) continued to advise the
boiling of drinking water. People were still not
sure whether the air they breathed and the
water they drank was safe. They were not sure
that their children, mothers, husbands, wives
who had not yet returned were not among the
bodies they heard were dumped into the Nar
mada river by the government people. They
were not sure whether anyone or anything
would help do something solhat their eyes
won’t hurt and their lungs won’t be on fire.
They were not sure whether they could trust
Operation Faith, of neutralising (utilising) the
remaining gas. So they fled. In a state of shock
and confusion, more than 3,00,000 people fled
the city of death; in less than 24 hours.
They returned to their dwellings towards the
end of December 1984. Till now they were on
the run. As they settled to count their losses
and pick up the threads of their lives, an overwhclminggloom descended on thcm.The dead
and the dying, the possibility of never being
able to work or ever able to live a dignified life
- all these and more, contributed to the feeling
■ of hopelessness. The machinations of the mul
tinational to wriggle out of responsibility and
the callousness of the government became
clear. Resentment grew, slowly turning to
anger. A 10,000 strong demonstration on 3
January 1985 demanded action against Union
Carbide, and for better relief measures for the
gas victims.
The following 36 months saw jubilation over
minor victories, police terror and celebration
of a favourable interim relief order. With
events taking the tum as they have, the over
riding emotion today is that of despair. "Those
who died were luck/
*
young woman of 26 tells
me in Jai Prakash Nagar "they did not have to
suffer like us". People in other slums say
similar things. Despair has certainly set in; and
not without reasons.
Health-wise the situation docs not seem to be
improving. Thousands of people continue to
suffer from symptoms related to the toxic gas
exposure. Death still stalks the shanties. Men,
women and children queue up at the govern
ment hospitals and clinics with breathing
trouble, fatigue, muscle pain, neurological dis
order, anxiety, depression, gastro-intestinal
problems...
The doctors, a majority of whom have
•malingerer-phobia’, follow a routine of dis
pensing symptomatic supportive drugs. The
victims measure the drugs consumed by them
not in numbers but by weight. Yet they have
found little relief. So they flock to the private
doctors with dubious degrees, who have
proliferated over the years since the disaster.
With the keen business sense they have, the
private doctors spend some time and listen to
their problems and then prescribe similar
The gas victims fall sick for some days, get tem
po raty relief and then force themselves back to
work. Physical exhaustion and exposure to haz
ardous work conditions make them sick again.
The cycle repeats itself. Every month a few of
the "lucky ones" escape this cycle of misery
once and for all. In the Hamidia Hospital the
gas victims die under medical supervision.
For want of systematic information on how to
file a claim for a gas exposure related death,
many deaths in the slums go unrecorded and
unclaimed for.
The medical documentation centres which
have been set up to help substantiate claims
have only reinforced their suspicion about
government ’s intentions. At these centres
where gas victims are supposed to be medical
ly examined, only the minimum rituals arc fol
lowed. While more then 6 tests arc mentioned
in the format, only two arc usually carried out.
The government, the people feel, has sent
these doctors to certify that nothing is wrong
with the victims. The government, the people
suspect, is more interested in protecting the in
terests of Union Carbide than its own “sub
jects". This suspicion is reflected in the atten
dance at the centres. More then half of those
sent notices do not go to the centres.
With their eyes and lungs sensitized, workers
in the textile mill and paper board factory find
it extremely difficult to continue working
under hazardous work conditions. The
management of these industries recognize the
problem. They respond by retrenching the
“sick" workers. At least 600 workers have lost
their jobs under the pretext of modernization
in one plant and nationalisation in another.
Unorganised sector workers find work impair
ing their health. Choola smoke for women,
tobacco dust for the ‘bidi’ makers are all ir
ritants that have now assumed a more hazard
ous meaning than before.
The Indian Council of Medical Research
(ICMR) research projects have contributed
little, if anything, to the evolution of proper
line of treatment. The people from whom test
samples have been collected have not been in
formed about the findings which have gone
into the making of prestigious ‘papers ’ read at
sombre seminars. The victims are left to the
monotony of yellow tablets twicc-a-day, red
capsules once-in-thc morning and the tiny yel
low ones-beforc going to bed with no per
manent relief in sight. People have spent
thousands. Many have borrowed money at in
terest rates as high as 120% p.a. in the hope of
getting some relief. Three years is a long time
to sustain hope. All that is left now is an over
whelming sense of despair.
It can rightly be said that Union Carbide's
refusal to part with information pertaining to
the nature of toxins, their effects on the human
systems and possible antidotes has played a
substantial role in obstructing proper medical
care of the victims. However, the government
must own up its woeful inadequacy.
Incapacitated to carry on with their usual work,
the victims continuously search for alternate
sources of income. A truck driver cannot drive
any more because of eye problems, a const ruetionworkerstops practising her trade because
of unbearable muscle problem, a railway
porter cannot lift heavy loads, and many others
arc out of work. And yet the choola must con
tinue to bum.
The number of opportunities for gainful
employment provided by the government are
surely limited. No attempt has been made to
offer jobs that are conducive to the health con
dition of the affected people. At the service
centres, which form the bulk of the govern
ment rehabilitation efforts, women complain
of eye strain and backache after long hours ofsewing, at pitiably low piece-rated wages. The
M.P.Mahila Stationery Karmachari Sangh, a
small trade union of women workers has
focussed attention ona number ofinstancesofwomenaborting spontaneously due to carrying
heavy loads. And yet the only change of policy
is the tapering down of the number of jobs in
a bid to "make people stand on their own feet!"
Spurious organisations run by influential
members of the ruling party are reaping enor
mous profits by making gas affected women
work at rates lower than the prescribed ones.
"Give us jobs not charity" shout the women of
Bhopal Gas Pidit Mahila Udyog Sangathan in
recent demonstrations and sit-ins and yet the
right to a dignified life continues to be denied
to them.
In the miniscule efforts at rehabilitation by of
ficers of Carbide, women are paid vciy low
wages and professional management techni
ques are used to pre-empt any organisational
initiative of the women. More than 100 of
Carbide’s ex-workers continue to be jobless.
Among those who have found jobs, are work
ing at less than half their previous wages.
More than three years after the disaster most
of the voluntaiy groups that had played a major
role in organising the gas victims and securing
some amount of relief and rehabilitation for
them have ceased to function. Professionals
from different walks of life, who had earlier
volunteered their services, now find their local
commitments loo occupying. Journalists who
made their tureen
*
on Bhopal have stopped
visiting the baMis. ’Hie mock battle between
political parties, celebration of the Russian
festival, sensational killings in Punjab grab
headlines, while the slow, silent death of
Bhopal remains unsung. Three years after the
bigstoiy happened it no longer makes "good"
copy.
In the absence of any attempt by the govern
ment to inform the victims, whom it claims to
represent, about the legal situation, what the
victims get to know is often scanty. Judge
Keenan's decision on forum-non-convenicns
was received by the majority with a lot of skep
ticism. The revelation that one of thcBhopal
judges was himself aclaimant only reinforced
this attitude.
The possibility of an out-of-court settlement
after the Prime Minister's US visit brought
spontaneous protests. Five hundred women
from Bhopal marched through the streets of
Delhi defying prohibitory orders. A thousand
gas victims demonstrated in front of Bhopal’s
district court and the city observed a day-long
bandh. The possibility of the perpetrators of
the genocide being allowed to go scot-free in
the event of a settlement filled them with revul
sion and anger. “We will raise money" they
said, "and give it to Rajiv Gandhi. Let us see if
he allows the killers of his mother go un
punished."
4
vicflrfCT
The' Bhopal Special
Criminal punishment of the death-dealers, ac
cording to them, would serve as a lesson for all
those who pursue profits and in the process,
destroy lives of innocent persons. The interim
relief order brought hope to the gas victims.
Debts would be paid back, a better doctor
could be consulted or perhaps a small business
could be started. The public interest lawyer
who had played a substantial role in the grant
ing of interim relief was given a rousing cheer
in a number of slums. Carbide’s appeal to the
high court against the district court order was
followed quite keenly. Strangely, the uphold
ing of the order at the high court did not
generate much euphoria. It is quite possible
they realise that despite all its proclamations
about its concern for gas victims, Carbide is
capable of every conceivable dilatory tactic. So
despair has once again set in as they glimpse
Carbide's "settle or starve" policy.
of fighting , but people elsewhere in the
country and the world would not let the killers
go unpunished". Possibly, Sunil's hopes arc not
based on realistic assessments. Possibly, he un
derestimates the powerof a multinational. But
his voice of hope amidst the silence of despair
makes one feel that the battle is not over.
Satinath Sarangi
Sunil Rajput, who lost his parents, three sisters
and two brothers says " How can this be al
lowed? The people of Bhopal might have tired
Health Issues In BhopaS
eriodic attempts to draw the curtain over
the Bhopal mystery have somehow been
frustrated. The scheme of the out-of-court set
tlement of the compensation case was the
latest move. Had this deal been consummatcd,the Bhopal case could have been offi
cially declared closed and the proverbially
short public memory would have done the rest.
Now that the court battle for the compensation
is on, unsolved questions and new problems
are coming up to challenge the government’s
periodic assertions - all quiet on Bhopal front.
A review of the health damage and medical is
sues of the Bhopal gas disaster will help clarify
ing some of the unsolved problems and their
urgency.
P
Health damage
he health of the gas victims, from the very
beginning has been characterised by
multi-systemic afflictions involving pul
monary, gastro-intestinal, ncuro-muscular,
reproductive and ocular systems, besides a
host of mental disorders. According to the
Medico Friends Circle 1985 epidemiological
study, every person in J.P.Nagar, a severely af
fected locality right across Carbide’s plant,
reported ‘at least one severe symptom’. The
study recorded significantly higher incidence
of about 24 different symptoms in J.P.Nagar
compared to a sample from a mildly affected
locality 10 km. from the plant. These symptoms
included breathlessness on usual exertion
(87%) and at rest (10%), fatigue (81%),
muscle ache (73%), flatulence or gas trouble
(69%), headache (67%), weakness in limbs
(66%), loss of appetite (66%), nausea (58%),
tingling/ numbness (55%), abdominal pain
(53%), chest pain/tightness (50%), cough with
expectoration (47%), skin problems (29%),
dry cough (28%), and bleeding tendency or
coagulation disorder (9%). The data
presented by other studies for the period early
to mid-1985, though lacking in statistical
rigour, is more or less similar to the same pic
ture of the symptomatic pattern among the gas
victims residing in different localities of
Bhopal spread 2 km. from Union Carbide
India Ud. (UC1L) plant. The Indian Council
of Medical Research (1CMR) Working
Manual, April 1986, prepared for the guidance
of Bhopal’s medical community, summarises a
more recent picture of the health status of
patients visiting the clinics. It only confirms the
results of earlier investigations.
T
The reported eye symptoms were blurred
vision/ photophobia (77%), lacrimation or
watering of eyes (59%), abnormal distant
vision (42%), abnormal near vision (18%) and
corneal opacity (5%). The last two symptoms,
though occurring amongst the gas victims with
a higher frequency, were not statistically sig
nificant. This observation indicates that cor
neal opacity, earlier reported by a very high
percentage of victims, was gradually healing
up. However, it is not known whether the gas
victims faced the risk of developing further
complications of cataract, glaucoma and
retinal pathology unless data from long-term
follow-up studies become available.
Mental disorders included loss of memory for
recent events (45%) and anxiety/ depression
(44%). Independent surveys by a team from
King George Medical College, Lucknow, have
revealed that approximately 22% of the out
patients visiting the government clinics were
suffering from mental disorders which in
cluded cases of neurotic depression (37%),
anxiety state (25%) and adjustment reaction
(35%). A population based study has shown
that the prevalence rate of psychiatric disor
ders was 13% in severely and moderately af
fected areas and 3% in control area. Besides,
frequent complaints of insomnia and hysteria
have been reported amongst the gas affected
patients.
Documented effects on the female reproduc
tive system include leucorrhca (white dis
charge), excessive menstrual bleeding, pelvic
inflammatory disease, cervical erosion and/ or
endocervicitis, stoppage of foetal movement
and suppression of lactation. In March 85, im
potence was reported by 8% of males in
J.P.Nagar compared to 0.72% of males in a
mildly affected locality, a statistically sig
nificant difference. A pregnancy outcome
study conducted by the MFC has established
that the gas affected women who conceived
upto 10 months after the disaster reported
about four-fold higher rate of spontaneous
abortions compared to the rate prevailing
before exposure. An ICMR study has also con
firmed the observation of a higher frequency
of spontaneous abortions in the gas-exposed
women, reporting a 6 to 7 fold increase com
pared to the normal frequency. Gas affected
children suffer from lack of interest and
retarded growth, besides many other emotion
al disturbances specific to childhood.
Clinical investigations have shown that fibrosis
in the respiratory tract, resulting from injury to
lungs caused by toxic exposure has, over a
period of time, produced both obstructive
(obstruction of air passage) and restrictive
(loss of lung capacity) diseases in significantly
high percentage of the subjects tested. Prelimi
nary evidence of lowered immune response
(defence against infections) has been
presented. On the other hand, indication are
available that, in persons with pre-existing
asthma-like symptoms, the toxic exposure may
have ‘triggered off airway hyper-reactivity to
specific and non-specific stimuli’.
Most of the symptoms listed above have per
sisted to date, with frequent reports of recur
rent episodes of aggravation of symptoms. Un
fortunately, ICMR’s epidemiology report has
failed to present adequate data to establish the
total number of gas victims and classify them,
according to the degree of affliction, into
severely, moderately and mildly affected per
sons. In the absence of such information, the
health situation maybe depicted in qualitative
terms by quoting BGIA, who observed in 1986
that:
"A majority of victims continue to have peri
odic bouts of acute discomfort and many have
not had a single day’s respite since the gas ex
posure. Instances of gas victims dying after
protracted illness are still quite frequent..."
According to a state government brochure
released in December 1986, persisting ail
ments force, on average, 3500-4000 patients to
government clinics and hospitals specially set
up in the gas exposed area. This figure does not
include the large number of victims who ‘flock
to myriad private practitioners'. The victims’
ability to |x-iloim normal functions has been
seriously imputed in different ways by the con
tinuing pattern of diseases, resulting in oc
cupational disability among thousands of daily
wage earners and thereby affecting their sur
vival. A March 1985 preliminary study puts the
figure of medically disabled at one lakh, twothirds of them severely. The Students Federa
tion of India (SFI), in collaboration with M.P.
Vigyan Sabha and Delhi Science Forum sur
veyed about 4000 households (covering about
18500 persons) in the worst affected zone. The
survey showed that about 88% of respondents
reported varying degrees of functional dis
ability in their occupations, with over 50%
reporting sustained disability. Among casual
daily wage earners. 80% earned less than Rs.
100 per month compared to 25% before the
disaster. Those earning less than Rs. 300 per
month were 85% as against 56% prior to the
exposure. In the words of the Vice-President
of a textile mill workers’ union:
"The main problem of the workers...is lack of
stamina. ...in one or two workers, they are done
for. ...if they work for two to four days, they
have to go on leave. Absenteeism has greatly
increased..." (December 1986)
health
In addition, the possibility of teratogenic, carcinogcnic.and mutagenic impact by the toxic
emission continues to haunt the present and
the future generations of the survivors of the
leak. The scientific challenge, emerging from
this complex health situation, is to formulate a
theory that will explain the observed toxic
damage in both the acute and chronic phases
in a comprehensive manner.
Medical Issues
I he issues of diagnosis and treatment of
the gas-exposed patients have been beset
with controversy and conflicting claims from
the very beginning. Ensuing confusion has
been fueled and compounded by a calculated
disinformation campaign launched by Union
Carbide Corporation (UCC). Obviously, a
scientific approach towards diagnosis and
management critically depends on the identity
of chemical composition of toxic emission.
Chemistry of the toxic emission
tudies conducted by the Government of
India team led by Dr. S. Varadarajan
found residues in UCIL’s exploded tank 610
consisting of about twelve chemicals - a methyl
isocyanate (MIC) trimcr, methyl ureas,
trimethyl biuret, dimethyl isocyanurate, a
cyclic dione, methyl amines, a large amount of
chlorides and some amount of sodium, iron,
chromium and nickel salts. In reconstructing
the events of the runaway trimerisation reac
tion (self-catalysing and exothermic) that took
place in MIC tank, the Varadarajan report es
timates the temperature inside the Tank 610
exceeded 250 degrees C. However, the report
does not throwlight on the maximum probable
temperature build-up. According to a UCC
document, MIC decomposes to produce
hydrogen cyanide,carbon monoxide and oxides
of nitrogen. A study conducted at the Defence
Research and Development Establishment,
Gwalior, thermal decomposition products of
MIC contained 3% hydrogen cyanide at 200
degrees C and 20% at 400 degrees C. Further,
some early journalistic reports about the
presence of phosgene, a highly toxic inter
mediary in the manufacture of MIC, in sig
nificant proportions in the toxic emission, have
not been confirmed by any of the studies.
S
Diagnosis
I nstead of extending a helping hand, spokes-■-men for UCC indulged in lies and halftruths from the very beginning to distract the
medical authorities and victims from learning
about the real nature of pathogenesis and for
mulating a specific line of therapy. A few
hours after the disaster, UCIL’s Dr. Loya told
doctors of Hamidia Hospital that the gas was
not poisonous and the patients be told to wrap
a towel around the eyes. UCIL’s Works
Manager told Navbharat Times that MIC was
only an irritant and not a deadly poison.
Another Carbide official told the Free Press
Journal "Nothing has happened. Can't you see
us alive?
*;
and as he was saying this, the
newspaper mentioned that 'several dead
bodies lay barely 100yards away from where he
was standing
*
just outside the plant gates. Mr.
Jackson Browning, UCCs Director of Health,
Safety and Environmental Affairs, asserted
that MIC acts 'like a very potent tear gas’ and
•long-term effects are not a major threat to the
*.
population
Two days after the accident, Dr. Bipin H.
Avashia, Medical Director of UCC at USA,
The Bhopal Special
sent a telex message to the Hamidia Hospital,
titled ‘Treatment of MIC pulmonary
complications’, prescribing: "if cyanide poison
ing is suspected use amyl nitrite. If no effect sod.nitrite - 0.3 gm and sodium thiosulphate 12.5 gm l.V. in two to four minutes. Can be
repeated (half dose) as a prophylactic
measure". This showed that UCC was aware of
the possibility of cyanide poisoning from gas
exposure, but later the same Dr. Avashia, on
arrival at Bhopal, reversed his stand stating
that sodium thiosulphate was 'neither neces
sary nor advisable'. Even one Dr. K. W. Jaeger
of WHO, without any inquiry or study what
soever, supported UCC’s stand by uncalled for
pronouncements like ‘the affected persons
may suffer from only lung complications and
eye problem’ and further 'there was no basis
for apprehension that pregnant women or
foetus will suffer any damages or deformities’.
On the other hand, more than 3000 people
died and moribund survivors continued to die.
Medical authorities in Bhopal detected
evidence of systemic effect of the poison gas
and studies by Indian scientists came up with
pointers towards systemic and persistent
toxicity in the bodies of gas victims. The situa
tion led to conflicting opinions on the diag
nosis and management of the ailing victims.
Union Carbide’s ihesis
II |nable to deny the lethal nature of the
poisongas, UCC subsequently conceded
that MIC could kill and then gradually built up
an explanation as to the cause of the observed
health damage. A dominant section of medical
profession in Bhopal, backed by the state
health administration, persuaded themselves
to put unlimited trust in UCCs thesis, which
came to be known as the Exclusive Pulmonary
Pathology Theory (EPPT). UCC claimed that:
•
The toxic emission from their
Bhopal plant consisted only of MIC;
*
MIC is rapidly rendered harmless on
contact with water on body surfaces,
e.g., eyes and lungs;
•
MIC does not enter blood stream
and therefore cannot cause any sys
temic and persistent poisoning.
•
MIC, at high concentrations, could at
the most cause local injury at the point
of contact (i.e. eyes and lungs) which
may cause death and also chronic suf
fering in the survivors;
•
The multi-systemic disorders
reported by the gas victims could be ex
plained by the secondary effects of
hypoxia (oxygen deficiency in body)
resulting from irreparable damage to
the lungs;
•
There was no need for detoxifica
tion, the treatment required essentially
consisting of symptomatic relief.
Moreover, UCC suppressed all relevant infor
mation it had gathered over yean of research
on MIC particularly regarding:
•
Chemistry of the exothermic reaction
and thermal deebmposition of MIC
that took place in the fated tank 610;
•
Identity of components of the toxic
emission;
5 ;OI
*
Biochemical effects of MIC and
other possible components of the toxic
emission on humans and other biota;
•
Antidotal treatment of systemic
poisoning by MIC and other toxins.
Counter Thesis
I mmediately after the gas leak, Dr. Heeresh
-*• Chandra, Director Medico Legal Institute,
Bhopal, raised the possibility of cyanide
poisoning. His basis was autopsy findings of
cheny red colour of venous blood and various
organs, early setting of rigor mortis, coagu
lated blood in the veins and cerebral oedema,
and later, by detection of cyanide in blood of
victims. ICMR conducted a Double Blind Con
trol Trial (DBCT) and found that the gas vic
tims excreted 2-3 times higher amounts of
thiocyanate in urine, and on administration of
sodium thiosulphate (NaTS) the amount in
creased to 8-10 fold along with amelioration of
symptoms. ICMR thus concluded that the gas
victims were suffering from chronic cyanide
poisoning and prescribed mass detoxification
with injections of NaTS.
Contraiy to common belief that cyanide is so
deadly a poison that even a drop causes instant
death, human body absorbs small amounts of
cyanide daily through consumption of certain
foodstuffs, e.g., cabbage, tapioca, cassava, etc.
and tobacco. This cyanide gets converted into
thiocyanate by combining with sulphur, intrin
sically present in the body, being catalysed by
the enzyme, rhodanase. Thiocyanate, a less
toxic chemical, is excreted in the urine.
In case of acute cyanide poisoning, this natural
detoxification process cannot cope with mas
sive amounts of cyanide which paralyses the
cellular respiratory system, causing quick
death from deprivation of oxygen. Life-saving
treatment in such a situation consists of
making available a large extraneous source of
sulphur, say, by NaTS injections to neutralise
excessive amount of cyanide.
In the absence of any available record in medi
cal literature of chronic persistence of cyanide
after single exposure, ICMR scientists found it
necessary to invoke the concept of an 'enlarged
cyanogen pool’ in the bodies of gas victims,
which would act as a continuing source of
cyanide-like compounds through the chronic
phase. This came to be known as Enlarged
Cyanogen Pool Theoiy (ECPT).
Evaluation of the two theories
r | \e EPPT failed to explain a large number
of observed phenomena documented by
various researchers, e.g.
•
High frequency of symptoms relating
to non-respiratory systems, high spon
taneous abortion rate and other disor
ders of the female reproductive sys
tem, even after the lung function and
oxygen availability status returned to
normal;
•
About 40% of the MIC ward
patients in Bhopal’s Hamidia Hospital
suffered from respiratoiy troubles, but
were free from any damage to lungs;
•
Detection of carbamylated
haemoglobin and anti-MIC antibody,
disordered immune system, increased
frequency of chromosomal aberrations
h'&altra
the Bhopal Special
6
etc. point towards systemic effects of
the poison;
’
Animal experiments revealed that
MIC could cross the air-blood barrier
in lungs to enter the blood stream, and
prior administration of NaTS
produced a prophylactic effect on
LD50 values and survival time of the
MIC-cxposcd mice and rabbits.
On the other hand, ECPToffered an ingenious
and logical explanation to the observed
phenomena in as much as it admits acute lethal
role of MIC through its local corrosive action
on lungs and then attempts to explain chronic
morbidity on the basis of systemic and persist
ent poisoning due to an enlarged cyanogen
pool, thereby providing a rationale for giving
priority to detoxification treatment.
ECPT, however, failed to gain acceptance in
scientific circles due to ICMR’s inability to
produce scientifically valid documentation of
itsresearch claims. ICMR andothergovernmentresearch institutions have all
along pursued a policy of secrecy and refused
to subject their research data to scrutiny. The
fragmentary data published so far by ICMR is
apt to be rejected in any scientific forum as
sampling techniques and chemical analysis
procedures were faulty. Further, it was later
shown that the autopsy findings could also be
caused by MIC poisoning.
Treatment
CCs refusal to share scientific informa
tion regarding the chemical nature of the
poison and its toxicological impact became an
insurmountable obstacle in working out a ra
tional and specific line of treatment, including
use of any antidote. Further, non-availability
of reliable literature on the toxicology of MIC
and its various reaction products forced the
doctors to depend only upon symptomatic
treatment measures.
U
Thus, treatment has primarily consisted of
topical atropine and antibiotics for eyes,
oxygen and bronchodilators for rcspiratoiy
problems, antacid-antispasmodics for gastro
intestinal symptoms, paracetamol for fever,
and systemic antibiotics to prevent or combat
secondary infections. Corticosteroids have
been given on a massive scale, initially to save
lives; and later to prevent lung fibrosis.
Psychiatric help was provided only erratically
and physiotherapy, respiratory or otherwise,
was conspicuous by its absence.
ICMR’s recommendation of detoxification by
a six-injection course of NaTS was resisted
energetically by leading doctors and
deprioritised by the health authorities. While
no scientific argument could be put forward
against detoxification by NaTS, one of the
safest drugs known, detractors employed
various tactics to frustrate mass detoxification,
including raising a scare among the gas victims
for its non-existent side effects. As a result,
only 0.8% of the symptomatic population,
eligible by ICMR criteria, was administered
NaTS by June 1985, the most critical period
from the stand-point of detoxification, and
about 35% by June 1986.
BG1A succinctly summed up the situation in
one of its publications: 'With all the medical
studies commissioned...lhe treatment remains
practically the same as it was in the first week
of the disaster
*.
Scientific approach and tasks
ahead
I t is not suggested here that Indian scientists
-*arc incompetent or research establishments
are inadequate. On the contrary, evidence is
available to reveal that a number of Indian re
searchers produced valuable evidence to form
the basis of meaningful investigations towards
formulating an effective line of therapy. What
thwarted adoption of such a programme was a
policy of inexplicable secrecy pursued by al
most all research authorities. Research results
were not published, communication between
different research organisations was poor and
an overwhelming apathy was discernible
among Bhopal’s scientists. These factors can
not but result in negligent performance, perfunctoiy data and erroneous conclusions. The
most significant lacuna was the failure to
develop a comprehensive toxicological
perspective for entire research package on the
disaster.
On the other hand, a few investigators dis
covered significant early pointers towards sys
temic and persistent toxicity in the gas-exposed
population. Some clinical and laboratory find
ings have been enumerated earlier. The recent
disclosure of the results of the study of urinaiy
thiocyanate estimation in gas victims by a team
of investigators led by Dr. M.G. Karmarkar of
Department of Endocrinology and
Metabolism, All India Institute of Medical
Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, is an example
of application of standard scientific procedure.
The study presents incontrovertible evidence
of systemic and persistent presence of toxins in
the bodies of gas victims and the risk of long
term health damage including carcinogenic,
mutagenic and teratogenic reproductive dis
ability now appears to be real.
Even those ICMR scientists who earlier were
inclined to accept UCC’s thesis have later ob
served that:
"Hypoxeamia (low oxygen content in blood)
was rarely seen"
"...it is not possible to explain satisfactorily the
disproportion between the clinical symptoms
and the lung function data presented."
"MIC is believed to have crossed the mucosal
barrier to effect the blood and distant organs
like muscle, liver, kidney, brain etc."
But such observations have not led to renewed
effort on the part of the official research estab
lishments towards further investigations, in
stead ICMR terminated Dr. Karmarkar’s re
search project prematurely.
An analysis of the published data strongly in
dicates the possibility of MIC itself being ab
sorbed and bound to some durable protein in
the body and acting as a source of persistent
toxicity as well as generating thiocyanate
through internal detoxification.
It is not too late yet to try to unfold the Bhopal
mystery. In order to obtain necessary informa
tion for a meaning and comprehensive
therapeutic and rehabilitative programme, we
need:
•
dispersion modelling of the toxic
plume from Carbide's plant.
•
chemical analysis of gas-exposed water,
plants and soil samples.
Abstracted from "A Preliminary Report
of Concern Regarding Persistence of
Toxins in the Bodies of Bhopal Gas Vic
tims" submitted by the Minority Members
of the Supreme Court Committee for
Bhopal Gas Victims, Oct, 1987.
Conclusions
• Exposure to toxic emission from the
Union Carbide plant led to an increase in
the excretion of urine thiocyanate in gas
victims, and this increase persisted until at
least March, 1987, if not even later. This
indicates the possibility of a systemic and
continuing presence of certain toxic
chemicals in the bodies of the gas victims.
" Elevated urine thiocyanate levels do not
necessarily imply cyanide poisoning alone,
as has been assumed so far. MIC may
cause systemic and persistent toxicity in
gas victims. Studies conducted by DRDE
(Gwalior) show that sodium thiosulphate
(NaTS) may have antidotal role in animals
exposed to pure MIC. It would be per
tinent to explore hitherto unknown
biochemical basis of persistence of MICor
its metabolites and pathways for their
removal from human body. Antidotes
other than NaTS need investigation.
• The systemic and continuing presence of
toxins in the bodies of the gas victims
points towards the possible long-term
risks to themselves and to their progeny.
This clearly calls for much larger alloca
tions for medical relief, rehabilitation,
surveys, monitoring and research, cover
ing the entire gas exposed population for
much longer duration than what have
been so far anticipated.
• There is a visible declining trend in the
urine thiocyanate levels from September
1986 to March 1987. The statistical sig
nificance of this cannot be ascertained
comparing mean values alone. Individual
thiocyanate value comparisons at both
points of time was not possible because
the original data, in possession of the
Head, Department of Medical
Biochcmistiy, Gandhi Medical College,
Bhopal were not accessible. Only detailed
analysis can predict toxic persistence, and
current and future toxicological risks
faced by the gas victims. Clearly, no
detoxification program can be planned
without such an assessment.
• Assessment of the current toxicological
status would have been possible even
without statistical analysis of the declining
trend suggested above, had the direct
monitoring of urine thiocyanate levels
been continued beyond March 1987. This,
however, did not happen since ICMR, for '
inexplicable reasons, could not sec the sig
nificance of the findings by the AIIMS
team and decided to terminate the
project.
" The above-mentioned decision of ICMR
to terminate the project is baffling. The
study, when compared to the pioneering
and much bigger study conducted by the
Medico-Legal Institute, Bhopal is distin
guished by its scientific approach, involved
the following features:
(continued on page 25)
the Bhopal Special. - Tffii
Tiealth
an assessment of the loss of working
capacity among the labouring people
in different occupations.
an independent evaluation of
Carbide’s report on the chemistry
which caused the MIC tank explosion
and a cross-check of thermodynamic
computations in Varadarajan commit
tee report.
chemical and bio-medical experimenta
tion to find out biochemical effects of
MIC in the human body and the
process of detoxification - natural and
induced.
the designing and conducting of a
proper epidemiological study.
a properly controlled DBCT to deter
mine the therapeutic efficacy of NaTS
administration.
The experience of the gas victims with the
medical and research establishments has been
unhappy, often bitter. Even the high powered
‘Scientific Commission for Continuing Studies
on Effects of Bhopal Gas Leakage on Life
Systems’ appointed by the Union Cabinet, has
not enhanced public knowledge.
In order to fulfill the tasks outlined above, a
through overhaul of the infrastructure for
therapy and research is imperative. The policy
of secrecy must be reversed. In fact, an inquiry
into working of research bodies is called for.
The gas victims should not only be taken into
confidence but their records of therapy and in
vestigations be supplied to them. Details of re
search data ought to be made public for
scrutiny by the scientific community. Can one
hope for such a change?
Anil Sadgopal and Sujit K. Das
THE GAS DISASTER AND HEALTH CARE DELIVERY IN
BHOPAL
he experience in Bhopal emphasises the
-“• need for understanding how the medical
system in India operates in disaster situations.
We can learn many lessons by analysing the
health care service organised in the immediate
post gas leak period and the few months after
the leak. This will also help us to prepare our
selves to deal with such incidents which might
occur in future. On the basis of the pattern of
medical relief that was emerging for the ‘inter
mediate period’,a few recommendations can
be made about some aspects of long term relief
in a situation like Bhopal.
Immediate post-gas leak period
r | \e state medical service responded
vigorously to the tragedy and medical
people worked tirelessly to save lives and
render medical relief in the first few days.
There were however some problems
symptomatic of the basic characteristic of our
medical and social system.
1.
Nobody in Bhopal knew anything about the
ill-effects of MIC and Union Carbide
authorities not only did not disclose whatever
information they had but even misled the
government doctors. Thanks to some original
research on the autopsy and clinical findings by
Dr. Hiresh Chandra, the forensic expert in
Bhopal, antidote sodium thiosulphate (NaTS)
was found to be useful for immediate relief to
the victims. But because of established norms,
ego problems and perhaps vested interests of
the Union Carbide, this important finding was
not positively followed up by a dominant sec
tion of the medical community in Bhopal. A
subtle and not so subtle tussle began between
pro and anti-NaTSlobby ensued at the expense
of the gas victims’ interests.
2.
It is usual to send interns to help in medical
relief in disaster situations. But in Bhopal,
neither the interns nor the seniordoctors knew
how to deal with the situation. The interns
were incompetent in clinical matters and had
no idea about how to keep records which could
be used later. Most of the time they were busy
doing minor tasks like putting eye-drops which
could have been easily delegated to paramedi
cal staff or volunteers, especially when there
were thousands of patients to be treated. The
attitude ‘donor will do it all
* that is in-built in
our medical system was the culprit.
Weeks after the gas leak
\\/\\/ithin weeks after the gas leak, the medi» * cal people in Bhopal assured themselves
that the poisonous effect of the gas leak had
died down. But volunteers working amongst
gas victims found that the people were suffer
ing from severe cough, breathlessness, weak
ness, nausea, skin rashes, vomiting, allergies,
burning eyes, etc. Most of the women, were in
addition suffering from many reproductive
system problems. But doctors, by and large,
did not take these complaints seriously and at
tributed them to exacerbation of pre-existing
diseases and to compensation-neurosis. Later,
studies showed that these complaints were
genuine and were specifically due to the effects
of toxic gas leak. Due to the findings of these
studies and the pressure exerted by the gas vic
tims now organised by voluntary groups,
'polyclinics’ were opened in gas affected areas
and more medical facilities were provided. The
health care system however, remained cut off
and alienated from the sufferings of people.
Months after the gas leak
■ Ince it was apparent that the disaster had
created health problems which were
going to persist for quite some time, the health
authorities should have drawn a plan for sys
tematic intervention and should have made at
tempts to reach out to people. But the
authorities werecontentwithsetting up
‘polyclinics'and the referral hospitals. This
reflects the clinic based approach of the
authorities.
Clinic based approach
o begin with, it was necessary to know na
ture and extent of health problems exist
ing in community to plan out any systematic in
tervention. But no such community based
epidemiological survey was undertaken by the
state health services.
T
In the absence "’if baseline data on the mor
bidity load, the health system had no
knowledge about the type and number of
health personnel required for the delivery of
comprehensive health care. The nature and ex
tent of health damage in the community was
such that it was necessary for the health ser
vices to reach the doorsteps of the gas victims.
This could only be done with the help of well
trained paramedical staff. This clinic based
doctor centered approach was especially use
less when thousands of people affected were in
need of somewhat continuous medical care.
Medico Friends Circle (MFC) had repeatedly
appealed fora community based approach and
had prepared an outline of a pilot plan for the
comprehensive health care of gas victims from
this perspective. All this fell on deaf cars.
That the medical services did not cater to the
needs of people was evident to those of us who
mingled with the people and listened to them
patiently during an intensive community based
epidemiological survey in the worst affected
basti. Out of 27persons interviewed, 6 persons
said they had to wait for 1-2 hours in queues, 8
persons 2-4 hours and 13 persons more than 4
hours. Since in 70% of cases medicines were
given for only 1 to 3’days, most people had to
repeatedly wait. As a consequence, gas victims
would rather stay at home and suffer instead
of going to the government polyclinic, especial
ly when the treatment given did not bring much
relief. The private practitioners had no better
treatment to offer and people did not have
money to go to them repeatedly.
Disjunction from research
hatever treatment was given to the gas
victims, was uncoordinated in relation
to the research findings. This was partly due to
the disagreement among researchers about
the role of NaTS. It was also due to the fact that
neither researchers nor clinicians we re keen on
interactingwith each other. In March 1985, the
survey team of MFC met the doctors working
in the 30 bedded ‘DIG hospital
*
specially set up
for the gas victims. It found that "There were
no standard guidelines for investigating, diag
nosing and treating the victims. The doctors
used their own line of treatment. Most of the
doctors interviewed, had no definite
knowledge about the role of NaTS, nor had
seriously considered the problem of danger to
the foetus and the option of Medical Termina
tion of Pregnancy (MTP). There were no
definite criteria for referring patients to the
bigger hospitals."
W
Doctors and activists from the voluntary
groups had repeatedly urged the government
to communicate the results of the research
findings to the doctors and to the people.
However an unnecessary shroud of secrecy was
maintained. Many researchers were more in-
neaitra
"The Bhopal Special
B
tcrcsted in defending their research findings
against their critics and in perhaps making a
career out of it rather than in the health of the
gas victims. Because of the tussle between
some of the researchers even 6 months after
the gas leak, they could not come to a consen
sus about the strategy for medication. As a
result, a compromise strategy, incorporating
both the viewpoints was formulated.
The special issue of the Indian Journal of
Medical Research, which gave the results of
the studies in Bhopal, was published as late as
September 1987 ! These published findings
will by and large, not reach the doctors work
ing in Bhopal.
Lip service to non-drug therapy
t is well known that after such ghastly dis
asters, many people suffer from anxiety
neurosis and depression. National Institute of
Mental Health and Neurological Sciences
(NIMHANS) found that 10 to 12% of the gas
victims undergoing treatment in Bhopal clinic
had psychiatric problems. Thanks to its initia
tive, training programmes in mental health
were conducted for medical officers posted in
gas affected areas. But even by the first week
of May, no strategy of ‘psycho-social support’
was ready.
I
Respiratory physiotherapy is very important to
increase efficiency of respiration and hence to
reduce distress. It could have helped limit the
permanent damage to the lungs in the initial
period. But this was never taken seriously and
only lip service, that too occasionally, was paid
to this important therapy.
This neglect of non-drug therapies reflects not
only the drug oriented approach of the estab
lished health system but also its doctor
centered approach, since these therapies re
quire substantial participation by paramedics.
Health education remained the last priority of
the established health system. There was ig
norance among most gas victims about the na
ture of health problems caused by the leak and
the medical treatment given. The people were
haunted by fears and tried out various expen
sive therapies. The state health authorities
should have taken efforts to allay the fears in
the minds of the people and to disseminate in
formation regarding health effects through
different media like pictorial exhibitions slide
shows, films, radio etc. ‘Eklavya’ and MFC
brought out a health education booklet in
Hindi.The ‘Jan Swasthya Kendra', a voluntary
health centre, published a pamphlet on the
role of NaTS. Such an initiative taken by volun
tary groups was not followed up the state
authorities and suggestions made by activists
were sadly ignored.
Conclusions
1. Hospital and doctor centered, drug oriented
approach becomes quite useless in disasters
where long-term health care for thousands is
needed. An approach to such problems must
be included in the training of state health
authorities.
Chauhan joined Carbide’s Bhopal plant as a
trainee operator in 1975. He worked first in
the Sevin plant. Later he was transferred to
the Naptha and the Methyl Isocyanate (MIC)
plants.
have leaked into the soil and underground
Bhopal Group for Information and Action
(BG) interviewed Chauhan, end-1987.
C: To the best of my knowledge, all major
engineering procedures were adopted only
with the consent of the parent company.
BG: How safe was the UCIL plant?
C: Initially, when the plant was commis
sioned, safety was taken very seriously. Later,
safety procedures were gradually given the
go-by and short-cuts were adopted. Produc
tion became more important than safety.
Thus, minor leaks of carbon tetrachloride,
alpha naphthol, MIC used to occur. A lot of
mercury has been let into the atmosphere
when it never should have been.
BG: Did UCC permit such prac
tices?
BG: What was the plant’s prepared
ness to meet toxic leaks?
C: Initially, mock emergency drills were
held. They ran by the text book and everyone
knew what to do. But these text book situa
tions never actually occurred, so MIC’s
hazards were treated casually. When small
leaks occurred, the knee-jerk reaction was to
run. Treatment for gas exposure was water
baths and eye fountains.
BG: Didn’t the company lose money
this way?
BG: What was the union’s stand on
this?
C:To recover Rs. 100 worth of naphthol
costs twice that amount, so it was cheaper to
pollute.
C: The management accepted in general our
demands for safety equipment. Equipment
would be used for some time after an acci
dent, but would be discarded subsequently.
BG: So the company followed the
policy of cost cutting?
C: Yes. There are many similar examples.
Naphthol drums were broke open manually
by casual workers. For each drum they got
Rs.5. To make more money they would break
20-25 drums a day, but would fall sick the next
day and make no money. Permanent workers
would have done this work only by proper
procedure and after insisting on using safety
equipment, which is why it was never given to
them.
Untreated toxic wastes were often dumped
along the railway track. I am sure they must
BG: Didn’t the management insist
on the use of such equipment?
C: They did initially, but turned casual sub
sequently. E.g., there were 2 separate alarms
for fire and toxic leaks. The toxic-leak alarm
stopped working, Sb we made do with just one
Sometimes even the other alarm wouldn’t
work. Initially, workers broke the alarm glass
case even for minor leaks. Later,they were
reprimanded for these acts. Moreover, when
such episodes began to occur 3-4 times a
month, the seriousness of the episodes
2. A community based survey of the health
problems must be carried out periodically and
based on a ‘community diagnosis
*,a
plan for
health intervention in quantitative and
qualitative terms must be drawn up.
Paramedics would invariably play an impor
tant role in such a health intervention. This
must be very clearly recognised.
3.
A part of the research must be directly aimed
at improving the line of medical treatment and
all attempts be made to integrate the research
findings into the health interventions. Con
scious and firm steps have to be taken to see
that research on human suffering is not carried
out to serve narrow interests of researchers.
4.
Non-drug therapy can be very important in
such situations and must be taken up serious
ly5.
Relevant health education should be sys
tematically planned. Education of doctors,
both slate and private, about scientific line of
treatment is necessary.
6.
The initiatives, suggestions and criticism by
voluntary groups must be taken seriously. An
active and open dialogue with such groups
would be beneficial in many ways.
Since the health problems are going to persist
for some timc.it will be beneficial to the victims
if the above suggestions arc implemented.
However it is extremely doubtful that the state
authorities will do so.
Anant R. S.
diminished.
More important, no off-site emergency pro
cedures such as a public address system or an
evacuation plan for bystander population ex
isted. Emergency plan for tackling large toxic
leaks were non- existent.
BG:Wl>at health effects did the
workers have due to the-workplace
toxic exposures?
C: 'the most common symptoms were per
sistent cough and fever. Earlier, each worker
was medically examined twice a year. If a
worker was found unfit he would be shifted
from his assignment.
BG: Were the workers shown their
medical records?
C: No.The MRs were confidential. Workers
were told "everything is ok with you". Since
the workers got a good salary, good food, and
were young and generally healthy, they too
did not bother about the MRs too much.
BG:What would you say are the
minimum requirements to run a
plant safely?
C: Firstly, workers should be made
thoroughly familiar with the plant process.
Secondly, the equipment quality should be
good.
Thirdly, the plant process should be in
herently safe.
Fourthly, plant maintenance should be good.
Fifthly, the quality of raw materials used
should be good.
Lastly, and what I believe to be the most im
portant factor, the quality of the plant per
i interview
portant factor, the quality of the plant per
sonnel should be good. They should be well
trained in operational and safety procedures.
BG: What were the changes In the
personnel quality over time?
C: When the MIC plant was set up in 1980,
the plant operators recruited had a
bachelor's or a master’s in science or had an
engineering diploma. They were put through
long periods of training. Over time, many
operators resigned in favour of better oppor
tunities. Operator replacement did not keep
pace with resignations and training for fresh
operators was reduced to two months. Some
times operators were given charge during the
training period. I would reckon that in 1982,
about 30% of the plant operators did not
have the desired level of training and by 1984
this had jumped to 70% E.g., when I was
transferred to the MIC plant, I was given 810 days to read the plant manual and then
asked to take charge. I fought with the
management and refused to take charge un
less given proper training. I took 3-4 months
to understand the MIC plant and even after
that, took charge only of a small storage area
in the plant. Even 15 days before the accident
I was asked to take charge of the MIC plant
as there was a shortage of operators. I
reiterated my earlier stand and was therefore
put as a spare operator. I worked in the MIC
plant till 25 Nov. 1984, when I was transferred
from the plant.
Earlier, each shift had a maintenance and in
struments supervisors. In Nov. 1984, the
management did away with these supervisors
and instruments’ technicians, except in the
general shift. The night shift had only 2 main
tenance fitters. The MIC plant supervisor
was trained by the plant operator. He gave
the orders for water washing of the lines.
When someone told him that there was no
water, he instructed the night shift operator
to continue with the washing. However, his
orders were not very precise. He thought that
once a valve was isolated, it was 100% safe.
But Carbide itself believes that no valve
should ever be trusted, particularly if highly
corrosive substances are being handled.
Therefore a slip blind was essential, so that
no material can pass even if it leaks through
a valve. But the supervisor had so much faith
in the valve that he did not order a slip blind
to be put. It never occurred to him that water
could get past the valve while washing was
being done, and find its way into the MIC
tank. All this reflects on the quality of train
ing.
Also no proper charge was given to oversee
the water washing, the lime, period was not
fixed and no process parameters had to be
measured since the plant was not working.
Earlier there was a dedicated Fire and Res
cue Squad. Since manpower was being
reduced, operators and helpers had to leave
their posts and perform these functions.
BG: What was the run-up of events
prior to the accident?
C: Two critical safety systems, the vent gas
scrubber and the flare tower were hooked-off
the system for maintenance in the last week
of November. Water washing of some of the
choked lines in the MIC plant was ordered on
28 November and actually conducted at
about 9 p.m. in the second shift on 2 Decem
ber and stopped at about 12.15 p.m. the same
night. MIC started leaking into the atmos
phere at about 11.30 p.m. The loud siren was
sounded at 0050 a.m. and shut after 10
minutes. The muled siren was left on be
The ahdpafgp&clal-'-'FW
tween 1- 2 a.m. The loud siren was again
sounded at 2 a.m.
BG: What are your comments on
Carbide’s sabotage theory?
C: At low temperatures, without agitation
and in the absence of a catalyst or other im
purities, MIC reacts slowly with pure water.
At 20° C, it takes about 23 hours to reachjhe
stage of a violent runaway reaction. At 6U C,
it takes nearly 67 hours. This information is
from Carbide’s Unit Safety Procedure
Manual. If there is a catalyst or impurity, the
reaction is greatly speeded up. E.g., ferric
chloride, a product of the action of phosgene
on iron, can produce a violent reaction in
about an hour. If someone had deliberately
let water directly into the tank, it would have
taken well over 20 hours for a violent reac
tion to occur, as the water temperature on a
December night would have been less then
20u C. Whereas, what happened was that,
water entered the tank at about 10 p.m.
through piping, as water washing was being
done elsewhere in the plant. At 10.15 the tank
pressure was normal. Since the water had
various contaminants, a violent reaction oc
curred about 25-3 hours later. So much for
Carbide’s sabotage theory - the facts of the
accident do not support it.
BG: Where did the impurities come
from ?
C: Someof the lines through which the water
passed were made of carbon steel. That was
where the water picked up the impurities.
BG: Could the accident have been
contained?
C: If the temperature alarm had been
functioning or if there had been pressure or
waterdetection alarms, the water entry could
have probably been detected and there would
have been an early warning.
However, let us talk about reality. If a
knowledgeable person had been around and
had kept his cool, he would have gone about
detecting the source of the leak. No such per
son was around, as the plant was shut and
under maintenance. When workers finally
went to the tank, they realized that it was hot
and heard noises from it. The safety valve
gave way at about 11.30 p.m. That was when
they realized that there was water contamina
tion. It took them about an hour to locate the
source of the water. By then it was too late.
A good man in-charge of the situation, if he
had realized early enough that water had got
into the MIC tank, would have quickly dis
tributed the contaminated material to the
two other tanks to reduce pressure in Tank
610. From there the material could have been
taken to the Sevin plant which had cooling
systems in various places. The superinten
dent, supervisor and the night shift operator
had been transferred from the formulation
department to the MIC plant. The second
shift supervisor was from the Batteiy plant.
None had adequate training in operating the
MIC plant, so they couldn’t think of these
moves.
If the flare tower and vent gas scrubber had
been operational, they would not have con
trolled the situation as they were just not
designed to tackle such high flow rates, but
they would have bought a little more time, as
would have the refrigeration system,if it had
been working.
There were other contributory factors. The
manuals never referred to the possibility of a
runaway reaction. Such a reaction probably
occurred at Institute due to brine contamina
tion about five months before the Bhopal ac
cident. The situation was somehow control
led. UCC made a report of this accident but
it was never given to the workers, nor was the
1982 safety audit report of the Bhopal plant.
When workers arc not taken into confidence,
how would they know what to do in emergen
cies?
BG: Could anything have been done
to minimize the effects of the acci
dent?
C: The management had never drawn up an
off-site emergency plan. This was the biggest
drawback. So there was no way of informing
the bystander population either of the gravity
of the situation or what steps to take. The
plant workers were not trained in how to
handle such a situation. In 1982 when a toxic
leak occurred, the bystander population ran
away. At least after that the management
could have formulated an emergency plan.
After this incident, the union demanded that
an alarm system be installed. Government set
up an enquiry committee, but gave the plant
a clean chit after inspecting the waterjets and
alarm systems.
The management could have sent a bus with
the driver wearing a gas mask to inform
public what to do. Hospitals could have been
instructed about medical emergency proce
dures. Since the workers were so used to
minor leaks, they never realized the gravity of
the situation, until they saw dead bodies.
There was no senior knowledgeable person
to handle the situation. Even if the loud siren
had been sounded at the right time and fora
sufficiently long time, it would have given by
stander population some time to evacuate.
Half-an-hourafter the Icakstarted, people at
the railway station had not realised what had
happened. By the time they did, it was too
late.
BG: In light of the Bhopal ex
*
perience what suggestions would
you make to workers and unions in
other hazardous chemical plants?
C: Each worker should know the hazards of
the chemicals in his plant, the emergency pro
cedures and what his role is.
BG:What lessons can be drawn
from Bhopal?
C: The role of informal ion is very important.
It is not just the workers but the bystander
population too should know what to do in
emergencies, as should hospitals, civil
defence, transport systems, etc.
Secondly, there should be an emergency plan.
Thirdly, accident analyses reports should be
accessible to public.
Fourthly, something should be done to
mitigate the high operator turnover in chemi
cal plants.
BG: Was the compensation given to
the workers adequate?
C: Hardly so. Initially, we were offered 15
days salary for each year of service. Only after
we pressed our demands did the company
give each worker Rs. 10,000 and washed its
hands off. And it made each worker sign an
illegal statement that he would claim no fur
ther compensation or litigate against Car
bide. We have gone to court to have the
closure declared illegal for violating the In
dustrial Disputes Act on grounds of no prior
notice being given. Moreover, Carbide
should take rhe responsibility to continue to
HO
I'awM
The Bhopal Special
monitorand treat workers’ health for any oc
cupational related ailments.
BG: What is your opinion about an
out-of-court settlement?
C: It may be done in the interest of expedien
cy. provided it is fair But at no time should
liability proceedings be dropped. Otherwise
it is like a murder going scot free by paying
some money.
BG: Were there any changes in the
plant’s operating procedures?
C: Yes. Earlier various process parameters
like temperatures.prcssures and flows were
read hourly. Subsequently, this was changed
to once in two hours and one month before
the accident, instructions were given to take
readings only at the end of each shift. When
you read the instruments only once in 8
hours,you don’t know what has been happen
ing in between, and more important,you stop
taking the readings seriously.
On the night of the accident, the 10.30 p.m.
reading was taken at 10.12. p.m. Everything
appeared normal then. The next reading was
to be taken only in the morning, so nobody
was on the lookout for any abnormal chan
ges.
0
Earlier the MIC tanks were kept at 0 C for
safety and to reduce losses while transferring
MIC from the tank to drums. Later, the
refrigeration system was operated only
during material transfer from tank to drums
and about one and a half months before the
accident it was switched off altogether.
BG: What were the design or en
gineering control problems with the
plant?
C: The temperature alarm of the MIC tank
was not functioning for 4 years prior to the
accident and nobody even bothered to fix it.
BG: Did no one raise any questions
about this?
C: They (management) knew about it. Ac
tually they should have had a back-up alarm
as they have at the Institute plant. While
designing the plant they should have
provided for separate tapping points for
temperature, pressure and level measure
ments. But they put everything in the same
manhole to cut costs. All material goes in and
comes out of there. Thus, impurities such as
moisture and scaling would get concentrated
there. In tank 610, the pipe had heavy scaling
on it. Whenever the pipe was cleaned, the
alarm worked for 1-2 weeks and then stopped
again.
BG:You mean to say that the
temperature monitor and alarm
should have had separate tappings?
C: Yes, this would have minimised the chan
ces of failure due to scaling. There is solid
evidence that not a single temperature read
ing, one of the most important safety features
of the plant, was obtained in 4 years prior to
the accident.
BG: One hears so much about a
"jumper line" addition which con
tributed to the accident occurring.
Could you throw some light on it?
C: The jumper line was an additional pipe
fitted between two lines. It was a short
sighted design modification, done with the
consent of the parent company about a year
before the accident, to provide a route for any
fugitive MIC emissions to be neutralised at
the vent gas scrubber, if any maintenance
work was being done on either of the two
lines. Water washing of lines was started at
9.30 p.m. Since these lines were choked,
water found its way into MIC tank 610 via the
jumper line. If the jumper lines had not been
there, no water would have got into the MIC
tank. Since the line was made of carbon steel,
the ingress water picked up some con
taminants which ultimately greatly hastened
the runaway reaction. Moreover, a slip blind,
a device to isolate a line, was not used while
water washing, as the valves were trusted.
The Curious Twists of The Bhopal Litigation:
M.P. High Court’s disservice to the victims and the Indian judiciary
The case
ver three years have passed since the first
suits were filed against Union Carbide
Corporation (UCC) in India and the US, seek
ing compensation for the loss of life, injuries
suffered and economic losses resulting from
the Bhopal gas disaster of December 1984. In
the intervening period, proceedings have
taken such a bewildering variety of twists and
turns that in the welter of claims and
counterclaims, appeals and interim orders, the
rationale for the entire exercise has become
blurred. Yet for all the confusion, the basic
goals of the litigation and the strategy adopted,
for the most part, essentially remain valid.
O
In retrospect, the basic form of redress pur
sued by the victims, that of seeking a remedy
in torts against UCC rather than its subsidiary
Union Carbide India Ltd. (UCIL) in US
courts, seems to have been suggested by the in
tervention of the American personal injury
lawyers who flocked to Bhopal in the im
mediate aftermath of the disaster. This is not
to question the merits of the remedy chosen
but only to point out the crucial role played by
these lawyers in setting the terms, as it were, of
all future actions.
Judge Keenan, in the 18 months that he
presided over the case, did not make a deter
mination of the preliminary issue of repre
sentation, i.e. whether the Government of
India’s (GOI) legislated right to represent the
claimants, to the exclusion of the US lawyers,
was legally binding on the proceedings before
him. instead, on his suggestion, the plaintiffs
counsel elected a three-member committee to
represent them consisting of Michael Grcsi
from the firm retained by the GOI and Stanley
M Cheslcyl and F Lee Bainley. Though the
GOI chose to maintain a separate action, both
its suit and the one filed by the US lawyers
similarly alleged that UCC had designed, con
structed, owned, operated and managed the
Bhopal plant to manufacture and store large
quantities of methyl isocyanate, a chemical
that the corporation’s manuals describe as
reactive, volatile and extremely toxic. UCC had
warranted that its design was based on the best
information available, it had trained the
plant’s personnel, had supervised the Bhopal
operation and had, moreover, undertaken to
provide its subsidiary upto-date information
on the processes employed.
Thus, the plaintiffs alleged, UCC was ab
solutely and strictly liable in law for creating
the material conditions responsible for the es
cape of the lethal gas and for all the resulting
damage. Further, they alleged, UCC had been
negligent, was guilty of a breach of warranty
and of misrepresentation. By way of compen
sation, the plaintiffs sought unquantified
damages for the loss of life, and injuries suf
fered, the economic and environmental losses
incurred, reimbursement of expenditure on
relief and rehabilitation, the costs of conduct
ing research on long-term health effects and
finally, punitive damages to deter others from
indulging in such wrongful conduct.
Victims at disadvantage
rom the very first days following the
Bhopal gas disaster of December 1984 it
has been widely recognised that a major
obstacle to litigating claims for compensation
against UCC lay in the abject poverty of much
F
of the victim population. Not only did the vic
tims lack the resources to independently
proceed against the corporation but, given
their debilitating injuries, even the certainty of
surviving the course of prolonged litigation
was difficult. An immediate relief programme
was thus dictated as much by the need to al
leviate their suffering as to enable them toseek
legal redress. Without such sustenance, the
victims would inevitably be forced to com
promise their claims and settle for a fraction
of what they stood to recover, were the case to
be tried.
The GOI appeared to recognise this when, in
addition to paying interim compensation to
the bereaved and the injured, it undertook to
litigate the victims’ claims on their behalf.
Under an ordinance dated 20th April 1985,
which was later replaced by statute, the
government acquired the exclusive right to
represent all claims in respect of the disaster,as
also the unrestricted power to determine the
level of compensation to be sought and the
best means to secure it. The Act further
provided for the government to be reimbursed
for all expenses it had incurred on Bhopal from
the amount decreed or settled upon. If the
Bhopal Act gave statutory recognition to the
unusual nature of the case, requiring, a
sovereign to initiate legal proceedings on be
half of its subjects and in the process depriving
them of the right deal with their claims as they
chose, it cast no obligation whatsoever upon
the government to provide for their immediate
needs or even to consult them on the handling
of their claims.
While the government appears to have pur
sued the litigation against UCC with a fair de-
the Bhopal Special '
r law
grec of diligence, the same cannot be said for
its concern for the victims’ welfare. By its own
admission, in the three years that have elapsed
since the disaster, the government has spent a
total of Rs. 87 crores on relief to the victims
and on litigation. Considering that around
2,00.000 people have been ‘provided’ for, the
government’s outlay per head works out to
barely Rs. 4350 or just Rs. 1450 per annum to
date. It is not accidental therefore that every
court that has presided over the case so far has
sought to draw the attention of the parties to
the victims’ precarious state and has tried to
devise some arrangement to secure their im
mediate requirements. Invariably, the courts
have encouraged the parties to settle the case
failing which, they have advanced several
proposals to pay the victims ‘interim relieP.
Cart>ide has, of course, made the most of the
government’s failure in this regard. Its counsel
have never lost an opportunity to accuse the
government of ignoring the victims’ interests
and in suggesting that the litigation was politi
cally’ motivated. The corporation favors a
quick settlement of the case, under which it
would pay a fixed sum as compensation in ex
change for a complete renunciation of all
claims against itself as well as the withdrawal
of all legal proceedings in respect of Bhopal.
Compromise attempts
udge Keenan, before whom all cases filed
in US were consolidated, delayed ruling on
whether the case should be tried in the US qr
in India in the hope that he could compel thp
parties to compromise. After months of
negotiations, Carbide offered $350 million
which the government rejected as inadequate
and Keenan was forced to rulq on the case. In
April 1987, Judge M W Deo, bffore whom the
case now lay, revived the settlement proposal,
arguing that such a course wquld be in the best
interests of the victims, particularly when even
2 years after filing suit, the case had not
reached trial. Reports indicated that UCC had
almost doubled its initial offer to $ 650 mil
lion,but even this round of negotiation proved
fruitless as the two sides could not agree over
payment schedule. When they informed Deo
in early December 1987 that they had failed to
settle the case, he then took it upon himself to
find a solution. If the case could not be settled
out-of-court, it would have to be tried; but considering how prolonged the exercise
threatened to be, he had first toensure that the
claimant was in a position to last its duration.
J
Setback to Carbide’s ploy
n 17 December, Judge Deo passed an
order directing UCC to deposit a sum of
Rs. 350 crores (S 270 million approx.) with the
court, to be used to make interim payments to
the victims and to meet the costs of providing
them medical care and suitable employment.
Arguing that the victims had a ‘substantive
*
right
to receive interim relief, Deo clarified
that such a payment would be without
prejudice to the ’rights and defences of the
panics to the suit’ and could not therefore be
construed as an admission of liability. In pass
ing his order, Deo relied on the power of the
courts to pass interlocutory order under sec
tion 94(c) as well as the ’inherent powers’ of
courts undcrscction 151 of the Civil Procedure
Code, which permit the court to ’make such or
ders as may be necessary for the ends ofjustice
or to prevent abuse of the process of the court.’
O
In essence, Deo was setting right the single
most obvious flaw in the case, the inequality of
the parties to the suit. There was no way the
ends of justice could be met if the victims were
to remain unprovided for. In a single move,
whatever compulsion existed to unfairly com
promise the case were removed, and the right
of the Bhopal victim to a legal remedy clearly
established.
Carbide was obviously taken by surprise; not
only was asked to pay up but more important,
it was being compelled to undermine the very
strategy that it had pursued so effectively over
three years. UCC had always argued that the
victims could not afford the luxury of litigation
and should therefore accept an immediate pay
ment in exchange for their legal claim. The
longer the case dragged on, the more pitiable
the state of the victims, Carbide reasoned, the
more receptive would all concerned be to its
settlement offer. All of a sudden, UCC found
itself being asked not just to abandon the
‘gains’ of the last three years but to actually
repent for them by ‘sustaining its adversary
*
hereafter.
M.P. H.C. disservice to the
victims and Indian judiciary
Tn its revision petition before the M.P. High
-‘‘‘-Court, UCC launched a frontal assault on
both the order and on Deo himself, stating that
the corporation had lost faith in the judge’s im
partiality. Arguing that the award of interim
relief at this preliminary stage of proceedings
amounted to awarding ‘damages’ before its
liability was established, UCC claimed that
Deo had ‘pre-judged the case’. UCC further al
leged that Deo had exceeded his jurisdiction in
passing such an order as a court in the exercise
of its inherent powers could not affect the ‘sub
stantive rights’ of cither party. In the Bhopal
case, the corporation had not only wholly
denied liability, but had in fact filed a counter
suit against both state and central govern
ments holding them liable to compensate the
victims. As the rival claims had not been tried
and liability clearly determined, an order
directing UCC to pay interim relief amounts,
the corporation contended, to arbitrarily as
signing the responsibility tocompensatc to just
one of several co- defendants. To compel it do
so without first giving the corporation a chance
to lead evidence and to argue its case, was to
deny its substantive right to defend itself.
On 4 April this year, the revision bench of the
M P High Court presided over by Judge S K
Seth returned a verdict so incredible that it vir
tually stood the case on its head, rendering
quite meaninglcss.over three years of litiga
tion. By the strangest of ‘reasoning’ yet wit
nessed in the Bhopal litigation, Seth upheld
Union Carbide’s case against Deo’s order in its
entirety, but nevertheless concluded that, sub
ject to a minor modification, the order was
binding! Union Carbide would have to pay not
Rs 350 crores as ‘interim relief but Rs 250
crores as an ‘interim payment (ora first install
ment) of damages.’ In other words, Seth deter
mined, Deo had clearly exceeded his jurisdic
tion both under sec.94(e) and in the exercise of
inherent powers under sec.151 by passing an
interim order on a subject that legitimately
belonged to a final decree, that the inherent
powers of the court could be permitted to
prejudicially affect the right of either party,
thereby prejudicially affecting the rights of the
petitioner. Yet he maintained that Deo was
justified in ordering UCC to make an interim
payment to the victims.
Seth explained this apparent paradox by claim
ing that UCC’s liability had already been es
tablished although Deo had not realised it. Not
only had the plaintiff made out a prima facie
case against the corporation but the ‘corporate
veil’ that separated it from its Indian sub
sidiary, had been lifted and the parent’s direct
complicity in the entire affair established
beyond reasonable doubt. The question of a
trial to determine liability, Seth felt, was en
tirely redundant as the principle of‘absolute
*
liability
laid down by the Supreme Court in the
Shriram case, was directly applicable to the
facts of the Bhopal case. Thus Union Carbide,
which had undertaken a hazardous or in
herently dangerous activity, would be ab
solutely liable to compensate its victims and
was not entitled to any defence. Thus Seth
summarily dismissed UCC’s counterclaim
against the state and central government. Fur
ther since the Supreme Court had determined
that damages payable should correlate to the
offender’s capacity to pay, a deterrent measure
which clearly conflicts with the principle of‘no
fault’or absolute liability, Seth decreed that an
interim award of S193 million was entirelyjustified when UCC’s assets totalled several bil
lion dollars. The only problem, as the learned
judge himself was so eager to point out, was,In
dian law had no provision to compel the defen
dant to make an advance payment on an
amount yet to be decreed against him. So Seth
decided to ‘borrow
*
the appropriate law from
England; not a precedent or a principle laid
down in the common law but an entire statute!
The UK’s Administration of Justice Act, 1969,
stipulates that where liability is either admitted
or the court is convinced that the plaintiff
stands to win substantive damages from the
defendant, the court can order the defendant
to make an interim payment to the plaintiff
pending a final decree. The latter case is clear
ly where liability has already been established
in trial and only the precise quantum of
damages remains to be determined.
In the Bhopal case, the plaintiff had justified
their claim to recover damages from UCC
rather than UCIL, which legally owned the
plant, by advancing the novel theory of multi
national enterprise liability. They argued that
despite its complex corporate structure, the
multinational enterprise, with its network of
interlocking directors, common operating sys
tems, global distribution and marketing sys
tems and financial control, was, in reality,one
monolithic entity. Thus the distinction be
tween the parent and the subsidiary was noth
ing but a legal fiction which had to be dis
regarded, if the responsibility for any harm
caused by a unit of the enterprise was to be ac
curately assigned.
While the government of India led substantive
evidence of UCC’s day- to-day cont rol over the
activities of UCIL, the issue of legal liability in
the Bhopal case has not yet been directly ad
dressed, let alone determined. However, two
US courts in pre- trial rulings, have indirectly
dealt with the question. Both Judge Keenan
and the three judge appeal bench held that the
plaintiff had failed to show such a degree of
control of the parent over the subsidiary tosustain its claim that the bulk of evidence on
liability lay in the US, thus necessitating trial
there.
This is not to endorse their view but only to
point out that thus far, every court prior to
Seth, has taken the view that the liability issue
was still open and would only be resolved on
the basis of substantive evidence.
■ 12
Uawi
The Bfwpai special
Judge Seth, in summarily holding UCC liable
has disregarded the entire proceeding to date,
rejecting in their entirety the views expressed
by courts that preceded his on the Bhopal case.
Yet he imagines that his order is actual!)’ en
forceable; that is, he expects a US court to ex
ecute his 'interim decree’ even after the federal
appeals court found little prima facie evidence
of UCCs involvement in the Bhopal disaster.
More important, Seth thought it necessary to
clarify that any judgment rendered against
UCC would have to comply with the require
ment of US statutes on the enforcement of
foreign judgments, or in other words, conform
to the principles of natural justice.
Seth was merely asked to determine whether
Deo, in passing the interim relief order, had
exceeded his jurisdiction. Ironically even while
answering in the affirmative, he seems to have
been unaware that he was committing thesame
error. Not only was he exceeding his revisionary jurisdiction, Seth applied non-existent laws
to the facts of the Bhopal case to suit a predetermined end and violated due process by
ruling on issues on which he did not hear the
parties. What is worse, he actually seeks to
clothe such violations with legality by justifying
a summary trial procedure for the Bhopal case.
It is Imperative that Seth’s order be Immediately appealed by both parties. Even if the
Supreme Court were to disallow any form of
interim payment at the present stage of
proceedings, it would at least serve to put the
case back on the rails. The absence of interim
arrangements would moreover provide incentive to hasten proceedings. Seth's order does a
grave disservice not only to the image of the
Indian judiciary but more important, to the
Bhopal victims. In his eagerness to'do justice’
to the victims, Seth has only succeeded in furthcr delaying that goal.
'
..................
The Bhopal Massacre: The Worst Kind Of Multinational
Encounter
y the mid-1980’s, a number of studies had
warned against the virtual absolute
power and total lack of accountability of mul
tinational corporations (MNCs). Works such
as Global Reach, The Sovereign State of AT
& T, The Seven Sisters and How the Other
Half Dies, have documented beyond dispute
how pervasive and pernicious the power of
MNCs had become. First World public inter
est lawyers and Third World social action
groups and networks, such as those involved in
the infant-food boycott campaigns, have been
struggling constantly to hold MNCs account
able. Despite winning several "battles", these
groups are often in despair as MNCs win the
"wars" and MNC accountability remains a dis
tant and impossible dream.
B
December 1984 witnessed the world’s worst in
dustrial disaster as thousands in Bhopal lost
their lives to the recklessness and cupidity of
Union Carbide Corporation (UCC). For
UCC, Bhopal was by no means a "first of
fence". Indeed, even before Bhopal, UCC had
chalked up so dismal a record on health and
safety issues as to merit being treated as a
dangerous recidivist offender, deserving the
severest sanctions. Ironically, it was only after
Bhopal that U.S. regulatory agencies slapped
UCC with record penalties and fines. Foryears
before Bhopal, and the 3years since, UCC has
used its considerable financial resources on
public relations campaign and legal expendi
tures to successfully evade legal accountability
and well-merited public censure. The Bhopal
victims’ struggle to hold UCC accountable and
to obtain compensation demonstrates all too
graphically the difficulties in dealing with
MNCs.
The Bhopal carnage was not just an industrial
disaster. It was a multinational disaster, caused
by and exacerbated by the multinational
character of UCG A number of the accident’s
causes were a result of decisions made in Dan
bury, UCCs U.S. home, and Hong Kong, from
where UCC controlled its agricultural
products worldwide. These decisions often
overruled or ignored the wishes of the manage
ment, technical experts and consultants of
UCCs Indian subsidiary, Union Carbide India
Ltd. (UCIL). Crucial decisions as to the basic
design of the plant, including choice of methyl
isocyanate (MIC) manufacturing process that
was more hazardous than other known proces
ses, inadequate safety system design and the
MIC storage tank sizes were taken abroad, by
UCG So too were decisions regarding the
choice of substandard construction materials
used, and the day-to-day running of the plant.
UCC conducted its own internal safety audit of
the Bhopal plant. The parent company’s con
trol was so extensive that, shortly before the
disaster occurred, UCC had decided to shift
the Bhopal plant to Indonesia and UCIL had
no say in the matter.
UCCs multinational character not only con
tributed to the accident causation, but also ex
acerbated it in terrible ways. All research on
MIC’s toxic effects and its detoxification was
done by UCC, the inadequacy of which con
tributed to the death of several thousands.The
powerful MNC that it is, UCC has been able
to deploy its vast financial and human resour
ces to delay litigation; indulge in forum dodg
ing; attempt to force an utterly inadequate set
tlement offer on Bhopal’s victims; withhold
the provision of effective interim relief, and
thereby blackmail the victims into bargaining
their rights and just claims; and cover-up all
these acts by spreading misinformation
through effective public relations. UCC’s fre
quent mealy-mouthed assertions of concern
for Bhopal’s victims has not stopped them
from using their flexibility as an MNC to act
consistently against the interests of the victims.
E.g., UCC has undergone a global corporate
reorganisation which has reduced its assets,
thus placing a substantial amount of these as
sets beyond the reach of Bhopal’s victims.
Multinational corporations:
Transnational accountability or
supernational irresponsibility?
he Bhopal experience demonstrates, all
too graphically, how MNCs use their
global mobility and enormous power to flout
their responsibilities, flaunt their lack of ac
countability, and evade liability. UCC’s
response to Bhopal is quite typical of the way
in which MNC responds to crisis:
T
0 Corporaic interests above all else The mas
sacre of Bhopal was precipitated by UCCs
placing its corporate interests above all others.
The Bhopal operation was running at a loss.
Hence Carbide decided on a furious bout of
cost-cutting measures to which even the most
elementary safety standards and practices fell
victim. Even after the disaster, Carbide con
tinues to place its own corporate survival
above the physical survival of the Bhopal vic
tims.
* Cover-up and minimize: Carbide has used its
labyrinthine structure to cover-up and mini
mize the extent of damage caused at Bhopal.'
Carbide has not hesitated to co-opt medical
‘experts’, PR'specialists’, and high-priced legal
flunkies to raise elaborate smoke screens, such
as sabotage, and spread deliberate misinfor
mation.
* Delay and Dodge: Carbide, like any other
MNC, is eminently capable of waging a war of
attrition and employing tactics of delay and
forum-dodging, to evade processes of law that
establish their responsibility and legal liability.
The 40 months since the Bhopal tragedy
provide a plethora of examples of Carbide's
behavior in this regard.
1 Victim Blackmail; MNCs invariably tend to
use their dominant power position to impose
unfair settlements upon their victims by fully
exploiting vulnerabilities that have been
created by the multinational’s own illegal acts.
Carbide’s continued withholding of interim
relief to the Bhopal victims is an obvious case
in point.
.* The, Phoenix .Ploy. .MNCs, arc uniquely
placed to defraud their victims by indulging in
corporate restructuring and, if need be, filing
in bankruptcy and starting all over again.
Carbide has already reduced its shareholders'
equity to less than half of what it was at the date
of Bhopal disaster.
by their ability to move assets around between
different global locations, arc able to force vic
tims into an endless round of re-litigation of
the same issues. Even where victims obtain a
judgement or order, such as the order for in
terim relief obtained by the Bhopal victims,
the multinational is able to virtually re-litigatc
the issue by keeping assets beyond the jurisdic
tion of the court and rehashing earlier argu
ments when recognition and enforcement of a
decree is sought in the jurisdiction where the
assets lie.
The above problems are compounded by the
fact that:
•
Multinationals usually enjoy
•"protected" status, or at least special
privileges, under the the laws of the
host country
The BhopaJ'Stfocial
Maw
Multinationals usually enjoy the sup
port, at times taking the form of
diplomatic interventions, of the govern
ments of their home country, and
Multinationals, almost always, are in a
position to buy and bribe their way out
of trouble.
Thus, the need for multinational enterprise
liability stems today from much more than
ideological considerations. As the Bhopal ex
perience indicates, multinational enterprise
liability is also needed for very pragmatic
reasons of securing accountability and justice.
The Bhopal Victims’ Search for
Accountability and Justice
fter more than 3 years, the Bhopal victims
are still a long way from securing account
ability and justice from Union Carbide. The
absence of effective mechanisms for securing
multinational enterprise liability has con
siderably hampered them in their quest. The
Bhopal victims have sought three main objec
tives:
A
“
ACCOUNTABILITY by establishing
why the Bhopal disaster occurred and
who is responsible.
•
JUSTICE by securing interim relief to
speed up the process of dcvictimisation; compensation for losses and
harms suffered; and assurances against
future victimization.
•
PUNISHMENT of those who per
petrated the Bhopal massacre byway
of imposition of punitive damages and
criminal sanctions. Only thus could the
vital objectives of prevention and
deterrence be served.
After three and a half years of pursuing these
objectives through civil litigation in India and
the US and criminal litigation in India, the
Bhopal victims are still very far from securing
these objectives because of the multinational
character of UCC. In the civil litigation, Car
bide first refused to subject itself to the juris
diction of the Indian court. Later, they suc
ceeded in having the case transferred away
from a US court, where severe punitive
damages were a likelihood. At the moment,
they are experiencing second thoughts about
submitting to the jurisdiction of the Indian
court and may well argue the absurd proposi
tion that the US court set itself up as a super
visor of the Indian courts,in the guise of being
an arbiter of "due process" The result of these
Carbide stratagems has been that they have,
thus far, largely evaded accountability. They
have also evaded providing justice to the
Bhopal victims. In a historic judgement last
December, the Bhopal district court ordered
Carbide to pay $270 million by way of interim
relief to the the Bhopal victims. But Carbide
refuses to comply and will probably go through
one appeal procedure after another as they
continue to stall, taking every advantage of
their multinational mobility. Modest strides
have been made towards accountability as a
result of use of discovery procedures available
under US law, but Union Carbide has been
able to contain the damage by obtaining a
favorable ruling from the US Court of Appeals
which frees it from the reach of US federal dis
covery law from he re-on. Similarly, modest
strides towards punishment and deterrence
have been made as a result of the institution of
criminal proceedings in India against the
Union Carbide parent and its subsidiary in
Hong Kong. But here again, Carbide will raise
jurisdictional hurdles by taking advantage of
its legal status as a multinational which enables
it to evade accountability, justice and punish-
Making the world safe from and
not sate for multinationals: The
need for legal renovation
he Bhopal experience has revealed several
serious gaps in the legal system of both
India and the US, and indeed probably most
countries, which greatly reduce their effective
ness as an instrument for holding MNCs ac
countable. At present, the law helps make it
safe for MNCs to operate. It is essential,
however, that mechanisms, including but not
necessarily confined to legal ones, be
developed to secured multinational enterprise
liability. Only then can we be provided some
degree of safety against the operations of mul
tinationals.
T
The concept of multinational enterprise
liability is a very simple one and ought to flow
naturally from the concept of multinational.
The multinational is a single global corporate
entity for the enterprise’s own functional pur
poses. It should therefore also be a single legal
entity for purposes of accountability and
liability.Thus, the parent multinational should
be held vicariously liable for the acts of any and
all of its subsidiaries. Such an approach could
be based jurisprudentially, both on concepts of
principal and agent as well as on concepts of
control.
Secondly, a multinational should be held liable
directly for its own acts and such liability
should be enforceable either in the courts of
any of the countries in which the multination
al parent docs business or in the courts of any
of the countries where any of its subsidiaries
does business. This is essential if the multina
tional is to be prevented from indulging in
forum-dodging. Such an approach can be
defended jurisprudentially on the ground that
subsidiaries are in fact little more than the
limbs of the parent and that the legal distinc
tion between parent and subsidiary is, in, fact,
little more than a legal subterfuge for evading
liability.
Several approaches need to be concurrently
adopted in attempting to develop adequate
mechanisms for securing multinational
enterprise liability.
is being adopted
by the Indian government, on behalf of the
Bhopal victims, who have been arguing first
before the US courts, and now before the In
dian courts, for the adoption by the courts of a
principle of multinational enterprise liability.
Such a principle would treat the multinational
as a single enterprise for purposes of liability.
* The indirect judicial approach would be to
ascribe liability vicariously to the parent mul
tinational, either when it can be shown that the
parent was exercising control over the sub
sidiary or when it can be shown that the sub
sidiary was acting as an agent on behalf of the
parent multinational. Such an approach is
much less comprehensive and encompassing
than the preceding direct approach and re
quires proof of facts, showing control or agen
cy, thus leaving multinationals with con
siderable manoeuvre.
* The.domestic legislation approach would
embody a formulation of multinational
enterprise liability under national corporation
law. This could be achieved once again, either
directly, by providing that all acts of the sub
sidiary will be treated as those of the parent;
or indirectly, by incorporating, for example,
non-rcbuttablc presumptions of control
resulting from percentage corporate owner
ship.
1.TheJnlcrnational treaty approach would
work towards negotiation and adoption of an
international treaty adopting substantive
provisions of multinational enterprise liability,
or adopting reciprocal arrangements on cer
tain procedural aspects, such as forum non
conveniens, discovery, choice of law, recogni
tion and enforcement of foreign judgements,
and interim orders which would help prevent
forum-dodging by the multinational.
L_Thc_slai£. icspQnsibility.,approach which
would,at least in respect of ultra-hazardous ac
tivities, attempt to develop rules of interna
tional law creating slate responsibility for the
acts of its corporations.
.* The criminalisaUQU approach which would
provide for corporate criminal liability and the
imposition of sanctions such as punitive
damages against the corporate entity. Such an
approach could also ascribe liability, at a per
sonal level, to the leading corporate decision
takers such as chief executive officers, chair
persons, plant managers and supervisors.
Criminal law is not usually extra-territorial in
reach. But where compelling social policy
reasons exist, exceptions have been made in
favour of creating extra-territorial reach of
penal provisions of law.e.g., US anti-trust law.
Extra-territorial criminal law would be a most
compelling device, often acting in a preventive
and deterrent rather than punitive manner, in
securing multinational enterprise liability.
Thus, a variety of legal devices do exist to
achieve the objective of multinational
enterprise liability. Bhopal underscores the
crucial need to mobilise public opinion and
governments to adopt the strategies needed to
make multinational enterprise liability not just
an impossible dream but a non-negotiable
demand. Only then will justice be done for the
present and future victims of Bhopal and for
the victims of future Bhopals.
Clarence J. Dias
(continued from page 19)
More damaging is the news that the TM1 reac
tors began operations just one day before the
end of 1978, so that their owners could qualify
for as much as $40 million in federal tax credits
and write-offs. The plant had not shown itself
trustworthy by that period.
For the citizen of the globe, the large scale
devastation he now sees has become possible
with the help of modem science and technol
ogy, has raised an entire new range of troubling
questions. It is almost as if the devastations
caused by science are making an about-turn
and mauling science in return. People now
wish to know whether himsa is an intrinsic
component of modem science and technology.
That is a question I have sought to answer
elsewhere. The answer is not flattering to
science, or technology. But then, neither was
Bhopal.
Claude Alvares
carbicfe'3
Fl 4 ' The Bhopal Special
Union Carbide: Perfectionists in Prevarication and Merchants of
Mendacity
nion Carbide’s corporate strategy to
overcome the Bhopal massacre appears
to be built upon duplicitous doublespeak;
strategic reliance on bald-faced lies; overabun
dant use of mealy-mouthed platitudes ex
pressing concern for the victims; and a
vigorous public relations campaign to spread
misinformation. A few of the most glaring ex
amples of the above speak for themselves:
U
around the world were his children and con
stantly reminded them that they belonged to
the Union Carbide family(6). Yet in order to
avert responsibility for the Bhopal tragedy,
counsel for UCC, argued in Bhopal Courts in
one of the first cases to be heard after the dis
aster, "The Indian Company has nothing to do
with the U.S. company"(7).
Wc Have No leak. Forty-five minutes after
l.
the leak, J. xMukund, works manager, Bhopal
plant insists, "The gas leak just can’t be from
ourplant.The plant is shut down. Ourtcchnology just can’t go wrong". (1)
tion Over UCC, In the Yunus Farhat case, it
was argued that the Indian Court had no juris
diction over UCC and therefore no suit main
tainable against it in India. Later, UCC
reversed its position, and its counsel, Bud Hol
man, argued before the US court that the US
was an inconvenient forum for the trial of the
case since much of the evidence and most of
the witnesses lay in India. It will be stretching
credibility beyond all limits if once again UCC
reverses itself and attempts to come before the
US courts arguing that the Indian court, be
cause it has ordered Carbide to pay $270 mil
lion by way of interim relief to the Bhopal vic
tims, is without jurisdiction. Shamelessly, that
is precisely what counsel for Carbide has been
arguing before the Madhya Pradesh High
Court in India. In effect, UCC is arguing that
it is beyond the law and indeed, is a law unto
itself!
2,There Is No Danger On Decembers, 1984,
L.D. Loya, medical officer of Union Carbide
India Ltd. (UCIL) insists that "The gas is nonpoisonous" and J. Mukund insists, "Methyl
Isocyanate (MIC) is only an irritant, it is not
fatal",(1). As far back as 21 years also, Union
Carbide Corporation (UCC) knew, "MIC ap
pears to be the most toxic member of the
isocyanate family... and presents a definite
hazard to life by inhalation"(2).The Operation
Manual of the MIC unit of the Carbide plant,
issued in 1978, warns " MIC is fatal even in
limited doses".
3.
Thc
Yictimg Arc To Blame. UCC has at
tempted to blame victims of its operations for
the injuries they received:
"Some have TB, which is endemic in that area.
Some have malnutrition which is a
troublesome thing in that area. The claims in
clude a considerable number of fraudulent
claims, we cxpcct"(3).
"MIC produced a heavy cloud which settled
very close to the earth, killing children because
of their immature lungs, the elderly because of
their diminished lung capacity, those who ran
because their lungs expanded too rapidly, and
small animals. The survivors included those
people who stood still and covered their faces
with handkerchiefs..."(4).
The Bhopal disaster was not the first time
UCC has blamed the victims. In 1933, during
trials following the discovery that hundreds of
workers engaged in a UCC silica mining
project in West Virginia were dying of silicosis,
UCCs defence strategy was to allege that the
workers were suffering not from silicosis but
from TB:
"(After working only 26 days in one of the
shafts), this Negro is now enjoying notoriety,
travel without cost to himself, and the pleasure
of making an impression on white people for
probably the first time in his life", (comments
by UCC on one of the workers who testified
for the plaintiffs)(5).
The Negroes didn’t know how to care for
themselves. They got sick and died from
pneumonia and too much alcohol and poker.
Nobody ever proved anything against the com
pany anyway, and it had been blown all out of
proponion when you considered all the com
pany had done for those pcople"(5).
4 One Happy Global Carbide Family? Warren
Anderson, the former chief-executive officer
of UCC, who had no children of his own, "felt
in a sense that all of his 100,000 employees
working in some 700 factories in 38 countries
6. Immoral Irresponsibility. Both W. Ander
son and his successor, Robert Kennedy, have
reiterated that UCC is morally responsible for
the Bhopal tragedy(8). On December 7,1987
Judge Deo called upon UCC to discharge its
moral responsibility ("without any prejudice to
their rights and defenses") in the litigation by
providing the victims with $270 million in in
terim relief. UCC’s response has been to
criticize the order, stall for time and file an ap
peal before the state High Court. Should they
pursue further appeals in India and the US
against the order for interim relief they will be
exposing the hollowness of their moral respon
sibility ploy since victims are dying in Bhopal
at the rate of at least one a day because of lack
of interim relief.
7.IIumanitarian Ixiss of Confidence. On April
2,1987 when Judge Deo called upon UCC to
provide substantial reconciliatory interim
relief to the Bhopal victims, UCC, with an ob
vious eye on public relations, hailed the judge’s
initiative as "a sincere, constructive and
humanitarian effort to get aid to the Bhopal
victims"(9). In December, 1987 Judge Deo
sought to implement his "constructive and
humanitarian effort" by passing an order re
quiring UCC "to get aid to the victims". In
February 1988, counsel for Carbide appealed
to a superior court denouncing Judge Deo for
having done so and describing the act as a
"material irregularity" prompting a loss of con
fidence in Judge Deo. It is unclear whether
Carbide’s loss of confidence in Judge Deo is as
a result of his sincerity, his constructivcncss,
his humanitarianism or any combination
thereof.
granted against UCC, their counsel, in an inex
plicable tum around, are arguing against the
very concept of innovation that they had cited
in their support before Judge Keenan and
seem more than likely to attempt to complain
to the U.S. courts that the very Indian judiciary
it so recently extolled, has been committing
violations of due process. For UCC, violations
of Carbide’s corporate interests and priorities
seem tantamount to violation of due process
and "material irregularity" by the judiciary.
9.
Carbide’s Desire.to Settle. 11$ Own Cor:
poratc Woes. Union Carbide has loudly, in
deed stridently, proclaimed its anxiety
*
and
desire to settle the Bhopal litigation. Concern
about the plight of victims has been advanced
by Carbide as a reason for quick settlement.
Yet Carbide has adopted every possible delay
ing tactic in the litigation.The sums offered by
Carbide for settlement have been so grossly in
adequate as to constitute an affront to the dig
nity of Bhopal victims. Moreover, the racist un
dertones behind Carbide’s settlement offers
are clear in statements such as that made by
Robert Kennedy "Our settlement offers have
been more than generous by any Indian stand
ard"^) and also in disparaging remarks made
about the Bhopal victims by Carbide
spokespersons (see 3 above). Carbide has been
treating the process of negotiation of a settle
ment as an operation more "covert" than the
funding and arming of the contras in
Nicaragua! Earlier they tried to reach an
agreement with US personal injury lawyers ex
cluding the government of India and the vic
tims, thereby earning a strong reprimand from
Judge Keenan. Late last year they attempted
to once again totally exclude the victims from
an attempted settlement. If, as Carbide claims,
settlement is in the interests of the victims, why
is it that they are the last to know the terms and
amount of any such settlement? Carbide’s real
motivation for a settlement (to avert criminal
liability and punitive damages) has become
clear from their lack of response to a proposal
made by leading U.S. public interest lawyers
that Carbide agree to face an action for puni
tive damages in the US. If, as Carbide
repeatedly asserts, they bear no responsibility
for the Bhopal disaster, then they have noth
ing to fear from an action in punitive damages.
10.
Carbide Concern for the Bhopal Victims.
Union Carbide spokesmen, from Anderson to
Kennedy, from Wishart to Bersok, and from
Holman to Nariman, have repeatedly ex
pressed their concern for the Bhopal victims.
Yet, when called upon to make voluntary con
tributions towards interim relief for the vic
tims, their response has been niggardly- an
offer of $ 5 million to the Red Cross of which
$ 2 million was in fact spent. More recently,
they made an offer of $4.6 million to the
Bhopal district court. These sums seem inade
quate when placed alongside the sums Carbide
has spent on legal costs relating to Bhopal
which were announced at last year’s Annual
General Meeting of Union Carbide as being
"in the order of $ 14 million for Bhopal related
8.
From Innovativenes s to Irregularity. Coun- events alone" (Minutes, p. 38). Carbide
sel for UCC, seeking to prevent the Bhopal suit
spokesmen have been scathing in their
from being tried in the US, argued eloquently
denounciation of the relief efforts of the In
before Judge Keenan that the Indian courts
dian government and the Madhya Pradesh
arc innovative enough to fashion new proce
government. Robert Kennedy, for example,
dures and concepts to do justice to the Bhopal
writes "it's plain through all of this that the vic
victims. UCC submitted lengthy affidavits ex
tims and their needs arc playing second fiddle
tolling the virtue of the Indian judicial system.
to Indian politics and greed" (8). Jackson
Today, in opposing the order of interim relief
Browning, Vice-President of Union Carbide,
............... fhe BhopaigpScrr
'■ carbicfe
in a letter to the New York Times entitled
’India’s Disservice to the Victims of Bhopal"
accused the Indian government of making the
health concerns of Bhopal victims subservient
to litigation concerns and urged them to make
a commitment to meet the immediate needs of
the Bhopal victims(lO). Yet when it suits
Carbide’s litigation interests, Fali Nariman,
counsel for Union Carbide argues before the
Bhopal district court, "Where is the need for
interim relief" adverting to the relief measures
taken by the government in Bhopal (ll).Warren Anderson proclaims, "We are not the ad
versaries of the sick and poor and we don’t
want to be cast in that light. We want to move
forward." He goes on to say "Bhopal is not a
survival issue for the corporation...Although
the crisis is over for Union Carbide, the
problem for some of the people of Bhopal are
still a major concern for us"(12). Yet whenJudgcDco called upon Carbide last year to
make an offer of interim relief, their response
took four and a half months. When Judge Deo
ordered interim relief last December, Carbide
counsel sought a six weeks delay and ultimate
ly a stay order even while in the proceedingsit
has been asserted that atleast one Bhopal vic
tim is dying per day for lack of interim relief.
The Bhopal victims may well need to be
protected from Carbide’s concern for them I
plant. The report makes several recommenda
tions addressing those concerns. Union
Carbide’s failure to heed those recommenda
tions brought about the Bhopal disaster. If
"sabotage" occurred at Bhopal, was it the result
of a disgruntled worker or of a Corporation
engaged in reckless cost-cutting regarding an
unprofitable plant?
2.
Results of 1963 research undertaken for
UCC by Mellon Institute, Carnegie Mellon
University.
3.
Bud Holman, Atomey for UCC, transcript
of January 3, 1986 hearing before Judge
Keenan, p. 22.
4.
Observations of a doctor sent to Bhopal by
12.
Hazardous Busincssxas-Usuak Union UCC, as a part of its relief efforts, New York
Carbide’s Indian subsidiary shut down, in
Medical College Newswire, February 20,1985.
April 1986, the Chcmcounit of Union Carbide
in Bombay and for more than a year has
5.
Hawk’s Nest Incident, New Haven: Yale
refused to reopen the unit citing various
University Press, 1986.
reasons. Among these is the claim that they
cannot risk total liability in case of an accident
6.
D. Kurzman, A Killing Wind, McGraw Hill,
1987.
while conducting an "inherently hazardous
operation." A judgment of the Indian Supreme
7.
Yunus Farhat vs. UCC and 56 Others, Busi
Court in December, 1986 had established the
ness India, August 12,1985.
principle of "absolute liability" for "inherently
dangerous" industrial operations. In June,
8.
Letter to Union Carbide employees,
1987 a new company has been registered under
February 1987.
the name “Vidhya Petrochemicals." The com
pany will reportedly do business in the same
9.
The
Times of India, April 5,1987.
products as the Chemco unit of Union Car
bide. The company is promoted by Subimal
10.
New York Times, August 1986.
Bose, Director of Union Carbide and former
ly Vice-President in charge of Chemco,
11.Order of Judge Deo,December 17 1987,
Madgaokar, General Manager Personnel,
p.13.
Chemco, V.R. Dubey earlier Manager Chemi
cals, A. Samtani, Assistant Financial Con
12. Remarks made on Septembers, 1986,at the
11,
Sabotage Against Carbide or By Carbides troller, and V. Nijhawan, Works Manager now
York University.
in Union Carbide Hong Kong (14). What
Union Carbide’s repeated assertion is that
Union Carbide feels is too unsafe to do under
Bhopal disaster was caused by a deliberate act
13.
Report by Kail, Poulson and Tyson pp. 10.
of sabotage by a disgruntled worker. Such
its own name seems safe enough as long as it
claim would only absolve Carbide of liability in
simply has a new name!
14.
News India, December 25,1987.
limited circumstances and only if the act were
Union Carbide’s words, actions, policies, and
not a foreseeable one. Yet, as far back as 1982,
corporate record through the years speak for
an Operational Safety Survey conducted by
themselves. Such agility in reversing positions
Union Carbide, of Bhopal plant warns of
(Reprinted with permission from the Bhopal
might be a sign of corporate flexibility and
•recent labour conflicts" and states that
Action Resource Centre, New York, from
dynamism ...and hypocrisy?
"enough different comments were received to
their Special Report, March 1988.)
raise concern on the part of the team as to the
real effectiveness of procedures in all
References
cases"(13). The same Safety Report details ten
major concerns and several other concerns
1.
No place to Run, Highlander Centre, 1985.
regarding the operational safety of the Bhopal
Institute Is Bhopal, Bhopal Is Institute
ust as Union Carbide attempted to trans
ferblame for the Bhopal massacre to its In
dian subsidiary, so also apologists for the in
ternational chemical industry attempted to
attribute the massacre to social and technical
backwardness in the "peripheral" countries.
With varying degrees of subtlety, commen
tators in "metropolitan" countries put the
blame for Bhopal on ignorant and unskilled In
dian workers and government authorities, the
lack of a ‘culture of safety
*
or the inability of
‘developing countries’ to handle advanced
technology. This racist picture explained the
massacre at Bhopal as a result of letting loose
ignorant, unskilled workers from an
‘underdeveloped’ country, on a highly complex
and toxic technology.
J
One argument used to rebut this racist view is
to point to the responsibility of Carbide for the
training of workers and the maintenance of the
killer plant. A stronger argument, and a more
useful one politically, is to point out the
similarities between the massacre at Bhopal
and similar chemical disasters in metropolitan
countries. This argument creates a basic unity
between the struggle of opponents of toxic in
dustry in both peripheral and metropolitan
countries and provides a basic critique of
chemical process operations which is ap
plicable anywhere. This position on Bhopal
has been summed up by D. Wartenburg: ‘A
recent report by the International Confedera
tion of Free Trade Unions argues that despite
the technical flaws and poor safety and main
tenance records at the Bhopal facility, ad
herence to US standards would not have
averted this disaster. The accident didn’t hap
pen because we’re safe and they're not. Noone
is safe
*.
The best way to illustrate this thesis is to see
the many ways in which the gas leak at
Carbide’s Institute, West Virginia, plant in
August 1985 mirrors the disaster at Bhopal.
The only difference is in the death toll: some
130 members of the public were injured by the
leak, as were six workers, one seriously.
However if the disaster had occurred one step
farther along the chemical process, the death
toll could easily have been as large as Bhopal’s.
As was the case at Bhopal, the gas leak resulted
from a runaway reaction. The scrubbing tower
and subsequently the flare tower to which the
escaping chemicals were vented, were over
whelmed by the amount and pressure of the
chemicals flowing through them. As at
Bhopal, the water spray system nearby was not
strong enough to deal with the leak. The
equipment was broken or malfunctioning and
left unrepaired: a high- temperature alarm was
out of service and the level indicator on the
tank that leaked, was broken. Both toxic leaks
resulted from such multiple equipment
failures, however much Carbide tried to blame
the workers in both cases.
If the technical aspects were similar, so were
the social aspects. Carbide took hours to reveal
what chemicals leaked, making early medical
treatment a guessing game. When Carbide
finally named the chemicals involved, it
downplayed their hazards. Their medical of
ficer assured the exposed citizens that, one of
the main constituents of the leak, aldicarb
oxide, was a Very minor irritant’ with ‘no long
term effects’. Carbide failed to warn the local
authorities of the leak when it occurred. Nor
was the public warned. Such evacuation at
tempts as the local authorities made were in
efficient. As at Bhopal, government inspec
tion of the plant was inadequate, though
regulators and local authorities had assured
the surrounding population that the plant was
safe. As with MIC, there was little or no infor
mation publicly available on aldicarb oxide’s
health effects.
Carbide’s management of the leak also echoed
their management of Bhopal. The company
minimised the problems caused by the leak, in
dulged in ritual displays of concern, including
z 16
The Bhopal Special
a visit by the corporation’s chief executive to
the scene of the crime and. as at Bhopal, cor
porate
management blamed local plant
management for the leak. Later, when the
white heat of media attention had passed and
the lawsuits had begun, Carbide’s attitude har
dened and it dismissed those suing the com
pany as hypochondriacs.
The most basic similarity between Bhopal and
Institute is that both disasters can be traced
back to decisions based on capital’s values of
profit-making and cost-cutting. If the major
cause of the Bhopal massacre can be traced
back to Carbide’s original export of unsuitable
and ill-designed plant and its ‘rationalisation’
of staffing levels and maintenance work due to
the plant’s lack of profitability, a similar
economic motive can be found behind the In
stitute leak. Carbide closed the MIC unit at In
stitute immediately after the Bhopal massacre
and promised not to reopen it until it knew
what went wrong at Bhopal and how to
prevent such a situation recurring at the In
stitute MIC plant in May 1985. Carbide
needed to reopen the unit to avail of the
public pdfisya
market involved in that year’s planting season
and to prevent users of its MIC-based pes
ticides from switching to alternate products.
Similarly, while Carbide reportedly spent $5
million ‘to make a safe plant safer' by install
ing new safety devices, including a muchvaunted computer system, the usefulness of
these measures was undermined by Carbide’s
cost-conscious purchasing decisions and its
concentration on MIC alone, and not the
many other toxic products used in the plant.
Thus Carbide installed ground sensors to
detect MIC leaks, but for other chemical leaks
Carbide used its workers’ noses to determine
where and when they occurred.
Advocates of technical fixes, such as computer
systems, as effective ways to prevent chemical
disasters found their position undermined by
the leak at Institute. Tberc is a grotesque irony
in the fact that new safety features attached to
the plant made their own contribution to the
accident. Incorrect results from the muchpublicised computer equipment persuaded
management that gas leak would not spread
beyond the plant site.
The Institute leak shows chemical accidents
are as likely to occur in metropolitan countries
with developed infrastructure, skilled
workforce, industrial culture and technologi
cally advanced modeling and warning systems
as they are likely to occur in peripheral
countries which lack these dubious benefits of
industrial civilisation. Adding another layer of
technology to an already-faulty technology
results in increased risk, not in increased
safety. The more complex the technology, the
more varied are the ways in which it may fail.
The increasing technical complexity of chemi
cal process plants, combined with manage
ment practices which are designed to keep
workers ignorant of plant operations and
hazards, make future chemical accidents in
evitable. The increasing scale and spread of
these plants increase the possible magnitude
of these disasters and increase the number of
places in which these disasters may occur. It is
only a matter of time before another massacre
as devastating as Bhopal occurs.
International Mobility of Hazardous Products, Industry, And
Wastes
A public health problem
characteristic of the 1970s in many
Western developed industrialised
countries, including the US, was the expansion
of government intervention and regulation in
the areas of occupational and environmental
health and consumer protection. Although
some governments have recently tried to
weaken their regulations, these attempts have
not been popular and have not responded to a
general mandate. But disparities in national
regulations and other factors controlling haz
ardous products, processes and wastes have
had some undesirable consequences. Pes
ticides, drugs and consumer products banned
in some countries have been exported to
others. Multinational Corporations (MNCs),
under no immediate pressure to protect
workers and communities from industrial
hazards in developing countries to the extent
required in the MNCs’ ’home' countries, view
protection measures as discretionary costs.
The pressure to minimize expenses and maxi
mise profits militates against such expendi
tures. Hazardous wastes, formally shipped
within countries to points of minimal public
resistance, now also cross national borders and
are dumped in other countries.
A
streams and groundwater. Other pesticides are
used only under controlled conditions in in
dustrial nations because of their recognised
acute toxicity. When these products are used
casually in tropical areas, the results can be
devastating. In Trinidad, Dr. Rahid Rahaman
reports almost one fatal case of paraquat
poisoning each week. This herbicide causes
severe, untreatable damage to the lungs when
significant amounts are absorbed through the
skin. Yet Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI)
has promoted the use of paraquat by showing
a barefoot worker spraying paraquat on rice
paddy and on his legs.
Hazardous products
Thus, double standards in advertising, promo
tion and labeling of pesticides in the Third
World by MNCs contribute to the toll of
preventable death and disease. Though en
vironmental regulations and export restric
tions in the US and other countries may cause
some manufacturing to be diverted to develop
ing countries, multinational corporations
based in the US and Western Europe will con
tinue to dominate and control these profitable
businesses. Pesticides not registered for use in
the US or being shipped for a use that is can
celled or suspended in the US face some pre
export notification requirements. However
Congress has so far declined to require that an
export licence be obtained prior to the ship
ment of banned and unregistered pesticides.
he careless and uninformed use of pes
ticides accounts for an enormous toll of
preventable death and disease in developing
countries. In the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil, an
estimated 2000 people die each year from pes
ticide poisoning. David Bull of Oxfam, believes
that 30% of the pesticides exported to the
Third World are either banned or severely
restricted in industrial nations. Many of these
substances arc prohibited because of their
latent health effects (c.g. cancer and reproduc
tive hazards), their long persistence in environ
ment, and the threat that their environmental
persistence poses through the poisoning of fish
and animals and the polluting of surface
Some developing countries have made great
efforts to reduce their use of pesticides, espe
cially the most notorious ones. Nicaragua,
which imports most of its pesticides, will not
accept any pesticide that has been banned in
the country where it is made. Nicaragua has
tried to limit pesticide applications by closely
monitoring plant growth and introducing
natural predators in the fields. A 40% reduc
tion in pesticide use has been achieved without
reducing crop output. However many other
developing countries encourage farmers to use
excessive amounts of pesticides. A survey of 9
countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America
showed that governments in 8 enhanced the
T
sale of pesticides by providing subsidies rang
ing from 19 to 89% of the retail price. Pesticide
subsidies in Egypt and Indonesia are believed
to be responsible for the bulk of pesticide
usage in these countries, at an annual cost of
$200 million to each nation.
Hazardous processes
n the 1970s, as new laws in the US and
Europe we re applied to protect workers a nd
communities from hazardous industries, the
possibility was raised that hazardous industries
might simply relocate in other countries. This
appears to have been the case with only a small
number of declining industries in the US (as
bestos, textiles, arsenic recovery from copper
smelting, and the manufacture of dyes from
the intermediate benzidine).
I
But with the industrialization of the Third
World, with its vast resources and markets,
there was a growing concern that hazardous
technology was being transferred without the
concomitant transfer of engineering controls
and expertise to minimize the dangers to
workers and communities. Multinational cor
porations dominate heavy industries of all
kinds, despite state ownership of some large
facilities and the involvement of local firms in
others, and preside over the industrial
development of the world. Governments are
not only dwarfed by some of these companies
economically, but also in terms of technical
know-how. Most of the literature in industrial
medicine is also based on historical experience
in plants owned by these giant firms. More
than anyone else, the companies that have long
been dominant in the various industries are
aware of the hazards involved and the means
for controlling them.
The multinational corporations
*
expertise was
nowhere more evident than in the regulatoiy
arena. At rulemaking hearings and in the
courts, affected industrial firms and trade as
sociations have challenged workplace and en-
The Bhopal Special
public policy
vironmcntal regulatory authorities on every
front. Not uncommonly, the threat of in
dustrial relocation, with its employment and
economic penalties, was invoked by industry.
The emergence of US workplace and environ
mental standards presented a challenge to US
multinational corporations that extended far
beyond US borders. Would the companies still
insist that these standards were needlessly
strict? If so. did this justify a "double standard"
- a lower level of worker and community
protection outside the US? When pressed,
most US-based companies say that their policy
is, ‘at a minimum’, to observe US standards the
world over.
Unfortunately, policy and practice frequently
differ. Double standards in worker and com
munity health protection are sadly com
monplace in the world today. Extreme ex
amples of the lack of health safeguards for
Third World workers by MNCs based in
Europe, Japan, Canada, United States, and
Australia have been reported in the asbestos,
vinyl chloride, pesticide, chromate, steel, and
chlor-alkali industries. Abuses proliferate
throughout Asia, Africa,and Latin America as
industrialization occurs, and dramatic double
standards are easy to identify even without
police powers of plant entry or sophisticated
air-sampling equipment. Often, to identify
abuses it is enough to visit the plant site’s en
virons, look at the workers’ clothes and hair as
the workers come off a shift, and ask about the
working conditions. What type of personal
protective equipment is available and in use?
Are disabled employees dismissed without
compensation for occupational injuries and
diseases? Is hazardous work subcontracted to
day labourers? Have there been any signs of
government standards and inspections? Do
workers receive periodic medical examina
tions? The picture obtained by asking these
and similar questions can be supplemented by
a visit to a government office, clinic, university,
or newspaper.
The double standard in industrial hazards was
brought to the front pages of newspapers the
world over by the Bhopal catastrophe. During
the night of December 2-3, 1984, a massive
release from Union Carbide India Ltd.(UCIL)
killed between 2000 and 5000 people in
Bhopal. Permanent lung damage is evident in
approximately 86,000 people who survived the
event, one third of whom a re severely disabled.
Failure to alleviate the co-existing threats of
malnutrition and endemic diseases among
poor Bhopal victims has prolonged their suf
fering and steadily added to the death toll. It
has been the worst chemical disaster in histoxy.
The details of what happened are still unclear,
and different theories have been proposed by
Indian government scientists and Union Car
bide Corporation(UCC). All seem to agree
that the runaway reaction was started when
water entered a storage tank containing about
41 tons of methyl isocyanate(MIC) during
maintenance activities. MIC’s irritating
vapours were first perceived at around 11p.m.,
but such leaks were a frequent occurrence and
did not cause great concern at firet.The source
of the leak was not located, and the concentra
tion of the vapou re became more intense. Soon
after midnight a sharp rise in pressure was
noted in one of the large MIC storage tanks.
Heat from the runaway reaction in the tank
boiled unrcacted MIC, forcing open the safety
valve and releasing most of its contents in the
vapour state. The plume of deadly gas was
emitted between the hours of midnight and
around 2 a.m. and spread out over the sleeping
community.
An cngincc nng analysis comparing the Bhopal
plant with Union Carbide’s sister facility in
West Virginia revealed numerous shortcom
ings in the Indian plant. These included sub
standard design features:
lack of redundant process and vapour
detection safety instrumentation
monitors;
•
lack of adequately sized and automati
cally operated emergency equipment.
There were also serious shortcomings in the
operation of the Indian plant, including:
•
the shutdown of all three vital safety
systems, prior to the disaster, that
could cool the stored MIC, neutralize
escaping vapours, or bum them;
•
lack of a regular control instrument
and equipment maintenance
programme;
*
lack of detailed emergency instructions
in the plant operation manual, and
lack of emergency training for plant
operators.
Inadequate water spray hoses in the MIC
storage area, profusely leaking valves, and
nonfunctioning vital instruments (c.g. pres
sure gauges on phosgene storage tanks) were
noted in a corporate safety audit of the Bhopal
plant in 1982. Yet the plant management was
not changed, and its already poor record of
safeguarding workers and nearby community
continued to get even worse. Union protests
about the dangers at UCIL were disregarded.
Executive management is solely responsible
for decisions that led to the catastrophe, which
were the result of an indiscriminate economy
drive. Some examples are as follows:
•
The number of blue-collar workers
was reduced from 850 to 642 over a
two-year period; management cut
operator strength by half in a number
of dangerous jobs.
•
Certified plant operators were
replaced with less qualified workers.
•
Corporate safety auditing was nowhere
near as frequent in India as it was in
comparable, potentially hazardous
Union Carbide operations in the U.S.
Most serious of all, Union Carbide’s corporate
engineering group overruled the Indian
subsidiary’s objections in deciding to store
large amounts of MIC in Bhopal starting in
1980. Ihe largest chemical companies of Ger
many and Japan had always regarded MIC as
too dangerous to store in large tanks, and their
operations were designed so that large-scale
storage of MIC was unnecessary. Though most
of the ultra-hazardous features of Carbide's
Bhopal operation were not in violation of
specific US regulations, they were
demonstrably far below the US standard of
practice in safeguarding plants against poten
tial runaway reactions.
The Bhopal disaster has fortunately brought
forth many reactions that one hopes will less
en the severity of future tolls of industrial
hazards. Public interest organisations in
science, engineering, medicine, and law have
taken a prominent role in demanding govern
ment regulation of hazardous chemical plants
in India. The International Organisation of
Consumer Unions has issued a community ac
tion resource manual for hazardous tech
17^
nologies. An international trade union inves
tigation of events at Bhopal was conducted,
and it is likely that unions in industrial nation
*
will now make greater efforts than before to
transfer health and safety expertise to unions
in Third World countries. International
cooperation among the above types of groups
is generally on the increase, and once networks
arc forged, they tend to persist. Through col
lective international cooperation, health
professionals and others should be able to
moderate the severity of industrial hazards at
the plants controlled by MNCs in the develop
ing countries.
Double standards in occupational health, thus,
arise in various human activities, including ex
posure to recognised hazards, warnings to
those exposed, notification to the employees of
medical conditions discovered by industrial
physicians, compensation to the injured
worker as an employee or as a consumer of
products used in industry and agriculture, and
exposure to technologies that have been wide
ly replaced by less dangerous alternatives.
Some economists seek to explain or justify
such disparities with cost-benefit analyses
based on imprecise estimates ofjob risks, com
pounded by assumptions of full knowledge and
economic constructs of "willingness to pay for
safety” among the victimized population. But
destroying poor people’s health for an incre
ment of profit is inescapably a moral issue, and
narrow economic rationalizations fall short of
justifying such predatory business conduct.
Liability as a preventive factor
■ n many countries, it has long been a prin-^■ciple of social policy that, sellers of defective
products and industries releasing harmful
materials should bear responsibility for the
damage caused. Product liability law in the US
holds that if a product has serious, non-obvious hazards associated with its use, and if the
seller fails to provide warnings to tne user of
the product, then the seller is liable for
damages that the product user sustains.
Thousands of persons in the US have sued the
sellers of asbestos products and Daikon shield
intra-uterine devices, claiming that these
products have caused disability and death. But
even after the sales of asbestos insulation and
Daikon shields were banned in the United
Stales, US companies continued to sell the
same products to an unsuspecting public in
other countries. By 1977, the asbestos industry
was beset with a growing number of personal
injury and wrongful death suits in the United
States.
The internal corporate documents reveal the
decisive impact of liability considerations in
determining product user warnings for asbes
tos.
They also suggest that health benefits might be
achieved through international application of
US liability laws. For example, workers in
Costa Rica sterilised by a nematocide
(dibromochloropropr.ne) made in the US have
sued the manufacturers, Shell and Dow
Chemical in Texas. These suits are in essence
identical to others brought by US workers
sterilized by the same product. But their out
come may have enormous impact on the inter
national sales practices of US based firms.
The suits by victims of Bhopal tragedy against
UCC in New York have had far reaching im
pact. Even the Indian government has sued
UCC, asserting that the US parent multina
tional corporation exercised direct control
over the design and operation of its (50.9%
owned) Indian subsidiary. The US district
BTfT The BhopaT Special " "
court handling the Bhopal claims referred the
case to Indian courts, but on these conditions:
The parent corporation must pay any damages
assessed by the Indian judiciary-, and UCC
must abide by US procedures in providing in
formation to the plaintiff in pre-trial legal dis
covery. " The realisation at corporate head
quarters that liability for any Bhopal like disasterwould be decided in the US courts, more
than pressure from Third World governments,
has forced companies to tighten safety proce
dures, upgrade plants, supervise maintenance
more closely and educate workers" reported
Wall Street Journal, describing the reaction of
the multinational corporations. Added pres
sure was created by the insurance industry’s
virtual withdrawal from the field of pollution
liability coverage. In coming years it can be ex
pected that more countries will establish civil
liability for the sale of unreasonably hazardous
products and pollution from poorly managed
industrial operations. In addition, courts and
legislatures in some countries may permit in
ternational application of such laws to redress
and, it is hoped, curb most extreme abuses
committed by their corporations in foreign
lands.
Hazardous wastes
he export of hazardous wastes from in
dustrial nations to dump sites in develop
ing countries has become a major problem in
1980’s. The political impacts, unlike many of
the health consequences, have often been im
mediate. Publicity about hazardous waste ex
port from the US to Haiti, the Dominican
Republic, Seirra Leone and Mexico has led to
enraged public reactions, followed by
governmental intervention to prevent or halt
the dumping in all of those countries.
T
In Mexico, an estimated 1165 million metric
tons of hazardous wastes are generated yearly.
As of 1985, the country still had no law for
regulation of hazardous waste disposal. There
was one small (6000 TPA) authorized, broad-
public policy^
spcctrum hazardous waste landfill operatingin
the entire country. Air pollution authorities
have forbidden the incineration of hazardous
wastes near Mexico City, so wastes are
drummed and shipped to other parts of the
country (and presumably dumped in the en
vironment). When asked what becomes of
their Mexican operations’ hazardous wastes,
US-based multinational companies (which
have a large and growing number of plants
across the Mexican border ) said they did not
even know. Some of the waste drums were the
subject of publicity in Mexico when it was
shown that they had been cut in half and used
to store potable water. Similar situations exist
in many countries, especially the rapidly in
dustrializing ones.
As of early 1986, all a company needed to ship
wastes to Mexico (or to any other country) was
to notify EPA a month before exporting, no
more than once a year. The notice was sup
posed to identify the waste material and the
party who would dispose of it but it did not
have to even specify the quantities involved or
the frequency of the shipments. EPA’s office
of international activities was then supposed to
pass this information on to the authorities of
the importing country. After Los Angeles
Times reporters showed Mexican environ
mental authorities the names of eight Mexican
firms listed by EPA as recipients of US wastes
in 1984-85, the authorities found that none
were licensed for that purpose. The Mexican
official had independently received word on
only one of these sites, near Tecate, where
waste inks and other liquid chemical wastes
were illegally dumped. The Tccate operation
was closed in February 1986, and the owners
have been indicted on criminal charges in
California.
tended in an abandoned slaughterhouse out
side Paris, French officials led the call for in
ternational controls. Other dioxin con
taminated wastes from Chemie Linz in Austria
were discovered by angry Belgian authorities
after being sent to Belgium from Austria via
East European countries.
The European Parliament endorsed the fol
lowing proposals in 1983:
1. International transfer of toxic wastes should
be carried out only with full knowledge of all
countries concerned.
2.
Special transportation routes and border
crossings should be designated.
3.
Heavy prison sentences should be imposed
on the producers or transporters who ignore
the rules.
A more recent EEC directive would oblige ex
porters of hazardous wastes to provide
authenticated evidence of the willingness and
the capacity of the recipient countries to deal
with the wastes before an export license can be
granted. The new directive would apply to the
exports of hazardous wastes both within the
EEC and to other countries. It is a hopeful sign
that so little tolerance exists for the interna
tional dumping of hazardous wastes. By refus
ing to be victimized in this way, developing
countries not only protect the health of their
people and the integrity of their environment,
but they hasten the worldwide advance
towards a new generation of less polluting
technology by refusing to be an outlet for the
wastes created as a design feature of today’s
technology.
B. I. Castleman and V. Navarro
In Europe, an estimated 3 million tons peryear
of hazardous chemical wastes cross national
borders every year. As of 1983, Belgium, Italy,
Greece and Ireland had no waste disposal laws
at all. After the shocking discovery of dioxin
contaminated wastes from Seveso, Italy unat
(This article has been abridged with permis
sion from the authors, from Ann. Rev. Public
Health, 1987.8:1-19.)
A Post Mortem On Modern TechnoIogy:The Bhopal Disaster
| he ancient world boasts seven wonders,
monuments that still engage our sense of
wonder and awe. These artifacts were con
structed by peoples with little access to the
phenomenal capacities and mechanical ener
gies available to man through modem science
and technology today. Hence the provocation
for wonder and astonishment. We somehow
feel these are exceptions.that ingenuity is a
quality only modem intelligence can claim.
Not that there are no technological marvels
created in our own times. But in addition to
these, and as if to counterbalance them, we
also recognize that our age and its singular in
telligence have raised a crop of monstrous
achievements whose individual and combined
effects have succeeded in producing a different
kind of wonder, one laced with terror and a
sense of the horrendous.The list is well known:
Hiroshima-Nagasaki, Seveso, Bhopal, Three
Mile Island, Chernobyl, Thalidomide,
Minamata, SMON, Challenger, the recent oil
spill in the US. Except for the Challenger spec
tacular, all the rest are mass disaster events.
All are contributions of that new invention:
modem technology or its new whiz label - hitech.
In describing the nature or impact of these dis
asters the media and other assorted commen
tators generally use superlatives: the world’s
"worst spill", the world’s "worst chemical dis
aster", or "second worst". It may the worst dis
aster of the year, of the decade, of the century.
All these events have constituted colossal as
saults on modem technology’s claims to com
petence, but despite the bludgeonings, the in
fatuation with such technology continues. "It is
impossible to stop technological progress. The
genie has escaped from the bottle. It will not
listen to commands to return."
Without man there is no technology. Without
society, no technological race. Yet, man
pretends he is unable to control his momen
tum in creating new technology. 1 Ic is obsessed
with its continuous
*creation.
Underlying this
alleged helplessness is a still intact faith,
simplistic but powerful, in the benign nature of
technology, its ability to enhance welfare.
There is a continuing universal mesmerisation
with the gadgetry modem technology exhibits,
and this is true of people both within the socalled industrialised and industrialising
worlds. Technology is a consumption item, in
timately linked to the profits and power of
those who nurse its drive and direction.
It is now admitted that modem science and
technology have proved instrumental in killing
more people than both the world wars put
together. This is certainly a new development:
people now die in peacetime on a colossal scale
because of technology. Industrial accidents,
pesticides, drugs, mass disasters, the car - or
the impact of effluentson the quality of life in
the form ofsustained ubiquitous, uncontrolled
pollution. One form of mass death is often
used to condone other forms of mass kill.
"More people", say J R D Tara and Raja
Ramanna, "die due to car accidents, than in
nuclear disasters or because of nuclear radia
tion". Wc do not, therefore, ban the car, so we
need not dehazard modem life. Industrialised
death is so pervasive, it seems natural. Death
is to be accepted as a natural consequences of
man’s involvement with modem technology.
qsubiic policy"
The himsa associated with modem technology
is often sought to be counterbalanced and jus
tified by proclaiming the spectacular results
found associated with the use of the same tech
nology. Green revolution, white revolution,
blue revolution, the second green revolution:
the technocrat has now become the new
revolutionary (Lenin and Che Guevara have
been retired). Technology may have damaged
the world, but it has also helped it survive and
cope.
Therefore we should have expected that the
ghpst of the Bhopal gas disaster would not in
timidate us beyond a point. Bhopals we know
occur everyday, in similar, more acceptable
doses. We have been immunised, we have
relented. We have decided to accept living
dangerously. We have no other choice.
There are no indications either that Japan or
the US or any of the other technology im
pellers are suffering from exhaustion, or any
disinclination to call off the game, or a failure
of nerve. They are unable to take a bit of rest.
They are equally victims.
All that is left for us to do in the circumstances
is to cany out post mortems. As any doctor
will tell you, post mortems merely establish the
immediate cause of death. They give no in
dication to the coroner of when future deaths
from the same cause will occur in other in
dividuals. Death, Manu Kothari and Lopa
Mehta have recently proposed, occurs inde
pendent of disease. It uses disease for its own
purposes, merely gives disease a bad name. So
do mass disasters: their dissection will offer no
clue as to when other disasters will occur.
Technology is as mortal, frail and incompetent
as its creator. That much is incumbent on us to
accept. We have no choice in the matter. This
may seem a fatalistic discourse. But modem
technology being intrinsically fatal can provide
no other consolation for the believers.
But do we not have safeguards? Can we not im
prove on them and enhance safety? Can we not
work out a future using the same technology,
and not create Bhopals?
One of the reasons why the Bhopal gas disaster
turned out to be so vicious was because the
usual safeguards had not been maintained. So
the experts said. The experts do not tell us what
would have happened with the reacting MIC
even if all the safeguards had been working
well. I suggest that safeguards would still not
have made much of a difference.
For the plain truth of the matter is that even if
all the safeguards were intact and in working
order, and water had entered the tank as it did,
more than 30 tons of the toxins would still have
leaked into the atmosphere. So far, only two
reports, one in India Today, the other in
Newstime, have drawn attention to this. But
both do not tie up their implied conclusion:
that none of the safeguards, nor all together,
were designed to cope with neutralisation of
those 40 tons of MIC rushing out in a couple
of hours.
I do not think it is necessary now, except brief
ly, to go over the major safety features of the
Bhopal UC plant and to demonstrate that
none nor all together could have prevented the
mishap. The water curtain, for instance, was
designed to neutralize MIC escaping at a
height of not more than 15 metres, whereas the
vapour actually exited 33 metres above the
ground. The refrigeration system for the tanks
were out of order, but the manual itself says
that “the low temperature will not eliminate
the possibility of a violent reaction, if con
tamination occurs.’ At the most, time for
detection of the problem may have increased.
The vent gas scrubber, working in such an
emergency, could not have neutralised more
than six tons of the escaping gases. The use of
the flare tower for burning out such a huge
quantity of escaping gas would have generated
an even more hazardous consequence.
So it is a false argument that attempts to sug
gest that the safety features were inoperative,
therefore the disaster. If the plant had actual
ly been designed to contain such a contingen
cy as the escape of 40 tons of MIC, it would
have been completely uneconomical. The
simpler truth is that the scientists did not even
conceive of an accident on this scale. As for the
company, the results of the tests it had done of
the impact of small doses of MIC on human
beings were probably so terrifying, it merely
refused to entertain any prospect of an event
such as this even occurring at the plant.
The notion that safeguards will prevent acci
dents of this kind in such technological systems
is extremely naive, and is better treated with
extreme caution.
The second major conclusion of our post mor
tem is that high tech produces disasters which
arc not only unpredictable, but essentially un
controllable. Let us look into Bhopal and
some of the other disasters I have enumerated
much earlier.
In Bhopal, once the venting of the gas com
menced on the night of December the 2nd, it
proceeded with its own logic and steam, and
nothing could be done to either stop the reac
tion or control the consequences. The accident
ceased only when the tank exhausted its con
tents. The only option modem technology of
fers one in such circumstances is that one
should rely on one’s feet and run.
At Chernobyl, loss of coolant to the reactor
sent temperatures soaring. Overheated steam
began generating a number of hostile reactions
which ended in an explosion blowing off the
roof of the reactor, inviting a rush of oxygen
from the atmosphere to feed a graphite fire.
There was a meltdown of the core. Soviet
scientists, unable to put out the graphite fire,
had to ask for help from West German and
Swedish nuclear experts. The latter were as in
competent. Eventually, the fire extinguished
itself on its own.
At Three Mile Island, Harrisburg, in March
1979, a pump driving water to a steam gener
atorquit, setting in rapid motion a bewildering
sequence of events that ended in a partial
meltdown of the core, and the creation of a
massive bubble of hydrogen within the reactor
(1000 cubic feet in size). Had the bubble ex
ploded or expanded further, a full meltdown of
the core would have been inevitable. The
scientists were unable to do anything with the
bubble. Eventually, after a number of terrify
ing days the bubble reduced in size of its own
accord. The prospect of an explosion as
meltdown occurred, blasting the containment
and the dome of the reactor, was so real that
evacuation of all vulnerable sections of the
population (particularly pregnant women and
children) was advised. As at Bhopal during
Operation Faith, people in Harrisburg
preferred to evacuate rather than stay.
The final conclusion orfe can draw from the
post mortem is that such disasters are not due
to any peculiar "third world" conditions. In
fact, too much was made of the fact that the
disaster took place in India, and numerous
journalists and critics were ready to claim that
such a disaster "could not happen" in their own
advanced societies. Even Union Carbide USA
had attempted to distance itself from its Indian
subsidiary, claiming that its unit there was run
differently from its own unit back home.
Memory however is all too short.
Three major disasters have taken place in the
advanced economies ever since the Bhopal dis
aster. The first was Chernobyl, the second was
the Sandoz-Rhine chemical spill, the third was
the major oil spill in the US in the first week of
January, 1988. Prior to these major accidents,
all other major disasters, except Bhopal, have
occurred within the advanced economies:
Scvcso, Three Mile Island, Minamata, Smon,
Thalidomide. The more hi-tech the economy,
the more advanced, the larger the number of
disasters.
In fact a number of features of the Bhopal ac
cident have repeated monotonously in the
other accidents after. What has emerged quite
dramatically from the Sandoz-Rhine chemical
spill is that the company chose profits over
safety when it ignored the safety recommenda
tions of a Zurich-based insurance company,
and decided to have its liability underwritten
by a cheaper firm, rather than accept the
Zurich company’s terms.
The Sandoz unit had no water catchment, so
all the water used by the firemen to control the
fire entered the Rhine carrying all the chemi
cals, thus causing the disaster. It had but two
sprinklers. As with Bhopal, citizens and offi
cials, some along the Rhine river, were not in
formed for a period of nearly 40 hours.
Recall Chernobyl too. If European govern
ments had been thoroughly annoyed with the
Soviets precisely because the latter had not in
formed them for a full three days after their
nuclear accident in April, now West German,
Dutch and French officials were doing to the
Swiss what they had done to the Soviets a few
months earlier calling them names.
As for corruption, it was only when scientists
discovered new chemicals in the Rhine waters
when making their analysis and began to
suspect that other companies were also dump
ing their effluents, that Ciba Geigy came out
with the confession that 105 gallons of a toxic
herbicide atrazine had leaked into the river
from its own plant, one day prior to the San
doz fire.
What subsidiary conclusions may one now
draw from the ones above? First, there is no
guarantee that safeguards will work absolute
ly in any major hazardous process gifted to the
human race by modem technology. One Rus
sian expert observed that the Chernobyl acci
dent could only have occurred due to an "al
most improbable coincidence of chances". But
possible none the less.
Second, the vely socio-economic, political con
text in which modem technology is situated
makes it potentially all the more dangerous
with or without safeguards. If safeguards are
incorporated in the design and even installed,
they may still not be used. In TMI, valves that
would have allowed coolant into the reactor
from emergency pumps were closed instead
for routine maintenance, just as the refrigera
tion unit had been dismantled in the Bhopal
plant.
(continued on page 13)
Bhopal - Book Reviews
Prelude
r l^hrec years ago, Bhopal once again
-^- brought into public view the strange af
finity that profit hungry Multinational Cor
porations (MNCs) have for hazardous tech
nologies, especially in their plants sited in the
Third World. The issues.that Bhopal raised
were far ranging and many. In a long term
political sense the questions that were raised
pertained to, the technology choice and evolu
tion - the very basis of industrial societies - in
general and the social relations that govern
such choices; for instance; the ‘collaboration’
between local Third World elites with MNCs
which leads to obsolete and usually hazardous
process technologies being dumped onto
peoples of these countries.
In the short term there is a crying need for jus
tice to be done to the victims, many of whom
have been maimed for life, and to survivors of
those who have been killed. Results of the legal
tangles created by the disaster will also be of
historic significance since they will be the
landmark precedents on corporate liability of
parent multinationals in their Third World
operations.
A number of books, articles, reviews, docu
ments have appeared in the literature; which
analyse the disaster from all angles and view
points. However there is still dearth of litera
ture on some salient aspects of the tragedy.
Some of more prominent books and compila
tion that have appeared till date constitute the
matter of this review. The review order indi
cates a rough rating given by the reviewer.
The Bhopal Syndrome; David
Weir, IOCU, 1986 pp vii + 117,
(Rs 28).
avid Weir’s book is thin and concise and
offers the relevant perspective within
which Bhopal tragedy is to be placed. It asks
the right questions, traces the subtle outline of
what constitute the answers and reveals less
well known facts about the pesticides industry.
D
The book does not focus exclusively on
Bhopal. Only the first part of the book titled
The Tragedy
*
deals with the actual tragedy
presented in manner which is integrally en
meshed with book’s overall perspective. The
first chapter aptly introduces us to the fact of
‘Running Towards Bhopal’ and then leads us
to some startling facts about the pesticides in
dustry on a global scale: that $13 billion worth
of pesticides were sold in 1983 alone; the sales
growth rate is 125% and the overall percent
age of each year’s crop lost to pests is same in
spite of chemical warfare against pests; that
profits in this chemical industry range form 1725%, which only add to making food more ex
pensive, and the structure of the pesticides in
dustry follows the usual skewed pattern of a
few multinationals dominating the scene.
The past decade has witnessed the markets in
developed countries approach saturation and
multinational corporations have turned more
and more towards exports of their hazardous
products, technology and an agriculture based
on the use of such products to the newly cap
tured markets in the Third World countries.
This then constitutes the current political con
text which governs the relationship between
the pesticides companies and the governments
of the underdeveloped countries. The follow
ing quote from Weir’s book puts it rather
aptly- ‘By moving into the Third World the
MNCs have encountered conditions quite un
like those at home. Malnutrition, illiteracy,
poverty and short life expectancy are the norm.
Economic development, the priority of practi
cally every government in the world lags far be
hind that of Europe US and Japan. By 1974, a
decade before the Bhopal tragedy, for ex
ample, Union Carbide was marketing its
products in 125 different countries, 75 (or
60%) of which had smaller economies com
pared to the corporation. Holding such an ad
vantage in size and money over many host
governments gives the company a great deal of
leverage. Though they seldom comment
publicly on their relationship with Third World
governments, officials, internal company
documents reveal intense competition
amongst firms to influence policy makers in
host countries. In spite of India’s larger size
how different does the above description
sound compared to what we have seen of the
insidious nexus that existed between govern
ment agencies and Union Carbide India Ltd.
(UCIL), as has been exposed in the aftermath
of the tragedy? It is indeed this nexus that one
sees in the role of government agencies which
first ‘allowed’ the disaster to occur and then
went out of their way to ‘cover up’ things.
The rest of the chapters in this first part of the
book document the actual tragedy and its im
mediate aftermath. A brief account of Union
Carbide’s history is provided as well as its in
fluence - ‘that despite Indian law limiting
foreign ownership of corporations to 40%, the
US parent company was allowed to retain a
majority ownership (50.9%) of UCIL because
it was considered a "high technology"
enterprise’. Thus from an initial formulation
facility for Sevin (carbaryl), UCIL expanded
into a $25 million enterprise based on a tech
nology which was perhaps the cheapest but
also the most hazardous, since manufacture
and storage of dangerous methyl isocyanate
(MIC) was involved. In the 1980’s, synthetic
pyrethroids entered the Indian market and the
demand for Sevin spiralled downwards, forc
ing UCIL into an economically tight comer, in
spite of Union Carbide Corporation’s (UCC)
covert international campaign to ‘prove’ that
synthetic pyrethroids caused cancer. Cost-cutting and sundry austerity measures which were
basically compromises on safety in an extreme
ly hazardous enterprise coupled with the
development of slums and shanty towns
around UCIL plant due to the historic migra
tion of people from the villages in search of
work in urban centres created all the necessary
conditions for a ‘disaster waiting to happen’.
The gruesome ‘night of terror
*
left thousands
dead, perhaps of the order of 5000, and left
another 200,000 injured, about 20,000 of them
seriously. A host of factors pertaining to design
and operating flaws, siting and licensing errors
as well as socio-political factors typical of the
Third World countries ultimately led to the
disaster. These have been presented briefly
enough to maintain the continuity of the nar
rative. (For a more detailed account see
reviews of some of the other books).
UCCs and the Indian government’s attitudes
after the disaster followed expected
stereotyped patterns. There was a terrible in
formation vacuum regarding MIC. Controver
sies about the exact nature of the contents of
the leak that took place and about the possible
breakdown and effects of MIC in the body
raged furiously. A sharp polarisation gradual
ly emerged with the non-governmental volun
tary organisations and health activists’ groups
on one side and the ‘establishment ’ on the
other. Some of them deserve greater public at
tention and have been analysed in some of the
other books.
Part two of the book is even more significant
in that it discusses the syndrome constituted by
hazardous technology, its apparent necessity in
the ‘modernization’ drives of ‘developing
*
countries and its peculiar interaction with
Third World socio-political structures. It at
tempts to bring out the appalling ignorance
that exists about thousands of chemicals being
dumped on mankind by industrial society and
the havoc they wreak in a politically divided
world constituted mostly of societies which are
themselves divided into social classes with con
flicting ‘interests’. And it is always the ‘poor
who pay
*.
We indeed live in a world of dilemmas. Seveso,
Love Canal, Three Mile Island all point to the
impossibility of zero-risk society. Ail these
‘accidents’ have provoked serious revaluation
of manufacturing processes obviously
governed by the industry’s own need to survive
in an increasingly hostile environment. But
this dialectic in technology evaluation itself
constitutes the history of safety development
in the chemical industry. Hazardous and un
sound as many of these industries are in
herently there is an added burden of ‘double
standards' in Third World countries. Unsafe
‘short cuts' are almost always the norm. There
is a pathetic lack of trained labour and ade
quate disposal facilities; badly located plants
with primitive control systems often accom
panied by a lack of statutory controls are very
common, and lastly, of course there is hardly
any infrastructure that can respond to
catastrophic situations in terms of personnel,
financial and material resources and efficient,
viable, accountable and organised structures
to tackle the ‘crisis'. This then is the Bhopal
Syndrome.
Witness the scenario in some other Third
World countries as brought out by Weir.
Cicadas,Indonesia- A facility to make disper
sible DDT powder let out tremendous smoke
in mid-August 1984. The dust formed blankets
on everything and affected cattle as well as
humans. The plant is surrounded by slums and
the company is involved deeply into the local
politics with the president’s son having owner
ship stakes in it. In the same country, during a
drought, people consumed pesticide coated
rice and died. Rio-de-Janeiro, Brazil- A Bayer
chemical complex (Bayer controls 10% of the
world market in pesticides) caused heavy pol
lution killing all the fish in the river. The
management denied responsibility for the
situation even though it was clearly evident
that it was running an ill-kept plant.
Taichung, Taiwan- In this small country where
living, habitable space is tremendous problem,
there are some 66 small scale local formulatore. In May 1985 protests led to closure
of a plant. MIC storage is not allowed and
manufacture of phosgene is prohibited. And in
spite of stringent checks on pesticide use
(DDT is banned) there are still cases of ac
cidental poisoning and suicides. Gradual ef-
Yher8K6pa1Sp'eciaf
T'review/s
feels of pesticides which arc not so visible arc
ignored and there is nothing much that can be
done about the proximity of communities to
formulation factories.
The list is literally endless- Tanzania, Egypt,
Zimbabwe, Liberia, Dominican republic,
Guatemala... al! contain these ingredients for
explosive disasters. A common theme running
through the accounts is the location of a chemi
cal plant in populated areas. This happens be
cause most of the services and infrastructure
including roads, electricity, public transporta
tion and supplies are located only in cities. The
rural parts of underdeveloped countries prac
tically remain undeveloped.
The book also attempts to bring out briefly the
inherently dangerous nature of hazardous
technologies by focussing on industrialised na
tions: Accidents were reported in a Japanese
plant also (Mitsubishi) where focus is on
preventive maintenance and the plant is
equipped with computerised controls as well
as automatic shutdown facility. Japan also fol
lowed double standards in safety, examples of
which are provided by the Malaysian Rare
Earth Corporation and the Asahi Glass Com
panydumping mercury wastes intoThai rivers.
In US 7.5% of the population lives near chemi
cal plants. There have been leaks galore and
the problem should become worse in future
because of an aging industrial base. However,
state-of-the-art technologies also fail some
times due to extremely simple errors. A false
sense of security generated by the newly in
stalled computer alarm system was madly shat
tered when a leak went undetected because the
computer had been programmed to detect
only a single compound and not a mixture!
And about whether a Bhopal can occur in US,
it was said ‘You are dealing with such terribly
dangerous chemicals that human failure or
mechanical failures can be catastrophic. The
potential is there and it could happen, maybe
today or fifty years from now
*.
The third part of his book is titled The
Solutions’and raises the most significant ques
tions, some of which have already been raised
above. The afterward by Claude Alvares is
even more provoking. Indeed, there is a
tremendous need for the ‘right to know
*
all
over the world since it is only this awareness
that can lead to an all out mobilization against
hazardous technologies, but merely by itself
this can achieve little. The ultimate choices are
political and so long as the power to choose
rests with the elite, a radical change in the
scenario is unlikely.
We must ask whether pesticides are an ap
propriate technology, especially in Third
World nations, since they do not know Svhen
to stop killing
*.
At a general level some politi
cal choices need to be made about chemical
technology in particular. Too many chemicals
are being put to human use while there is too
little time to track their hazardous properties.
Witness the information vacuum on MIC.
Health hazards related to pesticides arc known
only for some 10% of those in use (a total of
about 3350). Unknown sequences can trigger
off catastrophes which arc totally unforeseen.
The inherent hazards of these chemicals are
enhanced in Third World countries because
the support infrastructure for an industrial cul
ture does not exist. Local ruling elites col
laborate with MNCs and enjoy their share of
this multinational loot while the poor in every
country pay for it in dear terms. For the same
reasons MNCs get away with the double stand
ards not only in safety but also in the shifting
of banned chemicals' production to the under
developed nations. For instance, the ‘global
pesticide map of Hoechst reads like a who’s
who of banned and heavily restricted
pesticides’. It is the same elite which ravages
the countryside causing large rural population
to shift to centres of urban industrial opulence,
in search of a livelihood. And it is this elite
only, when not in the garb of banana republic
dictatorship, which dabbles with an imitative
form of‘democracy
*
and ‘socialism
*.
The result
is a terrible lack of accountability - political,
economic and technical - at every level in the
Third World countries. Hazardous plants sur
rounded by slums in well populated urban
centres in countries run by quasi-lumpenized
elites and serviced by self-seeking ‘scientific
*
establishments comprise the horrifying
scenario all over the world.
This little concise book is recommended read
ing for all who care. It describes not an event
but a syndrome. It would have been wonderful
if the book had been a bit thicker so that the
internal politics, class structure and modem
institutions could have been discussed in
somewhat greater detail. At times the book
sounds anti-technology per se, where as it is the
relevant social forces, human political
decisions which govern technology choice not
the other way round. It is significant to com
prehend that a critical political outlook is not
necessarily anti-technology or anti-chemical
industry. It is the undesirable characteristics of
the industry, the dominant direction of its
evolution and the class it serves that need tobe
altered radically.
The Bhopal Tragedy - A
Preliminary Report for the
Citizens’ Commission on
Bhopal, Ward Morehouse and
Arun Subramaniam, CIPA,
1986,pp xiii + 190, (Rs.32)
Behind the Poison Cloud, Larry
Everest, Banner Press, 1985, pp
192, $8.95.
oih the above books provide fairly
detailed and decent accounts of the dis
aster within a well informed, critical frame
work. They cover the tragedy, its immediate
aftermath, the social and technical factors that
contributed to it all and some of the underly
ing political and legal questions that can be
raised.
B
A fairly accurate picture of that ‘Night of
*
Horror
is presented: how UCIL made no ef
forts to inform the surrounding communities
of the leak, the horrendous way in which
people dropped dead, the lethargic and con
fused response of an administration caught un
awares and the disinformation campaign un
leashed by the Carbide establishment. Mean
while as the dead and the injured kept pouring
into the undercquipped city hospitals, efforts
were already underway to minimize the official
toll of the tragedy - about 1750 by government
estimates but more likely to be in the region of
3000 to 5000. More important very few assess
ments were made of the environment to deter
mine the changes wrought on the air and water
in Bhopal.
21 R
The medical response to the tragedy was also
as expected, not only inefficient and ad-hoc but
partly rendered useless by the polarization and
infighting within the medical establishment it
self. Apart from improper records, the major
controversy to rage was the cyanide theoty. In
itially, the information vacuum on the proper
ties and characteristics of MIC was so great
that, it took some time to recognise the pos
sibility of cyanide formation due to thermal
decomposition of MIC. In addition to this, a
deliberate confusion was generated by Car
bide. Only a few doctors and activist groups
having access to medical personnel were able
to explore in a preliminary way, the thiosul
phate antidote therapy.
The role of voluntary organisations and ac
tivist groups needs to be appreciated in a major
way. Their struggle against an abettor state is
a pointer to the significance of such organisa
tions. It will not bean exaggeration to state that
the resolution of a number of controversies,
the elements of pioneering work (such as the
Medico Friend Circlc(MFC) epidemiological
survey) and constant pressure on the govern
ment against falsification and corrupt prac
tices, were due to the sincerity and hard work
put in by these groups. All this, in addition to
the sense of caring and security provided by
these organisations to the largely poor victims
of the demonic chemicals.
The full medical impact of the chemicals that
leaked out is only now beginning to show pat
terns and, therefore, is not a part of the above
books. Abortion levels arc higher, women are
prone to peculiar gynaecological problems.
Lung impairment, exhaustion, proneness to
otherdiscascs and perhaps yet to be seen dead
lier effects are all beginning to show. A
separate study of the medical response is a dire
need, including that of the wishy-washy
response of institutions like the ICMR, which
initiated a number of spectacular projects,
which either led nowhere or to deliberate bury
ing of inconvenient results.The incompetence
and sheer indifference of the technical man
power (third largest in the world!) to a disaster
of such proportions is also appalling. The
melodrama of Operation Faith is an indicator
of the level of experts we have at the topmost
level of the scientific bureaucracies. The
response of the people, an indication of dis
trust that people have towards ‘modem’ in
stitutions which have marginalised them.
Worse than incompetence is, of course, the in
difference: there were hardly any voices of
protest and criticism from within the empires
of the ‘science barons’.
The ‘technical flaws’ that contributed to the
leak have been documented in proper detail.
A classification of these flaws provides a ready
made idea of the degree of culpability of the
various parties involved: the government was
responsible for the licensing and siting of the
plant. As to the argument that many shanty
towns sprang up around the plant after its es
tablishment, there are two answers - firstly, the
government did nothing to prevent these from
‘springing up’ due to sheer political expedien
cy and secondly, even initially the plant was too
close to the city and railway station. In addi
tion, apart from outright corruption, nepotism
and bribery, what did the government agencies
do to check whether the plant was being run
properly or not? How in the first place did they
allow so much of storage of MIC? Union Car
bide Corporation, (UCC) and UCIL were
directly responsible for the inherent faults in
plant and process design. Unnecessarily large
storage inventory for MIC was designated.
The vent gas scrubber and flare stack were
meant to handle only ‘routine’ leaks of a minor
FT2 2
reviews7^
Tlie Bhopal Special
nature. Control systems used were primitive,
there were hardly any ‘alarm’ systems. And
most critical was the connection between
headers- the jumper line - which could provide
a route for water entry into the tank. And then
of course there were operating and main
tenance flaws involving a cut back on plant
operating personnel, shutdown of all safety
devices when so much MIC was in storage,
faulty pressure gauges and leaky relief valves,
etc. Many plant personnel were undertrained
and there seems to be an evident tendency of
the management to underplay the hazardous
nature of the chemical involved, thereby giving
at times a false sense of security or indifference
to safety procedures. Even after the disaster,
a not insignificant UCIL manager ‘thought’
MIC only to be a ‘lachrymator’l
The legal aspects of the tragedy are obviously
not upto date since the issue is still in process.
The two important aspects of the legal out
comes of the disaster are firstly, ‘just’ compen
sation to the victims and secondly, the estab
lishment of liability of the parent multination
al in such corporate crimes’. Neither of these
seem to be in view. After the initial vulture
like swoops of the American tort lawyers there
seems to be confusion all around. The
government’s data is improper and incom
plete. It has declared itself to be the sole cus
todian of the compensation money that maybe
paid. It is simultaneously a legal advisory of
UCC in trying to minimize and hide its own ac
cessory role in the episode as well as its abet
tor and a colluding party. And then there arc
the oft repeated questions of compensation
standards (American or Indian ) - how costly
is a life? In a Third World country lives ob
viously seem to be a cheaper commodity, but
this is where the case should be fought. On one
hand American courts are expected to grant
much more in compensation and punitive
damages (one really can’t see why the Indian
courts can’t, provided they arc granted juris
diction over UCC assets) and on the other
hand there is tremendous need to develop
torts and compensation litigation, judicial
precedents and standards within the countrywhat will we do if an Indian firm, and that too
a public sector company, blows up half a town?
The government of India, in its usually ex
pedient form, has deemed it fit to divide the
judicial administration of its own country. Sad
indeed! But then what does one make of the
sabotaged ‘commission of inquiry
*
into the in
cident ? Was it not official non-cooperation
that brought the whole effort to naught ? No
wonder commissions don’t work in this
country I
Morehouse and Subramaniam focus heavily
on *what it means for American workers and
communities at risk’. This book is well docu
mented and ends with an agenda for "citizens'
action". Many technical pieces of information
are provided, especially in the appendices. It
is obviously recommended reading. Sub
ramaniam had done some first rate reporting
in ‘Business India’ on the cause of the disaster
and this materia] appears here in an elaborate
form.
Everest’s book is more continuous and grip
ping and provides two chapters worth of politi
cal insights into the structural nature of the
problem. Perhaps the best book in a certain
sense. One only hopes a new version of the
book appears, updated and revised.
Bhopal: Industrial Genocide? A
Compilation, Arena Press, 1985,
pp 222, price not mentioned.
A
reasonably fine collection of documents
^~^and articles from Indian publications on
the Bhopal tragedy and related aspects. The
compilation consists of eight sections, each
focusing on a specific theme. Nearly all aspects
of the actual tragedy arc ably covered in the
first section by Praful Bidwai of the Times of
India as well as Ivan Fcra and Radhika
Ramaseshan. Perhaps, more coherent and full
length continuous description based on some
of these articles arc available in books (see
some of the other reviews).
Section two presents information about Union
Carbide while section three discusses the rela
tive culpability of all the parties involved in the
disaster namely, the UCC, UCIL and the
government of India. ‘Technological
Terrorism’ by Jayanta Bandopadhay is par
ticularly passionate and provoking.
The fourth section discusses the connection
between multinationals, Third World govern
ments on the one hand and the relationship be
tween environmental pollution and profit on
the other. Section five presents the profile of
a chemical like MIC including reports of al
leged germ warfare research in the R & D set
up of UCIL at Bhopal. Section six focusses
specifically on the pesticides industry, its use
and hazards including the known fact of
banned pesticides being dumped on the
‘developing’ countries.
Section seven deals with legal issuesarisingout
of the Bhopal holocaust regarding corporate
liability especially in relation to multinationals
and at a more general level the legal aspects of
environmental disasters. The concluding sec
tion eight carries a significant document name
ly the Delhi Science Forum report as released
to the press in mid-December 1984. Despite
the small size of the report, it tries to look at
the tragedy, in its immediate aftermath, with
all kinds of angles which include the technical
causes of the tragedy, the medical effects on
the exposed population, the information
monopoly of the Union Carbide and a host of
legal and political issues.
The postscript as well as the prologue by
Padma Prakash provide a condensation of the
outlook and the issues which the compilers
have kept in mind while assembling the ar
ticles.
For those who prefer go through newspaper
reports and first hand responses to a crisis the
book is obviously excellent material. Even
otherwise the compilation is fairly comprehen
sive but even more than that the choice of
documents reflects a judicious, politically sen
sitive and aware perspective.
The Bhopal Tragedy: One Year
After? An Appen Report, Shabat
Alam, pp 235, (Rs.30)
A
very extensive’ collection of documents
- of all kinds ranging from letters and af
^
*
fidavits filed by the activist groups associated
with relief and legal aspects of the tragedy io
the documents submitted by the Carbide es
tablishment and the governmental agencies. It
opens with a radical, pro-people perspective
article followed by a plethora of documents.
To the uninitiated these may not be of much
interest but to those who arc following the
aftermath of the tragedy from specific angles,
it will be a very useful compilation.
Managing Industrial Crises,
Paul Shrivastava, Vision Books,
1987, pp 196, Rs. 125.
A more sophisticated attempt to analyse the
^Bhopal
terms of a managemcnt-cum-systems ap
proach. The attempt is more refined because
it tends to ‘neutralize’ and ‘decolour
*
insights
that maybe drawn from a classical Marxian or
radical critique of corporate enterprises. It
uses these insights and associated information
to develop a highly classificatory and struc
tured analysis but somehow all the
‘stakeholders ’ seem to become ‘equal’. Only
those who believe that the basic profit motive
for commercial activity is a necessity and fol
low the outlook that flows therefrom will find
themselves comfortable with the book.
It is indeed a well informed effort. A crisis is
defined as being made up of a ‘triggering event’
occurring in circumstances that blow up and
multiply the effects and consequences thereof,
thereby precipitating a crisis. The next two
chapters discussthe actual tragedy, the latter
being more details than the former. The
fourth chapter focusses on the consequences
of the disaster in Bhopal, the US and around
the world. The succeeding chapter presents
‘models of a crisis’ as viewed from a ‘multiple
perspective approach’ involving the way in
which the major stakeholders, namely, the
govt, (host), look upon the disaster. There are
insights galore in the book. One often has a
feeling that even small things arc taken note
of, there is indeed a sense of comprehensive
ness, only the jargon is managerial, though
nevertheless incisive.
The ‘lessons' of the tragedy are appropriately
addressed to the relevant parties: the govern
ments arc asked to ensure that sustainable
development plans should be formulated with
proper thought to ‘hazard management’ and
available supportive infrastructure in the loca
tion area. A government which could follow
this prescription would rather obviously be a
responsible one and not one which abets and
colludes with profit hungry MNCs, sometimes
in the most blatant manner. Even more im
portant, the mis-match between the suppor
tive infrastructure and the nature of the
enterprise (product, process) arc direct out
comes of the haphazard, uneven development
schemes that arc indulged in from time to time,
often governed by the short term gains of elec
toral politicking. The industrial scenarios, in
countries such as India are the obvious conse
quences of a ‘modernization’ perspective
wedded to capitalist development; companies
and businesses are told to ‘clearly understand’
the causes of industrial accidents, environmen
tal degradation, product injuries, etc.; as if
companies don’t. They damn well do, but pol
lution abatement measures cost money and
safer manufacturing processes arc not neces
sarily the cheapest. In such economics as ours,
only incentive schemes, outright subsidies and
reviews
The’Bhopai Special” ' 2 3
the least likely to be cnforccd-enhanccd. strin
gent regulation standards are the possible
tools to create external pressures on corporate
entities to be cleaner and safer in their proces
ses. And after all why should the abettor en
force ? As for the generalities of ‘siting
policies’, ‘impact assessment’, ‘operational
safety procedures and audits’, ‘emergency
planning and clear crisis prevention', etc. •
these are rather fancy names for common
sense approaches, the recommendations are
obvious and well known; the question is why
will somebody undertake them. Only a per
ceived threat to the survival of the industry as
a whole may help but it all depends on when
the ruling elite chooses to make the ‘state play
the arbiter!
‘prove’ the repugnant nature of pain, destruc
tion and death.
In any case, the largest stakeholders are the
people themselves and whether they can alter
the basic nature of manufacturing enterprises
through organized pressure is a question
beyond the scope of managers.
Perhaps the most immediate responses to a
crisis situation like the gas liak and the deaths
and injury it caused can be found in the book.
ITiese first impressions maybe right or wrong,
many streams of thought might have stopped
dead after a few dispatches- all these may be
gleaned from Chisti's account, ranging from
the allegations about technical matters to
those regarding political responses of the state
administ ration, the crisis response of the medi
cal establishment including the various con
troversies that raged and the basic effort of
voluntary organizations.
Therefore this is the kind of book that would
be written, read and appreciated by
‘enlightened’safety managers. As a necessary
outcome, the author tends to be normative and
offers all kinds of prescriptions without recog
nizing that decisions regarding such matters
flow from a political outlook and environment;
they are NOT a matter of corporate planning
alone and neither do they necessarily con
stitute good ‘economics’ in the current con
text.
Asia’s Struggle to Affirm
Wholeness of Life, Report of
Consultation on Transnational
Corporations in India,
Documentation for Action
Groups in Asia, Hong Kong,
1985, pp 132, price not
mentioned
¥ t’s a beautiful book in the sense of being
■“•precise and with punchy cartoons and
posteis. Somewhat irritating is the fact that
various religious perspectives have been first
postulated (Christian, Islam, Buddhist,
Hindu) with which one looks at the ‘wholeness
of life’ and hence these provide points of
departure for the various critiques of multina
tional corporations. This kind of approach,
however, seems unnecessary since one need
not quote from the scriptures to prove that
human beings do not like pain, miseiy and ex
ploitation. Section 1 of part 2 may thus be
skipped except perhaps by those who find link
ing ‘religion’ and a critique of the current world
order a compulsive necessity. Section 2 and 3
of the second part discuss the interaction of
these powerful MNCs with Asian Third World
countries and the deleterious effects this inter
action results in, with respect to the rural sec
tor, workers and trade unions and the environ
ment along with the various modes of collusion
that the corporations use to woo the ruling
elites. Part 3 is devoted to the Bhopal case and
contains most of what can be expected in any
account on the tragedy. Part 4 focusses on
planning and follow up but apart from car
toons and posters there is really nothing much
here. The book ends with a solidarity state
ment and a campaign letter.
As an overall rating it provides interesting
reading. One only wishes there were no sec
tions where divine blessings were sought to
Dateline Bhopal, Anees Chlstl,
Concept Publishing House,
1986, pp 160, Rs. 100/$ 20.
ateline Bhopal is a newsman's diary of the
gas disaster. The book consists of a jour
nalists dispatches, divided into sections, the
first one on ‘The Trauma and After’ and the
second one on rrhe follow-up Endeavour’.
D
A Killing Wind : Inside Union
Carbide and the Bhopal
Catastrophe, Dan Kurzman,
McGraw Hill, 1987, pp xvi + 297,
S 19.95
he only plus point in Dan Kurzman’sbook
is that it is one of the most up-to-date one
but is recommended reading only for those
who like to view history and events in terms of
persons and personalities. Though one will
find all the relevant information that one
would in any detailed account of the Bhopal
gas disaster, the narrative follows a peculiarly
improper ‘Americanized’ style which at times
seems to have the makings of a ‘thriller’.
T
The book uses the strategy of following the
lives and thoughts of a few representative
characters including that of Warren Anderson.
Personalized descriptions of facts and events
are intertwined with the authors’ reconstruc
tion of thoughts and feelings of most of the
characters - a device which befits a novel more
than a tract on a disaster, especially one which
is so eminently a product of social forces.
There is an utter lack of a political perspective
in an explicit sense even though by default the
author follows a ‘neutral’, managerial (liberal
corporate I) the so called ‘objective
*
approach.
Everything just happens. There seems to be
no social motive for anything : whether it is
deliberate disinformation, action or non-action.
The net result is that, in a book of its size, there
is hardly any sustained critique of anything ex
cept for mildly critical comments and tangen
tial references to where technology is taking
humanity to. The social context within which
the event should be placed and within which
hazardous technologies should be analysed is
thus obliterated since the whole ‘drama’ seems
to be enacted by individual actors and their
own webs of guilt and intrigue.
One must also mention in passing the authors’
generous but perhaps unintentional remarks
on tribalsand ancient Hindu philosophy which
only seem to reinforce ‘westernized’
stereotypes of India being an exotic land of
spiritual mysteries and mysticism amidst the
rising spires of a patronizing ‘westernized ’
modernity.
Perhaps an eminently condensable book for
the Readers Digest book section I
A Cloud Over Bhopal: Causes
Consequences and
Constructive Solutions, Alfred
De Grazia, Kolos Foundation,
1985, pp 145, Rs. 20/S 20.
o this book goes the credit of being the
first one to be published after the disaster.
It is somewhat funnily written in clumsy prose
with unnecessary philosophising in the
abstract, bordering on incoherence at times.
The author has tried to address himself to too
many issues in too short a book and in the
process he overstretches himself.
T
It follows a peculiar, undefined perspective
with too many normative statements which
often display shades of political naivete. For
instance, the author generates nonsensical
concepts of ‘creative liability
*
worries about
the survival of Union Carbide Corporation
and talks of a ‘world association of hazardous
products business’ which will be expected to
self regulate its activities - a suggestion which
seems to be totally oblivious of what the cur
rent cartels of multinationals actually seem to
be doing, namely, creating false needs for un
necessary and hazardous products.
Many portions in the book are technically un
sound, especially those which deal with the
technical details of the disaster.
Though there is an element of partial under
standing of the exploitative relations between
MNCs and Third World countries the ‘con
structive solutions’ all depend upon somehow
everybody turning a good leaf.
In spite of the disjointed presentation in the
book it is recommended, only for the multitude
of ideas and angles and ‘streams of thought’
that it puts forth, to all those who may be in
terested in pursuing specific issues.
Bhopal - Its Setting,
Responsibility and Challenge,
Sidney C. Sufrin, Ajanta
Publications, 1985, pp 98, Rs.60
his is an incomprehensible book written
by an academic from the University of
Massachusetts at Amherst (US). Il follows a
‘libertarian’ outlook in terse prose and a
meandering style which adds to a lack of
readability.
T
At the level of writing, the viewpoints the book
uses are borrowed from an institutional management perspective : for instance
‘psychological distance between home office
and operating plant’, ‘courage or imagination
or probably both were in short supply in the
whole ‘Union Carbidc-govcmment complex’.
r24
The BhopalSpecial
And finally the book moves on from a ’moraliz
ing manager’ to ‘strategic planning’! Recom
mended to those who believe that the world
and its nations are multinational corporations
where politics is only a matter of effective
management rather than a set of irreconcilable
class conflicts.
' revi^vM
All this with whatever we already have and
knowshould prove to be invaluable fora ‘Right
to know
*
campaign. Politically, of course, a
campaign like this should be linked with the
broader issues of‘modernization’ and technol
ogy choice. We need, desperately, and now, a
blueprint for synthesis of safe technology, ecol
ogy and social justice.
A.M.
Concluding Note
f the many books that have been
reviewed Weir’s book is recommended
as a perspective builder. Everest’s ‘Behind
the Poison Cloud’ could provide good,
coherent follow-up reading material. The
others, at least some of them, should prove to
be interesting depending upon what the reader
is looking for.
O
There is an urgent necessity of accountsdetailed and informed- on the medical aspects
of the tragedy, which trace the sequence of ef
fects on the victims and the responses by inter
ested parlies from the beginning till today.
Many new facts have been hushed up, especial
ly regarding health effects and some are now
being grudgingly acknowledged by a besieged
administration. The Indian Council of Medi
cal Research has now accepted that long- term
deleterious effects are likely.
There is a need to expose these facts and the
sad saga of an irresponsible system, to the
public at large. We need to know what re
search and rehabilitation programmes have
taken off with what consequences and more
important; what more can be done and under
taken. A document of the sort outlined above
should prove to be a simultaneous critique of
India’s top heavy, scientific bureaucracy
wedded in many ways to the state’s policies on
capitalist development and ‘modernization’.
A similar enterprise on the legal aspects is also
necessary- something that is free ofjargon and
legal perambulation and is addressed to
layman.
R.K. Yadav, General Secretary, Union Car
bide Karmachari Sangh was interviewed by
Bhopal Group for Information and Action
(BG)
Yadav now works as an industries inspector
for M.P. government and supervises a
rehabilitation centre.
BG: How aware were UCIL workers
about the hazards of chemicals used
in the plant?
RY: Our plant workers were more conscious
about safety than therein other industries.
Personal safety came first. Even production
linked incentives did not induce them, as they
were aware of the health hazards.
BG: What steps did you take to high
light the issues of occupational
safety?
RY: We had asked the management for per
sonal safety gear. We wrote about the plant's
condition to all concerned officials and mini
sters, even to the President of India - naming
all the hazardous chemicals used in the fac
tory. Government in its wisdom, did not deem
it pertinent to publicise the findings of the in
The lessons of Bhopal: A
community Action Resource
Manual On Hazardous
Technologies, Martin Abraham,
IOCU, 1985, pp 151, price not
mentioned.
his book is divided into 2 parts. The first
essentially covers some responses of
governments, industry international agencies
and community action groups in about 50
pages. Some of the more important lessons
and policy issues that flow from Bhopal are
touched upon.
The second part consists of a 100 pages of ap
pendixes where various documents published
by OECD,FAO, UNEP, 1LO etc. are
reproduced. The documents pertain to policy
issues regarding chemical hazards and the
chemical industry. They documents deal with
subjects such as restricted chemicals, hazards
analysis, information exchange etc.
The first part of the book appears to be based
on newspaper reports and documents avail
able to IOCU. It lacks both a coherent struc
ture and depth. The conclusions at the end of
the first part reiterate without going any furtherwhat was already beingsaidabout Bhopal.
The author seems to have put the book
together in a hurry. The introduction to the
book says that "this manual is intended for use
by community action.... committed to protect
ing... the health and safety of consumers the
world over". One quite fails to see how a book
which deals largely with policy issues and
generalities can achieve this objective. To ful
fil intended objectives requires specific infor
mation. Also, most of the organisations
referred to are the better known, usually well
funded ones. There is little reference to
grassroots level struggles against chemical
hazards or good case studies which illustrate a
point.
Nevertheless the author’s concern for a safer
world comes through quite clearly. It is a little
sad that this concern, in the form of this book,
will adour the shelves of resource centres and
libraries, to be used at best by a few jour
nalists. 1 sincerely wish the author had taken a
little time off to put his ear to the ground to lis
ten to what was happening in the field. I am
very certain that with his concern, he could
then have produced a far more useful and valu
able document with the same lime and effort.
S.D.
Bhopal: The Lessons of a
Tragedy, Sanjoy Hazarika,
Penguin India, 1987, pp 230,
Rs.55
This book will be reviewed in the next issue of
The Hazards Bulletin.
Figures in brackets indicates price of
book available in India from progres
sive documentation centres
The second part holds slightly greater interest
as the documents relate to specific subjectsand
shed some light on the publications of several
international organisations.
quiry it conducted in response to our com
plaints. After a phosgene leak a few years ago,
which killed a UCIL worker, M. Ashraf, a lot
of public awareness was created. We turned it
into a movement and asked for the plant to be
shifted to a safer and less populated place. But
the government’s response was that it was a
Rs. 25 crore company, not a stone that could
be shifted. We asked information on antidotes
for the chemicals in use. We wanted a closer
link between the production manager and the
operators so that the latter became more
aware of the plant’s operational hazards. We
wanted increased supervision and a separate
surveillance cell set up for theMIC plant. We
also asked for the nature of procedures to be
carried out in the event of a leak. However,
this information was never made available to
us.
BG:What pressures did UCIL
workers and the union face after the
tragedy?
RY: Just after the leak there were people
who said that the
* workers had themselves
leaked the gas, but the general view was that
they were innocent. The gas victims wanted
the factory shut. As a union, we had to protect
our members’ jobs, but at the same lime we
had to take care not to hurt the victims’ feel
ings. Initially, we held our meetipgs secretly.
Later when public began supporting us, we
were able to bring together the workers and
the gas victims.
BG: What role can unions play in
bringing the workers and the Bhopal
victims together?
RY: Initially, we had to change the attitudes
of our workers. On advice from other unions,
wc started doing relief work along with other
organisations in the affected areas. We held
demonstrations, and worked on relief and
rehabilitation, alternative employment etc.
During operation Faith, wc advised people
not to waste money and leave Bhopal. Our ad
vise is appreciated even now.
BG: In your case such a unity of
workers and the gas victims took
place after the tragedy. What should
the unions in other chemical plants
do to forge an understanding be
tween workers and bystander
population at risk?
interview
The Bhopal Special
RY: Unions should chalk out a common
programme in which the relations between
the society at large and unions is on equal
terms. A union, in a hazardous chemical
plant, should have a technically qualified per
son. It will help us to face a technically supe
rior management on health and safety issues.
Secondly, the union must educate their
workers about the chemical hazards in the
plant and emergency procedures,etc. Third
ly, the union should make the people living in
immediate vicinity aware of these facts. Thus
the union should act as a pressure group for
workers and bystander populations.
BG: Do you feci the government was
justified in its efforts to arrive at an
out-of-court settlement?
RY: No, the settlement must take place in
court. It should take place in front of repre
(continued from page 2) s '
BG: Do you feel the proposed settle
ment is satisfactory?
RY: The compensation amount must not
include the money that has been spent by the
government till date. If it does, the compen
sation will turn out to be vety less. Secondly,
they must guarantee permanent employment
for the people. Otherwise the whole amount
' "'rWWg;'
Broader issues
he dystopians believe that man has unwit
tingly and foolishly created a terror
machine in modem technology, for, by its very
nature, technology is believed tobe hazardous.
Over time, technology will only worsen the
situation. The Utopians believe the opposite.
The traditional socialist school holds technol
ogy to be neutral; it’s use or disuse to society
depends on the class that controls it. This view
has recently been challenged by a newer school
within the marxist paradigm which argues that
technology is not neutral and contains a class
bias within it.
T
A selection of 3 articles in the public policy sec
tion and some of the books reviewed fall within
this broad debate. One part of the argument
believes that modem technology had the in
herent capacity to hold terror to mankind,
regardless of a nation’s economic status or
political hue.The other that MNCs,because of
their safety double standards in North and
South nations, make accidents more probable
in the latter. The debate in this issue is only a
part of a larger ongoing one. We have, never
theless, presented it to situate Bhopal on a
larger canvas.
(continued from page 6) ■
■ ■ r ■ n ■ m-,
• Use of more reliable and specific
method of estimation of urine
thiocyanate,
*
sentatives of people, not the elected ones, but
those who are affected or those who have had
a close contact with the affected people. Only
they will put our case properly. The criminal
charges against Union Carbide officials must
not be dropped. If this happens, anyone who
commits such acrime can |My money and get
away. Compensation will have to be given in
theform of money,but the company must be
prosecuted. The government cannot decide
or cany out an out-of-courl settlement.
Use of a statistically valid method of
sampling population; in contrast, the
Medico-Legal Institute's study had in
vestigated only hospital bound
patients, that too without taking a
random sample, and thus it has never
been able to present a representative
picture of the toxicological status of
Bhopal's gas-exposed population.
•
Use of comparable controls whose
only limitation was due to ambiguity
in ICMR’s coding of areas with
respect to degree of exposure,
•
Accounting for tobacco consumption
on urine thiocyanate output,
0
Doing a follow-up analysis six
months later on the same individuals,
which makes it the only study on
Bhopal victims known to us that has
yielded information on the trend of
will be spent in 2-3years. Carbide should also
accept liability for adverse effects that maybe
seen 5-10 years hence. The scheme for
rehabilitation must be made public. It is un
fortunate that the government has not been
able to properly identify affected persons or
assess degree of injury. Whatever compensa
tion we get, if we are not able to distribute it
properly and if the money does not go to right
persons, then there is no point.
BG: What is the present condition
ofUCIL’s workers?
RY: Many workers haven't got jobs. Those
who have, are in lowly paid jobs. They cannot
even go to their villages because they cannot
undergo treatment there. The government
has done hardly anything to improve their
lot.
'Z~~Z'-ZZZZ:~>'ZT-ZZXZ-X^-i.'W'Z-'V
Who needs pesticides anyway? Weir’s book
reviewed in this issue asks and answers this
question. In the same light, one may well ask
why the world requires the petrochemical in
dustry? It is responsible for producing
chlorine-bonded hydrocarbons, which in
variably arc carcinogenic. Yet, if the
petrochemical industry were done away with
where would the world’s plastics and synthetic
fibres come from. The problem of technology
choice is by far the most difficult one in build
ing perspectives to situate a Bhopal in. An
answer to this problem can only be found in
conjunction with those to questions of cultural
and consumption choices, desired quality of
life and who ultimately will exercise these
choices. There is no escape from these ques
tions for, without answering them the slogan
"No more Bhopals" will remain unactionable.
The first step to a safer world is to have the
right-to-know the risks we arc put to by tech
nology. The next, is the right-to- act against
these risks. A more important gain for making
the world a safer place to live in implies acquir
ing an equal right by everyone to decide and
control the destiny of humankind.
■ toxicological status as a function of
Recommendations
• Another distinguishing characteristic of the
AIIMS team of investigators engaged in the
study has been its willingness to share and
subject its data to open and scientific
scrutiny.
• Government of India should undertake
toxicological research on the Bhopal gas vic
tims.
• A special implementing agency for
monitoring the toxicological status of gas vic
tims and consequent long term risks faced by
them, and to undertake epidemological sur
veys and studies should be established.
* Union Carbide may be directed to im
mediately disclose all information in their
possession regarding to the chemical com
position of the toxic emission, the toxicology
of MIC and all products of its exothermic
reaction and thermal decomposition.
Why the Bhopal Special
II n addition to our belief that all that has been
-“-written about Bhopal has made little dif
ference to its victims’ lives, this publication
being in english, has only added to our sense
of frustration and mute rage. In a way, this
issue is an expression of our atomisation and
helplessness, for not being able to do any bet
ter for Bhopal’s victims.
When this project was conceived, there were
no illusions about it’s impact-magnitude. We
still felt it worth the while. At best, it may help
in some miniscule way in countering some of
Carbide’s devices and the Indian government’s
callousness. At the very least, some informa
tion on Bhopal would spread. And even if does
not help the living-dead of Bhopal, it may con
tribute in some small and indirect way to create
a little more will and preparedness to fight a
frightfully hazardous world.
Sagar Dhara.
• ICMRshould rc -analyse the entire data col
lected by Government on urine thiocyanate
levels, in order to derive some meaningful
toxicological information.
• Government should provide MIC samples
to the Minority Members of the Supreme
Court Committee for undertaking animal
studies and other related investigations.
• The Department of Medical Biochemistry
of Gandhi Medical College, Bhopal may be
directed to make available to the Minority
Members the raw data, alongwith all
methodological details, regarding urine
thiocyanate investigations, so that the statis
tical significance of the observed declining
trend in urine thiocyanate values of gas vic
tims be assessed.
• The Minority Members of the Supreme
Court Committee may be provided with all
essential infrastructural support and coor
dination by Government for completing their
work.
ASASKD
The Nation Is Not Tine Starving Millions
what if forests die,
magoes dent seed, birds done sing,
the cuckoo finds no twig to warble?
along with fish. Kamadhenu and Nandim die drinking poisoned water,
what would they do by living?
at best sbme farmers and fishermen
would turn unemployed,
poison gases would sicken but a few
lakhs, and kill a few thousands.
does it matter? after all,
national interest is supreme,
for which no sacrifice is too small
so, talk not about the environment,
and put a brake on development, for
the nation is not its environment,
nor its forest, nor its fauna,
nor its rivers, nor fresh air,
and the nation is not its crops.
and people?
they are sacrificial goats for the nation.
if a few thousands or lakhs perish
in poisoned air and water.
they will be martyred,
their corpses will be buried or
burnt, along with the headlinednews their deaths made.
do you ask what the nation is? only
anti-nationals ask such questions.
you should know- that the nation is
those who tote guns, hold the reins
of power, are monied, run big
industries, destroy rivers with
factory-scum, poison the atmosphere
snatch the sun and hide it behind a
cloud of smoke, herald the morn
with screeching sirens from mill
use energy, to tear mother earth
apart,
the nation is the self-interested,
those who make profit by the crores
each year.
the nation is the rich few,
the nation is not the starving
millions.
and through It all, keep their
heads high.
therefore, they prefer machines to
men- to build the nation,
they want, not humans, but an
assurance tpat people will work
like machines, because, machines dont fall ill,
die of gas,
go on strike,
ask questions,
ask for compensation,
walk with their heads held high.
machines dont think like humans,
nor search for liberation,
humans think a little too much,
so the nation feels threatened.
therefore, only they and machines
will remain,
until humans dont transform into
machines,
the flash of the sword will remain
the people have become weak now,
fall ill, succumb to gases,
ask for compensation.
UNION CARBIDE CORPORATION TOXIC INCIDENTS WORLDWIDE,
Shyam Bahadur Namra
1968-1985
ai lica.
*Taft, Louisiana(May 27, 1968)i One person killed
and five injured in paracetic aoid plant explosion
and fire.
*Ponce, Puerto Rico(l97l): One worker killed and
another injured seriously by benzene gas leak ata
petrochemical complex. Reportedly,three workers
killed by a similar accident in 1972.
•Antwerp, Belgl.um(l'eb 10, 1975)i Six workers killed
in an explosion at a Carbide plant. Twenty five
others injured.
*Bhopal, Indi a( Dec 26, 1981)» A deadly phosgene leak
resulted'in the death of the plant operator.
*Bhopal, India(Jan 1982); Phosgene gas leak injured
28 people.
*Taft, Louisiana(Dec 11, 1982); A storage tank
containing acrolein exploded resulting in the eva
cuation of 17,000 people. Many cases of adverse
health effects were reported.
*Bhopal, India(Dec 2-3, 1984): A runaway reaction
of methyl isocyanate resulted initially in the death
of 2,500-10,000 individuals. Upward of 200,000 were
injured.
institute, West Virginia(Aug 11, 1985): Despite
additions of new safety systems fitted in reaction
to the Bhopal tragedy, toxic gases aldicarb oxime
and methylene chloride leaked from the pesticide
plant. 135 people were hospitalised.
Tne Bhopal Special was a Joint project of The Hazards Bulletin
and the Bhopal Newsletter. Opinions expressed are those of the
*.authors Material may De freely reproduced with acknowledge
ments to the authors and The Bhopal Special.
Orders for copies of The Bhopal Special may De sent to The
Hazards Bulletin. For bulk orders of over 25 copies, postage
and educatlonals; in-depth case studiesjnewa reports; etc.
occupational and environmental hazards. The HB is published by
The Hazards Network, an informal platform of public interest
groups fighting occupational and environmental hazards.
Annual contribution (6 issues) for The HB by MO/Draft/Cheque»
India North Nations South Nations
Individuals: Rs.15 US $15 or Eq. US $7.5 or Eq.
Institutions: Rs.30 US $50 or Eq. US $15 or Eq.
For Indian outstation cheques add Rs.5 for bank charges.
The Hazards Bulletin, 2/32 Trimurthi, Chunabhatti,
Sion, Bombay 400 022. US correspondence: Sajay
Kasturia, PO Box 10088, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
The Bhopal Group for Information and Action (BGIA) has been
generating and disseminating information on the Bhopal gas
disaster. Through the Bnopal Newsletter, 12 issues of which'
have been published so far, BGIA nas attempted to keep alive
tne issue of the Bnopal tragedy. BGIA has also supported
other groups working in Bhopal.
BGIA, c/o Ekalavya, E1/208 Arera Colony, Bhopal 462 016.
We wish to tnanx Claude Alvares, Onarma, Centre for Education'
and Communication, Drug Action Network, Gaika, Goa Research
Institute for Development, Sushi 1 Joshi, Manarasntra Pranoonan
Seva Mandal, Jagdisn Patel & friends, Hari Pendkalxar, Ajanta
jgopal, Service Centre, Sachin Shaqarpawar,
Thiro world Network ana Voluntary Health
was produced Dy Sagar Ohara, Amrudona Ketkar, Loy
Sant of The hB ano Marlette Correa, Vidyaanar
Gadgil, Vinod Rama ano Satinatn Sarangi of BGIA.
The Hazards Bulletin (HB) is a Dimonthly which carries
technical, medics’ and legal information; methods to monitor
ana comoat hazards; directories: expertise, easy references
For Private Circulation
aH 7:3
iSvVewAiAViC.uAs. O^SwaWATlON Oir.aNiSIMft&S UNIONS
Regional Office for Asia and fne Pacific
P.O. Box 1045
Penang, Malaysia.
Phone: (04) 20391
Cable: Interocu Penang
Telex: MA 40164 AP|OCU
,-■-
' ’ W 1985
PESTICIDE HANDBOOK DOCUMENTS NEED FOR STRONG FAO CODE
In a global effort to bring about compliance with the recently approved
International Code of Conduct on the Distribution and Use of Pesticides and
to encourage safe pest control practices, the International Organization of
Consumers Unions (IOCU) today launched the completely revised Pesticide
Handbook: Profiles for Action.
"The Code recently approved by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization
is an important step towards stopping the 2 million poisonings attributed
to pesticides each year," commented Anwar Fazal, Director of lOCU's
Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific.
IOCU is a founding participant in
the Pesticide.Action Network (PAN) International.
Half of all pesticide poisonings and three-quarters of all fatalities are
believed to occur in the Third World, though the developing countries
account for just one-fifth of the world's pesticide use.
Inadequate
labelling of pesticides, lack of proper training or safety equipment,
chronic malnutrition and lack of medical care are some of the factors
intensifying hazards of pesticides to Third World users.
...2/-
The International Organization of Consumers Unions (IOCU) links the activities of some 120 groups that serve the consumer interest
in over 50 countries worldwide. An independent, non-profit-making and non-politlcal foundation, IOCU promotes international
cooperation in consumer protection and education, represents the consumer interest at the global level, furthers the dissemination
and documentation of consumer-related information ord t.icilitates the comparative testing of consumer goods and services. The
headquarters of IOCU are at 9 Emmastraat, The Hague, Netherlands. Phone: (3170) 476331. Cable: Interocu Haag. Telex: 33561.
2
' I
"Curbing pesticide abuse will take more than just approving a Code,".,'
observed Fazal.
The Pesticide Handbook provides the tools needed to
strengthen government regulations and to urge corporations to act
responsibly in their marketing of dangerous pesticides."
He added that the handbook, "reflects T.OCU's continuing commitment to
provide citizens groups, especially in the Third World, with the resources
needed for local and global campaigns challenging the powerful vested
interests involved in marketing hazardous products".
The Switzerland-based International Federation of Plantation,
Agricultural and Allied Workers terms the handbook "a valuable instrument".
Not Man Apart, published by Friends of the Earth (USA), describes it as "a
marvellous compendium of information for activists and others concerned
about pesticide use and abuse here and abroad....Absolutely essential for
anyone worried about pesticides".
Designed to provide easy access to the data most sought after
by concerned groups and individuals, The Pesticide Handbook is divided into
six sections: (1) data sheets on 44 of the most problematic pesticides in
global trade, including trade names; (2) pesticide hazards and symptoms of
pesticide poisoning; (3) an overview of the global pesticide problems, with
three case studies from Third World countries; (4) description of the
Pesticide Action Network (PAN); (5) complete text of the i-10 Code of
Conduct; and (6) a comprehensive bibliography.
The Pesticide Handbook: Profiles for Action is available from the IOCU
Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, P0 Box 1045, 10830 Penang,
Malaysia at US$25 (US$12 for non-profit public interest groups).
**********
For further information, contact: Ms. Sa’.ojiii Rengam, (04) 20391
o*7 : 4
FOUNDATION FOR_RESEARCH_IN_COMMUNITY_HEALTH
ENVIRONMENT AND HEALTH SERIES (1982)
WORK-PLACE ENVIRONMENT
by
Ravi Duggal
The Foundation for Research in Community Health
84-A, R.G. Thadani Marg
Worli
Bombay 400 018
WORKPLACE-ENVIRONMENT
by
Ravi Duggal
Serious as the general environmental levels of
chemical pollutants, particulate matter and noise, exposure
to such insults in the work-environment is usually much
more intense. This is cause for great concern for a number
of reasons (Ehrlich et al, 1977) . The first, of course, is
concern for the lives of individuals exposed to the hazard.
Second, very large number of people are occupationally
assaulted by high concentrations of some dangerous substances
(asbestos, lead, cotton dust, vinyl chloride, etc.).
Third,
the effects of occupational exposure extend beyond the
working population (asbestos fibers on workmen's clothes
threaten their families and friends; mutated genes in,
workers exposed to radiological or chemical mutagens are
spread into the population outside of the work-place).
And fourth, inadequate standards for the confinement of
dangerous substances in the work-place make -them a focus for
contamination of adjacent areas or for accidental contact
with non-workers.
Fast-paced growth of the industrial economy continously
aggravates this situation increasing the incidence of occup
ationally caused diseases. Industrialization, no doubt,
has been the most important factor in socio-economic develop
ment but brings with it various human-degrading consequences.
Slum colonies, inhuman working conditions, industrial
accidents and environmental pollution are some of the
visible symbols of industrialization. Most industrialised
2
(developed) countries have overcome a large quantum of industrycaused human degradation.
However, some of the subtle and
dangerous ingredients (radiation, noise, pesticides) may
prove to be more harmful than the visible hazards of
industrial effluents and emissions.
Rachel Carson's
'Silent Spring' has exposed these dangers that are emerging
in the highly industrialised countries (Carson,
1962).
The degradation of the environment resulting from
industrialization is very recent in india but the study of
health effects of the work place environment has received
much attention since independence, as against the,general
environment, mainly because the earlier experience of the
western world stood as a warning (Bowles, 1955) .
Mitra and Banerjee (1962) conducted a clinical survey ‘
of 500 factory workers in 1958 and found that only about 5%
of the workers appeared to be healthy without any obvious
pathology; nearly two-third were found to be suffering from
some kind of visual defects andi43% of the morbidity was
found to be of buccopharyngeal and gastrointestinal origin.
One-third of the morbidity was due to diseases of the
respiratory tract and conditions such as hydrocele, hernia,
vericose veins of limbs and enlarged inguinal glands
accounted for some 10% of the cases and malnutrition among
workers was fairly common.
The United Nations expressed deep concern about the
deteriorating working conditions in the early fifties.
A joint ILO/WHO Committee on Occupational Health was
appointed to study and report on health conditions in the
3
working environment.
The Committee (WHO, 1953) stated
that the general aims of occupational health should be the
promotion and maintenance of the highest degree of physical,
mental and SQcial well-being of workers in all occupations,"
the prevention among workers of departures from health caused
by their working conditions; the protection of workers in
their employment from risks resulting from factors adverse
to health; the placing and maintenance of workers in an
occupational environment adapted to his physiological and
psychological equipment, and to summarise; the adaptation
of work to man and of each man to his job.
Lighting, heat, ventilation, humidity, dust control,
prevention of emission of toxic gas and fume, optimum
methods of working, weight-lifting, shift systems, ways of
avoiding boredom in repetitive work, adjustment of human
relations, detection and removal of source of friction and
fear, investigation of processes known or suspected to lead
to disease, development of physical and chemical methods to
determine the absorption by the worker of dangerous
compounds, maintenance of high standards of hygiene and
sanitation, control of nutritional standards in canteens,
development of the best technique of the treatment of
injuries and poisoning, all come within the scope of work
place environment study (Hunter, 1959).
By such detailed study of the working environment
health conditions at work can be monitored successfully
and the worker assured of illness-free work conditions.
4
Occupational health hazards are generally classified
into two:
, (a) toxic chemical agents,
(b) biological and physical agents and conditions,
including accidents (Kawata, 1967).
Toxic_Chemical Agents
Toxic chemical agents consist of dusts, fumes, mists,
vapors and gases used in or arising out of industrial
processes. The American Standard Association has defined
these-chemical agents as shown in Table 1.
Dust exposure is intense in the mining, quarrying and
mineral processing industry, as also in the fiber associated
manufacturing industry.
It is estimated that about 21 million
workers are exposed to silica .dust in the mining, quarrying
and mineral processing industry (Krishnamurthi, 1978).
A clinical and radiological examination of 7,653 under
ground miners with 5 or more years of service in the Kolar
GOld fields revealed the incidence of silicosis to be as^
high as 43.8% (Capalan et al. 1967) and 329 mica miners
from Bihar showed an incidence of 34% (Gupta, M.N. 1969).
A survey of 11 coal mines totalling. 9,643 workers showed
the prevalence rate of all categories of pneumoconiosis to
be 10.8%, chronic bronchitis at 2.9%, tuberculosis 7.4%,
and 39.2% of hookworm infestation.(Gupta, M.N. 1969).
A study of 227 stone cutters also revealed a high
incidence (35%) of silicosis (Gupta, R.K. et al,
1972).
5
Table 1
CLASSIFICATION OF CHEMICAL AGENTS
Chemical
Agents
Examples
Definition
Dusts
Quartz dust can cause
Solid particles generated by
silicosis; other toxic
handling, crushing, grinding,
rapid impact, detonation and
dusts may produce
pneumoconiosis, system
decrepitation of organic and
inorganic materials such as rock, ic poisoning, darmatore, metal, coal, wood and grain. oses and cancer.
Dusts do not tend to flocculate
except under electrostatic forces;
they do not diffuse in air but
settle under the influence of
gravity.
Fumes
Lead and cadmium are
Solid particles generated by
highly toxic metallic *
condensation from the gaseous
state, generally after volatili fumes. Zinc, manganese
and magnesium are some
zation from molten metals, and
what less toxic, but
often accompanied by a chemical
reaction such as oxidation. Fumes
all may cause metal
flocculate and sometimes coalesce. fume fever.
Mists
Suspended liquid droplets gener
ated by condensation from the
gaseous to the liquid state or
by breaking up a liquid into a
idispersed state, such as splash■ ing, foaming and atomizing.
Chronic acid mists
from electroplating;
oil mists from machine
tool lubricants.
Gases
■ Normally formless fluids which
1 occupy the space of enclosure
' and which can be changed to the
liquid or solid state only by the
combined effect of increased
pressure and decreased temperat
ure. Gases diffuse.
ICarbon monoxide,
hydrogen cyanide,
(ozone and oxides of
Initrogen are hazard•ous gases.
Source:
American Standards Association, 1958
i ■
1
Mercury and solvent
Vapours | The gaseous form of substances
vapours are major
I which are normally in the solid
i or liquid state and which, can be sources of hazards.
! changed to these states either
I by increasing the pressure or
, decreasing the temperature alone.
.Vapours diffuse.
6
An ICMR study (NIOH, 1981) of 605 slate pencil workers
at Mandsaur.in Madhya Pradesh pointed out that about 80%
workers were below age 35 years, and very few survived or
worked more than 10 years.
The prevalence of respiratory
symptoms was highest among the cutters and increased with
duration of exposure, 52% of workers were suffering from
dyspnea.
The various physical signs noted were clubbing of
fingers, diminished chest movements, impairment of breath
sounds, displacement of trachea.
Radiological findings
showed that 51% of workers were having positive evidence of
silicosis.
The above and many other studies
*
clearly expose the
extreme health hazards involved in mining and related work
environments.
However, preventive action has not kept pace
with the growing incidence and intensity of dust related
health hazards.
Regional Occupational Health Centre (E), Calcutta,
“Pneumoconiosis due to mica dust inhalation in mica
processing industries", ROHC(E), ICMR, 1981.
(b) ROHC(E),"Studies on Occupational Health Problem in■
Coal .mining Industry", 1982 (on-going study).
(a)
(c)
Vishwanathan, R. et al., "Report of morbidity survey
in Dhanbad in Jhania Coal fields with special
reference to pneumoconiosis", Rajendra Memorial
Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Patna,
1972.
Raghava, M. et al, “Health hazards associated
with uranium mining in India", Indian Journal of
Industrial Medicine, 12, 1966.
(e) Sabnis, C.V. et al, "Dust in relation to disease
and disability". Environmental Health, 7, 1965.
(d)
7
Fiber manufacturing industries, especially the textile
industry, is one of the largest employers in India and.also
presents a highly hazardous working environment.
Most of
the recently established units have taken adequate techno
logical measures to abate pollution within the working
environment but the majority being old mills produce levels
of dust that is harmful to the human respiratory system.
Various studies
on the effects of fiber dust have
been conducted in the cotton ginning, spinning and weaving .
industries (cotton dust); jute industry (hemp dust)-; coir
processing industry (coir dust); sugar cane crushing
industry (bagasse dust);and asbestos cement- industry
(asbestos dust).
Surveys conducted in textile mills at Ahmedabad,
Bombay, Coimbatore and Madras reveal that a clear picture
of cause and effect of the relevant dust and the associated
respiratory disorder, has not been firmly established
(Sabnis et al. 1965). However combined effects of working
* (a) Gupta, M.N. "Review of Byssinpsis in India",
Indian Journal of Medical Research, 57, 1959.
(b) Gupta, B.N. et al. "Immunotherapy in hempworkers
having respiratory complaints". Archives of
Environmental Health, 1978.
(c) Kamat, S.R. "Effect of cotton dust on textile
workers", Chemical Age of India, 27, 1976.
(d) Vishwanathan, R. "Bagassosis", Technical Report of
Scientific Advisory Board of ICMR, New Delhi, 1960.
(e)
Regional Occupational Health Centre (S), Bangalore,
"Occupational health hazards among coir workers",
ROHC(S), ICMR, 1981.
(f)
NIOH, "Environmental-cum-medical surveillance in the
Asbestos Cement factory", NIOH, ICMR (on-going study).
8
in a dust infested environment (eg; cotton dust) alongwith
smoking, slum living, drugs, alcohol, malnutrition, etc.
creates a synergistic effect (VitO, 1981) , and brings about
so called classical occupational diseases such as pneumo
coniosis in coal miners and asbestos workers, byssiniosis
of the textile workers and bagassiosis of the sugar-cane
crusher (Krishnamurthi, 1978).
Asbestos cement factory workers and construction
workers face the most serious hazards from dust.
There is
no question about the significance of direct industrial
exposure to asbestos.
Asbestos particles are also a serious
threat to the non-worker resulting in an indolent pneumo
coniosis and pleural and peritoneal mesothelioma is found
mostly among workers (Rai, U.C./ 1982).
Asbestos particles
called "ferruginous bodies" have beer, detected in the urban
air but it has been shown that typical reaction to asbestos
is of high prevalence only among workers of the building
trade and those who have direct exposure to its manufactur
ing process.
The occupational hazards of exposure to other chemical
agents in the working atmosphere have received very scant
attention in India (Krishnamurthi, 1978).
A study by the
Indian Chemical Manufacturers' Association in 1966 was one
of the first systematic studies on chemical agents in
the work-place environment.
This study covered 20,793
workers in 34 small, medium and large size chemical
factories located in and around Bombay, Calcutta and
Madras.
The
extent and nature of pollutants and the
type of diseases in chemical factories surveyed is
brought out by data given in Tables 2 and 3.
9
Table
2
AIR POLLUTION IN THE_WOPKING_ATMOSPHERE OF
REPRESENTATIVE CHEMICAL FACTORIES
Pollutant
Highest
concentration
observed
Threshold
limit
value
Sulphur dioxide
36 ppm
Chlorine
25 ppm
1
Ammonia
60 ppm
50
Hydrogen fluride
313 mg/m3
2
Sulphuric acid r
20 mg/m3
1
Formaldehyde
3.2 mg/m3
6
Nitric acid
134.1 mg/m3
5
Rock phosphate dust
414.0 mppcf
50
5
Chrome dust
96.0 mppcf
50
Ammonium phosphate dust
103.0 mg/m3
50
Bleaching powder dust
27.0 mg/m3
15
NaOH mist
2.4 mg/m3
0.2
Lime
84.7 mg/m3
5
Sources Thacker, P.V. "Report on medical-cum-environmental
hygiene studies in chemical industries", Indian
Chemical Manufacturers1 Association, Calcutta,
1968.
10
Table
3
PERCENT DISTRIBUTION_OF_DIFFERENT_DISEASES_AMONG
2i5_WORKERS_IN_CHEMICAL_FACTORIES_IN
CALCUTTA, MADRAS AND BOMBAY
Calcutta
Madras
Bombay
Total lung cases (TB,
suspected TB, asthma,
bronchitis)
11.2
6.0
14.0
Gum sepsis
54.5
20.7
40.4
Blue line on gums
1.4
10.7
30.0
Angular stomatitis
9.0
2.2
1.2
Vitamin A deficiency
,13.4
2.4
0.7
®
Anaemia
9.0
1.7
4.1
High blood pressure
5.7
2.2
1.4
Contact dermatitis.
0.7
1.1
1.0
Other skin diseases
1.5
2.4
4.5
Old accident injury marks
12.0
.
2.6
Brisk tendon reflexes
1.1
5.5
Tremors
0.3
0.5
Source; Thacker, P.V. ‘'Report on medical-cum-environmental
hygiene studies in chemical industries", Indian
Chemical Manufacturers' Association, Calcutta,
1968.
11
The findings clearly indicate gross abuse of the
human component in the production process.
It is a
social paradox that on one hand health technology is improving
greatly but on the other human degradation as a result of
industrial production is on the rise.
Health hazards
associated with the working environment of foundries and
metal processing, gas manufacture, petroleum and petro
chemicals, fertilizers and DDT manufacturing have been
investigated over the years by the Central Labour Institute
(CLI), Bombay.
Details of one such study conducted by Drs. V.P. Gupta
and Harwant Singh (Gupta & Singh, CLI, Bombay) for the CLI
are given below in brief.
Three caustic soda plants were identified where cases
of mercury poisoning were reported. The mean atmospheric
concentration of mercury in the 3 plants was 0.08 mg/m3
(0.01 to 0.12 mg/m3) when 0.06 mg/m3 concentration in the
work-place environment is considered as the threshold limit
for ill-health symptoms to manifest themselves.
Eighty-s^.x exposed workers and thirty-six controls
(who only had traces of mercury) were medically examined.
Urine and blood levels of mercury were examined and
symptoms ranging from insomania to loss of teeth were
identified.
two tables;
The findings are summarized in the following
12
Table
<
MEAN URINARY AND_BLOOD_LKVELS_OF MERCURY_IN
?I.??§RENT_CATEGORIES_OF_WORKERS_EXPOSED
TO_TIME WEIGHTED_AVERAGE ATMOSPHERIC
MERCURY_VAPOUR_CONCENTRATION,
Plant
I
Job
category
Avg.
atmosph
eric con
centrat
ion 3
(mg/m )
MEAN________
Blood
Urinary
level of
mercury
concentr mercury
(microation
grams/100
(micro
milliliters)
grams/
liter)
Fitters & Helpers
0.12
358
23.4
Supervisors
Chemists
.0.07
0.08
177.
186
12.3
10.0
Fitters, Helpers
& Collectors
0.05
192
Traces
Chemists
0.05
130
Traces
Fitters & Helpers
Operators
0.01
0.08
221
180
2.2
3.0
Supervisors/
Chargeman
0.04
108
Traces
0.05
0.04
64
N.A.
16.0
'
II
III
Chemists
Shift Engineers
*
Sources
57
Gupta, V.P. & Harwant 'Singhs "Effects of Exposives
to Mercury in three Caustic Soda Flants in
Maharasthra", Industrial Medicine Division,
Report No.l, Central Labour Institute, Bombay.
13
Table
•
5
PERCENT OF VARIOUS SYMPTOMS DUE_TO_MERCURY
J??GESTION_BY_EXPOSED_WORKERS_AS_CQMg^
w n 50 is
ARED TO CONTROLS
SYMPTOMS
Sources Gupta, V.P. & Harwant Singh, "Effects of Exposures
to Mercury in three Caustic Soda Plants in Maharashtra",
Industrial Medicine Division, Report No. 1,
Central Labour Institute, Bombay.
14
Since the main attack of the chemical agents is on
the human respiratory system the need for establishing
reliable norms of lung function and ventilatory capacity
has repeatedly been emphasised in order t» quantify their
effect, especially in synergistic association, for example
in view of the relatively high incidence of tuberculosis
among the working population living in the slums of India's
major cities (Abdullah, et al. 1973).
The drugs and pharmaceutical industry, manufacturing
a wide range of drugs which involve the use of various
chemicals, present numerous hazards to workers.
During
their manufacture and formulation, refining, filling, pack
ing and other operations, a large number of chemicals such
as chloroform, methyl alcohol, acetone, methyl issobutyl
ketone (MIBK), methylene chloride> aromatic nitro and
amino compounds, etc. are used which when present in excess
ive concentration in the work environment may cause pollution
problems that may be detrimental to the health of workers
(Gupta, V.P., 1981).
A diverse type of diseases of the skin, blood, liver,
bladder and reproductive system can appear with chronic
exposure to a new breed of synthetics like pesticides,
plastics, dyes and solvent vapours.
The diseases include
cancers and various neurological and cardiovascular dis
orders (Krishnamurthi,
1978).
Industrially advanced nations have evolved technolo
gical processes which reduce exposure of workers to
chemical pollutants in the working environment.
15
For example, the use of double contact process rather
than single contact in manufacture of sulphuric acids has
reduced harmful emissions from 17.5 kg/ton to 3.5 kg/ton
of sulphuric acid manufactured (ECE, 1977). Member
countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD) have combined to develop appropriate
and safe methods under the chemical testing programme.
Also the WHO, ILO and UNEP have agreed to cooperate in
an International Programme on Chemical Safety (IPCS)
(UNEP, 1982).
Their effort is to diffuse safe manufacturing
technology developed in western countries to developing
countries so that greater control over pollutants and
safety becomes possible in the work place environment and
subsequently the general environment.
However, a complacency on the control of harmful
contaminants prevails and the issue being debated in India
is whether the industry or' the government should take up
the responsibility of abating pollution in the working
as well as general environment.
Such apathetic attitudes
may prove disastrous for the human worker (Gupta, V.P.
Industrial Safety Chronicle, X).
The following Tables provide a select sample of
chemical contaminants in the work-place environment
where they occur.apd at what levels?
16
Table
6
LISTOF_SOME of the_harmful contaminants and_the
■lNDUSTRY_WHERE_THEY_ARE LIKELY TO BE
encountered
Contaminant
Industry/lndustrial Operations
Lead
Glass, storage battery, engineering.
Mercury
Caustic soda manufacture, scientific
instruments manufacture, pharmaceutical
pesticide, electrical.
Carbon monoxide
Steel, chemical and engineering.
Oxides of nitrogen
Fertilizer and chemical.
Cyanide
Chemical and engineering.
Aromatic nitro and
amino compounds
Dye-stuff, pharmaceutical and
chemicals.
Solvents
Fertilizer, pharmaceutical, engin
eering, dye-stuff, organic chemicals.
Benzene
Dye-stuff, steel plants, pharmaceut
icals, pesticides, petrochemicals.
Dust
Foundries, astiestos manufacture,
ferro-manganese plant, cosmetic,
rubber manufacture, steel plants,
glass, cotton and textile.
Hydrogen sulphide
Tanning, refineries, viscose rayon,
chemical.
Carbon disulphide
Viscose rayon manufacture, rubber,
chemicals.
Polychlorinated
biphenyls (PCB)
Heat exchangers, transformer oils
and cleansing agents.
Vinyl chloride
VC and PVC manucture.
contd...
17
Table - 6 (contn...)
Contaminant
Industry/lndustrial Operations
Organophosphorous
)
compounds (parathion,) Pesticides manufacture and formulation
malathion, DDVP, etc))
Chlorinated hydrocarbon (DDT, BHC,
Aldrin, Endrin,
Heptachlor)
)
) Pesticides manufacture and formulation
)
)
Heat
Engineering, steel and glass.
Biological agents
Pharmaceutical, meat, leather, tanning
Noise
Radiations
(ultra violet +
infrared)
Engineering, tanning, chemical.
)
) X-ray,welding, furnances
)
Sources Gupta, V.P., Central Labour Institute, Bombay
18
Table
7
CONTAMINANTS LEVEL IN SOME INDUSTRIAL WORK ENVIRONMENTS
Pollutant
Sulphuric
acid p'lant
Steel plant
Sulphur dioxide
Blending of
pesticides
Engineering
Industry
(tool room)
Permissible
standards
.12.2-35.0 ppm
10 ppm
Dust containing free
Silica (Foundry)
3 - 1075 mppcf
Refractory dust
2 - 1.7
Carbon monoxide
(blast furnace)
20 - 200 ppm
100 ppm
Aromatic hydro
carbons benzene
20 - 50
35 ppm
A chemical’
factory manu
facturing
Ammonia
sodium carb
onate and
ammonium
chloride
Chemical
works
Pollutant
levels
mppcf
ppm
5 mppcf
20 mppcf
34 - 107 ppm
40 - 172 ppm
204 - 430 ppm
50 ppm
75 - 1240 ppm
187 - 860 ppm
Oxides of nitrogen
(Nitric acid plant)
11. - 31
Chromic acid dust
(Chromic acid plant)
0.5 - 2.1 mg/m3
ppm
5 PPm
0.1 mg/m3
50 mppcf
Bauxite dust
8 - 198 mppcf
Soapstone dust
DDT
33 - 134 mppcf
15.3-17.8 mg/m3
BHC
25.2-29.8 mg/m3
1.0 mg/rn
0.5 mg/m3
296 mg/m3
55 mg/m3
Isophorone
20 mppcf
contd...
19
Table - 7 (contn...)
Industry
Pollutant
Pharmaceutical Talc dust
laboratory
uiBK
and works
Ethyl alcohol
Heavy engi
neering
factory manu
facturing
electrical
equipments
Pollutant
levels *
Permissible
standards
60 - 90 mppcf
408 - 792 mg/m3
20 mppcf
410 mg/m3
482 -7812 mg/m3
1900 mg/m3
Iron compound dust
0.67-5.58 mg/m3
1 mg/m3
Alumina dust
15.0-32.4 mppcf
30 mppcf
Silicone
37.1-4156..6 mppcf
28.0-35.3 mppcf .
30 mppcf
17.9-51.5 mppcf
30 mppcf
Coal dust
Iron dust
Sand bearing
free silica
Asbestos
Oil mist
Noise
* Range of means
6 mppcf
23.5-101 mppcf
847.2-1517 .9 fibres/c c 5 fibres/
3cc
5 mg/m
4 - 158 mg/m3
87 - 120 db
(minimum and maximum values),
Source; Gupta, V.P., Central Labour Institute, Bombay.
85 •db
20
BIOLOGICAL AND PHYSICAL AGBNTS
Hazardous biological and physical agents have
received relatively less attention in the working environ
ment except when the hazard is very obvious and visible.
In the latter case protective measures are provided but not
always are the hazards.eliminated totally•
The biological agents consist of bacteria, fungi and
parasites that are able to cause extreme discomfort,
disease and even death.
Almost any infectious disease may be acquired in the
course of employment, thus becoming an .occupational disease.
This is particularly true of infectious diseases acquired
by medical personnel in caring for infected patients!
Persons working in bacteriological laboratories may acquire
infections through breakage of apparatus and spilling of-
cultures..
Workers most exposed are tanners, veterinarians,
zoo and circus attendants, slaughter house and packing
employees, agricultural workers and municipal workers
(Vakil, R.J., 1973).
Cases of anthrax among agricultural workers,
veterinary surgeons and butchers, have been recorded
(HMSO,
1953).
Weil's disease (leptospiral hepatitis) is
transmitted by water contaminated, with urine of infected
animals.
It is an occupational hazard of rice field
workers, sewer workers, fish workers, and those who work
in rat infected premises.
A number of epidemics of
dermatitis among farm labourers especially at grain harvest
times has been traced to mites Herms, W.B., 1961).
21
Some other occupational diseases of agricultural
workers is brucellosis, hydatidosis, ornithosis, ring worm,
fowl pest and erysipeloid (Kawata, K. 1967).
However, the most serious hazard for the agricultural
worker today is not from biological agents but as a result
of extensive use of agro-chemicals.
DDT and other pesti
cides are a severe hazard to agricultural workers and the
general population alike, but more serious are the cases
of those who work in pesticide manufacturing plants and as
sprayers.
Pesticides are strong inhibitors of colinesterase
and cause fatal poisoning in man.
The sequence of events following pesticide poisoning,
which may occur either through absorption by skin or
through inhalation, include nausea, vomiting, vertigo,
excitability, tremors, convulsions, tingling of the limbs,
paralysis, pulmonary oedema, coma and death (from respirat
ory failure) (Vakil, R.J. 1973).
Among the physical agents and conditions that need to
be controlled in the working environment so as to secure
healthy conditions for the worker are radiation, noise,
extreme temperatures and humidity, abnormal air pressure,
weight lifting, repeated motions and shocks and
vibrations (Kawata, K. 1967).
Radiation, having a physiologic effect, includes
ionizing radiation, ultra-violet radiation, visible light
and infra-red radiation (Kawata, K. 1967) •
22
Ultra-violet radiation can produce severe injuries to
the eyes and skin.
Other than sunlight, arc welding in
industry is one of the most common sources of ultra-violet
radiation.
Visible light is an important variable in
occupational health and therefore industrial codes clearly
specify qualitative and quantitative levels of illumination.
Poor illumination is often the indirect cause of accidents;
direct and reflected glare give rise to eye fatigue and
interfere with vision (Kahler, W.H-. 1958) .
Foundry workers
handling molten metal are subject to infra-red radiation
which can cause acute eye damage, besides increasing the
body heat load which creates heat exhaustion.
Ionizing radiation, which is being used increasingly
in industry, is a much more serious radiation hazard.
X-rays and gamma rays are used for radiography of castings
and welds, x-rays for fluuroscopy and beta rays for the
elimination of static electricity troubles and the guaging
of material thickness. Radio active isotopes are used for
tracing processes in a large variety of trades. Accidental
exposures to high dozes of ionizing radiations tends to
cause severe burns, blood dyscrasias, gastro-intestinal •
symptoms and post-cervical cataract.
The. late effects are
osteosarcoma and genetic mutation (Vakil, R.J. 1973).
Occupational hazard of noise effecting human hearing
depends upon frequency, intensity and duration (continuous
or intermittent) of the noise, the age of the worker and
individual susceptibility, the use of protective devices
and the presence of concurrent aural disease'.
Among
occupations incurring the risk of noise-induced hearing
23
loss, are boiler making, aircraft, motor maintenance,
black smithing, weaving, rivetting, chipping, blasting,
various metal working trades, high pressure steam
*
rock
drilling and lathe operating (Vakil, R.J. 1973).
Besides
progressive deafness, caused by continuous exposure to
noise in the industry, the worker may suffer from rupture of
the ear drum as the result of acute acoustical trauma due
to sudden explosions or blasts.
Table
8
TYPICAL INDUSTRIAL NOISES
Sounds
Decibels
Jet motor at 22 meters
130 to threshold
of pain
Drop hammers, chipping hammers
110 to 125
Planers, routers, special hammer,
circular saws
110 to 115
Screw machines, punch presses, riveters,
cutt-off. saws, air drill, milling
machines, compressed air
90 to 110
Spinners, looms, lathes, loud street
noise, automobile
80 to 95
Noisy office, average street noise
60 to 80
Source: Kawata, K. 1967.
24
When the human body is subjected to temperatures
beyond its thermo-regulatory control, the circulatory
system is disturbed.
Several types of acute clinical
conditions may result from excessive exposure to heat, the
most common being heat cramps in the muscles of firemen,
furnace and foundry workers, metal casters, iron and glass
workers, miners and those working in the steam press shops
in the rubber industry; heat exhaustion resulting from the
failure of the cardiovascular system (to maintain a normal,
stable blood pressure and flow'’ leading to dehydration due
to salt or water deficiency or from extensive injury to
sweat glands; and heat stroke, which raises body temperature
between 107°F and 110°F sending victims into coma followed
by convulsions of acute delirium, that is usually fatal
(Vakil, R.J. 1973) .
Even a mild upset of the homeostatic balance mechanism
in the work environment may cause apathy, lassitude, sleep
lessness and cramps.
The final effects are determined by
the degree of temperature, period of exposure and the state
of adaptation of the individual.
Atmosphere humidity and wind velocity are variables
that can either aggravate or lessen the effects of heat.
In hot, humid atmosphere, even at a lower temperature,
though the body may produce ample sweat, heat effects ;
may ensue due to lack of evaporation of water. Air
inertia may increase the liability to heat effects,
especially in humid temperatures, and conversely a high
wind velocity of over 32 km. per hour can cause
"reversed convection" and is therefore dangerous
(Vakil, R.J. 1973).
25
Workers who lift heavy loads, as in many factories,
at the docks or on railway platforms are easy victims of
various diseases of bones and joints, strangulated hernia
and vericose veins.
However, this aspect of occupational
health, as also many non-industrial occupations (drivers,
policemen, agricultural labourers, etc.) have received
very scant attention.
Similarly, abnormal air-pressure, vibration and shock
in various occupations that can cause severe damages to the
circulatory and nervous system, and bone structure have
received very little attention.
These wide range of occupational hazards for the
working population and the indifference shown by the industry
towards them has become a major concern for the health
condition of the worker.
Many of the hazards attributed
to chemical, physical and biological agents can be easily
controlled through general environmental hygiene within the
working premises and the use of basic protective materials
like filter masks, gas masks and oxygen masks for occupations
that endanger the human respiratory tract or wearing protect
ive apparels like special gloves and boots, helmets and
shields (Kawata, K. 1967) . In India it is not uncommon
to come across work environments that lack these basic
amenities for workers, especially in the mining, textile
and chemical industries.
For the trade unions.in our
country, who have not gone beyond the monetary demands,
the struggle for better working conditions and environment
is an ascending task in this era of technological revo
lution which has intensified the pace of production
(Economic Times, 1982).
26
ACCIDENTS
Accidents, the most serious among occupational hazards,
have received greater attention primarily because of its
visible manifestations.
There is gross underreporting of
other physical, biological and chemical-caused occupational
diseases, but accidents easily come to the notice of all
concerned and therefore information
on them is
easily available. As a result, action for the prevention
of accidents and compensations,and other corrective
measures for accidents caused, has received some serious
attention from the industry, government and workers
themselves.
As industrial activity expands in developing countries,
the incidence of accidents within the work-place environ
ment also rises. .
Industrial accidents, occur as frequently due to
human error as mechanical malfunctions.
Anxiety, fear, ■
worry and other distractions may cause accidents.
Troubles
at home and with colleagues and superiors prevent adequate
concentration on the job and this may lead to some mishap
(Lykes, N.R. 1954).
Absence of adequate lighting, venti
lation and other disturbing environmental conditions
often become contributing factors to industrial
accidents.
27
Injuries due to industrial- accidents may result while
handling materials, products and moving mechanical devices,
through falls, or by objects falling, flying and being
thrown off.
Explosions, fires, electrical short circuits,
structural collapses and certain major plant damage during
the production process may result in mass accidents, both
fatal and non-fatal.
Textile, metal and engineering industrial units and
mines account for the major proportion of industrial
accidents.
This is evident from the data tabulated below;
Table
9
PERCENTAGE_DISTRIBUTION_OF_FATAL_&_NON-FATAL_INJURIES
^_^Y52^2i_2AILY_EMPLOYMENT_BY_INDUSTRY__(REGDx_FACT;;
OR?ESl_FOR_THE_YEAR_1978__(EXCLypES_MINING_AND
CONSTRUCTION)
Number
% of
total
Average
employment_______ _
% of
Number
total
Textile
1,93,503
56.32
15,45,000
23.62
Metals
47,110
20,913
13.71
6.09
10,05,000
15.37
3,97,000
21,839
6.35
4,72,000
6.07
7.22
12,449
3.62
13.91
4,28,000
6.55
47,797
2,62,200
41.17
3,43,611
100.00
64,69,000
100.00
Injuries
Transport Industry
Machinery
Chemicals
Others
Total
Source; Compiled by Nair, R.R., Central Labour Institute,
Bombay.
28
The textile industry's share of accidents is dis
proportionate to the number of people it employs.
It
accounts for 56.32 per cent of accidents but employs only
23.62 per cent of the industrial labour force.
Besides, one
in every five workers in textile mills suffers from
byssinosis, and cotton dust inhalation is responsible for a
high incidence of tuberculosis among them (Pandit, V. et al
1972) .
According to a survey carried out by the Union Labour
Ministry (Economic Times, 1982) the disturbing rise in
absenteeism among Bombay's textile mill workers is partly
due to the greater number of accidents they suffer.
The
facts that over 55 per cent of all recorded industrial
accidents occur in the textile units was due to spinning
machine, flying shuttles and other weaving machinery.
Obviously the safeguards that exist are inadequate.
Another disturbing factor is that 'badli' workers who
are recruited to fill any temporary vacancy (in many
mills they are majority workers) are put on the job with
little' or no training. That the accident rate among badl
i
*
workers is much higher than others is, therefore, no
surprise.
The mining industry too has.suffered large human
losses.
Zunong the mining disasters 75 per cent of the
cases occur in coal mines and over 77 per cent fatal cases
and 72 per cent non-fatal injuries take place in collieries.
Of the 7.63,000 mine workers, 5,10,420 work in coal
mines, that is about 67% of the total mine workers (GOI,
1980), but the fatality rate in some other mines like
29
copper, gold and stone quarrying is much higher (GOT, 1978).
The following Table gives details of fatal and non-fatal
accidents for various minerals:
Table 10
>
NUMBER_OF ACCIDENTS AND PERSONS KILLED_OR_INJURED
SERIOUSLY DURING 1977(BY MINERALS)
Minerals
Number of
persons_______
Number of
accidents
Seriously
Fatal
Fatal injured
Rate per 1000
persons employed
Seriously
Fatal
inj ured
Seriously
injured
216
2093
237
2177
0.47
4.38
Galania &
Saphalerite
2
54
2
58
0.54
15.72
Coal
Copper
7
153
7
153
0.61
13.27
Gold
6
144
7
149
0.67
14.19
Lime Stone
10
172
11
175
0.23
3.59
Iron Ore
12
93
12
95
0.23
1.79
Manganese
1
43
1
43
0.04
1.55
Mica
3
.7
4
7
0.54
0.95
Oil
2
65
1
68
0.07
4.86
Stone
10
15
10
18
0.73
1.47
Other minerals
12
54
12
58
0.20
0.99
All minerals
281
2893
304
300
0.40
4.03
Source: Director General of Mines Safety, New Delhi.
30
j.t must, however, be added that there is gross under
reporting of mine accidents.
According to the latest statistics released by the
Ministry of Labour over 2.5 lakh workers have been maimed,
crippled or disabled every year in the last .decade and upto
600 of them eventually lose their lives. During 1980,
806 people were killed in industrial accidents as compared
to 660 in 1975. The total number of industrial accidents
also rose from 2,42,352 in 1975 to 3,56,341 in 1980
(Economic Times, 1982). The overall frequency rate of
accidents in industrial units is 68.9 per 1000 and fatality
rate is 0.16 per 1000.
Not only the reported incidence of industrial
accidents is high in India but various experts believe
that even this high rate is an under-estimate because a
large number of accidents go unreported (GOI, 1978),
inspite of the fact that fairly detailed safety precautions
have been laid down- in the Factories Act, 1948 to protect
the workers.
LEGISLATION;
India's record in industrial safety has been far
from satisfactory. It is high time the government took
some steps to reverse this trend as the concern for
human values must find its central focus at the work
place .
: 30-a s
Table 11
HOW_THE_ACTIVITIES_OF_THE_IiL.O_ARE_DESIGNED
TO_BACK_UP_NATIONAL_ACTION_IN_OCCUPAT=
TONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH •
National Action
ILO Action
Legislation
Conventions, recommendations and
advice on the drafting of
legislations.
Regulations
Model codes of regulations,
codes of practice, technical
advice.
Technical and medical
inspection
Manuals, guides, technical
publications, the CIS services.
Activities by safety
and health institutes,
training and information
of specialists
Fellowship, symposium,
congresses, technical advice
and cooperation, the CIS
services.
Information for
employers
Seminars, publications.
Workers 1 education
Seminars, publications,
a-v-aids.
Source: Encyclopaedia of Occupational Health and Safety,
International Labour Organization, Geneva, 1971.
,
31
The protection of the worker against sickness, disease
and injury- arising'out of his employment is one of the
essential tasks assigned to the International Labour
Organization (ILO) under its constitution.
The level of employment accidents'and occupational
.diseases throughout the world has reached alarming proport
ions; each year there .are' over 1,00,000 deaths and more
than 1.5 million permanent disabilities.
In other words,
many countries are hit far harder by occupational hazards
than by the consequences of war. The incidence of occupat
ional diseases is much lower than that of occupational
accidents, and as a result of industrial hygiene, the
former is gradually declining (ILO, 1971) .
The objectives•of the ILO to promote a healthy
work-place environment are summarized in the Table 11.
The ILO is guided by two specific criteria in this.connect
ion; firstly, the number of workers at risk and second the
level of risk at present in a given process or industry.
The types of action shown in the Table 11 fall under three
major headings; Standards; Research and Information
Dissemination; and Technical Cooperation (ILO, 1971) .
In India the Factories Act, 1948, makes it obligatory
on part of factories to send the appropriate authorities
information regarding incidence of certain specified.
diseases which cause serious bodily injury or death, or
regarding occupational diseases- contracted by employees.
32
Such cases are also required to be reported to the Chief
Inspector of Factories by the medical practitioners attend
ing on persons suffering from occupational diseases.
Factory inspectors have been authorised to take samples of
substances used in the manufacturing processes, if their
use is either contrary to the provision of the Act or is
likely to cause bodily injury to the worker's health.
The state governments are empowered to appoint competent
persons to enquire into causes of any accident or into any
case of occupational disease (GOI, 1978).
The health provisions in the Factories Act dwell upon
reduction of overcrowding, general sanitation and cleanliness,
adequate ventilation and circulation of fresh air, mainten
ance of comfortable room temperature and adequate and
suitable lighting in work areas.
For the code of safety,
the legislation envisages secure fencing of rotating parts,
efficient power cut-off devices for transmission machinery,
provision of spare pulley for belt-drive for change over,
restriction on employment of young persons below 18 years,
safe covering or fencing of vessels containing dangerous
fluids, periodical examination of lifting equipment and
of handrails on open side in passage and stairs, fencing
of opening in the floor, proper maintenance and construct
ion of ladders, provision of manholes in confined spaces
to safeguard against dust and fumes and wearing of belts,
availability of breathing and lifting apparatus, provision
of alarm and proper escapes in case of fire, constructing
lift-ways and hoisting of fire resistant material (Economic
Tinies, 1982).
33
Inspite of such elaborated legal provisions most cases
of occupational diseases and a substantial number of accidents
remain unreported. The 24 notified diseases under the
factories arc rarely, if ever detected, because most diseases
among workers are attributed by the doctors, who have little
or no training in public health, to causes other than the
work environment (GOI, 1978). Records of illness associated
with the occupational levels of exposure to dust, toxic
fumes, chemicals and various physical conditions are
maintained in a systematic manner by only a few large
industrial houses.
In effect, non-detection for want of
competent examination is being interpreted as non-existence
of occupational diseases (Thacker, 1971).
A national commission for labour appointed by the
Lok Sabha in 1969 revealed health conditions and facilities
provided by most factories to be appalling(Krishnamurthy, 1978).
According to it, legislation for provision of a safe work
place environment is not of much avail when the whole
hearted
cooperation of workers- to safeguard their health
is not forthcoming.
Trade unions have successfully utilized their bargaining
power to obtain wage increases and other rights but very
rarely have trade unions demanded even a dialogue on
health hazards in the working environment. Trade unions
thus have an important and constructive role to play in
making workers aware of occupational health problems in
particular and public health problems in general
(Krishnamurthy, 1978).
Since industries are to grow, environmental control of
contaminants should be accepted as social and moral obli
gation by the industries themselves and organizations
concerned with the safety, health and welfare of the
workers (Gupta, V.P. Industrial Safety Chronicle, 10,1).
There is a price to pay for industrialization but it is the
State's responsibility to see that this is paid by the
industry itself and not passed on to the workers or the
general public through adverse effects on health. What is
needed is a careful monitoring of the changing situation,
adoption of the needed control measures, and their effective
implementation (ICSSR/lCMR, 1981).
This would mean freeing
the monitoring and control system from its bonds of
corruption. Only a workers movement and action can ensure
this.
REFERENCES
Abdullah,. A.K. et al
1973
"Ventilatory Functions in Coal
Workers with Pulmonary Tuberculosis
Indian Journal of Chest Diseases,
15, 1973.
American Standards
Association, 1958
"Fundamentals Governing the
Design and Operation of Local
Exhaust Systems", New York,
(Revised edition).
Bowles, C
1955
"The New Dimensions of Peace1
Pennant Books, New York.
Carson, Rachel
1962
"Silent Spring"
Fawcett, Greenwich
35
Canalan,
1967
; "Pneumoconiosis in the Kolar
Gold Fields", Proceedings of a
Conference on Silicosis, Pneumo
coniosis and Dust Suppression in
Mines, Institution of Mining and
Metallurgical Engineers.
Ehrlich, Paul et al
1977
? "Population, Resources, Environ
ment", W.H. Freeman, San Francisco.
Economic Commission for
Europe (ECE), 1977
"Air Pollution Problems of the
inorganic Chemical Industry",
Proceedings of a Seminar,
ECE-Env/Sem. 7/3, Geneva.
Economic Times
1982
: Article appeared in the Economic
Times, Bombay, 31st July 1982.
Gupta, M.N.
1969
s "Occupational Health Research in
India'1, Indian Journal of Industrial
Medicine, 15, 130.
Gupta, R.K. et al
1972
: "Clinical and Radiological Studies
in Silicosis Amongst Stone Cutters",
Indian Journal of Medical Research,
60, 1309.
Gupta, V.P.
1981
"Organic Pollution from Chemical
Industry", Indian Journal of
Environmental Protection, 1,1,
January 1981.
Gupta, V.P.
? "Air Contaminants and their Control
in ^Industry" , Industrial Safety
Chronicle, 10, 1.
Gupta, V.P. and
Harwant Singh
; "Effects of Exposures to Mercury
in three Caustic Soda Plants in
Maharashtra", Industrial Medicine
Division Report No. 1, Central
Labour Institute, Bombay.
Government of India
1978
: "Indian Labour Year Book",
New Delhi s Ministry of Labour.
Government of India
1980
s "India - A Reference Annual",
New Delhi ; Ministry of Information
and Broadcasting.
36
Her'Majesty's Stationary : “Notes on the Diagnosis of
Occupational Diseases", Ministry
Office (HMSO)
1958
of Pensions and National Insurance,
HMSO, London.
■Herms, W.B-.
1961
: "Medical Entomology",
Macmillan, Nev/ York.
Hunter,- D
1959
; "Health in Industry",
Penguin, Harmondsworth.
International Labour
Organisation (ILO)
1971
? "Encyclopaedia of Occupational
Health and Safety", ILO,
Geneva.
ICSSR/ICMR
1981
; "Health for All : An Alternative
Strategy", Indian Institute of
Education, Pune.
Kahler, W.H.
1958
: "Visual Comfort in the Plant,
Light and Vision", School of
Public Health, University of
Michigan, 1958
Kawata, K
1967
; "Environmental Sanitation in
India", Lucknow Publishing House,
Lucknow.
Krishnamurthi , C.R.
1978
: "Health Implications of Industrial
Development", Industrial Toxicology
Research Centre, Lucknow.
Lykes, N.R.
195.4
8 "A Psychological Approach to
Accidents", Vantage Press,
New York.
Mitra, S»;K. and
A.K. Banerjee
1962
:; "Health and Safety of Workers in
Small Factory Establishments Need for Statutory Regulations",
Indian Journal of Public Health,
6, 4, October 1962.
National Institute of
Occupational Health
(NIOH), 1981
:: "Hazards Evaluation in Slate
Pencil manufacturing Industries
in Mandsaur (M.P),", NIOH (ICMR),
Ahmedabad.
37
Pandit, V. et al
1972
U.C.
1982
s "Zin Investigation of Exposure of
Textile Workers to Cotton Dust",
Indian Journal of Environmental
Health, 23,. 1972.
: Article written by Rai, U.C.,
The Hindu, 13th January 1982.
Sabnis, C.V. et al
1965
a "Dust in Relation to Disease and
Disability", Environmental Health
7, 1965.
Thacker, P'.V.
1971
: "Occupational Health Services Today and Tomorrow", Indian
Journal of Industrial Medicine,
17, 1971.
UNEP
1982 ■
s "The World Environment 1972-1982"
Tycooly International, Dublin.
Vakil, R.J. (ed)
1973
: "Text Book of Medicine",
Association of Physicians of Indi
World Health Organization: Report of the Joint ILO/WHO
1953
Committee on Occupational Health,
Technical Report Series No. 66,
Second Report, July 1953.
World Health Organization? "Health Effects of Combined
1981
Exposures in the work environment
Technical Report Series No. 662,
Geneva,WHO.
******
zs
0H7' 5
iXdArxON—GaUEED GEaETIC l/IExjA
JcO
*
CHAVARA—NEENDAKARA IN KERALA,
-
AT
IMP IA
The Anatomy or.a Non-Debate
V.T. Padmanabhan
Introduction,
Both carcinogenic and mutagenic effects ofoinislng radiation are
stochastic and hence a safe threshold does not exist.
There is a wide -
gap in the estimates of cancer and genetic disorders resulting from
long term exposure to chronic low dose radiation.Almost all such
estimates are extrapolated either from the experience of HiroshimaNagasakhi or from the results from laboratories.
can be inaccurate since
*
(a)
Im the former case,
Such extrapolations
radiation was delivered
in one single dose, whereas the problem in a plutonium power economy is
chronic exposure to low dose radiation.
Even though the effects of
radiation are culmvlative,
an insult to the gene is repaired and erased
(2)
by specific enzymes, leaving no effect on the cell.
This repair
mechanism would not be efficient in a violent situation like bombing.
(b)
Cells of different organisms are hot equal in their resistance to
radiation insult.
For instance human skin cell in culture is hundred
(3)
times more susceptible to radiation injury than bacteria in culture.
Background radiation at the coastal villages of Chavore-Neendakara
in Kerala and Hanavalankurichi in Tamil Nadu,
normal due
sard.
India,
is higher than
to the presence of thorium bearing monazite in the beach
An epidemeological study of the populations in these villages
would go a long way in establishing a near-accurate dose-response
relationship between chronic low dose radiation exposure and diseases
like cancer, premature ageing, genetic disorders among the offspring etc
Even though no such comprehensive study has so far been conducted
N.
Kochupillal and colleagues of All India Institute of Medical Sciences
(AIIM5), Delhi, undertoo<Ka survey of Down’s syndrome and related
abnormalities at chavara-Ucendakara.
Their conclusion that the higher
frequency of abnormalities observed in the study population is due
to
high background radiation was contradicted by M. Sundarm of Bhabha
Atomic Research centre
(BARC), Trombay.
Both the debating parties
quoted All India mortal1ty/ferti11ty rates which are considerably higher
s 2
s
then that of the study papulation.
This Led to a gross underesttostten of
risk.
In this paper
*
minute detail.
which is in two parts
*
the debate is analysed in its
A brief summary of the findings of the team reported in the
first communication
*
the arguments raised by Sunder am and the formers
*
to it are presented to Fart X.
reply
In Sort IX some ertos which have seriously
affected the interpretation of the findings are pointed out and the results
of Kochupillai et.al’s survey are subjected to rc~lnterpretaticn.
X
while. investigating a possible relationship belnzec-n high background
radiation and thyroid diseases
*
Kochuplllai K
*
Verma W
*
Grewal MS and
Ramalinga-Swamy V of AZIHS observed a higher frequency of Downs’s sundreme
end related uSnoxraallties at Chavare-IIeendakara to Kerala state on the Sarat'
(4)
f h house to house survey of developmental
South West Coast of India.
abnormal ikies to this region and Punr.apra-Furekadu, a "comparable
*
control
area with normal background radiation waa conducted.
The findings are reproduced below?
1.
Down’s- Syndrome and Severe mental retardation.
See table I
Table I
Prevalence of Down’s Syndrome and Severe Mental
Re tardat ion
Study Population
(H 120157
.
,
Control Population
(K 59357
I•
Total
, Per 1000
0
Effect
Total
, Per 1000
Genetic
Down’s syndrome
12
0.93
0
Si In with physical
abnormalities
12
0.93
1
0.17
Idiopathic
11
0.90
3
0.50
6
0.46
3
0.50
41
3.1
7
1.16
Acquired
Perinatal and postnatal
Total
- ) 3 t Sources Table I of ref
*
2.
4
Cytoo ante abnormalities*
Chromatid and chromosome aberrations were
scored in 1705 metaphases from 46 subjects and 1547 metaphases from 39
individuals in the study and control areas respectively
*
Mean frequency
of chromosome aberrations was higher in the study area and the difference
was signiftcent at 0
*1
*
level
Kbchupillai et.al pointed out that the observed frequency of Down’s
syndrome at Eeendakora (lsl076)
is considerably higher than other published
values s Eastern countries of England, 1
* 0000,
lt7,000, Denmark,
l»4,00G, Auser&ila,
20Q3,
l*
London, l»3,000, Germany
and North East Scotland,
2,000
1
*
Of the 12 cases of Down’s syndrome,
1 was born to a woman in age
group 20-29, 9 to age group 30-39 and 2 to age group 40-49
*
The authors
observed that "the maternal nge dependence suggests that the damaging
event accelerates oocyte ageing and causes primary trisomy, rather than
trans location trisomy which is known to be independent of maternal age
*
,The higher prevalence of chromosome aberration in apparently normal
subjects from the radiation area also supports the view that environmental
radiation may be the c-.:use of the genetic damage in the population"
*
In a rejoinder K Dundaraa of B/^iC raised the following objection
'
*
1,
(51
Comparison of the observed frequency at Necndakaxa with any other
published value would be valid if only tlx- age strucuie of the populations
is similar
*
"The infant mortality rate (IMR)
in this region is 200 per
thousand births and is independent of the background radiation
*
more,
in most other surveys, only 45
*
40 years old and above.
Further
of the births have been to females
The data of Kbchupillai et.al show about 20%
of the females in this age group, which incidentally carries the highest
risk of bearing children with Down’s syndrome.,.,.The greater frequency
of Down's syndrome in the study group
*
••••then in those reported from
other countries could be explained solely in the differences in
population structures”,
2.
Regarding the higher risk of Down’s syndrome births in age group
30-39, Sundaram observes
*
"XbchupiLlai et.al, have demonstrated only that
mothers in the age group 30-39 run a risk 10 times greater than those in
the younger age groups which agrees with other evidence of increasing
risk with advancing maternal age
*
They made no consent as to why this
age group 40-49 vr.
- » 4 »
population",
(Emphasis added)
After demolishing Kochupillai et, al’s hypothesis, primarily on
the basis of difference in mortality rate and age structure of the
population between the developed countries end Heendakara, Sundaran
engages in his original task of reinterpreting the data generated by
the formers.
He estimated 11,500 births in the study population, "based
value of family sis© (6,2),
the number of females
(2213)
on the
in the study
population (1291S), an infant mortality rate of 200 -er 1000 births and
a mortality of 60 per 1000 births in the .age group 1-20 years",
He
further estimated a total of 20 cases of Down syndrome among 11,500
live births, The expected frequency, according to Pensore and Smith
being 1,507 per 1000 births^ would be 17 cases, The difference
between expected and observed, Sundaram ruled,
is not statistically
significant,
Ui their reply to the rejoinder IC Verma et, al
(7)
argued that even.
though "infant and childhood mortality in India is about 6 times higher
than In western countries",
the mortality of Down’s syndrome should
also be substantially higher than the general population and hence the
difference observed in the population frequency is not an artefact
The second serious
due to lack of standardisation for age structure,
objection raised by Sundaram a was about the high fertility rate among
women aged 40 and above in the study population,
*
observed
on this, the authors
"Dundarm’sk comparison o£ 4% of all births to females 40
year and above in other surveys with 20% of females in this group is
incorrect.
The percentage of women 40-49 year old is less in Kerala
than in Western countries",
(see table II).
Verma et, al also
pointed out that the risk of Down’s syndrome births in the 40-49 yr
old age group is no less than in the 3C-39 # yr old group “if the
difference in age specific fertility (about 56 end 106 per 1000
£er.LQles..in. _t|jo groups respectively)
is remembered",
(Emphasis added)
- a 5
Sable xx
■ kje-Group
____ iSExala___
atudy Control
-Siidla
1961
Australia
1965
1966
Penmar k
1964
21.83
1-14
43.39
30.57
41.14
41.14
29.06
15-19
13.54
12.66
8,12
8.79
7.39
8.71
20-29
13.64
16.49
17.47
13.31
12.61
13.45
30-39
11.53
12.73
12.45
11.70
12.04
40-49
0.42
9.11
8.97
12.49
12.69
12.88
SO-
9.48
12.42
11.75
23.90
23.78
29.33
12.55
Sourcei Table X of ref 6
Hotel figures are percentages.
In tiie cose of ’frequency of Down’s syndrome at birth, while
accepting Sundaram’e estimate of births, Verma et. al pointed out that
the former erred in calculating the total Lown’s syndrome births in the
population "by incorrectly equating the mortality of Down’s syndrome
with the usual childhood mortality".
They instead, used the survival
rates for Down’s syndrome after Collmann and Stoller giving an allow*
ance for the "substantially higher mortality in Sterala" and estimated
a total of 33 Down’s syndrome births in the study population.
of the abnormality at birth,
Frequency
thus works out to 2.0 per 1000.
The debate thus ended, which in other worfls means that Kochupillai
et. al’s initial hypothesis stands uncontested.
The paper is being
quoted in all serious works on radiation related health hazards.
s 6 t
These are two demographic variable playing a central role in a
Infant aid child mortality and fertility rate
survey of this sort.
of worsen in the advanced age group.
Incidentally both Sundaram
and Kbchupillai et. al chose to ignore the difference in these rates
between India and Kerala.
*s/
.
In demographicjMriablea like birth rate, death rate,
fertility rate (Abi'fi).
is difference between India and Kerala.
age specific
and sex—ratio, there
infant mortality rate (IMR)
Equally prominent is the
difference between various regions in the latter.
Kerala state c® be
classified into low land, mid land and high land regions.
The narrow
strip of lend adjoining the Arabian sea is the low land, high land
region refers to the areas casts contlnguous to the Western Ohate.
Midland, as the name indicates is in between.
The study anc control
populations of Kochuplllai belong to low land rs-giona.of Quilon and
Alleppey district respectively. in Southern Kerala.
Birth rate, death rate and infant mortality rate are considerably
lower in t.'x
low land region thas; bv. high and midland.
Morality rates
are given in Table ill.
Xii&lfuJbX
Mortality Ratcst Low land Kerala, Kerala and India
"T—”---------,
-- -----------------------------------Mortality rates
----------
-------
Region
1 0-1 Yr
c
’
2-4 Yr
,
5-9
’
10-14 Yr
Low land Kerala (1971)
34—39
11-47
2-39
Kerala (1971)
60—89
13-03
2-39
1.13
mala (1965-70)
139.00
18-90
15-50
4-60
0.86
Sources a For Kerala « Bureau of Economics and Statistics. Kerala state
Annual Report - 1971 (Issue No. 8) Tables II and V.
For India -
UN Demographic year book.
1971 p 670.
~
suniaraa argued'that
in th- study population is war 200
.I ' O live births.
T::; highest recast-.1 n in India during th©
last sixty years was 1'S d-sing 1926-30.
©
Thu second objection of 3>undar® is th: higher proportion of
t»'.;-;cn ■?../< ■'
•••mi above in th© study ^ou-ulation, which is incorrect
in C:jj
firstly,
»
:.:rcn aged 4u yrs and ub.jve constituted only
■..-:■? total for ale
.:
-.latiun .-ind 1’.7 ' of the feiaole
*
-.2 tsr.< Ignorance >£
.' -rt u£ the statement, bee
■■■ *
'
aged
.ihile Varma st. al in t-mir ru-ily eu;id refute this
.15-.”5 yrs.
UtUCt
in ?.■■::
...-. f yr old
?t:.
-.o-49 yr old
„u gro;,
if
..
••.-. '$
*••■-.■
’-./;• in low land
riaijf Of P^rtJ’S siyndr
<:-.u
in ns less than that in the
differ .;ice In ■' . '■'.
(e'u; ;t 56 and 1S6
■;.-r 1i-.;;sales in i.-;- r.,’. rjx _• ps respectively) ia r<? r
rd
/■.'.o rate quoted is soviously £r .^ the all India figures.
-:
'
lu. .
■ . -. :. ■
.
: V- ?. U.U . Je
/ ues not attempted to.
Instead, they argued
Table IV
taht :" the risk
A '•'^t i.ow L-nd j:er~ala and I^eia
fsge Oroup
Low Land i-sarals
India
15-1S
47.00
03.00
5:0-29
U1.00
’45.00
30-39
]141.00
187.00
40-49
25.00
56.00
(T?:?)
4.01
5.12
Table Vi
re...-;rt
ratal
ertility ante
Sourcesi -jarajla
Indi©
".
'
C19'?l) ibid.
owurnrx'iat ;jf India, National .jarule Purvey,
JJo. 186. 19th raund - Ally 1964- July 1935, p
q
in ago group 40-^9 yrs is not just 3. time.n Iwar than 30-39
yrs as quintal out by Versa® at. el, but almost 6 times lower.
In amdarams
*
»x«ia uxercis' of estimating the total nudber
uf births, there or© factual as well as .■.athodological errors.
sasj how rrllable ar© th© mortality figures.
>ft>re intriguing is
' q
- nr.yfcer of females quoted by him.
The total nunbar of females in age
orc•■? 15-49 at Chavara - ifeendakara .to 2983 and not 2213 as quoted by
(9)
*
him
The latter figure apoears nowhere in th© original report
*
since
the nunfoer of women in the^opulation and also the xK&tacsxaf rates of
his estimate has to
infant and child mortality quoted by him are wrong
*
be rejected outrightly
*
the total fertility rate
By the way
*
te'fi/ -
the average number of children that would be born to a woman during her
life time if she w:re to pass through her child bearing yors confirming
to :.\;o A.; ;-, of the year) in low land iterala during 1971 was 4«®L
*
children would be born to
11,500
:35? woman during a span of 35 years
*
A more accurate method would be to work out the female population
of the study region and find out the total births using the fertility
The study population was drawn from Chavera and
rates of the past
*
<■'/ ante (locally known oo •'
A"
■■■•
/ri) of . ;
oo?vo;oe v?.ll~jeo
Population details are given in table v
*
Chcvara and Thefokusfehagata
*
Coble V
ga .iic
Sat oils
t
ovulation
Region
T95T
*
<~
"JTSSI
»* Increase ‘1971
i
»
i
Chavara (RV)
Chavara
(Segment)
304
*
19
1951-51
•
>
’
i
increase '1931
51-71 ’
i
25,524
32%
28,432
11%
33, 338
3,647
34%
191
*
4
15%
4,419
2,717
751
*
Ihefckuntohagam ( RV) 14
G13
*
19
33%
338
*
23
19%
itecndakara
(Segment)
5,807
e,7.-:5
49%
387
*
11
Cbevara -£JoendaIcara (Segments)
604
*
8
12,392
44%
16,078
25%
321,164
mrunaga. oalli
(Taluk)
430
*
216
270,9.22
Gullon
(District)
384
*
1478
1946,963
*
Source
note
• Increase
’
71-81
5
821
*
32% 2412
*
Census ihandbooks, Pullon district
» RV - Revenue Village*
17%
6%
428
*
27
13%
36%
623
*
13
15%
30%
18,042
13%
19%
378,064
18%
24% 2813,590
17%
*
1951 to 1981
The growth rate □£ the villjes during the decade 1951-61 is
Of this#
considerably higher than that of karunagappalli.
ss^sw ss-gmant which registered a 49% growth stands out.
growth can bt.
Seendakara
This abnormal
ex'lained by the high rate of ir^ .migration 3ue to the
ex jftnsion of raining in th <• study region. ' The higher rate of in-migration
to iJo ;nd-.kata segment than Chavara is due to the availability of more
wasteland for sottiara nt of migrants.
(Tn 1951 tfeendakara had a population
density of 3.03 •-•v .•: sons .er acre as against 7.99 persons per acre in
Chavera.p
The esti-^ated total population and, number of woman aged 15-49 yrs
in the study region during the past is -given in Table VI.
Table VI
ggtin^ted Population and Jjurcbag of P'onjan in
?J22^Stu§ZJ^212n
Year
,
,
•
aecadal
Variation
,
,
Total
Population
:
wo. of
,,
vjotnan
1975
1291':
2980
1973
12624
2910
12330
2840
10900
2510
9460
2180
12.: (1971—81)
1971
1966
30% (1961-71)
1961
1958
8610
2015
1955
7740
1780
6580
1510
44% (1951-61)
1951
General Fertility Rate
*?
(•:?
hf — Nlinfoer of live births in a year to
1000 wo:en in -rge group 15-49) in lowland Kerala during 1971 122.9.
(Thio has been consistently declining.
19.1 was ;:5.9).
were higher
G?a in Lowland dore la during
Since fertility rates of the state during earlier decades
(rates not available) we assume a gpk of 130 in the 50s and
1'5 in the 50s.
Total nuntocr of births in the study region during
years prior to th® survey (1955-75) io estimated in tabla VII.
?0
8 10 «
Table _VEI
s st imbed births in Chavsra
'
Period
I'fldpoint s
•
Wecndakaga> 1955-75
‘Total births
* in a your
‘
’
Births during
thoperiod
1973
2910
123
358
1962-71
1966
2510
130
326
3260
1955-51
1958
2015
145
292
1750
rl
w<iW»
S it
1
t
Midpoint ,
Female
,GFR
*
hopn
1430
Total
6440
'..'hile cstlmlner the total nu^bur of Down’s synodrome births Verma
et. al used a'
survival
*
rate lower than that of apllmn and Stoller for
the dovelo ..;d countries “because of the higher mortality rates in the
study ’regi-n 1»
since mortality rates in the study region is not
higher. tills allo.nee is unwarranted.
Xn Table VIXX. total nunfoer
after Verma ot« al and tollman and Stoller is provided.
Table VIII
o£ na^'s. aggrose Births« Chayara-^fcondakara
TfttQl
Served • Change
Ago
<
Frequency
«
’ After
f
Verma et. al
After Collman &
Total
’ Chances
Total
10
Upto 5 yrs
5
45%
12
49.4%
5-10 yrs
4
35%
11
46.2
9
Above 10 yrs
3
30%
10
38%
8
Total -
12
33
27
Twelve observed cases of Down’s syndrome were survivors of 27
cases in 5440 infants born during twenty years proceeding the survey
*
nates of Down's syndrome at births at Chavara-Neendakara and other
centres arc given in Table IX
*
- i 11 : Table lx
fepwrJs g-yndrpmc at Rirths ~ Various Surveys
„.l.
s ur ve^cen tre
...^ute. .ner logo
wor id
Is
663
1,51
India# esecluding Madras
it 1215
0.82
Madras
li 3833
0.26
Tx ivandrw
is 1194
0.84
Chavnru - I^eendakara
11
4.19
*
Sources
238
t-orld - Penrose l>s and smith®’ (1966) Down's Anomaly,
Churchchill# ixaidos.
India end Madrasi Verma# IC and Singh# M(1975)
Lancet i# 1200.
Trivandrum - suguua Sai quoted in ref 4.
Frequency of Down"s syndrome at Chavare<
Meendakare
*
is 5 times
higher the.. Trivandrum <aid All Indiatexcludtag Madras) and 16 times
higher than Madras.
Age specific Do»y.
*s
Risk-
Down’s Syndrome birth risk lr.
different age group® is commuted in table X.
Table X
Age Group/ 1 o. of Women
I
I
•
’
*
*
•
I
.
*
oi.. gyr:dr«w ’ Kisk per 10;:o
Expected '1 Percentage * Total ‘ iv
‘ births ' Observed
Births
'' share of
Bern
11 births
f
1
•
i
in a
11 births
i
I
9
1
15-19
860
47.08
40
12
770
-
20-29
862
211.00
132
54
3480
1
2
0.57
30-39
729
141.00
102
30
1930
9
20
10.36
40-49
532
25.00
13
4
260
2
5
19.23
Total
2983
337
100
G440
12
27
4.19
-
lotci- Io. and age break up of women pertains to the year of study.
is that of 1971.
This would be different during the rest of the period.
Fertility among women in younger and older age groups(15-19 and 40-49) would be higher
tn the previous years, because as a rule when fertility declines,
affected first.
these groups are
- : 13 :
The risk among mothers aged 30-39 yr and 40-49 yr
is 13 and 33
times higher respectively than that -.;£ mothers in 20-29 yr age group.
The mothers aged 40-49 yr have almost two times greater a chance of
giving birth to Bown
s
*
Syndrome babies than wasen fcr- age group 30-39 yrs.
i’vtl; the over all frequency and the internal differences are much higher
than that reported by. ienrose and Smith for normal population.In
India, out of 615 documented casos of down’s Syndrome births, only 51&
were born to mothers aged 30 yrs e&d above.This proportion at
Ueendekara is 93%.
’. eaknesses of, the Study
Over and above the points raised above, Kochuplllai et. al’s study
is weak on the following grounds
*
(a)
Utudv and Control Populations-0ia.31a»il>-‘rity.
The *
teams
assumption
that tiie study and control areas ate comparable fron a socio-economic
angle is questionable.
Neendakara, the study region has two distinguish inc
features, via modernisation of fishing anti extensive mining of monazite
and ilmenite.
(1)
yioh Econc^iy of. lioendakarg- Ileendakara has played a vital
role in modernisation of fishing industry in India.
This
village had the headquarters of Indo-Korwegiar. Project (It'P)
which hcarlded the capital-intensive fishing (using trawlers,
purseine? nets etc) in India,
in 1971, Chatvara«^eendakara coast
had 700 trawlers out of a total of 2700 trawlers operating in
the state as a whole.
The author is in total agreement with
the critics of modernisation of fishing who argue that the
long term effects of njechnr.isaticn has bean disastrous to the
economy md ecology of the region.
However,
the region and
its people did enjoy short term gains in the form of Increased.
employment(in trawlers, processing points etc).
There has
also been an overall increase in the catch between I960 & 1971
(Thia has come down since 1971)
(ii)
As part of UsP, a hospital was set up at I!eendukara(This
hospital has now been taken over by Medical College Trivandru
by all standards,
the functioning of INP Hospital (taaun among
the locals as Foundation HospitaDwas far more satisfactory
than any government hospital in the region.
14
(lit)
The raining and export o£ racnazite end ilmenite which sta
rted in the early decades of the century provided more or
less regular employment to a considerable number of people.
It is to be remembered that the wage rate in the modem sectox
is always higher than the traditional sector.
Furakkad in Alleppey district which is also^fishing village did not
experience any kind of mechanisation till 1978.
(b)
Doee-Re8por.se iielationship. The problem before the radiation health
experts today(and also in the raid-seventies)is not whether low dose radi
ation exposure leads to esneez or genetic disorders,
1’raa a theoretical ca
well as practical point of view, what is relevant is a dose-res: emse
relationship.
The dose quoted by the authors is of little value.
The leve!
of reliability of BakC figures of radiation exposure is not very satisfac
tory (be tag discussed below).
AX IMS team could have, within their own
limitation, made the data collected by them more meaningful by seeking
one more information regarding the place of birth of woeSn in the sample.
The high background radiation region is a small stretch of land, about
5 Kras in length and less than a kilocuster in width,
a
women born in a
normal background radiuticn region moving into the study region after marr
iage would have received considerably lower dose than those who were born
and married into the study region.
The question of i.-ose,
Even though the presence of thorium bear tag monazite
was detected at Keendakara decodes earlier end the Indian Atomic Energy
Commission has beer, involved in commercial exploitation of the mineral for
the past three and a half decades,
all too scanty.
the data regarding dose absorption is
According to BAHC, average radiation dose received by a
population 70,000 is 342 m/rems yr. Exposure at Chavara village, which
has the highest concentration of thorium was over 500 m/rems yr.^^ WHO
places the dose at 1500 n/rems yr.
(13)
The Chairman of Indian Atomic Energy
Commission says that the radiation exposure at Keendakura is well over
SOCou/rems yrj^14^ while his counterpart ta USA quotes a figure which is
over 10,000 n/reras yr.^^ The BAhc survey of radiation exposure had its
own shortcomings.
BAhc issued 13,000 thermoluminescence dosimeter (TLD)
to be worn around the neck for a period r.f three months.
There was no fool
proof device to check whether the people were it or not.
Many people who
were given TW informed that they did not wear the gadget because
*
was uncomfortable (b)
in the case of women,
(a)
it
who wear tight blouses, wear
ing it underneath the blouse was uncomfortable and also the projection of
it over the breast was a postively ugly sight.
The level of Co-operation
8 IS
which c..; lx: ellcitru Iran people lr. such studies; would be very minimal
in th
*
absence a.; proper raotivatlr.a £®ctor
P
*
b^ if 1'W were kept It the
houses.
th? cjstt record .' -on It vouut he x.:;r from accurate. since in their
workir.
hours. adults would hov~ stayed away from the region.
.. Vt^ta '■ ■
—......... :ecti.......... r
llir.g fish.
Tlsher >«#
Both th.:..' ar
hove
/ seawards and fisherwomen go
normal background radiation.
The survey only fsx. assessed
external exposure.
radiation from internally deposited nuclid
s(through
*
So measurement off
inhalation, off radon
end thoron and ingestion of thorium •.••r.d uranium daughters through food and
we ter) has been done.
Conclusion
Kochu.il lai et. al hed reported their findings regarcinn the rate of
:
. .: ,
.
:.
and Down’s syEdrarea in the study
tJ. ■■ ., severe
1 r ■ t rdatioe
control population-/were not statis
tically significant (which w itself does not mean that rhe effect Is non
existent). diff-~excr.ee in others v.-erv
*
at." I is t lenity- o Ip. 1£ leant.
totally ignored all effects other than Down’s ayr-dram
.
*
Jundaram
aundaxex’s silence
on the cncrcs^sorae aberration rate et heendakara is signiff leant in th
*
light of consists:'. t reporting of no aberration by &Y.:: which has been ir:.volve;’ I?. cytologic &1 studies
in the region since th® early sixties.
4-X‘hile the difference in ebortion end enromatid abe
Scientific W>etlyit»ot Foil tics..pl
At expert comn.ittee of W.i... in Its meeting In 1959 had underlined the
need for conducting studies on possible health ef ects due to radiation in
the high background red let ion regions in Kerala and ‘Tamil "edu states in
~ven though there are high background radiation region
*
India,
t;>ere is no comparable control population in that country.
in Brazil,
The expert
coKKiittee ruled that Kerala and Tamil JTadu are the only reglo/.s which would
valid results.
■■. study of all possible health effects of chronic low level r. fiction
exposure assumes importance in an era when all the major countries fe: th
*
world are considering a quantum leap In generation of nuclear ^electricity,
A fierce battle is being fought for reaction of present maximum permiss
ible dose lor workers us well us for general public between the environmextulists/trade unions and the nuclear establishments.
Would an unbiased.
comprehensive survey off Chavurs-neondakaro influence t!» course of this
battle?
- s 16 s Alongwith Sundnram’s rejoinder, a Nature had also published a
short letter from JH Edward s and BO Hamden.
They pointed out that
*a8 this background radiation (it Chavnra-lfeendakara) is less than
half the limit of 5 remo/yr recommended for registered radiation
workers by ths International Commission on Radiological Protection
in 1965, this might cause anxiety both to those exposed and .to thos •
responsible for their welfare”.
The authors forgot to add another
category - the owners of nuclear facilities.
In lha body of ‘his
report, we kx heard the Chairmen of Indian and US Atomic Energy
Co -missions saying that the radiation dose received by those
living in Chav ra~ff?ondnkam is well over 5000 m/rens-the IC.RP
statutory limit.
They were Quoting Ebendakara to ’prove’ that
the existing ICNP standard is safe and hence no need for revision.
Padmsnabhan V.T.
Kalpana,
Unichira,
Chagampuzhanngar ,
Cochin-682 033,
IiniA.
OH 7-’ £
SUBMISSION ON THE HEALTH STATUS AND HEALTH CARE OF VICTIMS OF THE
BHOPAL GAS DISASTER OF 1984
TO THE INTERNATIONAL MEDICAL COMMISSION ON BHOPAL (JANUARY 1994)
by
Dr.Thelma Narayan, MBBS.,M.Sc,(Epidemiology).
COMMUNITY HEALTH CELL, BANGALORE,
MEDICO FRIEND CIRCLE, INDIA.
*********
CONTENTS
Summary
1.
Introduction
2.
Health Status - a review
3.
Medical/Health Care
4.
Evolving alternatives
5.
Conclusion
6.
References
,\"A11 scientific work is incomplete - whether it be
observational or experimental. All scientific work
is liable to be upset or modified by advancing
knowledge. That does not confer upon us a freedom
to ignore the knowledge we already have, or to
postpone the action that it appears to demand at a
given time."
A.B.Hill
SOMMARY
Studies done and published during the past nine years show concrete
evidence of continued, multi-systemic clinical manifestations, which
in several thousand victims are severe and in others moderate and
mild. Immunological effects and genotoxicity are also evident.
There
is serious disruption in quality of life.
This has occurred among a population living below the poverty line, who
were totally unaware of the hazard potential of their neighbourhood
plant.
Medical care has been largely hospital/clinic based, symptomatic,cura
tive care. There is some evidence of irrationality and overdrugging.
The preventive aspects of health care are inadequate and there is no
attempt at person centred, wholistic health or even of the basics of
primary health care or community health.
(
Further victimization of the victims is evident from protracted legal
cases, unjust settlements, grossly delayed processing of compensation
claims and disbursements, and disregard for the invaluable human
dignity of the affected people.
Comprehensive, just and humane health services are urgently needed.
These will necessarily have to build on present realities in the
government and voluntary sector. A shift in emphasis towards greater
community organisation and building of community capability
is
suggested so that the victims are in greater control of their own
health.
Other components of community health also need to be built
up/strengthened.
1.
INTRODUCTION
Studies since the Bhopal disaster,have increased our understanding
of the health effects on people exposed to toxic gases in December
1984. These clinical, epidemiological and laboratory studies done
by varied organizations provide evidence of the bodily harm caused
to approximately half a million Indian/world citizens. They in no
way measure the suffering caused to those affected and their
families.
These nine years have also been witness to the response by Union
Carbide (the concerned company), the state and national government
and the international community. These could be seen in terms of:
* availability/lack of timely authentic information;
* research efforts and utilization of their findings;
* evolution of appropriate therapeutic measures;
* organisation of medical care and rehabilitation; and
* utilization of medical information to work out compensation,etc.
Glaring lacunae exist in all the above, which would be considered
beyond the levels of acceptability for other groups of citizens
more favourably placed, even within the country. This response is
added insult to the injury that was caused to innocent victims.
During present times the concept of social justice and equity in
health and health care has been accepted worldwide and has led to
the articulation of the Alma Ata Declaration to which most nation
states are signatories.
It is therefore important for members of
the medical profession, and all those involved /interested in
health issues, to work towards making these concepts and the goal
of "health for all" a reality in specific situations such as Bhopal
It may also be worth remembering that Bhopal is no accident,but is
representative of a large number of instances of industrial and
environmental hazards to which populations, particularly in the
Third World, are susceptible.
2.
HEALTH STATUS
The definition of Health by the WHO as " a state of complete
physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence
of disease or infirmity", can be taken as the gold standard for
health efforts.
In the Bhopal situation all the different aspects
of health need to be considered in comparison to this standard.
2.1
POPULATION EXPOSED/AFFECTED
Of the total population of 850,000 in Bhopal in 1984,the officially
estimated exposed population was 5,21,262 (ICMR).
The ICMR estimates of the distribution of affected people
, follows: Severely exposed area
32,477 people
Moderately exposed area
71,917 people
Mildly exposed area
■
4,16,868 people
is
as
. .2
: 2 :
It is important to have a reasonably accurate number of those
exposed, as they comprise the 'population at risk' who could
potentially manifest adverse health outcomes as a result of the
exposure.
This number would be the denominator for calculating
exposure related morbidity and mortality rates, besides being
crucial for organizing medical care and arriving at compensation
amounts.
The Government does not have a complete list of victims and it is
estimated
that 1,00,000 victims who are residents of the 36
officially declared gas affected municipal wards have not been
registered.
It is strange that a country that successfully
conducts census operations and regular enumerations for elections,
besides other exercises like the Sample Registration Scheme and
several other large studies by national research institutions and
operations research groups, suddenly finds it near impossible to
list a relatively small population in a confined and concentrated
geographic area.
Factors such as migration are not specific only
to post disaster situations and other issues such as verification
and misreporting are certainly not as difficult as made out to be.
This basic and simple need for reasonably accurate data needs
reiteration, as individual and collective rights to compensation,
medical care and rehabilitation depend on it.
2.2
MORTALITY
In November 1989 and October 1990 the recorded number of deaths
due to the disaster were 3,598 and 3,828 respectively (Dept.of
Relief and Rehab., Bhopal Gas Tragedy, Govt, of Madhya Pradesh,
Bhopal).
Abortions and still births are not included here
However,
10,000 claims on account of death were still pending
before the claims commissioner in 1992.
Local sources say that
over 70 per cent of claims taken up so far have been arbitrarily
rejected.
Local sources also mention 3-4 gas related deaths
per week in Bhopal in 1993,based on newspaper reports,
i.e., 156208 excess deaths per year.
The mortality rate among those exposed is decreasing over time
(6). This could probably be explained by the fact that those more
severely affected have died in the immediate and intermediate
period and the more healthy survivors live longer. The mortality
rates are however still slightly higher among the severely exposed
as compared to the controls (6).
: 3 :
Crude Death Rate (per 1,000 population)
Year
1986
1987
1991
Source '•
Save relv Exposed
14.10
11.79
8.55
(6,11)
Control
6.04
7.23
7.46
Abortion Rate.
1985
1987
1991
Source: (11) .
A
24.2%
9.6%
6.8%
5.6%
2.1%
5.9%
show a
exposed
The stillbirth, perinatal and infant mortality rates
downward trend, but are slightly higher in the severely
area as compared to the control (6).
2.3
MORBIDITY : & hxifii. r.eyisH
2.3.1
Important overall features from a review af. literature
a)Long term, progressive symptomatology and clinical findings
during the nine years since the disaster. Animal studies and
type of lesions developing, suggest a life time continuation of
ill health. The acute, subacute and chronic phases, are part of
a continuum,
representing the natural history of the after
effects of exposure.
b)Multi-systemic clinical picture involving the respiratory,ocular,
gastrointestinal, reproductive, psychological, neurobehavioural
and neuromuscular systems. There is some evidence of depressed
cell mediated immunity and of genotoxicity.
Well designed toxicology studies also demonstrate
multi-systemic involvement.
long
term,
c)MIC and its degradation products are highly toxic, reactive and
exposure to it is associated with considerable long term effects
(20, 13,10,18).
The
d)
majority a£ the exposed population live. below
the.
poverty
line defined by the Government of India. The environmental and
occupational conditions of poor housing, unsafe water supply,
inadequate sanitation,inadequate nutrition,poor work environment
and unemployment • is a cause for greater exposure to other
infections, to which the victims are more prone, due to factors
cited in (b). This further aggravates their ill health.
. .4
: 4 :
2.3.2
The Eyes
In the acute phase a large proportion of the exposed population
had superficial Keratitis, conjunctivitis and swelling of the
eye lid.
Several had superficial corneal ulcerations in the
interpalpabral region which responded to treatment. There were
persistent symptoms of watering of the eye, burning and itching.
Later studies (6), (12) found chronic conjunctivitis, deficiency
of tear secretion, high prevalence of corneal opacities and
early age onset of cataracts.
Another 3 year cohort analysis of community clusters (13)
suggests a threefold excess of eyelid inflammation, twofold
increase of new cataracts and loss of usual acuity among the
more severely exposed clusters. There was also an excess of
recent eye infections and hyper responsive phenomenon.Toxicology
(animal) experiments also showed evidence of dose related
progressive chronic inflammation (13).
2.3.3
The Respi ratorv System
The experience of people (8), several studies (1),(6),(10),(14)
and reviews (3),(9) (18) indicate a heavy load of morbidity due
to respiratory problems throughout the post disaster period.
It
continues to be a major cause of death among the exposed
population (10).
An 18 month follow up of a self selected group of patients
exposed to the toxic gas revealed a pattern of
chronic
respiratory disability showing flow volume reductions along with
restrictive lung damage with alveolitis (6).
A follow up study of a random sample of 288 case (6) showed that
a large number of cases were symptomatic at. the end of 5 years.
There is an emergence of hyper reactive airway injury with
asthma like features among 24%, Chronic Obstructive Airways
Disease among 11.4%, bronchiolitis obliterans in 13%
and
restrictive lung disease in 1.4% of the sample.
12.8% had
recurrent chest infections requiring the upe of antibiotics.
It
was concluded that exposure related lung injury had damaged both
large and small airways, resulting in different types of
obstructive airways disease.
Misra et al (6) studied pulmonary functions of 250 patients with
respiratory symptoms during December 1984, with severe and
moderate exposure and followed them up every year.
After the
fourth year prevalence of clinical symptoms were as follows:
exertional dyspnoea (98.4%), recurrent respiratory infections
: 5 :
(78.0%) and chest pain (42.0%). 97.5% had evidence of small
airway obstruction, which was suggested as a marker for the
diagnosis of toxic gas induced lung disease.
It was later
reported (11), (covering a period till March 1991), that there
was no change in the pulmonary parameters of patients examined,
but sequelae of chronic bronchitis and corpulmonale
were
increasing.
2.3.4 The. Reproductive System
k
An early cross sectional community based study (1985) indicated
alterations in menstrual flow, length of menstrual cycle,
dysmenorrhea and leucorrhoea among women, impotence in men in
exposed areas. these were significantly different from control
groups (1) .
An epidemiological study in September 1985 (2) also showed
altered menstrual patterns and reported a significant four fold
increase in the incidence of spontaneous abortions.
Still
births too were significantly high.
An epidemiological study by Varma (reviewed in 10) showed high
pregnancy loss - 43.0% of 865 pregnancies at the time of the gas
leak, within 1 Km of the plant, did not result in live births.
2.3.4
Mental Health
Exploratory studies in February 1985 showed that 50% of people
in the community and 20% of those seeking medical care were
suffering from psychiatric problems (5).
In a community based
epidemiological study in March 1985, 44% of people in a severely
exposed area, had anxiety or depression and loss of memory,
which was significantly higher than the control group. (1)
Behavioural studies conducted two and a half months post
disaster revealed that memory, mainly visual perceptual, and
attention/response speed, along with attention/vigilance were
severely affected in the exposed population (17).
A later study (5) using standard questionnaires (SRQ) and
psychiatric interviews (PSE),
found that 22.6% of patients
attending general clinics suffered from psychiatric disorders,
namely anxiety neurosis (25%), depressive neurosis (37%),adjustment reaction with prolonged depression (20%) and adjustment
reaction with predominant disturbance of emotions (16%).
In a
community based survey using random sampling (done by the same
study, group) the prevalence rate of psychiatric disorders was
94/1,000.
94% of the patients' had a diagnosis of neurosis
(neurotic depression (51%), anxiety state (41%), hysteria (2%)
and had a temporal correlation with the disaster.
. .6
: 6 :
2.3.6
Immune System
Studies of immune function (16) showed a depression of cell
mediated immunity. Among the exposed the T-cell population was
found to be less than half (28%) than that found in a normal
Indian population (65%). Animal studies corroborate this (10).
2.3.7
Genetic effects
A review indicates that animal and invitro studies demonstrate
genotoxic effects of MIC (10). Cytogenetic studies on small
samples of exposed people show statistically higher frequency of
chromosomal aberrations (16, 10).
2.3.8
Comments
The studies have been done in a post disaster situation and
often under several constraints, including a lack of access to
available information, due to the medico-legal implications.
Though there are methodological limitations to some of the
studies (3), (10), (18), (19), when seen together, and with the
additional back-up now available of animal and laboratory
studies, there is adequate evidence of serious long term damage
to the health of the victims who survived.
It is only but
humane to translate these facts and findings into expressions of
adequate medical care, just compensation and rehabilitation with
a sense of urgency.
3.
MKDICAL/HRALTH CARE
3.1
Maintenance of medical records: In the immediate aftermath of the
disaster there was a massive response by the Government health
services and by voluntary organisations to respond to the medical
crisis.
However,
lack of maintenance of accurate records has
caused a major problem for the victims. . This factor needs
emphasis even now.
3.2
The
lack
authentic information regarding the
possible
causative agents, along with misinformation, created confusion
regarding appropriate therapeutic measures to be adopted.
The
utilization of sodium thiosulfate (NaTS) as an antidote was
embroiled in controversy (1). There have in fact,
surprisingly,
been no other attempts towards findings appropriate therapeutic
agents.
3.3
Medical services: A 30 bed hospital was started by the Government
very close to the severely affected area.
More recently the
number of beds have been increased. Several clinics providing
out-patient services by doctors and allied health workers were
started at different locations within the exposed areas.
These
provide primarily symptomatic, curative care.
Within three months of the disaster the medical officers of these
clinics / hospital were trained, by a team from the National
Institute
for
Mental Health and
Neurosciences
(NIMHANS)
Bangalore, to recognise and treat mental health problems that had
emerged in the post disaster situation. A manual and several
videotapes of case studies were prepared for the purpose.
Voluntary
organisations in Bhopal started health
services
catering to specific geographic areas. Some of these groups
trained local community health workers and had more community
based services including health education, awareness raising etc.
However their number and outreach is small.
3.4
Peoples organisations developed and activist groups also started
work. They raised wider issues concerning the disaster and also
concerning the health consequences.
Epidemiological studies
undertaken by some of them, under conditions of severe resource
constraints,
lack of access to information and
suspicion,
recognised early the widespread prevalence of multi-systemic
clinical symptoms and signs, which could not be explained by lung
damage alone (1). Similarly the important area of womens health,
which was totally neglected thus far, was studied and highlighted
(2). Efforts at evolving a communication strategy were made (22)
along with wider advocacy and building of solidarity groups
elsewhere.
Efforts of victim organisations have been crucial in
getting interim relief and challenging court orders
3.5
The Indian Counci1 of. Medical Research initiated several studies.
Following double blind clinical trials of Sodium Thiosulfate, the
ICMR gave recommendations for its use to medical practitioners
through the State Health Services. These guidelines were given
scant recognition, without reason.
h
The ICMR also subsequently set-up the Bhopal Gas Disaster
Research Centre, based in Bhopal. Twenty two long term research
studies were initiated with the involvement of various departments
of the Gandhi Medical College in Bhopal and with collaboration /
support of several other specialized research centres in the
country.
Medical officers and staff in the community clinics
participate in the data collection for these studies and have
received training for the purpose. A supplement to an issue of
the Indian Journal of Medical Research published findings of the
ICMR studies in 1987. Some papers have also been published in
-other journals. However other than these, all reports are classi
fied as confidential and are not available to other researchers
or to the medical practitioners, and much less to NGO's and the
affected people'.
. .8.
: 8 :
3.6
Medical malpractice Z over medicalisation: Chronic ill health has
turned out to be a bonanza for private practitioners and pharma
cists. We have received personal communications regarding over
drugging and irrational therapeutics.
An informal study also
revealed the use of several banned drugs. The possibility of
iatrogenic problems is real and its extent needs to be studied.
3.7
Preventive/community health: The Integrated Child Development
Services were introduced by the government into the area.
Victims organisations however even now mention the lack of
sanitation and adequate safe water supply (8). Other preventive
and promotive health work at the community level with community
involvement is lacking. Health education, child health programmes,
counselling and supportive services have not developed.
3.8
The procedures for assessing the. medical status for processing af
compensation claims is said to be convoluted,
inefficient,
corrupt and tardy.
It is also technically flawed (4).
A
document of the U.S. National Institute of Mental health reports
that failure of secondary level support systems is one of the
most demoralising experiences for victims. This has been a
regular occurance in Bhopal.
3.9
Interest in the Bhopal issue and hence in the. people affected is.
also waning. The ICMR has closed down all but 2 of its research
studies.
Payment of interim relief has stopped and payment of
compensation through the claims courts have had a very slow
start.
At the current rate they would take several years to
complete the job. Rehabilitation work centres for women have
also closed.
3.10
While there are a larger number of research papers in inter
national journals every year, very little gets back to Bhopal.
This raises an important issue concerning social accountability
of. research. Besides the victims being used as guinea pigs, it
is the public or tax payers money that keeps most of the research
institutions running, necessitating public accountability.
4.
EVOLVING ALTERNATIVES
4.1
Given the ground realities of :
* Serious, progressive effects on the health, well-being and
livelihood of victims;
* a medicalised approach to health care, prone to overdrugging
and irrational therapeutic practices;
* waning interest by governmental and non-governmental
organisations;
it seems necessary and urgent to buiId a. more comprehensive■
humane and iust health care service for victims.
We however
probably need to build on the present realities with all their
limitations.
Health care services for the urban poor in the
country
are ill-developed, with the private sector
being
. .9
: 9
predominant. The functioning of the government health system in
general is inefficient and unempathic to people. However it is
clear that in Bhopal the prime responsibility for provision of
health services to victims is with the government.
Steps like
setting up of an infrastructure of facilities and staff have
already taken place. Working towards improvement in quality and
increased responsiveness to the specific health problems of
victims, with greater use of the principle of community health is
now needed.
|
Building up peoples organisations within the affected communities
with much greater access to. information. along with participation
in decision making will be some o£ the steps that can help
restore their health in their own hands. The role of NGO's could
be in training health workers and building community leadership
around the area of health.
4.2
The idea of a national medical commi ssion on Bhopal has been
raised several times in the past and deserves thought, support,
advocacy and the working through of organizational details.
4.3
It would be useful to have a forum and regular means of
communication, by which those interested and involved with Bhopal
■ can keep in touch. This could be through holding more regular
national meetings and regular newsletters on Bhopal, in other
words developing a Bhopal Network. A Bhopal based core group
could
be the secretariat.
Efforts to maintain
continued
awareness regarding the situation in Bhopal among wider groups
could be a major task and contribution.
4.4
Developing a local communication strategy between various
would most certainly help.
groups
NGO's
Solidarity
groups,
Activists
Affected people/
Victims.organisations
Govt, health services
Research organisations
Private practitioners
The medical profession
While interests may seen to differ, even sharply, in the ultimate
one group has to.affect the other in a positive way, from the
viewpoint of the victims.
• • ip
: 10 :
4.5
While acknowledging the important role played, of keeping the
Bhopal issue alive, the experience of the past 9 years has also
exposed the frailties, organizational limitations, problems of
leadership
and
incompatibilities within
the
"pro-people"
NGO/activist sectors as. well.
In a spirit of introspection many
aspects of critiques of the "establishment" could be applicable
to us as well. We therefore need to equip ourselves better, be
more tolerant, and allow space for dialogue and growth.
4.6
Several suggestions have been given in the past about developing
a comprehensive health care system fox. the. people (2),(9), (2f)
affected by the Bhopal disaster.
Key components are:
4.6.1
Basic needs of adequate shelter, potable drinking water and
sanitation to be met.
4.6.2
Need for adequate nutrition, income and employment.
Just
settlement of compensation and provision of alternative
employment can provide the purchasing capacity necessary.
Working conditions suited to the health situation of the
victims need to be ensured, e.g., dust free environment,
relatively light work, rest periods, good lighting etc.
4.6.3
4
Basic medical and health care:
a)Patient retained records /copies in folders that are
water,insect, dust proof are suggested as being important
for further treatment and for legal purposes in case a
reopener clause is allowed.
b)Practice of rational therapeutics, workshops on rational
therapeutics for practitioners, provision of therapeutic
|
guidelines to all practitioners in the area on common
presenting conditions, with regular updating. Adverse
Drug Reactions need to be monitored.
cJProgrammes for specific communicable diseases. e.g.,
TB, trachoma, water borne diseases etc.
d)Health education.
Mother
e)
and Child health.
School
f)
health, child to child programmes, play therapy.
Mother
g)
and child health care.
Woroens
h)
health care.
Community based programmes for disability, especially res
i)
piratory disability.
Mental
j)
health care- counselling, selfhelp groups, community
building,use of appropriate psychiatric services when needed.
. .11
Building
k)
community organization through health committees
or basic units comprising 10 families each.
1)Identifying, training,supporting community health workers
and building links with referral government /NGO health
centres/hospitals.
m)Regular assessment of the health situation and health work.
4.7
5.
k
Research: There is need for continued research efforts-clinical,
epidemiological, toxicological and forensic with dissemination of
findings.
CONCLUSION
A socio-epidemiological analysis of the consequences of the Bhopal
disaster on the health of the victims, outlined in this submission,
places on Union Carbide, the Government of India, the Government of
Madhya Pradesh State, on society in general and all of us in
particular, an urgent responsibility to respond meaningfully to the
continuing suffering of the victims.
This response has to move from unjust legal remedies, inadequate
and tardy monetary compensation and ad hoc medical interventions to
a more wholistic and humane community health care support system,
sustained and supported by an empowered 'victim' community.
While
doing so, we need to constantly keep in mind that 'Bhopals' exist
widely and many more Bhopals will take place in the coming years,
especially in the Third World because of the current economicpolitical
trends.
The rights of workers
and
impoverished
communities urban and rural, will therefore to be safeguarded
through continuing solidarity of effort at all levels - local,
regional, national and global.
6. REFERENCES
an
1.
Medico Friend Circle, 1985, The Bhopal Disaster Aftermath
epidemiological and socio-medical survey, MFC Regd Office, Pune.
2.
Medico Friend Circle, 1990, Distorted Lives: Women's
health and the Bhopal disaster, MFC Regd Office, Pune.
3.
Narayan,T, 1990., Health impact of the Bhopal Disaster: an epidemio
logical perspective, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol, XXV, No.33
(Dissertation submitted for the Masters in Epidemiology at the
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine).
Sathyamala, C., Vora, N and Satish.K.
Health Status of the Bhopal Survivors
Extn, New Delhi 110 014.
reproductive
1990, Against All Odds:
CEC, F-20 (GF), Jangpura
ICMR Centre for Advanced Research on Community Mental Health
National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, 1987, Bhopal
Disaster: Manual of mental health care for medical officers,
NIMHANS, Bangalore.
6. Bhopal Gas Disaster Research Centre, Indian Council
Research, Annual Report, 1990.
for
Medical
7.
Permanent Peoples Tribunal (PPT), Asia '92,
1992, Findings and
Judgements of the Third Session on Industrial and Environmental
Hazards and Human Rights, 19-24 October, Bhopal-Bombay, PPT-India
secretariat, New Delhi.
8.
Testimonies of the following organisation to the PPT:
Bhopal, 1992, Mimeos.
8.1
8.2
8.3
8.4
8.5
8.6
9.
Session
at
Testimony of Zahreeli Gas Kand Sangharsh Morcha.
Testimony of Children against Carbide.
Testimony of Bhopal Gas Pidit Mahila Udyog Congress.
Testimony of Nirashrit Pension Bhogi Sangharsh Morcha.
Testimony of Gas Pidit Mahila Stationary Karmchari Sangh.
Testimony of Bhopal Gas Pidit Sangharsh Sahyog Samiti.
Narayan, T,1992., Aspects of Community Health in relation to
Industrial Hazards, Submission to the PPT (see No.7), Community
Health Cell, Bangalore, Mimeo.
lO.Dhara Ramana, 1992, Health effects of the Bhopal gas leak : a review,
Epidemiologia e prevenzione, n. 52, 1992.
11.Bhopal Gas Disaster Research Centre, Indian. Council of Medical
Research, Consolidated report (Summary) Draft, January 1992.
12.Raizada,J.K., Dwidei, P.C., Chronic ocular lesions in
tragedy, Ind.J Ophthalmol, 1987, 35: 453-455.
Bhopal
gas
13.Andersson N, Ajwani M.K., Mahashabde S, Tiwari M.K., Kerr Muir M,
Mehra V, Ashvin K, Mckenzie C.D., Delayed eye and other consequences
from exposure to methyl isosyanate, 93% follow up of exposed and
unexposed cohorts in Bhopal, Br.J.Ind Med.,1990; 47:553-558.
Rastogi
14.
S.K., Gupta B.N., Husain T, Kumar A, Chandra S, Ray P.K.,
Effect of exposure to toxic gas on the population of Bhopal: Part II
- Respiratory Impairment, Ind. J Exp.Biol.,26:161-164.
15.Patel, M.M., Kolhatkar, V.P. , Potdar, V.P., Shekhavat, K.L., Shah,
H.N. and Kamat, S.R., Methyl Isocyanate Survivors of Bhopal
sequential flow volume loop changes observed in eighteen months
follow-up, Lung India, May 1987, Vol.5, No.2, pp 59-65.
16.Saxena A.K., Singh K.P, Nagle S.L., Gupta B.N., Ray P.K., Srivastav
R.K., Tewari S.P., Singh R, Effect of exposure to toxic gas on the
population of Bhopal: Part IV Immunological and
chromosomal^
Studies, Ind.J.Exp Biol., 1988; 26: 173-176.
W
17.Gupta B.N, Rastogi, S.K., Chandra H, et al, Effect of exposure to
toxic gas on the population of Bhopal: Part I- Epidemiological,
Clinical, Radiological and Behavioural studies., Ind J Exp Biol;
1988, Vol 2&, pp 149-160.
18.Mehta P.S, Mehta A.S, Mehta S.J, Makhijain A.B, Bhopal
Tragedy's Health Effects:
A review of methyl isocyanate
toxicity, JAMA, Dec 5, 1990, Vol 2264, No.21, pp 2781 - 2787.
Koplan
19.
P.K, Falk H, Green G, Public Health Lessons from the Bhopal
chemical disaster, JAMA, Dec 5, 1990, Vol 264, No.21, pp 2795-2796.
20.Andersson N, Long term effects of methyl isocyanate, Lancet,
3, 1989, pp 1259.
June
21.Jana S, Phadke A, Sadgopal M., A preliminary outline of a pilot
model of a comprehensive health care for the gas victims, Medico^
Friend Circle, Mimeo.
22.Medico Friend Circle, Communication Strategy in
Friend Circle, 1985, Mimeo.
Bhopal,
Medico
9Y
Shri Shivanaqouda Oodamani, NLSIU, 8anqalore-560 072.
om
7; 7
The Problem Stated;
The rapid increase in the use of chemical pesticides has been found
The
to be very hazardous both at the loyal of manufacture and use.
Bhopal tragedy exposed the dangers of pesticides at the level of
manufacture because 400D people were killed and another 200,000
people AJre suffering disabilities by the leakage of tonic gas
Hethyl-iso-Cyonide. (1) At ths level of application, exposure to
chemicals is most common among these working in farming. (2) As a
result on an average approximately 8000 farm-workers are being killed-
(3) in the fields of India due to pesticide poizoning.
This shows
that there is inherent danger in the use of chemical pesticides.
further U.S based pesticides Trust-Club in its 1993(Feb) report has
warned India that agricultural fields in cottongrowing areas of
Andhra Pradesh and elsewhare have become harvests of death.(4) The
noted Scientist Vandana Shina opines that usa of pesticides in India
by our farm-workers have become literally suicidal in nature.(3)
Scientists have found that most of the Organo-Phosphates like
Parathion, Malathion, etc is degrades and releases substances which
are more tonic than the parent compound when absorbed through the
human skin.
Moreover they remain on the leaves and branches as
'’dislodgeable residue4' for much longer periods.
In otherwords
tolerance levels set by law to protect consumers faile
workers from exposure to foliage
to protect
soil and other sources.
The other
side of the problem is that developed countries are not willing to
accept the principle of ’’prior-informal consent''(6) in the export of
pesticides to the developing and under-developed countries.(7) From
this one can say authoritatively that the real problem is inadequate
information about the safety parameters of pesticides.
This is the
problem of the whole world and it is not just confined to developing
countries like India.
Becaysa of this reason the developed countries
are seriously thinking of alternatives to the pesticides. (8)
In this
context it should be noted with concern that India is using 70% of
pesticides in tonnage that are banned in other countries. (9)
This
itself shows hou in-adequately we are informed about the hazardous
nature of pesticides.
2
After the chemical pesticides began to be used in Indian
agriculture in the year 1950, the first serious incidents are
reported in the year 1958 from Kerala and Madras state (now
Tamilnadu) wherein more than 100 persons died due to consumption
of pesticide contaminated food grains.(10)
There were also cases
of person who fell seriously ill though not fatally on account
of food-poisoning in the same areas.
Subsequent to the poisoning
cases in 1958 in Kerala and Madras State, cases of food-poisoning
were also reported in 1962 in flalda and Dinjapur districts of
west Bengal and Assam respectively as a result of which 450 persons
were crippled by paralysis. (11)
Again in the year 1970 in Slalnad
area of Karnataka, there was high incidance of crippling bone
deformities and congenital abnormalities produced among the poor
harijan farm-workers.(12)
villages.(13)
By 1977 this had spread over to 40
This story may be exceptional in terms of the impact
of pesticides on people’s Health.
But it illustrates the close
relationship between the paopla and thrair environment.
This kind
of problem is being faced by other developing countries also.
(saa tabls-I).
TABLE - I.
Pesticide poisoninci episodes in developing countries
51.No.
Country
Year
Cases
01 .
Guyana
1966
88
10
flour contaminated
with Parathion.
02.
Qatar, Saudi
Arabia 4 Jamaica
1967
974
26
flour contaminated
with endris.
03.
I rag
1971-2
6000
500
Treated seed corn
consumed as food.
04.
Jamaica
1976
79
17
flour contaminated
with Parathion.
05.
Pakistan
1976
2810
5
Poor safely practice
for new pesticide in
malaria control
programmes.
06.
Indonesia
1983
169
96
Eight episodes of
poisonings from
consumption of food
(various pesticidas)
07.
Pakistan
1984
194
19
Sugar contaminated
with endria.
08.
Seirra Leone
1986
49
14
flbur contaminated
with Parathion.
Source:
Deaths ______ Comments
MHO "Our
. Oxford
n»Fr>^ri University
■ ■ -•
Delhi
1993Planet,
P-82. Our health”’
Prese,
3
- 3 -
As at present, it is found that although India uses just 2% of
World’s pesticides use, J of the poisoning cases and | at the
deaths are taking place here. (14)
The poisoning cases and deaths
due to pesticides in agricultural use at the global level are as
follows: (table-Il)
TABLE - II.
Year
Agency
JiiumBsr .■ n£
countries
Members
affected
Deaths
1972
WHO
19
5 Lakhs
5000
1977
WHO
9
-
20640
1981
OXFAM
-
750,000
21000
1985
ESCAP
-
2 Million
40000
Source: EDO GAIKSTA, "The pesticide poisoning Report”, Penang,
Malaysia, 1905 PP - 1-2.
Another mysterious and horific problem linked to poisoning and
death cases is resistance of pests to chemical pesticides.
According to the report of the WHO Commission on health and
environment since 1940’s over 1600 insect species have developed
significant resistance to major pecticides because of long-term
and non-selective use.(15)
Tha number of pests resistant to
chemical pesticides are increasing over the years with the decrease
in the doubling time as each new class of pestcides is introduced.
(See table III).
As a result there is also increase in the
number of new chemicals in the market.(See table IV).
TABLE - III.
Average
resistant
doubling
pests
(years)
DDT/Methoxy Chlor
6.3
Years
Lindane/Cyclodienes
5.0
It
76
Organ
4.0
it
1967
224
Carbomates
2.5
w
1978
392
Pyrethroids
2.0
ft
1980
432
1990
500
Year
Resistant species
Insecticide class
1938
07
194 8
14
1957
Phosphates
Source: Association Medical British, "Pesticides Chemicals and
Health". Edward Arnold London 1992 p-js.
TABLE - IV.
New Chemicals
Year
1950
1800
1970
7400
1977
12000
Source: Bull David, UA groping problem of pesticides and the
(III & third world ptior" OXFAM 1982 P-24.
IV ) ------------ --------------------Source for 1990 (resistant species) is "Global Development and
Environment crisis'
*
Sahabat Alum Malaysia 1988 P-5.
The worst cast at pest-resistance has been reported from Andra
Pradesh in the year 1987.
In this case when farmers sprayed
synthetic pyrethnids in cotton-fields the number of pests increased
and damaged 66% of crops,(16) and as a result of unbearable economic
losses many farmers committed suicide.(17)
Similar cases of pest
resistance have been reported from other parts of India also,
(see table-V).
TABLE-V.
Year
Place
1977-8
T.N. 4 Guj.
Pest
Tobacco, Cater pillar
1979-80
It
1984-86
A.P., Kar.,
T.N. 4 Maha
rashtra .
1987-88
A.P.
1992
Kar.(Gulbarga)Crop loss worth Rs.10 crores
(Un-reported)
ii
n
White fly.
Heliothis Armigere.
Source: Alagh K., Yoginder "Pesticides in Indian Agriculture",
Economic and Political Weekly, Vol.23, No.38, Sept 17
1988 P-1959.
In the field of entomology nothing is known about pest-resistance.
The entomologists simply brush it aside by saying that it is a
natural phenomenan and the only solution is to spray more and more
pesticide or new pesticide.
to one or two pesticides.
This can be done if a pest is resistant
The new trouble that has been reported
5
- 5 -
is pests are double, triple and quadruple resistant to a broad
range of pesticides greately increasing both the growth and the
magnitude of the problem of past-resistance.
The problem of pesticides is not mere increase in the number of
pesticides chemical in the market, but the million dollar question
is how safe they are?
Because the cost of testing ene chemical
ranges from 500 dollars to 5 Lakhs dollars (18) and the time
required is 2 to 6 years.(19)
Therefore most of the times pesticides
are tested not on "use-by-use" basis but only on testing its
active ingredients.
This shows that a pesticide product remains
untested until the major incidents of its harmful effects are
reported.
The other side of the problem is thatinformation given on the
label of pesticides is not usable information.
For advise about
the use of protective equipment to be usable, the equioment must be
available and within the financial reach of the agricultural
farmers.
In this regard, Thackery Committee constituted by the
Indian Council of Agricultural Research in the year 1964-65 has
clearly reported that in India there are no protective equipments
suitable to the climatic conditions.(20)
Moreover, the antidotes
mentioned on the label of the pesticides are not at all available
in the rural health clinics.
As a result the doctors refuse to
handle pesticide poisoning cases.
As far as symptoms of pesticide poisoning are concerned, it is
very difficult to Identify immediately, specially for Organo
phosphates and Carbamates.
For instance, at the time of Bhopal
tragedy many people died, because doctors could not differentiate
between the symptoms of ammonia and methyl-iso-cyanide poisoning.
It indicates that science is much ahead of technology about which
there is no adequate information.
Hence, this problem of chemical
pesticides which are considered essential in agriculture, calls for
an effective solution to protect the health of poor farm workers
who are supposed to be back bone of agricultural development.
Reprinted from Annals of Allergy. Vol. 55, Number 3, September 1985
a communication from India
PREVALENCE OF OCCUPATIONAL ASTHMA IN
SILK FILATURES
N. HARINDRANATH. PhD: OM PRAKASH, MD. FCCP
:
*
and
P. V. SUBBA RAO, PhD
A clinical survey in two silk filatures revealed that 36.2% ofthe persons engaged
in the processing of natural silk were suffering from bronchi#/ asthma, while
16.9% ofthe total subjects had asthma of occupational origin. Skin prick tests
using crude silkworm cocoon and pupal allergen extracts revealed that 28.8% of
the subjects were sensitive to the silkworm-derived allergens. IgE antibodies spe
cific to both cocoon and pupal allergens were demonstrable by RAST in the sera of
patients with positive skin reactions and occupational asthma.
Introduction
_
Sericulture, the production of silk is,an impor
tant industry in Italy. Japan. India. Thailand, and a few
other Asian countries. It has been known’for a long
time that persons engaged in the process of silk manu
facture are at risk to develop bronchial asthma believed
to be allergic in nature. Although there are a few reports
regarding the incidence of occupational asthma in ser
iculture from Japan.|_<’ no information is available from
India pertaining to this problem. Further, the prevalence of this syndrome, the source and chemical nature
of the offending agent(s), immunologic mechanism of
the disease, and possible modes of treatment remain to
be elucidated. Hence, studies were undertaken to deter
mine the prevalence of occupational asthma among
workers in silk filatures, the results of which arc pre
sented in this communication.
Materials and Methods
Materials
Polysorbate 20 and histamine disphosphate were
from Sigma Chemical Co. St. Louis. MO. USA. Milli
pore filters (0.45 p) were purchased from Millipore
Corporation. Bedford. MA. USA. Munktell's Swedish
filter paper OOH (SI-80-40) was from Grycksbo. Papersbork AB. Grycksbo. Sweden. Round-bottomed dis
posable polystyrene tubes (8 x 60 mm) and LT/35
From the Allergy and Applied Immunology Laboratory. Department of
Biochemistry. Indian Institute of Science. Bangalore-560 012. India.
• St. Martha's Hospital. Bangalore-560 001. India.
VOLUME 55. SEPTEMBER. 1985
polythene press-on stoppers were obtained from Luck
ham Limited, Victoria Gardens, Burgess Hills. Sussex.
England. Phadebas RAST reagents were purchased
from Pharmacia Diagnostics AB, Sweden. Silicone 21R
Emulsion was purchased from Metroark Private Lim
ited. Calcutta. India. All the other reagents used were
of analytic grade available commercially.
Stages ofSilk Processing
The silkworm cocoons received at the filatures from
the surrounding villages are sorted out by hand in the
'cocoon-sorting' section. This section employs only
women. Prior to storage, cocoons are steamed (to kill
the pupae) in the 'steaming' section predominantly by
women. The steamed cocoons are then boiled for three
minutes in small trays containing water which is heated
by steam. This is called the 'boiling' section. The boiled
cocoons are then floated in trays of warm water (about
40 °C) and the threads are rolled over reels. The boiling
and reeling sections also employ only females who are
exposed to an atmosphere contaminated with silkworm
derived materials. The reeled thread is then transferred
to the 'skeining' section which involves rearrangement
of the reeled threads. Further, the processed silk is either
transferred to the 'weaving' section or transported to
factories for the production of silk fabric. Throughout
this process, no chemicals are added.
Subjects
Persons employed at two silk filatures in South India
(Kollegal and Kanakapura) were subjected to clinical
examination and allergy skin tests.
OCCUPATIONAL ASTHMA — HARINDRANATH ET AL
Sera
Blood samples were collected from subjects with
positive skin reactions to crude silkworm allergen ex
tracts (cocoon/pupal) as well as from control subjects
with negative prick skin reactions and without atopic
history. Serum was separated and stored at —20 °C.
Clinical Examination
A brief questionnaire was used to obtain information
regarding the type and duration of work, details of
respiratory’ symptoms, history' of asthma during child
hood. and familial predisposition to atopy. Particular
attention was given to elicit the history of absence of
wheezing episodes while the subject was away from the
work as well as recurrence of asthma upon resumption
of the work at the silk filature.
•
Preparation ofAntigens for Prick Skin Tests
Allergen extract from silkworm cocoons. The outer
layers of silkworm cocoons were peeled out and im
mersed in boiling water for 20 minutes. This resulted
in the extraction of the soluble protein component
(sericin) and other substances leaving behind the insol
uble fibroin or the silk thread. The hot aqueous extract
was filtered aseptically under suction, cooled and ly
ophilized.
The freeze-dried powder (100 mg) was dissolved in 2
mL of sterile 100 mM sodium phosphate buffered
saline. pH 7.4, by gentle heating. The clear solution
obtained after centrifugation at 20.000 x g for 20 min
was mixed with an equal volume of sterile glycerine to
give a 1:40 (wt/vol) allergen extract, which was used in
skin prick tests.
Allergen Extract from Silkworm Pupae. Silkworm
pupae (day 5) separated from the cocoons (50 g) were
immersed in liquid nitrogen and crushed to a fine
powder in a mortar with a pestle. Water was added to
the powder and mascerated till it formed a slurry and
squeezed through a two-layered muslin cloth. Four
volumes of chilled acetone were added to one volume
of the extract and after stirring, the mixture was filtered
through a Whatman No. 3 filter paper under suction.
The residue was washed several times with chilled ace
tone and finally with chilled peroxide-free diethyl ether.
The resultant powder was dried in vacuo and stored dry'
in an airtight container at -20 °C until further use.
Acetone-dried powder of the pupae (1 g) was stirred
for two hours at room temperature with 20 mL of 100
mM sodium phosphate buffered saline. pH 7.4. The
slurry’ was centrifuged at 20.000 x g for 15 minutes.
The crude extract thus obtained (1:20. wt/vol) was filter
sterilized and used for prick skin tests after diluting
with an equal volume of sterile glycerine to give a 1:40
(wt/vol) extract.
Prick Tests
Skin prick tests were performed on 243 workers in
silk filatures, mostly females (over 90%) in the age
group of 20 to 45 years, including subjects suffering
from seasonal, perennial, or occupational asthma as
well as on 30 control subjects who did not have any
history' of bronchial allergy. Prick skin tests were per
formed on the volar surface of the forearm of the
subjects using cocoon and pupal allergen extracts (1:40.
wt/vol). Sterile glycerinated buffered saline and sterile
glycerinated histamine solution (1 g/L. wt/vol. in buff
ered saline) served as negative and positive controls.
respectively. Results were read after 15 to 20 minutes.
A wheal greater than 3 mm in diameter over the nega
tive control was considered as a positive response.
Quantitation of Silkworm Allergen-specific IgE by Radioallergosorbant Test (RAST)
Silkworm allergen-specific IgE in the sera of subjects
was measured by RAST. Filter paper discs of 5 mm
diameter punched from Munktell's Swedish filter paper
OOH were activated with CNBr and crude allergen
extracts of silkworm cocoons and pupae in 100 mM
NaHCOj (pH 8.3) were coupled to the activated discs
according to the procedure of Ceska and Lundkvist.7
Assuming an uniform coupling, the amount of protein
bound to the discs was 67.5 and 27.3 /tg/disc for cocoon
and pupal allergen extracts, respectively. The allergen
coupled paper discs were stored in RAST incubation
buffer (50 mM sodium phosphate buffer, pH 7.9, con
taining 0.9% NaCl, 0.3% human serum albumin.
05% sodium azide, and 0.5% polysorbate 20) at 4 °C
0.
until use. The phadebas RAST components excluding
allergen discs were obtained from Pharmacia Diagnos
tics. The RAST procedure using silkworm allergen discs
and suitably diluted sera was performed according to
the instructions enclosed with the reagents. The results
of RAST are expressed as the percentage of total counts
(T) of added radiolabeled anti-human IgE bound (B) to
the allergen disc (B/T x 100).
Statistical analysis of the data was done by the
method of Snedecor and Cochran.8 Student's t test was
employed to compare the means between two samples.
The corresponding P values were obtained from Fish
ers’ tables.’
Results
Prevalence ofAsthma
Out of 400 workers employed in two silk filatures,
243 were randomly selected to study the prevalence of
occupational asthma. The information obtained from
the questionnaire revealed that 36% of the workers
were suffering from asthma of varying severity, which
required regular medication, often with corticosteroids.
The prevalence of asthma among workers in various
sections of the filatures is shown in Table 1. Based on
the observation that the workers were free from asth
matic symptoms while away from work with exacer
bation upon resumption of the occupation. 16.9% of
the total subjects (as shown in Table 1) could be clini
cally categorized as having occupational asthma. From
the data it is clear that persons working in various
ANNALS OF ALLERGY
OCCUPATIONAL ASTHMA — HARINDRANATH ET AL
T able 1. Prevalence of Asthma among Workers in Silk Filature
Number of
Persons Ex
amined
Occupation
Sorting
Boiling
Reeling
Skeining
Supervising
Others
Total
8
44
139
12
23
243
Number of Persons Suffer
ing From
Occupa
tional
Asthma
2
9
24
_
2
Asthma
5
21
45
i
3
13
88
(36.2%)
A
41
(16.9%)
Table 2. Prick Skin Test Reactions to Silkworm-Derived Allergens'
Skin Test Reaction
Negative •
Positive
Number of Subjects
______________ A_____________
'Cocoon
Pupal
Both Cocoorr
Allergen Allergen
and Pupal
Alone
Alone
Allergen
11
6
173
(71.2%)
11
6
53
(4.5%)
(2.5%)
(21.8%)
• n = 243
Table 3. Correlation Between Clinical Manifestation and Skin Test
Reaction'
Prick Skin Test Reaction
Clinical
Manifestation
Nil (Control)
Asthma
a. Seasonal/
perennial
b. Occupa
tional
Total
Number of '
Positive
Negative
Subjects
PerPerTested
Number centage Number centage
155
16
Tested
10.3 ~
47
25
53.1
41
29
70.7
12
29.3
243
70
28.8
173
71.2
Tested
139
89.7
22
46.9
' The association between clinical manifestation and presence of skin
reaction was found to be significant by chi-square test (0.1%).
sections of the filatures were suffering from asthma of
occupational origin.
Skin Test Results
Prick skin tests were performed with crude extracts
of silkworm cocoons and pupae (1:40, wt/vol) on all
the randomly selected filature workers (n = 243) as well
as on 30 control subjects from the urban population
who had no chance of having been exposed to silk
filature environment. While none of the persons from
the control group elicited positive reactions to silkworm
allergens, it is apparent from the results summarized in
Table 2, that 21.8% of the persons employed in silk
filatures responded positively to both cocoon and pupal
allergens. The number of subjects who gave positive
reactions to only one of the two allergens was not very
significant. Hence, in all the subsequent analyses, re
sponse to either or both the allergens was taken as a
positive response. From the data presented in Table 3
VOLUME 55. SEPTEMBER. 1985
it can be seen that, in contrast to 10.3% of the filature
workers without any clinical manifestations. 53.1 % and
70.7% of the subjects suffering from seasonal/perennial
asthma (n = 47) and occupational asthma (n = 41)
respectively, gave positive skin reactions to silkworm
allergens. Significant number of individuals engaged in
different types of work in the silk filatures reacted
positively to the silkworm-derived allergens (Table 4).
The data presented in Tables 3 and 4 were found to be
statistically significant by chi-square analysis. Though
a direct relationship between the type of work and skin
reactivity could not be established, it is striking that a
higher percentage (52.2%) of subjects engaged in the
process of boiling the cocoons were sensitized to silkworm-derived allergens.
Determination oj Allergen-specific IgE
Allergen-specific IgE to crude extracts of silkworm
cocoons and pupae were determined in the sera of 15
filature workers with history' of occupational asthma
and ten Tiormal subjects prick tested with the crude
allergen extracts (Table 5). Sera of the asthmatic pa
tients contained allergen-specific IgE to both the silkworm-derived allergens as evidenced by a higher per
centage of binding of anti-lgE labeled with iodine 125,
when compared with that obtained for the control
samples.
Discussion
Out of the two stages associated with the production
of natural silk. viz. cultivation of silkworms and proc
essing of raw silk, attention in the present study was
focused on asthma associated with the latter occupa
tion. Persons engaged in silk filatures are constantly
exposed to silkworm-derived substances. Sensitization
of individuals by inhalation of airborne antigens that
originate from silkworm cocoons and pupae could oc
cur during their occupation.
A random clinical survey revealed that 36% of the
total workers were suffering from asthma characterized
by cough, tightness of the chest, and wheezing. It is
apparent from the clinical history' that 16.9% of the
total subjects suffered from asthma of occupational
Table 4. Skin Test Reactions to Silkworm Allergens in Persons
from Different Occupations in Silk Filatures
Occupation
Sorting
Boiling
Reeling
Skeining
Supervising
Others
Total
Subjects with Positive
Skin Reactions
Number of
Subjects
Tested
'Number
8
44
139
17
12
23
243
2
23
37
2
3
3
70
25.0
52.2
26.6
11.7
25.0
13.0
28.8
Analysis of the data by Chi-square test revealed that there is an
association between job description and prevalence of skin reactivity
(5%).
OCCUPATIONAL ASTHMA — HARINDRANATH ET AL
Table 5. Determination of Silkworm Allergen-Specific IgE by RAST in the Sera of Patients
Subjects
Number
... _
Normal
Asthmatics
15'
Allergen-specific IgE Antibodies (B/T x 100) to Crude Ex
tracts of
A__________
' Cocoons (mean + SD)
Pupae (mean ± SD)
Prick Test Reaction
______
A_________
Cocoon Al Pupal Aller
lergen
gen
-ve
-ve
+ve
+ve
2.26 ± 1.20
(range = 0.21 to 4.5)
13.99 ± 8.8
(range = 2.0 to 28.9)
P< .01
2.16+1.34
(range = 0.8 to 4.5)
11.80 ± 7.37
(range = 2.0 to 26.58)
P< .01
' Out of the 15 samples analysed for allergen-specific IgE. 13 and 12 respectively, had values more than the mean control value for cocoon
and pupal allergens.
origin. These patients were free from clinical symptoms
while away from their occupation for prolonged pe
riods.
Among workers in the silk filatures, asthma was
prevalent in subjects from different occupations (sort
ing, steaming, boiling, reeling, and skeining). Occupa
tional asthma however, was found to be more pro
nounced in subjects from sorting, boiling, and reeling
sections (Table I).
Prick skin tests are widely used in the diagnosis of
type I hypersensitivity.'011 They were successfully em
ployed in the diagnosis of occupational asthma precip
itated by various offending agents.12-18 In the present
study, prick skin tests using crude allergen extracts
derived from silkworm cocoons and pupae revealed
that 28.8% of the total subjects screened responded
positively to either or both of the antigens. Among
asthmatics (seasonal/perennial or occupational) in the
study group, a significant number of the subjects re
acted positively to the silkworm-derived allergens. In
the case of some of the persons suffering from seasonal/
perennial asthma, it is likely that silkworm allergens, in
addition to the other offending agents, may also con
tribute to their clinical symptoms. Although no direct
relation could be established between the type of-work
in the filatures and skin reactions, it was observed that
52.2% of the subjects engaged in the boiling of cocoons
elicited positive skin reactions (Table 4). In the boiling
section, it is likely that the workers could have been
exposed to an environment contaminated with the
substances from silkworm cocoons and pupae carried
with steam and splashed water (aerosol) during the
processing of silk. This could perhaps account for the
higher degree of sensitization among the individuals in
this group. Sensitization of individuals, however, could
occur at more than one stage in the processing of silk.
Furthermore, it is possible that a given worker could
have been exposed at different times to the various
processes of silk manufacture. It may be pointed out
that these persons work in an environment generally
contaminated with airborne fragments from unpro
cessed cocoons carrying the allergenic constituents. In
addition, the dried parts of the pupae piled in the
filatures could also contribute to the etiology of asthma.
Allergy skin tests reveal the presence of reaginic
antibodies in the skin. It has been demonstrated that
when epicutaneous tests are negative, the presence of
reaginic antibodies is unlikely.19 Specific IgE antibodies
have been demonstrated in the sera of individuals suf
fering from asthma of different occupational origins.12'14'20'23 In the present study, it was observed that
sera of the skin test positive patients with occupational
asthma had significant levels of specific IgE as evaluated
by RAST for both cocoon (13.99 ± 8.8) and pupal
(11.8 ± 7.37) allergens. A 50% to 60% correlation has
been reported between skin tests and RAST for pollen
allergens.24-28 In the present study, however, there was
86% and 80% correlation between skin test reaction
and RAST for cocoon and pupal allergens, respectively.
The present studies demonstrate that 16.9% of persons
engaged in the processing of silk in India develop '
asthma of occupational origin mediated by specific IgE
antibodies.
Acknowledgments
The authors thank the authorities and the workers of
the silk filatures at Kollegal and Kanakapura for the
permission and cooperation to carry out the studies.
This work was supported by a grant to PVS from the
Department of Science and Technology. Government
of India.
References
Kobayashi S: Different aspects of occupational asthma in Japan.
in Frazier CA (cd): Occupational Asthuia, New York. Van Nos
trand Reinhold Co. 1975. p 231
Sato Y. Kobayashi S. Shiehijo K: Studies on bronchial asthma.
caused by inhalation of dust from “Mabushi" (equipment used
for mounting silkworms) — clinical studies on “Mabushi" bron
chial asthma. Jap J Allergy 1968:17:610.
3.
Kobayashi S. Nakazawa T. Yoshida S: Antigenic substances of
bronchia! asthma related to sericulture. 2. Cross antigenicity
between silkworms and ordinary moths. Jap J Allergy
1971:20:694.
4.
Kobayashi S. Nakasawa T, Yoshida T. et al: A study on antigenic
substances of asthma in sericulture. Pan 3. Jap J Allergol
1972:21:107.
5.
Inasawa M. Horikoshi K, Tomioka S. et al: A study of bronchial
asthma related to silkworm culturing. Jap J Allergol 1973:22:142.
6.
Tadani S, Tomioka S. Furukawa M. et al: A study of bronchial
asthma due to silkworm. Jap J Allergol 1974:23:100.
7.
Ceska M. Lundkvist U: A new and simple radioimmunoassay
method for the determination of IgE. Intmunocheniistry
1972:9:1021.
X. Snedecor GW. Cochran WG: Statistical .Methods, cd 6. Calcutta,
Oxford and IBH Publishing Co. 1967. p 593.
9. Fisher RA. Yates F: Statistical Tables lor Biological. Agricultural
1.
2.
ANNALS OF Al.LERGY
OCCUPATIONAL ASTHMA — HARINDRANATH ET AL
anhydride asthma: Evidence for specific IgE antibody. J Allergy
and Medical Research, ed 6. Edinburough. Oliver and Boyd,
Clin Immunol 1983:71:5.
1963. p 46.
Kramps JA. Van Toorcncnbcrgcn AW, Vooren PH. et al: Oc
10.
Slavin RG: Skin tests in the diagnosis ofallergies of the immediate 21.
cupational asthma due to inhalation of chloramine T: II. Dem
type. Med Clin N Am 1974:58:65.
onstration
of specific IgE antibodies. Ini Arch Allergy Appl Im
11.
Lessof MH. Buisseret PD. Merrell J. el al: Assessing the value of
munol 1981:64:428.
skin prick tests. Clin Allergy 1980:10:115.
22.
Malo J. Cartier A. Docpncr M, et al: Occupational asthma caused
12.
Baur X. Fruhmann: Papains induced asthma: diagnosis by skin
by nickel sulphate. J Allergy Clin Immunol 1982:69:55.
tests. RAST, and bronchial provocation tests. Clin Allergy
23.
Cromwell O, Pepys J, Parish WE, et al: Specific IgE antibodies
1979:9:75.
to platinum salts in sensitized workers. Clin Allergy 1979;9:107.
13.
Burge PS. Edge G. O’Brien IM. el al: Occupational asthma in a 24.
Apold J, Havnen J, Hvatum M, et al: The radioallergosorbant
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test (RAST) in the diagnosis of reaginic allergy. Clin Allergy
14.
Hartmann AL. Waller H. Wuelhrich B: Occupational allergic
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asthma to the pectolylic enzvme pectinase. Schweiz Med Woch25.
Berg T, Johansson SGO: Allergy diagnosis with the radioaller
ensehr 1983:113:265'
gosorbant lest. A comparison with the result of skin and provo
cation tests in selected group of children with asthma and hay
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Bourne MS. Flindt MLH. Walker JM: Asthma due to industrial
fever.
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Rappaport 1. de Ponce D, Sogn D. et al: On the correlation
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Zeiss CR. Falleroni AE. Levitz D: Occupational asthma second
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Reddy PM. Nagaya H, Pascual HC. el al: Reappraisal of intra- Allergy & Applied Immunology Laboratory
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Howe W. Venables KM. Popping MD, et al: Tetrachlorophthallic Bangalore-560 012, India
VOLUME 55. SEPTEMBER. 1985
Printed in U.S./
7 ' io
GENETIC EFFECTS IN AREAS OF HIGH NATURAL BACKGROUND RADIATION
VT Padmanabhan,
AP Sugunan,
CK Brahmaputhran,
IN KERALA
AP Suresan
7 <1
Centre
for Industrial Safety and
Environmental
Concerns, Kollam, 691 013, Kerala, India
<5 UIl-oaJ
I «/£> > A
Abstract
A cross sectional epidemiological survey has been.carried out among
70,000
people
living
in *7 coastal villages of Kollam and Alapuzha
districts -of
Kerala, India.
38,000 people living in the Kollam villages are exposed
to
a
high natural background radiation emanating from the thorium deposit
in
the
beach
sand.
The objective of the study was to see if
there
is
any
difference
in
prevalence of genetic and congenital
anomalies
among
the
radiation exposed people.
to
3000
more
or
The
external
gamma
activity in the study area ranged from
300
millirem/yr
(Mean
exposure 600 jnr/yr).
The control areas had a
less uniform activity with a mean reading of 116 mr/yr.
The
results show that the prevalence of genetic disorders
and
congenital
anomalies
is
higher
among
the exposed
people.
This
includes
Down's
syndrome,
deafmutism,
mental
retardation
cleft
lip,
congenital
blindness,
etc.
The number of childless couples is also higher among
the
exposed people.
Prevalence
of all the mutable diseases among the unexposed people
in
the
present
study
is considerably lower than that of the
Western
countries.
The
unusually
low
maternal age in Kerala today and
the
relatively
low
concentration of environmental mutagens seem to be responsible for this.
INTRODUCTION.
In 1957, the World Health Organisation convened a meeting of geneticists to
take
stock
of the knowledge of radiation induced
genetic
hazards
among
humans.
The
human
data were scanty and
the
experts
were
unanimously
recommended the creation of such a data base (l).AR Gopal Ayengar,the
Indian
representative
from the Atomic Energy Establishment,
(Now
Bhabha
Atomic
Research Centre -BARC) Bombay suggested the possibility of
a
long
term
epidemiological
study
among people living in
coastal
villages
of
Kollam
district
of Kerala, India. These villages have a rich
deposit
of
monazite which contains thorium and uranium and hence a higher than
normal background radiation also.
Besides
Kollam
on the West coast, there are monazite rich strips
on
the
East
coast
also, in Kanyakumari and Ganjam districts of
Tamil
Nadu
and
Drissa
respectively.
Over
200,000
people
live
on
the
Indian
High
Background
Radiation Regions (HBRR).
Comparable control populations
also
exist in the contiguous coastal villages.
In
1959,
another
WHO committee discussed the outlines
prospective epidemiological study at the Kerala HBRR. (2)
Paper presented at the
Indo—US Symposium,
of
a
Delhi on 4-3^ to 5-3
*
CI SEC
long
90
term
Even
today,
risk estimates of radiation caused genetic disorders
by
the
United
Nations
Scientific
Committee
on
Effects
of
Atomic
Radiation
(UNSCEAR) (3) and
the United States
National
Academy
of Sciences'
Committee on Biological Effects of Ionising Radiation (BEIR)
(4) are
based on animal data.
The detailed study proposed
by
WHO in
Kerala HBRR
has
not
been undertaken so far.
Findings
of
the
summarised below:
two
earlier small scale
studies
at
Kerala
HBRR
are
AR Ayengar et.al
In
the
late
sixties,
AR Ayengar and
colleagues
of
BARC
dosimetric
and
demographic survey in the coastal villages of
Alapuzha in Kerala, details of which are given below s
conducted
a
Koi lam
and
1.
Dosimetry.
External
exposure was
measured
with
thermoluminiscence
dosimeters
(TLD)
distributed among 8513 inhabitants, belonging
to
three
occupational groups - (a) employed outside the area of residence (including
students),
(b) wholly employed in the villages
(including
housewives)and
(c)
fishermen.
TLDs were also placed in 2374 houses also.
The
devices
were retrieved after 60 days (5). Readings reported for
one
village
Chavara is given below
(table I.)
Table
I
Occupation wise exposure in Chavara Village
Group of
population
Employed outside the area of residence
including school going children
Totally employed in the area of residence
such as housewives and others staying in
the area
Fishermen
House radiation
Annual dose rate!
960 mr
891 mr
887 mr
898 mr
!
!
,!
!
!
!
1
Source
: VV Kulkarni et.al. 1973, Distribution of
natural
radio-activity
and
trace elements in the soils and sands from the high radiation
coastal
belt of India, BARC report No : 702 page 9.
The
report
does not
mention of the measures adopted to ensure
that
the
people did wear the TLD throughout the study period.
The dose received
by
those
employed outside the area of residence is considerably
higher
than
those
spending all their time in and around their residences.
Similarly,
the exposure to fishermen who spend more than a fifth of their time in
the
sea
(
@
8 hours x 200 days) where the only dose component
is
from
the
cosmic rays (approx. 40 mrad yr) is only 17. lesser than category (b) above.
This anomaly has not been explained.
2.
Demographic
Survey.
The demographic survey was carried
out
by
the
Bureau
of Economics and Statistics of the Government of Kerala.
Fertility
and
mortality information were sought from 2420 mothers aged 45 and
above
in different exposure groups.
In the report presented at the International
CI SEC
Atomic Energy Agency meeting at Geneva in 1970., Ayengar et.al observed that
(abortion',
still
births,
there
was
no
difference in fertility indices
gross
abnormalities
among
infant
mortality
and
fertility rates)
and
different exposure groups. (6)
The study suffers from the following weaknesses!
(a)
Exposure
Categorisation.
The dosimetric study mentioned
above
did
reveal
wide
variation
in exposure between villages
due
to
non—uniform
concentration of monazite.
Exposure categorisation by Ayengar was based on
dose
received during the survey and no allowance was given for
migration.
The
genetically
significant
dose (GSD) being
the
exposure
during
the
fertile
period,
a
woman born in a low background
radiation
region
and
married
into
a higher one would have received a considerably
lower
dose
than her neighbor born and married in to same area.
Parish records for the
past six decades scanned by us show that 407. of the Christian women married
into HBRR were born in normal radiation regions.
(b)
Paternal Exposure.
The authors did not consider the dose received by
husbands pleading that "it would be considerably lower than that of wives".
If
one goes by the dosimetric data reproduced above, the dose received
by
those employed outside and fishermen is not considerably lower than that of
their
wives.
Secondly, the dose received by a man born and living in
the
high
dose
area would be more than that of his wife born in a
lower
dose
region. Thirdly, fathers' age is some five to seven years higher than
that
of mothers.
Finally, ignoring the paternal dose, even if it lower than the
maternal one,
is untenable.
According to genetic hypothesis, paternal and
maternal
exposures act in opposite direction in the case of sex
ratio
of
the offsprings. (7)
(c)
Gross Abnormalities.
There was no medical doctor in the
study.
In
the
paper presented at the IAEA Conference, data for
gross
abnormalities
are
presented with no definition of what these abnormalities are.
In
two
subsequent
papers
presented by the same authors and SD Soman,
the
term
‘gross abnormalities'is replaced by ‘congenital abnormalities'.(8,9).
(d)
Infant Mortality Rate (IMR).
A mean IMR of 184 [range
136-309]
was
observed
in
all exposure groups by Ayengar and colleagues.
The
authors
say: "it is observed that values obtained are slightly in excess of
145.9,
a
figure estimated by the Indian National Survey for rural areas of
India
in 1963.
A more recent estimate based on data of continuous enumeration on
annual
samples
in 1968 gives an IMR of only 111 for the
whole
country."
The
higher rate of IMR obtained in the study area is explained away
thus:
"such
high
values are recorded in other parts of India,
notably
in
the
state of Uttar Pradesh in northern India".
The above statement is full
at them one by one.
of mistakes and misunderstandings.
Let us look
[a] IMR in all India (rural) in 1968 was not 111, but 138.
The lowest rate
obtained during the sixties and seventies was 129 in 1978 as per the sample
registration
system. (10). Since the authors do not quote the source
for their statistics, we cannot even verify its correctness.
CI SEC
Cb]
IMR in India differs from state to state.
1982 - 84 was 31, as against 105 for All India
existed in earlier decades as well.
IMR in Kerala state
during
(11).
This difference
[c]
The
data obtained by Ayengar et.al are not comparable with
the
rate
published by
the Registrar General in 1963 or 1968. The former
represents
the
mortality experience of children born through 1940s to 1960s to
women
aged
45 and above during the survey.
The Registrar General's figures
are
for
children
born in those particular years.
During the
above
decades,
there was a steep decline in infant mortality in Kerala as well as India.
Cd] In the decades of forties, fifties and sixties, IMR in Kerala were 150,
120 and 74 respectively.The average for the period works out to 115(12).
Rates
observed
by Ayengar et.al. among the radiation
exposed
people
is
considerably
higher
than
the
background
rate
for
Kerala.
Is
this
difference due to the the higher radiation exposure?
Kochupillai et.al.
In the first ever human health survey
of HBRR people at Chavara-Neendakara
villages
in
Kerala
N
Kochupillai
et.al
reported
a
statistically
significant
difference
in prevalence of Down's syndrome,
severe
mental
retardation
and
chromosome aberration at Chavara — Neendakara (13).
Details of the study are given in table II.
Table
II
Kochupillai et.al's Findings.
Study population
(12,918)
Total
per 1000
Type
Genetic
Down's Syndrome
Control
Total
population
(5,938)
per 1000
0
0.00
12
0.93
SMR with physical
anomalies
12
0.93
1
0.17
Idiopathic SMR
11
0.90
3
0.50
Chromosomal
Aberrations(Z)
Source : Kochupilai N,
Vol. 262 July, 1976
0.2
1.9
Verma
IC,
Grewal
MS and Ramalingaswami V
Nature
K Sundaram pointed out that the higher frequency observed in HBRR is due to
differences in demographic indices like fertility and mortality rates.(14)
For
proving
this
point, demographic rates for
All
India
were
quoted.
Fertility among women above 35 years and infant mortality in Kerala in
the
sixties
and
seventies was three to four times lower than that
of
India.
This debate has been summarised elsewhere (15,16).
CISEC
Present
The
Study.
It
is in this background that a cross sectional epidemiological study
was
carried
out
in Kerala HBRR during 1988--90, preliminary results
of
which
are reported below:
The PEOPLE AND THE GEOGRAPHY.
Majority of the people living in the HBRR are traditional fisherfolk,
both
Hindus and Christians.
According to available evidence, the strip has been
inhabited
for
over
500 years.
Situated at the northern
end
of
Koi lam
district
(lat 9 to 9.5N), the radioactive strip is almost an
island
with
the Lakkadiv sea in the west and a backwater—canal system in the east.
The
region is 26 km long and 500 to 2000 meters wide.
38,000 people living
in
the
coastal
strip of 4 revenue villages - Alappat, Panmana,
Chavara
and
Neendakara
with a background radiation level ranging from 300
to
3000
millirem
form the exposed population in this study.
32,000
people
drawn
from
fishing
villages
of
Quilon
and
Alleppey
district
Purakad,
Ambalapuzha,
Punnapra, Trikkunnapuzha and Wadi - with a normal
background
radiation
(116 mr/yr) form the control population. The study
and
control
populations
are
comparable
in
economic
status,
religion,
occupation,
consanguinity, marital status etc.
METHODOLOGY
1.
Dosimetry.
Radiation
level was measured with a portable gamma counter, calibrated
at
Saitama
University,
Tokyo before the beginning of the survey and
at
the
Department of physics, Calicut university subsequently.
Measurements
were
obtained
from
10
cms and 1000 cms above ground.
The
entire
strip
was
divided
into
rectangles
of
500 x 250 mtrs and
house
numbers
in
each
rectangle recorded.
Measurements were taken at the corners, and at
random
points distributed uniformly. The grid was superimposed on the geographical
map of the area and isolines were drawn (Figure I). The arithmetic mean
of
the recordings for each panchayat and the whole of the study area are given
in table III.
Table
III
Average gamma exposures
Panchayat
Number of
readings
Average dose
mrem/Year
Neendakara
213
963
Chavara
151
495
Ponmana
116
339
Alappad
212
453
Control
94
116
CISEC
Radon (Rn 222 and 220) concentration was measured from 10 dwelling
houses.
The
devices were placed on walls 2 meters above ground (90 days
exposure)
and analysed in a US laboratory.
The observed levels are not high. Due
to
the short half life of thorium progeny— Radon 220, the levels would not
be
higher than normal(17).
No
attempt
has
been made to estimate the
genetically
significant
dose
because
of the limitation of data available. This will be done at a
later
stage.
2.
Survey
Study
has
features
of
both
cross
sectional
and
retrospective
epidemiology(18). Information has been sought on point prevalence
of
diseases
which are of genetic or congenital origin. For demographic
data,
details of all past pregnancies, birth, death and migration were collected.
The
survey
was undertaken in four stages.
In the
primary
stage,
women
investigators
belonging
to the same locality trained by
us
canvassed
a
pretested schedule.
The schedule had the following sections :
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Questions about the socio-economic status of the household.
Census type information on all members of the household.
Details of in and out migrants.
Details of outcome of all pregnancies of married women.
Details
of
persons
with diseases which
are
of
congenital
genetic origin.
or
In
the
second
stage
of the
survey,
all
households
which
positively
responded to the last set of questions were visited by a nurse.
History of
disease,
symptoms,
parental
illness,
exposure
to
X
ray
and
drugs,
immunisation status etc. were collected during this stage.
The
schedule
canvassed
by
the nurse
was
scrutinised
by
the
medical
investigators.
False positives were eliminated and patients whose symptoms
and history were suggestive of genetic or congenital diseases were examined
by
the medical investigators.
Diagnosis were confirmed by post
graduates
in
medicine,
surgery,
ophthalmology,
orthopaedics,
laryngiology,
and
paediatrics.
Karyograms
are
being
made
for
all
suspected
cases
of
chromosomal anomalies.
Details of the survey are given in table IV.
Table IV
Survey details
!
!No of
Study
6000
Control
5500
by nurses
2520
2152
Investigators
1796
1487
474
318
55
40
houses surveyed
!Patients screened
ISeen
by Medical
[Seen
by specialists
(Karyograms
CI SEC
FINDINGS
1.
All
genetic and congenital diseases
There
are 510 persons suffering from
diseases of chromosomal, genetic
or
congenital
origin
among
the exposed people, as
against
347
among
the
controls.
The diseases include, Downs syndrome, mental retardation,
cleft
lip
and
palate,
congenital
heart
diseases,
congenital
blindness
and
deafness, musculoskeletal anomalies etc.(table V).
The difference
between
the
study
and control area is significant at 0.01 level.
Table V All
genetic and congenital
disease
[Down's Syndrome
[Other genetic and congenital
Diseases
[Total
Study
19
Control
5
!
490
340
[
509
345
[
(The
difference
in
the
prevalence
of
Down's
syndrome
is
significant
at
0.5 levlel, Chi square : 4.83 and
that
of
othet
genetic
and congenital anomalies significant at 0.01
level,
chi
square : 6.19)
[Note : Numbers are not final
to be confirmed ]
2.
as a few more diagnoses are
yet
Down's syndrome.
There are 19 cases of Downs syndrome(DS) in the study area as against 5
in
control
area,
which is significant at 0.5 level (Chi square
4.S3).
The
prevalence
rate is 1 in 2,000 among the radiation exposed as against 1
in
6,400
in the control area.
It may be recalled that the non-observance
of
DS
in
the
control
population
by
Kochupillai
was
attributed
to
underascertainment (19). This is not so.
There
is
no data on prevalence of DS among any Indian
population.
Rates
reported
elsewhere are:
Germany
1/10,000,
Copenhagen
1/4,000,
London
1/3,000 (20).Compared to these,prevalence in the HBRR is more or less
normal,
while
the
control
value is
considerably
lower.
Rather
than
discrepancies of ascertainment, this is due to the lower birth incidence of
DS in Kerala. (See table VI)
Table VI
Birth incidence of DS IN Kerala and elsewhere
Kerala
1 in 2080
Delhi
1
in
800
Australia
1
in
800
Source
:
Kerala,
Ref 32,
Delhi,
Ref 26,
Australia,
Ref 20.
CI SEC
Regional
differences
Stevenson et.al(21).
in birth incidence of DS has also
been
observed
by
The
doubling
dose
or the relative risk per unit
exposure
can
only
be
estimated
with
birth
incidence.
Estimation
of
the
latter
will
be
confounded by two problems — viz the higher infant and child mortality rate
in the study population and more important the higher radio—sensitivity
of
trisomic
cells.
In a study of human lymphocyte irradiated in
vitro
(160
rads single dose) Sasaki and Tonomura report that the aberration rate among
the DS is twice that of normal individuals(22).The only study by Verma
et.al on samples of normal and DS patients living in the HBRR (average dose
800 mr yr approx.) in Kerala yielded an aberration rate of 1.9% for
normal
and 3.5% for DS patients.(23) The mean age of DS patients in this study
was less than half that of the normals.
The higher rate of chromosome aberrations among the DS patients in HBRR
is
likely
to increase their mortality due to leukemia and other
diseases
in
infancy and early childhood.
If this factor is taken into account, risk of
giving
birth
to
a
DS
baby among HBRR
mothers
will
work
out
to
be
considerably
higher
than what is apparent from the
different
prevalence
rates reported above.
DISCUSSION.
The Non-spontaneity of
the
'Spontaneous'
Load.
The
prevalence of mutable diseases observed by us in the control area
and
also the birth incidence of Downs syndrome in Kerala is 3 times lower
than
the rates found in normal population in Europe and America(24,25). In
response to a WHO study reporting wide variation between countries and even
between centres in one country, Verma and Meharban Singh point out that the
incidence of Downs syndrome birth in India is not lower than that of
other
countries(26). This was done by averaging the incidences
at
various
Centres.
Since
there is a wide regional variation in
diseases
of
both
single
gene
and
multifactorial origin, aggregation
of
statistics
from
different part of the country is likely to mislead the investigator.
Some
of
the variables which are important in keeping the incidence
of
genetic
and
congenital
anomalies
in rural India at a lower
rate
are
discussed
below:
Maternal
Age
In Australia and the United Kingdom, during the fifties when major
surveys
on
incidence of Downs syndrome at birth were conducted, 40%
the
children
were
born to mothers aged 30 and above.
In Kerala today, only 6%
of
the
children are born to mothers above 30 years.
In India, this fraction is up
by a factor of four (27).
CISEC
X
ray and Other Environmental
Mutagens.
Maternal
age
apart,
there is also difference
in
exposure
to
mutagens
between
the people of developed and developing countries.
In the
fifties
medical
irradiation was growing at a high rate of 12% p.a in UK.
In
that
country, 18,000 radio pelvimetries and 86,000 obstetrical radiographs
were
done
annually in the
50s.
(28) Today, 657. of the US population are
exposed to medical irradiation
every
year. (29)
Radionuclides from
the
bomb testing,
concentration
of chemical
mutagens
in
environment,
smoking
and drinking by both sexes etc.
may also contribute to the excess
genetic
load in the developed countries.
In
India,
exposures
from all these sources
is lower. There
is
also
a
difference
between urban and rural areas. For instance, about 80%
of
our
doctors
are
working
in urban areas which has only 30%
of
the
nation's
population.
Incidentally, all the studies on congenital anomalies
which
report rates closer to that of the West were conducted in big cities.
A comparable higher prevalence of Down's syndrome has been observed in
Chinese
high background
radiation
study aIso(30).However, they did
not observe any difference in other mutational diseases.
the
BEIR V estimates the genetic risk for humans from ionsiing radiation on the
basis
of animal data. It rejects a positive finding of Downs
syndrome
in
Kerala
villages because no case was
found in the control
area.
The
National
Academy of Sciences of USA also reassures that the difference
if
any,
would
be
undetectable due to the small number
of
exposed
people.
CONCLUSION
Information
on
all
past pregnancies of 18,000 mothers
and
baptism
and
burial
records
for
the past 70 years is being subjected
to
a
detailed
analysis. The dose response relationship will also be looked into.
There are ways in which population exposure can be reduced. Verma suggested
cement flooring of the houses(31).Majority of the exposed people
are
poor,
they cannot afford this luxury . Covering the class rooms
and
play
grounds
with
normal
soil will also contribute
to
dose
reduction.
The
disabled
people
need also be given medical
relief
and
rehabilitational
services.
It is obvious that a study like this can only reveal the tip of the iceberg
of
radiation
induced
genetic load. To arrive at
a
near
accurate
dose
response
relationship,
detailed
prospective
studies
will
have
to
be
undertaken.
CI SEC
Acknowledgement.
This
study was supported by the World Council
for
the
World, Federal Republic of Germany,
Service Committee, USA.
of Churches, Geneva,
Bread
and
Unitarian
Universalist
We are grateful to all the mothers in the study and control area who shared
vital
information
about them and their family members and allowed
us
to
examine
their
children.
Dr Rosalie Bertel 1, Prof
Sadao
Ichhikawa,
Dr
Patricia Sheehan, Prof Karl Z Morgan and Prof IC Verma were kind enough
to
advise
us.
Gladius Kulothungan, Corrine Kumar
D'souza,
Prof
Dhirendra
Sharma, Dr Badal Sen Gupta and Dr Satyamala C have supported us in
various
ways.
CONSULTANTS
We
acknowledge
the consultancy services provided by
Drs.
Omana
Mathew,
FRCP,
retired
principal and professor in
paediatrics,
Medical
college,
Trivandrum,
K.Balakrishnan,
MRCP, Abdul Khadir, MD., tutor
in
medicine.
Medical
college,
Alleppey,
Girija
mohan,
MD.,
asst,
professor
in
paediatrics, MCH, Alleppey, K.M. Kuriakose, MCh. (Cardio-thoracic surgery),
P.N.Vasudevan,
D.Ortho.,
Tressa.T.Mathew,
MS.,
ophthalmologist,
ESI
Hospital,
Feroke,
J.Mohan, MS., tutor in otolaryngology,
MCH,
Alleppey,
T.A.Thankappan , MD.,D.& VD, Assocs professor in dermatology, MCH, Alleppey,
K.K.Haridas,
DM.,
Asst.
professor
in
cardiology,
MCH,
Alleppey
and
Pavithran,,MD., tutor in neurology, Medical college, Calicut.
Consultancies in statistics and software were provided by Dr.
M.sc. , and Mr. Syam.S, M.tec., respectively.
K.K.
Pillai,
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CI SEC
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to
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Kochupi1 lai.N.,
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Down's Syndrome and related abnormalities in high background radiation area
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K.Sundaram,
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p 238.
34 Suppl.
Japanese Journal
CISEC
of
1,
Huma
23.
Verma
IC.,
Kochupi1 lai.N.,
Grewal.M.S.,
Hal lick.G.R.,
Ramalingaswami.V. , (1977), Genetic Effects of High Background Radiation
Coastal
Kerala,
India, II Clinical and
Cytogenetical Studies, in
Ref
above, pp 185-186. 23.
24.
Stevenson
AC,
1961,
The
Load
of
Heriditary
Defects
Populations, Radiation Research I (Supplement) pp 306-325.
25.
Trimble.B.K and Doughty.J.H 1974, The amount of
human populations, Ann. Hum. Genet., 38;199 - 223.
26.
Verma.I.C
Lancet, May 24.
and
Government
of
27.
Registration
India,
Bulletin,
28.
Court
Brown
Radiology, in WHO,
29.
Meharban Singh,
Vol
1987,
1975,
Office of
XXI,No.1.
Registrar
in
India,
General,
in
The
Sample
Table 5.
WN, 1957, Gonad Doses From
Diagnostic
Effects of Radiation on Human Heredity,
National Academy of Sciences,
Human
hereditary diseases
Down's syndrome
the
in
in
8
USA,
1990,
BEIR- III
30.
Zufan and Luxin, 1986, An epidemiological
diseases
in
the
high
background radiation
Journal of radiation research, 27, pp 141-50.
and
Therapeutic
p 96.
Report,
pp 45.
investigation of
mutational
area
of
Yangjiang,
China,
31.
Verma.I.C., 1986 Genetic counseling and control of genetic diseases
India, in Genetic research in India, Del hi,pp21—37.
32.
George
KP», Andrews.M.J., 1989, Down's Syndrome and
Observations
Among
Newborns
from HBRR of Kerala
Coasts
Regions, AERB-CRPS-SM 1/17.
CI SEC
in
Maternal
Age
;
And
Adjoining
ay ICO
asbestos:
OH7j
the dust
that kills
COUNTERFACT NO. 5
A CED HEALTH CELL FEATURE
JULY
1983
The killer fibre had penetrated the very essence of his
being.
His cough was more painful than ever.
Each successive
breath was a harsher rasp than the previous one.
"Death’s
clutch”,
asbestosis had gripped yet another victim.
This
time it was S. Rajagopal, who joined Hindustan Ferado Limited
(HFL), as an operator in the dust-prone breaklining and clutch
facing department in 1961.
Ten years later the disease struck.
The diagnosis pronounced by the Employees State Insurance
(E.S.I.) medical team and private practioners was asthama or
bronchitis.
Put a few months later another verdict was deli
vered by the Sion Hospital authorities - asbestosis.
His pleas to the management for a thorough medical examin
ation went unheeded for a long time.
Finally the management
decided to refer him to Dr. G.G. Dave, medical inspector of
factories, (Maharashtra).
Dave’s diagnosis was "acute bron
chitis".
Unsure of Dave’s conclusion, he filed a petition to the
Chairman ‘of Turner and Newall (the transnational corporation
link in Britain), for a proper medical screening.
In the
meanwhile, his health deteriorated and the Sion Hospital au
thorities ’adviced immediate treatment.
But he resigned from
HFL,
to1collect his gratuity. Why? His wife was ill.
Rajagopal left the company but continued to fight.
He
filed a writ petition with the Bombay High Court, to set up
an ESI medical board to examine him.
The ESI board was co
nstituted and the High Court suspended the writ petition.
In a preliminary medical interview with Rajagopal, the
newly formed ESI medical board (Coimbatore) consisting of the
Dean of the Coimbatore Medical College, the superintendent of
the ESI hospital
and a cardiac therapy specialist flatly ru
led out even the remotest possibility of asthama or bronchitis,
There was no mention on their part of the nature of his ail
ment.
Rajagopal goes on to say that he even signed the papers
Asbestos derives its name from a Greek word meaning "unquen
chable” an adjective that could well describe both the propert
ies of the substance, as much as the thirst for profit that dr
ives those who organize both men and asbestos for their commer
cial use.
The Homan slaves who mined it in the Italian Alps
2000 years ago probably suffered from the same diseases as do
workers in modern factories today.
The technology may have ch
anged but ths conflict between health and profits remain.
Asbestos is a hydrous mineral silicate containing magnesium,
aluminium, iron, s-cdium and calcium.
There are about six varieties of asbestos which can be broa
dly classified into 2 main groups:
- the serpentines:
These are hydrous silicates containing mag
nesium.
The white variety of asbestos called Chrysotile belo
ngs to this group.
- the amphiboles: These are hydrous silicates chiefly containing iron and aluminium.
They also contain calcium, sodium and
magnesium.
Crocidolite or blue asbestos which is perhaps the
most dangerous variety, falls into this category.
Kinds of Asbestos
a)
Chrysotile: The most commercially used variety of asbestos
is a white, fine, silky, flexible, serpentine variety called
chrysotile (white asbestos).
It has the longest and stron
gest fibres and can be spun.
It is primarily responsible
for asbestosis.
b)
Anthophyllite: Anthophyllite like chrysotile is white and
contains magnesium.
It is brittle.
Crocidolite:
d)
It is also called blue asbestos, because of
Amosite: Amosi-te is a straight brittle fibre ranging from
light grey to pale brown in colour.
USES
OF
ASBESTOS
Asbestos has over 3000 commercial applications and is used
fo_ both domestic and industrial purposes - as pipes, insulattion boards, protective clothing, rope production, heat and
sound insulation for plant &. building structures, mattresses,
roof sheeting, brakelinings, clutch facings and several other
articles of daily use.
It is effectively integrated as a fil
ler, binder and as a reinforcing substance with other materials
like cement and rubber.
We therefore encounter asbestos on an increasing scale in
several places (see box 1) and it is not surprising that indu
strial interests insist that there is no adequate aubstitu te.
Box 1 •
The industries using asbestos. .
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
Docks and transport - handling sacks &. balls.
Asbestos factories - milling, weaving, turning, manufacturing asbestos cement sheets and pipes.
Power stations - lagging and delagging.
Iron and Steel works and other heavy engineering in
dustries - boiler furnace
insulation.
Locomotives and rail carriage building - heat and sound
insulation.
Ship building and repairing - asbestos insulation, la
gging and delagging.
Paper making - filter papers.
Manufacture of floor tiles, mats &. roofs - linoleum
and asbestos sheets.
Adhesive and plastic manufacture - used as fillers for
strengthening.
4
Automobile industry - brake shoes linings, and clutch
'
facings, insulated under the.body of oars.
Light engineering - gasket washers etc. •
Packaging manufacture.
Construction - laying of pipes and fitting of sheets
on insulation boards, asbestos spraying on walls.
Electrical engineering industry - insulation.
Insulation mattress manufacture.
Asbestos textile manufacture - safety clothes.
Chemical plants and heat treatments shops-linings of
furnances, boilers &. chimneys.
(Source: Asbestosis: A Killer
disease: Audyogik Jeevan Manch,
HOW
ASBESTOS
PROCESSED
IS
The handling and use of asbestos therefore raisestwo
problems :
1.
2.
The problem of protecting asbestos workers from a numb
of asbestos—related diseases like asbestosis and canoe
Protecting the environment from pollution and the risk
of cancer for the population.
SIGNS
*
*
*
AND
SYMPTOMS
A Dry cough.
Weight loss.
’Finger clubbing’
OF
ASBESTOSIS
- (thickening around the base of the
DIAGNOSIS
OF
ASBESTOSIS
In asbestosis, a lung-biopsy reveals a large number of asbes
tos bodies in the lung.
They appear in smears of fluid scra
ped from a lung surface.
But this is a random method of diagnosis as the severed lung
section may not contain any fibres
Radiographic appearances.
(Xray findings)
Fibrosis (rigid fibrous lung tissue) in asbestosis occurs as
a fine network in the lungs.
The network resembles ground
glass or fine cobweb.
Respiratory Functions testa.
These are tests to check the respiratory function of the
lungs but are of little value in diagnosing asbestosis in
its infancy.
A series of readings over the previous ye<«rs
must be obtained.
Loss of elasticity and rigidity of lung
tissue, and a decreased capacity for gas exchange signify
an impaired lung function.
A combined usage of these tests, together with symptom
detection will lead to a more accurate diagnosis of asbestosis
In fact, the PneumocoHosis Medical Board of the U.K. has cle
arly laid down that any worker suffering from even two of the
symptoms, of asbestosis, and has been exposed to asbestos at
work, is immediately certified as suffering from asbestosis.
(This is in sharp contrast to the situation in India, -as in
dicated in the Rajagopal case).
Asbestosis, which is time and dose related, appears two
to thirty-five years after the first exposure.
Once the di
sease sets in,it progresses even after the worker is preven
ted from further exposure.
It even paves the way- f -r lung
cancer.
The risk of contracting asbestosis is minimal below
certain exposure levels.
Smoking increases the risk of cont
racting the disease extensively.
INCIDENCE
OF
ASBESTOSIS
Recent studies from different parts of the country indicate a
high incidence of asbestosis:
In a survey of an asbestos
cement unit in faridabad, a
Central Labour Institute (CLI) researcher found) that out
of 850 workers, 58 suffered from asbestosis and 58% expe
rienced changes in the functioning of the lungs.
A similar study of 800 workers of Asbestos Cement Ltd. Bo
mbay, conducted by the National Institute of Occupational
Health, (Ahmedabad) revealed that out of 800 workers, 224
suffered from more advanced stages of asbestosis.
While
the management flatly denied these figures, the study also
noted that another 128 workers had contracted the disease
as well, although .it
had not reached the later stages.
The widespread and as yet under-reported incidence of as
bestosis is perhaps best summed up by Dr. S.R. Kamat, head of
the faculty of thoracic medicine, G;S. Medical College, Bombay,
who notes, "There is no doubt that one third of the workers
in asbestos factories are suffering from asbestosis".
Besides asbestosis, the other diseases related to asbestos
dust exposure are: pleural plaques, pulmonary tuberculosis, me*
sothelioma of the pleura and peritoneum, lung cancer and cancer
of the stomach, oesophagus, colon and rectum.
PLEURAL PLAQUES
Pleural plaques are present in asbestosis.
They appear as fib
rous scars on the external lining of the lung.
This is due to
the irritation caused by the asbestos fibres which are lodged
in the external lung lining.
Pleural plaques are nodular or
smooth.
They are composed of firm white material, which may
be seen on an X—ray if there is calcium deposition.
PULMONARY
TUBERCULOSIS
(T.B.
OF
THE
LUNGS)
Research indicates a definite association between tuberculosis
(T.B.) and exposure to asbestos dust.
In one study in the U.K.^
out of 82 patients who died of asbestosis, 36% were also suffe
ring from T.B.
MESOTHELIOMA
OF
THE
PLEURA
AND
PERITONEUM
(cancer of the membranous lining of the lung and abdomen)
Mesothelioma is a tumour occuring on the membranous lining of
different organs.
As an asbestos-related disease, it occurs on
the membranous lining of the lungs (pleura) and abdomen (perito
neum).
Pleuraland peritoneal tumours occur either alone or
together.
The following are the signs and symptoms of mesothelioma:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Breathlessness accompanied by chest pain.
Cough and blood in th: sputum.
Accumulation of straw-coloured or blood-stained fluid in the
lung's lining (pleura).
Thickening of the pleura and enlarged growths (tumours).
Lung Collapse.
Malignant cells in the lining of the lungs and abdomen.
Blue asbestos is about ten times more likely to cause mesot
helioma than the white variety, and some experts claim that just
five minutes, inhalation of blue asbestos dust can produce mesot
helioma even twenty years later.
Smoking apparently does not
increase- the risk of mesothelioma.
However, families of workers
exposed to asbestos dust from work clothes do face the risk of
this kind of cancer.
People living near asbestos factories and
mines are also in danger of contracting the disease.
This is a fatal disease.
There is no drug,
iation treatment that can cure it.
surgical or rad
LUNG
CANCER
Lung cancer is yet another asbestos related hazard and often
follows asbestosis.
It occurs in the lower lobes of the lungs.
The risk of its contraction is greatest in the workers exposed
to high levels of asbestos dust, especially in those who smoke.
The risk of contracting lung cancer is 90 times greater in smo
kers than in non-smokers.
This form of cancer was first reported by Merewether (Medical
Inspector of Factories in the U.K.) in 1947, based on a study of
235 death certificates recording asbestosis.
Other studies con
firm this.
CANCER
OF
THE
STOMACH, FOOD PIPE, LARGE INTESTINE AND RECTUM
These forms of cancer are also caused by exposure
fibres•
to asbestos
The method of diagnosis for mesothelioma and the other forms
of cancer is a biopsy.
According to an article by J. Kumar in Science Today, no case
of cancer due to asbestos has yet been notified in India.
This
can be due to the fact that asbestos workers are not followed up
after they retire and occupational histories of cancer patients
are not recorded.
In cross-sectional studies of workers, it is
difficult to find a person who is still working while suffering
from lung cancer or mesothelioma of the pleura.
There are, however, several studies confirming the widespread
occurence of mesothelioma, lung cancer and cancer of the stomach,
oesophagus, colon and rectum in the West.
INCIDENCE
OF THE
CANCERS
1.
In a study conducted by Dr. Irving J. Selikoff (Mount Sinai
School of Medicine, New York), of 632 asbestos insulation wo
rkers in New York and New Jersey between Jan 1943 and Dec.
1974, it was revealed that there were 35 deaths of mesotheli
oma - 10 pleural and 25 peritoneal.
Thera were 42 reported
deaths of lung cancer, 20 deaths of cancer of the stomach and
• food pipe and 23 deaths of cancer of the large intestine.
2.
In another study, conducted by Irving J. Selikoff, of 17,800
asbestos insulation workers in the United States and Canada
(International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators and
Asbestos Workers, AFL-CIO, CLC), between Jan 1, 1961 and Dec
31, 1973, the wide prevalence of cancer was established.
There were 36 deaths of pleural mesothelioma and 67 deaths of
peritoneal mesothelioma.
It was further revealed that there
were 321 deaths of lung . cancer, 16 deaths of stomach cancer,
14 death.,% of.cancar of the food pipe
and 39 deaths of cancer
of the large intestine end rectum.
3.
In 1967, 17 fatal cases of pleural mesothelioma were reported
in the small town of Manville in New Jersey. By 1973 there ware
72 victims of thia cancer in this town of 15,000 people, where
the giant U.S Corporation Johns-Manvilla still has its largest
Manufacturing Plant.
10
REACTIONS
IN
THE . WESJ
An avalanche of medical literature and new found public know
ledge about the toxic nature of the silicate, has unleashed mas
sive public opinion and protest in the West.
This has led to a
plethora of legislation to control and regulate the use of asbe
stos in the manufacturing process end otherwise.
Technology in
the west hes geered itself to devising engineering controls, a
variety of personal respiratory protective equipment and care in
layout planning.
These measures would help to effectively reduce
dust levels inside the work premises to 2 fibres per c.c. - 0.2
fibres per c.c., for different varieties of asbestos fibres.
(The Asbestos Working Group in the U.S. reported in 1980 that th
ere is no safe exposure limit for asbestos and that all commerc
ial end several non-commercial forms of asbestos causa disease.
It recommended a new standard of 0.1 fibre per c.c. as the max
imum exposure limit.
This is the smallest quantity that can be
measured by techniques currently available). (See box 2 and 3.
U,K. asbestos code and U.S. occupational Health &. Safety Act.)
BOX 2
AshnMns Safety Code in the U.K.
1.
Asbestos dust can cause lung diseases and there are strict
regulations governing the manufacture and commercial use
of asbestos products.
For the home handyman and domestic user of asbestos products
it is very unlikely that harmful quantities of dust will
escape in normal use.
As a precaution they are advised to
avoid erecting and breathing asbestos dust.
(1)
\
Dampen the works
damp dust does not become airborne
and is not inhaled.
Do not sand wall plugging compounds^
unless damped. When relining car brakes, remove the .
dust from brake drums with','a damp cloth.
(2)
Damp any dust that falls to the floor, Rick it up -as soon
as possible and place it in a plastic bag and seal the
bag.
,
(3)
Work in well—ventilated space e.g.
sawing, filing, drilling, sanding.
(4)
Use hand saws and drills which produce less dust than
power tools.
(5)
Renew worn or frayed asbestos insulators.
outdoors while
(Source: Occupational Hazards:
_____________________________________________ Hunter)________________________ ________________
BOX 3
Bagic features of the U.S.
r el a tad to., asb.es tost -
Occupational Safety and Health Act
Permanent structural changes to make the workplace safe.
Tools generating dust must have exhaust systems at the po
int of contact of tools.
Respirators to limit the amount of dust inhaled are permissable only if engineering controls are under construct
ion.
They cannot be a substitute for engineering controls.
Protective clothing and separate lockers for work and st
reet clothes.
Prescribed standard of an average of 2 fibres/c.c. for an
8 hour shift.
Monitoring of air at a 6 month interval.
If a worker is exposed to excess dust ( above the standard)
then he must be informed within 5 days.
Comprehensive medical examination once a year.
An individual worker or Union can complain directly to
the state authority.
The reply must be displayed near
the workplace.
A Union Representative in every factory (called ’walk*
around
representative)
will accompany the factory Ins
pector on his visits and sit in on all discussions betw
een Inspector *
and Management.
(Source:
Asbestos: The killer disease,
Audhyogik Jeevan Manch)
The industry, has however, tried to skirt the stringent cont
rols with an uncanny slyness.
Litigation has uncovered proof that
the industry was not only aware of the developing medical litera
ture on asbostoa, but was actively tampering with the scientific
reports of the studies and suppressing reports of other studies.
As a sequel to these revelations and others, there has been a move
in the U.S. Congress to declare these as federal crimes.
12
The International asbestos industry’s own view of its respo
nsibility to label its products as potentially lethal was recen
tly revealed by the disclosure of an internal memorandum of the
Asbestos International Association dated fth July 1 978.
According to the memorandum,
the industry was unanimous in
Workers and their unions, (particularly in the U.S.A.) still
vehemently insist on managements adherence to workplace regulat
ions, incentive payment for hazardous work, the stoppage of asb
estos usage and the search for substitutes.
Insurance carriers
have raised workers compensation insurance rates for employers
who continue to use asbestos.
In courts, several thousand vic
tims of asbestos cancer have so far sued the industry for know
ingly marketing deadly products while making no efforts to inf
orm product users of the timebomb danger of breathing in asbes
tos dust.
The law suits which are on the increase each day cost giant
corporations like the Johns-Manville, Owens Corning, Armstrong
and a dozen others and their insurance carriers several billion
dollars in damages.
As a result of mounting public pressure, tight legislation,
skyrocketing law suit charges and swelling compensations to wo
rkers, the consumption of asbestos has decreased in the West.
By 1980, the Johns Manville Corporation had closed down four
asbestos cement pipes and manufacturing plants in the U.S. alone.
But the company still persisted in sustaining itself with a
dogged determination.
According to a Business India article, on a
the 26th August 1982 the company filed for protection under Cha- "
pter II of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, which shields a concern from
creditors law suits.
It is also suing for S5 billion in damages
from insurers alleging tardy settlement of its claims on them.
Multinational companies ruthlessly continue to manufacture
and aggressively market asbestos to third world countries where
some or all of the following factors ease their entry:1.
The local elite are willing to import raw asbestos or use
the fibre in the manufacture of various products.
2.
There is a high demand for the raw fibres and finished asb
estos products.
7000 people in twep-
JSA
T) and
Hyderabad Asbestos
Cement•Co.
Sundaram Abex
USA
(T&.F)
Germany (T&.F )
In 1977t 11 units produced 4.1 lakh tons of asbestos cement
sheets.
This is .4% of the total telue of industrial production
in India,
while in the same year by comparision the total
bicycle production was 15.37%.
Most of the asbestos used in India is imported and only about
20,000 tons is mined in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Rajasthan.
(See box 5/
BOX 6
Company
Seles of larger companies
Metric
Tonnes
1900-81
1981-82
Hindustan ferado
4000
4000
Hyderabad Asbestos
Cement.
30,000
23,000
Asbestos Cement
18,000
18,000
n.p. after depreciat
ion, taxation, and in
vestment allowance.
190O
year 19Q1
67,27
Sundarem Abex.
500/1000
74.42
1500/2000
inings
Source
for sales M.M.T.C.J
for profit CMIE News clip-
16
LEGISLATION
IN
INDIA
With intensifying debate and growing consciousness about the
health hazards of asbestos, asbestosis has been incorporated as
a notifiable disease in India,
in an amendment in 1976 to the
Factories Act of 1948.
The following are the salient features of schedule 14 of the
Factories Act, applying to asbestos workers:-
It applies to factories in which asbestos is handled and ma
nipulated in various process et (The provision of the schedule
can be relaxed or suapended by the Chief Inspector of fact
ories, if he is convinced (i)
that the use of asbestos is
restricted or temporary.
(ii)
and therefore will not enda
nger the worker^ health.
This certificate can be revoked at
any time).
All manufacturing and conveying machinery must ba fitted
with a mechanically operated exhaust draft, to suppress
dust release.
Mixing and blending of asbestos fibres should not be done
by hand but with a mechanically operated exhaust draft, to
prevent dust generation.
The making or repairing of asbestos insulating mattresses
must be carried out in an isolated room with adequate exha
ust and ventilation equipment.
Only workers engaged in filling, beating or levelling ahoulrd
be present.
Floors, benches, covers and fibre filled mattresses should
be dampened whilst filling, beating or levelling is carried
on •
Storage chambers, bins containing loose asbestos, dust fil
tering and setting appratus should not be kept in a work
room.
Suitable methods of storage should be found.
Arrangements should be made to prevent dust discharge from
exhaust apparatus.
The floors, benches and plant should be kept clean and free
of asbestos debris.
The room should be well-litSacks used as asbestos containers should be cleaned by mac
hines and made of impermeable material.
All ventilating and exhaust equipment should be tested at
least once in six months and the defects rectified.
A register containing these records must be maintained and
should be made available to the factory inspector on demand.
Breathing apparatus, overalls and head coverings must be
provided for those engaged in handling loose asbestos, clea
ning of dust settling or filling chambers and other equipm
ent, and those engaged in filling, beating or levelling in
the manufacture of insulating mattresses.
No young person should be employed in or in connection with
the manufacture of insulating mattresses, blending or mix
ing of asbestos by hand, in sack cleaning, in chambers or
apparatus for dust settling or filtering,
in chambers con
taining loose asbestos or in stripping or grinding the cyl
inders, including the doffer cylinders or any other part
of the carding machine.
medical
provisions
in
the
law
A person is employed only after a fitness certificate is
awarded by the medical inspector of factories or certifying
surgeon after a medical examination-
Every worker should be X-rayed by a qualified radiologist at
the coat of the employer, before he is employed.
The X-ray should be submitted to the medical inspector or
certifying surgeon within three months of the examination
date.
Medical examinations should be conducted by the medical ins
pector of factories or certifying surgeon at intervals of
twelve months after the first medical examination.
The Medical Inspector of factories or certifying surgeon cen
direct the employer to arrange for an X-ray of a worker at
the employers own cost, whenever it is necessary, the X-ray
must be then handed over to the medical inspector/certifying
surgeon.
n
18
A worker who is declared unfit to work on processes specified
in the Schedule is banned from working on the same unless
an X -ray is taken at the employers cost and the worker is
once again certified fit.
During such time he may be per
mitted by the Medical Inspector or Certifying Surgeon to
work’ on any other process which may be safer.
Thia ia allo
wed if the medical inspector is convinced that the worker
is not totally incapacitated.
The Medical Inspector or Certifying Surgeon can direct a wo
rker for radiological, clinical or pathological examinations
or any special treatment at the expense of the employer, if
he thinks it is necessary.
The Certifying Surgeon should after each examination grant a
certificate which the manager must maintain in a proper reg
ister or file,
and produce before the inspector on demand
The manager should maintain the details of every medical ex
amination and the register shall be produced beforq an insp
ector whenever demanded.
LOOPHOLES
IN
THE
LAW
The law framed by a goverment which represents the interests of
private enterprise, is bound to mirror the interests of private
industry and management.
Both in its formulation and implement
ation, the schedule is ridden with loopholes, which are taken
maximum advantage of by industri alists in their' drive for profit.
The following are the major loose ends in the Schedule:•
More dangerous diseases Like lung cancer and mesothelioma
continue to be left out of the scope of the Schedule.
*
The power of the Chief Inspector to relax or suspend provisi
ons’ can be misused at the behest of'the management or in His
"own interests".
♦
While the Schedule states that "no young person" should be
employed in or in connection with certain manufacturing pro
cesses, the term "no young person" smacks of gross ambiguity.
Provisions have been laid down for the suppression and cont
rol of dust within the factory premises but not outside the
plant.
This is likely to affect the people in the vicinity
of the factory.
A provision for separate lockers for work uniforms and ordi
nary clothes has not been made, leading to contamination of
the latter.
Thera are no clear cut technical specifications outline d for
the nature and quality of the respiratory apparatus, protec
tive clothing and engineering controls.
Managements theref
ore have no qualms about providing inferior quality and ina
dequate equipment.
There is no mention of a ban on blue asbestos which is banned
in other parts of the world.
There is no indication
asbestos products.
for fixing warning labels on tha
*
access to their own
There are no provisions for workers'
medical reports and the factory inspection assessments.
Furthermore , workers do not have the right to information
regarding the materials they use and tha production process
itself.
The activities of asbestos companies are veiled in secrecy
and the only people who can examine them are the factory
inspectorates.
The goverment and its related agencies and
institutions are also fighting shy of exposing ‘revealing’
and ’controversial’ research reports on occupational health
hazards.
A case in point is Central Labour Institute,that has been
with holding from the public its detailed studies on the
Shree Digvijay Asbestos Plant in Ahmedabad and others. A pro
vision should be made in the law to’ grant permission to jo
urnalists, researchers(govt, and private), social workers and
tha like to conduct surveys and publish their reports for the
public.Permission to take photographs of thp plant must he
granted.
Constitutional litigation is frustrated by redtape, nepotism,
bribery, and unending delays making a myth of justice.
The
petitioner often looses faith in the judiciary and his will
is ground to a halt.
8
20
As per the provisions of the Factories Act it may be poin
ted out that the inspector has a series of functions rang
ing from checking of licenses to health and safety measures.
He has to conduct inquiries in the case of accidents and
attend courts too.
It is ironic that, the last National
Labour Conference, 10 years ago recommended 1 inspector for
150 factories.
In Maharashtra there are instances of the
ratio of inspectors to factories approximating 1:190.
It
is no wonder then, that among other things, a facile circ
umvention of an already impotent law is possible.
CASE STUDIES
Case studies of the Asbestos Jointing Unit at Andheri, the
Shree Digvijay Asbestos Cement plant in Ahmedabad and Hindus
tan Ferado Limited in Bombay, are examples of the appalling
conditions and brazen evasion of the law found in asbestos
factories in India.
I
The Asbestos Jointing Company
at Andheri employs 70 work
ers.
It manufactures joints for insula ted pipes.
The hazards
in this unit are primarily of materials handling. There are 5
basic processes involved in the manufacture of joints:-
*
Fibre storage and handling which exposes the worker to dust.
♦
Mixing of fibres with rubber, petrol and benzene in high
heat conditions.
The emission of benzene and petrol fumes
and the generation of asbestos fibres in cleaning and mai
ntenance operations is hazardous.
Sheet making and cutting under high heat conditions,
lting in fatigue and exhaustion.
resu
• 21
Shredding operations.
Two cyclone machines are involved in
the shredding process.
The loading into the machines is
done with bare hands.
Spillage occurs at two points
(b) where bags are filled by a vaccum system.
The bags are
coated with a film of fibre which gets lodged beneath the
worker’s skin to form a corn.
The Aabestoa Jointing Company outrageously violates the conditions and regulations laid down by the Factories Act.
Though the plant has stopped using blue asbestos, piles of
white and blue asbestos are heaped outside the unit, pollu
ting the environment.
This is in contravention to the sto
rage norms prescribed by law.
2.
The workers are not provided with gloves and there are no
washing and changing facilities.
4.
There is no local exhaust system (vaccum suction device)
general exhaust fan or shower to dampen the floor.
5.
The workers claim that there has not been any inspection
by the factories inspectorate and no genuine records have
been maintained.
6.
The medical tests seem very perfunctory.
The workers repor
that their nails are just superficially checked and they
ere sent back.
7.
According to the workers, the management has refused to dis
cuss the problem
of health hazards with them.
This is an
an outright denial of the right to collective bargaining
even aftejc the issue has been raised before the management
and the factory inspector.
workers find the mask so uncomfortable that they remove
them.
fl
22
Further developments have occurred after a letter was sent
in recently by the union to the Management and Factory Ins
pector demanding a medical check up of the workers.
The
management has insisted on a medical check up.
But no off
icial written reply has been received from the factory ins
pector.
What develops further remains to be seen.
Shree Diqvijay Asbestos Cement Plant
According to astudy conducted by J.
Labour Institute Bombay and the annual
Institute of Occupational Health-1980,
Shree Digvijay Asbestos Cement plant’s
tter.
The studies revealed that:-
(Ahmedabad)
Kumar of the Central
report of the National
the Ahmedabad - based
safety record is no be
1.
Tha fibre concentrations in the yarn unpacking, mixing, sp
inning, weaving and rope divisions were 367 fibres per c.c
41B fibres per c.c., 225 fibres per c.c., and 216 fibres
per c.c., respectively.
This is far above the statutory
permissable level of 2 to 0.2 fibres per c.c. for differen
kinds of asbestos.
2.
Out of 320 workers selected at random, 6.5% suffered from
asbestosis due to exposure.
3.
The plant continued to use crocidolite which causes mesot
helioma.
Perhaps it should be pointed out here that manu
facturers in the U.K. imposed a voluntary ban on the impor
of crocidolite fibres in the aarly seventies.
4.
The road leading to the unit was lined on both sides by
ajbestos cement waste.
5.
A high wall surrounded the factory and beyond it untreated
waste water was emptied into a trench and piled with solid
asbestos waste on either side.
Children played on the wa
ste around their homes.
6.
Some of the houses were made from hunks of asbestos cement
pipes and scraps of corrugated asbestos waste sheets.
Another study of the same plant conducted by Barry Cas
tleman, and published in the "New Scientist” said that:-
Ill - Hindustan Ferado Limited (HFL)
in Bombay is a subsidary
concern of the British Asbestos Company Turner and Newell.
Thi
Indian plant which opened in 1956 manufactures clutch linings
and asbestos textiles.
A collation of reports from the Times
of India, India Today, Business India, New Scientist and Scien<
Today paint a dismal picture of the health and safety conditi
ons in the unit.
The Company brazenly abuses the law in several ways:-
23
Dust levels stand above the statutory permissable standards
and the h-.at is so opressive that the workers a re una.lu
to wear respirators because they feel suffocated.
2.
Simple housekeeping measures axe not employed.
(a)
Floors are swept dry creating dust.
(b)
The some lockers hold overalls and the i •□fleers cl»thes,
which are thus contaminated.
3.
Labourers who work in the dry process anu carry tin. wa te
from the ventilation traps have no protection.
They are
covered with asbestos dust.
4.
As a result, many employees have been found to be suffering
from asbestosis.
At least 35?a of those still on their jobs
are afflicted and not compensated.
The ESIC is another eyewash.
When a worker is not in *. :r—
vice, ESIC contributions stop and he car. .ivoil uf medical
treatment only for a period
6 months. When a vtj.k-.r
dies in service, the ESIC provides for compensation of upto
fL. 80,000 maximum, payable in instalments of IL. SOU p.m.
Union representatives have been demanding an improvement
in HFL, viz the provision of proper ventilation facilities, se
parate lockers and bathing facilities for workers.
Under such
pressure the management has taken the following mi-dj»uxTsiIn 1980 HFL introduced personal respiratory protection eq
uipment on the shop floor.
These form the second Line jf
defence,
angine< ring
con tiols.
2.
Raw asbestos is now packed in polyethelene bags whii.h tue
placed in another polyeth-.lene bag.
This is an improvement
ver tho original packing in jute bags, many of r.'uch were a
aaged,
leading to fibre spillage.
Tnis decision probably
followed Britain’s refusal of shipments of asbestos produ
cts as they were not triple packed in
polyethelene bags
as a safety measure.
3.
According to government regulations, cleaning and grinding
of asbastOo fibres in the carding sections as in several
otner departments should be u mechanical process.
Under
a recent Union agreement, the management has decided to
import some new equipment from Germany.
24
Sucn costs however should be counted
3c DONE
25
details of materials/chemicals used, processes and hazards inv
olved, and such other information as is relevant to the health
of workers in the industry.
Workers must press for the revision of compensation rates acco
rding to current price levels.
even after retirement.
26
SOURCES
1.
Occupational health hazards by Hunter (Central Labour
Institute Library, Bombay)
2.
The Factories Act 1948, Maharashtra Edition 1982.
3.
Killer Asbestos!
Special Report I - Meenakshi Sahara,
Business India - Jan 17-30, 1983.
4.
Double Standards: Asbestos in India,
New Scientist, 26 February 1981.
5.
The asbestos connection; J. Kumar,
Barry Castlemans
Science Toda^ 1982.
6.
Asbestosis: A Killer diseasa-Audhyogik Jaevan Manch,
3/3, Renuka Apartments, 135/5, Erandwana, Pune - 411004.
7.
The selling of Asbestos: Barry .A. Castleman and Manuel
J. Vera Vera, Science Today, July 1982.
8.
Information from news clippings.
9.
Information from CMIE (Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy)
files.
10.
Asbestos plant threatens a village in India,
reprinted from Newsday, Dec. 16, 1981.
11.
Information provided by the workers Health and Safety Unit 29, Bhatia Bhavan, Babrekar Marg, Off Gokhale Rd. Dadar (West).
12.
Asbestos Disease in the United States 1918-1975 by Irving
Selikoff.
13.
Discussions with:
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
Bob Wyrick,
Dr. V. Gupta; Central Labour Institute, Bombay.
Dr. Surendra Nath; Central Labour Institute, Bombay.
Workers of asbestos units.
Mr. K.P. Menon, Labour advocate.
2
they presented to him ruling out asthama or bronchitis.
The examination consisting of a chest Xray and a blood and
urine test was completed in September
1982,and Rajagopal wa
tched and waited anxiously for the results.
To his utter am
azement, the medical board's diagnosis was "chronic bronchitis'
and not "asbestosis".
Finding the results suspect and believing his ailment to
be asbestosis, Rajagopal has filed a case before the ESI Court
Bombay under section 75 of the ESI Act.
He has questioned the
credentials of the ESI Medical Board and demanded an examina
tion by experts in occupational diseases, unless it is proved
that the constituents of the ESI Medical Board were experts
in occupational disease.
He also demanded a submission of all
his papers (case history/medical reports and certificates) by
the Coimbatore ESI hospital to the ESIC court.
If after a
careful consideration of the case, the Court can prove that
the medical board did not consist of experts in occupational
diseases,
Rajagopal is adamant that it should direct the
ESI authorities to get him examined by experts in occupational
diseases and grant him the consequential relief.
The hearing of the case came up on the 28th of April 1983,
after which the Corporation appealed for time upto the 28th
July 1983, to file in its written statement.
A long arduous protracted struggle already begun,
will
continue:
the respondant - the ESI medical board (Coimbatore)
the petitioner - a dying Rajagopal, trying to keep alive the
last flicker of hope, that his success will not only vindicate
him but also pave the way for thousands of similarly afflicted
workers.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION: OCCUPATIONAL DERMATOSES.................................................. ...5.6
Contact dermatitis
...................................................................
...............................................................7.8.9,10
Most common causative agents in occupational contact dermatitis:
Chromium............................................................................................................................................... 12
Nickel........................................................................................................... •........................................ 13
Plants and woods................................................................................................. •................14.15
Plastics (uncured)........................................................
................................... ...........................16.17
Cancers.................................................................................................................................................................. 13.19
Folliculitis and acneiform eruptions................................................ ........................................................................ 20,21
Granulomas'........................................................................................................................................................... 22.23
Lichen planus-like eruptions......................................................................................................................................... 24
Pigmentary disorders............................................................................................................................................... 25.26
Ulcers.................................................................................................................................................................... 27,’28
TABLE OF COMMON CAUSES OF DERMATITIS IN VARIOUS OCCUPATIONS........... 29
TABLE OF INFECTIOUS DERMATOSES RELATED TO VARIOUS OCCUPATIONS
.30.31
INTRODUCTION: OCCUPATIONAL
DERMATOSES
Occupational dermatoses, those skin diseases induced or
aggravated by work-related exposures, include a wide variety
of conditions; those that develop as the result of contact with
certain substances, and those that develop from the harmful
effects such substances may have on preexisting skin diseases
4.
Work-related dermatoses have long been recognized, but only
recently has the problem been given special attention
As industrialization developed and new chemicals were used,
the number of cases of skin eruptions increased dramatically.
It soon became imperative for members of the medical
profession to improve their knowledge of the causes of these
dermatoses and, more importantly, their prevention.
Some of the common causes of dermatoses related to various
occupations appear on page 29.
Irritants. These substances are grouped according to their
action on the skin:
• Horny layer damaging agents: alkalies. soaps, most
organic solvents.
• Surface lipid solvents: inorganic and organic solvents,
detergents.
• Dehydrating agents inorganic acids, anhydrides, alkalies.
• Oxidizing agents: bleaches, chlorine, peroxide
• Protein precipitating agents: chrome, arsenic, zinc salts
• Hydrolyzing agents: calcium compounds (lime).
• Reducing agents: oxalic acid, formic acid.
• Photosensitizers: coal tar, dyes, plants.
• Keratogeneticsubstances: arsenic, coal tar, petroleum,
sunlight, ionizing radiation.
CAUSATIVE MECHANISMS
Occupational dermatoses are usually grouped according to
the mechanisms that produce them—mechanical, physical.
biological or chemical.
1. Mechanical Factors:
Friction and pressure from the constant use of a tool or
instrument often produce thickening of the skin, callosities.
abrasions, and ulcers.
2. Physical Factors:
Environmental factors, such as heat, humidity, cold, fumes.
plants, woods, and solar and ultraviolet light are responsible
for many skin disorders. Phototoxic or photoallergic reactions
may also develop from certain exposures.
3.
Biological Agents:
Chemicals:
Chemicals are the most common cause of occupational
dermatoses, and these are usually classified according to
their effects on the skin either as irritants or as sensitizers.
Sensitizers. In susceptible individuals, an allergic
reaction may follow exposure to a chemical . This specific.
acquired alteration of the capability to react is thought to
be caused by an antigen-antibody mechanism.
Clinical signs of sensitivity do not develop on the initial
exposure but. after an incubation period of approximately
two weeks, subsequent exposures cause an allergic
eczematous contact dermatitis Fortunately, only a small
number of workers become allergic to substances in
their environment.
Industrial allergens are numerous and specific to each
industry. Some of the more common ones are nickel
salts, alkaline dichromates, ethylenediamine, mercurial
compounds, resins (epoxy, phenolformaldehyde),
dinitrochlorobenzene, and p-phenylenediamine.
Bacteria, yeasts and fungi, viruses and parasites may cause
primary skin diseases in many work environments.
Secondary bacterial infections may complicate the course of
eczematous eruptions. Types of infectious dermatoses related
to certain occupations are listed on pages 30 and 31.
continued on following page
: MAKING A DIAGNOSIS
i
I
The diagnosis of occupational dermatitis is based on history.
physical examination, the course of the eruption, and
laboratory investigations (patch tests, biopsy).
■
The salient information that may help to pinpoint the diagnosis
includes:
• Type of work.
• Condition of the skin before the onset of the eruption.
• Substances handled directly or present in the work
environment.
• Protective clothing and measures, and cleansing agents
used.
• Onset and course of eruption (improvement or
disappearance of lesions when away from work for a
period of time).
• Previous treatment (professional or self).
History
’
Physical examination
The clinical appearance of the eruption and its location may
provide definite clues to probable cause. The entire body
should be examined for other sites of the eruption.
Laboratory investigations
i
Patch tests. A minimal amount of the suspected causative agent
in proper dilution is applied to the skin. A patch test reaction is
positive when redness, edema or vesiculatioh appears within
24 to 48 hours. Both the performance and interpretation of patch
patch tests require specialized knowledge. To avoid causing
exacerbations of patients' eruptions, only physicians
experienced in patch testing should perform them.
Biopsy and histopathological examination. This procedure
may be helpful in identifying some occupational dermatoses
and is indicated in all cases of suspected malignancy. It is of
little value, however, in eczematous eruptions because findings
are nonspecific.
CONTACT DERMATITIS
Contact dermatitis-accounts for about 75% of all dermatoses
and is caused by allergic sensitization or skin irritation
ALLERGIC CONTACT DERMATITIS: Sensitization occurs after
contact with a substance (alley-gen) without the development of
visible skin changes. Sensitivity usually develops within
several weeks after the original exposure and subsequent
contacts with the allergen, even in small amounts, cause an
eczematous dermatitis. Sensitivity may persist for months.
years, or even a lifetime. IRRITANT CONTACT DERMATITIS.
Inflammation of the skin develops at the site of contact with the
provoking substances, classified as either absolute (strong)
irritants or relative (mild) irritants. Absolute irritants—substances
that injure the skin and produce severe inflammation on first
contact—include strong acids and alkalies. some metallic
elements and their salts, and many essential oils.
Relative irritants—less toxic substances which require repeated
or prolonged contact to cause inflammation—include
detergents and most organic solvents. Some substances are
both sensitizers and irritants.
Factors that contribute to the development of both allergic and
irritant contact dermatitis are preexisting dermatoses (atopic .
dermatitis), heat, humidity, and friction.
SIGNS: ACUTE DERMATITIS: shows redness, edema, papules.
vesicles and. occasionally, bullae. Patches are ill-defined.
single or multiple, and of various sizes and shapes, but are often
discoid. By coalescence, large areas may be affected
SUBACUTE DERMATITIS, characterized by redness, minimal
edema, dry vesicles and crusting. CHRONIC DERMATITIS.
appears as dry thickened, scaly and. occasionally, fissured
patches of skin.
SYMPTOMS: Pruritus is occasionally severe A dry. fissured
eruption on sites of pressure (tips of fingers) or on areas of
flexion (palms) is usually tender and painful.
CAUSE: Chemicals in various forms are the most common
offending agents. Acute eczematous dermatitis is most
frequently caused by irritating and sensitizing chemicals, such
as industrial detergents, metallic compounds (chrome, nickel).
diluted acids or alkalies. resins, solvents, and substances used
in the manufacture of rubber (accelerators, antioxidants).
Chronic eczematous eruptions are often caused by cement
used in the construction industry, cleansing preparations and
resin products. Specific information on four of the most
common causative agents—chromium, nickel, plants and
woods, and plastics—is given on pages 12 to 17.
COURSE: Most occupational dermatoses improve or heal
when the exposure is eliminated Acute dermatitis usually heals
in 1 to4weeks. Most cases of irritant dermatitis begin with a
low-grade, acute stage of eruption that rapidly becomes
chronic This chronic stage may last months or even years, with
occasional periods of exacerbation
HISTOPATHOLOGY: Not diagnostic The histologic findings
are those of eczematous eruptions, making it impossible to
differentiate allergic contact dermatitis from the irritant type.
ACUTE DERMATITIS: Epidermal changes are pronounced
intercellular edema (spongiosis) and intracellular edema
around vesicles and bullae Dermal changes include vascular
dilation, edema and a perivascular mononuclear cellular
infiltrate. SUBACUTE DERMATITIS: Similar histology is
seen—vesicles are smaller, and there is moderate acanthosis.
occasional parakeratosis, and crust formation. CHRONIC
DERMATITIS: Pronounced acanthosis, hyperkeratosis,
parakeratosis and some spongiosis are seen, but vesicles are
absent In the dermis, there is perivascular infiltration, abundant
capillaries, and increased collagen (fibrosis).
DIFFERENTIAL DIAGNOSIS: NON-OCCUPATIONAL
CONTACT DERMATITIS: Not all contact dermatoses in
workers are caused by occupational exposures.
Investigate such offending agents as household cleansing
products, substances handled in hobbies (photography.
woodworking, painting), or exposure while at leisure
(gardening, hiking). NUMMULAR ECZEMA: These chronic,
coin-shaped, eczematous lesions of unknown etiology are seen
on the extensor aspects of the extremities Similar discoid
lesions may occur in chromate dermatitis produced by contact
with cement. ATOPIC DERMATITIS: This is a dry, lichenoid,
chronic eruption of the hands and flexural aspects of the
elbows and knees. Usually, there is a history of atopic diseases.
such as hay fever or asthma, either in the patient or in members
of his family The skin of such individuals may become irritated
by chemicals handled at work. Contact dermatitis may be
superimposed on atopic dermatitis. DYSHIDROSIS
(POMPHOLYX): This eruption of clear vesicles without erythema
appears on the sides of the fingers, on the palms and on the
soles of the feet. 11 is often associated with emotional stress and
hyperhidrosis. SEBORRHEIC DERMATITIS: This condition
presents as a chronic eczematous eruption of the scalp.
postauricular region, middle of the chest, axillae or groins.
Exacerbations may be work-related, in particular among workers
exposed to heat, grease and oils. PSORIASIS: Palmar psoriasis
appears as sharply defined, thickened and fissured, scaly
patches. Nail changes may be present, or there may be evidence
of psoriasis in other parts of the body. Work-related factors.
such as friction, pressure or chemical irritation, may aggravate
the condition. FUNGAL INFECTIONS: Tinea pedis may cause
a vesicular eruption of the hands (dermatophytid). A fungal
infection of the palms may cause pink, dry, thickened patches.
Maceration of the skin as a result of wet work, heavy boots and
a hot environment are aggravating factors. SCABIES:
This contagious disease is characterized by a vesicular eruption
on the sides of fingers, flexural aspects of the wrists, axillae,
trunk and genitals, accompanied by nocturnal pruritus
Finding the scabies burrow is diagnostic
DIAGNOSIS: This is based on history, clinical appearance.
location of the eruption (suggesting whether the mechanism is
allergic or irritant), course of the eruption, possible cause and
a patch test. Suspect in a worker who develops a dermatitis of
the fingers or hands that spreads to the forearms and other
parts of the body. Inquire as to the nature of his work, and
whether the dermatitis improves on weekends or vacations.
Eruptions that improve when the patient stops working and
relapse when he returns to work strongly suggest an
occupational cause
TREATMENT: SEVERE AND EXTENSIVE ERUPTIONS:
Administer systemic corticosteroids for a short course
(3 weeks) in decreasing doses. The patient should stop
working. Cool wet dressings and topical corticosteroid sprays
are indicated. Oral antihistamines control pruritus.
Treat secondary bacterial infections with antibiotics, topical
and systemic LESS SEVERE ERUPTIONS: Prescribe
corticosteroid and tar ointments. CHRONIC ERUPTIONS:
Prescribe a low-potency.topical corticosteroid.
SITES: The hands are affected in the majority of cases, dorsal
surfaces, sides of fingers, palms (nickel exposure), or
interdigital spaces (wet work). Lesions of the arm may occur in
patients using short protective gloves or may reflect extension
of the eruption from the hands; those on the flexural aspect of
elbows reflect exposure to nickel, textiles, cement, or wood
dust. Facial eruptions suggest airborne substances; the eyelids
may be affected by contaminated fingers Lesions on the trunk.
buttocks, or legs may develop from impregnated clothing.
The feet often become involved from the use of rubber boots.
Cement and irritating dusts may penetrate socks and produce
lesions of the ankles.
Contact dermatitis/Continued
Violin chin rest dermatitis.
Contact dermatitis in a household worker from floor cleansing compound.
Allergic contact dermatitis on a barber 's hand from rubber strap of scalp vibrator.
Allergic reaction to organic solvent in a paint industry worker.
Hydrocarbon-induced dermatitis with secondary bacterial infection.
continued on tollowing page...
Contact dermatitis/Continued
Fingertip dermatitis from dyes used in fabrics industry
Contact dermatitis in a printer from newspaper color ink.
Formalin sensitivity from impregnated clothing.
Dermatitis in a lumberjack produced by rubber boots-
MOST COMMON CAUSATIVE
AGENTS IN OCCUPATIONAL
CONTACT DERMATITIS
□ CHROMIUM
□ NICKEL
□ PLANTS AND WOODS
□ PLASTICS IUNCUREDI
CHROMIUM
A large number of occupational dermatoses are caused by the
irritating and sensitizing properties of chromium compounds
Sensitization is gradual and may take years to develop.
Workers in construction and other industries are exposed to a
wide range of chromate-containihg substances, such as
paints with yellow and green pigments, photographic and offset
printing materials, anticorrosive agents, and welding fumes.
In particular, chromate in cement is an important cause of
sensitization in bricklayers and cement workers.
Not all chromium-induced dermatoses are work related.
Exposure to chromates may occur while handling
chrome-tanned leather objects (shoes, handbags), glues.
paints, matches, and some bleaching agents. Individuals who
work with wet rubber gloves and those with hyperhidrosis of
the hands often develop chrome sensitivity.
CLINICAL APPEARANCE: A dry dermatitis of the fingers
develops with edema, some vesiculation. and a tendency to
lichenification and fissuring. Onset is gradual. The eruption
spreads to the dorsa of the hands and forearms.
Cement dermatitis often affects the flexural surfaces of the
arms and the trunk in a diffuse or discoid pattern.
Deep burn from splashing ol cement while making a sidewalk
NICKEL
Exposure to nickel and its salts is the most common cause of
metal-induced allergic contact dermatitis. Nickel is widely used
in the manufacture of many metal objects and as an alloy in
other metals to increase their hardness. Exposure may be work
related or stem from non-occupational environments or
activities. Sensitization in men is usually by occupational
exposure, but occasionally develops from contact with
wristwatch bands, clasps, or eyeglasses. I n women, common
sources are metal clips on undergarments, and costume
jewelry, in particular, pierced earrings. Once sensitized,
individuals may develop eruptions years later when exposed
to nickel or its salts in a work environment.
Workers most commonly affected are those who refine nickel
or handle nickel-plating solutions, such as printers or
producers of telephone and electric wires Sensitization may
also occur in those who use nickel-plated metal tools and
instruments, such as hairdressers, tailors, seamstresses, and
office workers. Cashiers may develop eruptions from nickel
alloys in coins Trauma, pressure and excessive perspiration,
which leaches nickel from metallic objects, are important
predisposing factors.
CLINICAL APPEARANCE: Characterized by redness, swelling,
papules and oozing vesicles. Only about half of all cases involve
the hands. Occupation-related dermatoses usually begin on
the sides of the fingers or palms (use of nickel-plated tools or
instruments). Autosensitization or direct contact with
nickel-contaminated fingers may cause secondary spread of
the eruption to the antecubital region, upper extremities, upper
chest, inner thighs or face, particularly the eyelids. Secondary
eruptions are dry and papular but may be oozing, often in a
discoid pattern.
Nickel dermatitis. Sensitization later prevented
employment in a factory producing
nickel-plated products.
Contact dermatitis in a fabric cutter due to nickel-platedshears.
13
PLANTS AND WOODS
Plants, plant pollens, lichens, woods, vegetablesand
substances of vegetable origin, such as turpentine, are
associated with contact dermatitis in various occupations
Plants and plant pollens. Farmers, gardeners, florists, park
attendants, road builders and those engaged in other outdoor
occupations. Foresters are prone to allergic dermatitis from
contact with lichens. Woods. Lumberjacks, carpenters.
furniture builders, cabinet makers, shipbuilders, and
construction workers. Butchers, cooks, and others may develop
contact dermatitis from the wooden handles of knives or tools.
Airborne sawdust, especially from exotic woods, may also
produce dermatitis among carpenters and cabinet makers.
Vegetables. Cooks, kitchen workers, and those employed in
vegetable stores. Turpentinefa balsam derived from pine) may
be the source of dermatitis in artists, painters, engravers.
lithographers, and others using it as a solvent in cleaning
activities.
COMMON CAUSES: Types of plants and woods vary according
to geographic location: Europe—the common cause is
Primula obconica (primrose): United States of America—the
most common offenders are plants of the Rhus group (poison
ivy. poison oak. poison sumac) that contain a phenolic
oleoresin. an irritant and sensitizer. Other common causes:
flowers and decorative plants, such as philodendron, ivies.
chrysanthemums, hyacinths, and tulips: and woods, such as
acacia, ash. chestnut, elm. maple, oak. pine and spruce, or
tropical varieties (coco-bolo, teak, mahogany, satinwood).
Eruptions may develop from contact with some plants or fruits
containing psoralen, such as parsley, lime, parsnip, bergamot,
and pink rot in celery, followed by exposure to sunlight
(phytophotodermatitis). Airborne ragweed pollen may produce
dermatitis during particular seasons.
CLINICAL APPEARANCE: Severe eruptions show redness
and swelling with papules, vesicles and bullae. The usual sites
of exposure are the hands, forearms, ankles, and legs
Allergen-contaminated fingers may cause spread of the
eruption to other parts of the body, such as the'face and
genitals. Linear lesions are characteristic of plant dermatitis.
A dry. lichenified dermatitis of the face. V of the neck, waistline.
and ankles suggests airborne pollen. A dry. scaling dermatitis
with fissuring of the fingertips is produced by tulip bulbs and
other plant bulbs.
14
Wood-contact dermatitis in a carpenter.
Ragweed dermatitis ol 35 years duration in a larmer; eruptions heal almost completely each winter.
15
PLASTICS (UNCUREDI
Uncured plastics are increasingly being used in different
industries and are responsible for a growing number of
dermatoses. Fully cured or synthetic plastics polymerized by
the addition of curing agents, stabilizers, catalysts and
plasticizers are rarely implicated.
COMMON CAUSES: Major offending substances are epoxy
resins, urea (carbamide)-formaldehyde. phenolformaldehyde.
and acrylic plastics. Sensitivity to formaldehyde resins is
independent of allergy to formaldehyde. EPOXY RESI NS
These are strong irritants and potent sensitizers that are widely
used in the manufacture of electrical equipment, as glues for
office and household use. as adhesives (rubber, ceramics.
metals), for painting and for a host of other purposes
UREA-FORMALDEHYDE PLASTICS: These plastics are used
in the lamination and finishing of woods and as adhesives
(textile industry). PHENOLFORMALDEHYDE PLASTICS:
These are used in the production of Bakelite' and as glues
(shoes, wood). ACRYLIC PLASTICS: These plastics are used in
paints and in the manufacture of dentures, artificial fingernails,
contact lenses and orthopedic prostheses.
CLINICAL APPEARANCE: Characterized by redness, edema
and vesiculation. Eruption usually starts on the fingers and
hands; may spread to the face, arms and trunk.
Severe contact dermatitis in a wood finisher due to urea-formaldehyde.
Severe allergic dermatitis in a plastics worker due to phenolformaldehyde.
CANCERS
Occupational skin cancers are usually basal cell or squamous
cell carcinomas that develop as a result of prolonged exposure
to industrial carcinogenic substances or excessive exposure
to solar radiation. X-rays or radium Fortunately, work-related
skin cancers are still rare, despite the use of a large number of
industrial chemicals that have carcinogenic properties.
Most skin cancers develop in workers who had prolonged.
close contact with by-products of coal or petroleum derivatives.
Medical and dental personnel who have been unduly exposed
to X-rays or radium may also develop occupational cancers.
HISTOPATHOLOGY: Diagnostic. BASAL CELL CARCINOMA:
Uniform local invasion of the dermis by cells resembling the
basal cell layer of the epidermis. The nucleus is deeply stained
and the cytoplasm is scanty. SQUAMOUS CELL CARCI NOMA:
Downward proliferation of the epidermal cells altering the
dermo-epidermal junction. There is a variable number of
differentiated and undifferentiated keratinized squamous cells.
Well-differentiated tumors show concentric layers of squamous
cells with increasing keratinization toward the center (horn
pearls)
Not all skin cancers that occur in workers exposed to
carcinogenic substances are related to work The age and skin
type of the patient and the degree of sun exposure unrelated
to work should be considered during evaluation.
Carcinomas may develop on scars, especially those caused by
burns, and. possibly, on areas exposed to trauma, and chronic
irritation Characteristically, occupational skin cancers appear
on the parts of the body in contact with carcinogens only after
years of constant exposure. Often, they are preceded by
precancerous lesions which tend to be multiple and recurrent
DIFFERENTIAL DIAGNOSIS: BASAL CELL CARCINOMA
Hypertrophy of sebaceous glands, melanoma, morphea.
intradermal melanocytic nevus. Bowen's disease
(intraepidermal squamous cell carcinoma). SQUAMOUS CELL
CARCINOMA; Granuloma pyogenicum, keratoacanthoma.
amelanotic melanoma, pseudoepitheliomatous hyperplasia.
SIGNS: BASAL CELL CARCI NOMA begins as a waxy papule
which slowly enlarges to become a button-like. pale, smooth
and shiny nodule with a depressed or ulcerated center.
The border is elevated, firm, translucent or ' pearly;' often.
scattered tiny vessels (telangiectasias) are apparent.
There are several varieties including pigmented, superficial
and morphea-like types. SQUAMOUS CELL CARCINOMA
may begin from a site of solar keratosis which becomes
thickened and erythematous, or appear as a fissure, a warty
nodule or an ulcer.
TREATMENT: Small basal cell carcinomas can be eradicated
by curettage followed by cauterization Larger lesions require
more extensive surgery, perhaps followed by skin grafting
Radiotherapy is helpful for lesions in certain locations, such
as those on or near the nose Chemosurgery may be used for
extensive or recurrent lesions. Squamous cell carcinomas and
any involved lymph nodes may be treated by radiotherapy.
CLUES TO DIAGNOSIS: Suspect in a patient presenting with
a nodular, warty, eroded or ulcerated lesion. Inquire about
exposure to carcinogenic substances at work or to ionizing
radiation.
SYMPTOMS: Lesions are usually asymptomatic; those on
fingers or areas of pressure and flexion may be tender.
CAUSE: The most common industrial carcinogenic substances
implicated in occupational skin cancers are by-products of coal
(soot. tar. anthracene) and petroleum derivatives.
Excessive exposure to sun and wind causes skin changes
(''sailor s" or "farmer s skin") which may lead to the development
of a solar keratosis and carcinoma.
COURSE: Chronic. Basal cell carcinomas develop more slowly
than squamous cell carcinomas. If untreated, both lesions
extend locally, ulcerate and become destructive.
Squamous cell carcinomas occasionally metastasize; basal
cell carcinomas metastasize rarely.
SITES: BASAL CELL CARCINOMA: Face, upper extremities.
SQUAMOUS CELL CARCINOMA: Face, hands, upper and
lower extremities, scrotum, or wherever scars are located.
Facial basal cell carcinoma in a sailor.
FOLLICULITIS AND
ACNEIFORM ERUPTIONS
; These common industrial dermatoses are often seen in workers
; handling coal-tar and petroleum derivatives: machinists, oil
. I field and refinery workers: those who manufacture and distill
. coal tar. and roofers and road workers. Acneiform lesions
: (chloracne) caused by chloronaphthalenes and chlorodiphenyls
1 occur in workers who manufacture or use insulating wires.
i 'condensers, and herbicides.
SIGNS: Folliculitis is manifested by papulopustular lesions at
hair follicles. Acneiform lesions resemble those of acne
vulgaris, manifesting as comedones, papules, pustules and
cysts Cutting oils and crude petroleum cause large
inflammatory lesions and numerous acne comedones, coal-tar
i derivatives produce melanoses and minimal inflammation.
Eruptions from chlorodiphenyls characteristically appear as
■cysts filled with straw-colored fluid.
SYMPTOMS: Asymptomatic.
CAUSE: Cutting oils, crude petroleum, derivatives of coal tar
(distillate and pitch), chlorinated di- and tri phenyls, and solid
chlorobenzene and chlorophenols.
COURSE: Chronic. Lesions heal slowly, often with scarring.
HISTOPATHOLOGY: Suggestive. Lesions caused by cutting
oils and crude petroleum show pronounced inflammatory
reactions about the hair follicles. Lesions produced by coal-tar
derivatives show increased melanin, little inflammatory reaction
and follicular openings plugged with keratin. Eruptions caused
by chlorodiphenyls show a predominance of cystic lesions.
SITES: FOLLICULITIS: Extensive on face, trunk and
extremities. ACNEIFORM LESIONS: Predominately on areas
of greater sebaceous activity, such as the face and chest.
ERUPTIONS DUE TO OIL AND COAL-TAR DERIVATIVES:
Areas that are exposed (face, dorsa of fingers, forearms)
and those in contact with contaminated clothes (lower
abdomen, buttocks, thighs). ERUPTIONS DUE TO
CHLORODIPHENYLS: Face, back of ears, abdomen, groins.
genitals.
DIFFERENTIAL DIAGNOSIS: Acne vulgaris, seborrheic
dermatitis, bacterial folliculitis, iodide and bromide eruptions.
TREATMENT: FOLLICULITIS: Topical applications of drying
^agents, such as calamine lotion, may be beneficial.
ACNEIFORM ERUPTIONS: Topical preparations used for the
treatment of acne vulgaris are often helpful (benzoyl peroxide.
vitamin A acid). Drainage of cysts, intralesional injections of a
corticosteroid, and systemic administration of tetracycline may
also be helpful.
CLUES TO DIAGNOSIS: Suspect in a patient presenting with
an eruption resembling acne vulgaris, perhaps with melanosis.
■ (Inquire as to the patient s history of exposure to oils, petroleum
and coal-tar derivatives, or herbicides.
Early stage ot chloracne, from clothing contaminated with
diesel fuel, shows acneiform and pustular lesions
Folliculitis due to oil used tor paper cutting machine.
GRANULOMAS
Granulomas of occupational origin can be infectious and
noninfectious. Infectious granulomatous diseases are found
mainly in rural workers, especially in tropical and subtropical
regions. The causative organism is directly inoculated through
abrasions or injuries, or introduced into the skin by the bite of
an insect. Infectious granulomas and other infectious
dermatoses related to occupations are presented in the table
on pages 30 and 31. Noninfectious granulomas are often caused
by particles of foreign material penetrating the skin The most
common industrial offender is silica; however, beryllium.
zirconium and other substances also produce granulomas.
CLUES TO DIAGNOSIS: Suspect in a patient who has had an
injury which fails to heal, becomes indurated and tender
(beryllium); who develops induration and tenderness of an
area injured months or years ago (silica); or who uses
zirconium products or works in the manufacture of zirconium.
Inquire as to the details of the injury and possible types of
contaminating substances.
SIGNS: Infectious and noninfectious granulomas often develop
in wounds and at the site of tissue injuries. In beryllium
granuloma, the wound fails to heal, becomes swollen, indurated.
and the center ulcerates. Conversely, wounds contaminated
with soil or glass heal normally, but months or years later the
site becomes indurated, nodular or verrucous. Zirconium
causes a persistent eruption of soft, reddish-brown papules.
SYMPTOMS: Lesions may be tender.
CAUSE: SILICA GRANULOMA: Contamination of lacerations
or wounds with particles of soil. sand, or glass containing
silicon dioxide. BERYLLIUM GRANULOMA: Occurs among
individuals working with fluorescent light tubes.
ZIRCONIUM GRANULOMA: Use of products containing
zirconium; workers in the zirconium industry
COURSE: Chronic Lesions heal slowly, often with scarring
HISTOPATHOLOGY: SILICA GRANULOMA: A diffuse
inflammatory infiltrate with multinucleated giant cells and
epithelioid cells that do not form tubercules. The finding of
silica crystals is diagnostic BERYLLIUM GRANULOMA
A granulomatous reaction with central caseation necrosis.
ZIRCONIUM GRANULOMA: Large groups of epithelioid cells
forming tubercules without caseation, identical to the findings
in sarcoidosis.
DIFFERENTIAL DIAGNOSIS: Secondary bacterial infections.
foreign body reaction from other causes, malignancy.
TREATMENT: SMALL LESIONS: Destroy by electrodesiccation
or cryotherapy. LARGE LESIONS: Surgically excise.
22
SITES: SILICA AND BERYLLIUM GRANULOMAS: At the site
of injury, usually the hands or forearms. ZIRCONIUM
GRANULOMAS: Hands, axillae or at the site where a
preparation containing zirconium was used.
LICHEN PLANUS-L8KE ERUPTIONS
Chemicals containing salts of p-phenylenediamines used in
the photographic industry often produce sensitization and
the development of a papular dermatitis resembling lichen
planus. Several years ago. the incidence of this eruption was
high among color film processing workers, but the number of
cases has decreased with the implementation of more
effective measures of prevention.
SIGNS: The eruption may begin on the hands and forearms
as an acute dermatitis which soon becomes dry and papular.
or it may be papular from the onset These papules resemble
those of lichen planus—smooth, often flat, shiny and angular
The color varies from reddish purple to purplish brown or to a
slate hue. The bilateral and symmetrical distribution of the
eruption is characteristic and helpful in diagnosis.
Residual pigmentation occurs despite resolution of the lesions.
Lesions on other parts of the body may have annular or
reticulated configurations. The mucous membranes are
rarely involved.
SYMPTOMS: Pruritis; its severity depends upon the degree
of sensitivity and amount of exposure
CAUSE: Sensitivity to a substance containing salts of
p-phenylenediamines used in processing color film.
COURSE: Chronic. When exposure to the chemical is
discontinued, the eruption clears slowly Flare-ups may occur
with subsequent contacts. Residual pigmentation may last for
a year or more
HISTOPATHOLOGY: Acute eruptions show spongiosis and
evidence of eczematous reaction Papular lesions appear
similar to lichen planus: acanthosis, washing out of basal layer.
and a band-like dermal infiltrate
DIFFERENTIAL DIAGNOSIS: Lichen planus, lichen planus
like eruptions caused by medications (gold, quinacrine.
p-aminosalicylic acid).
TREATMENT: Corticosteroids, systemically and topically.
CLUES TO DIAGNOSIS: Suspect when a patient who works in
a color film developing laboratory presents with a papular
eruption of the hands and forearms
SITES: Fingers, dorsa of hands, forearms, shoulders, sides of
neck. face, inner aspect of thighs.
24
Close-up view ot lichen planus-hke eruption from photographic color
developer
PIGMENTARY DISORDERS
Occupational pigmentary disorders are alterations of the color
of the skin caused by various substances. The changes most
often seen are darkening (melanosis), depigmentation
(leukoderma), or simple stains of the skin. Discolorations occur
in workers in numerous occupations, mainly the rubber
industry and the manufacture of explosives, and in individuals
exposed to crude oils, cutting oils, coal tar and their derivatives.
SIGNS: CHEMICAL DISCOLORATIONS' These may be diffuse
or localized. Large areas of the body may be discolored in
individuals in contact with quinacrine hydrochloride, tetryl and
trinitrotoluene (TNT). Amines in epoxy resins cause yellowish
discoloration of the palms. Stains caused by silver nitrate and
antiseptics occur mainly in physiciansand medical personnel
and are often present in bizarre patterns. MELANOSIS.
A darkening of the skin caused by increased melanin is
manifested by dark brownish-grey patches with iIl-defined
borders', occasionally associated with chloracne. Melanosis also
may follow inflammatory processes of the skin.
LEUKODERMA: Characterized by depigmentation of the skin
in a vitiligo-like fashion. It may occur following contact with
monobenzyl ether of hydroquinone (agerite alba), the
antioxidant used in the rubber industry The borders of the
patches are well defined and there is no peripheral
hyperpigmentation. The hands and forearms are usually
affected, but other parts of the body in direct contact with
finished rubber products, such as gloves or sandals, may also
be involved
HISTOPATHOLOGY: Not diagnostic. MELANOSIS Increased
activity of melanocytes. Abundant melanin granules are found
in the basal layer and scattered throughout the prickle cell
layer and dermis. LEUKODERMA: Melanin granules are few
or absent.
DIFFERENTIAL DIAGNOSIS: MELANOSIS Melasma,
Addisons disease, hemochromatosis. LEUKODERMA: Vitiligo.
guttate morphea, piebaldism, pinta, yaws, leprosy.
TREATMENT: MELANOSIS: The bleaching properties of
monobenzyl ether of hydroquinone 2% may have a beneficial
effect when used with appropriate caution LEUKODERMA:
Systemic and topical psoralens followed by exposure to
sunlight or ultraviolet radiation may help restore pigmentation
Special cosmetics may help patients with melanosis and
leukoderma hide their pigmentary abnormalities. Advise
patients to use a sunscreening agent.
CLUES TO DIAGNOSIS: Suspect in an individual presenting
with discolorations of the skin Inquire as to the nature of work
and substances handled or present in the work environment.
SITES: Face, hands, forearms, and other exposed sites; areas
of the body in contact with impregnated clothing.
SYMPTOMS: Asymptomatic. Patients with leukoderma burn
easily when exposed to sunlight because of the absence of
melanin protection.
CAUSE: Most pigmentary disorders result from direct contact
of the skin with chemical agents, occasionally from their
ingestion or inhalation. Stains and discolorations are usually
caused by dyes or colored substances (silver nitrate, potassium
permanganate, and others). Alkylphenols, used as antioxidants,
have caused vitiligo-like depigmentation. MELANOSIS: Often
produced by arsenic, tar and tar oils, crude oil and insoluble
cutting oils, chloracnogens. sunlight and vegetable
photoreactives. LEUKODERMA: Usually monobenzyl ether of
hydroquinone (agerite alba), which is also a sensitizer, and
some phenolic detergent germicides and antioxidants, such as
tertiary butyl-catecol used in cutting fluids. Depigmentation also
may follow severe dermatitis and burns.
COURSE: Chronic. Discolorations last months or years.
Postinflammatory pigmentation and stains gradually disappear.
Dermatitis and melanosis in a nursery worker due to insecticide
spray (arsenic).
continued on following page.
Pigmentary disorders/Continued
Leukoderma due to rubber gloves.
ULCERS
Occupational ulcers maybe caused by a single exposure to a
caustic agent, by constant exposure to a chemical, by constant
irritating pressure, or they may occur secondarily to other
dermatoses Accidental contact with strong acids will cause a
severe burn that may ulcerate. More commonly, however, the
cause is constant exposure to certain chemicals or substances.
such as chrome, which are used in a wide range of industries
Persistent contact with strong chromate solutions may
eventually lead to skin ulcerations (chromeholes). or inhalation
of chrome dust or vapors may result in ulceration of the nasal
mucosa. Ulcerations may also develop secondarily to other
occupational dermatoses either from trauma or secondary
bacterial infection, or from the breakdown of skin tumors
SIGNS: Chrome ulcers develop rapidly after a variable period
of exposure and do not appear to be related to the patient's
sensivity to chrome, manifested by dermatitis (see page 12).
They usually occur on the hands, wrists and forearms, and
appear as round or oval, punched-out lesions with bases bathed
in an exudate that dries forming a crust. The borders of the
ulcer may be thickened and undermined An atrophic scar
remains after healing When the nasal mucosa is affected by
airborne substances, necrosis and ulceration develop
A depressed scar remains after healing. Perforation of the
nasal septum may also occur with ulceration.
TREATMENT: Topical and systemic antibiotics are indicated
if the ulcer is secondarily infected; otherwise, no specific
treatment is required. Prophylactic measures include use of
long rubber gloves, boots and aprons, and application of 10%
ascorbic acid ointment or solution.
CLUES TO DIAGNOSIS: Suspect in a chemical or industrial
worker with a painless, punched-out ulceration of the skin.
Examine the nasal mucosa. Inquire about the patient'swork
and his exposure to chromates, arsenic trioxide, calcium salts,
and slaked lime.
SITES: Hands, wrists, forearmsand feet. Also, nasal mucosa.
septum.
SYMPTOMS: Chrome ulcers are usually painless; ulcers of the
nasal mucosa may be painful and affect the patient's breathing
and speech.
CAUSE: Chrome ulcers are caused by hexavalent salts of
chrome. They may develop in tannery workers, and in workers
in electroplating, chrome-producing and other industries.
Other causes of skin ulcerations are arsenic trioxide, calcium
arsenate, calcium nitrate and slaked lime (calcium hydroxide).
COURSE: Chronic. Continuous exposure, trauma and
secondary bacterial infection perpetrate the ulcers.
When exposure to chrome is discontinued, ulcers heal slowly
with scarring. Perforation of the nasal septum leaves a
permanent defect.
HISTOPATHOLOGY: Not diagnostic. Ulceration destroys the
epidermis, part of the dermis and may penetrate even deeper.
There is a nonspecific, necrotic reaction.
DIFFERENTIAL DIAGNOSIS: SKIN LESIONS: Traumatic and
factitial ulcers, pyogenic ulcerations, carcinomas. NASAL
LESIONS: Traumatic and pyogenic ulcers, carcinomas.
In tropical regions: rhinoscleroma, leishmaniasis, leprosy.
Chrome ulcer from spilling ot strong chromate solution used
in tanning ot leather.
continued on following page. .
Ulcers/Continued
:
28
TABLE OF COMMON CAUSES OF DERMATITIS IN VARIOUS OCCUPATIONS
AGRICULTURAL LABORERS: Plants, woods, lichens, fertilizers, insecticides,
leather gloves (chromium), animal feed additives (antibiotics, preservatives),
rubber (gloves, boots).
Diseases: Harvest itch (trombiculiasis), grain itch (acarodermatitis urticarioides).
sporotrichosis. In endemic areas: ground itch (hookworm), chromomycosis,
mycetoma, onchocerciasis.
ARTISTS: Painters—turpentine, oil thinners, azo dyes, nickel and chromium
pigments, glue, epoxy and acrylic resins, linseed oil. woods. Sculptors—clay, stone
dust, metals, welding fumes, modeling plastics, plaster. Print makers—acids,
metals, glues, solvents. Potters—clay, dyes. All artists—hand cleansers.
FLORISTS. GARDENERS, NURSERY WORKERS: Plants, bulbs, woods, fertilizers.
insecticides, manure, earth, molds.
Diseases: Sporotrichosis, paronychia.
GARMENT AND MILLINERY INDUSTRIES: Dyes, nickel, formaldehyde.
bleaching agents, solvents, carbon tetrachloride, feathers, glue, chromium salts,
wool.
HOUSEHOLD WORK: Flowers, plants, polishes, cleansing agents (for woods,
floors, carpets, and others), vegetables, woods, (handles of knives, other tools).
insecticides, soaps, detergents.
AUTOMOBILE MECHANICS: Oil, grease, gasoline, kerosene, rubber, nickel,
chromates (primers, anticorrosives), lead, antifreeze, tetraethyl, paints, paint
remover solvents, epoxy and acrylic resins, glues, hand cleansers.
HOTEL, RESTAURANT, AND FOOD INDUSTRY: Borax, formaldehyde,
disinfectants, spices, vegetables, fruit juices, soaps, detergents, rubber gloves.
woods (handles of knives, other tools).
BAKERSAND PASTRY MAKERS: Sugar, flour, flour conditioners, lemon, spices
(cinnamon). vanilla, azo dyes.
Diseases: Grocer's itch (Tyroglyphus mite infestation), grain itch.
INSULATING INDUSTRY: Fiberglass, mineral wool, solvents, spray dust of
insulating materials, glues.
BARBERS AND BEAUTICIANS: Shampoos, soaps, hair dyes, hydrogen peroxide,
oxydizing agents, bleaching agents, permanent wave solutions, nickel (scissors
and other instruments), hair sprays, perfumes.
CONSTRUCTION WORKERS: Cement (chromium, cobalt), lime dust, epoxy resins.
glues, chromium compounds, paints, paint removers, turpentine, woods, varnish.
wood preservatives, ammonia, fiberglass material.
CANNING.AND FOOD PRESERVING INDUSTRIES: Citrus peels (orange, lemon,
pineapple), chromium, preservatives, irritating juices-and essential oils
(asparagus, celery, fig. lemon, tomato, grapefruit), insecticides, shellfish.
Diseases: Anthrax, erysipeloid.
DENTISTS AND DENTAL TECHNICIANS: Uncured acrylic monomer, local
anesthetics (procaine, benzocaine), antiseptics, essential oils (eugenol, clove oil,
basalm of Peru, eucalyptus oil), formaldehyde, epoxy resins, impression paste.
mercury, nickel.
Diseases: Syphilis, radiodermatitis.
DRY CLEANING INDUSTRY: Glycerin, glacial aceticacid, acetone, benzine,
strong alkalies. carbon tetrachloride, ammonia, hand cleansers.
ELECTRICIANSAND ELECTRICAL EQUIPMENT INDUSTRY: Carbon monoxide,
Bakelite'. lacquer, acetone, bitumen, epoxy resins, insulating tape, nickel,
soldering flux and fumes.
JEWELRY INDUSTRY: Nickel, platinum, hydrochloric acid, sulfuric acid, shellac.
glues, chrome salts, lacquer solvents, cleansing agents.
LUMBER AND WOODWORKING INDUSTRIES: Creosote and other preservatives.
plastics, tar oils, lacquers, varnishes, balsam, turpentine, woods, glues.
MANICURISTS: Nall enamel (toluenesulfonamide resin), nail enamel removers
(solvents, acetone), artificial nails (acrylic monomer), nail hardeners
(formaldehyde).
MEDICAL AND ALLIED PROFESSIONS: Anesthetics (procaine, benzocaine),
antibiotics (neomycin, penicillin, streptomycin), plaster of Paris, formaldehyde.
soaps (borax and others), detergents, acrylic plastics, epoxy resins, rubber gloves.
METAL WORKERS: Antioxidants, chromates (antirust agents), cutting and drilling
oils; sulfuric acid, turpentine, solvents, rubber, cleansing agents.
OFFICE WORKERS: Glues, typewriter ribbons, carbon paper, photocopying
papers, plastics (pens, calculators), nickel (paperclips), rubber.
. PHOTOGRAPHY INDUSTRIES: Developers, including color developers (azo
compounds), hydroquinone, chromates, reducing and oxidizing agents.
ROAD BUILDERS AND REPAIR WORKERS: Tar, asphalt, coal tar. cement.
cleansing agents.
’Trademark
29
TABLE OF INFECTIOUS DERMATOSES RELATED TO VARIOUS OCCUPATIONS
DISEASE
CAUSATIVE AGENT/VECTOR
OCCUPATIONS
Anthrax
Bacillus anthracis
Butchers, handlers of hides and wools, ranchers.
leather industry workers
Bartonellosis (Carrion s disease)
Bartonella bacillilormis
Farmers, rural construction workers, road builders (in
endemic areas)
BACTERIAL
Diphtheria
Corynobacterium diphtheriae
Farmers, rural workers (in endemic areas)
Erysipeloid
Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae
Persons handling fish. meat, poultry or hides;
veterinarians
Glanders
Malleomypes mallei (horses, mules, donkeys)
Animal farmers, stable workers
Paronycnta
Staphylococcus aureus, Candida albicans
Bakers, butchers, cement workers, dishwashers.
engravers, cleaning personnel
Pyoderma
Staphylococq.us aureus and/or group A
beta-hemolyticstreptococcus
Persons engaged in dirty work: streetcleaners.
handymen, automobile mechanics, garage workers.
junk dealers
Tuberculosis cutis
Mycobacterium tuberculosis
Physicians (pathologists), medical personnel.
embalmers
Tularemia
Pasteurella tularensis
Persons handling rabbits or rodents
VIRAL
Cat Scratch Disease
Chlamydiae. possibly (cats)
Pet store workers, veterinarians
Cowpox
Poxvirus (cows)
Milkers, dairy farm workers
Foot-and-Moulh
Coxsackievirus, group A
(cattle^ sheep, goats, pigs)
Farm workers
Milker s Nodules
Poxyirus (cattle)
Milkers, dairy farm workers
Ort
Poxvirus (sheep)
Shepherds, sheep farmers, veterinarians
Psittacosis
Chlamydia psittaci (parrots. parakeets, ducks.
pigeons, turkeys):
Pet store workers, zoo employees, feather workers
AND THE WORKING WOMAN
October 1998
Reprint: March 1999
Suggested Contribution: Rs.20/-. (Students and Activists: Rs.15/-)
Saheli Women’s Resource Centre
Unit Above Shop Nos. 105-108, Defence Colony Flyover Market, New Delhi 110 024
Tel.: 4616485 (Wed. & Sat.)
|
(OHTXHB ]
Sexual Harassment At The Workplace: Gaining More Visibility
3
Definition Of Sexual Harassment In The Guidelines
5
Different Workplaces, Different Experiences
6
Everyday Strategies For Survival
16
To Speak Or Not To Speak? A Perennial Dilemma
17
Repercussions Of Complaining: The Trials And Tribulations
19
Do Women Get The Support They Need ?
20
Complaints Committee: Some Reactions And Suggestions
24
Susheela's Struggle: The Guidelines On Trial
31
Challenges For The Women's Movement: Where Do We Go From Here?
35
fHIOTUtJl O((UHTIONflL WHIM
SEXUAL HARASSMENT AND THE WORKING WOMAN
HXU4IL harassment at the workplace is a form of systematised violence against women. Most
working women at some time or the other face this kind of violence from their colleagues, bosses
or employers. Every mode of production has thrown up specific forms of sexual harassment.
Women working in fields and mines are often sexually exploited by landlords and thekedars
(contractors). Women industrial workers also face sexual harassment from factory owners,
supervisors, and even from their male colleagues, while women employed in the service sector
face harassment from their office colleagues, bosses and clients.
Despite increasing participation of women in all fields of work, changes in social attitudes towards
women have not shown much progress. If anything, they have worsened, with violence at the
workplace probably on the increase. Women in the labour force are viewed as a threat to the
institution of patriarchy. They are seen as 'snatching' men's jobs. ‘Women's place is in the house’,
is the stated as well as unstated dictum. The impact of growing consumerism, the media and the
mindless race of profiteering to ‘capture the market’ have further promoted sexist images of women
and a blatant display of male power aimed at subjugating women.
Sexual harassment is any unwanted attention imposed upon a woman. This form of harassment
which constitutes acts of mental, emotional and physical violence against women, is often
trivialised as 'eve-teasing'. By categorising this intrusive and objectionable behaviour as 'light
flirtation’ or ‘harmless jokes’, the seriousness of the offence is masked. The fact that sexual
— ■ - " • -------harassment can leave a deep and adverse impact on the psyche, is totally
WOMEN IN THE overlooked. A woman's sense of security is shaken by such humiliating
acts. Any woman objecting to sexual harassment is looked upon as
LABOUR FORCE 'hypersensitive', a spoilsport and lacking in a sense of humour. Raising
ARE VIEWED ASA objections against such behaviour often results in a hostile work
THREATTOTHE environment for the woman, delay in promotion, or even loss of the job.
INSTITUTION OF Such implications have discouraged many women from taking action. They
find no cutlet or expression for their anger and humiliation, and at times,
PATRIARCHY
find it difficult to be creative and productive at work. This, again, hampers
------- ----------their chances at promotions and other career opportunities.
[2]
I SlXUfll4IW»ni^HT41TT4IX WO^PLfla: |
ICflININC mo-fi^ YISI^ILITUI
,
'
0
YXft the past twenty years, the autonomous women’s movement has politicised the issue of violence
against women and consistently campaigned against it. This violence, in the form of sex-selective
abortion, female infanticide, child sexual abuse, incest, molestation, rape, wife battering, dowry
•murders, widow immolation and witch-hunting has been brought into the public consciousness
through protests and campaigns. Though sexual harassment at the workplace is also an age-old
problem, women have been left to deal with it on their own, or sometimes with the support of
women’s organisations. However, there have been no effective legal measures to counter it. The
problem received judicial recognition when, on August 13 1997, a three-judge bench of the Supreme
Court headed by the Chief Justice delivered a significant judgement on sexual harassment at the
workplace, ratifying guidelines drawn up by women’s groups.
This non-adversarial petition was filed in 1992 by Visakha, Kali for Women and other women’s
groups following the brutal gang-rape of Bhanwari Devi, a Sathin (village-level worker) in the
government-run Women's Development Programme in Rajasthan. Bhanwari Devi, as part of her
work, was implementing the official campaign to prevent child marriage, in her village. She incurred
the wrath of a group of high-caste Gujars when she attempted to prevent them from marrying off
their minor daughters. In retaliation, they gang-raped her to ‘teach her a lesson’.
The Supreme Court held that sexual harassment at the workplace is violative of Article 14 of the
Constitution which guarantees the Right to Equality as well as Article 19(g) which guarantees the
Right to Practice any Profession or to carry on any occupation, trade or business. Since the right to
work depends on the availability of a safe working environment, and the Right to Life (Article 21)
means a life with dignity, the hazards posed by sexual harassment need to
be removed for these rights to have any meaning. The Court also directed
THE SUPREME
that in particular, it should be ensured that the victims are not victimised or
discriminated against while dealing with complaints of sexual harassment.The COURTGUIDELINES
Court noted, It is discriminatory when the woman has reasonable grounds to
■ believe that her objection would disadvantage her in connection with her
employment or work, including recruitment or promotion, or when it creates
a hostile work environment. In the absence of specific laws to deal with
sexual harassment at the workplace, the Court issued a set of guidelines to
deal with the problem.
AREA VINDICATION
OF THE STRUGGLE
TO GET SEXUAL
HARASSMENTAT
THE WORKPLACE
THE ATTENTION IT
These guidelines (quoted in italics in this report) are significant from several
points of view. First, sexual harassment at the workplace has been DESERVES
recognised as a serious problem. Thus, these guidelines, which are
enforceable in law, are a vindication of the struggle to get sexual harassment at the workplace
the serious attention it deserves. Secondly, the Court made it mandatory for all workplaces to
adopt the guidelines. In addition, the guidelines provide a comprehensive definition of sexual
harassment and a redressal mechanism for handling complaints.
As women working in different fields, all the members of Saheli too have experienced harassment
of various kinds. At some point of time, most of us have had to deal with frustration, humiliation,
[5]
hostility or uncomfortable and tense working environments. With each
situation, ways of coping with the problem have emerged individually
and collectively. With the initiation of an institutionalised mechanism
THE INITIATION OF
of dealing with sexual harassment, we wanted to analyse how far the
AN INSTITUTIONALISED situation was going to change. We wanted to look into the problems
MECHANISM TO actually faced by women, how they cope with them, and see how far
DEAL WITH SEXUAL the Supreme Court Guidelines would actually help working women.
WITH
HARASSMENT,
The purpose of the present survey was to elicit responses of womerr
in different occupations and professions. The focus was on their own
ANALYSE HOW FAR experiences, how they perceived the problem and how they handled it.
We also sought their opinions about the Supreme Court Guidelines, the
THE SITUATION WAS
definition it put forth, and the redressal mechanisms envisaged. Women’s'
LIKELY TO CHANGE suggestions and comments about redressal mechanisms like, the
Complaints Committee, in order to ensure effective implementation of
the guidelines, were also discussed. Alongside, the purpose of spreading information and awareness
about the guidelines among working women was also fulfilled.
WE WANTED TO
While we were not aiming for a uniform statistical representation of all sectors, we attempted to
cover women in a wide range of occupations and from different class backgrounds. Since the
nature, form and degree of sexual harassment varies according to the nature of the job, we tried to
talk to women in a wide variety of occupations.
We interviewed 62 women from different areas of work. These included hawkers and vendors (2)
and domestic workers (3) from the unorganised sector; factory workers (6) in the export garments
industry and a tyre company; nurses (5); doctors (3); a lawyer ; bank clerks (4); an advertising
agency employee; Non-Government Organisation employees (2); university and college teachers
(5); editorial staff in publishing houses (2); journalists (4); scientists (5); junior executives and
secretarial staff of small private firms (5); airlines employees (2); clerical staff in Ministries and
government departments (11); Class IV government employees (2). The women interviewed were
mainly from Delhi, with a few from outside via e.mail. We have also included our personal
experiences from the different professions we have worked in. These accounts are not part of the
formal interviews. In addition, we have included, where relevant, our experiences of helping a •
woman pursue her complaint of sexual harassment, which occurred after the Supreme Court
judgement.
How we went about it: Every interviewee was given a handout (in Hindi & English) in which the
Supreme Court Guidelines were presented in a simple language. A few broad questions were
included. Initial contacts weie made through Unions, Employees' Associations, friends working
in different establishments, and by directly approaching women in various offices and working
women’s hostels. At certain places, the handout was distributed in advance, and subsequently
followed by visits to carry out interviews. We talked to women individually, as well as in groups,
depending on the situation.
While some women were very open, many were initially hesitant to talk. A few denied the existence
of the problem, and others were reluctant to dwell on the subject. The hesitation to speak stemmed
mainly from the shame and social stigma attached to being a 'victim' of sexual harassment, and
the social conditioning regarding what is considered to be a 'private' matter. However, a little
prompting and sharing of our own experiences helped to break the ice. Women were then forthcoming
and talked about their own or their colleagues' experiences. They spoke of their frustrations, their
despair and their struggles. The range of information we gathered and the variety of experiences
shared by the women speak of the subtle nature of the problem, and the need for various strategies
to deal with it. We hope that this survey can contribute to chalking out strategies towards making
the workplace secure for women.
| D-C-riHITIQH 0-C S-CXUflL-H-fl-R-nSSm-CHT IH T4I-C <UII>-CLIH-CS |
4-Dfi this purpose, sexual harassment includes such unwelcome sexually determined behaviour
(whether directly or by implication) as: (a) Physical contact and advances (b) A demand or request
for sexual favours (c) Sexually coloured remarks (d) Showing pornography (e) Any other unwelcome
physical, verbal or non-verbal conduct of sexual nature.
Many women we interviewed found the definition adequate and inclusive. However, some said,
“ though it sounds broad, it is very vague." A lawyer we interviewed pointed out, “It leaves too much
to interpretation and depends heavily on the person who is adjudicating. For instance, the word
'unwelcome' is not very clear, and notions like 'sexual' and ‘non verbal’ are open to interpretation
and can very easily be struck down.”
Some women opined that it is not possible for any legal definition to anticipate the kinds of situations
women find themselves in. According to a member of Saheli, who is also a journalist, “Travelling
alone at odd hours, landing up in new places in the middle of the night or staying alone in lodges
in small towns are all more difficult for women. To feel secure in these situations, one needs an
overall change in attitudes to women rather than only legal provisions.”
Some women opined that discrimination against women at the workplace
does not necessarily constitute sexual harassment. Said a scientist,
“The difference between gender based discrimination and sexual
harassment is very difficult to define.” (See Box on page 15)
One opinion was that the psychological impact of sexual harassment
on women should be reflected in the definition - the humiliation, the
insults and the emotional injury caused by such harassment should be
made visible.
THE UNORGANISED
SECTORCOMPRISES
THE LARGEST
SECTION OF WORKING
It is assumed that all categories of workers in the unorganised sector are
covered by the guidelines. While this is implicit in the definition, we need
to be alert that it is applied in practice, because the unorganised sector
comprises the largest section of working women who are very vulnerable
to this form of harassment amongst many other hard working-conditions.
WOMEN ...MOSTOF
WHOM DO NOT HAVE
A WELL-DEFINED
WORKPLACE
Having talked to women who do not have a well-defined 'workplace', we also feel that the definition
of 'workplace' should be widened. For instance, in the case of hawkers and vendors, the streets
[5]
become the workplace. Also, for some categories of self-employed women, their homes are also
their workplaces. In the context of sex-workers demanding recognition of sex-work as a profession,
the issue of sexual harassment at the workplace also needs to be addressed.
W
0U1XN narrated a wide range of experiences of the nature of sexual harassment they have faced
at work. They spoke of ‘explicit’ or direct sexual harassment as well as 'subtle' and indirect forms
of sexual harassment. Most women have experienced the potential threat of sexual harassment
and many spoke of its very frequent occurrence.
Women in the public sector and in government jobs had a mixed reaction to the nature of
harassment they, their friends and colleagues faced. While a few denied its occurrence in their
offices, most accepted that it does take place, and expressed a need to do something for its
redressal. Even those who denied the occurrence in their offices, agreed that they had heard of
such cases through friends or newspapers. Among the reasons cited for the non-occurrence of
such cases were ; job security which gave them a certain level of protection; strong unions; strict
service rules and transferable jobs. Bank employees, for instance, with transferable jobs, claimed
that they do not fear prolonged harassment or blackmail. The level of protection that women in the
public sector enjoy is equally applicable to offenders. One woman pointed out, “the reverse too is
true: even offenders enjoy protection.” Nevertheless, the bank employees we interviewed, said
that they constantly face a subtle level of harassment in the form of comments about their dress,
make-up or hairstyle. One bank employee complained of male colleagues deliberately discussing
film heroines in a "not-so-decent" manner, especially in the presence of women. Staring fixedly at
women colleagues till some eye contact is made, or the
person gets noticed for his stares, is yet another com
mon experience faced by many.
We interviewed clerical staff from six different
Ministries. One secretary said, “Looks and comments
are constantly directed at us. Men crack jokes with sexual
innuendoes, and laugh heartily at small jokes, especially
“Looks and comments are
when women are around.” She also related another
constantly directed at us.
incident where her male colleague went around showing
Men crack jokes with sexual
a news item of an American woman teacher having raped
Innuendoes, and laugh heartily
her male student who was a minor. He discussed it over
at small Jokes, especially when
and over again with women colleagues. The woman who
women are around”
shared this with us frustratedly said, “This is nothing but
harassment. But it is so difficult to prove, or pin point. Men do all this in a light manner to enjoy
themselves, and if you confront them, they deny that they are doing it to harass women.” Especially
when they are new recruits, women are unable to raise the issue. In another instance, a Director
wanted a South Indian secretary in particular, because “Southies” are generally assumed to be
more docile. As migrants being away from home in a city like Delhi, they are more vulnerable
[6]
due to a lack of a social support structure. The Director would stare at
his secretary all day long, through a mirror placed at a 'suitable' angle.
In due course, he shifted his desk in front of her. Unable to take it
anymore, the woman complained and sought an internal transfer. The
Director was given only male secretaries after this incident!
THE UNSTABLE
NATURE OF THEIR
CONTRACTAND
THE SCARCITY OF
JOBS MAKE WOMEN
These experiences indicate that although women do enjoy job security
in permanent government and public sector offices, they nevertheless
face sexual harassment. The atmosphere in many of these offices can
be emotionally and mentally quite disturbing.
In the private sector, job insecurity, because of the nature of employment
and the lack of enforcement of labour laws, contributes to the occurrence
of sexual harassment, as well as making the victim more vulnerable to
such harassment. They stressed the problem of job insecurity because
their jobs in many instances were ad hoc, temporary or on contract. An
office assistant in a private firm said, “Sometimes women are unable to
resist advances from male seniors or employers because of the fear of
their losing jobs." The unstable nature of their contract and the scarcity of
jobs renders women in the private sector much more vulnerable to sexual
harassment. In a job interview, one woman was told, “You look beautiful
in this red dress.” Nothing else was asked! Although she got the job, she
did not join. In another case, a woman was gifted a mobile phone by her
boss. He uses it at all odd hours to chat with her. Though he had not made
any objectionable remarks until then, she had begun to realise the price
she had to pay for the 'gift'.
IN THE PRIVATE
SECTOR MUCH MORE
VULNERABLE
IRONICALLY,
THE JOB SECURITY
THAT WOMEN IN
THE PUBLIC SECTOR
ENJOY,
IS APPLICABLE TO
OFFENDERS AS WELL
A computer professional in a private firm mentioned harassment by colleagues of the Accounts
Section before passing bills. Unnecessary and embarrassing questions were asked, putting her in
a very awkward position. In several instances, women complained of having to unnecessarily stay
back late. One employee described how only girls are asked to stay back after office hours. In
another office, all work was brought to the woman only towards closing time, leaving her with no
option but to stay back. A member of Saheli, who worked as a personal assistant in a renowned
private firm recalled that she was never given any work during the day. Towards evening, she was
asked to stay back. If she refused, the following day she was held responsible for the firm having
lost out a contract because of her absence. “This kind of behaviour was obviously aimed at forcing
me to stay in the office in the evening, and make me feel guilty if I refused,” she said. In general,
women in private firms are much more secretive and share these experiences less openly with
each other as compared with women in the public sector. The fear of reprisals and insecurity of
their jobs contributes to this culture of silence.
Airlines professionals whom we interviewed said that they did not face any sexual harassment.
This could possibly be because most of the supervisory and managerial-level staff, especially in
international airlines, are women. Moreover, women employees are on par with male colleagues
vis-a-vis grades, seniority, responsibilities, positions and salary. However, the same is not true for
flying staff, now called ‘flight attendants' rather than airhostesses. Despite unionisation, and the
[7]
move to enhance their respectability, flight attendants continue to be easy prey to senior flight
crew, ground crew, male rostering officers as well as passengers. According to a member of Saheli
working in the Airlines industry, “Female flight attendants are harassed in various ways - from
subtle sexual advances and over-friendliness to passing remarks on their looks, about their uniforms;
frequent calls to attend passengers or cockpit crew; phone-calls in their hotel rooms etc." Often
duty rosters are manipulated in order to harass the flight attendants. “They are more vulnerable
since they are away from home, alone and unprotected in strange foreign lands, confined to hotel
rooms with no support systems. Another aspect is that most of the flight attendants are young and
attractive, earning very well, and have gained sudden freedom. Some of them may find it difficult
to distinguish the range from friendliness to sexual advances and exploitation, leaving them
vulnerable to sexual abuse."
The academic world is not free from sexual harassment. A Reader in a college in Delhi University
reported how in a Pali language class that she was attending, the teacher used examples that could
not be taken in ‘good taste’. “ I used to feel very uncomfortable about it," she said. She also
described how the power relationship between teacher and student is utilised to harass students,
especially research scholars. However, cruder forms of harassment also occur on the campus.
Another Reader in a Delhi University campus college has had to face severe
harassment because of the support she extended to a female employee who
had complained against sexual harassment. The Reader was verbally abused
by one of the culprits, and one of her male colleagues even tried to assault
her in the staff room.
The scientists we interviewed spoke about how harassment takes place
“Senior male
at a more general level with inane sexist humour and gossip. Individual
lawyers wield
instances were reported of male colleagues forcibly seeking a friendship
a lot of power.
to the point of harassment. A scientist talked about how a colleague tried
The legal to get close to her, and in a drunken state made advances to her at an
’fraternity’ is official party. Though she did bring it to the notice of the senior scientists
male-dominated
present in the gathering, she was told to calm down and not make a 'big
and intimidating, deal’ out of it. A scientist of a premier research institute had once submitted
especially for a list of items to be provided in the “Ladies Toilet". A huge discussion
a young lawyer.” ensued in the Administration Section as to whose job it was. She was
summoned and questioned in detail about what each item - mug, bucket, dustbin - was needed
for. In her words, “Needless to say that the matter was discussed and made fun of for almost a
month in the corridors by all classes of employees - from peon to the head of the institution."
This was in 1996, and until the date of interview, the request was unfulfilled. Scientists generally
tend to work late hours, especially if campus-based accommodation is available. In such a
situation, unless adequate security measures are provided, the chances of sexual harassment
are quite high, said one scientist. For instance, a senior scientist reported that her junior
female students complained about a sweeper who would stalk them on campus, and look at
them peculiarly. She talked to the concerned authorities, who ensured that the man was posted
for duty in places where his interaction with female students was minimal.
Women in the legal profession have to face various kinds of discrimination. According to a
lawyer we interviewed, “Senior male lawyers wield a lot of power. The whole atmosphere among
[»]
the legal 'fraternity' is male-dominated, and can be quite intimidating, especially for a young woman
lawyer.” The attitudes of judges, male colleagues and seniors is 'non-serious', according to this
lawyer, “Many of them ‘lech’ at you all the time”. Lawyers are also not exempt from physical
molestation. In one extreme case, a woman lawyer was manhandled by the Bar Association President
in front of a number of people. Following this incident and her subsequent complaint, she faced
severe hostility from other lawyers, and found it very difficult to practice.
Journalists stressed that it is the younger and newer entrants into the profession who get targeted
for harassment. They are very often not in a position to judge the implications of what may
appear to be a simple thing like being invited to the boss' room for a cup of tea. In one instance,
a journalist was constantly proposing an affair to a woman colleague. Though there was no
touching or vulgar language, the fact that it went on with unfailing regularity despite her brush
offs, led her to complain about him.
Another journalist spoke of an incident that occurred several years ago. A well-known senior
journalist once asked her, “Do you know what it means when a woman wears lipstick of that
colour..? It means you're willing to do a blow job.” She recalled how naive and young she was
then - she did not even know exactly what it meant, apart from the fact that it had some sexual
connotation. She never again wore lipstick to office. It is extremely
“Some editors
traumatic for young inexperienced journalists embarking on their careers
and celebrities are
to have such encounters with their seniors. Pointed out one journalist,
notoriousfor making
“Editors are far too powerful." Some editors are notorious for seeking
out every young female trainee to sleep with them. Besides, journalists
advances to young
often have to deal with advances made to them by men they go to journalists”
interview. Celebrities, assuming that their status gives them license,
sometimes make advances to young journalists, who least expect such
behaviour from ‘well-known personalities.' What is worse, according to
one journalist we interviewed, is the attitude of male editors who tell
them not to make a fuss, and take it in their stride as part of the
profession. Out-of- town assignments could lead to awkward situations
like having to share a hotel room with a male colleague/boss, and are
often the source of tension and heighten the likelihood of harassment.
The vulnerability is more because of the lack of support when one is out
of town. Late night shifts also leave women journalists more vulnerable,
especially when the office vehicle is not made available.
A woman working in an advertising agency revealed several traumatic incidents she had gone
through. One incident she narrated involved the owner of the agency who used to make passes at
her, since she was young and unmarried, or 'available' in his eyes. Her boss, though sympathetic,
was unwilling to take any action. “The 'brotherhood' always protects each other," she said bitterly.
As a result, she left that agency.
Speaking about another incident helped her to understand and analyse that what she had gone
through was sexual harassment, and not merely a relationship gone sour. In another agency, her
boss, the Branch Manager, began flirting with her right from the interview. “I didn’t think much of it,
since men in advertising are like that - flirtatious, familiar and ‘cool’, but they don’t really do anything."
Professionally, this wcrman was having a tough time, so her boss would spend a lot of time with her.
[9]
To show his concern he would drop the women colleagues at the autorickshaw stand. He would
also take them out for a drink now and then, on the plea of 'developing' his staff. “Actually, in the
beginning, I was flattered that he was talking to me, privileged that a senior in the agency was
taking interest in me and my work. He was a kind of demi-God figure.” But when she talked once
to another colleague, she realised that he was playing up to her as well, sharing confidences about
his troubled marriage etc. “This 'moulding' of young minds works as an aphrodisiac for these
middle-aged men. How come they always try it with juniors, never with women who are on an equal
footing? Soon, I began to feel cheated, and didn’t want to be part of his power play." She then
started shying away from him, but things at work got unpleasant. So much so, that she finally had
to leave this job as well. “Even in consensual relationships which develop in the office, there is an
element of inequality when bosses get involved with their juniors,” said this advertising professional.
These unequal relationships also have a bearing on one’s professional development, she said.
A member of Saheli who has been in advertising since long and also makes documentary films,
drew attention to some other situations in this field. “My first exposure to the ad-agency set up was
as a young trainee in Bombay. In a matter of days, I realised that on one hand it was great to be in
a place which didn’t expect you to behave in a formal, stuck up way, because the average age in
most agencies, especially in the creative department is barely mid/late twenties - so the atmosphere
is sort of college-y. But the flip side of this was that being there entailed bearing with the bratty
behaviour of young men which also included constantly tolerating a lot of dirty jokes [read dirty
male jokes] that you weren’t quite sure were not directed at you. Those are my earliest memories
of feeling uncomfortable in the workplace."
She added that clients also could be lecherous. “One of our biggest clients was the sleazy kind who
would be chivalrous enough to hold the door open for you, while of course laying his hand on your
back." Both advertising professionals also pointed out that since timings in the advertising business
are also haphazard with late nights, working at studios etc., it is imperative that women have a
sense of security among colleagues, adequate transport arrangements, etc.
According to a woman running a Non-Govemment Organisation (NGO), women working in the
‘voluntary sector’ or NGOs are very vulnerable to sexual harassment because they are already
beyond the conventional social norms, working ostensibly to change the existing situation. They
work during odd hours, travel to remote places, and interact with men at different levels. “The
power relationships are more personal based, since the structures of NGOs are more flexible and
there is an air of informality. Here, the boss also has an ‘ideology’ on his side to impress the juniors
with and take them to bed." She further added that women in this sector are more vulnerable
because they expect to be 'safe' in such workplaces and among supposedly progressive colleagues.
Because women in this field are usually less conservative, men feel
they can take liberties with them. “With the personalised relationships
“Women in NGOs
in
the office, speaking about sexual harassment becomes more difficult,
are more vulnerable
because it is viewed as disloyalty, and exposing the whole voluntary
because they expect to
sector, which is supposedly more sacrosanct than the corporate sector.”
be safe in such
workplaces and among
supposedly progressive
colleagues"
An NGO consultant working in a funding agency narrated an incident
that occurred when she was attending a meeting out of town. The woman
she was sharing her room with, broke down in the middle of the night.
While sobbing, she related a harrowing story. This woman, who worked
alongside her husband in an NGO in a rural area, told her that her
husband was constantly making advances to young village girls. He
openly seduced the girls with his charisma and charm. Nobody dared
to confront him, especially not his wife. “She made me promise not to
tell anyone in my office. In any case, I do not have enough power to do
anything. I do not know what can be done if those who are being
victimised do not expose him,” said the consultant.
"A pat on the cheek
She related another incident, which occurred during a training workshop
or the shoulders by
in Bihar. "A 20 year-old unmarried village girl suddenly started bleeding
doctors in the operation
profusely, and became incoherent. We rushed herto hospital, and found
theatres or wards was
out that it was a miscarriage at an advanced stage of pregnancy." When
the girl was a bit better, she began talking, but denied the pregnancy, very common.
and kept on crying. Her friends consoled her, and told her to admit that But we were too timid
the Director was responsible for making her pregnant. But the girl was and scared to complain”
in a state of shock and did not disclose anything. “I was helpless. The workshop had got over by
then, and none of the senior-level people of the NGO were around, so once the girls left for their
village, I returned to Delhi." In Delhi, the consultant, on hearing that the Director of that same NGO
was in town, informed him of the incident, suggesting that he rush back, or at least send some
money to cover the hospital bills. “But he was very casual, and didn’t do anything. Since the girls
had not admitted anything to me, I could not confront the Director. Even if it was a consensual
relationship, it is so unequal and exploitative. But his extreme indifference confirmed that it was
not a relationship to him - just using her for sex.” According to this consultant, such occurrences are
quite common in large NGOs with field staff. Employees are terrified to speak out, since they are
usually young and unmarried, coming from poor backgrounds and jobs are not easy to find.
This is confirmed in the first hand experience of a field-level staff member of a well known NGO in
Orissa, who has been arbitrarily dismissed from work. In a public appeal for support, she has drawn
attention to women facing sexual harassment in NGOs. In her words, “Many heads of voluntary
organisations and senior employees sexually exploit women workers by threatening them with the
loss of jobs if they do not comply. I myself know of many such incidents. These women are not able
to reveal anything for fear of losing their jobs, social stigma and further sexual assault. It is tragic
that those who are appointed in voluntary organisations to work for people’s well being and
empowerment are themselves denied conditions of minimum security” (Translated ).
We interviewed one of the five junior doctors of Maulana Azad Medical College, who in 1996 filed
a case of sexual harassment against the Head of the Department of Dermatology and Venereal
Diseases. The doctors had been tolerating his dirty jokes, obscene remarks and light talk with
sexual innuendoes for a long time. They finally decided to take him to task when he locked one of
them in an OPD-room with a naked male patient. A long protest action and campaign ensued and
the case is still pending in the courts.
A member of Saheli, who is a doctor, related many instances of harassment that she and her
colleagues faced in the beginning of their internship. A pat on the cheek or on the shoulders by
seniors and consultants in the operation theatre or wards used to be very common. “We never
complained to the HOD orthe MS, as we were scared, timid...” Light jokes would be made by male
colleagues while they used to be on 24 hours duty. Since there would be only one Doctors’ Duty
[11]
Room, a senior had once joked that they could all sleep together! Such instances used to be very
unnerving for her. Two other doctors of a premier government institution said that women doctors
do face harassment when they are new in the profession. One of them related a harrowing incident
she had faced in her early years. An Associate Professor once started talking about penile erection,
completely out of context when she was meeting him alone in his office. He went further to explain
to her the functioning of an instrument that is used to measure erection in cases of male infertility
and impotency. She felt extremely disgusted with the man. It was only after a long time that she
realised that the incident was nothing short of sexual harassment.
Some of the nurses in a government hospital were hesitant to admit that sexual harassment
does take place. They repeatedly emphasised the protection of being unionised. The reluctance
to speak could possibly be because they felt that their profession does not get the respect it
deserves. They felt that they are accorded lower status than doctors, even though ttiey too go
through rigorous training. Moreover, there is an underlying speculation that nurses are romantically
involved with doctors they work with. An office bearer of a nurses’ union
at a premier medical institute said that their demand to scrap western
style uniform and adopt saris as their uniform was linked to the
denigration and trivialising of the nursing profession. Despite initial
reluctance, the nurses came up with all kinds of incidents that occur. In
one instance, a young resident doctor caught hold of the nurse on duty
in the ICU and kissed her. An enquiry was conducted, and finally his
“I once heard the services were terminated.
relatives of a patient
A shocking incident involved a nurse who had sent an acquaintance of
discussing me.
hers to the Medical Superintendent (MS) fora job in a premier government
They said, Isn't she hospital. The MS promised the job on condition that the applicant went
nice? Would you like to out for dinner and spends the night with him. She fled, and informed the
have her?” nurse, who complained against the MS. The MS then claimed that the
nurse was suffering from psychiatric problems and got her admitted into the ward. The MS is
apparently well-known for seeking a night out with every young woman he comes across at work.
Very recently, he has been suspended on charges of corruption.
Nurses face harassment from outsiders too. One of the nurses narrated how, when she was attending to
a patient, she overheard the patient’s relatives talking about her, “Isn't she nice? Would you like to have
her?" She added that such experiences are common, but they have to learn to ignore such remarks.
These nurses stressed that their employment in a government institution offered a relatively high
degree of security from sexual harassment. This protection was sorely lacking in private nursing
homes characterised by low wages, longer working hours and no job security. Moreover, since
many of the new entrants into the profession are migrants from Kerala, they are less capable of
defending themselves from sexual demands linked up with job security. Being new to the city,
unfamiliar with the language, and often dependent on the job for their housing too, leaves them
more open to exploitation. Unfortunately, we were not-able to speak to any of the nurses currently
employed in private nursing homes, though some of the nurses we interviewed had at one time
worked in private nursing homes.
A Class IV employee of a government hospital narrated how friendliness with a male colleague
at the workplace leads to jealousies. Other male colleagues then try to play up to the woman,
[12]
and if she does not respond ‘positively’ to them, they take revenge by spoiling her image, giving
her useless tasks and tampering with her records. She added, “Male colleagues would play
games like messing up hand-over procedures at the time of shift change, and try to damage my
professional record.” She also pointed out how men would use “ma-behen ki gaali”(sexist abuse)
and always address women as ‘tu’ instead of the more respectful 'turn' or ‘aap’ - forms of address
typically used by women to men. All this, she felt, contributed to a threatening and unpleasant
atmosphere at the workplace.
We found that the frequency and severity of sexual harassment tends to increase as the security
of the job and income levels go down. The industrial workers we interviewed spoke very
openly, without the least hesitation. A couple of women were actually amused by our questions
as it is such a routine matter in their lives. Some others spoke with anger and humiliation,
almost breaking down as they related their experiences. The extreme case is that of a tyre
company in Jhilmil Industrial Area where women workers are always addressed in filthy language
full of sexual abuses, and are treated as sex-objects. They also face physical assaults. The
‘normal’ conversations are also very humiliating. Said one of the women, “If any man is seen
talking to us, he is asked, "Pata rahe ho kya? Bahar le jana hai kya?" (“So, you are playing up
to this girl...do you want to take her out?") If anyone is wearing a new dress, she is told, “Some
man must have given you this dress.” Similarly, when any woman asks for leave, she is asked,
“So, you want to meet your lover? Are you feeling all heated up?" A 54 year-old woman, upon
applying for one day's leave, had to hear the manager telling the supervisor, “Uske peechey 6
laundon ko lagaa do. Bahut aag lagee hai. Aur chutti nahi legee" (“Set six guys after her so that
the heat cools off and she won’t ask for more leave”).
We found that sexual harassment as a form of control over women workers is a common practice.
In another extreme case, a worker who was suspected of theft, was stripped and sent out of the
factory completely naked. Women also spoke of security guards unnecessarily touching their breasts
and genitals while conducting security checks. While male workers are slapped and kicked, women
are sexually assaulted. “When they attack us, sometimes they pull our bra straps. Supervisors
also catch hold of our breasts.” The management uses all kinds of
methods to humiliate the workers, through their supervisors. As
commented a woman worker, “If they did not encourage it, why would
supervisors do it?"
The above point was reiterated by a woman worker in an export-garment
factory in the industrial area of Okhla. “Managers give a long rope to
supervisors to keep us in place. And constant verbal abuse is part of it
all. Managers never tell supervisors to behave properly towards us.”
Women in these garment factories are per force putting up with
provocative comments, casual remarks in passing, vulgar film songs,
comments on their looks etc. Use of derogatory names, the age-old
tactic of brushing past them, vulgar gestures and loose talk about women
in their presence is an every-day affair. These workers said, “Men laugh
at us for no reason, and their gazes remain fixed on us."
“In the export-garments
industry, they see
our faces and give us jobs.
Women’s skill often seems to matter less than physical appearance.
“In the export-garments industry especially, they see our faces and
[13]
We have to be young,
good-looking and smiling”
aive us jobs We have to be young, good-looking and smiling." Women are hired for their looks,
desoite years of work experience. One woman who went for a job interview had this to say: the
Manager after one look at her told the person who had brought her, “Hamne ladki laane ke Hye
kaha tha' Turn is budhiya ko utha laye ho?"("\Ne had asked for a girl, and you have brought this old
woman’") This woman, in her early thirties, is facing difficulty in finding work because of the
preference for young and docile girls. In a similar situation, when a woman questioned the manager,
"Why don't you ask me about my work?", she was told, "Kaam to aadmi sambhaal hi lete hai.
Dekhne ke Hye koi sundar chehra bhito chahiye"("Work can be taken care of by.men but they need
a pretty face to look at too").
The supervisors are constantly in pursuit of some girl or the other. Penalising the other workers or
terrorising them into silence goes along with it. In one factory, the manager would take one of the
young women workers under a huge table and be there for 3-4 hours. The electricity would be
disconnected to darken the place. Everybody knew what was happening, but nobody could complain
against the manager. As a result, the output of the workers would also suffer.
The three domestic workers interviewed spoke openly about having to put up with offers of
money in return for sexual favours from their employers or their relatives. A domestic worker was
repeatedly approached by the male employer who would catch hold of her hand and urge her to
sleep with him. One day, he thrust a Rs. 100 note in her hand and pressurised her further. She
finally threatened him, “If you insist, I will tell your wife,” and the employer immediately backed out.
In one posh apartment building, an employer insisted that the woman give him a body massage
with oil. She avoided it a couple of times. When he plainly told her that it
The frequency and
was part of her work to keep him happy, she got very scared and quietly
severity of sexual
slipped away from the house. She did not go back even for her salary. In
harassment tends
another case, a domestic worker related how she was quite content working
to increase as
for a family, which was very decent. The arrival of a male relative for a few
jobsecurity and
days brought trouble. He looked at her from head to toe and in a short time
income levels
made her an offer. He said he would give her the same amount of money
go down
she was earning if she would sleep with him. She reported this incident to
her employer, who believed her but did not take any action. This domestic
worker chose to leave that house. She never felt secure in any house for
face
sexual
harassment.
However,
they spoke
of regular
harassment
by
yearshawkers
after this
incident.
The
and
vendors
interviewed
said that
they
not of
specifically
n ... .. . . ,
the P°lice’ Private
security we
guards
of shopkeepers,
anddo
staff
the New
n—U?'C'S Corp°ration <NDMC), a" of who try to prevent them from selling goods on the
Snrinn wh K
Y P
arms’ and while confiscatina our goods, there is usually a scuffle,
during which we sometimes get hurt."
f
A though we were unable to cover each and every area of women's work yet this modest number
orobPm'T
tprov'd eda broad spectrum- We found that despite the wide prevalence of the
hT’f
aysthemat,sed form of v'°lence is yet to get more recognition. While fewer women
Ind faetnZ tnrt LTt°bStaC'e f°rthe mai°rity employed in small private firms
X narf X directlytake ac,l0n a9ainst ^ch harassment. Women in the unorganised sector
are particularly more vulnerable in the absence of any protective legislation. Needless to say, the
frequency and severity of harassment increases as we go down the income levels of working
women. While some confront the harasser openly, many women choose to ignore, take precau
tions, modify or regulate their interaction at the workplace. For a larger section of women there is
no other option but to tolerate harassment - with anger and humiliation. These coping tactics speak
of both resistance and the fight for survival in a hostile work environment.
SEXUAL HARASSMENT AND GENDER DISCRIMINATION
BLURRED LINES OF DISTINCTION
Discrimination against women, although prohibited under the Constitution, is rampant at all levels in
different professions and occupations. This inequality assumes many forms, such as denial of
opportunity in a range of typically male-dominated fields like science, medicine and engineering.
Women are often„not taken seriously, and their work contribution is not given due weight Women
labourers do not get equal wages as men, despite laws declaring that women should receive “equal
pay for equal work". Agricultural labour, construction labour, even labourers in the government's
employment guarantee schemes do not receive equal wages.
The issue of gender discrimination at the workplace was raised by a number of women in the course
of our interviews. A lawyer said, “As soon as I joined the profession, I faced a gender bias. The
attitude of male colleagues and judges is non-serious. Either they don't take you seriously or they
laugh at you. Many times'junior women lawyers are not given work by seniors.” She felt that this type
of harassment causes a lot of mental tension but that it is difficult to relate it to the definition of
sexual harassment in the workplace, as given in the guidelines. She further added that once a
woman is able to establish herself and gets an equal footing, gender discrimination is a way to keep
her down. An empjoyee of a small private firm pointed out that in many offices women are asked or
made to do more work than men. The new entrants especially, are asked to work for longer hours.
This may not directly be sexual harassment, but the fear of such harassment is ever present. An
editor of a publishing house said, “My own experience suggests that for many women the issue is
more about gender discrimination than sexual harassment as such: being passed over for promotions,
being paid lower wages, being on less secure contracts, fighting for acceptable maternity leave,
child care provisions, etc.” A scientist said that discrimination at the workplace is quite often anti
woman and does not necessarily constitute sexual harassment. These and many other observations
in the interviews emphasised on a strong gender bias, which is equally damaging and traumatic for
women. It trivialises women's work and is a total non-acceptance of women on an equal basis.
In our understanding, when gender discrimination is so rampant in almost every area of work,
sexual harassment finds an easy ground. This structured form of violence occurs in a context of
unequal power relationships. Thus women do get victimised by the employer, the boss, the contractor,
the manager, subordinates and colleagues too. Focusing on this form of violence in no way reduces
the vast spectrum of gender discrimination. Highlighting sexual harassment is a concerted attempt
to give recognition to a specific form of violence women face at the workplace. We have to confront
it directly as part of our struggle to put an end to all forms of discrimination against women.
[15]
|
IYUUOJU HMTOU m SU^VIVJL
|
W
Offl-CH grow up having faced sexual harassment ever since they are very young. In varying
degrees, women learn to cope with it in their own ways. A feminist sociologist opined, “As we all
grow up accepting in some way or the other this kind of intrusion in our physical and private space,
we take it for granted (unfortunately), and learn to accept it to some extent." A 29-year-old lawyer
confirms this view, “I have faced a lot of harassment and teasing in school and later in the Law
Faculty. In a way, you get used to it
If I want to stay in this profession, I have to learn to deal with
it.” ‘Learning to deal with it’ comes with the experience of coping. At the workplace, there is no
escape from the perpetrators of this form of harassment. As our interviews confirmed, women
evolve a variety of ways to deal with it.
A senior journalist suggested, “It is better to try to establish equations at the workplace
differently. Then you get treated with more respect. For instance, calling seniors ‘sir’ to avoid
familiarity, dressing conservatively, etc." Another way of coping
OVER THE YEARS, seems to be to act hostile. A woman working as an UDC in a
Ministry said, “I simply snub men. It works. Be hostile. Give
WOMEN HAVE DEVELOPED
dirty looks. Snap at them. You do not need to do more than
MECHANISMS TO COPE that.” A Class IV employee in a government hospital said
WITH THIS MENACE. that offence was her first defence. “You have to be careful not
IT REMAINS TO BE SEEN to be too friendly with men. I always behaved with coldness to
WHETHERTHE SUPREME create a distance between us.” Altering one’s own behaviour,
emerged as a common method of coping. A curb on one’s
COURT GUIDELINES natural behaviour becomes essential to keep male colleagues
CAN STRENGTHEN THESE at a distance. A clerk at the Ministry of Railways says that she
WAYS OF RESISTANCE does not engage in verbal fights. She suggested, “Give a cold
---------- •------------ and stern look ... sit like that. It’s painful, but it works." This
idea is echoed by a nurse at the AllMS, “Be stern. Dress simply. Laugh less. Giving a blank
look also helps." In this way, each woman discovers ‘what works’.
Many women simply ignore all kinds of harassment without showing any visible reaction, which,
needless to say, is a difficult proposition. Another Ministry employee said, “It is better to ignore than
to fight..." Women usually give vent to their feelings when they meet for lunch or as they leave their
workplace. Finding some outlet for their anger and humiliation with friends, gives some relief. “We
have our own circle of friends in the office. We share and discuss everything. If one of us is feeling
low or disturbed, she is cheered up by the others.” One journalist said that she made a special effort
to have a number of friends at the office. A couple of women workers stated that they could only
talk about it while walking back home. “We crib about it on our way back. We abuse them amongst
Ourselves. It takes care of our tension. What else can we do, other than share in this manner?"
What emerged was that middle-class employees do not usually confront colleagues, but resort to
more passive ways of coping, such as ignoring and giving stern looks.
In contrast, factory workers said that they often settle disputes there and then if it involves a co
worker. It is mostly harassment caused by supervisors or the management that they feel helpless
[16]
against. Workers in a tyre company in particular feel terrorised by the daily sexual harassment
by their'superiors'. When asked how they cope with it, the answer was simple - hope and prayers.
In the absence of any source of support, this is the only option. As one worker put it, “Everyday,
every second, we keep hoping that we are not humiliated. It can happen any time to any one. So
we keep praying to God, ‘don’t let it happen today'." The humiliation and shame women feel in
the oppressive atmosphere of this factory is described by another woman, “This factory is notorious
for all this. I don't tell my neighbours that I work here. If my children are asked, they have been
told to say I work in a hospital."
In the absence of laws and guidelines, women have over the years developed their own mechanisms
to cope with this menace. One reason for evolving such coping strategies is the general sense of
futility in making complaints or from the feeling internalised by social processes that such incidents
are a part of life. It remains to be seen whether the Supreme Court Guidelines can complement
such coping tactics and strengthen these ways of resistance.
I
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Strum harassment has for long been shrouded in silence, not just at the workplace, but in the home,
the community and on the roads. In the workplace it has been portrayed as a 'natural' corollary of
stepping out of the home and entering the 'big bad world'. Women have been conditioned to
believe that they should prepare themselves mentally to face such incidents and not make a big
deal of it. Women are reluctant to come out openly and complain against sexual harassment for a
number of reasons.
One major reason is the shame associated with such harassment and the fear of being blamed for
it or looked down upon by others. There is also an overwhelming sense of guilt imbibed over the
years through social conditioning. Women feel that somehow, they are themselves responsible for
what has happened. As in the case of rape, where the victim is made to suffer socially and
psychologically, a sexually harassed woman also lives with a number of apprehensions. One nurse,
for instance, said, “If we make too much noise about these incidents, we may not be able to get
married.” The stigma attached to the victim of sexual harassment is enough of a deterrent, which
leaves women with little choice.
In addition to social humiliation, women do not complain because they feel that no one will believe
them. It was pointed out by many women that both, male and female colleagues, tend to find
fault with the woman complaining of sexual harassment, for instance, calling her aggressive,
a trouble maker, a drug addict, etc. In one instance, the MS of a premier hospital who was
charged with sexual harassment retaliated by declaring that the complainant, a nurse, was insane.
He got her admitted into the psychiatric ward. A woman who dares to complain against sexual
harassment is seen as bold and aggressive - traits which are not regarded as positive for a 'feminine'
personality. On the other hand, seniors, bosses and employers when accused of sexual harassment,
allege that the woman complainant is inefficient or lazy, and in order to cover up her
[17]
own faults is making out a case of sexual harassment. A member
of Saheli who has worked in an advertising agency also pointed
out that in the male-dominated world, professional women feel that
raising the issue of sexual harassment may detract from their
‘professionalism’. In order to mix in as 'one of the boys', women often
attempt to avoid projecting their identity and their problems as women.
MANY WOMEN
POINTED OUT THAT
WOMEN WHO
COMPLAIN OF
HARASSMENTARE
NEVERTAKEN
SERIOUSLY AND
INSTEAD BECOME
OBJECTS OF
RIDICULE
Many women pointed out that women who complain of harassment
are never taken seriously. Instead they are laughed at and become
objects of ridicule. One woman said that people start looking for excuses
for not taking an unequivocal stand in favour of the victim. For instance,
they may say, “Her character may be dubious, she might have provoked
the man, she may actually be involved with him sexually, etc.”
Unfortunately, there is a general presumption that those who face
such harassment are some kind of ‘bad’ women, while 'good' women
would never find themselves in such a situation. Women colleagues
too are reluctant to get identified with such a woman. This seems to
stem from a belief that if women behave in accordance with the limits
set by a male dominated society, they can save themselves from such
harassment.
Women who complain also become the subjects of office gossip - a fate that many wish to avoid.
Lack of support within the office was also cited as one of the reasons why women do not protest
against sexual harassment. Colleagues - both male and female - hesitate to support the woman for
fear of inviting disfavour of their boss or accused colleague and hence the woman is usually
isolated and left to fight a lone battle.
A feminist university professor pointed out that opposition comes from those who refuse to recognise
that such things happen. When anyone points out such harassment, there is a general feeling,
“This person wants to create a problem for her colleagues and for the institution.” She also observed
that this could also be viewed as part of the process of the decline of democratic traditions, for
example, of trade unionism in colleges. This contributes to the isolation of women who then have
no space to protest against injustice.
The repercussions of raising the issue of sexual harassment also act as a deterrent against
complaining. This feeling was echoed by many other women who had tried to pursue their own
cases of sexual harassment or had tried to help a colleague or friend who had gone through such
experiences. A senior lecturer in a Delhi University campus college narrated how she almost single
handedly pursued the case of a Class IV female employee in her college who was sexually harassed.
As a result, the President of the college Karamchari Union tried to hit her. Since she tried to
mobilise outside support for putting pressure on the college Governing Body and the Inquiry
Committee, she was viewed as a threat to peace on the campus. Matters reached such a head,
that a case was registered against her. Thus, besides the stress and strain of following the complaint
through, she had to deal with criminal cases too. Many women pointed out that working life becomes
so uncomfortable once you raise the issue that it is difficult to continue in the same workplace.
“Especially in small organisations, once you make a complaint of this nature, you have no future.”
Another major reason for not complaining against sexual harassment is the fear of dismissal
and lack of job security. In the private sector and amongst women working in the unorganised
sector, the possibility of losing the job acts as a major deterrent in reporting such cases. Women
working in garment factories on piece-rate basis told us that though the harassment they face is
open and routine, they cannot complain. If they do so, the supervisor rejects their pieces and
finds unnecessary fault with their work. The management refuses to iisten to their woes and
sides with the supervisor, claiming that it must be the woman’s fault. Women workers are
threatened that they will be chucked out of their jobs if they persisted in their complaints. Co
workers, although they witness harassment, do not intervene because of economic necessities
and fear of losing the job: “Why invite trouble unnecessarily?".
At a practical level, women stated that it would be very difficult to prove this kind of harassment,
given the nature of evidence required. Taking the issue to court or any redressal committee only
adds to the harassment of the women, it was felt. The fact that the complainant has to keep
repeating what happened is another deterrent. In addition to the trauma of sexual harassment,
the woman has to ‘expose’ herself to everyone she approaches for redressal - the boss, the
police, the lawyer, the press, and the judges. The endless number of dates and appearances is
seen as a source of protracted harassment. Taking leave from work to attend to the follow up of
the complaint is also seen as impractical. Given all these hassles, it is no wonder that women
think twice before making a complaint against sexual harassment. With our own experience of
the legal system, it is also not surprising that even though women do make complaints, the
obstacles in the way of pursuing the case till the end often forces them to drop it somewhere
along the way. Moreover, there is also a general feeling that even after all the bother, nothing
comes out of such complaints.
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The repercussions following the lodging of a complaint usually add to the mental torture of the
woman who is sexually harassed. For instance, a lawyer who was molested some time ago, by the
then Bar Association President and his associates, was made to suffer even more after she tried to
file a case against him. Not only that, the police refused to intervene. Her career too suffered, since
she was thrown out of the Bar Association, and had to face a hostile atmosphere at the Sessions
Court where she practised. Both male and female colleagues labelled her as frustrated and
aggressive and speculated about whether she was a drug addict. Her entry into the toilet was
barred, her workplace was taken away. Despite all these odds, she has continued to pursue her
case, with no support from women’s groups or other progressive groups.
A junior doctor who complained against her head of department, shared with us how she faced
censure from the rest of the medical community for ‘daring’ to complain against such a senior
person. Her M.D. thesis, as well as those of her colleagues supporting her, was held up since their
supervisor was the offender himself!
[19]
Women in the private and unorganised sector revealed that making a complaint against sexual
harassment can invite severe reprisals in the form of whipping with a rope, pulling their hair,
kicking etc. In one case cited earlier, a woman who complained was badly hurt when the
supervisor pulled out her stool just as she was about to sit. When the wages are piece - rate,
pieces produced by women who dare to protest are rejected, leading to loss of wages. In many
other cases, women are simply removed from their jobs on the pretext that the company does
not need them anymore.
In the case of a Reader mentioned earlier, one of the accused abused her and attempted to hit
her in the staff-room. Later, a colleague used sexually abusive language against her. Criminal
cases were put up against her and her husband, also a senior lecturer. On top of this, the
Karamchari Union (to which the accused belonged) passed a resolution demanding action
against her. Further, a karamchari was suspended from the Union for his support to the employee
who had been sexually harassed.
THE FACTTHAT
THE INSTITUTIONS OF
LAW AND ORDER
ARE BASTIONS OF
MALE DOMINATION
ADD TO THE TRAUMA
OF WOMEN
SEEKING JUSTICE
In a case taken up by Saheli, a woman employee with a permanent
job was suspended, and later dismissed for daring to complain
against sexual harassment. Criminal cases were filed against her
by the accused, while the police refused to even register her case.
In addition to the trauma of the incident, and the social and
psychological consequences of coming out in the open, this woman
had to wage battles on several fronts: the labour dispute, criminal
charges, and contempt petition against the company.
Dealing with the police and legal system can be an exhausting
and frustrating experience, as expressed by the junior doctor who
registered a criminal case against her head of department. The
fact that these institutions are bastions of male domination adds
to the trauma and stress of women pursuing cases. In addition to
this ordeal, a lot of money and time is also spent, which becomes
an additional burden.
rDO W0ITHEN CUm SUPPORT T-U-EU MUD ? |
TtlX previous sections indicate that there are a number of factors, which make women hesitant to
talk about the problem of sexual harassment at the workplace and seek redressal. When a woman
picks up courage to speak about it, help and support, especially at the workplace, is crucial. The
absence of support not only compounds her emotional trauma but also leads to a loss in self
confidence. A woman’s credibility is itself questioned. Support from colleagues, friends and even
family members is thus critical. Many times such support helps to pursue the case rather than
fighting a lone battle. The sense of solidarity that builds up during the whole struggle may turn out
to be an effective deterrent, for all potential harassers.
[20]
Though many women felt that there is a great need
to support and help women who face sexual
harassment, it was clear that such support is not
always forthcoming. Unfortunately, many women we
talked to gave a very pessimistic account of the type
of support they got. The general feeling we got from
talking to women was, “No one supports the woman,
and the victim gets isolated and is told to keep quiet
about these matters.” Supporting a woman who raises
the issue of sexual harassment can have several
adverse consequences such as: threat to the job;
spoiling the service book or confidential report;
stopping promotions or increments; false cases;
jeopardising relationships with colleagues, including
the offender and subtle forms of harassment at the
workplace. It is therefore not surprising that colleagues
try to find reasons for not supporting a victim. “No
one wants to add more problems to their own lives,”
said many women.
THE SENSE OF SOLIDARITY
A scientist we interviewed observed that there was
THAT BUILDS UP DURING
no single trend on the question of support to the
THE WHOLE STRUGGLE CAN
woman. Some colleagues unconditionally support the
TURNOUTTOBE
woman, while others support only in return for help
AN EFFECTIVE DETERRENT AGAINST
rendered to them by the victim in some other situation.
There are also many who openly support the offender.
ALL POTENTIAL HARASSERS
Sometimes, jealous colleagues end up enjoying the
whole incident. Not only male colleagues, women colleagues too, are often not supportive. One
woman stated that women are also competitive and suspicious, so they do not help other women.
If at all support is available, it is at a very personal level. According to one woman, “If one has a
good friends' circle, one may get support.”
In situations where all women are placed in an equally vulnerable position, for example in factories
and private firms, it is difficult for them to support each other openly. Women working in such
situations said that they fully understood the pain and humiliation that each of them had to undergo,
but they were unable to help each other for fear of losing their own jobs. One woman worker
admitted, “If anyone is harassed, other workers will not say anything. All are concerned only with
their own work and earning their own bread. I am also like that. No one helps or cares for anyone."
Even where emotional and moral support is given, it has to remain invisible to the management.
No one can individually dare to support - if at all it is done, it has to be done as a group. Reiterating
this view, a nurse in a government hospital said, “Why will colleagues help? Everybody lives in
their own world. At least there is a Union to keep us together, otherwise nobody gives a damn for
anyone else." The helplessness of workers in such situations is articulated by a worker in a tyre
company, “Working on two shifts from 9 am to 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. to 2 am - where is the time to help
the girl or even complain?”
[21]
IT IS APPARENT THAT IN
A SITUATION TORN
WITH CONFLICT,
INSECURITY AND
OPPRESSIVE
CONDITIONS,
A WOMAN WHO DARES
TO SPEAK UP IN
SUPPORT OF ANOTHER
IS HERSELF SELDOM
UNDERSTOOD OR
RESPECTED
Amongst other reasons for the lack of support from colleagues in the
workplace is the prevailing social attitude, which blames the woman
and holds her responsible for the incident. The assumption seems to
be that such women do not 'deserve’ to be helped. Aspersions are
cast about her character, nature etc. This victimisation of the woman
is extended to those who support her. Not surprisingly, women do not
want to be branded in such a manner and thus they hesitate to openly
support a colleague.
A worker in an export-garments factory spoke of the futility of
making complaints, since nobody, not even women, stand by her.
“Complaints boomerang. Some women workers side with the
management and supervisors against anybody who complains.
That will bring them the favour of the management.’’ Why do
women side with the management ? Is it simply fear of losing the
job? It is apparent that in a situation torn with conflict, insecurity,
and oppressive conditions, a woman who dares to speak up is
seldom understood or respected. Even female co-workers fail to see this structured form of
oppression. It cannot be assumed that a woman will understand a woman better.
As our interviews revealed, many women did receive support in several ways from their colleagues
in the workplace. For instance, a worker in a garment factory declared that she always stood up and
spoke for young girls who were harassed but were too scared to speak about it. Similarly, the Class IV
employee in a campus college received unstinting support from the Reader mentioned earlier. A
doctor who is pursuing a case of sexual harassment against her head of department spoke of the
immense support she initially got from her colleagues, both female and male. This initial support for
the doctors’ struggle however, did not remain sustained. In one case, the matter of sexual harassment
could be taken up because of a sympathetic senior woman manager. If there is a sympathetic third
party in authority, victims can pick up the courage to lodge complaints with greater chances of getting
heard. Moreover, we also found that in a few cases, for example, the Reader, though colleagues at
the workplace did not help, other friends and women's groups from outside the institution extended
support in different ways.
The active support of Unions can be extremely energising for a complainant. In a premier
government hospital, the nurses’ union successfully pursued the case of a nurse who was harassed
by a doctor in the ICU. In another instance, the union of an international bank had fully supported
the complaint of sexual harassment made by employees against the management. Union members
told Saheli that they perceived the problem of sexual harassment as a grave threat to women,
and were conscious of such violations experienced by their women members.
Family support also counts in how far the woman is willing to fight it out. If husbands and fathers
are disbelieving, a woman who is sexually harassed finds it more difficult to take up the matter.
An employee of a private company who was suspended for complaining against sexual harassment
said that her mother’s support was very important in her decision to go ahead and fight it out,
especially since she was isolated in her workplace and received no support from her colleagues.
[22]
WHY BLAME THE VICTIM?
It is unfortunate but true that very often, the woman who is harassed is the one who is held responsible.
Blaming the victim is a way of evading the real issue, since confronting the problem is not easy. The
patriarchy inherent in society allows 'men to be men', and makes women bear the onus of male behaviour,
however objectionable it may be. In fact, in our interviews we found that even women often hold women
responsible for the harassment they are subject to. Some of the remarks were : “Women provoke if,
“Why should women support each1 other? They are also competitive arid suspicious."
A couple of nurses stressed that 'good behaviour' can prevent such incidents. One of them said, “If we
behave well, nothing will happen”. A number of women shared their views about the way some women
'behave'. A government employee equally blames women for the overall situation where harassment occurs,
"Had it not been for flirtatious women, I know how to keep men in their place. I am so anti-men - therefore,
when I say women mess up things -1 mean it If all women could see how they are treated in a male world
- our work would be done." A woman in a private firm said, "Some girls do not resist advances of their
seniors or employers in exchange for favours. This generation is more materialistic. It is a race to get
ahead of others ... very few girls have self-respect.” While there can be no moral judgement on how
women ought to behave, there is a need to be cautious of the power dynamics in operation. As an
advertising professional said, "Even in a consensual relationship with someone in the office, it may not
always be an interaction of equals."
Quite a few women spoke about women deliberately using flirtation or feminine charms to get ahead in their
professions. While men use different means to get into the good books of a senior, or manipulate certain
situations to their advantage, some women choose to use their sexuality. Our interviews revealed that other
women colleagues often resent this. They hold such women responsible for the way men perceive all
women. These judgemental views are typical of a patriarchal society, whose norms are weighed heavily
against women. In certain workplaces like advertising agencies, media/press agencies and NGOs, sexual
norms are not as rigid and conservative as elsewhere. Here, interpreting the 'use' of sexuality becomes
even more sensitive an issue. Unless women follow traditional stereotypes of being 'chaste and pure', freer
body language or unconventional dress codes may invite censure even from women colleagues.
Incidents of violation are dismissed as individual events and chance happenings, and it is the woman
who is held responsible. And if the situation or event assumes significance, the victim is further isolated.
A woman who stands up for her ideas or speaks her mind is opposed. As a scientist observed, “male
employees often take the liberty of behaving as they like but criticise women who are bold and assertive.
Unfortunately, women themselves criticise or oppose such assertive behaviour". A lawyer narrated the
incident of an advocate who had faced severe harassment in the Tis Hazari Courts in Delhi, when she
had opposed the lawyers strike against Family Courts. Women lawyers themselves called her frustrated
and aggressive and denied her entry to the toilet in the women's lounge. According to a professor,
"Even women do not seem to understand the issue within the context of power."
It is clear that a woman is expected to adhere to the norms of a male dominated society. She bears the
onus of 'appropriate behaviour', while exploitative male behaviour is assumed as a given. The
assumptions and biases nurtured in a patriarchal society are also imbibed by women. In any oppressive
system, victims also internalise the dominant ideology and thus contribute to the thriving of the
oppression. It is this dominant ideology that the women's movement seeks to challenge.
BLAMING THE VICTIM ABSOLVES THE HARASSER
FROM THE RESPONSIBILITY FOR WHAT HE HAS DONE
[23]
|
comPifliNTS comminw:
^-flCTIOHf-PHP sucwtiohTT
<OniPl-niKT Mechanism: Whether or not such conduct constitutes an offence under law or a breach
ofthe service rules, an appropriate, time-bound complaint mechanism should be created forredressal
of complaints.
Complaints Committee: The complaint mechanism should provide, where necessary, a Complaints
Committee, a special counsellor or other support service. Confidentiality should be maintained in all
these dealings.
The Complaints Committee should be headed by a woman, and not less than half of its members
should be women. To prevent the possibility of undue influence from senior levels, such Complaints
Committees should involve a third party such as an NGO or other body familiar with the issue. This
Committee must make an annual report to the concerned Government Department regarding the
complaints received and action taken.
Failure to comply with this Court Directive would amount to contempt of court.
A few women had a clearly negative reaction to the proposal of a Complaints Committee. It was
for two reasons: first, that the guidelines seem to place too much trust on the employer for the
formation of a Complaints Committee assuming that the employer is the best protector of employees’
interests. It overlooks the situation where an employer, a manager or an owner of a firm himself is
the perpetrator of sexual harassment.
THE GUIDELINES
PLACE TOO MUCH
TRUSTON
THE EMPLOYER FOR
THE FORMATION OF
A COMPLAINTS’
COMMITTEE
AND ASSUME THAT
THE EMPLOYER IS
THE BEST
PROTECTOROF
EMPLOYEES’
INTERESTS
Secondly, the general experience of women with law and legal
procedures has not been very positive. Thus they feel, that little or
nothing would be achieved. For example, a clerk in the Ministry of
Railways said, “Even rape cases are difficult to prove - despite
medical examination and other evidence. When something as blatant
as rape does not get 'proved' and rapists are not punished, in cases
of sexual harassment it would be much more difficult to prove a
case because of the nature of evidence."
However, the majority of the women interviewed expressed the
need for such committees, though they were equally doubtful
about their efficacy. In the words of an employee of a private computer
firm, “It is useless. Just a waste of time.” An employee of a publishing
house said, “I don’t think that a Complaints Committee would be
acceptable to many women or the management if it’s focus was purely
on sexual harassment. It would be better to combine various issues of
discrimination under one umbrella....because other forms of
discrimination perhaps play an equally important part of their (women’s)
experiences and the two issues may not be unrelated.” A scientist reiterated this view also. A
feminist activist and journalist opined, “rather than just setting up a Complaints Committee, work
conditions should be defined. Appropriate security should be part and parcel of working conditions."
[24]
A few women expressed their fears and reluctance in approaching a Complaints Committee. The reasons given by them reflect the
general prevalent social attitudes on the issue. Said an executive
of a private firm, "Complaints Committee is a good step - but
people may not want to complain because social image/status
may get destroyed." According to a scientist, "women may not
want to approach for the fear of standing out, being identified as
a victim.” “But young and unmarried nurses won’t go there",
professed a nurse working at a government hospital.
“It’s of no use to us.
Who will sit in it?
All the same people who
harass us 1”
Some women from the unorganised sector were also vehement
claiming that “It’s of no use to us. Who will sit in it? All the same
people who harass us I” (Women hawkers in Connaught Place).
They felt that if their livelihood is made secure and they are allowed
to earn a decent living there’s no need of any committee. They can
deal with other things on their own. We feel that such a reaction to
the formation of Complaints Committee came mainly because, for these women the primary issue
was of their survival. All other problems including the problem of sexual harassment came after
that. Thus for these women, harassment by police and MCD officials or goondas was the main
issue. While for others, the general experience about the ineffectivity of such mechanisms, which
emanate from management being part of it, lack of support to the complainant, not believing the
victim and the problems of proving such harassment was the major cause for doubting the efficacy
of a Complaints Committee.
Some women also responded positively to the idea of a Complaints Committee. Many women
voiced the need for a redressal mechanism. To quote a few examples :
♦ A domestic worker felt that the mere existence of a Complaints Committee would make women
feel encouraged to come out openly and go there with their problem/complaint.
♦ Another domestic worker said that a Complaints Committee will be effective as a first step. “If
there is no Committee, who will women talk to ?"
♦ A worker emphatically said, “Every factory should have it - every working place."
♦ A Reader in Delhi University said, “The long time that it takes to pursue such cases and that too,
without any success is quite frustrating. It takes out your time, energy and money too, disrupts mental
peace and family life. In such a situation, the total absence of any redressal mechanism takes up your
energy even to get such types of mechanism created, before one can proceed on to other steps."
♦ Another Reader opined that a Complaints Committee is important as a first step towards recognising
the existence of such a problem, as well as a place where women can lodge complaints.
♦ An employee of the Ministry of Railways felt, “If it is the boss himself who is harassing - there is
all the more reason to have a Complaints Committee.”
The need for a Complaints Committee was expressed, both in the organised and the
unorganised sector, even if it is for 'name sake’ as opined by a journalist. A scientist opined that the
existence of the guidelines and a Complaints Committee would help women to articulate the
[25]
problem and seek its redressal. “Even though I raised my voice against
a senior colleague who harassed me at an official party, I was not clear
about what action I could take. If this incident had occurred after the
Bajaj vs Gill case, or after the Supreme Court judgement, I would
definitely have lodged a formal complaint against him.” In the absence
of a Complaints Committee, women do not know who to complain to,
whom to approach - the police or a women's group. Women are hesitant
to go to the police station for reporting the matter because of the police
constantly try to prove the woman wrong.
“There has to be
some redressal.
It can’t be like it
has been so far.
A change is
Overall, quite a few women interviewed were hopeful that a
Complaints Committee could be effective and that it could work as a
deterrent. Some of them were cautious saying that “we should try
and see” and that it could be effective if it is free of vested interests!
Supporting the general view of being effective as a first step, a
needed.
government employee aired her view in these words - “At least
extreme cases can come to the Complaints Committee. There has
How it will work
to be some redressal. It can’t be like it has been so far. A change is
is left to be seen”
needed. How it will work is left to be seen." She also warned that
“the inquiry should not delve into detailed questioning and asking stupid questions. That’s the
beginning of invalidating a case. It should not work like the police or the courts who try all the
time to prove the woman wrong ... what will be the use then ?”
Functioning of the Complaints Committee: Those who spoke about the futility of having a
Complaints Committee at the workplace as well as those who strongly felt the need of it even as a
first step, expressed their apprehensions about the functioning of such a committee. Most of them
expressed a fear about biased, pro-management functioning, especially if it was an internal
Complaints Committee, i.e., a committee at the workplace constituted by the employer for probing
into cases where the employer/boss or senior officers could also be the culprits. Hence, the majority
voiced the need for an External Committee, so as to keep it out of the firm's/management’s power
structure and influence. This is especially true in case of small private firms. To quote an employee
of one such firm, “A centralised type Complaints Committee might help more than every firm
having it ....On the lines of Consumer Redressal Cells. In this way, the Complaints Committee
would remain outside the firm's power structure." A journalist suggested an independent, external
Complaints Committee on the lines of the Press Council, to cater to all media personnel. This
would be an attempt to ensure that in-house Complaints Committees are not influenced by editors
and senior staff within newspaper establishments.
Who should constitute the Committee? The objective is not just to have a Complaints
Committee, but also to make it function impartially and effectively. A number of suggestions
came as to who should constitute the committee. There were suggestions to make it mandatory
to include a representative of the Unions or Employees’ Associations (wherever they exist) in the
Complaints Committee. Some of them agreed with the Supreme Court Guidelines for including
members of NGOs, women’s groups or social organisations in the Complaints Committee. There
were further suggestions of including a member from the media, which they feel will act as a
[26]
deterrent. In addition it was suggested that retired judges, lawyers, retired female police officers,
administrative officers, clinical psychologists, a senior member of the concerned organisation/
institute; professionally trained people, feminist psychologists, a socially conscious outspoken
local representative from the city/town, should be part of the Complaints Committee.
The main concern expressed was that a Complaints Committee should have members not just
with knowledge of the issue but they should also have good intentions and motives. Another concern
was that a Complaints Committee should be effective and take decisions expeditiously. It should
be neutral and fair and just. Voiced two factory workers, “Insaaf waala insaan chahiye" (“There
should be people with a sense of justice").
An employee of a publishing house is of the opinion that Complaints Committees will network in a
private firm, because employers would be part of the committee. An employee of a garment
factory said, “it is pointless to have the management, including supervisors, in the Complaints
Committee. They will always compromise in favour of the company and
attempt to salvage the reputation of the company”. According to an
“The impartiality
employee of a private company, “The Complaints Committee is another
of a Complaints
typical example of ignoring the management-employee conflict. The
Committee
committee consists of people hand-picked by the management. For
constituted
entirely
instance, one of the so-called ‘independent’ committee members was
by members of
present during the domestic inquiry held to inquire into my alleged
the management’s
misconduct. The impartiality and good intentions of a Complaints
choosing
Committee constituted entirely by members of the management’s choice
is questionable.
is questionable. Even the NGO members in the present case, are friends
Expectingjustice
of the management. Expecting justice in such circumstances is like asking
for the moon!"
would be like asking
for the moon”
A number of women endorsed the provision in the guidelines regarding
the presence of NGOs in the Complaints Committee. However, the legitimacy enjoyed by NGOs
is often only a mask. The mass institutionalisation and commercialisation of social and
development issues has also given rise to unfair labour practices and corruption in these bodies.
Further, there is an increasing incidence of sexual harassment of employees in NGOs, as
confirmed in our interviews. In our opinion, the heads or representatives of such NGOs are least
qualified to play the role of independent arbitrators in Complaints Committee of other institutions.
Presence of Women in the Committee: There was a general consensus on having female
members in a Complaints Committee with percentage varying from 50-70%. The various reasons
given were - the complainant women will feel more free to talk to female members; that the latter
would understand the problem better; women gossip less than men would on such an issue; their
presence would ensure that women will not be doubly victimised or harassed further and that the
victims will get a fair hearing.
Two bank employees were, however, sceptical about the presence of female members in a
Complaints Committee saying that “it is not necessary that the presence of women will help.
Sometimes women play games too, to seek favours. Their presence will only ensure that they
[27]
understand our problems. Men may not even consider this as a problem.” A young doctor at
Maulana Azad Medical College involved in the case against her head of department accused of
sexual harassment by several junior doctors, opined bitterly that women are women’s worst
enemies. “We had an Inquiry Committee with two men and two women. The women were worse.”
The women committee members were friends of the culprit, and not surprisingly, the Committee
gave him a clean chit.
Except for a scientist who is of the opinion that a Complaints Committee should only have
female members, no other woman was against having male members in a Complaints Committee.
Opined a lawyer, “it should have equal representation of men. Strategically, it would be better to
have men also in it, otherwise they (men) will tend to dismiss the Committee as ‘ a bunch of
hysterical women.’ Also sensitive men may be more understanding." A journalist too expressed
that “ a compassionate or well-meaning man will also be effective.”
In our experience, the mere presence of a woman in a Complaints Committee does not guarantee
a pro-woman perspective. In several instances, even senior women members in such committees
have preferred to protect the reputation of the institution rather than give a fair hearing to the
woman concerned. Besides, it is a fact that they themselves may not be free from patriarchal
attitudes and biases.
Support Networks: Considering the hesitation in lodging a complaint due to the fear of social
stigma and/or losing the job, etc., the need was voiced for building up popular support and
support networks for mutual counselling and confidence-building amongst the victims to encourage
them to lodge a complaint and pursue it. A lawyer stressed this point on the basis of her own
experience. She said that with popular support - especially of male colleagues, there are more
chances that the culprit would amend his ways. She feels that going to bodies like Bar Council is
useless as they are male dominated and are full of ’boss-like’ characters. In the absence of
support, whether it comes from friends, family, colleagues or a women’s organisation, the victim
loses courage and it becomes a lone battle. Said a domestic worker,
“Even if there is a Complaints Committee, people should go in a
group ... it is useless for a woman to go alone. She will not be believed
and only be further victimised.” The basic feeling behind these
opinions was that the victim gets isolated in such situations and unless
that situation is changed, nothing can be achieved by merely making
a law or constituting a Complaints Committee.
“Efforts must
be made to propagate
the view that the
culprit must be
denounced, and not
the woman”
In addition some women also felt that there is a need to make this a
public issue and have more dialogue with men on this problem. A
journalist suggested having regular meetings of women employees
for discussing sexual harassment and other similar complaints. A
scientist reported how her colleague who was being harassed by a
male colleague gathered enough courage to complain after she
attended a meeting held on campus to publicise the Bajaj vs Gill
case. Since the offender was a contract employee, he was verbally
reprimanded and his contract was not renewed. According to a
[2»]
University Reader, “Train the society to unite on these issues and fight for the rights.” The need
for a campaign was also voiced by a feminist university professor, who added, “There should be
a movement that will confront and attempt to change the culture regarding this issue.” It was
generally felt that rather than ignoring the existence of this problem, efforts have to be made to
make people aware of it and propagate the view that it is the culprit who is to be denounced and
not the victim!
To sum up, a need was felt, in general, to have some redressal mechanism to deal with sexual
harassment matters. A mechanism that will be expeditious, time-bound, sympathetic, and
understanding not only to the woman complainant but also towards the issue. It should be free of
lengthy procedures and unwarranted questioning. The people constituting a Complaints Committee
should be impartial and be able to render justice to the complainant.
Note should be taken to widen the scope of the Complaints Committee to include harassment due
to gender discrimination along with sexual harassment. Steps should be taken to define the work
conditions to free it from any kind of harassment and provide appropriate security at workplaces. In
addition the campaign has to be taken further for changing the prevalent social attitudes, especially
among men. We should work towards a future when the perpetrators of sexual harassment have to
be denounced and not the concerned women. In the end, women should muster the courage to
expose the culprits and raise their voice. “A wrong is a wrong. One should not remain silent”, as
aptly voiced by a worker from a garment factory.
IF YOU, OR SOMEONE YOU KNOW, IS BEING SEXUALLY HARASSED,
HERE ARE SOME TIPS THAT MAY HELP YOU CONFRONT THE SITUATION:
♦
♦
♦
Don't blame yourself or feel guilty. The man harassing you is entirely
responsible.
Don’t try to ignore the problem. Harassers don't get the message easily.
Let the harasser know as directly as possible that his attentions are
absolutely unwanted.
♦ Keep a diary of events and instances. Save any note from the harasser as
evidence. Try to enlist the help of any witnesses.
♦ Be brave about talking to friends and colleagues. Generate their support
for any action you want to take. Publicly exposing the harasser, even
through the media, can often be effective.
♦ If there is a trade union or employees’ association at your workplace, get
them involved.
♦
Make a written complaint to your senior/employer. Remember that the
Supreme Court Guidelines compel them to take immediate action.
♦ You can also register an FIR with the local police and pursue legal action.
♦
Whether or not you decide to take such action, you can also contacta
women's organisation which can offeryou help and support.
[29]
INFORMATION ABOUTTHE GUIDELINES
A GAP TO BE BRIDGED
Awareness of the rights of female employees in this regard should be created, in particular by
prominently notifying the guidelines (and legislation when enacted) in a suitable manner.
Barring one or two exceptions, this provision had not been complied with by employers in any
workplace at the time we began our survey. According to a woman in a private company who had
complained against sexual harassment, “It is not likely that the management will raise awareness
about this issue, because the management will allege that women employees will 'unnecessarily'
keep bringing 'false' complaints against men in the office. In order to counter this view, a mechanism
to sift out genuine cases can be evolved.’
Preventive Steps: All employers or persons-in-charge of workplaces, whether in the public or private
sector should take appropriate steps to prevent sexual harassment:
a) Express prohibition ofsexual harassment at the workplace should be notified, published and circulated.
b) The Rules/Regulations of Government and Public Sector bodies relating to conduct and
discipline should include rules/regulations prohibiting sexual harassment, and provide for penalties
against offenders.
c) Steps should be taken by private employers in the standing orders under the Industrial Employment
Act. 1946.
Most of the women we spoke to were not aware of the Supreme Court Guidelines prohibiting
sexual harassment at the workplace. In fact, the survey was combined with an attempt to raise
awareness on the issue and disseminate information on the guidelines and also inform women
about the redressal mechanisms available. Our interviewees put forth several ideas on ways to
popularise the guidelines so that more and more women know about them.
Many women suggested making effective use of both print and electronic media to spread the information.
They felt that women's groups should make special effects to popularise these guidelines by distributing
pamphlets and leaflets on a big scale. Some women strongly felt that talking personally to women helps
instil confidence and that it is more important than simply disseminating information. A government
notification and propaganda could help in making all employers, managers, bosses, supervisors and
contractors aware of the existence of such guidelines. The personnel department of every office should
be responsible for providing all workers with information about their rights and terms of employment
and methods of redressal of grievances. Guidelines on “rules of conduct’ should include sexual
harassment as a punishable crime and be given to each employee at the time of joining. Every organisation
should have a women’s grievance cell which should arrange meetings, lectures and seminars which are
open to all employees. In addition, posters and notices should be put up in all public places announcing
that “Sexual harassment at the workplace is a criminal offence." It has to become a subject of
daily talk and deliberation so that everyone is forced to recognise it.
Popularising the guidelines does not simply mean making women aware of their legal rights. The
guidelines could additionally be used to bring consciousness in society that such harassment at the
workplace is nothing short of a criminal offence.
[30]
T41UUIEUim ON im 1
|
PutlNC the course of the survey, Susheela approached us for help in dealing with sexual harassment
she had undergone at the workplace. We are presenting the case in detail so that we can share
with others in the field the experience of attempting to operationalise the guidelines.
Susheela (name changed), employed as an EDP (Electronic Data Processing) Executive since two
and half years in a pharmaceutical company located in Ghaziabad, approached us for help to deal
with sexual harassment which she faced at her workplace. Ramesh (name changed), the cleanliness
and sanitation contractor of the Company, used to repeatedly harass Susheela, but she tried to
ignore it and continue with her work. However, the situation was becoming intolerable. On 3.11.97,
he sang sexually suggestive songs, used foul language, and made obscene gestures at her. He
also made physical advances to her, despite her strong objections. Following this incident, Susheela
made a written complaint to the Manager (Administration).
THE ROLE OF MANAGEMENT
Although the offender was not an employee of the company, the guidelines do cater to this.situation: Where sexual harassment occurs as a result of an act by any third party or outsider, the
employer and person-in-charge will take all necessary steps to assist the affected person in terms
of support and preventive action.
IN A CLEAR CASE
OF VICTIMISATION,
SUSHEELA WAS
SUSPENDED
ON THE VERY DAY
THATSHE
LODGED
THE COMPLAINT
Ramesh, though not an employee, had access to the workplace (being
a contractor). Following the complaint lodged by Susheela, Ramesh
was prohibited from entering the company premises, but his contract
was not cancelled. On the other hand, in a clear case of victimisation,
Susheela was suspended on the very day that she lodged the complaint.
The management of the company, instead of dealing with her complaint
in accordance with the guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court in
cases of sexual harassment, issued a letter alleging that she had used
abusive language against Ramesh and had beaten him up with a chappal,
stating that this constituted "serious misconduct and breaking the
discipline of the company”. Clearly implying that the management
expects women facing such harassment to suffer it quietly and not raise
their voice against it.
It shall be the duty of the employer or other responsible persons in workplaces and other institutions
to prevent or deter the commission of acts of sexual harassment, and to provide for the resolution,
settlement and prosecution of sexual harassment by taking all steps required.
In the present case the Company not only failed to carry out its duty, it went a step ahead by turning
a blind eye to the real issue of sexual harassment and portrayed the case as that of a labour
dispute i.e., a case of misconduct. Susheela was penalised.
[31]
ENACTING
A FARCE,
THE MANAGEMENT
SETUP
A COMPLAINTS
COMMITTEE
AFTER HAVING
DISMISSED
SUSHEELA
Saheli attempted to pressurise the management to view the case in its
proper perspective, i.e„ as a case of sexual harassment and also apprised
them of the Supreme Court Guidelines in dealing with such cases. But all
along the management refused to concede that sexual harassment had
occurred. They also didn’t like the idea of a women’s group intervening
and questioned Saheli's credentials, insisting that we have no locus standi
to intervene in what they perceived as a 'labour case'.
Negotiations were held with the management, alongside attempts to
initiate criminal prosecution for contempt of court, while at the same
time we also tried to deal with the criminal charges instituted against
Susheela by the offender.
The management held a domestic inquiry. Three other women employees, who were witnesses to
the incident gave evidence against Susheela. Following the domestic inquiry, the conclusion was
reached that she was guilty of misconduct. Although the Supreme Court Guidelines clearly specify;
during the period when a woman’s complaint of such harassment is being processed, care should
be taken to prevent her further victimisation, Susheela was dismissed on 2.4.98.
EXPERIENCE ATTHE LABOUR COURT
Susheela had made a complaint at the office of the District Labour Commissioner (DLC). Saheli
raised the issue of the Supreme Court Guidelines, but the Assistant Labour Commissioner was
hostile. He claimed that he had nothing to do with the Supreme Court Guidelines and sexual
matters are 'not applicable’ to him !! Before our intervention the DLC was ready to close the case,
and wait for Susheela to get terminated after which it would become a ‘proper’ case. Since the
DLC’s office is only an arbitration body, it does not have powers to enforce anything.
Following our intervention the DLC was compelled to hold another inquiry and bring out a report.
The first time when Saheli met the DLC, who was a woman, she was quite interested in the guidelines,
about which she herself had no previous knowledge.
The lack of sensitivity of institutions such as the DLC’s office is too well known to need repetition.
It is a moot point whether such anti-worker and anti-women institutions can at all help women.
The labour case is usually handled by lawyers who are unaware about the Supreme Court
Guidelines. In Susheela's case, her lawyer, despite suggestions from Saheli was unable to
creatively interpret and use the guidelines in the labour case. The judges in the Labour Court,
too, are not aware of this judgement, and are not very receptive to the intervention of women’s
groups either.
PENALISING THE VICTIM
In a bizarre turn of events, the offender had lodged a complaint through the Judicial Magistrate and
got a criminal case registered against Susheela under section 325 of IPC (voluntarily causing
hurt), 500 (defamation), 501 (printing defamatory statements) and 506 (criminal intimidation). A
[32]
warrant was out for Susheela's arrest. She had to run around for getting bail and the case is now
pending in the Sessions Court.
Since the criminal cases against her are motivated, false and without any basis, it is obvious they
have been filed with the intention of harassing her further. She has now approached the High Court
to ask for the quashing of these baseless cases against her.
On the other hand, the difficulty faced by women in pursuing criminal cases is illustrated by
Susheela’s inability to get even an FIR registered despite intervention from Saheli by way of
meeting high ranking police officials, the city magistrate and letters to the District Magistrate.
Following an incident when the security personnel of the company tried to forcibly make her sign
a document without allowing her to read it, Susheela had made another written complaint at the
police station. This too was not registered as an FIR.
THE COMPLAINTS COMMITTEE
The Complaints Committee came into existence the very day Susheela was dismissed. The
reason for this much belated action was a legal notice from a Supreme Court lawyer, who has
also been helping Susheela. It stated that failure to fulfil and discharge the obligations and duties
imposed by the law laid down by the Supreme Court would amount to gross contempt of court,
inviting penal action.
A farcical situation ensued, whereby the Committee was inquiring into a
complaint of sexual harassment committed on a woman who had by
that time been dismissed by the management. However, now that the
Complaints Committee had been set up, the management expected
Susheela to attend the proceedings. Susheela gave the Complaints
Committee a plea in writing that this procedure was not in keeping with
the Supreme Court Guidelines, and that Complaints Committee is meant
to look into cases only of the employees of the organisation. Susheela
requested them that she should first be reinstated and repeatedly assured
them that once they have fulfilled this basic requirement, she would be
happy to appear before the committee.
THE LAW MUST BE
USED WITH
EXTREME CAUTION
IN A CONTEXT
WHERE
ANTI-WOMEN
PREJUDICES
DOMINATE, LEST
THE STRUGGLE
TOGAINJUSTICE
Without paying any heed to Susheela's plea and the legal validity of her
BACKFIRES
demand to be reinstated, the management went ahead with the inquiry.
The setting up of this Complaints Committee was just an eyewash, aimed
at protecting the company’s own interests by appearing to be a fair and just organisation. Not
surprisingly, the Complaints Committee came to the conclusion that there had been 'no incident' of
sexual harassment against Susheela.
This initial experience of dealing with sexual harassment at the workplace provided us with a few
insights into the working of the Supreme Court Guidelines. In our first attempt to make use of the
guidelines, several of our assumptions and apprehensions about the working of the law enforcing
machinery were confirmed. The law must be used with extreme caution in a context where anti
women prejudices dominate, lest the struggle to gain justice backfires.
[33]
OPTING FOR CRIMINAL PROSECUTION
WILL JUSTICE BE DONE?
Where such conduct amounts to a specific offence under the Indian Penal Code or
any other law, the employer shall initiate action by making a complaint with the
appropriate authority.
The employer, has a duty and responsibility to initiate criminal prosecution in case the
sexual harassment perpetrated amounts to an offence under the Indian Penal Code.
These directions would be binding and enforceable in law until suitable legislation is enacted
to occupy the field.
In operation, however, a woman who decides to pursue a complaint of sexual harassment
at the workplace has to take recourse to already existing laws. In the first place, given the
corruption and anti-woman biases of the police, even getting a FIR registered is a Herculean
task, requiring enormous perseverance and dogged determination. Subsequently, the penal
provisions applicable to such cases are IPC 509 (insulting the modesty of a woman), and
section 354 (assault or use of criminal force to a woman with intent to outrage her modesty).
As is evident from the wording of these provisions, the offence is rooted in the patriarchal
notion of a woman’s ‘modesty’. Past experience with prosecution in rape trials has shown
that legal provisions and procedures are weighed heavily against women.
in terms of a criminal prosecution for sexual harassment at the workplace, three crucial
issues are brought to bear on the complaint:
1. Consent : The woman has to establish that she did not consent to the offender’s
behaviour. This is extremely difficult to prove, since it is usually the woman who is judged
and blamed, and not the offender. The burden of proof is on the woman to establish that
she did not consent to the offender’s behaviour.
2. The complainant's past sexual history and conduct is brought into the picture. If
she does not conform to society’s male-defined notion of a 'good’^woman, she is
automatically held responsible for having ’invited’ the harassment. The evidence of such
a 'bad' woman is then discredited.
3. Corroborative evidence/witnesses : Since evidence in cases of sexual harassment
is subjective (e.g. was the behaviour‘objectionable’ or not, was the advance ‘unwanted’
or not) a lot depends on the perception of the witnesses (if any). If a woman has got no
support at the office, she will find it extremely difficult to prove her case. In Susheela’s
case all the witnesses, though women, gave evidence against her. Thus, if witnesses
are hostile and decide to side with the management because of'office dynamics or
because of job insecurity, the woman's own statement will not be corroborated. In
such circumstances, expecting justice by filing criminal charges may well turn out to
be a mirage.
[34]
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It is yet to be seen how best these guidelines can be usedto the advantage of women in the labour
market. In Saheli, our healthy scepticism about law and legal procedures persists. At the most, the
guidelines can be seen as providing one concrete step towards registering a complaint or seeking
redressal if a woman wants. It is a ready mechanism for the woman who decides to take a culprit
to task. In implementing these guidelines, there is bound to be a sea of obstacles, as even our
limited experience of handling cases shows.
As many of our interviewees also said, the guidelines can also act as a deterrent amongst potential
harassers. There is no doubt that the Supreme Court judgement has lent visibility to the issue of
sexual harassment at the workplace. Gaining media attention, the issue has been brought into the
open as a common problem faced by women, rather than being reported as sporadic incidents.
The various definitions used in the guidelines are yet to undergo the rigour of legal arbitration.
Women’s long experience with the law has shown that rigid and specific definitions have been
counter-productive in seeking justice. Most often, the legal domain has been used to reinforce the
domination of male, upper class, upper caste and other powerful interests. Law is only one crucial
area of redressal for violence against women amongst other strategies of resistance that women
evolve. It is an arena of contending claims and realities. It is here that we seek to define and
assert the realities women face in all their complexity. Actively implementing the guidelines, to test
out their efficacy and loopholes, would be effective in re-defining or bringing about amendments.
LAW 15
It is clear that the guidelines place too much faith on the employers
and places on them the onus of resolving the matter of sexual
ONLY ONE CRUCIAL
harassment. Such a position does not recognise the fundamental
AREA
conflict of interests between employer and employee, or management
and worker. It is assumed that the employer has the best interests of OFREDRESSAL
FOR VIOLENCE
the employee at heart, and will do all that is needed to establish and
resolve a case of sexual harassment. In reality, this is far from the
AGAINST WOMEN
truth. In fact, the management refuses to acknowledge the incident of AMONGST
sexual harassment because it wishes to disengage itself from the
OTHER
responsibility put on it by the Supreme Court Guidelines. The
STRATEGIES OF
employee's assertion results in a conflict with the management which
uses its power position to suppress the matter and pressurise not only
RESISTANCE
the subordinates but also other authorities, like the police, courts etc.
Moreover, filing a ‘labour’ dispute or allegation of ‘misconduct’ is a diversionary tactic to side
track the matter, since the labour dispute becomes important for economic survival.
While the guidelines can be an important tool to counter this menace, we need to improve our
coping strategies and other forms of resistance too. Efforts can be geared towards creating an
awareness of the problem and a willingness to act upon it because the creation of a non-threatening
atmosphere is an intangible that no law can achieve. In the case of routine harassment faced by
[35]
workers, the guidelines will not help, when harassment is so rampant and on such a wide scale.
The culture of the workplace needs to be entirely changed. We need to pressurise authorities
and managements to the extent we can, in an organised manner, to act upon this issue. Trade
Unions and Employees’ Associations, wherever present, need to take up this issue with serious
commitment.
The fight against such harassment in the workplace is also a challenge to change the dominant
notions of women’s sexuality. It is not upto women alone to preserve their ‘izzat’, and be responsible
for its 'protection'. Oppressive acts by men should not have the power to shatter this 'izzat', and
damage women's self-confidence and self-worth. The workplace also reinforces this structured
form of violence, which denigrates women as sexual objects. Our
professional status and competence are constantly undermined by
THE FIGHT
attention being directed at our looks only. Moreover, it is only women
AGAINST SUCH
who conform to male defined notions of ‘the ideal woman’ who are
HARASSMENT
considered victims worthy of sympathy. Assertive and confident women
IN THE WORKPLACE
who defy male stereotypes of 'femininity' are themselves blamed for
IS ALSO
any oppression they are subjected to. Challenging these assumptions
and notions is a simultaneous battle with the struggle to secure better
A CHALLENGE
working conditions and wages.
TO THE DOMINANT
NOTIONS
OF WOMEN’S
SEXUALITY
Our interviews and discussions indicated certain important areas that
those of us engaged in the women's movement, need to actively work
in. The response of women’s groups to women seeking support is varied.
The young doctors of Maulana Azad Medical College felt strongly that
the intervention of women’s organisations could have been more
decisive and strong. Especially, when the National Commission for Women was doggedly diluting
the issue, discouraging and demoralising the doctors. In the case of the lawyer who refused to
participate in a strike protesting the introduction of Family Courts, women's organisations should
have been more responsive to her fight against sexual harassment by Bar Association members.
This is especially so since women's organisations have been agitating for setting up of Family
Courts. We need to be as alert as we can to intervene in time and effectively do so. Women’s
organisations’ interaction with each other in actively dealing with such issues needs to be more
dynamic and productive.
The responses, attitudes, biases and dilemmas voiced by our interviewees as well as the many
questions we ourselves have indicate the complex level of issues involved while coming to grips
with sexual harassment at the workplace. Having more discussions would make the issue more
visible and build solidarity amongst women. As long as the menace of sexual harassment persists,
the interests and well being of all of us as working women is in jeopardy. It is a structured form of
oppression, inherent in every institution, office, factory or market place, that is integral to upholding
male supremacy.
To fight against sexual harassment and create a safe and healthy workplace, is one step
towards our vision of a society free of violence against women.
| THE SUPREME COURT GUIDELINES IN BRIEF |
1. It shall be the duty of the employer or other responsible persons in workplaces and other institutions
to prevent or deter the commission of acts of sexual harassment, and to provide for the resolution,
settlement and prosecution of sexual harassment by taking all steps required.
2. Definition: Sexual harassment includes such unwelcome sexually determined behaviour (whether
directly or by implication) as : a) Physical contact and advances; b) A demand or request for sexual
favours; c) Sexually coloured remarks; d) Showing pornography; e) Any other unwelcome physical,
verbal or non-verbal conduct of sexual nature.
The Court noted “It is discriminatory when the woman has reasonable grounds to believe that her
objection would disadvantage her in connection with her employment or work, including recruitment or
promotion, or when it creates a hostile work environment.”
3.
Preventive Steps: All employers or persons-in-charge of workplaces, whether in the public or
private sector should take appropriate steps to prevent sexual harassment :
a)
Express prohibition of sexual harassment at the workplace should be notified, published and circulated.
b)
The Rules/Regulations of Government and Public Sector bodies relating to conduct and discipline
should include rules/regulations prohibiting sexual harassment, and provide for penalties against offenders.
c)
Steps should be taken by private employers in the standing orders under the Industrial Employment
Act, 1946.
d)
Work conditions should be provided in respect of work, leisure, health and hygiene to further ensure
that there is no hostile environment towards women at workplaces.
Criminal Proceedings: Where such conduct amounts to a specific offence under the Indian Penal
Code or any other law, the employer shall initiate action by making a complaint with the appropriate
authority. In particular it should ensure that the victims or witnesses are not victimised or discriminated
against while dealing with complaints of sexual harassment. The victims of sexual harassment should
have the option to seek transfer of the perpetrator, or their own transfer if they so desire.
5.
Disciplinary Action: Where such conduct amounts to misconduct as defined by the relevant service
rules, disciplinary action should be initiated by the employer.
6.
Complaint Mechanism: Whether or not such conduct constitutes an offence under law or a breach
of the service rules, an appropriate, time-bound complaint mechanism should be created for redressal
of complaints.
7.
Complaints Committee: The complaint mechanism should provide, where necessary, a Complaints
Committee, a special counsellor or other support service. Confidentiality should be maintained in all
these dealings. The Complaints Committee should be headed by a woman, and not less than half of
its members should be women. To prevent the possibility of undue influence from senior levels, such
Complaints Committees should involve a third party such as an NGO or other body familiar with the
issue. This Committee must make an annual report to the concerned Government Department regarding
the complaints received and action taken.
8.
Workers' Initiative: Employees should be allowed to raise issues of sexual harassment at workers’
meetings and in other appropriate forums. It should be affirmatively discussed in Employer-Employee meetings.
4.
9.
Awareness: Awareness of the rights of female employees in this regard should be created, in
particular by prominently notifying the guidelines (and legislation when enacted) in a suitable manner.
10.Third Party Harassment: Where sexual harassment occurs as a result of an act by any third party
or outsider, the employer and person-in-charge will take all necessary steps to assist the affected
person in terms of support and preventive action.
11.The Central/State Governments are requested to consider adopting suitable measures including
legislation, to ensure that the guidelines laid down by this order are also observed by the employers in
the private sector.
mim OCCUPflTIOMflL WflA
SEXUAL HARASSMENT AND THE WORKING WOMAN
I -UK is a report of a survey carried out among women in different professions and
occupations. While recounting varied experiences of sexual harassment at the
workplace, women talk of how it affects their lives and the many ways in which
they confront it.
The report looks at whether the Supreme Court Guidelines adequately define the
problem, and assesses the proposed redressal mechanisms in the light of women's
responses. It reveals that while some women remain sceptical about the
introduction of the Guidelines, others look upon it as a much-awaited recognition
of an age-old problem. Simultaneously, it also questions the parameters of law
and the legal options available.
This is also an attempt towards planning strategies and strengthening on-going
struggles to make the workplace safe for women.
- Media
RF_OH_7_SUDHA.pdf
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