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The Bhopal Saga: Causes and Consequences of the World's Largest Industrial Disaster By Ingrid Eckerman Hyderabad, India:Universities Press, 2005. 283 pp. ISBN: 81-7371-515-7. Rs250
After 20 years, victims, health care workers, and governments are still trying to comprehend what has been called the world's worst industrial accident. The Bhopal Saga is an attempt to bring order from the chaos of events before, during, and after the methyl isocyanate (MIC) release. Not a scientific analysis, the book summarizes events leading up to the accident of December 1984 and the relief work in the ensuing two decades.
Eckerman's primary strength is her on-scene experience as a member of the International Medical Commission on Bhopal. She describes comprehensively the long-term health effects documented in the exposed population and suggests what might be done to improve health care for the victims. The paucity of data on certain end points, notably women's reproductive health, childhood outcome, and cancer, is stressed. Also included is a summary of the positive and negative effects of various interim relief efforts on the population. Eckerman includes societal, economic, environmental, and political aspects that she considers imperative...