Bhopal tragedy's health effects. A review of methyl isocyanate toxicity.

SIX YEARS AGO, on December 3, 1984, a toxic gas leak at a Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, released methyl isocyanate (MIC) and its reaction products. The number of persons "exposed" and "injured" remains uncertain.1 Official estimates from the Indian government place the dead at around 1800.2 Others estimate mortality to have been between 2500 and 5000 and the number of injured to have been up to 200 000.3,4

Until the Bhopal incident, neither deaths nor cases of toxic effects from MIC exposure had been recorded in Index Medicus.51 We have extensively surveyed the medical literature concerning effects of MIC exposure on the victims of the disaster and laboratory studies in animals. A great deal has been learned, but many questions still remain unanswered.