Contamination of Soil and Water in and around the Union Carbide Site at Bhopal

122 Novembre ‘10 T he city of Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh, India suffered the world’s worst ever industrial disaster on December 3, 1984, when around 500,000 inhabitants were exposed to Methyl Isocyanate (MIC) released from the Union Carbide India Ltd (UCIL) pesticides factory and about 3,000 to 20,000 people died. The UCIL manufactured carbaryl, aldicarb and sevidol a formulation of carbaryl and gamma-hexachlorocyclohexane (γ-HCH) [1-5]. The factory now closed and abandoned, still remains heavily contaminated with a range of persistent pollutants including dumped pesticides, chlorinated hydrocarbons and heavy metals etc., according to reports by NEERI, Greenpeace and others [6-10]. Organic and metallic contaminants still remain in the soil of the site and in piles of waste around the site that have leaked into the groundwater over the years and now contaminate the wells that serve thousands of people living nearby and most of these compounds are known to cause adverse effects on humans and other living organisms [11-17]. A study was therefore undertaken to assess the extent of chemical contamination of soil and water at UCIL factory and adjoining residential areas 25 years after the accident from chlorinated benzene compounds, organochlorines and carbamate pesticides and heavy metals toxic chemicals that were either used as ingredients of the products or the wastes generated or the products of the plant. Sapna Johnson, Ramakant Sahu, Nimisha Jadon, Clara Duca Pollution Monitoring Laboratory (PML) Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) New Delhi (India) [email protected]