About 120,000 to 150,000 residents of Bhopal continue to be ill. Clinics report a regular stream of patients complaining of diseases of the eyes, lungs, kidneys, liver, brain, reproductive and immune systems.
The rate of TB among people exposed to the gas is four times higher than the national average, statistics gleaned from clinics revealed.
After the accident, many pregnant women suffered miscarriages, while others delivered still born or malformed babies. More than half the children exposed to the gas in their mothers' wombs died. Many others were born with deformities.
In the post-gas era, such children were called 'gas kand ke bacchche, or 'Carbide children.'
Another terrifying condition is what one doctor called 'menstrual chaos' amongst women exposed to the gas. Among the problems that were reported were early menopause (some as early as age 27) and short and painful menstrual cycles.