The 20th anniversary of the Sambhavna Trust Clinic was celebrated by the staff of the clinic and hundreds of survivors of the Union Carbide disaster who are provided free care at the clinic.
The event at Manas Bhavan on Saturday evening included well known artist Sarwar Hussain playing the Sarangi and popular rap singer Sofie Ashraf presenting the story of struggle and victory against pollution by Unilever corporation in Kodaikanal, Tamilnadu.
Ritesh Pal of the Community Research Unit in the Clinic presented the preliminary findings of the health study involving more than 100, 000 people. He said that the study shows that in comparison to unexposed families, gas and contaminated ground water exposed families have significantly larger number of people with TB, paratysis and cancers. The rate of cancers of gas exposed people is more than ten times of unexposed people.
According to Pal, lungj abdominal, throat and oral cancers are significantly higher in gas exposed and the group exposed to both gas and contaminated ground walerp. liver cancer was found only in the gas exposed group.
Gas exposed women were found to have suffered significantly larger number of abortions in comparison to unexposed women. Compared to an unexposed population, significantly larger number of children born to gas exposed and contaminated ground water exposed parents, had birth defects.
A report on 20 years of Sambhavna Clinic's work on providing free health care to survivors of the disaster and those exposed to groundwater contaminated by Union Carbide's hazardous waste was released by Dr. MM Mali, Ayurveda physician at the clinic.