40 Environmental Rights and Justice
How Toxic Substances Get into our Bodies
Eating and drinking
(ingestion)
Breathing
(inhalation)
and
Through the skin
(absorption)
The longer someone is exposed to (in direct contact with) a toxic chemical,
the more harm it can cause. In Bhopal, 500,000 people were exposed all at
once by breathing the gas and getting it on their skin. This was the immediate
disaster. Because the chemical disaster was not cleaned up and the chemicals
spread widely throughout the areas around the factory, the poison got into the
soil and the groundwater beneath the city. Now, many years later, people are
drinking water with the poison in it. This is part of the ongoing disaster.
Whether in a large-scale toxic exposure such as the one in Bhopal or a
simple exposure to toxics in paints, solvents, or other ordinary products, the
first thing to do is to get away from the chemicals, or get them away from you,
so that the exposure does not last. After that, work to prevent future exposures.
(For more about health problems from toxic chemicals, see Chapter 16.)
A health clinic designed to protect the environment
People in Bhopal are fighting for environmental justice. At the same time,
they are working to heal from the disaster. Survivors and other volunteers
started the Sambhavna Clinic to provide health care to the whole community,
regardless of ability to pay, or religious or caste differences. Sambhavna means
“possibility” in the Sanskrit and Hindi languages.
A Community Guide to Environmental Health 2012