less highly flammable and reactive gas... I
             would hesitate having it in a laboratory." He also quotes the OHSA standard for exposure to MIC during
             an eight-hour day as 0.02 parts per million, "far lower than what many Bhopal residents were exposed
             THE HEALTH AFFECTS of exposure to MIC is disastrous. At low levels, MIC causes eyes to water
             and results in damage to the cornea. At higher concentrations, muscles constrict, and the bronchial
             passages have the equivalent of a severe asthma attack.(3) Most of the deaths in India were due to this.
             Dr. Jeffrey P. Koplan, Assistant Director of Public Health Practice at the Centers for Disease Control in
             Atlanta, who went to Bhopal to render assistance, said, "There was edema, substantial destruction...of
             alveolar walls, ... a ulcerative bronchiolus..." among patients at the severely crowded hospitals.(4)
             Serious damage to the central nervous system after three to four weeks, including paralysis, and
             psychological problems have also been a result.(3)
             The long-term affects of MIC exposure are equally disastrous. According to the Indian Council of
             Medical Research, at least 50,000 people are still suffering and new chronic cases of asthma keep
             showing up as the population ages and 39% of the surrounding population have some form of severe
             respiratory impairment.(5) Most of them will suffer for the rest of their lives.(6) It is a conservative
             estimate that 5 people die every week as a result of the Bhopal accident.(7) Another consideration is that
             in a social class that maintains a living through physical labor, inability to perform results in
             Affects on women were profound. Out of 198 women living within 10 miles of the facility, 100 had
             abnormal uterine bleeding.(1,5) Of the local women who were pregnant before the accident, 43%
             miscarried and 14% of the babies carried to term died within a month. Socially, these women are
             considered unwan...