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Bhopal tragedy scientist stricken by GS Mudur


From the bed of an intensive care unit, Samavedam Sriramachari today recalled his two decades of research that helped demystify the poison gas which caused the worst chemical disaster in human history.

The Indian pathologist, who helped the world fathom how the methyl isocyanate gas that leaked from the Union Carbide factory in Bhopal 25 years ago killed and harmed thousands of people, is now himself fighting a lung disease probably linked to the tragedy.

Sriramachari, 84, who was director of the Institute of Pathology, a government research centre in New Delhi at the time of the Bhopal gas disaster on the night of December 2-3, 1984, entered the city within a week after the leak.

He spent several days there performing autopsies, seeking clues in globules of froth around mouths, in cherry red coloured lungs and pink-discoloured bodies. Any clues that might help treat the survivors.

Toxic residues of the gas that scientists believe lingered in the city’s air for days after the leak entered his own lungs. And bursts of trapped gas released from body tissues during the autopsies worsened his own exposure.

“When the Bhopal disaster occurred, no one had a clue about the toxic effects of methyl isocyanate on humans,” said Samavedam Sandhyamani, Sriramachari’s daughter who is herself a trained pathologist. “It was an emergency, but without toxicity information, doctors weren’t sure what was the best way to help the survivors,” Sandhyamani told The Telegraph.

The government estimates that 3,700 people died of exposure to toxic gases during the early days after the leak. But thousands more have suffered the long-term adverse effects over the years.

Sriramachari and his colleagues helped demonstrate that the toxic cloud over Bhopal wasn’t just methyl isocyanate. Their research established that the gas, which is heavier than air, breaks down at high temperatures and leads to the production of two other lethal compounds — hydrogen cyanide and carbon monoxide. Bhopal’s residents were exposed to multiple toxic threats that night.

The first autopsies by local pathologist Heeresh Chandra had indicated acute cyanide poisoning — and severely ill survivors injected with sodium thiosulfate, an antidote to cyanide, showed rapid signs of recovering.

But, Sriramachari recalls, the cyanide theory encountered a barrage of criticism from sections of medical community. Some doctors insisted it was only methyl isocyanate that was causing symptoms and not cyanide.

“We lost time,” said Arun Jain, a senior scientist at the Institute of Pathology. The Institute team conducted a study to show that toxic residues were excreted in the urine of patients to make the sodium thiosulfate therapy become acceptable.

In subsequent years, their studies showed that the gases produced from the leak interacted with a certain enzyme in the body to cause long-term effects in the lungs that could last for years.

“The lungs of some of the victims from Bhopal who had never smoked show changes that are typically observed in the lungs of long-term smokers,” said Jain. The studies also helped unravel the molecular mechanisms of the gas byproducts in the body.

Sriramachari himself began to experience symptoms of lung disease about two years after returning from Bhopal. “We suspect it had to do with his exposure while he was there. He had never shown any lung symptoms before that,” said Sandhyamani.

He’s been diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and was admitted to the intensive care unit of the Vallabhbhai Patel Chest Institute here a few days ago after he had bouts of breathlessness.

Many scientists believe Sriramachari’s investigations from 1984 through 2004 have spawned the most comprehensive body of toxicity research on methyl isocyanate, a legacy for pathologists of the future.

“The techniques he used to solve the puzzle of methyl isocyanate could also help in future disasters involving toxic gases,” said Sandhyamani. “There are lessons for the future -- whether it’s to study emissions from a burning factory or an oil refinery.”