The Indian government is launching a new study into the longterm health effects of the Union Carbide disaster in Bhopal, after abruptly ending studies fifteen years ago. 

The pesticide-plant disaster, an enormous explosion of 40 tons of methyl isocyanate (MIC gas), killed 15,000 people in the immediate aftermath.  Twenty-five years on, some 100,000 people still suffer deleterious health effects, and a further 30,000 are forced to drink and bathe in contaminated groundwater.

In an illuminating counterpoint to the recent Chinese milk scandal, the US and Indian officials convicted of wrongdoing in this case have never been sentenced for their crimes.

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