25% of Bhopal Babies Died Soon After Birth
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NEW DELHI — Almost 25% of the babies born to mothers affected by the poison gas leak in Bhopal died soon after birth, the Hindustan Times has reported.
The nationwide infant mortality rate for 1981 was 14%, officials said.
The paper also quoted hospital sources as saying that as many as 30% of the babies born to mothers in the worst-hit areas in the Dec. 3 gas leak had low birth weights.
It said doctors have not yet established a direct link between the gas and the birth problems but that the gas itself or the drugs and medication used to treat the effects of the gas could be involved.
More than 2,000 people were killed after methyl isocyanate gas leaked from the Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal.
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