BHOPAL:
On December 3, 1984, the worst industrial accident in history occurred at the Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, when a gas leak exposed several thousands to toxic chemicals. While death toll estimates vary, the untold story has been the lingering impact on the lives of unwitting youngsters who turn to Bhopal’s contaminated playgrounds to play cricket.
An E:60 crew and correspondent Jeremy Schaap travelled to India to tell the story of “The Children of Bhopal.”
The piece looks at the lasting impact of an industrial disaster on youngsters who just want to play their favorite sport – cricket. For “The Children of Bhopal,” the playgrounds they use to escape the squalor around them and to dream of a brighter future as professional cricketers have compounded their problems. President Barrack Obama’s visit to India next week, many observers expect, will draw renewed attention to these forgotten victims of the Bhopal gas tragedy.
Highlights:
- With help of scientists from SGS, a Swiss-based global environmental company, E:60 tested the soil in nine areas in and around the abandoned Union Carbide facility. Results show that the most contaminated areas are where the children play cricket.
- “My dream is to become a cricketer. My House is made of mud but I want a house of stone one day,” said 15-year-old Sachin Kumar, who can’t walk but still plays the sport of cricket he dearly loves.
- “The people who come here suffer from severe breathlessness, chest pain, joint pain, repeated infections,” said Mohammad Ali Qaier, a physician at the Sambhavna Clinic in Bhopal, who sees hundred of victims of the disaster and their descendants daily.
- The sporting aspirations of “The Children of Bhopal,” rooted in cricket, have been caught in the middle of a government seemingly incapable of protecting them from a toxic environment; a company, many agree, needs to do more to clean up the disaster; and the protestation of numerous Bhopal victims rights groups. “Even if you are not prepared to clean up, at least prevent people from going to certain extremely contaminated areas,” Amnesty International’s Thambydurai Muthukumaraswamy told E:60.
- In 2001, The Dow Chemical Company acquired Union Carbide Corporation, which had UCIL as its Indian subsidiary.
- Congressman Frank Pallone, Jr., (D-N.J.), contends the Dow Chemical Company should be held responsible for the environmental and health problems in Bhopal today. “Ultimately, if Dow Chemical gets away with this, then other companies are going to continue to do the same thing,” Pallone told E:60.
- Dow declined comment, as did former Union Carbide CEO Warren Anderson, who has been wanted in India for the past 26 years.
Click here to watch the trailer. (Some images on this video are graphic and can be disturbing to some viewers.)
ROBERTA MANCINO
The hottest extreme adventure athlete on the planet, Robert Mancino is a world record-holding skydiver, black belt kick-boxer, shark diver, and an avid B.A.S.E. jumper who leaps off some of the tallest man-made and natural structures in the world. And by the way, Roberta Mancino is also an accomplished fashion model who has graced the pages of some of the world’s most popular magazines. E:60’s Jeremy Schaap travels to Italy to profile the 29-year-old Italian daredevil who believes life is only worth living, if you are living each day to the fullest. Mancino takes E:60’s cameras into the Italian Alps as she embarks on her latest adrenaline rush – a proximity flight. Wearing only a ‘wingsuit’ and a helmet, Mancino dives out of a helicopter and attempts to fly as close as possible to and around the rocks.
JOSIAH VIERA
Josiah Viera is just twenty seven inches tall and weighs fifteen pounds. He suffers from a genetic disease called Progeria, meaning ‘prematurely old’. It is a condition where afflicted children rapidly age at approximately ten times the rate of a healthy individual. With less than 100 children worldwide, Progeria is one of the rarest diseases on earth. Josiah’s dream is to play on an organized baseball team in his hometown of Hegins, Pa. Reporter Tom Rinaldi documents Josiah’s incredible journey to the baseball diamond in this E:60 story.
About E:60
E:60 – ESPN’s first multi-subject, prime-time newsmagazine – features profiles, investigations and cutting-edge stories. The series, which debuted in October 2007, has won several awards, including two Sports Emmys in 2010 (for outstanding journalism and outstanding long feature), and an Edward R. Murrow Award for outstanding sports journalism, also in 2010. E:60 has traversed the world in search of compelling sports stories. The program has reported from Kenya, Sudan, India, Dominican Republic, Morocco, Mexico, Senegal, Philippines, Netherlands, Haiti, Costa Rica, South Africa, Ukraine, Serbia, Bolivia, Venezuela, Panama, Liberia and more. The featured reporters are Jeremy Schaap, Lisa Salters, Tom Farrey, Rachel Nichols and Michael Smith.
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