The Bhopal tragedy--what has Swedish disaster medicine planning learned from it?

On December 3, 1984, a leak of methylisocyanate (MIC) from a chemical plant in Bhopal, India, affected 150,000 to 200,000 people. More than 10,000 people were severely injured and approximately 2,500 died. In this article a survey of symptoms, treatment, and rescue work is given. On the basis of this, we discuss ways to help reduce the effects of a major release of an irritant gas. People living in the vicinity of potential health hazards need information on how to behave in case of accidents. Rescue workers and medical personnel must be trained to operate under "toxic conditions." There must be planning for treatment of thousands of patients at the same time, a circumstance that will often require temporary "satellite hospitals" to be opened. As symptoms and injuries are of the same kind, even if the magnitude and the effect may differ, treatment can, in many ways, be standardized. Therefore members of the health care team, irrespective of their daily different specialty fields, can work with the most urgent missions.