REVIEW article
Front. Allergy
Sec. Environmental & Occupational Determinants
Volume 6 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/falgy.2025.1609137
This article is part of the Research TopicHypotheses Explaining the Allergy EpidemicView all 12 articles
Bhopal, Dunsmuir and TRPA1: What they have taught us about nociception
Provisionally accepted
- 1University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, United States
- 2California Environmental Protection Agency, Sacramento, California, United States
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On separate occasions nearly a decade apart, two large-scale accidental releases of industrial chemicals exposed substantial "bystander" (non-worker) populations to highly toxic air pollutants. The first of these events, occurring in Bhopal, India in 1984, generated worldwide attention and concern given its geographic scope and significant lethality. The second incident, occurring in Dunsmuir, CA in 1991 – while less publicized – yielded new insights into the pathogenesis of irritant-induced asthma. Linking these events is the fact that the toxicants involved – methyl isocyanate (MIC) in Bhopal and methyl isothiocyanate (MITC) in Dunsmuir – preferentially bind to the same TRPA1 nociceptive ion channel. This review examines each of these exposure events, including their mechanistic implications for anticipating (and potentially preventing) future long-term health effects from accidental chemical exposures.
Keywords: TRPA1 activation, Irritant-induced asthma, Bhopal Accidental Release, Railroadaccident, Pesticides: Adverse effects
Received: 10 Apr 2025; Accepted: 09 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Shusterman and Salmon. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Dennis J Shusterman, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, United States
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