Bombing of Iran’s oil infrastructure to have major environmental fallout, experts warn | US-Israel war on Iran
Israel’s bombing of Iran’s oil infrastructure will have major long-term environmental repercussions, experts have warned, as observers acknowledged they are struggling to keep up with environmental disasters resulting from the expanding war.
Even as Iranians filled the streets to mark the appointment of a new supreme leader, the Shahran oil depot, northeast of Tehran, and the Shahr-e fuel depot to the south continued to burn Monday, two days after being bombed by Israeli warplanes.
Immediately after the attacks, Iran’s environmental agency and the Iranian Red Crescent Society warned Tehran residents to stay home, warning that toxic chemicals released by airstrikes on five fossil fuel facilities around the city could cause acid rain and damage skin and lungs.
On Monday, World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said: “Damage to oil installations in Iran risks contaminating food, water and air – dangers that can have serious health consequences, particularly for children, the elderly and people with pre-existing health conditions. »
Iran’s Deputy Health Minister Ali Jafarian told Al Jazeera that soil and water supplies around Tehran were already starting to become contaminated by fallout from the weekend’s explosions.
The black rain that fell on Tehran in the hours after the bombings was a mixture of soot and fine particles from the explosions with rain from a storm already passing through the region, according to Dr Akshay Deoras, a research scientist at the University of Reading.
“Airstrikes on oil depots released soot, smoke, oil particles, sulfur compounds and likely heavy metals and inorganic materials from buildings, while a low-pressure weather system, which typically sweeps across Iran and western Asia at this time of year, created favorable conditions for precipitation,” Deoras said.
“In terms of atmospheric chemistry, oil fires produce sulfur and nitrogen compounds that could form acids if they dissolve in rainwater.
“Risks to human health come from inhaling or contacting smoke and particles. Immediate impacts may include headaches, eye and skin irritation, and difficulty breathing – particularly for people with asthma, lung diseases, the elderly, young children, and people with disabilities.”
Tehranis reported difficulty breathing on Sunday, as well as headaches and burning sensations in the eyes and throat. But the acute effects of the black cloud that spread across the city could be just the beginning, according to Professor Andrea Sella, professor of inorganic chemistry at University College London.
“The explosions will have exposed the local population to all sorts of unwanted and toxic chemical species, a well-known problem that accompanies war,” he said, explaining that the crude oil would have contained a range of elements, including metals, which “would also have spread indiscriminately.”
“There will be a veritable cocktail of chemicals including significant amounts of aromatic compounds known to interact with DNA and which have been associated with cancers. Whether or not this manifests will depend heavily on the duration and severity of each individual’s exposure.
“And on top of that, once the containment provided by the tanks and pipes is destroyed, the material will flow everywhere, leaving a mess of harmful materials that permeates the ground and covers everything else. There is a risk of contamination of drinking water supplies.”
Despite U.S. efforts to distance itself from the attacks, there are growing concerns the attack could trigger a cycle of retaliation after a spokesman for Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps warned it could take “similar measures.” [against oil infrastructure] in the region.”
On Monday, Bahrain’s state energy company Bapco Energies declared force majeure in its operations after Iran attacked the country’s only oil refinery, and Saudi Arabia said it had intercepted four Iranian drones targeting its Shaybah oil field.
The attacks follow drone strikes last week against the world’s largest natural gas export plant in Qatar, Saudi Arabia’s Ras Tanura refinery, fuel storage centers in Oman and the United Arab Emirates, and several oil tankers in the Persian Gulf, each of which poses a potential environmental disaster.
Doug Weir, director of the Conflict and Environment Observatory, said his organization’s efforts to track incidents of environmental damage caused by fighting around the Persian Gulf were becoming increasingly difficult.
“We are now aware of hundreds of environmentally problematic incidents in Iran and the region, but the ongoing conflict, internet restrictions and delays in the availability of satellite imagery mean that figure is an understatement,” Weir said.
“Recognizing the environmental footprint of war and its potential impacts on populations and ecosystems will be an enormous task, and one that becomes increasingly complex as the war continues. »
“After the early days of targeting military sites, we are now seeing an expansion of civilian and dual-use facilities, with which comes an expanding range of environmental and public health risks associated with military actions. »
