Received: from smtp0.mindspring.com (smtp0.mindspring.com [207.69.200.30]) by sparrow.prod.itd.earthlink.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id IAA26540; Sun, 23 May 1999 08:37:32 -0700 (PDT) Received: from LOCALNAME (user-2ive2m1.dialup.mindspring.com [165.247.10.193]) by smtp0.mindspring.com (8.8.5/8.8.5) with SMTP id LAA32325; Sun, 23 May 1999 11:37:07 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <[log in to unmask]> X-Sender: [log in to unmask] X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Light Version 3.0.1 (16) Date: Sun, 23 May 1999 11:36:50 To: [log in to unmask] From: Bill Koehnlein <[log in to unmask]> Subject: NATO: CHEMICAL WARFARE Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Subject: CHEMICAL WAREFARE Date: Mon, 17 May 1999 09:38:21 +0200 (MET DST) From: Pavlovic Dragan-U408 <[log in to unmask]> AGRESSION ON YUGOSLAVIA INDIRECT CHEMICAL WAREFARE The fear that the conflict in Yugoslavia could take on the characteristics of chemical warfare due to indirect use of extremely toxic chemicals has proven justified after several weeks of NATO strikes. Few were those who believed that NATO would dare strike or cover with bombs chemical plants producing exclusively for civilian production (such as chlorine and ammonia reservoirs, and the like). When it became evident that anything and everything in the country was good enough target, Yugoslavia has tried to prevent chemical accidents by closing the plants, removing chemicals, neutralizing or leaking of the chemicals into surface flows and the ground. Such preventivc actions were based in concerns about possible side-effects of acute nature and immediate, but they could not have dealt with long-term consequences. Fear and anxiety in the Yugoslav population due to the release of poisonous chemicals, explosions, or fires, have resulted in emptying of cooling systems within great cooling plants, which some institutions have decided to do for safety reasons. Others have moved or leaked huge quantities of ammonia in the waterflows out of fear of chemical hazards. Bombing of the town of Pancevo (pop. 150,000) is perhaps the best example: it is located 15 km NE of Belgrade. At one point (the night between April 14 and 15, 1999) the NATO aggressor bombed three industrial complexes simultaneously: the Oil Refinery, Petrochemical Plant, and the Nitrogen Processing Plant. All three plants are within the industrial zone of the town (ca. 8 km2), bordering on the residential area. The nearest residential buildings are less than 150 m away the Nitrogen Processing Plant. After the strike on the Refinery Complex, several reservoirs were set on fire. These had not been hit by previous NATO attack of April 12, 1999. The reservoirs contained raw oil and derivatives. A huge cloud of thick smoke was formed above the reservoirs, about 1.5 km wide and 3 km high, leaving sediment of soot, ashes and dust. The last part of this cloud was carried by the wind westwards, where it came down to the ground at about 15 km from the explosion spot. This cloud was changing direction in the 10-day period to follow (during the brush fire that lasted for 10 days with various intensity), so that at one moment had to be evacuated a part of the town. In the first five of these 10 days, concentrations of sulfur-dioxide, soot and total chlorocarbons increased by the 4-8 times in relation to the referent border values. This was especially the case with unburned contents of the oil: benzene, toluene, xylenes etc., carbon-monoxide, mercaptanes, formaldehide and the like. At the same time Petrochemical Complex was attacked: its reservoirs were hit by bombs; they contained vinyl-chloride-monomer (VCM - 1,200 tons), chlorine in residues, ethylene-dichloride (EDC-1,500 tons), NaOH (40%; 6,000 tons), HCl (33%; 800 tons). About 1,400 tons of EDC, 3,000 tons of NaOH and 600 tons of HCl leaked into the Danube. A large quantity of oil also leaked into the Danube (about 50 tons of the emulsion) and derivatives, through a common equipment for the treatment of wastewaters (which was not working during the NATO agression).The VCM reservoir burned for hours, creating a whitish smoke and a cloud that was moving westwards, toward the outskirts of Belgrade (Borca, Ovca, Padinska Skela). The cloud was carried by low air currents, and merged with another cloud that had been formed when the storehouse full of fertilizer NPK was hit of the Nitrogen Processing Plant. The VCM concentrations measured in those clouds were 3,000-4,000 times higher than the allowed values. Increased concentrations of NOx (10 mg/m3) and phosgene (2 ppm) were also registered. About 250 tons of liquid ammonia leaked from the Nitrogen Processing Plant. After the situation had been proclaimed stable (two days later) teams from the Institute of Public Health of Belgrade and of Pancevo started examinations and measurements of concentrations of certain matters in the soil, surface waters and nutritive plants that were in the territory which surrounds the targeted zone. The soil at the Petrochemical Complex was soaked with EDC. All the chemicals that had been released in water, was present in the surface waters, as well as the compounds resulting from their reactions. What is most important, concentrations of several grams per liter of EDC were found in the deep of the river. As the result, fishing was forbidden downstream from the town of Pancevo. According to the examinations performed by the Institute of Biology "Dr Sinisa Stankovic" from Belgrade, there is a decrease in the activity of the river flora and fauna at the penetration point of the chemicals into the Danube. A large quantity of dead fish was observed in the area 30- 40 km downstream from Pancevo. Pancevo is only one among the locations where a unique experiment with the human population has been performed in vivo. Just a few days after the Pancevo accident, NATO planes bombed a great transformer station in Belgrade. On that occasion, the quantity of 150 tons of the special transformer-plant oil leaked from. Through a canal system, the oil reached the Rakovica Stream and the Topcider Rivulet, the right tributary to the river Sava. Being aware of the chemical dangers of this type of oil, professionals fought for seven days to collect the oil from the surface of the river and to prevent the contamination of the Sava River. Their success was, unfortunately, only partial. The bombings of the Baric industrial zone caused the Sava river to accumulate great quantities of hydrogenfluoride (HF; 99.9%), HNO3 (concentrated) and about 200 tons of liquid ammonia. All this necessitated regimen perforation of the Belgrade Waterworks. The consequences of NATO attacks on the Pancevo Refinery and other industrial complexes are still being examinad detail in the days to come. An curions aspect of the NATO agression was the striking of the LPG spheres in Novi Sad, where it was obvious that the aggressor had wanted to provoke the explosion of gaseous substance, thus causing as severe ecological damage as possible. Finally, the majority of the chemical plants not related in any way to the military production of any kind has been damaged or completely destroyed. The Yugoslav population is wandering how to chlorinate drinking water if they are forbidden to start the production of chlorine? They would like to know how the cooling plants are supposed to operate without ammonia. The examination of the consequences of the heavy strikes by NATO on the Novi Sad Refinery and other chemical plants will be the subject of our further communications. Dr Slobodan Tosovic, Senior Specialist Head of the Department for Ecotoxicology Institute of Public Health of Belgrade Professor Dr Bogdan Solaja Co-Chairman of the Serbian Chemical Society Dragan Pavlovic UFR Xavier Bichat. INSERM U408 16, rue Henri Huchard - BP 416 75870 Paris cedex 18 Tel: (33) 01 44 85 62 50; 01 56 24 90 99; (33) 06 13 26 31 25 Fax: (33) 01 56 24 90 99; (33) 01 40 25 88 18 or (33) 01 42 26 33 30 Email:[log in to unmask]