Date: Wed, 2 Jun 1999 20:29:42 +0000 From: "Janet M. Eaton" <jeaton at fox.nstn.ca> Subject: ECOLOGICAL Catastrophe [4] NATO Bombings [References]
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ECOLOGICAL CATASTROPHE & HEALTH HAZARDS OF THE NATO BOMBINGS: AN ANNOTATED URL REFERENCED LIST OF INTERNET ARTICLES, NEWS, PRESS RELEASES. [ PART 4 ] [Compiled by Dr. Janet M. Eaton, May 31, 1999 ]
Please add to the following earlier compilations:
ECOLOGICAL CATASTROPHE [PART 3] http://news.flora.org/flora.mai-not/11622
ECOLOGICAL CATASTROPHE [PART 2] http://news.flora.org/flora.mai-not/11281
ECOLOGICAL CATASTROPHE [PART 1]
http://news.flora.org/flora.mai-not/11003
This compilation contains summaries and links to a comprehensive paper on "Gulf War Veterans and Depleted Uranium" prepared by Dr. Rosalie Bertell for the Hague Appeal for Peace [HAP] Conference, a 30 page "Overview of the Ecological Consequences of NATO Bombing on Yugoslavia" by Dr. Radoje Lausevic, University of Belgrade, startling photos of a massive and dense toxic black cloud from the burning of Pancevo Petrochemical Plant photographed 50 km away several hours afterwards as well a few resources and several related news releases..
A) INDEX OF ECOLOGICAL CATASTROPHES ARTICLES B) ANNOTATED LIST OF ECOLOGICAL CATASTROPHE ARTICLES
For your information and use. Please distribute as you see fit !!
All the best, Janet Eaton
Dr. Janet M. Eaton, PhD Biologist, Educator, Researcher, Public Policy Consultant, Research Fellow, International Systems Institute, Wolfville, N.S. CANADA jeaton at fox.nstn.ca
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A) INDEX OF ECOLOGICAL CATASTROPHES -INTERNET ARTICLES
1) Gulf War Veterans and Depleted Uranium Prepared for the Hague Peace Appeal Conference, May 1999 By Dr. Rosalie Bertell, Ph.D., G.N.S.H. http://www.pgs.ca/pages/nl/rb990504.htm
2) OVERVIEW OF ECOLOGICAL CONSEQUENCES OF
NATO BOMBING OF YUGOSLAVIA SINCE MAY 20, 1999 By Dr. Radoje Lausevic Posted by :Janet M. Eaton [Due to length of the report it was posted in four sections] Date : May 23rd URL's http://news.flora.org/flora.mai-not/11655 http://news.flora.org/flora.mai-not/11656 http://news.flora.org/flora.mai-not/11657 http://news.flora.org/flora.mai-not/11658. Website: Full report available as a zip file containing a wordperfect document: http://www.BalkanPeaceNetwork.freeserve.co.uk/Environment.htm
3) BLACK CLOUD OVER THE BALKANS -PHOTOS From: Janet M Eaton Date: May 23, 1999 URL: http://www.BalkanPeaceNetwork.freeserve.co.uk/Environment.htm [Network for Peace in the Balkans]
4) The Use of Depleted Uranium bullets and bombs by NATO forces in Yugoslavia. By: Coghill Research Laboratories Lower Race, Pontypool, Gwent NP4 5UH Date: April 8, 1999 URL:http://www.cogreslab.demon.co.uk
5) DU - Valid Information Sources re Health Impacts !! From: jeaton at fox.nstn.ca (Janet M. Eaton) Date: 26 May 1999 16:34:58 -0400 URL: http://news.flora.org/flora.mai-not/11716
6) Greek Greenpeace Grivas resigns - condemns NATO's Ecological Disaster [ letter of resignation! ] From: Snezana Vitorovich <zana at baxter.net> To: Multiple recipients of list <ukantiwar at gn.apc.org> Cross-posted to mai-not list serve by jeaton at fox.nstn.ca Date: 26 May 1999 13:14:33 -0400 URL http://news.flora.org/flora.mai-not/11711
7) Vegetables A Casualty Of NATO Air War? From:Reuters Press Date: May 27, 1999. http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/r/990527/09/odd-hailstorms
8) ROMANIA BLAMES ACID RAIN ON NATO BOMBING From: Reuters, (Planet Ark http://www.planetark.org/) Date: May 27, 1999 URL: http://202.139.253.156/news/27059903.html
9) Fishermen up in arms over NATO bombs By: Michel Bôle-Richard in Rome For: Le Monde URL: http://news.flora.org/flora.mai-not/11723
10) NATO BOMBING DAMAGE ASSESSMENT [ links to ca 75 photofiles] From: Ian Goddard <Ian at Goddard.net> Receivd via: proposition1 news list May 25, 199 URL: http://www.erols.com/igoddard/yugo-war.htm
11) APPEAL FOR THE YUGOSLAV HERITAGE UNDER THE BOMBS From: The Institute for Protection of Nature of Serbia Date Received: May 23, 1999 URL: http://www.natureprotection.org.yu/apel.html
12 ) NATO bombing of Yugoslavia By: Department of Organic Chemical Technology and Polymers Faculty of Technology and Metallurgy Belgrade University Belgrade, Yugoslavia URL: http://www.net4s.com/under/ecologicalcatastrophe.html
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B) ANNOTATED LIST OF ECOLOGICAL CATASTROPHE ARTICLES
1) Gulf War Veterans and Depleted Uranium Prepared for the Hague Peace Appeal Conference, May 1999 By Dr. Rosalie Bertell, Ph.D., G.N.S.H. http://www.pgs.ca/pages/nl/rb990504.htm
Headings and excerpt from Dr. Bertell's paper: *Source of Exposure: "There is no dispute of the fact that at least 320 tons of depleted uranium (DU) was "lost" in the Gulf war, and that much of that was converted at high temperature into an aerosol, that is, minute insoluble particles of uranium oxide, UO2 or UO3 , in a mist or fog. It would have been impossible for ground troops to identify this exposure if or when it occurred in war, as this would require specialized detection equipment. However, veterans can identify situations in which they were likely to have been exposed to DU. Civilians working at military bases where live ammunition exercises are conducted may also have been exposed." ---Dr. Rosalie Bertell
*Medical Testing for Depleted Uranium Contamination:
*Relating Depleted Uranium Contamination with Observed Health Effects in Veterans:
*Known Occupational Health Problems Related to Uranium Exposure:
*Human and Animal Studies on Uranium Exposure:
*Health Effects which have been associated with inhalation of uranium: *Potential US Government administration of radio-protective substances to combat military:
*Proposal for assisting the Gulf War veterans:
*Sampling strategy and sample size to be determined.
*Research Hypotheses to be tested: (to be written as a null hypothesis)
*Preliminary work to be accomplished:
*Benefits for Participants:
*References:
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2):OVERVIEW OF ECOLOGICAL CONSEQUENCES OF
NATO BOMBING OF YUGOSLAVIA SINCE MAY 20, 1999 By Dr. Radoje Lausevic Posted by :Janet M. Eaton [Due to length of the report it was posted in four sections] Date : May 23rd URL's http://news.flora.org/flora.mai-not/11655 Contents, References and Part 1- Background
http://news.flora.org/flora.mai-not/11656 Part II - What was destroyed so far by NATO airstrikes?
http://news.flora.org/flora.mai-not/11657 Part III Which chemical substances /radiation / emitted so far? Part IV - What can the consequences /health effects for people be?
http://news.flora.org/flora.mai-not/11658. Part V- Transboundary effects of this pollution and for which countries. Part VI- Are Effects Already There?
Full report available as a zip file containing a wordperfect document: Network for Peace in the Balkans Website: http://www.BalkanPeaceNetwork.freeserve.co.uk/Environment.htm
I. BACKGROUND A. BASIC FACTS ON YUGOSLAVIA B. ENVIRONMENT 1. Review of Protected Natural Features in Serbia 2. Future Biosphere Reserve C. SOURCES OF INFORMATION
II. WHAT WAS DESTROYED SO FAR BY NATO AIRSTRIKES ?
A. INFRASTRUCTURE 1. General 2. Traffic (a) Bridges, (b)Railways and railway stations
(c) Roads and transporters (d) Airports
B. INDUSTRY 1. Factories, 2. Refineries and warehouses 3.Agriculture
C. URBAN AND RURAL RESIDENTIAL AREAS D. PRE-SCHOOL INSTITUTIONS, SCHOOLS AND UNIVERSITIES E. CULTURAL AND HISTORICAL MONUMENTS AND MUSEUMS
III. WHICH CHEMICALS/SUBSTANCES/RADIATION HAVE BEEN EMITTED SO FAR?
A. OIL, AND OIL PRODUCTS ( B) VINYL CHLORIDE MONOMER (VCM) - CH2CHCL (C) PHOSGENE ( D) ETHYLENE DICHLORIDE (EDC) - CH2CLCH2CL (E) CHLORINE (CL2) (F) SOOT (G) NITROGEN OXIDES (H) HYDROFLUORIC ACID (HF) (I) HEAVY METALS (J) PYRALENE - POLYCHLORINATED BIPHENOLS (PCB'S) (K) INITIAL FUEL OF CRUISING MISSILES (L) RADIOACTIVITY (DU)
IV. WHAT CAN THE CONSEQUENCES/HEALTH EFFECTS FOR PEOPLE BE ? (A). VCM, (B). PHOSGENE (C). EDC (D) CHLORINE (E). HF (F) PCB (G) DEPLETED URANIUM (H) FOOD
V. WHAT CAN THE TRANSBOUNDARY EFFECTS BE OF THIS POLLUTION AND FOR WHICH COUNTRIES ?
VI. ARE EFFECTS ALREADY THERE ?
A. HEALTH EFFECTS 1. Civilian Casualties (a) Korisa (b) Towns in Kosovo and Metohija: (c) Belgrade (d) Surdulica (e) Nis (f) Kursumlija (g) Aleksinac (h) Murino near Rozaje (2). Children as victims (3) Refugees as Victims (4. Passengers in Vehicles of Public Transportation as Victims (5) Acute Health Effects (6) Chronic Health Effects
B. ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS 1. Air (2) Water (3) Soil (4) Ecosystems/Biodiversity (a) Endangered Natural Assets of National and International importance (b) Endangered plant species (i) Aristolochia merxmuelleri Greuter & E. Mayer (ii) Dianthus behriorum Bornm (iii) Gentiana nopcsae J v (iv) Tulipa serbica Tatic & Krivosej (v) Endangered animals
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3) BLACK CLOUD OVER THE BALKANS -PHOTOS By: Janet M Eaton DateL May 23, 1999 URL: http://www.BalkanPeaceNetwork.freeserve.co.uk/Environment.htm [Network for Peace in the Balkans ]
The Attacks on Pancevo and their Consequences
This page is largely the work of Janet Eaton, a biologist and researcher from Canada - if you have scientific or technical queries she will be more than happy to deal with them! She writes: On May 10th I received a communiqué from one Sasha Milicevic saying that she had read my Ecological Catastrophe List and thought that I might be interested in the three photos which she attached to the e-mail. Her e-mail stated: "The pictures taken by a friend of mine, from his car, 50 km away from my hometown (Pancevo) - morning after the petrochemical complex (situated 4km from downtown area) was bombed. (the pictures were NOT taken with black and white camera, and they are not turned up side down). Needless to say, this is not just any smoke, but rather toxic/carcinogenic smoke. Feel free to pass/post it further."
I believe these photos offer testimony to the severity of the ecological catastrophe.
Other evidence of the ecological and human health hazard is found in the following news releases which describe the toxic cloud that resulted from the bombing and subsequent burning of the Petrochemical Complex at Pancevo, a suburb of Belgrade.
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4) The Use of Depleted Uranium bullets and bombs by NATO forces in Yugoslavia. HE From: Coghill Research Laboratories Lower Race, Pontypool, Gwent NP4 5UH Date: April 8, 1999 URL:http://www.cogreslab.demon.co.uk
The public at large are unaware that these weapons are weapons of mass destruction and have been requested to be placed, like cluster bombs, on the Geneva Convention banned list.
It is said that the unprecedented use of Cruise missiles with DU inserts in Yugoslavia will have the same effect as the Chernobyl and Mile Island disaster. Again these calculations by eminent radiation physicists are not being released to the media. In other words the action of NATO not only in this respect but also, since they have no UN mandate, are illegal, and likely to have a long term pernicious effect not only on that part of Europe, but on their own ground troops if deployed, and almost certainly on the refugees from the Kosovo region. This may be partly why NATO is reluctant to engage ground troops: You will see they are beginning already to wear submicron gas masks on the CNN and other news program pictures.
The Yugoslav population however, together with aid workers and ethnic Albanians are largely unprotected.
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5) DU - Valid Information Sources re Health Impacts !! From: jeaton at fox.nstn.ca (Janet M. Eaton) Date: 26 May 1999 16:34:58 -0400 URL: http://news.flora.org/flora.mai-not/11716
The first item contains several references mostly with Web sites on the subject which is followed by three articles. The main source of references is from Canadian, Dr. Ross Wilcox of the Physicians for Global Survival [PGS] rwilcock at pgs.ca http://www.pgs.ca/
He says re deficiency of good scientific work to properly demonstrate the pathology ....
" I can only view this overall neglect as a collective idiocy for which everyone is responsible - enabling some people to perhaps take advantage of probably dangerous ignorance and confusion. The writing is on the wall. !"
FYI, janet
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6) Greek Greenpeace Grivas resigns - condemns NATO's
Ecological Disaster [ letter of resignation! ] From: Snezana Vitorovich <zana at baxter.net> To: Multiple recipients of list <ukantiwar at gn.apc.org> Cross-posted to mai-not list serve by jeaton at fox.nstn.ca Date: 26 May 1999 13:14:33 -0400 URL http://news.flora.org/flora.mai-not/11711
"I resign from the Board of Directors of the Greek chapter of Greenpeace, because during the past 40 days it has failed to adopt a unequivocal position, that would condemn, name and point a finger at the perpetrators of the gangster-like aggression against Yugoslavia by the "gang of 19", an aggression that began on March 24 and, under the pretext of "preventing a humanitarian disaster" (by the Milosevic regime), has provoked and is still provoking. a) an immense human tragedy, that affects both Serbs and Albanians b) an immeasurable ecological disaster that affects the Balkans and the whole of Europe, and c) an (emergent) realignment of borders and geopolitical equilibria that affects all Balkan countries, including, of course, Greece.."
--Kleanthis Grivas, psychiatrist and former member of the Board of Directors, Green peace Greece
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7) Vegetables A Casualty Of NATO Air War? From:Reuters Press Date: May 27, 1999. http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/r/990527/09/odd-hailstorms
SOFIA, Bulgaria (Reuters) - Bulgaria's valuable vegetable crop has
become the latest casualty of NATO's air war against neighboring
Yugoslavia.
The Agriculture Ministry said Wednesday that hailstorms destroyed
millions of dollars of crops this month because anti-hail radar
systems were turned off to avoid attracting the hostile attention of
NATO warplanes en route to Yugoslavia.
"The anti-hail systems have been switched off because they use radar
to detect hailstorm clouds and guide anti-hail missiles to destroy
them," an official told Reuters....
Hailstorms damaged 77,000 acres across Bulgaria by May 22, the
ministry said. Some 40 percent of crops in those areas were
considered lost, with damage estimated at $8.7 million.
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8) ROMANIA BLAMES ACID RAIN ON NATO BOMBING From: Reuters, (Planet Ark http://www.planetark.org/) Date: May 27, 1999 URL: http://202.139.253.156/news/27059903.html
NATO's two-month-old bombing campaign against Yugoslavia has caused acid rains in Romania and its authorities are concerned over the possible long-term impact of pollution on the Danube and the Black Sea.
Acid rains in May in areas on the Yugoslav border were "the direct consequence of air pollution caused by fires following bombings" against targets in Yugoslavia, the environment ministry said in a report.
Environment Minister Romica Tomescu said ... "It will take at least two years to size up the full impact, especially on the Danube and the Black Sea fauna and flora. We fear there may be long-term effects,"
Local officials report higher concentrations of heavy metals in the Danube - which forms Romania's southern border with Yugoslavia and Bulgaria over 1,075 km (670 miles), then forks into a delta before flowing into the Black Sea.
"So far, we have no signals of an impact on the health of the population," Tomescu said.
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9) Fishermen up in arms over NATO bombs By: Michel Bôle-Richard in Rome For: Le Monde URL: http://news.flora.org/flora.mai-not/11723
THE fishermen of Chioggia, a port on an island at the southern end of the Venetian lagoon, are furious. At a meeting on May 15, they decided they would stop paying their taxes because they have been forced to stop work and therefore have no income. They say it is all NATO's fault: when its aircraft return from their missions over Serbia, they drop their unused bombs into the Adriatic -- where they find their way into the nets of local fishermen. On May 10, one such bomb exploded, injuring three sailors on the Profeta, one of them seriously. The bombs fished out of the sea with shellfish are almost all of the same type: small yellow cylinders measuring 20cm by 6cm, hundreds of which are released by the notorious cluster bombs just before they hit the ground.
The Italian prime minister, ....... wanted to know if the Adriatic had become "NATO's rubbish dump". ....They are de-activated bombs," NATO replied. "They have on some occasions been launched into international waters, at predetermined spots... "There are five or six zones that have been defined since the war in Bosnia in 1992,
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10) NATO BOMBING DAMAGE ASSESSMENT [ links to ca 75 photofiles] From: Ian Goddard <Ian at Goddard.net> Receivd via: proposition1 news list May 25, 199 URL: http://www.erols.com/igoddard/yugo-war.htm
Links to approximately 75 photofiles of NATO bombing damage including infrastructure, buildings, blocks, convoy and some disturbing scenes of civilians dead and injured - lying variously in the open, in rubble and in hospital settings. Links indicate which cities or locations the bombing occurred in for most of the photos. --je
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11) APPEAL FOR THE YUGOSLAV HERITAGE UNDER THE BOMBS From: The Institute for Protection of Nature of Serbia Date Received: May 23, 1999 URL: http://www.natureprotection.org.yu/apel.html
"The rise of international co-operation and national mechanisms towards the concept of sustainable development and harmonization of all aspects of life have been the basic determinant of the Institute for Protection of Nature of Serbia. This process has been violently disrupted by disturbing the peace and survival of all life systems on the territory of Yugoslavia, which is completely opposite to what we are struggling for.
....the imbalance in one part is a threat to survival of the entire system and life on the Planet. Having this in mind, we call upon you to support our appeal... and to take responsibility in preventing much wider ecological and humanitarian catastrophe of tomorrow. "
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12) NATO bombing of Yugoslavia By: Department of Organic Chemical Technology and Polymers Faculty of Technology and Metallurgy Belgrade University Belgrade, Yugoslavia URL: http://www.net4s.com/under/ecologicalcatastrophe.html
Until yesterday we could attempt to understand, although not accept, NATO's bombing of Yugoslavia in terms of their military, strategic or logistic aims, even though some tragic accidents
had occurred. This changed dramatically in the night from Saturday to Sunday (17 - 18th April, 1999) when NATO deliberately bombed the poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) and vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) plants at Pancevo. Subsequently, increased atmospheric concentrations well above the allowed limits (an unconfirmed report spoke of more than 10 000 times higher values), were measured in the vicinity of the VCM plant. As the spreading of dangerous and toxic vapours cannot be hindered hindered by international borders, this new development in the strategy of NATO must be of concern not only to neighbouring countries, but to the complete international community. We would ask you to ensure, in any way available that this new, extremely dangerous policy of NATO becomes becomes known to the people of the world, in the hope that world opinion can stop NATO's action before and ecological catastrophe results.
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Bob Olsen, Toronto bobolsen at interlog.com
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