Attack on Iraq Would Create Environmental Catastrophe

The official Chinese news agency, Xinhua, quotes a scientist working for the Chinese Environmental Science Academy, Shu Jianmin, as having declared that an armed attack against Iraq could produce massive and irreversible damage to the environment not only in Iraq itself but also in the entire region.

“The use of powerful missiles could set off serious chemical and radioactive contamination which will cause irreparable damage to the environment”, claimed the scientist, who added that attacks on Iraqi factories and military installations would release particles into the atmosphere “which will contaminate the air and water resources in the whole region”.

Xinhua also quoted Zheng Ming, Professor at the Ecological Academy for Social Sciences, who said that a large-scale military conflict “will increase the number of people suffering from cancer, will multiply the number of new-born babies with health problems and will affect the reproduction process”, with a corresponding rise in the number of abnormalities at birth.

The agents used in the munitions deployed by the USA, such as depleted uranium, is not bio-degradable and will contaminate the region for decades, claims the scientist.

John ASHTEAD PRAVDA.Ru LONDON UNITED KINGDOM