Radioactive material and pollutants widespread

While the Coalition has not found any weapons of mass destruction, Iraq has lots of radioactive pollution, especially at a known nuclear research site, a new survey conducted by the Ministry of Environment shows. Tuwaitha, some 18 km south of the capital, Baghdad, is a site of previous nuclear weapons research and experiments. It appears to have the highest ambient radiation in the country, Bushra Ali Ahmed, author of the radiation survey, told IRIN. Residents of the area looted containers holding radioactive materials in the days immediately following the US-led invasion of Iraq in April 2003. They dumped the radioactive contents on the ground at the site and used the containers to carry water, milk and other household materials and foodstuffs. US troops and nuclear organisation workers paid about 4,500 dinars (US $3) per container to buy them back in May. Officials at the time said they were not sure they had managed to get all of the containers back. "This site was polluted by looting and destroying research materials," Ahmed wrote in the survey. "We found a number of containers which had traces of radiation. We also found it in houses and villages nearby." At least four surrounding villages are contaminated, the report said. Ministry officials took 190 samples at Tuwaitha: 70 for soil, 50 for water, 50 for dairy milk and 20 for other environmental items. In addition, more than 4,000 people in Tuwaitha were tested. Employees who worked in radiation-related fields were also monitored by officials for the survey, although no conclusions were drawn. While no specific numbers are available in the secretive military industry ministry, an estimated 5,000 workers may have been exposed to various radioactive materials in recent years, according to Dr Ahmed Abdul Jabhar at the Baghdad Radiation Hospital. The Tuwaitha site is currently guarded by US troops and protected by 30 metre high earth walls. It was bombed by Israeli rockets in the 1980s after which former President Saddam Hussein agreed to dismantle a nuclear bomb project. Radiation was also found at a former military site known as al-Nasser in the suburbs of Baghdad and in Daura, also on the outskirts of the capital, the Iraq survey said. The United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) is now starting a US $4.7 million pilot project to investigate environmental "hot spots" and help with cleaning them up, ranging from chemical spills to oil discharges. United Nations workers will help Iraq get rid of pollution threats to human health, wildlife and the wider environment, Klaus Toepfer, UNEP's executive director, said in a statement. "Importantly, UNEP will be training Iraqi experts to carry out the tests in order to build the skills and technical know-how in the country," Toepfer said. "This is part of our long-term aim of creating a fully independent Iraqi team of first-class environmental assessors." Workers at the newly created Ministry of Environment wrote up the survey to compile work they have done for the last year, Dalal Ali, head of the ministry's media department, told IRIN. Ahmed is the general director of the Centre for Protection from Radiation, newly created after US-led troops entered Iraq. Iraqi scientists will send samples to Geneva for additional testing in European laboratories. In addition, the Iraq survey found depleted uranium in large amounts in southern Iraq, including in Hilla, the port city of Basra, and Karbala and Najaf. Depleted uranium occurs naturally in the environment, but is often used in munitions fired at tanks and other armoured vehicles during fighting. On the positive side, radiation appears not to have spread to drinking water - the ministry tested 577 water samples around the country but found no radioactive pollution, Ahmed said. Iraq's water treatment system has long been neglected, however, with some aid agencies estimating that 70 percent of childhood deaths come from illness related to drinking contaminated water. "Now our centre wants to test food material and imports to make sure no new radiation is introduced," Ahmed said. Now that the survey is complete, Ahmed has a list of recommendations, including modernising existing countrywide maps of radiation and the environment; undertaking more measurements for radon gas, which indicates the presence of the highly toxic uranium-238, used to make nuclear bombs; training workers; beefing up laboratories that test for radiation; and embarking on a public awareness campaign so that people will not dump radioactive materials again. The UNEP project plans to examine five out of an estimated 300 contaminated sites around the country. The UN agency expects to deal with sites such as the Al-Mishraq Sulphur State Company, where sulphur fires appeared to have contaminated soil and groundwater; and the Midland (Al-Doura) Refinery where 5,000 mt of chemicals, including tetra-ethyl lead, were spilled or dumped. In addition, oil spills caused by frequent sabotage of the country's pipelines have created an environmental mess, the UNEP statement said. And scrap metal plants may have released contaminants such as halons and asbestos from destroyed military vehicles.