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Politics : Bill Clinton Scandal - SANITY CHECK -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Daniel Schuh who wrote (42840)	4/19/1999 12:52:00 AM
From: pz	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 67261

So much for Gore wanting to save the planet Poison cloud engulfs Belgrade AN ecological disaster was unfolding yesterday after Nato bombed a combined petrochemicals, fertiliser and refinery complex on the banks of the Danube in the northern outskirts of Belgrade. A series of detonations that shook the whole city early yesterday sent a toxic cloud of smoke and gas hundreds of feet into the night sky. In the dawn the choking cloud could be seen spreading over the entire northern skyline. Among the cocktail of chemicals billowing over hundreds of thousands of homes were the toxic gas phosgene, chlorine and hydrochloric acid. Workers at the industrial complex in Pancevo panicked and decided to release tons of ethylene dichloride, a carcinogen, into the Danube, rather than risk seeing it blown up. At least three missile strikes left large areas of the plant crippled and oil and petrol from the damaged refinery area flowed into the river, forming slicks up to 12 miles long. Temperatures in the collapsing plant were said to have risen to more than 1,000C. Asked about the hazard from chemical smoke, Nato said there was "a lot more smoke coming from burning villages in Kosovo". Belgrade scientists told people to stay indoors and to avoid any fish caught in the Danube. They said pollution would spread downstream to Romania and Bulgaria and then into the Black Sea. At least 50 residents of Pancevo were reported suffering from poisoning and the Health Ministry was struggling to find gas masks to distribute in the surrounding areas. residents were told to breathe through scarves soaked in sodium bicarbonate as a precaution against showers of nitric acid. Thirteen hours after the first explosions, the Yugoslav Army took journalists to Pancevo just as a thunderstorm broke over the complex. As the director tried to hold a press conference in the fertiliser plant's headquarters offices, panes of glass and other fixtures loosened by the earlier explosions began falling from the building. The driving rain and gusts of wind only increased the smoke and brought the toxic gases down from the higher levels of the atmosphere. "This plant is 37 years old and this is our worst nightmare," said Miralem Dzindo. " By taking away our fertiliser they stop us growing food, and then they try to poison us as well." He rejected journalists' questions about chemical weapons, saying that the plant was strictly non-military. Mr Dzindo said an airstrike three nights ago had grazed a tank containing 20,000 tons of liquid ammonia. If that had gone up in flames, he said, much of Belgrade would have been poisoned. Against the roar of thunder and the crackle of the burning oil refinery, the Serbian Ecology Minister, Dragoljub Jelovic, accused Nato of trying to destroy the whole Yugoslav environment. He said the pollution in the Danube and in the atmosphere over Belgrade "knows no frontiers" and he warned neighbouring countries that the poison clouds could soon be with them. A westerly wind had taken the worst of the gases away from Belgrade, he said, but he predicted that they could soon reach Romania. Disaster will be avoided, as long as the cloud remains several hundred feet high (Dr Thomas Stuttaford writes). However, if the wind changes, and if it rains so that the gases are dissolved in solutions which can be deposited and inhaled, the old, very young and those with chest diseases might suffer. The usual advice is to keep indoors with the windows shut, wearing a mask, and after the danger has passed to wash all clothes that were being worn, and to flush down any contaminated person's skin with soapy water.