Iran Oil Depot Bombing Sparks Major Environmental Health Crisis
Israeli airstrikes on Iran's oil infrastructure are predicted to have significant long-term environmental consequences, according to experts. Monitors are finding it increasingly difficult to track the environmental disasters emerging from the escalating conflict.
Immediate Health Warnings Issued
Even as Iranians gathered to celebrate the appointment of a new supreme leader, the Shahran oil depot northeast of Tehran and the Shahr-e fuel depot to the south continued to burn on Monday. These fires persisted two days after being targeted by Israeli warplanes.
In the immediate aftermath of the attacks, Iran's environmental agency and the Iranian Red Crescent Society urgently advised Tehran residents to remain indoors. They warned that toxic chemicals released from airstrikes on five fossil fuel installations around the city could lead to acid rain and cause damage to skin and lungs.
Pir-Hossein Kolivand, head of the Iranian Red Crescent Society, was photographed standing before the targeted Shahran oil depot, highlighting the severity of the situation.
Global Health Concerns Raised
On Monday, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of the World Health Organization, expressed grave concerns. He stated that damage to petroleum facilities in Iran risks contaminating food, water, and air. These hazards could have severe health impacts, particularly on vulnerable groups such as children, older people, and individuals with pre-existing medical conditions.
Iran's deputy health minister, Ali Jafarian, informed Al Jazeera that soil and water supplies around Tehran are already showing signs of contamination from the weekend's explosions.
Scientific Analysis of the Black Rain
The black rain that fell across Tehran following the bombings was a mixture of soot and fine particulate matter from the explosions combined with rain from a regional storm, according to Dr. Akshay Deoras, a research scientist at the University of Reading.
"The airstrikes on oil depots released soot, smoke, oil particles, sulphur compounds, and likely heavy metals and inorganic materials from the buildings, whilst a low-pressure weather system, which typically sweeps across Iran and west Asia around this time of year, created conditions favourable for rainfall," Deoras explained.
He further noted that in terms of atmospheric chemistry, the oil fires produce sulphur and nitrogen compounds that could form acids if they dissolve in rainwater. The risks to human health include inhaling or touching smoke and particles, leading to immediate impacts such as headaches, eye and skin irritation, and breathing difficulties, especially for those with asthma, lung disease, or disabilities.
Long-Term Health Risks and Environmental Damage
Tehran residents reported difficulty breathing, headaches, and burning sensations in their eyes and throats on Sunday. However, Professor Andrea Sella, professor of inorganic chemistry at University College London, warned that these acute effects might only be the beginning.
"The explosions will have exposed the local population to all manner of undesirable and toxic chemical species, a problem that is well known to accompany warfare," he said. He explained that crude oil contains various elements, including metals, that would be spread indiscriminately.
Professor Sella highlighted that there will be a real cocktail of chemistry, including significant amounts of aromatic compounds known to interact with DNA and linked to cancers. Whether this manifests depends on the duration and severity of individual exposure. Additionally, once containment is destroyed, harmful material can permeate soil and coat everything, potentially contaminating drinking water supplies.
Regional Escalation and Monitoring Challenges
Despite US efforts to distance itself from the attacks, fears are growing that the attack might trigger a cycle of retaliation. A spokesperson for the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps warned of potential "similar actions [against oil infrastructure] in the region."
On Monday, Bahrain's state-owned energy company Bapco Energies declared force majeure on its operations after Iran attacked the country's only oil refinery. Saudi Arabia reported intercepting four Iranian drones targeting its Shaybah oil field.
These incidents followed drone strikes last week on the world's largest natural gas export plant in Qatar, the Saudi refinery at Ras Tanura, fuel storage hubs in Oman and the United Arab Emirates, and multiple tankers in the Persian Gulf. Each of these attacks posed a potential environmental catastrophe.
Doug Weir, director of the Conflict and Environment Observatory, stated that his organisation's efforts to track environmental harm from the fighting around the Persian Gulf are becoming increasingly difficult.
"We are now aware of hundreds of environmentally problematic incidents in Iran and the region but the ongoing conflict, internet restrictions and delays in the availability of satellite imagery mean that this figure is an understatement," Weir said.
He emphasised that piecing together the war's environmental footprint and its impacts on people and ecosystems will be a huge task, growing more complex with each day the conflict continues. "After the first few days where military sites were targeted we are now seeing an expansion into civilian and dual-use facilities, with this comes a broadening of the range of environmental and public health risks associated with military actions."
