April 20, 1999
Poison cloud engulfs Belgrade
Tom Walker
London TImes
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.
