[LCM Articles] Cedar and asbestos

[Abdallah Jabbour]

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/arne_jernelov/2006/08/arne_jernelov.html

Long after the fighting has stopped, survivors of the Lebanon conflict will
be feeling the environmental fallout.

August 15, 2006 02:31 PM

In any war, the primary focus is on dead, wounded and displaced people. The
number of people killed as a result of Israel's offensive in
Lebanon<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_Israel-Lebanon_conflict>at
the time of this writing is reported to be roughly 800 Lebanese and
120
Israelis - not an atypical ratio for Arab-Israeli conflicts. The UN
estimates the number of displaced persons to be more than a million, about
800,000 of them Lebanese.

Damage to infrastructure and the environment will also continue to be felt
once hostilities cease. Of course, infrastructure can be rebuilt much more
quickly than the environment can be restored or recover on its own. In the
case of Lebanon, however, the two are closely linked, as much of the
environmental damage comes from destroyed infrastructure.

As in most modern wars, oil spills are one of the most visible - and
therefore most reported - forms of environmental damage. Until the war
started, Lebanon's beaches were among the cleanest in the Mediterranean.
They are now to a large extent covered with oil. For a rare species of sea
turtle this is bad news, as the eggs laid in the sand on those very beaches
in the annual spawning season are due to hatch at precisely this time of the
year. The total amount of oil released into the sea is now well over 100,000
tons.

Naturally, oil cisterns are not the only targets, and coastal locations are
not the only regions hit. It is far too early to assess the damage done by
releases of other, less visible, chemicals, but it is safe to assume that
ground water will be contaminated for a long time. The drier the
environment, the worse the problem.

Moreover, bombs and grenades not only ignite buildings, but also grass,
bushes, and trees. The number of forest and brush fires that start is thus
much higher than during a normal summer. Worse still, there is little
capacity to fight them, as existing fire-fighting resources are used to try
to save human lives. Consequently, bushes and forests burn, reducing the
stands of cedar trees - a symbol of Lebanon as much as the bald eagle is of
the United States - by the day towards extinction. A unique ecosystem is
being lost.

There have also been reports, more often on the internet than in the press,
about despairing Lebanese doctors, who, not recognising the wounds patients
have sustained after Israeli air strikes, have described what they see and
asked colleagues around the world for help. One such type of wound
reportedly resembles second-degree burns over large parts of bodies, but
with the hairs intact - not a typical reaction to fire and heat. There have
been suggestions that agents containing some acid or alkali were possibly
stored in buildings destroyed in the bombing.

According to this theory, such agents were dispersed after a missile or bomb
hit, rather than being delivered with incoming warheads. The last word
probably has not been heard. One has only to recall "Gulf War Syndrome",
which emerged after the 1991 conflict, and the controversy surrounding the
issue of what, if anything, affected US soldiers, to understand how
difficult it can be to answer such questions until well after the fact.

The worst environmental effect on health is probably the one most directly
associated with the destruction of infrastructure: the release of asbestos.
As in many parts of the world with hot climates, apartment and office
buildings in Lebanon use asbestos for heat insulation. This has been
standard practice for decades, and most buildings that have been erected or
restored since Israel's last bombings in 1982 have plenty of it.

When pulverised by bombs and missiles, asbestos fibers are freed and can be
inhaled with the rest of the dust. The protective suits that
specially-trained people are legally required to wear in the European Union
or the US when demolishing, rebuilding, or repairing any building containing
asbestos underscore the risk of pulmonary fibrosis and lung cancer for
Lebanese who inhale dust from bombed-out houses and offices. Indeed, US
companies have been forced to pay tens of billions of dollars to
ex-employees who worked with asbestos.

Lebanon cannot afford to pay anything close to such a sum. But this is just
one of many environmental debts that will somehow have to be paid in full
long after the fighting has stopped - by the victims, if by nobody else.
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