While international experts have tried to link the by-products of oil extraction and refining to higher rates of cancer – for example in California and Louisiana, where there are multiple refineries and other industrial activity – it is generally accepted that living near a centre of oil production isn’t all that healthy.
“Oil refineries are the largest source of the noxious fumes from evaporating petroleum components laden with carcinogenic compounds such as benzene and toluene in the United States,” writes Terry Tamminen in the 2009 book, Lives Per Gallon: The True Cost of Our Oil Addiction.
In particular, sulphur dioxide is a problem; it is “a harmful gas emitted by power plants, refineries, and diesel engines” and causes things like “wheezing, shortness of breath and chest tightness and other problems, especially during exercise or physical activity,” the American Lung Association, a US organization advocating for better lung health, reports.
A 2006 study from the University of California found that for some people, simply living near to plants or factories put them in contact with another related gas, hydrogen sulphide, and resulted in many of the symptoms that the people of Basra were experiencing.
“No one really cares about the people in this area, and we don’t have the power to communicate with the foreign companies working here,” complains Qais al-Moussawi, head of the local council in Shuaiba. “We’ve already seen a lot of people moving out of this area because of the pollution.”
Naturally, the oil companies operating here and their representatives disagree with these accusations, insisting that they do abide by local environmental regulations. In fact, a source at South Oil, the Basra body responsible for producing most of Iraq's oil in the south, says that locals are making these accusations up because they want to pressure the companies for a variety of reasons. These include blackmailing the firms into employing them or their allies or for other benefits, the source noted.
Comments are closed.