engleski

Contamination of environment as possible CB terrorism

Diseases of unknown origin affected the Canadian soldiers, present as a part of the UNPROFOR in Croatia during 1993-1995. The government of Canada expressed its concern I and suspicions that xenobiotics in the environment or other still undetermined environmental conditions were the cause of the ailments that threatened the health of its forces. As the host country, the Republic of Croatia took responsibility to investigate possible indigenous sources of diseases. The first step was measuring of radioactivity and sampling of soil and material used to fill sacks and shelters at the places of soldier's stations. The sacks and shelters were filled with bauxitic material, red mud (waste material from the abandoned alumina plant), terra rossa red soil, brown soil and limestone debris. Sampling, measurements and chemical analyses were done independently by Canadian and Croation expert teams. No chemical warfare agents, PCBs, or other manmade toxic materials and no radioactivity above background levels were detected by these detailed chemical analyses. The expert teams, in turn, confirmed that the soldier's stations, as the places of everyday living activities and task performance, were inside bauxitic open pit mines, but unluckily placed downwind the open space disposal pools filled with caustic solution, waste of alumina production.

terrorism; chemical; biological; environmental contamination

nije evidentirano