- More than half a century ago, Britain dumped over 100,000
tonnes of the Nazi's deadly chemical weapons in the sea. Now they are coming
back to haunt us.
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- Scientists fear millions of ancient shells and bombs
resting on the short stretch of seabed between Denmark and Norway have
begun to leak their lethal payload. Danish fishermen have been injured,
Norway has launched an investigation and coastal authorities are worried
a 'historic time bomb' could be about to explode.
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- The Sunday Herald has obtained a copy of a report by
the Ministry of Defence which details for the first time the extraordinary
scale of the postwar operation to get rid of Germany's chemical weapons.
Between 1945 and 1947, at least 112,000 tonnes were loaded into 33 German
boats, which were then scuttled in Skagerrak, the strait across the North
Sea that separates Norway and Denmark (see table).
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- The chemicals, confiscated from Hitler's Third Reich
at the end of the second world war, were mustard gas, phosgene, tabun and
lewisite, all of which can inflict appalling injuries. They may also have
included hydrocyanic acid and Cyclone B, two of the poisons used to murder
millions of Jews in Nazi concentration camps.
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- Before they were packed into the hulls of ships, the
weapons were put into wicker baskets by German workers. The hope was that
any chemicals that leaked out would be absorbed by the wicker, and prevented
from contaminating the sea.
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- That may have been a false hope, however. An expedition
to Skagerrak by Russian scientists has discovered evidence that the weapons
-- sometimes only two hundreds metres deep -- are falling apart and spilling
their contents into the marine environment.
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- The investigation by the Russian Academy of Science
in St Petersburg found levels of arsenic up to 200 parts per million around
one of the dump sites. This was 'extremely high', they said, and was probably
due to arsenic leaching from corroding weapons.
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- They also detected high concentrations of lead and other
heavy metals. The weapons could poison fishermen who pulled them up from
the seabed, were a target for terrorists and posed 'a large danger to
the environment', the Russian scientists warned.
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- 'It is a terrible menace for Europeans,' said Albert
Bikmullin, from the International Ecological Parliament, a Russian environmental
group. 'Poison gas, dissolving slowly in the water, is able to pollute
vast areas and get into food chains.'
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- He added: 'Plankton absorbs poison gas very easily, is
mutated and gets into fish as a food. Fish, in their turn, get to carnivores
and in this way poison gets into a man's meal.'
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- The Russian government has formally approached NATO,
seeking support for a programme to monitor and prevent leakages from the
chemical dumps. But NATO, which is considering the request through its
Committee on the Challenges of Modern Society, has not yet decided what
to do.
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- Meanwhile the Norwegian Pollution Control Authority has
just begun its own investigation, which involves sending a remote-controlled
mini-sub marine to the seabed to take pictures and samples. 'We have to
keep it under control to make sure that it doesn't harm people,' said Hilde
Keilen, the authority's senior executive officer.
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- Danish studies have suggested that over 150 fishermen
have accidentally brought up chemical munitions in their nets. In some
cases, they have been burnt by leaking mustard gas, which, despite its
name, is a thick, viscous liquid.
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- KIMO, an organisation which brings together over 100
local authorities representing five million people around the coasts of
northern Europe, is planning a Scottish conference on chemical dumps at
sea this November. Due to take place in Ayr, it is entitled Time Bombs
From The Past.
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- 'We are increasingly concerned about the historic time
bomb which is ticking away at over 80 dump sites in northern seas. We are
asking governments to investigate the exact locations of chemical and conventional
weapons dump sites, compile inventories and make this information available,'
said KIMO's Rick Nickerson.
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- 'These materials are increasingly washing up on our coasts
and endangering fishermen at sea. It is important that a clear picture
is obtained of the state of these dumps so that appropriate action can
be taken if and when a site becomes a problem.'
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- The cause has been taken up by the Labour MP for Glasgow
Baillieston, Jimmy Wray. He has put down an motion in the House of Commons
calling on the British government to combat the pollution from the sunken
ships, and has been backed by 28 other MPs.
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- 'It is important that this kind of pollution is dealt
with soon. These ships have been sitting on the seabed for the past 50
years and are now rotting away. Dangerous chemicals are being leaked into
the sea, and we could have an environmental catastrophe on our hands within
a few years,' he said.
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- The British government, however, has no plans to even
monitor the chemicals dumped in Skagerrak. 'The consensus of international
scientific opinion is that munitions on the seabed present no risk to human
health or the marine environment, provided they are left undisturbed,'
said the defence minister, Dr Lewis Moonie.
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- He confessed that much of the historical documentation
detailing the dumping had been lost. 'After the second world war it was
the administrative practice to destroy records of sea disposals of munitions,
including chemical weapons, when such records were perceived to be of
no further administrative use,' he explained.
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- The admission has infuriated Wray. 'It is terrible that
important documents have been destroyed by the Ministry of Defence,' he
declared. 'It doesn't bear thinking what other documents have been disposed
of.'
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- ©2002 smg sunday newspapers ltd. no.176088. all
rights reserved.
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- http://www.sundayherald.com/25477
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