{"id":548893,"date":"2026-03-18T18:25:31","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T18:25:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/548893\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T18:25:31","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T18:25:31","slug":"iran-war-creates-a-public-health-and-environmental-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/548893\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran War Creates a Public Health and Environmental Crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tSmoke sweeping through the city. Black skies blocking out the morning sun. Black rain coating everything in sight with a toxic, opaque residue. These are the conditions Tehran residents have been waking up to<\/a> since the United States and Israel\u2019s war against Iran commenced earlier this month, and as the city\u2019s oil depots have been bombed \u2014\u00a0causing massive black plumes of smoke to tower above them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe World Health Organization recently stated<\/a> that the black rain and \u201cacidic rain\u201d that resulted from these bombings were \u201ca danger for the population.\u201d The organization noted that people in the region could face respiratory issues, and that the conditions could threaten the lives of those with existing respiratory issues, like asthma.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cSuch plumes can contain particulate matter, nitrogen oxides, sulphur dioxide, carbon monoxide and toxic organic compounds \u2014 including PAHs and potentially dioxins \u2014 posing health risks to downwind communities,\u201d added a March report<\/a> from the Conflict and Environment Observatory.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAn oil depot engulfed in flames also represents a threat to the environment, of course. The longer the war goes on, the more carbon emissions will be generated, and there\u2019s currently no end in sight as the U.S. and Israel continue to bombard Iran. The ongoing conflict in Ukraine has demonstrated that war can<\/a> lead to tens of millions of tons of carbon dioxide being pumped into the atmosphere.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tMichael Oppenheimer, a professor of geosciences and international affairs at Princeton University, tells Rolling Stone that at this early point in the war, the concern is less the emissions and more the impact on public health.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cBased on analyses done after the Gulf War, when a large number of oil wells in Kuwait were set on fire, the impact on long-term global climate was probably not significant,\u201d Oppenheimer says. \u201cIt will create, for some period of time, a regional air pollution problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOppenheimer says heavy particles, such as soot, will contaminate the area, but micro-particulates can travel long distances \u2014 hundreds of miles, potentially \u2014\u00a0and get into people\u2019s lungs. The effects of the burning oil depots could also threaten water supplies and agriculture.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\n\t\u201cIn addition to the people harmed or killed directly by military actions, there are these indirect effects \u2014 oil getting into water supplies, seeping into the ground, and contaminating streams, rivers, and reservoirs,\u201d Oppenheimer says. \u201cThey don\u2019t have a lot of extra water in the Gulf region \u2014 it\u2019s a very arid part of the world \u2014 so to the extent they do have surface water, those waters can become polluted.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIran was already facing<\/a> a pretty severe water shortage before the war began, so water being affected could cause serious problems. The U.S. also struck<\/a> a desalination plant in the region, which cut off water supply to 30 nearby villages. If attacks on desalination plants continue, the water supply crisis could be made even worse.<\/p>\n

\n\tPollution from the bombing of oil depots this past weekend appears to have already reached areas where food is being grown, and Oppenheimer says particles from the fires can produce toxins that end up in the soil, and that these toxins can be taken up by crops. Iran is also<\/a> facing a food shortage.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThose particles are damaging to human health at relatively low levels,\u201d Oppenheimer says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tMichael Mann, a distinguished professor of earth and environmental science at the University of Pennsylvania, says he worries about the \u201cimmediate respiratory impacts\u201d and the \u201clong-term health consequences of the potentially carcinogenic toxic chemicals that the people of Iran are being exposed to.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\t\u201cTo me, it\u2019s almost a metaphor for what makes Donald Trump so dangerous,\u201d Mann says. \u201cHe\u2019s threatening our world in so many ways.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe military vehicles in the region \u2014 from ships to jets \u2014 are also producing carbon emissions and pollution, which harm the environment and contribute to climate change. \u201cAs the war continues, military operations themselves will add to carbon dioxide emissions and other forms of pollution,\u201d Oppenheimer says.<\/p>\n

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\n\tWe tend to look at images of explosions and guns going off and think of the immediate deaths\u00a0 \u2014 like the at least 175 people, mostly children, who were killed in a strike on an elementary school for which the U.S. appears to be to blame \u2014 but there could very well be many more deaths that don\u2019t happen right away. The environmental impact of the war, and the impact on food and water, could threaten the population in the region for years. Unfortunately, the parties responsible for the war aren\u2019t likely to care.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cEvery time we\u2019ve seen this happen in a combat situation, it\u2019s the same story all over again,\u201d Oppenheimer says. \u201cGovernments seem to forget about it, and then they go and do it again.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Smoke sweeping through the city. Black skies blocking out the morning sun. Black rain coating everything in sight…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":548894,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[64,63,7961,75,206980,128],"class_list":{"0":"post-548893","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-climate-crisis","11":"tag-environment","12":"tag-iran-war","13":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=548893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548893\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/548894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=548893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=548893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=548893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}