The city of Tehran is being poisoned by a toxic cloud of smoke from the Israeli bombing of oil depots:
Iran’s capital was engulfed in a cloud of toxic smoke that unleashed black rainfall dozens of miles away on Sunday after overnight Israeli strikes on several fuel depots caused fires to burn for hours.
Images from Tehran, a city of nearly 10 million people, showed thick black smoke from the fires hanging over it, while residents reported difficulty breathing and oil-tainted rainfall staining everything around them.
The destruction of the country’s civilian infrastructure is terrible in itself, and the harm that the U.S. and Israel are doing to the population is appalling and indefensible. Millions of people are being threatened by toxic fumes and poisoned rain. The damage to the environment will be severe. The short and long-term effects on the health of the population of Tehran and the surrounding region will be grave. Iranians will be suffering the consequences of this war long after the bombing stops.
It is not surprising that a genocidal government would commit more crimes against humanity in this war, but it is important to recognize and condemn those crimes when we see them. Poisoning the air that the entire population breathes is a horrifying crime. The U.S. and Israel are inflicting monstrous collective punishment on one of the largest cities in the world in a war they started. The attackers have made clear through their actions that this is a war to wreck Iran and hurt its people.
The smoke from the fires is so thick that it has blotted out the sun:
Residents of Tehran woke up on Sunday morning to find it was still dark outside, an apocalyptic sight created by thick black smoke billowing from oil depots hit by Israeli strikes.
With the Sun blotted out, disoriented people in the Iranian capital had to turn on their lights to see through the gloom.
Gabriel da Silva, an atmospheric chemist, explains the dangers from the fumes and poisoned rain:
In the longer term, exposure to the compounds in the air and in this black rain is potentially increasing people’s cancer risk. When ultrafine particles (PM2.5) are inhaled, they can get into your bloodstream. This has been linked to a range of health impacts, including cancers, neurological conditions (such as cognitive impairment), and various cardiovascular conditions.
Once these heavily polluted plumes of air have their pollutants rained into natural waterways, they can also start to affect aquatic life, as well as human drinking water sources.
Another issue is that this black rain is depositing these compounds on buildings, roads and surfaces, which means they can make their way back into the air when disturbed by strong winds.
The poisoning of Tehran will be harming and killing innocent Iranians for years after the war is over. As we have seen in our government’s many other unnecessary wars from Southeast Asia to Iraq and beyond, there is always a trail of ruin and contamination left behind. The longer that this disastrous war goes on, the more devastating its effects will be.
