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from The Sunday Herald Scotland http://www.sundayherald.com/25477 Toxic Nazi legacy threatens Europe Concern as German chemical weapons dumped off Danish coast by Britain after the second world war start leaking into seas By Rob Edwards, Environment Correspondent 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. '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.' 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.' 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. 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. 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. 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. '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. '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.' 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. '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. 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. 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. 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.' ____________________________ http://www.sundayherald.com/ ===== "We're all downwinders!" Check out http://www.downwinders.org ===== Lake Merritt Neighbors Organized for Peace. Weekly peace walks around Lake Merritt in Oakland. For directions & public transportation info go to http://www.webwm.com/LMNOP/where_when.htm Every Sunday at 3 P.M. Info: (510)763-8712, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> or http://www.webwm.com/LMNOP __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? 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