http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060808/wl_mideast_afp/mideastconflictlebanon_060808160758An oil spill caused by Israeli raids on a Lebanese power plant could rival the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster that despoiled the Alaskan coast if not urgently addressed, the
United Nations has said.
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"In the worst-case scenario and if all the oil contained in the bombed power plant at Jiyyeh leaked into the Mediterranean Sea, the Lebanese oil spill could well rival the Exxon Valdez disaster of 1989," it said in a statement.
"We are dealing with a very serious incident and any practical steps are still constrained by the continuation of hostilities," UNEP chief Achim Steiner said in a blunt appeal for immediate cooperation to stem any damage.
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UNEP said 12,000 tonnes of leaking oil from the Jiyyeh plant, which was bombed by
Israel on July 14 and July 15 a few days into its offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon, had already polluted more than 140 kilometers (87 miles) of the Lebanese coast and spread north into Syrian waters.
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The leakage "is a high-risk toxic cocktail made up of substances which cause cancer and damage to the endocrine system," Simonetta Lombardo of Info-Rac told reporters.
"It is not oil that has flowed but fuel for power statioms," she said. "This contains substances such as benzene, categorised as a Class 1 carcinogen."
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Israel's crime against humanity and the earth
heaps of SHAME on them