A team of UN scientists waiting to assess the environmental fallout from the war in Iraq is being held up because the US has not yet allowed them into the country.
The team hopes to gauge the threat to Iraqis from unclean drinking water, uncollected toxic waste, bombed chemical and weapons factories, unexploded munitions and sewage-filled rivers. Mapping these pollution hot spots must be a top priority before the country can be rebuilt, the UN Environment Programme’s director Klaus Toepfer told New Scientist at the weekend. “It is very important that we get access to conditions on the ground quickly,”…
