'Time bomb' on the Baltic Sea

Bombs, torpedoes float from the sea from World War 2, toxic chemicals seep into seafood, unexpected explosions of rusty weapons are putting a big threat on the Baltic Sea in the next few years. That is a warning of some experts on environmental issues, need to have a hand out of the authorities in the region.

At a recent international conference on weapons left in the Baltic Sea held in Berlin (Germany) recently, engineer Marc Koch said that earthquake measurement devices often detect these sea explosions. He also said the toxic waste would spill over into the German coast with increasing numbers.

The Russian environmental researcher Tengis Borisov also warned: The Baltic Sea faces a disaster "at the level of the Chernobyl nuclear explosion accident". He said fishermen, sea raiders and sailors of ships were at risk and would have to lead to the termination of this sea fishing.

(Photo: spiegel.de)

Spill spread

Most experts believe that the level of threat is only low, but it is also difficult to assess the level of danger, because there are no serious studies. They also said the risk of chemical weapons was also underestimated. Many fishermen and sailors have suffered from acid burns, serious eye damage and cancer, due to exposure to these post-war ' toxic junk '. Experts warn: if the toxins are not detected in the fish net, they can invade seafood.

Former bomb destroyer Robert Zellerman of Lower Saxon (Germany) said most of the rusty bombs still flowed along the water so about a third of the Baltic Sea shelf is now flooded with worn-out ammunition. He claimed that the United States discharged many of the nerve-damaging Tabun cells into the Baltic Sea, namely about half a million Tabun bombs in the Skagerrak area in the Northern Baltic: 'This document only shows a minimum amount. , real numbers may have to be much larger. We must stop this substance from the coast. '

The bombs discovered in the seas showed the threat was underestimated. Recently, a TV crew in Kiel Fjord (Germany) has discovered 70 torpedo warheads and mines that leak TNT poison into the water. In 2001, about 20 mines and more than 3,000 grenades were also discovered in Flensburg Bay.

(Photo: spiegel.de)

Potential danger

It is unclear how many accidents from this ammunition source. Only Denmark publishes the data, indicating that on average, 20 people are injured by ' bullets ' each year on the sea. In 2005, an explosive mine killed three Dutch fishermen on their fishing boat. In the German territorial waters and the Baltic Sea and the North Sea, accidents caused by waste bullets occur every year. Many German states have data on these accidents, but they are not published, according to the ' source ' of German newspaper Spiegel.

Since then, Ms. Angelika Beer of the Green Party (Germany) in the European Parliament, said the lack of information is ' irresponsible ' and the authorities do not pay attention to the dangers. Meanwhile, Mr. Tapani Stipa of the Finnish Marine Research Institute said he did not see much of a threat to the Baltic coastal areas, as many toxins quickly dissolved into the sea. But he stressed that there is not much serious research to handle this widespread "toxic" problem.

After World War 2, the Baltic Sea became a ' landfill ' of surplus ammunition weapons. After many decades of ' hidden ' underwater, old mines, bombs and torpedoes became a threat to the sea and the people and fish in the area. The fishermen get around 3 tons of this ' poisonous waste ' every year, according to environmental expert Stefan Nehring. He said there was not much information about the location of these garbage sources, most of them were dumped into the sea in the context of the disturbance 62 years ago. As a result, the mine-breaking teams that are paid to dispose of this source of ' waste bullets ' have no specific record, as they only want to return to port as soon as possible, so that they can ' make money ' by transporting them. transfer more ammunition weapons to the sea for disposal! After that, many ' hidden ' bombs in the sea water, then the tide and fishing nets pulled them farther.

Dong Bom was picked up from the Baltic Sea (Photo: spiegel.de)

Irina Osokina is the representative of Russia at the conference, saying that in the last 13 years the Baltic States had planned a search for ammunition, but the plan was not implemented.Environmental experts say it is time to take back all the ammunition to minimize the threat.Representatives of the workshop also planned to assess the threat, to submit to G-8 leaders, when the summit will take place at the German Heiligendamm resort in the Baltic Sea in June. .

Anh Thao