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Communities living near oil fields, where fuel is burned in the open air, are at the greatest threat of leukemia, according to an Arab BBC News poll.
The UN told the BBC it considered such spaces in Iraq to be “modern sacrifice zones”, where profit has been prioritised.
Gas burning is the “unnecessary” combustion of fuel released by oil drilling, which produces cancer-related pollutants.
BP and Eni are primary oil that we know runs at those sites.
On the outskirts of Basra in southeastern Iraq are some of the country’s oil exploration areas.
The gases burned at those sites are harmful, emitting a potent aggregate of highly polluting carbon dioxide, methane and black soot.
For health reasons, Iraqi law prohibits burning within six miles of people’s homes, but we discovered villages where fuel was burned within two miles of people’s front doors.
The Iraqi government is aware of the effects this can have. A leaked Iraqi Health Ministry report, reported by BBC in Arabic, blames air pollutants for a 20% increase in cancer in Basra between 2015 and 2018.
As part of this survey, the BBC conducted the first monitoring tests of pollutants among exposed communities. The effects indicated the highest levels of exposure to cancer-causing chemicals.
Using satellite data, we found that Basra’s largest oil box, Rumaila, burns more fuel than anywhere else in the world. The Iraqi government owns the box and BP is the prime contractor.
On the grounds is a town called North Rumaila, which locals call “the cemetery. “The teens coined the word after observing high degrees of leukemia among their friends, who they suspect is due to inflammation.
Professor Shukri Al Hassan, an environmental specialist, told us that cancer is so prevalent here that it is “like the flu”.
In 2021, we met Ali Hussein Julood, a 19-year-old leukemia survivor from northern Rumaila.
The BBC denied permission to film in Rumaila, so Ali documented his life inside.
In clips from his laptop, he shows his number one school with smoke from flares emerging behind. Ali had to leave school at the age of 14 for treatment.
He tells us that after years of chemotherapy, one day on his way to the hospital, he told his father, “That’s it for me. Please say goodbye to my mother. “
His father wipes away tears at the memory.
Ali is now recovering. He told us that he had asked BP for reimbursement because he is the main contractor in the oil field. But he greeted us with silence.
Many young people from nearby villages have survived their cancer diagnosis.
Fatima Falah Najem lived 40 km from the Ali road in the Zubair oilfield with her and her six siblings.
Eni, one of Italy’s leading oil companies, is Zubair’s main contractor.
Fatima was diagnosed with a type of blood and bone cancer called acute lymphoblastic leukemia at the age of 11. Exposure to benzene, which is found in flue gas, could increase the risk of developing this condition.
From his house, we can see the rockets igniting almost continuously. The nearest flares are just 1. 6 miles (2. 6 km) from the front door of the circle of relatives.
Fatima drew the “burning flames” that surrounded her space during her hospitalization. He told us that he liked to watch them at night and that he had come to normalize them.
But for her father, watching her deteriorate health “is like being in a fireplace without being able to turn it off. “
Last year, doctors monitored the safety of a bone marrow transplant abroad. But until that time, his health was too bad to travel.
Fatima died in November at the age of 13.
The report from Iraq’s Ministry of Health shows that the government is aware of the region’s health problems. But Iraq’s own prime minister issued a confidential order, which was also reported via BBC Arabic, banning his workers from speaking about the physical damage caused by the contamination.
David Boyd, the UN special rapporteur on human rights and the environment, told us that other people living near oil fields are “victims of state-business collusion and, in most cases, lack the political strength to bring about change. “Ali Hussein said: “Here in Rumaila nobody speaks, they say they are afraid to speak in case they are returned. “
Until now, fitness researchers were allowed to enter oil fields to conduct air quality tests.
BBC News Arabic has worked with environmental and fitness experts to adopt the first independent monitoring of pollutants in communities living near the camps.
We test for carcinogenic chemicals emitted through burning fuel over a two-week period.
Air tests from five communities indicated that benzene levels, linked to leukemia and other blood disorders, reached or exceeded Iraq’s national limit in at least four locations.
Urine samples we collected from 52 children indicated that 70 percent had high levels of 2-naphthalene, a form of naphthalene, a potentially carcinogenic substance.
Dr. Manuela Orjuela-Grimm, a years-of-training cancer professor at Columbia University, said, “Children have strangely high levels. . . This relates to [their] fitness and suggests they want to be closely monitored. “
The BBC relayed the findings to Iraqi Oil Minister Ihsan Abdul Jabbar Ismail. He told us, “We have asked all contracted corporations operating in the oil fields to meet the standards.
The BBC BP and Eni for a reaction to our investigation.
Eni said he “strongly rejects any accusation that it endangers the health of the Iraqi people. “
BP said: “We are incredibly involved in the issues raised through the BBC; We’ll take a look at the concerns. “
Under a sky
The fatal effect of toxic air pollutants from oil giants on children and the planet is revealed in this BBC News Arabic-language study on the frontline of climate change in Iraq.
The documentary can now be viewed on BBC iPlayer (UK only) and worldwide on the BBC website.