Doctors in Deir Ezzor Signal Alarm Because of Crude Oil Trade

Doctors in Deir Ezzor warned of the serious consequences on workers in the oil trade as because of their indifference to the imminent danger and not taking the necessary safety measures. Awad, who works in the oil trade, is infected with scabies along with his six-member family. However, Awad says this is the only way to provide for his family. Scabies is one of the many diseases that began to appear on many of the inhabitants of rural Deir Ezzor east as a result of the primitive ways in the extraction of oil that started in late 2012. Activists say that during day vision is obscured as a result of black smoke rising from thousands of burners scattered along the Euphrates River. The effects of the smoke can also be seen on the sheep whose wool turned black, in addition to the allergies that affect the population. Dr Iyad Kharaba, said that studies showed that workers in this trade may catch several types of cancers, most notably lung cancer, skin and bladder cancer as a result of direct contact with the crude oil. Field hospitals in eastern rural Deir Ezzor are full of children with respiratory diseases as a result of thousands of domestic oil burners that operate close to residential areas. Dr Mehdi Salama ascribes the reason to black smoke saturated with carbon monoxide and other gases resulting from domestic refining process. He also says these infections usually become chronic and irreversible, and then lead to fibrosis of the respiratory system. Field hospitals in the province started receiving babies with congenital malformations, and Slama says that he witnessed many cases of abortions as a result of women’s exposure to crude oil or petroleum products that are primitively refined. Many oil wells were set ablaze due to a variety of reasons, posing serious danger to the people living in the province. (Source: Al Jazeera)