Materials related to man-made disasters

Although the impact of forest on human survival is not as deadly as food and water, as a regulator, forest affects human living environment and restricts human safety in many ways.

First of all, the forest is a place to purify the air. With the rapid development of industrial and mining enterprises and the sharp increase of fossil fuels for human life, a certain amount of harmful gases are mixed in the polluted air, which poses a threat to human beings, among which sulfur dioxide is a widely distributed harmful gas. All living things have the ability to absorb sulfur dioxide, but the speed and ability of absorption are different. Plants have a huge leaf area and absorb more sulfur dioxide than other species. According to the measurement, the sulfur dioxide in forest air is less than that in open space 15-50%. If it is in high temperature and high humidity summer, with the vigorous physiological activity function of trees, the speed of forest absorbing sulfur dioxide will accelerate. When the relative humidity is above 85%, the speed of sulfur dioxide absorption by forests is 5- 10 times that when the relative humidity is 15%.

Second, forests have natural epidemic prevention functions. Trees can secrete fungicides with strong lethality, kill germs and microorganisms in the air, and have a certain health care effect on human body. Some people have measured the content of bacteria in the air in different environments: 65,438+0,000 in parks where people walk, 30,000-40,000 in urban streets, and only 55 in forest areas. In addition, the bactericidal dose secreted by trees is also considerable. For example, a hectare of cypress forest can secrete 30 kilograms of bactericide every day, which can kill diphtheria, tuberculosis, dysentery and other germs.

Third, the forest is a natural oxygen factory. Oxygen is the basic condition for human life. The human body is breathing oxygen and expelling carbon dioxide all the time. It is common sense that healthy people will not die if they don't eat or drink for three or two days, but will die if they lack oxygen for a few minutes. According to the literature, a person needs to inhale 0.8 kg of oxygen and expel 0.9 kg of carbon dioxide every day to survive. Forests absorb a lot of carbon dioxide and release oxygen during their growth. According to research, for every 44 grams of carbon dioxide absorbed by trees, 32 grams of oxygen can be released; Leaves produce one gram of glucose through photosynthesis, which can consume all the carbon dioxide contained in 2500 liters of air. According to theoretical calculation, every cubic meter of wood grown in the forest can absorb about 850 kilograms of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. At the peak of tree growth, one hectare of broad-leaved forest can absorb one ton of carbon dioxide every day and produce 750 kilograms of oxygen. The data show that 10 square meter of forest or 25 square meters of grassland can absorb all the carbon dioxide that a person breathes and supply the required oxygen. It is true that trees also absorb oxygen and expel carbon dioxide at night, but the amount of carbon dioxide inhaled during the day is very large, almost 20 times that at night, compared with the side effects at night. On a global scale, forest green space handles nearly 1000 billion tons of carbon dioxide for human beings every year, and provides 60% clean oxygen for the air.

Fourth, the forest is a natural muffler. With the development of transportation, especially in cities and towns, noise is more and more harmful to human beings. According to the research results, the noise is below 50 decibels, which has no effect on people; When the noise reaches 70 decibels, it will cause obvious harm to people; If the noise exceeds 90 decibels, people can't work for a long time. As a natural muffler, forest has a good anti-noise effect. Experiments show that parks or woodlands can reduce noise by 5-40 decibels, which is 5-25 decibels more than the natural attenuation effect of open spaces at the same distance from the sound source. The car tweeter can reduce the noise 10-20 decibels when it passes through the multi-level forest belt composed of lawns, shrubs and trees with a width of 40 meters, which is 4-8 decibels more than the natural attenuation effect in the open area. Planting trees on urban streets can also reduce noise by 7- 10 decibels. In order to have a good effect of noise reduction, there must be at least one forest belt with a width of 6 meters (crown) and a height of 15 meters in the city. The forest belt should not be too far away from the sound source, and it is generally between 6- 15 meters.

5. Forests can regulate climate. The dense forest canopy can absorb, scatter and reflect part of solar radiation energy in summer, thus reducing ground warming. Although most forest leaves wither in winter, dense branches can still reduce the wind speed blowing across the ground, reduce air flow, and play a role in heat preservation and moisture preservation. According to the measurement, the temperature of forest in summer is 2-4℃ lower than that of urban open space, and the relative humidity is high 15-25%, which is lower than that of asphalt concrete cement pavement 10-20℃. Because the roots of trees go deep into the ground, they constantly absorb the water in the deep soil for trees to transpiration, which makes the forest form fog normally and increases precipitation. Through analysis and comparison, the annual precipitation in forest areas is more than that in non-forest areas 10-30%. According to foreign reports, in order to protect the natural environment, the green coverage rate of forests should account for more than 25% of the total area.

Six, the forest changes the low-level airflow, which can prevent sandstorms, reduce floods and conserve water. Due to the blocking and friction consumption of forest trunks, branches and leaves, the wind speed entering the forest area will be obviously weakened. According to the data, dense canopy can reduce the wind speed by as much as 50% in summer. The wind is 200 meters before entering the forest, and the wind speed changes little; After crossing the forest, it takes about 500- 1000 meters to restore the speed before crossing the forest. Humans use this function of forests to plant trees and control desertification.

The rotten layer of forest surface litter is increasing, forming a thick humus layer, which has strong functions of absorbing water, delaying runoff and weakening flood peak. In addition, the canopy can intercept rainwater, reduce the impact of rainwater on the ground, and maintain soil and water. According to calculation, the canopy can block 10-20% of precipitation, most of which evaporates into the atmosphere, and the rest falls to the ground or seeps into the soil along the trunk to become groundwater.

Seven, the forest has the function of dust removal and sewage filtration. Smoke, dust and waste gas emitted by industrial development seriously pollute the air and threaten human health. The folds and fluff on the leaves of tall trees, as well as the viscous oil and juice secreted by stomata, can intercept a lot of dust and have obvious blocking, filtering and adsorption effects. According to the data, spruce can absorb 8 8. 14 grams of dust per square meter every day, 9.86 grams of pine forest and 3.39 grams of elm forest. Generally speaking, the air dust concentration in forest areas is lower than that in non-forest areas 10-25%. In addition, the forest has a strong ability to purify sewage. According to foreign research, the bacterial content of sewage can be reduced by half when it passes through the forest land of about 40 meters, and then with the increase of the distance through the forest land, the number of bacteria in sewage can be reduced to more than 90% at most.

Therefore, planting trees, expanding forest area and increasing forest resources is no longer a simple activity of producing wood, but a major event related to economic, social and environmental benefits and whether human beings can survive. The latest report provided by the World Bank warns that nearly 40% of the world's population can hardly get enough clean water. Water resources have reached the stage of serious shortage. Some environmentalists and resource scientists also point out that in the near future, water shortage will become the biggest problem of the earth's environment.

In fact, water shortage has long appeared all over the world, and the first manifestation is the depletion of groundwater. In the northern part of China, which mainly depends on groundwater, due to excessive pumping, the groundwater level in Beijing drops by 1-2 meters every year, and the water consumption decreases. The pumping of groundwater in Mexico City is 40% higher than the recharge, which leads to serious foundation settlement in some places, and the most serious foundation settlement is as high as 3-4 meters. Known as the "bread basket of the world", 20% of the land in rural America relies on groundwater for irrigation. Due to the exhaustion of water sources, a large amount of salt is mixed in the groundwater. Groundwater depletion is also serious in northwest and south India and parts of Thailand.

At present, the world population is growing at the rate of nearly 1 100 million people every year, and the demand for water is also increasing accordingly. However, the water quality is deteriorating rapidly, and water resources are facing unprecedented threats. Especially in Africa, Central and South Asia, the western United States, the Middle East and other regions, demand exceeds supply. The shortage of water resources in the world has caused problems such as grain production reduction, ecosystem deterioration and water supply struggle between countries. Agriculture occupies the largest proportion of water, and two-thirds of water resources are used to irrigate farmland, because the irrigation popularization rate is directly related to agricultural output. Judging from the history of agricultural development, the expansion of irrigation area is faster than the growth of population. However, according to the per capita irrigation area, the annual increase rate after the peak year of 1978 is only 1%, which is lower than the population increase rate of 1.6%, and many irrigated farmland has accumulated salt.

World water demand has tripled since the middle of this century. In order to meet the rapidly increasing demand for water resources, we have to build dams and rebuild rivers. 1950, there were only 5,000 dams with a height of15m in the world, but now there are 38,000 dams, 85% of which were built in the past 35 years. In order to make full use of water resources, human beings have changed the direction of many rivers and reinforced dams with concrete. On the other hand, land reclamation, the area of low-lying wetlands and lakes and swamps has shrunk, depriving many creatures of their habitats and reducing species.

According to the information provided by the American Fisheries Association, there are currently 364 species of freshwater fish on the verge of extinction. Before the Aswan Dam was built on the Nile, 47 species of fish could be caught commercially, but now it has been reduced to 17 species. In the Aral Sea in Central Asia, water is widely used for cotton cultivation. It used to be the fourth largest lake in the world, but now it has been reduced by half, and its capacity is only 1/4. The species of fish has also decreased from 24 to 4. In the 1950s, this ocean, which used to pump 44,000 tons of water every year to feed 60,000 fishermen, has now fallen into a state of destruction.

Nowadays, the dispute over water resources is not limited to regional disputes, and those rivers, lakes and seas that cross national boundaries have caused opposition between countries. The most typical is the confrontation between upstream and downstream. 1989, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ghali pointed out in the US Congress: "Egypt's security is in the hands of eight countries in the upper Nile."

At present, 40% of the world's population lives on rivers and oceans that cross more than two countries. In addition to the Nile, residents of the Aral Sea in Central Asia and the upper and lower reaches of the Ganges River across India and Bangladesh are negotiating water quotas, and sometimes even causing military conflicts. In the western United States, the biggest political problem is the distribution of water between farmers and urban residents. In Fukuoka, Japan, the drought of 1996 caused the distribution friction between agricultural water and urban water supply. China, which accounts for 22% of the world's total population and only 8% of water resources, is also facing the dispute of urban and rural water supply distribution. The harm and influence of air pollution on human beings and their living environment has been gradually recognized by people, which can be summarized as follows:

① Harm to human health. There are three ways for human body to suffer, that is, inhaling polluted air, skin contact with polluted air, and eating food containing atmospheric pollutants, which will not only cause respiratory and lung diseases, but also harm cardiovascular system and liver, and even seriously endanger people's lives.

② Harm to living things. Animals get sick or die from inhaling polluted air or eating food containing pollutants. Air pollutants will reduce the disease resistance of plants, affect their growth and development, and cause leaf spot or wither and die.

③ Damage to articles. Such as textiles and clothing, leather, metal products, building materials, cultural works of art, etc. , causing chemical damage and pollution damage.

④ Causing acid rain, which has adverse effects on agriculture, forestry and freshwater aquaculture.

⑤ Destroy the upper ozone layer and form an ozone hole, which is harmful to the living environment of human beings and organisms.

⑥ It has an impact on the global climate. For example, the increase of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide will lead to the warming of the earth's atmosphere and the increase of global weather disasters. For example, the increase of aerosol particles such as smoke and dust will increase atmospheric turbidity, weaken solar radiation, affect the long-wave radiation of the earth, and may lead to abnormal weather and climate.

How to prevent and control air pollution and reduce its harm and influence is a major and urgent research topic at present.

Air pollution prevention and control

The prevention and control of air pollution is a huge systematic project, which requires the joint efforts of individuals, collectives, countries and even countries all over the world. The following measures can be considered:

(1) Reduce pollutant emissions. Pollution-free energy (such as solar energy, wind energy, hydropower generation), energy structure reform, low-pollution energy (such as natural gas), fuel pretreatment (such as desulfurization before burning coal), and improved combustion technology can all reduce pollution. In addition, before pollutants enter the atmosphere, some pollutants in waste gas can be eliminated by dust removal and smoke elimination technology, condensation technology, liquid absorption technology and recycling technology, so as to reduce the amount of pollutants entering the atmosphere.

② Control emissions and make full use of the self-purification ability of the atmosphere. Different meteorological conditions have different atmospheric capacity of pollutants, and the same pollutant discharge will cause different pollutant concentrations. For areas and time periods with strong wind, good ventilation, strong turbulence and strong convection, the atmospheric diffusion and dilution ability is strong, and it can accept more areas and time periods where the temperature of factories and mines is reversed. If the atmospheric diffusion and dilution ability is weak, it can't accept more pollutants, otherwise it will cause serious air pollution. Therefore, effective emission control should be carried out in different regions and different time periods.

(3) The site selection, chimney design, urban and industrial planning should be reasonable to avoid excessive concentration of large emitters and repeated pollution, resulting in serious local pollution incidents.

(4) Planting trees to allow more plants to absorb pollutants and reduce the degree of air pollution. With the progress of industry and the development of society, water pollution has become more and more serious, and it has become the world's number one environmental governance topic.

As early as the18th century, Britain only paid attention to industrial development, but neglected the protection of water resources. A large amount of industrial wastewater and waste residue poured into the river, which caused the pollution of the Thames and basically lost its use value, thus restricting economic development and affecting people's health and survival. After more than 100 years of treatment, more than 500 million pounds were invested. It was not until the 1970s that the water quality of the Thames was improved. /kloc-At the beginning of the 9th century, the Rhine River in Germany was also seriously polluted. The German government enforced strict laws and invested a lot of money to protect water resources. After decades of unremitting efforts, with the cooperation of countries and the European Union, the Rhine River has been unblocked and reached the drinking water standard. In recent years, the deterioration of water quality has also troubled Americans. A few years ago, new york citizens were proud of the pure quality of tap water, and bakers in other states even made real new york donuts with tap water from new york. Seven years ago, parasites invaded Milwaukee's water supply system, killing 65,438+000 people and making 400,000 sick. Since then, water quality issues have attracted much attention. Nowadays, new york citizens live under the threat of unclean drinking water every day. The year before last, US President Bill Clinton announced a clean water action plan, investing $2.3 billion to treat 40% of the polluted water in the United States. Although people have realized the evil consequences of polluting natural water resources such as rivers and lakes and started to control them, they have suffered huge losses after all and will continue to pay a heavy price for it. Three major pollution sources of water quality

Water pollution is mainly caused by pollutants produced by human activities, including industrial pollution, agricultural pollution and domestic pollution.

Industrial wastewater is an important pollution source in water areas, which has the characteristics of large quantity, wide area, complex composition, great toxicity and difficult purification and treatment. According to the data of China Water Resources Bulletin 1998, the total amount of wastewater discharged in China this year is *** 593 tons (excluding the direct cooling water of thermal power plants), of which 40.9 billion tons are industrial wastewater, accounting for 69%. In fact, the amount of sewage discharged far exceeds this figure, because it is difficult to count the industrial sewage discharged by many township enterprises.

Agricultural pollution sources include livestock manure, pesticides and fertilizers. Agricultural sewage contains high contents of organic matter, plant nutrients, pathogenic microorganisms, pesticides and fertilizers. At present, China has not carried out agricultural pollution monitoring. According to relevant data, 1 100 million hectares of cultivated land and 2.2 million hectares of grassland use 1 104900 tons of pesticides every year. China is one of the countries with the most serious soil erosion in the world. The annual topsoil loss is about 5 billion tons, which leads to a large number of pesticides and fertilizers flowing into rivers, lakes and reservoirs with topsoil. With the loss of nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, two-thirds of lakes are polluted by eutrophication in different degrees, which causes abnormal reproduction of algae and other organisms, changes in water transparency and dissolved oxygen, and thus leads to deterioration of water quality.

Domestic pollution sources are mainly various detergents and sewage, garbage, feces and so on. Used in urban life, mostly non-toxic inorganic salts. Domestic sewage contains more nitrogen, phosphorus and sulfur, and there are many pathogenic bacteria. According to the survey, the domestic sewage discharge in China is 1998, that is,1840,000 tons.

About13 of industrial wastewater and more than 90% of domestic sewage are discharged into water bodies without treatment every year in China. More than 850 rivers in 1200 monitored in China are polluted, and more than 90% of urban waters are polluted, resulting in the extinction of fish and shrimp in many river sections, and only 32.2% of rivers meet the national first-and second-class water quality standards. Pollution is developing from shallow to deep, groundwater and seawater near the sea are also being polluted, and the water we can drink and use is decreasing unconsciously. The increasingly serious water pollution poses a great threat to the survival and safety of human beings and becomes the main obstacle to the sustainable development of human health, economy and society. According to the investigation of international authoritative organizations, 8% of all kinds of diseases in developing countries are spread by drinking unsanitary water, which causes at least 20 million deaths worldwide every year. Therefore, water pollution is called "the world's number one killer".

In China, 82% people drink shallow wells and rivers, of which 75% are seriously polluted by bacteria, and the drinking water population seriously polluted by organic matter is about 654.38+0.6 billion. For a long time, people have always thought that tap water is safe and hygienic. However, due to water pollution, tap water is no longer safe and hygienic. According to a survey, there are as many as 222/kloc-0 chemical pollutants in tap water all over the world, some of which are confirmed as carcinogens or cancer promoters. Judging from the drinking standard of tap water, China is still at a low level. At present, waterworks can only treat river water or groundwater into drinking water by precipitation, filtration and chlorination. Chlorination of tap water can effectively kill bacteria and produce more halogenated hydrocarbon compounds. The content of these chlorine-containing organic compounds has doubled, which is the largest source of various gastrointestinal cancers in human beings. At present, the composition of urban pollution is very complicated. In addition to heavy metals, polluted water also contains many harmful residues, such as pesticides, fertilizers and detergents. Even if the tap water is boiled, the residue on it will not be driven away. However, the concentration of harmful substances in boiling water increases, which reduces the dissolved oxygen content beneficial to human health and increases carcinogens such as nitrite and chloroform. Therefore, the safety factor of drinking boiled water is not high. According to the latest data, only 23% of the residents in major cities in China have reached the hygienic standard, and the qualified rate of drinking water in small towns and rural areas is even lower. The urgent task of water pollution prevention and control is to ensure that drinking water is qualified. Therefore, water pollution monitoring should be strengthened and water supply source protection areas should be established.

People have realized that we can't develop the economy by destroying the ecological environment, and the cost is too high. China put forward the strategy of sustainable development of social economy and protection of people's health, and adopted a series of powerful measures to control water pollution. Never take the old road of pollution first and then treatment. For the sake of human health and survival, in order to have a clean water environment and protect water resources, we should start from now on! 600,000 workers in the United States sought justice and received 400 million nuclear radiation compensation.

Washington post reported that the US government promised to "correct the mistakes made in the past" and compensate more than 600,000 workers who suffered from nuclear radiation due to the production of nuclear weapons with $400 million.

According to the newspaper, the government has drawn up a draft compensation plan, stipulating that workers suffering from cancer due to nuclear radiation should receive compensation of 654.38 million US dollars. Thousands of other workers can also apply for compensation. The draft also stipulates that even if the medical records are lost or destroyed, they can enjoy the benefits provided by the government. Richard Richardson, the energy secretary, confirmed the details of the draft drafted by the US Department of National Economics. According to insiders, the planned compensation for the first five years is as high as 400 million US dollars. It is reported that in the past 50 years, the United States has employed more than 600,000 male and female workers and produced 70,000 nuclear weapons in six large factories and dozens of small factories nationwide. Workers testified at the recent hearing that they had been exposed to nuclear radiation and toxic chemicals for a long time. The American government first admitted the existence of this phenomenon in June 5438+this year 10. Injured workers are more likely to get cancer than ordinary people.

A nuclear power plant in Britain leaked, 100 people were evacuated (April 2000 10)

There was a nuclear power plant leak in Britain today, and 150 people needed to be evacuated. A spokesman for the British Department of Energy said that the gas leakage accident at a nuclear power plant on the south coast of England was not a nuclear disaster, and the public need not worry.

The spokesman pointed out that the nuclear power plant leaked carbon dioxide. The nuclear power plant involved in the accident was built at 1983. It has two reactors, generating 1, 100 MW of electricity every day.

JOC Japan will pay nearly 1 billion dollars for the nuclear accident (March 7, 2000).

* * * The news agency reported on Sunday that the company in charge of the uranium processing plant where Japan's worst nuclear accident occurred is expected to pay at least $93 million in compensation. According to the report sent by the Associated Press from Tokyo on March 5th, 1999, in the accident of JCO factory located 70 miles northeast of Tokyo, one worker died and hundreds of people were exposed to radiation. The staff violated the safety regulations and mixed nitric acid and enriched uranium in the barrel, which caused the atomic reaction to get out of control and took several hours to control. According to * * News Agency, about 400 people who lived and worked in this area at the time of the accident demanded compensation because they were directly exposed to radiation in the leakage accident, although none of them received high-dose radiation. There are more than 3,000 claims, including claims for losses suffered by enterprises in agriculture, fisheries and services. "* * News Agency" said that on Saturday, after JCO negotiated with local residents and enterprises, Shojimura officials estimated the amount of the claim. JCO spokesman Suzuki Kerry declined to comment on this estimate. However, he said that the company plans to announce the total amount of all compensation claims received so far this week. Suzuki said that by the end of last year, JCO had paid $49.3 million in compensation. According to * * * News Agency, JCO and its parent company, Sumitomo, plan to use company funds and insurance money of 9.3 million US dollars to solve these compensation claims.

A major nuclear accident occurred in Japan (1999 65438+ 10/)

This morning, a major nuclear leak occurred in the experimental building of JCO Donghai Research Institute, a nuclear fuel processing company located in Shaolin Temple Village, Ibaraki Prefecture. Three staff members of the institute were directly injured by nuclear radiation, and two of them were in a coma due to serious injuries. It is speculated that this nuclear accident is likely to become the most serious accident in the critical state of nuclear fission for the first time in Japanese history.

According to the Asahi Shimbun (Evening News) of that day, the nuclear accident occurred in the process of nuclear fuel production. About 1 hour after the accident, the radiation leaked from the road near the nuclear facility was 16000 times higher than that in the normal state. At the measurement site two kilometers away, the value measured in a few minutes is about 10 times higher than the normal state.

According to reports, after 4 pm that day, the radiation in the surrounding area of JCO East China Sea Research Institute rose sharply again. It is speculated that the nuclear fission criticality accident probably happened again in the laboratory building. Due to the seriousness of the situation, the local government informed the residents within the range of Fiona Fang 10 to take emergency evacuation measures, and told them to close the doors and windows as soon as possible and not to go out before 10 morning. A rest stop near Shojimura on the Changban Expressway was also forced to close.

On the afternoon of the accident, the Ministry of Science and Technology of Japan urgently established the "Accident Countermeasures Headquarters", and Minister of Science and Technology Ma Qiutian personally served as the Minister of Countermeasures Headquarters. In addition, Obuchi's new cabinet, originally scheduled for June 65438+ 10/,had to be postponed due to this major nuclear accident. During the Vietnam War, in order not to leave a hiding place for the North Vietnamese army, the US military scattered a defoliant-orange agent in the dense jungle. Today, 30 years later, Vietnamese people understand why thousands of deformed people have been born.

1968 On a sunny afternoon, Li Hui was walking on a jungle path in central Vietnam with a bag of rice on his back. Suddenly, a mist fell from the sky and drenched him all over. Li Hui conveniently put it on his face, feeling the fog sticky and fruity. At that time, when he was a soldier in the South Vietnamese army, he encountered such a thing more than once. Until the birth of his fourth son, he was not surprised by this sunny "rainy" situation. Li was born in 1987. At birth, his right side was paralyzed, his head was huge, his body was thin and his intelligence was low. Now Li Hui knows the chief culprit of his son's disability-the water mist that soaked him during the Vietnam War. In fact, when the US military spread Agent Orange in Vietnam, its original intention was only to remove the leaves from the jungle and leave no hiding place for North Vietnamese soldiers. According to the declassified documents of the US government after the war, from 196 1 to 197 1, the US military scattered 20 million gallons of defoliants on the land of South Vietnam at that time. It is called agent orange because these liquids are kept in drum-shaped barrels with yellow labels.

In fact, American soldiers are also in the dark. From 1970s to 1980s, many American soldiers serving in Vietnam suffered from strange diseases, and their descendants also suffered from different degrees of physical defects. A group representing 20,000 veterans once sued Dow Chemical Company and Monsanto Company, which produced defoliants, and finally won compensation of $6,543.8+80 million.

Many Vietnamese babies born in 1970s and 1980s were born with various defects. Li Gaoda, executive director of the Vietnam Red Cross Orange Agent Victims Foundation, said that orange agent will affect generations of Vietnamese. Dioxin is the most carcinogenic component in orange agent and one of the most toxic substances in the world. Canadian researchers found that even teenagers born after the US military stopped spraying agent orange in 197 1 year still had a lot of dioxins in their bodies. Canadian researcher Chris said that if it is in the United States, the polluted area has long been declared as a high-risk area and needs to be cleaned up immediately. However, Vietnam has no money to move people from epidemic areas or detoxify the soil. Now, thousands of Vietnamese still live in these areas, still grow food on the land and fish in the river. 44-year-old Fan Xin only worked as a construction worker in the area where agent orange was sprayed, but his son who returned to his hometown also had severe mental retardation. He was born without legs, and his feet grew on his hips. The consequence of Agent Orange is one of the most painful disasters left by the Vietnam War. The U.S. government has always refused to admit that Agent Orange is the cause of Vietnamese life defects. Douglas, the US ambassador to Vietnam, said that without scientific analysis, it is impossible to link the two.

The Pentagon denied that it was afraid of a large number of Vietnamese prosecutions. During his recent visit to Vietnam, Defense Secretary Cohen said that the US government is willing to investigate this matter with the Vietnamese government, which political analysts believe is the most meaningful step to solve this matter. The Vietnamese government is in a dilemma on this issue. On the one hand, scientists and doctors don't have enough money to do detailed research on soil and human tissues. On the other hand, Vietnamese government officials are worried that if too much emphasis is placed on the orange agent pollution in Vietnam, it will damage Vietnam's tourism and agricultural exports. After recent negotiations, the American government promised to give Vietnam some research funds, but the Vietnamese government hoped that the United States would give economic compensation to the sick Vietnamese veterans. The U.S. government now gives $5,000 a month to American veterans injured by Agent Orange, while the Vietnamese government can only give $3 to $7 a month to veterans. The amount of subsidy depends on their severity and disability level. We don't have more funds, which is why we need American help,' said an official of the Vietnam Red Cross. General Petcovici, Assistant Minister of Defence of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, said a few days ago that "in addition to Kosovo, eight regions in southwest China, such as Serbia, Yugoslavia and Uzice, were also attacked by about 3,000-5,000 depleted uranium bombs by NATO A- 10 attack aircraft, with a total weight of about 1- 1.5 tons. Statistics show that the nuclear radioactivity per kilogram of sample soil in the polluted area is 20-23.5 Van Beck, and the allowable nuclear radioactivity should be only 200 Beck, so the area has been catastrophically polluted by nuclear radioactivity. "

Petcovici made the above remarks at a press conference on the impact of NATO bombing on Yugoslavia's ecological environment. He said that according to the information held by the Yugoslav army, NATO * * * fired depleted uranium bombs at more than 0/00 targets in Kosovo, but the government has taken measures to isolate these polluted areas and is gradually reducing the nuclear radioactivity intensity in the polluted areas through various means, hoping that all countries in the world can help clean up the pollution.

Nada Sljapic, Minister of Development, Science and Technology and Environmental Protection of Yugoslavia, said at a press conference that the Report on the Consequences of NATO Bombing Yugoslavia made by Yugoslav experts and foreign experts showed that in addition to military targets, NATO bombed Yugoslav industrial facilities, including chemical enterprises, which had extremely disastrous consequences for the ecological environment of Yugoslavia.

Dictionary of Earth Sciences-Human Disasters