The April 18 attack on the Pancevo petrochemicals complex, for example, dispatched toxic gases like chlorine and hydrochloric acid into the sky above the Serbian capital. Serbian authorities said carcinogen levels in the air that afternoon were 7,200 times over the permitted limit and warned local residents not to eat home-grown vegetables. At the same time, Pancevo workers afraid of an explosion at the plant reportedly released carcinogenic ethylene dichloride into the Danube River, where it was expected to move downstream to Romania and Bulgaria. In neighboring Macedonia, an Environment Ministry inspector warned that the furans and dioxins released by bombings could deplete the ozone layer.
Environmentalists are even more concerned about the possible use of depleted uranium weapons.
Although NATO has refused to confirm their use in the Balkans, the metal has been widely used as ballast in U.S. cruise missiles. The radioactive ammunition is also used by a range of tanks and aircraft and was deployed by A-10 Warthog jets to pierce Iraqi tanks during the 1991 Gulf war. Depleted uranium, regarded by many scientists as a possible cause of Gulf war syndrome and raised cancer rates among Iraqi children, could affect the Balkans for years. It carries on hurting people long after the war is over.