IEER has no independent data on the types and amounts of chemicals present at Pancevo or other facilities that have been bombed, but has compiled the best available information to respond to these queries. The information sources we have used include are news reports, chemical industry data, health and environmental data on the chemicals, and claims of Yugoslavian authorities. The latter claims were checked against industry data in the United States for reasonableness to ensure that the types of chemicals alleged to be present would be found at the types of facilities that were bombed. Pancevo The Pancevo complex, a combined petrochemical, fertilizer and polyvinyl chloride manufacturing complex, was bombed repeatedly in April, 1999. The bombing of the plant sent toxic fumes into the air of the city of Pancevo and nearby areas.
Favorable winds appear to have prevented large-scale immediate casualties.
Further, since the fires can last for hours or days, the spread of the toxic fumes would likely be along many wind directions, rather than in one elongated pattern in a single principal direction characteristic of a short-term accidental release. In order to prevent large-scale poisoning of the air in the area, the plant authorities released some of the chemicals, including highly toxic ethylene dichloride, into a nearby channel that flows into the Danube River. The Danube is the source of drinking water for millions of people downstream in Yugoslavia, Romania, Bulgaria, and Moldova. The generating systems are partly owned by Yugoslavia and partly by Romania. Transformers and Depleted Uranium NATO bombed electrical transformers in Yugoslavia as a way of disrupting that country's power system.