One who smokes two packs of cigarettes a day inhales about 1200 mg of benzene, compared to 150 mg a day of ambient benzene inhaled by nonsmokers in Ahmadi. In most cases, the ambient air concentrations of pollutants in areas where military and civilian personnel were located were found to be orders of magnitude lower than those in occupational settings in the United States and similar to ambient levels. The intensity of the fires made combustion relatively efficient, and the presence of coarse particles in the clouds assisted in removing other pollutants from the smoke plumes. The health surveys conducted during the oil fires indicate increased symptoms and an association between prevalence of complaints and proximity to the fires. No data confirm, however, that those symptoms were indicators of disease.
Particulates are another story.
Comparison of measurements taken in 1991 and in 1994, when the fires had long been extinguished, show similar average values. Results of the relatively few measurements of particle size indicate that there was a significant amount of particles in the size range that can have an effect on the respiratory system of sensitive subgroups, e.g., smokers, or those who have a history of asthma or bronchitis. Although some personal communications indicate increased respiratory complaints among the indigenous population during the oil fires, no epidemiological studies or evidence of health effects were found in the peer-reviewed literature.