How toxic dust from Turkey earthquake rubble may have unleashed health catastrophe

Environmental health professionals and experts have said that huge plumes of dust released from demolished buildings during earthquakes in Turkey and Syria carried poisons into rivers and plants, lungs and organs, risking serious health problems for years to come.

Asbestos, silica, mercury and lead were among thousands of toxins released by the huge earthquakes in February that killed more than 54,000 people in the two countries.

According to Reuters report, the sheer volume of debris left by the quake is enormous, even compared to other major disasters. The United Nations estimated the disaster generated at least 10 times as much rubble as the last big Turkish earthquake in 1999.

People in many places have rushed to clear mountains of wreckage and dumped the contents of buildings indiscriminately, according to numerous eyewitness reports and television footage.

Some experts said a ‘secondary disaster’ of toxic contamination could be even more severe than the quakes themselves.

“With an optimistic estimate, I would say that 3 million people will be sick,” Reuters quoted Mehmet Şeyhmus Ensari, civil engineer and Chairman of Turkey’s Association of Asbestos Dismantling Experts, as saying

Turkey’s Ministry for Environment, Urbanisation and Climate Change, the Health Ministry, and the Disaster Management Authority (AFAD) did not respond to requests for comment for this story, Reuters reported.

Hatay province, Turkey’s worst-hit region, shows the scale of the unfolding health hazards.

A province of 1.7 million people and part of an area known as the Fertile Crescent, it is critical for agricultural production and the food industry, accounting for 14.5 per cent of Turkey’s agricultural Gross Domestic Product (GDP), according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.

Haphazard waste disposal

Efforts to dispose of the waste have been so haphazard that some locals are staging weekly protests calling for better protection, Reuters reported.

In April, a group of medics, environmental engineers and lawyers filed a lawsuit to ban dumping near houses, hospitals, places of worship, olive orchards and coastal wetlands.

They said construction debris containing 85,000 toxic substances had been dumped in at least 15 sites, reported Reuters which said it was not able to confirm that independently.

A local court has yet to rule on their appeal.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan faces the toughest reelection battle of his two decade rule at elections on Sunday amid widespread anger in the quake region over the speed of his government’s initial response. Erdogan has focused much of his campaign on pledges to rebuild the destroyed areas quickly.

A statement on the local government’s website on 2 May said that more than 70 per cent of the rubble had been moved and authorities were still actively clearing 82 of the province’s roughly 500 districts.

Ensari, the chairman of the association of asbestos experts, told Reuters it had made “many applications” to the authorities as volunteers to supervise the demolition of buildings and handling the debris, “but our applications remain unanswered.”

The environment ministry did not respond to a request for comment on the applications.

The harms will manifest over decades, the experts said. Many more people – particularly children – will be liable to cancers, kidney disease and nervous disorders.

“Respiratory diseases, eye diseases, asthma attacks, allergic reactions, and lung diseases will increase,” said Ali Kanatli, head of the delegation of the Turkish Doctors’ Association in the quake-hit areas. “We will face these problems in the coming years.”

In normal demolitions, hazardous substances are removed from buildings before they are brought down.

Earthquakes make that impossible.

In many cities, rescue teams were replaced in the weeks after the quake by thousands of trucks and excavators clawing away at the mountains of concrete. More than 13,000 vehicles were deployed to work in the affected areas, according to the disaster management agency AFAD.

Deputy Environment Minister Mehmet Emin Birpinar said in a tweet on 25 February, the authorities would separate materials that are hazardous or recyclable from the rubble.

Birpinar said dust suppression systems were being used to prevent harmful substances like asbestos from circulating. He did not respond to requests for further details.

Turkey’s disaster regulations state that workers wearing protection should first ensure the dead have been removed, then especially white goods should be taken away and debris recycled or disposed of without causing pollution.

Reuters journalists observed some water trucks hosing down debris as it was lifted into trucks in cities including Antakya and Osmaniye, but in many other cases, there were no such measures.

Scenes of unprotected people, including children and rescue workers, moving through the dusty rubble played across television screens for weeks after the first quake struck on Feb. 6.

Colossal dumps

The quakes left a trail of destruction that could cost Ankara more than $103 billion, equal to one-eighth of Turkey’s 2021 GDP, reported Reuters citing the government.

They devastated multiple cities across 11 provinces, toppling homes and hospitals, mosques and monuments.

Across the affected regions, more than 300,000 buildings collapsed, needed to be demolished or were moderately damaged, according to a March statement from Murat Kurum, Minister of Environment, Urbanisation and Climate Change.

The UN Development Program (UNDP) says the volume of rubble generated from the destruction would top 100 million cubic meters (130 million cubic yards) – around 10 times the volume left by a major earthquake that hit Haiti in 2010.

If piled up, it would be the equivalent of over 38 enormous heaps, each the size of the Great Pyramid in Giza, Egypt, according to the report.

The capital of Hatay province is Antakya. Whole areas were reduced to shattered concrete and steel.

Satellite images from before and after the quake show the trail of destruction along the western banks of the Asi river and the downtown area.

With inputs from agencies

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