Sunken WW II weapons could ooze poison, say scientists

Scientists studying the problem of chemical weapons in the Baltic Sea warn that large amounts of poisonous materials will soon seep through bomb casements and shells.

The warning was issued at an international conference in Vilnius on April 19 to discuss options of handling chemical weapons dumped in the Baltic Sea during World War II.

As World War II drew to a close, Soviet forces sank several German ships with stashes of chemical weapons. Many were sunk off the Lithuanian-Latvian border close to Liepaja and also near Sweden.

Scientists believe there are about 40,000 bombs and mines containing chemical weapons in the Baltic Sea.

Mines are also an occasional problem in fishing waters off the coast of Latvia and Lithuania.

On April 23 the Latvian minesweeper Namejs found a 150-kilogram German mine about 12 kilometers from the Latvian port city of Liepaja.

Vidmantas Kapocius, a scientist at the Lithuanian Chemistry Institute, said most of the sunken ships and containers with chemical weapons had explosive charges with mustard gas. He said the mustard gas has solidified into a jelly form under water pressure.

During the past 60 years the stores of shells filled with chemical agents have gradually corroded and could burst all at once, sending thousands of metric tons of poisonous chemicals into the sea at any moment, Kapocius said.

"This material is gradually seeping through the holds of the ships, and a mass seepage could happen tomorrow or in five years at the latest," he said.

It is necessary to figure out how fast the shells and containers are corroding, he said.

Vadim Paka, head of the Atlantic department at the Russian Academy of Sciences' Oceano-graphic Institute, said that ecological catastrophe could be avoided if scientists plan and execute mitigation efforts now.

"First of all, we should take samples of the chemical weapons and analyze them and ban fishing with trail nets in the regions where the shells are dumped," he said.

He added that the likelihood of a mass release was unlikely.

A large amount of mustard gas released into the sea would trigger some genetic mutations, Kapocius said.

"If the mustard gas reacts with the natural environment, the biological balance will start changing in the Baltic Sea because some of the species of sea fauna and flora will mutate and survive, while others will die out," said the scientist.

Humans do not have a direct contact with the material that seeps through into the sea at a depth of 200 meters. But they could ingest it as part of the food chain.

"This can cause malformations, illnesses, maybe even new bacteria species will develop - it's impossible to provide an exact forecast," said Kapocius.

According to Algirdas Stan-kevicius, director of the Sea Research Center, the chemical weapons sunk closest to Lithuania are buried some 70 nautical miles northwest of the port city of Klaipeda, in an area of 400 square nautical miles. Scientists believe the Soviet navy sank some 1,000 to 5,000 tons of Nazi aviation bombs, each containing poisonous gas in the area.

In February members of the Baltic Assembly's Security and Foreign Affairs Committee, representatives of the Kaliningrad regional Duma and Baltic naval officials adopted recommendations for dealing with the possible threats posed by submerged chemical weapons.

Recommendations included preparing an emergency response plan to be implemented if a mass release of chemical weapons occurred.

Data on the hazardous materials became available from Soviet records in 1992. In 1994 experts recommended that the weapons be left in place on the sea floor, saying attempts to raise the materials could pose more of a threat.