Iraqi father takes legal action against BP after son’s leukemia death

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Hussein Jaloud is taking legal action against British energy giant BP after his son Ali died of leukemia, which he said was developed due to gas flaring at Iraq’s largest oil field of Rumaila.

Ali, a 21-year old Iraqi who lived next to one of BP’s largest oil fields near the southern Iraqi town of Rumaila in Basra province, died on April 21, 2023 of leukemia, a disease that was largely attributed by him and his family to the pollution from the flared gas that surrounds their community. 

The father is demanding that BP compensates him for his son’s medical treatment, including chemotherapy, and funeral. He said that he had to sell all the gold and furniture he had and take loans to cover his son’s medical expenses. 

“After we visited the doctors and got him examined, they confirmed that he [Ali] developed leukemia due to the oil and flared gas,” Hussein told Rudaw on Sunday, recounting the time when Ali was first diagnosed with cancer in 2017. 

The flaring process is when oil wells burn the excess gas they cannot store or use, and is considered a convenient way to deal with the waste product known as associated petroleum gas. The process, however, is among the main reasons for global climate change.

Iraq is notorious for the deadly and toxic practice of gas flaring. It is second only to Russia in terms of the amount of gas burned off, though the Iraqi population lives on average much closer to the flaring sites than Russians do. 

While Hussein said no amount of money will compensate his son’s death, he stressed that he is taking legal action “not only for Ali but for the tens, maybe hundreds of cancer patients, and tens more that have died of cancer” caused by the flared gas. 

Flaring also releases toxic pollutants which are known to harm human health, such as benzene, which is a carcinogen that is known to cause leukemia. Communities living near flared gas sites are at particular risk because they emit a deadly mix of carbon dioxide, methane, and black soot, which is highly polluting.

“These measures are not only for Ali but for the entire area,” he affirmed. “There are maybe hundreds of people who developed leukemia because of the gas that they [BP] flare.” 

The father stressed that his town’s residents – which make up 1,000 to 1,500 houses – are unable to move elsewhere “due to financial difficulties as houses in other places are expensive away from the oil fields are expensive.” 

According to Iraqi law, oil refineries must not be located less than 10 kilometers from residential areas. 

Hussein, however, said that their town “is 2,000 to 4,000 [2-4 kilometers] away from the Rumaila oil field.” 

The Iraqi government has repeatedly vowed to phase out gas flaring and to instead use the gas for electricity. 

Earlier in May, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani said that Iraq will completely eliminate the practice within three to five years “to mitigate its destructive environmental impact.”

Last month, Iraq and the United States signed memoranda of understanding (MoUs) to capture flared gas and transform it into electricity, as part of Sudani’s visit to Washington. 

Following Ali’s death, Human Rights Watch (HRW) called on the Iraqi government to “start by moving beyond simply acknowledging the problem to enacting and enforcing tight restrictions to restrict flaring" and make polluters compensate communities affected by the deadly practice.

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