MOSCOW, November 24 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's Federal Nature Management Oversight Service wants to ban fishing in the Amur River after a chemical spillage in the river's Chinese tributary 11 days ago, the organization's deputy director said Thursday.
"Benzene is a long-acting carcinogenic agent, meaning it will be dangerous to eat fish from the Amur for the next few years," Oleg Mitvol told the radio station Mayak.
Mitvol also warned that, due to the freezing of the water, the chemicals could remain in the area until spring 2006.
"Only the spring water-flow can finally clean out the Amur," he said.
However, he noted, "we must not panic... We have the most important thing, time."
About 100 tons of chemicals were released into the Songhua River following an accident in a petrochemical plant in China November 13.
A Chinese official said Thursday that the toxins would not reach the Amur River for another 14 days.
