VLADIVOSTOK, November 30 (RIA Novosti, Anatoly Ilyukhov) - Russian scientists acknowledged Wednesday the possibility of the contamination of two Far Eastern seas as a benzene spill moves its way from China down the Amur River toward the Sea of Okhotsk and the Sea of Japan.
The World Wildlife Fund quoted Lyubov Kondratyeva, a fellow at an environmental research institute in the Far East city of Khabarovsk, as saying that the cancer-causing benzene could reach the seas in spring after the ice has melted.
Kondratyeva also said that benzene could accumulate in the food chain and ultimately poison people.
About 100 metric tons of chemicals, including potentially lethal benzene, spilled into the Songhua River after an accident at a petrochemicals plant in northeastern China and is heading along the Amur River toward the Russian city of Khabarovsk, which has a population of about 600,000.
