Iraqi Civil Defense personnel examine suspected hazardous materials at Al-Zahraa Girls’ Secondary School in Maysan governorate following reports of breathing difficulties among students. (Photo: Civil Defense Directorate)
61 girls fall ill at Maysan school in second incident in a week
MAYSAN — Sixty-one students at a girls’ secondary school in Amarah, Maysan’s capital, fell ill with breathing difficulties on Tuesday, the second such incident at the school in a week.
Iraq’s Civil Defense Directorate sent its chemical, biological and radiological response team from Baghdad to find the cause. The first checks found used laboratory materials dumped in the school’s back courtyard.
The students at al-Zahraa Preparatory School for Girls were taken to hospital for treatment, and the cause was still unknown, the state-run Iraqi News Agency reported. Preparatory schools in Iraq teach the final three years of secondary school.
The directorate said in a statement to 964media that the team was working under the supervision of its director general. Specialized teams found the laboratory materials during an inspection and preliminary tests at the site, it said. It did not say whether the materials had caused the students’ symptoms.
Residents of Amarah suspect a chlorine gas leak from the factory next to the school. The directorate’s statement did not mention the factory.
The Maysan Health Directorate recorded 84 cases at the school on Nov. 3. Al-Hakim Teaching Hospital took in 60 of them and Maysan Hospital 24, Mohammed al-Kinani, the directorate’s media director, told INA. He said the cause had not yet been identified.
Later that day, civil defense in Maysan said preliminary sensor readings by its hazardous materials team traced those cases to fumes from black paint that had been used for drawings on the blackboards in two classrooms. It said all the students went home once doctors confirmed they were well.
Sources close to the affected students had told 964media at the time that chlorine from a neighboring dairy factory was to blame.
The Education Ministry said on Nov. 3 that the students’ condition had stabilized. A joint committee of the Education, Health and Environment ministries, the governorate and the National Security Service, Iraq’s domestic security service, would determine what caused the incident and who was responsible, the ministry said. It has not announced any findings.
The Civil Defense Directorate said its technical staff were still examining and assessing the site to secure it fully and keep students and teachers safe.