• Ali Hussein Julood is a leukaemia patient living on an Iraqi oil field.
• Ali helped us disclose that BP wasn’t declaring the gas flaring.
• Gas flaring emits benzene, which increases cancer risk, especially childhood leukaemia.

Ali Hussein Julood, a leukaemia patient living on a BP-managed Iraqi oil field, is far from the COP climate pledges. Ali helped us disclose the truth about the deadly air the local community breathes when we learned BP wasn’t declaring the gas flaring.

I first saw videos of flaming skies and clouds of black smoke over people’s dwellings in Iraq’s oil fields in 2019, and discovered that this was gas flaring – burning off poisonous excess gas from oil drilling.

Rumaila in Basra, southern Iraq, is the world’s worst gas flarer, according to satellite data. Gas flaring emits benzene, which increases cancer risk, especially childhood leukaemia.

Dozens of people in five communities surrounding oil fields like Rumaila informed us they had a cancer-stricken cousin or friend, typically leukaemia.

Ali, aged 18, whose father sold everything to pay for his medical treatment in Turkey. Ali claimed the Basra cancer hospital was full of oilfield residents like him. Locals call Rumaila “the shadow town” since it lacks basic facilities. Ali calls it “the cemetery.”

Ali said, “We’d be playing football when smoke and oil would suffocate us.”

“When I told the doctor I lived in this neighborhood, he remarked, ‘This is the main cause of your condition.'”

There were no cancer studies in these communities. A Basra health department document released to us revealed cancer rates were three times higher than official figures claimed.

People in Rumaila provided us videos of daily life, but we couldn’t get in to film. Five official requests were denied, and the 1,800 sq. km oil field is guarded by many checkpoints. Beyond these checkpoints, Iraqi oil police and oil company security agencies patrol the area. Armed militia organizations control Iraqi politics in the south and profit from oil operations nearby.

So we went undercover in Rumaila.

All 52 youngsters studied reported significant urine levels of metabolized naphthalene, a potential carcinogen. Benzene levels were three times the national limit and significantly higher above the safe level, which the WHO states is zero.

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