KHABAROVSK, Russia, Dec. 15 (UPI) -- Some of the toxic benzene that spilled into a northeast Chinese river after a factory explosion last month, passing into Russia, may be heading toward Japan.
"Having moved down the Amur River, most of the toxic agents will most likely enter the Tatar Strait and later the Sea of Japan. They may reach Japan," Nikolai Yefimov, a program coordinator at the World Wildlife Fund's Russia office, told the Interfax news agency by phone from Khabarovsk.
However, he said that if the remnants of the toxic spill move toward Japan, "it will not be large amounts of chemicals. There will be no severe damage to the environment."
On Nov. 13 an explosion at a petrochemical factory in the Chinese city of Jilin sent 100 tons of benzene into the Songhua River. As the huge slick of the carcinogenic chemical moved downstream toward the city of Harbin, officials turned off water supplies to its 3.8 million residents.
As the toxic spill continued down the Songhua River and into the Amur River toward Khabarovsk, a Russian city of more than 580,000 residents, local authorities declared a state of emergency.
