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Health alarms follow European floods Fears focus on chemical plant

By Askold Krushelnycky

Special for USA TODAY

PRAGUE, Czech Republic -- As water from central Europe's worst flooding in a

century began to recede Sunday, concerns continued that large amounts of

highly toxic chemicals had leaked into the Elbe River from a Czech chemical

plant.

Floods at the Spolana chemical factory in Neratovice, north of the Czech

capital, Prague, released clouds of poisonous chlorine gas into the air

Thursday. Environmental activists said toxic dioxin and mercury also were

released in the flooding, as was 16 tons of explosive liquefied natural gas.

Officials tried to downplay the danger. ''So far there are no fears for

human safety because the highest measurements of chlorine gas are only

one-third of the allowable levels,'' Czech government spokeswoman

Starkova said.

Nevertheless, Czech authorities declared a chemical emergency in and around

the factory and began efforts to convert the leaked chlorine gas into less

harmful chemicals. Over the weekend, they used a helicopter to take samples

of the air and water near the flooded factory to check for dioxin.

A spokesman for the waterlogged factory said Spolana technicians were

working through the day Sunday to clean up the leaked chlorine. The

factory's grounds had been almost entirely submerged at the flooding's

height.

Experts with the environmental group Greenpeace said they believe that

highly poisonous dioxin may have leaked from corroding metal drums stored at

Spolana.

''I can say with a clear conscience that dioxins got into the water,'' said

Miroslav Suta, a physician and toxicologist with Greenpeace. He said that

Greenpeace had taken its own water and air samples at the site where the

dioxin is stored, and that results should be available soon.

Factory spokesman Tomas Zikmund, however, said any contamination by dioxin

or mercury was ''either zero or minimal.'' But Zikmund said he did not yet

have data to back up his contention.

Elsewhere in central Europe, the primary focus of the flooding was in

Germany. Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder met in Berlin on Sunday with European

Commission President Romano Prodi and leaders from Austria, the Czech

Republic and Slovakia to discuss how to tackle the devastation. The flooding

has killed at least 105 people across Europe.

The bill in Germany alone, where politicians say they face the biggest

rebuilding project since World War II, has been estimated at up to $14.8

billion.

Helicopters ferried sandbags to plug the crumbling dikes of flooding rivers

in eastern Germany. Workers scrambled to protect a huge chemical complex and

towns such as Wittenberg, the home of 16th-century religious reformer

Luther.

Upstream, authorities in Dresden were trying to determine when the dropping

level of the Elbe could allow some of the thousands evacuated from the city

to return to inspect the damage to their sodden homes.

Many neighborhoods were still under water, but the Elbe had fallen about 20

inches from its historic high of 31 feet Saturday.

In Hungary, almost 2,000 residents had been evacuated along the banks of the

Danube River by Sunday afternoon, mostly in towns north of Budapest, as

flood crests coursed south from Austria and southern Germany.

For most of the Czech Republic, the most immediate health threat was the

risk of hepatitis from water contaminated by sewage and other pollutants

that may have flowed into the swollen rivers.

There was one piece of happy news as Czechs began to assess the damage in

the capital and elsewhere in their country. A hippopotamus that had been

missing for days in Prague's flooded zoo was found safe in an elephant

house.