Key insights
The Iran war has led to emissions of harmful air pollutants and soil and water contaminants.
The geography and economy of the countries involved worsens the impact on the environment and human health.
Conflict-related pollution will cause harm for decades even if the war is over soon.
The Iran war has cost thousands of lives and billions of dollars. It is too soon to calculate its cost to the environment and human health, but according to the United Nations Environment Programme, even if the current conflict were to end soon, it would cause lasting damage.
Armed conflicts unleash a toxic mix of pollutants into the air, soil, and water. The extent of that environmental toll depends on where the war is happening, says Wim Zwijnenberg, a project leader at the Dutch peace organization PAX, which monitors the environmental impact of conflicts. “Pollution sources in Sudan, which is very much an agricultural society, would be different than Ukraine, which has Soviet-era heavy industry,” Zwijnenburg says.
The geography and economies of Iran, Israel, and the Gulf states pose a uniquely grave risk of harm to humans and the ecosystem, according to the UK-based Conflict and Environment Observatory (CEOBS). Attacks on the region’s fossil fuel infrastructure, petrochemical plants, military facilities, and oil tankers release a long list of hazardous compounds. Meanwhile, the arid, urban environment and mountain ranges hem those pollutants in, increasing people’s exposure.
“In any sort of peacetime situation, this sort of exposure would not happen and would not be allowed to happen,” says Eoghan Darbyshire, an environmental scientist at CEOBS. “And it’s happening in these conflict settings, and there’s no real monitoring on the ground.”
Iran and the Persian Gulf are centers of global oil and gas production. Production, refining, and storage facilities have been targets. Billowing black smoke from oil fires caused by these strikes contains harmful carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, and particulate matter, Darbyshire says.
Close-up of a dark, oily residue on water showing a reflection of trees.
Dark oil and soot residue from US-Israeli military strikes on petroleum storage facilities is seen in water outside a house in Tehran, Iran, on March 8, 2026. Contaminants from the residue can accumulate in soil and seep into groundwater.
Credit:
Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via AP
Other harmful compounds include polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, as well as volatile organic compounds like benzene and formaldehyde. The burning of infrastructure such as electrical equipment also emits highly toxic dioxins and furans. “Civilians are directly exposed to the smoke in those plumes,” he says. “You can be downwind many kilometers but still receive significant exposures.”
Most of the early strikes by the US and Israel targeted missile bases, weapons depots, and other military sites across Iran. For example, there were explosions at around 20 facilities that produce solid and liquid rocket fuels, Zwijnenburg says.
Strikes on munition stockpiles release high-energy explosives such as trinitrotoluene (TNT) and hexogen (RDX) and heavy metals such as lead and arsenic. Meanwhile, damage to missile facilities is of particular concern because of contamination risks from the chemicals that provide oxygen for rocket fuel combustion. These include solid oxidizers like ammonium perchlorate, and liquid oxidizers such as nitrogen tetroxide and red-fuming nitric acid—all of which are highly toxic.
“Because they explode, they spread into soil and might be in very high concentrations,” Darbyshire says. These contaminants accumulate in soil and then bioaccumulate up the food chain until they reach humans, he says. “Contaminants might be in the soil but then can move into atmosphere, into groundwater or surface water. There are all sorts of exposure pathways.”
Burning oil and munitions are not the only sources of air pollution in the conflict, Darbyshire says. “There’s also rubble and debris, and it contains things like asbestos and silicate dust that is windblown and suspended in air and can cause respiratory problems.”
The list goes on. Even the response to fires bears risks because firefighting foam contains per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), which persist in the environment. Meanwhile, attacks at sea on ships, tankers, and port infrastructure have caused significant damage to marine environments from oil spills. Potential attacks on nuclear sites are also a major worry.
CEOBS and PAX researchers use satellite imagery, along with social and traditional media footage, to assess the environmental risk from these incidents. But while they know that a range of industrial sites—metallurgical factories, plastics and petrochemical plants, and medical facilities—have been hit, the exact pollution impact is hard to gauge.
Much of the teams’ evaluations are based on assumptions and on knowledge gained from past conflicts. For example, Zwijnenberg says, “we can get a sort of prediction of what kind of chemicals are present on-site in general at these locations.” Fires at plastics production facilities release dioxins and furans as well chlorides; hits on medical sites can release pharmaceuticals into the water; and petrochemical processing plants pose the risk of releasing lubricants, solvents, and other toxic chemicals.
Much more verification, data, and review will be needed to accurately assess the extent of contamination, Zwijnenberg says. But as with any other modern war, the release of toxic chemicals, persistent pollutants, heavy metals, and potentially radioactive material from the Iran conflict will very likely inflict harm for decades.
Prachi Patel is a senior editor and physical sciences reporter at C&EN based in Pittsburgh.
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