The U.S.–Israeli war on Iran has not only resulted in significant loss of life but has also left an indelible mark on the environment. The conflict has triggered a cascade of environmental crises, from oil spills to heavy metal contamination, with repercussions that will be felt for generations to come.
Esmaeil Baqaei, spokesperson for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, recently highlighted the escalating environmental damage, drawing attention to oil contamination in the Persian Gulf that has begun washing up on Iranian shores. The question of responsibility looms large, with Baqaei questioning who will compensate for these damages.
The Extent of Environmental Damage
By March, the conflict had already resulted in more than 300 incidents of potential environmental harm across 12 countries in the region, according to a report by the Conflict and Environment Observatory. These incidents include attacks on oil infrastructure, water desalination plants, and other environmentally risky facilities. The ongoing satellite blackout, likely intended to obscure the true extent of damage, has hindered efforts to track the environmental devastation.
U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran in the first 14 days of the war emitted roughly 5 million metric cubic tons of greenhouse gases. This is equivalent to the annual emissions of Iceland. As the war dragged on, missile facilities, weapons depots, oil infrastructure, nuclear facilities, and civilian infrastructure, including power stations and desalination plants, were increasingly struck.
The Threats Posed by Targeted Infrastructure
The environmental threats posed by these targets are enormous. Damaged desalination plants jeopardize the civilian water supply and flood nearby land and marine environments with harmful chemicals like sulfuric acid. Bombed infrastructure fills urban streets with asbestos-contaminated rubble and dust, heightening the risk of respiratory illness and cancer among exposed populations. Damaged weapons facilities pollute surrounding areas with explosives, highly toxic liquid propellants, and heavy metals. The targeting of nuclear facilities risks radiation exposure or worse, an uncontrolled nuclear disaster.
The Impact on Fossil Fuel Infrastructure
Fossil fuel infrastructure has remained a key military objective for all belligerents. Israeli strikes on more than two dozen Iranian oil depots in early March engulfed the capital city of Tehran in a cloud of toxic smoke that rained black carbon and sulfuric acid on the city’s 9 million residents. Attacks on oil tankers and other commercial vessels have leached oil and spilled fuel into myriad waterways, from the Egyptian port of Damietta to the coast of Sri Lanka.
The Long-Term Environmental and Health Consequences
The U.S. has a long history of starting wars that leave deep environmental scars. For decades, U.S. troops have paid for it with exposures to toxic substances, including defoliants like Agent Orange, smoke from oil depot fires, and military base burn pits. The PACT Act of 2022 extended healthcare access to millions of veterans suffering from a wide range of conditions related to such wartime exposures.
Health problems among U.S. veterans often mirror those of local communities in war zones as they are exposed to the same toxic substances. Just as American troops returned home from Iraq with higher rates of diseases like urinary and blood cancers, doctors in the Iraqi city of Fallujah reported higher birth abnormalities and miscarriages among the local population.
The Case of Fallujah
Fallujah offers a glimpse of the environmental fallout that the people of neighboring Iran may face in the years to come. Since 2004, Fallujah has seen a 12-fold increase in childhood cancer rates and similar spikes in early onset cancer and respiratory diseases. Elevated rates of miscarriages and lethal birth defects that followed the initial U.S. invasion have never diminished.
Depleted uranium munitions, used by the U.S. in combat since the Gulf War, have left heavily bombarded areas in Fallujah with a greater percentage of heavy metals in their soil. Those who returned to the city after the battles now carry higher levels of radiation and heavy metals in their bodies. Uranium was found in the bones of one-third of study participants, all of whom were children during the 2004 siege.
The Universal Implications of War Pollution
While highly toxic on its own, uranium levels are often a marker for exposure to heavy metals including lead, arsenic, and mercury, which have been known to harm virtually every organ in the human body. Today, elevated rates of miscarriages and lethal congenital anomalies plague families in Fallujah.
“War itself is always about combustion,” explained Kali Rubaii, a cultural anthropologist and Purdue University assistant professor who led the study on Fallujah. “The combustion of generally toxic materials redistributes these toxicants into people’s air, water and food. Every time someone breathes in everything in the air, they are inheriting the pollutants of war.”
The Broader Environmental Crisis
The U.S.–Israeli war on Iran has exacerbated ongoing environmental crises in the Middle East, including a five-year-long drought that poses a severe threat to Tehran’s water supply. The Persian Gulf’s fragile coral reefs and mangrove forests have also suffered under rising water temperatures, intensive vessel activity, and growing industrial pollution.
The Persian Gulf’s ecosystems still bear the scars of oil spills from the U.S. battles with Iraq during the 1991 Gulf War. Now, according to a recent study from the University of South Florida’s College of Marine Science, oil spills in the Gulf have increased dramatically since the beginning of the war to cover roughly four times the area in March 2026 as they did one year earlier.
As Rubaii’s study concludes, “the most effective way to limit heavy metal toxicity from war is by not bombing cities.” The targeting of a country’s energy infrastructure, waterways, bridges, and homes makes it more likely that the attacked nation will respond with attacks on similar targets, placing civilians at risk in the present and for following generations.
People can’t be healthy if they live on sick lands. The ecological devastation and health hazards will haunt U.S. service members and local residents alike long after the final bomb of the Iran war has dropped.
