Director of the Environmental Department in southern Iraq Walid Hamid said May 21 that “Ministry of Health statistics indicate that 2,000 cases of cancer are recorded annually due to oil flares that release toxic gases into the air as a result of extraction operations in the Basra fields,” and he criticized oil companies for their disregard of the approved environmental and health standards and controls.

There have been mounting calls to address this health crisis. In 2018, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Basra announced that “about 800 cases of cancer are recorded every month in the province.” The office confirmed the figure on Jan. 4 and stated that “the governorate leads Iraqi cities in cancer cases, with 600 to 700 cases recorded on a monthly basis in 2020.”

In 2019, the Iraqi Environment and Health Association in London stated that “the oil and gas industries in Iraq failed to shoulder their responsibilities as far as the environmental fallout of oil projects is concerned, knowing that such projects entail severe health risks.”

However, statistics and theories that establish a link between the spread of cancer and the work of oil companies did not prevent Oil Ministry spokesperson Assem Jihad from stating to Al-Monitor that “despite the fact that oil operations and oil flares pollute the environment, it is just not right to establish a link between cancer cases and oil pollution, as it has not yet been scientifically proven that this is behind the spike in cancer cases in southern governorates, including Basra.”