Kuwait Fires’ Health Peril Downgraded by EPA Chief

WASHINGTON — The head of the Environmental Protection Agency said Monday that the 450 or so oil well fires still raging in Kuwait have created a hellish atmosphere, but the health risks from the oily black clouds are not as bad as had been anticipated.

“We do not see the kind of acute effects that we had feared,” William K. Reilly told reporters after briefing President Bush on his recent trip to the region.

But, he said, there is concern that calm weather in August, with no wind to disperse the clouds, might aggravate problems.

In other Persian Gulf developments:

* Iranian television reported that Saddam Hussein had launched an offensive against thousands of refugees hiding in the marshes of southeast Iraq, but in Washington the Pentagon said there was no evidence of a major attack.

* The Middle East Economic Survey reported that war-ravaged Iraq’s oil output has jumped to 700,000 barrels a day, up from the 450,000 barrels reported only a week ago but down sharply from over 3 million barrels a day before the Gulf War.

EPA chief Reilly said about 150 of the 600 oil well fires set by retreating Iraqi troops have been extinguished but that it could take a year or more to put out the rest.

He said the fires have produced surprisingly small amounts of deadly sulfur dioxide fumes. And he said the plumes of smoke appear to have settled 8,000 feet to 12,000 feet above the Earth, not reaching the stratosphere, where they would have tended to disperse to a wider area.

Tehran Television reported an attack against Shiite Muslims in the southern marshlands after across-the-border explosions were heard in the Iranian city of Howeizeh. The TV report said there was also intensified fighting in the southern Iraqi cities of Amarah and Nasiriyah between troops and Shiite rebels who failed to topple Hussein in a March uprising.

But Pentagon officials said that while current intelligence reports indicate there have been skirmishes between government forces and rebels, these accounts do not support reports of a major offensive under way or being planned.

“This is nothing new,” Defense Department spokesman Pete Williams said. “We have seen continued low-level activity for the last few weeks. There is no evidence of a large-scale attack.”

The increase in oil production underlines Iraq’s desperate drive to begin earning hard currency to finance its postwar reconstruction. Iraq is seeking support for lifting an export ban imposed by the United Nations last August in response to the invasion of Kuwait.

In a letter Monday to U.N. Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar, Iraq also pleaded for a two- to five-year grace period before it must begin paying reparations it owes for depredations in Kuwait and the Gulf War.