Environmental issues in Syria Attacks on oil refineries can cause oil fires which release harmful chemicals into the air, such as sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). The sulphur and nitrogen compounds are linked to acid rain which can have dire impacts on vegetation as well as cause soil acidification. PAHs persist in the environment for long periods of time and are known carcinogens. Syria also extracts heavy crude oil, which generally has a higher proportion of noxious substances, including heavy metals, making it especially dangerous when these substances seep into the soil. Syria has two oil refineries. The
Lower sulfur oxides Lower sulfur oxides The lower sulfur oxides are a group of inorganic compounds with the formula SO, where m < 2n. These species are often unstable and thus rarely encountered in everyday life. They are significant intermediates in the combustion of elemental sulfur. Some well characterized examples include sulfur monoxide (SO), its dimer SO, and a series of cyclic sulfur oxides, SOx (x = 1, 2), based on cyclic S rings. Interest in the lower sulfur oxides has increased because of the need to understand terrestrial atmospheric sulfur pollution and the finding that the extraterrestrial atmospheres of Io, one of