Current Events > It's wild WW1 is still killing people

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_harvest

During World War I, an estimated one tonne of explosives was fired for every square metre of territory on the Western front.[2] As many as one in every three shells fired did not detonate. In the Ypres Salient, an estimated 300 million projectiles that the British and the German forces fired at each other during World War I were duds, and most of them have not been recovered.[citation needed]According to its website, DOVO, the demining unit of the Belgian armed forces defused more than 200 tons of ammunition in 2019.

Since 1946, approximately 630 French ordnance disposal workers have died handling unexploded munitions.[5] Two died handling munitions outside Vimy, France as recently as 1998. Over 20 members of Belgian Explosive Ordnance Disposal (DOVO) have died disposing of First World War munitions since the unit was formed in 1919. In just the area around Ypres, 260 people have been killed and 535 have been injured by unexploded munitions since the end of the First World War.

ww1 and ww2 era mines still kill people as well. mines are internationally banned for good reason.

war is awful and the world wars were the most awful

Do they have signs for mine fields?

Being a farmer and ploughing a field in northern France or Flanders must have been a dangerous occupation for decades.

Just read this other article, linked from the article in the OP: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zone_Rouge

I didn't realise that parts of Zone Rouge, the Red Zone -- areas of France that were so totally destroyed during WW1 they were afterwards written off as: "Completely devastated. Damage to properties: 100%. Damage to Agriculture: 100%. Impossible to clean. Human life impossible" and allowed to revert to wilderness, still exist even today.

The Paardenmarkt bank, a sandbank in the North Sea that's about 300-1500 metres off the Belgian coast and close to the port of Zeebrugge, was a dumping ground for over 35,000 tons of munitions after WW1. Estimates in 2013 assessed that all 35,000 tons are probably chemical munitions. Apparently the area's still so dangerous that the Belgian government has decided not to clear the area and practices a "don't touch" policy. The Paardenmarkt is marked with buoys, has to be constantly monitored, and is prohibited for fishing and anchorage.

It'd be fun to be a resident of Zeebrugge if 35,000 tons of mustard gas start leaking badly just offshore.