*The society still does not realize the scale and importance of the
problem *
Specialists from the Central Geophysical Laboratory made a list of
Russia's most polluted towns and cities. A lot of cities and towns on
the list were considered ecologically unfavorable already during the
Soviet era, because they were situated in the area of large and 'dirty'
productions.
Specialists of the laboratory studied the ecological situation in 260
Russian towns. It is noteworthy that the towns with large metallurgic
factories were listed on top. That list includes the towns with a very
high level of air pollution. The list of 2003 was added with ten towns,
which were not listed in 2002: the level of contamination is growing in
many Russian towns. In Moscow, the ecological situation is worst in
southern districts of the city. In addition, all towns on the list have
been experiencing severe ecological problems during a very long period.
Several towns were estimated as "highly contaminated," although they
were referred to as "relatively contaminated" only five years ago. A
spokesman for the geophysical laboratory, Sergey Chicherin, said that
the medium level of pollution may depend on climate factors that change
every year. "Cars are the main reason of the air pollution in big
cities. This index grows constantly. Cars make 80 percent of atmospheric
emission in Moscow and St.Petersburg," the specialist said.
Power, fuel and metallurgic industries prove a very large percentage of
the atmospheric pollution as well. "Russian industrial enterprises were
experiencing a serious crisis ten years ago. Now they start recovering,
many of them work on an outdated technological base. If they do not
change technologically in the near future, the air quality will worsen a
lot. One has to practice serious measures with industrial enterprises at
this point, Sergey Chicherin said.
Sulfur dioxide, carbon oxide, nitric oxide and other volatile organic
compounds are most common substances that pollute the Earth's
atmosphere. Specific pollutants (hydrogen sulphide, carbon bisulfide,
sulphuric acid, benzapilene, lead) make about two percent of all
polluting substances emitted in the atmosphere. Despite the
inconsiderable volume of specific pollutants in the atmosphere, their
influence on the air in Russian cities and towns can be very negative. A
lot of those substances are highly toxic.
The share of contaminants produced by industrial enterprises makes up
about 70 percent in the total volume of 19.4 million tons of
contaminating compounds: carbon oxide - 68 percent, solid substances -
15 percent, sulfur dioxide - 10 percent.
"The forecast for the future is not very pacifying. The society still
does not realize the scale and importance of the problem. Our
enterprises need to use the experience of Western companies, one has to
modernize cars to make them ecologically safe," Sergey Chicherin said.
Russia's ten most polluted cities:
Bratsk
Ekaterinburg
Kemerovo
Kurgan
Lipetsk
Magnitogorsk
Moscow, southern districts
Novokuznetsk
Rostov-on-Don
Ulan-Ude
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[Homestead] Avoiding toxic poolution hundreds of times cheaper than repair,
Tvoivozhd, 09/22/2004