Question by Rita K: Which cities in Russia are most dominated by heavy industry and are also the worst polluted?
Heavy industry like steel making, car manufacturing, oil refining, etc.
What major cities in Russia are still visibly dominated by heavy industry and also have poor air quality because of it?
Answers and Views:
Answer by Slava T
Magnitogorsk city;
Chelyabinsk city;
Norilsk city;
Dzerzhinsk city;
Bratsk city;
Chita city;
Rudnaya Pristan town (literally translated into English as Ore Wharf)
Dalnegorsk town.
Links below.
What do you think? Answer below!
Jean-Michel says
The most polluted town/city in Russia is Norilsk (Northern Siberia). The smelting is directly responsible for severe pollution, generally acid rain and smog. By some estimates, 1 percent of the entire global emissions of sulphur dioxide come from this one city. Heavy metal pollution near Norilsk is so severe that it is now economically feasible to mine the soil, as a result of acquiring high concentrations of platinum and palladium through pollution. It is estimated that 4 million tons of cadmium, copper, lead, nickel, arsenic, selenium and zinc are released into the air every year plus radioisotopes strontium-90, and caesium-137.
Approximately 134,000 people – over half of the current population – are affected by the severe air pollution. Life expectancy is at least 10 years below that averaged in other Russian cities. Children and pregnant women living near the plant are the most affected, being 1.5 times more likely to become ill. Expectant mothers often deliver prematurely and have complications in the third trimester of pregnancy. Children suffer from chronic respiratory diseases, frequently leading to cancer. This and other pollution-related ear, nose, and throat illnesses account for 15.8% of the recorded childhood deaths.
No trees are living within 48 kilometres (roughly 30 miles) of Nadezhda (meaning “hope”), the largest nickel smelter situated in the city, because of poor air and soil quality..
Swedish health officials say that if a resident of this city becomes ill whilst visiting the country the only way to help that person is to stand them behind a lorry belching diesel fumes as said person’s lungs are unable to breathe clean air.
Note: This is a closed city, no foreigners are allowed to enter, it can only be described as hell on earth.