The rating of the dirtiest cities in Russia is annually compiled by the federal ministry and leading environmental organizations. This is considered very important, because environmental pollution issues have recently played a large role. But not everyone knows that they have to live in dirty cities, usually because of large industrial enterprises that poison the air.
How are these ratings compiled?
In order to compile a list of dirty cities in Russia, a thorough analysis of the level of emissions of harmful substances into the atmosphere is compiled at the Federal Ministry of Nature. According to the latest data, almost 16.5 million Russians have to breathe polluted air now. Such data are provided in the report "On Environmental Protection".
Recent studies of the dirtiest cities in Russia show that the total air emissions amounted to 31.5 million tons, which is more than a percent more than a year earlier. Among the leading regions in terms of pollution, the Khabarovsk Territory, Buryatia, and the Taimyr Autonomous Okrug stand out. These regions are characterized by high levels of air pollution, which affect up to 75% of residents of large cities.
Among the leaders of this sad rating of dirty cities in Russia and the Moscow region, which is experiencing a strong environmental burden from a large number of vehicles. In the Moscow Region alone, emissions account for almost half of all motor emissions in the Central Federal District and one eighth of the total Russian value.
Rating Leaders
The list of the dirtiest cities in Russia in 2017 is headed by Rudnaya Pristan. This is a village located in the Primorsky Territory. It is believed that about 90 thousand people are potentially infected in this city. The reason for this lies in the high emission of harmful substances into the atmosphere, primarily, lead, mercury and cadmium.
Due to the increased level of pollution, local residents do not receive clean water, cannot grow fruits and vegetables so that they can be eaten without fear, they grow hazardous to health because they contain a large amount of heavy metals.
All this is compounded by a high level of pollution. Harmful chemical elements are present in almost all the resources that local residents are forced to use to fulfill their basic needs - this is soil, fauna, water.
In second place in the list of dirty cities of Russia is Norilsk. This is a large industrial center in which a prohibitive number of factories and factories are mainly engaged in the smelting of heavy metals. Because of their activity, a huge amount of harmful substances appears in the air - these are strontium, copper, nickel.
In addition, it is very cold here, Norilsk is located in the Krasnoyarsk Territory. But even in winter, residents have to walk in the snow, which is more like dirt, and also breathe air, which has an obvious aftertaste and smell of sulfur.
But even this is not the worst. This city has a very high mortality rate, and life expectancy is much lower than the national average.
You can’t meet tourists here, because even a short stay in Norilsk can lead to negative health consequences. It is here that the most precipitated atmospheric precipitation is recorded.
On the third line of the list of dirty cities of Russia is Dzerzhinsk, located in the Nizhny Novgorod region. Once it was a key center in the country for the manufacture of chemical weapons.But after tons of chemical waste were illegally disposed of and thrown into the waters, the situation changed dramatically.
But here the difficult environmental situation remains. Indigenous people almost never manage to live to old age. Here, a really frightening average life expectancy: among men, it is 42 years, and among women a little more - 47 years. But mortality in the city exceeds the birth rate by more than two and a half times. In the future, the situation does not look rosy, remaining the same depressing.
Winter
The fourth place in the list of the dirtiest cities in Russia is a settlement with the amazing name Winter in the Irkutsk Region. The degree of air pollution here is very high. The comprehensive air pollution index is one of the highest in the country.
The basis of the city’s economy is made up of the enterprises of the railway transport and the chemical industry, because of which such a high level of pollution remains. In Winter there is a carriage and locomotive depot, track and communication distances. But the greatest damage is done by the Ziminsky Chemical Plant, which today is called the Sayanskkhimplast Open Joint-Stock Company, and environmental damage is also caused by private sawmills and woodworking enterprises operating on the basis of former LDK and reinforced concrete products.
Bratsk
A high level of pollution is also observed in the city of Bratsk, Irkutsk region. This is the fifth place in the ranking of dirty cities in Russia. Ecology is damaged here, mainly due to the high atmospheric content of benzapyrene. This is an extremely harmful chemical compound that is formed during the combustion of absolutely any type of fossil fuel. It is in Bratsk that the highest level of this substance is recorded.
The culprits of the high level of pollution in this city are large industrial enterprises. This is a ferroalloy plant, an aluminum plant, a timber industry complex, the Irkutskenergo thermal power plant, flattering fires that last from two weeks to several months, capturing spring and summer, contribute.
According to local environmental organizations, there is a prohibitive content in the atmosphere of formaldehyde, hydrogen sulfide, hydrogen fluoride. A large, but so far only potential danger is a chlorine plant. Also strongly polluting the atmosphere are energy enterprises, non-ferrous metallurgy, timber processing complexes and motor vehicles.
An unfavorable ecological situation is created due to an unfavorable wind rose, in which the south, west and south-west winds dominate. And it is in these areas from Bratsk itself that the majority of harmful industries are located.
It is worth noting that previously the situation with the wind rose was different. Before filling the Bratsk reservoir, they were directed exactly in the opposite direction, therefore they chose a site for the construction of residential areas, which would be outside the zone of potential pollution. But now everything has changed.
To counter pollution in Bratsk, a large-scale environmental program is being developed. The largest and most harmful enterprises in the city spend several billion rubles on environmental enterprises. In parallel, research work is underway. Scientists are trying to establish the share of vehicle emissions in total pollution. A lot of work is being done by the environmental prosecutor's office.
Minusinsk and Magnitogorsk
Next in the ranking of dirty cities of Russia are Minusinsk in the Krasnoyarsk Territory and Magnitogorsk in the Chelyabinsk Region.
In the first city, ecologists and employees of the Ministry of Natural Resources noted a high concentration of benzapyrene, as well as suspended solids and nitrogen dioxide. A similar situation persists throughout the Krasnoyarsk Territory, where the amount of pollutants in the air per year exceeds two and a half million tons.
In Magnitogorsk, the level of such dangerous benzapyrene is 23 times higher than the norm. Perhaps the largest contribution to air pollution is made by the metallurgical plant. The company releases a huge amount of iron oxide, nitrogen dioxide, suspended solids, formaldehyde, lead, carbon monoxide, hydrogen sulfide and phenol into the air.
Novokuznetsk
Among the most environmentally dirty cities in Russia, Novokuznetsk, which is located in the Kemerovo region, is always called. This is one of the largest industrial centers in the country, in which up to 310 thousand tons of harmful substances per year are in the air.
Almost all emissions are from metallurgical enterprises, which are enough here, as in Magnitogorsk. Basically, the atmosphere is polluted by coal mines, a metallurgical plant.
Asbestos
Asbestos is a very small city by Russian standards. It is located in the Sverdlovsk region, there live only 68 thousand people. Moreover, every year up to 330,000 tons of substances hazardous to human life and health are in the air. It is easy to guess that the city owes its name to the largest enterprises that produce and process asbestos. There is also a large-scale and harmful production of silicate brick.
Asbestos dust, which is classified as the first class of environmental hazard, is especially dangerous.
Cherepovets
"City of metallurgists" is the name of Cherepovets in the Vologda Oblast. This is the center of Russian ferrous metallurgy, in which more than 360 thousand tons of harmful and hazardous substances are in the atmosphere every year.
It is here that the second largest, and therefore pollution level, metallurgical plant in the country, owned by Severstal, is located. Dangerous enterprises such as Ammophos and Nitrogen also operate.
Moscow
Although there are no large industrial enterprises in the Russian capital, it is nevertheless constantly ranked among the most unfavorable cities in terms of ecology.
93% of the harmful substances that are released into the air here are in cars, the amount of which is simply huge. Worst of all, the amount of air emissions increasing every day.
Omsk
Omsk is the largest city after Moscow, which invariably falls into the number of cities with adverse environmental conditions.
This is a large industrial center, which began to develop shortly after the end of World War II. It was here that many large industrial enterprises were evacuated from the European part of the country where the war was fought. The level of hazardous substances that appear here in the air every year is more than 290 thousand tons.
Basically, there are chemical enterprises, as well as companies associated with the aerospace industry and metallurgy.