Heatwaves and fires in Russia: a health disaster and environmental

The heat and smoke from fires are bringing about a major health and environmental disaster in Russia, said the scientist Alexei Yablokov, former head of environmental issues at the Russian Security Council and founder of Greenpeace in Russia.

Q: What are the health consequences of the heatwave that hit western Russia last month and a half?

A: "The health consequences are terrible. According to my accounts in the Central Federal District (which includes Moscow), 1000 were more deaths each day than normal, which means that morbidity (rate of people falling patients) should be 100-1000 times higher than normal.

But the Russian health and medical services are all for not answering these questions. Is prohibited from disclosing medical statistics, and therefore they either do not exist or they are falsified.

Q: What are the consequences for the environment, and what would they be particularly if a fire were to touch a region irradiated by R: Chernobyl nuclear disaster (1986)? "Fortunately in the Bryansk region most affected by Chernobyl, it's raining now. Otherwise it would be a disaster. There are also other areas irradiated areas affected by fires, but these districts appear to have been spared for the moment.

But the problem is that there is no system of monitoring radioactivity in an emergency.

The weather service has facilities in fixed locations but the radionuclides were to be spread by fire and smoke, there was no system to determine whether there is a threat and which populations are exposed.

More generally, the ecological consequences will be enormous, but it is impossible to quantify. Entire ecosystems will disappear. Even in Moscow, the number of birds has declined. Muscovites are told to leave, the birds are like.

Q: The extent of fires have been contained it?

A: "The infrastructure is not protected against fire. Since 2000, the reform of the state organization, the Forest Protection Department has been deleted, destroyed by (the current prime minister) Vladimir Putin .

In the new system, farmers are practicing forest logging are responsible for securing them. But these people, traders, businessmen, always interested in cutting more wood, to reap the benefits without meeting the safety standards.

What is happening was predictable, they are crocodile tears we see today among officials. In its history, Russia has never spent so little for the forest itself under Peter the Great, "the Tsar in power from 1682 to 1725.