August 13, 2010 by Mark Sircus
Into The Ashes
A hasty evacuation of diplomatic staff from foreign embassies, like a stampede, began in Moscow. Many embassies are trying to hide the evacuation for political reasons. Mass evacuation of the embassies of Canada and Poland was officially reported at night on August 7. Russia is sending 10,000 children and hundreds of elderly to Bulgaria and the Ukraine to save them from the smoldering heat and overpowering smog in Moscow, the city’s Mayor, Yriy Luzhkov, announced Tuesday. Seventeen regions of Russia are currently aflame. Seven of them, including the Moscow region, have declared a state of emergency.
Physicians have urged Muscovites to avoid leaving their homes.
They warn that breathing the toxic air for just a couple of hours
has the same harmful effect as smoking two packs of cigarettes.
The U.S. State Department is allowing nonessential staff and dependents of the embassy in Moscow to leave if they want. Carbon monoxide in the Moscow air was 1.4 times higher than acceptable levels Tuesday, the state pollution watchdog said, a slight improvement from the day before. On Saturday the levels had been an alarming 6.6 times worse. The Canadian government has also initiated a partial evacuation of embassy staff and family members from Moscow due to the choking smog caused by raging fires around Russia’s capital. Foreign Ministries of Germany, Bulgaria, France, Italy and other countries also appealed to their citizens not to travel to Russia.
Russia fought a deadly battle Tuesday to prevent wildfires from engulfing key nuclear sites as alarm mounted over the impact on health of a toxic smoke cloud shrouded over Moscow. Russian troops dug a five-mile canal yesterday to protect one of the nuclear sites. Bulgaria’s EU commissioner Kristalina Georgieva said that the EU is strongly concerned about the situation in Russia where wildfires have been raging for almost two weeks. “We are viewing the problem in Russia as something very grave, for as we all can see it affects the life and health of many people,” stated Georgieva.
Soil pollution results from the buildup of contaminants, toxic compounds, radioactive materials, salts, chemicals and cancer-causing agents. The most common soil pollutants are hydrocarbons, heavy metals (cadmium, lead, chromium, copper, zinc, mercury and arsenic), herbicides, pesticides, oils, tars, PCBs and dioxins.
The forest floor in Russia holds heavy concentrations of radioactive particles that settled after more than several nuclear disasters. We don’t need environmentalists to remind and warn us that radiation plus a full ensemble of chemicals and heavy metals could be thrown into the air by the fires raging across western and central Russia. The particles could then be blown far and wide into other areas by the wind creating a nuclear incident of unexpected proportions.
Russian fires threaten to stir Chernobyl radiation.
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