Pollution Killing Hundreds of Thousands of Russians Each Year: Ecologist

Tehran Times ^ | May 14 2002

[knighthawk]

MOSCOW - Between 250,000 and 350,000 Russians do not reach the term of their natural life each year because of pollution, the head of a Russian environmental group told Moscow's echo radio Friday.

"Between 250,000 and 350,000 people die each year in Russia due to environmental reasons, that is that they do not reach the age that they could have reached," said the chairman of the Russian Center for Ecology Policy, Alexei Yablokov, who is also a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Children particularly suffered from pollution-induced health problems, AFP quoted Yablokov as telling.

"The number of children born with genetic deficiencies keeps growing and the number of children ill with cancer is constantly increasing" because of pollution, he said.

[knighthawk]

Ping

[TheRedSoxWinThePennant]

its a perfact match eniromentalism and communism

[AngrySpud]

Poppycock ... unless you count alcohol as a pollutant. And many DO consider alchol use by pregnant women to be an "environmental" cause of various fetal disorders.

Alcohol abuse is the NUMBER ONE factor for low Russian life expectancy. That hard-drinking Boris Yeltsin made it past 60 is VERY unusual.

[hsmomx3]

I wonder how many in the U.S. Congress would give up their cars since they are so gung ho on saving the planet? Or in Al Gore's case, he should ride around in an electric car or better yet by horseback.

[ZOOKER]

Electic vehicles will not protect you from radiation from the Chernobyl meltdown.

I read about "hot spots" from leaking weapons facilities (nuclear and biological) and nuclear naval bases.

There are also refineries, chemical plants, and other industries spewing filth in various places.

Communism has that effect: without private ownership there's no conservation. You don't own the land so it's not your problem.

And yes, poor diet and alcohol take their toll as well.

[HamiltonJay]

I don't think this is Poppycock in the least. Unlike the West, the Russians and Eastern blocks dumped tons upon tones of toxic chemicals etc into their environments for most of the 20th and going into the 21st centuries. There was no wealth creation in the east to clean up the environmental messes create by their older antiquated technologies and manufacturing... The worst polution on the planet came from easter block factories etc.

No incentive to clean up the polution or lessen its creation.. central planners don't care.. no reason to. Individuals can't make the government care, and so, 10 year less on your life expectancy or much higher rates of cancer not a concern to central planners... just hit the production numbers. These are the same people who didn't evacuate the population around the Chernobyl meltdown until long after they knew about it, but made sure the powerful people were gone ASAP.

Don't think because environmentalists are generally wacko leftist, that there is no merit to any environmental policies.