Fimay~a11 ItWi1l9

The Ailing Mother RussiaEditor's Note: Although environmentalhealth problems exist throughout the formerSoviet Union, the focus of this article is onthe problems in Russia and the programsaddressing them.

It is estimated at least one in five Russianbabies born today is in poor health. InMoscow, three out of four expectant moth-ers have some pathology in their pregnancy.Males in one Arctic village are not expectedto live beyond their early 40s; women inthis village usually do not live beyond theirlate 40s. Children and adults throughoutRussia suffer from respiratory and intestinaldisorders at a rate many times higher thanelsewhere in the world.

Although such grim statistics are in parta result of poor nutrition, inadequate med-ical care, cigarette smoking, and alcoholism,extensive environmental degradation re-mains a primary culprit. As the largest ofthe former Soviet Union's 15 republics,Russia helped direct a massive military-industrial machine that stretched from theBaltics to Central Asia, the Arctic, Siberia,and Eastern Europe. That Soviet legacycontinues to threaten the environment andhealth of hundreds of millions of people aswell as future generations.

The sources of pollution are many andvaried: thousands of factories built in tightconcentrations expelling waste into vitalwaterways; mines working at full tilt toextract raw materials; farms dumping mas-sive amounts of chemicals on crops; nucleartesting sites and power plants that haveleaked, exploded, or recklessly disposed oftheir wastes; and a military that still discardsits toxic and nuclear wastes into the seas.Because production was emphasized overefficiency, local environments became over-taxed by the all-powerful monopolies.

Science, to help meet the state's goals,was made subservient to its demands. Thecentral government determined the direc-tion of scientific research, kept its nature

hidden, and sifted through the results tofind those that fit its purposes. Until thelate 1 980s, the Ministry of Public Healthwould not contradict the USSR's industrialpractices by revealing that they might bedamaging the nation's environment andhealth. In 1986, immediately after thenuclear reactor explosion at Chernobyl,employees of the public health ministrywere forbidden to provide any informationabout the accident. In addition, it was notuntil 1988 that the Soviet Union estab-lished its first environmental protectionagency; the State Committee on En-vironmental Protection was then promotedto the level of ministry in 1991.

Today, Russians must cope not only witha rapid transition from a command to a mar-ket economy, but with a greatly damagedenvironment as well. A number of organiza-tions in Western countries are attempting toprovide funds, expertise, and technology, butefforts sometimes meet a complex set ofroadblocks, including a sense of nationalpride that can cause some Russians to feel"humiliated by large foreign groups arrivingand trying to teach them," according toMarina Savelyeva, Russian program coordi-nator for the International Center for BetterHealth/AESOP. "Outside help should begiven carefully and with respect to our cul-ture," she wrote in the fall 1992 issue ofSurviving Together, a quarterly journal pub-lished by ISAR (formerly the Institute forSoviet-American Relations) in Washington.

"The desire to improve is there," saysMurray Feshbach, professor of demographyat Georgetown University and co-authorwith Alfred Friendly, Jr. of Ecocide in theUSSR: Health and Nature Under Siege, "butthere's the lack of funding for environmen-tal work, and now there's this drive for eco-nomic development. It's true there are a lotof small grants, but there are also a lot ofpeople who want them. There has to bemuch more from the West; yet, at the sametime the Russians want to help themselves."

Unchecked emissions. Factories throughout Russia, like this metal ore smelting complex nearMonchegorsk, continue to pollute the air and water.

Extent of PollutionAlthough Russia's old polluting practicesare now known to be dangerous, little hasbeen done to stop them. To close downoffending factories would mean dismissingworkers and adding to an unemploymentburden that Federal Employment Servicehead Fedor Prokopov says could reach10-12 million this year. In addition, a sin-gle plant is often the only producer of avital component; to shut it down couldstart a chain reaction that would jeopardizeother related factories. A successful push toclose a polluting aspirin factory in 1990, forexample, left the entire country withoutaspirin until it was reopened. Even someregional environmental groups stop short ofcalling for plant shut-downs; their ownlivelihood would be wiped out.

"Instead of closing down factories, thegovernment wanted us [scientists] to findmedical solutions to the illnesses," says IlyaTsyrlov, formerly with the Soviet NationalAcademy of Sciences and now seniorresearch scientist at the U.S. NationalCancer Institute. "Or they wanted us todevelop a migration approach; for example,people would work at an aluminum factoryfor one year and then be moved to a differ-ent industry. In my opinion, this was totallyinhumane."

In 1992, 6000 businesses were broughtto trial for allegedly polluting the environ-ment, according to an August 1993 articlein the liberal Russian newspaper,Nezavisimaya Gazeta. Eighty-four percentof the defendants were found guilty, butbecause of severe financial conditionsthroughout the country, few could pay. Asa compromise, the courts allowed the com-panies to use a portion of the fines to imple-ment environmental protection measures.Russian experts estimate that if existingenvironmental fines were levied on all ofthe country's industrial businesses, 60% ofthem would go bankrupt.

In the meantime, Russians and theirchildren continue to get sicker and dieyounger than their counterparts in otherindustrialized nations. In 1988, more than1 out of 2 schoolchildren were believed tobe in poor health; 18% suffered fromintestinal disorders, 30% from chronic res-piratory problems. In the southern Russiancity of Magnitogorsk, iron-ore mines andthe nearby steel factories surround a com-munity in which 9 out of 10 children sufferfrom pollution-related illnesses such asbronchitis, asthma, allergies, and even can-cers. Nationwide, worker absenteeism dueto illness had reached an average of 4 mil-lion per day in 1989.

According to Nezavisimaya Gaz~eta, only28% of infants born in 1992 were healthy,and only 27% had healthy mothers. It isalso estimated that 30% of the children's

Environmental Health Perspectives160

diseases in Magnitogorsk are the result ofecological factors. For example, much ofMoscow's uninhabited land has beenturned into vast, unsanctioned dumps, and17.5 tons of heavy metals from city factoriesare discharged daily into the sewage system.Concentrations of zinc, copper, cadmium,and petroleum have been found in meltedsnow at 100-1000 times the maximum per-missible levels. Children playing in sand-boxes, authorities have warned, "risk graveillnesses."

In the heavily industrialized city ofVolgograd, in southwest Russia, doctorshave reported significantly high numbers ofinfants and children with "severe develop-mental defects . . . pneumonia and bron-chial asthma . .. and lots of skin allergies"over the last 10 years. These same doctors,however, do not have the expertise andtools to determine whether the children'shealth problems are directly due to theheavily polluted air, water, and soil that sur-round them; instead, they must often relyon anecdotal and circumstantial evidence.The study of adults is further complicatedby widespread cigarette smoking and alco-holism. In addition, doctors continue to behindered by inadequate training, obsoletetechnology, and a widespread shortage ofmedications.

Many of Volgograd's 1 million residentsare employed by the 50 large industrialenterprises clustered in the region along thewest bank of the Volga River, including car-bon-black manufacturers, foundries, furni-ture makers, and aluminum reductionplants. In 1992, the U.S. EPA began a jointproject with the United States Agency forInternational Development to assist Russianleaders, especially those in Volgograd, in"rethinking their whole approach to air pol-lution control," according to Tom Pace,program manager for EPA's Russia AirManagement Program. "Fortunately," Pacecontinued, "Volgograd has a progressivegovernment that's anxious to make improve-ments in local environmental conditions."

The wanton dumping ofchemical fertilizers andindustrial wastes on thenation's farmlands has alsoled to high levels of nitratesand heavy metals, includingcadmium, in Russian pro-duce. In addition, althoughDDT was formally bannedin the USSR in 1970, it wasstill used "by special permis-sion" into the late 1980s.Although the new Russiangovernment has abandoned

r As rsome ot the tarming prac- Murray Feshhtices of the former commu- want to help thenist leadership that led to adependence on mechaniza-

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tion and chemical applica- ,tions, not everything haschanged in Moscow, ac-cording to economist SergeiBobylev. "Most agriculturalplans being proposed bylegislative and executivebodies, and by Russian andforeign specialists, still re-flect the same technogenicapproach to the problem,"Bobylev wrote in SurvivingTogether.

Perhaps one of Russia'smost intractable environ- Ilya Tsyrlov-mental problems is the cleanup by privawidespread radioactive con- "bureaufantasy.tamination from antiquatednuclear reactors, with a recently revealed his-tory of explosions, as well as bomb-testingsites and military bases. Although the 1986Chernobyl reactor accident occurred inUkraine, its fallout traveled deep into west-ern Russia, poisoning soil and water as farnorth as St. Petersburg. High radioactivitylevels have also been found near manyRussian cities, including Kapustin Yar,Balakov, Kostroma, and Tver, where nuclearbombs and missiles have been manufacturedand tested for decades.

With the collapse of communism havecome increasing revelations about the extentof radioactive contamination throughoutthe former Soviet Union, including secretnuclear dumping in the Russian Arctic,which had been banned for decades byinternational agreement. Radioactivecesium has been found in tundra mosses,for example, and underground atomicexplosions and once-secret plutoniumplants have fouled many Russian rivers,including one of its largest, the Ob. In addi-tion, many cities near military bases, includ-ing Murmansk, Chelyabinsk, and Severod-vinsk, have reported a high incidence ofradioactive pollution and suspicious can-cers.

In the early 1990s, following nationaland international pressures,

cothe Soviet Union announcedwould suspend construc-

_ tion on new nuclear powerplants. At the same time, theproduction and output ofcoal, oil, and gas was steadilydeclining. With the fall ofthe Soviet Union, however,and the rise of a free-marketeconomy, Russia will needmore energy sources thanever, and the government hasbegun to reconsider the use

h-Russians and construction of nuclearelves, power stations, despite some

ongoing public outcry.

-Environmentalite industries is

One Russian CityMost former Soviet statisticsare unreliable because "thelocal governments and partyleaders hid the exact numbersfrom the people, giving themdistorted information," saysValerie Kagan, associate pro-fessor in the Department ofEnvironmental and Occu-pational Health at the Uni-versity of Pittsburgh. Doctorswere prevented from publish-ing any findings that contra-dicted official reports.

As a recent Russian emi-gre, Kagan is part of a trendthat could hinder Russia's

ability to restore the health of its environ-ment and citizenry. Top Russian researchersand scientists have been leaving the countryin droves, lured to Western nations by bet-ter materials, equipment, salaries, andopportunities for "real research." Thosewho stay in Russia are also leaving basicfields of study such as biology and zoologyto enter more lucrative fields such asbiotechnology or biochemistry, therebyaffecting the quantity and quality of basicbiological research now being conducted inRussia.

Since his arrival in the United States in1989, Kagan has received "tons of calls andrequests for reference letters to help scientistsstill in Russia get positions here." Thoughnow a U.S. citizen, Kagan's research remainsin great part devoted to improving the life ofhis former countrymen. Kagan's universitydepartment is planning to set up a collabora-tive research team to study pollution-relatedhealth problems in Novokuznets, the secondlargest city in Siberia and a major metallur-gical center in the Ural Mountains. In 1987,Novokuznets had the fifth highest level ofair pollution in the Soviet Union; the chil-dren of Novokuznets have had pneumoniarates more than four times that of even theheavily polluted northern port city ofArchangelsk.

"Novokuznets is what Pittsburgh waslike 40-50 years ago," says Kagan. "Today,in the United States, we would never havethe opportunity to get the kinds of mea-surements in human groups as we can inNovokuznets. It's one of the nastiest exam-ples of air pollution in the world."

NCI's Tsyrlov is also looking at envi-ronmental contaminants in the Novo-kuznets region. Because of the number ofaluminum factories, he says, benzopyrenelevels are "thousands of times higher thannormal." The concentrations are so highthat "even less sensitive technology" canread them, ironically making it easier forRussian scientists to conduct studies with-out expensive foreign equipment.

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Taking ActionWhen Russians ask each other "how areyou," the almost universal response is "nor-malne." Such an answer is intended to meanthat life cannot possibly be any better orany worse, a revealing example of the senseof fatalism that has dominated Russian soci-ety for decades, if not centuries. Revealing aRussian penchant for dark humor, aformer health minister, A. I. Potopov,reportedly said in 1989 that "To live longer,you must breathe less."

However, with glasnostand perestroika in the mid-1980s and subsequent reve-lations of environmentaland health damage, manyRussian citizens, unaccus-tomed to taking action ontheir own behalf, began toorganize and protest, espe-cially in Moscow and alongthe heavily polluted VolgaRiver. Today, there aremore than 500 public, pri-vate, academic, and grass-roots organizations working Rosemarie Rusto improve the environment new spirit of oand environmental health Russian scientistthroughout Russia, accord-ing to a directory published by theWashington-based Kompass ResourcesInternational. Kompass is a nonprofit orga-nization that facilitates internationalexchange projects on educational, environ-mental, and health issues not only in Russia-but also in the Newly Independent States,Baltics, and Central and Eastern EuropeanRepublics.

One of the early Moscow-based envi-ronmental groups is the Socio-EcologicalUnion (SEU), founded in 1988 by MariaCherkasova, Mikhail Lemeshev, and AlekseiYablokov. Yablokov is now presidentialadvisor on the environment and health toPresident Boris Yeltsin as well as head of theenvironmental security subcommittee onthe Security Council. During his presiden-tial campaign in 1991, Yeltsin often blamedthe Soviet government's secrecy for therepublic's environmental problems, leadingto speculation that he would favor industri-al reforms. But because Russia's politicaland economic problems are still so severe,says Tsyrlov, "such health problems are nota priority, not even in second or third place.Russia's only hope is in its people move-ments.

Feshbach adds that the percentage ofRussia's federal budget allotted for environ-mental and health concerns is currentlyabout 4%, down from 6.65% in 1965. Andwhile pollution from industry has decreasedby 11% in the last two years, productionhas also fallen by 18%, he says, signaling acorrelation between levels of production

ISSOlptinists.

and pollution, rather than significant suc-cess in controlling emissions and wastes.

Today, the SEU is an umbrella organi-zation that joins 150 groups from 13 of theformer Soviet republics. The SEU worksclosely with the Washington-based non-profit organization ISAR. Their first jointproject involved the establishment of an E-mail network that allows environmentalgroups throughout the former Soviet Unionto quickly and easily share information witheach other and related groups around the

world. Through the net-U work, more than 200 non-

governmental organizations(NGOs) are now linkedthroughout the former SovietUnion.

"One thing they discov-ered is that information ispower," says Kate Watters,ISAR's head of environmen-tal programs. "The E-mailnetwork cuts down on theisolation that many peoplecan feel there. What we're

-There's a doing is just connectingmism among groups with each other, so

they don't work at cross-pur-poses with each other."

In 1993, ISAR received two grants fromthe United States Agency for InternationalDevelopment (USAID) to be administeredto "green" groups working in the formerSoviet Union. The grants support coopera-tive and individual projects developed byenvironmental NGOs in the United Statesand Russia.

Environmental collaborations with theUnited States go back to the mid-1970s,when the governments of the United Statesand USSR signed the first EPA BilateralAgreement in 1975. Continually updated,the agreement now calls for separate coop-erative arrangements between EPA and eachnewly independent state. In the RussianFederation, EPA representatives work withtheir counterparts from the Ministry ofEcology and Natural Resources. Amongmany joint research projects, the groups arecurrently studying the sources, effects, andpotential solutions to air, water, and soilpollution.

In the late 1970s, when RosemarieRusso, now head of the EPA's Envir-onmental Research Laboratory in Athens,Georgia, first visited the Soviet Union,communication between American andRussian scientists was hampered by interna-tional tensions and Soviet secrecy. TheAmerican group was allowed only to com-municate with the heads of state agencies orscientists approved by the government."They always claimed they had zero pollu-tion discharge from their plants, which ofcourse was impossible," Russo says. "It was

hard to separate the political statementsfrom reality. But today professional rela-tions between American and Russianresearchers are quite close," Russo adds."It's a very caring kind of relationship. Andnow that they have the freedom to dealmore directly with us, and not have tocheck everything with Moscow, there's alsoa new spirit on their side."

Despite this new spirit, most Russianscientists still lack the technology andexpertise to make complete and accuratemeasurements and studies. This has led to atendency to be more "theoretically oriented,while Americans remain more practicallyoriented," says Frank Schiermeier, head ofthe EPA's Atmospheric Characterizationand Modeling Division.

When researchers from Russo's lab visittheir Russian colleagues to test a region'swater quality, they usually bring their ownequipment, including a hydrolab or gaschromatograph. Or they may take watersamples back to the EPA lab in Georgia formetal analysis because it is not possible tomeasure all the parameters in Russia.

"The Russians often don't have thetools to work with," says Russo. "A[Russian] chemistry lab wouldn't beequipped anything like a Western chemistrylab. For example, they might only be able totest a water sample's pH and temperature.But sometimes you'll find some very bril-liant people there who have developed theirown equipment. For example, I knew ofone scientist who managed to fabricate adosing apparatus for toxicity tests. So youwill find these sterling people in little pock-ets of excellence," she said.

Today, those labs essential to theRussian government's agenda are the mostlikely to be supported by it, according toMichael Resnick, head of NIEHS'sLaboratory of Molecular Genetics, who hasbeen conducting research with severalRussians for more than five years. Whenvisiting laboratories in Russia, he foundthem "modestly supported by Europeanstandards and lacking by American."Because of the general lack of funding forbasic research, some labs have even beenclosed down for short periods. To compen-sate for such shortages, some American sci-entists have sent money and other materialsto their Russian counterparts, but they "areoften concerned it will never get there," saysResnick.

Despite such limitations, Schiermeiersays that Western scientists can also learnfrom Russians; the exchange is not alwaysa one-way street." As an example, he com-pared the American practice of measuringsulfur dioxide levels in large cities 24 hoursa day. In Russia, on the other hand, sulfurdioxide levels are tested for just 20 minutes4 times a day. "A group at the EPA com-

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pared the results of the two methods andsurprisingly found they were not very differ-ent," Schiermeier says.

Unenforced RegulationsInternal conflicts in the Russian govern-ment continue to impede progress in suchcritical areas as the environment and health.Yeltsin's violent clash with the RussianParliament in October 1993 and the elec-tion of a high percentage of Yeltsin oppo-nents in December highlight the level oftension between the central leadership andregional representatives. In addition, thepresident's environmental advisor, AlekseiYablokov, and the Minister of Ecology andNatural Resources, Viktor Danilov-Danilyan, have had sharp disagreements onhow to manage Russia's environmentalproblems. Such divisions have contributedto the country's slow progress.

Yablokov has called for the country'senvironmental clean-up efforts to be carriedout primarily by private or privatized indus-tries, an approach Tsyrlov calls "bureaufan-tasy." Tsyrlov elaborates: "None of themost polluting factories has been privatizedyet, including the steel and paper produc-ers, which are the main sources of dioxin-like compounds. Those enterprises are stillowned by the government."

Ironically, the Soviet Union's environ-mental regulations were some of the stiffestin the world, though they were seldomenforced. Factory equipment was oftenarchaic by Western standards and minimal-ly equipped to control emissions. Fines forpolluting were also low. In one case, citedby Feshbach in his book, 70 factory direc-tors in the Krasnoyarsk region each had topay the "equivalent of two packs of foreigncigarettes for illegal dumping" in 1990.

"Since then, I've seen a more conscious-ness-raising attitude in government but notnecessarily in industry," says Feshbach."Instead, they have a don't-bother-me atti-tude. Now there's a whole new series of reg-ulations governing hazardous wastes, butthe fines don't seem to have risen when youaccount for the high inflation."

Instead of unenforced regulations andfines, one possible solution may involve thevoucher program established by Yeltsin aspart of his economic reforms in early 1992.By buying shares in companies, for exam-ple, Russian citizens have begun to wieldsome power in factory decision-making andto pressure managers into investing inantipollution equipment and medical im-provements, according to Kagan.

Funding SourcesTo assist Russian scientists in their research,the Washington-based InternationalScience Foundation (ISF) has recentlyestablished a $1 00-million grant program to

-~~~ ~ ~ ~ -tSs..-~. _

New attitudes. The Syktyvkar Timber Industry Complex, now more than half worker-owned, has reducedair and water pollution and is seeking still cleaner processes.

support short- and long-term projects in thebasic natural sciences in Russia and theother republics of the former Soviet Union.The grants were awarded in two rounds, inSeptember 1993 and February 1994, andrange from $10,000 to $100,000 to cover atwo-year period, according to Elisa Chait,program officer at ISF. Founded byAmerican philanthropist George Soros, theISF grants support "research directedtoward increased knowledge or understand-ing of natural processes and phenomena"on the territory of the former Soviet Union.

As part of its many international grantprograms, the Howard Hughes MedicalInstitute accepted applications throughJanuary to support five broad areas of fun-damental biomedical research in EasternEurope and the former Soviet Union orbetween such scientists and their counter-parts in the United States, Europe, orJapan. Forty to sixty grants ranging from$10,000 to $75,000 will be awarded for upto five years of work in cell biology, genet-ics, immunology, neuroscience, and struc-tural biology.

Among its other related activities, theNational Academy of Sciences's NationalResearch Council in Washington runs theYoung Investigator Program through itsOffice for Central Europe and Eurasia,which brings American scientists to meettheir counterparts in the former SovietUnion. One group traveled through theRussian Arctic and far north to study theregion's ecological concerns during thesummer of 1993. They visited the city ofSyktyvkar and its wood, pulp, and waterprocessing facility, the sixth largest inRussia. The plant, now a joint-stock com-pany whose workers own more than half ofits shares, has reduced its atmospheric andwater pollution but is still unable to removelignin (wood by-product) from the water.

Rebecca Clay is a freelance writer in Boulder,Colorado.

Like many other newly privatized compa-nies, the Syktyvkar Timber IndustryComplex is seeking cleaner productiontechnologies that would reduce the levels ofimpurities to be removed. They are plan-ning to sell 25% of the company to foreigninvestors, presumably to help raise capital tobuy such equipment.

In addition, the Fogarty InternationalCenter at the National Institutes of Healthoffers several programs to facilitate coopera-tive research between the United States andNewly Independent States of the formerSoviet Union. For example, the HealthScientist Exchange Program will pay thetravel expenses of U.S. scientists to spendtwo to six weeks in Russia and the in-coun-try travel and subsistence costs for a Russianscientist to work in the United States. Inaddition, the Fogarty InternationalResearch Collaboration Award is paid tothose scientists currently receiving an NIHgrant who would like to include a formerSoviet colleague in that research. The grant,up to $20,000 per year for five years, cancover travel expenses, research supplies,materials, and small equipment for the for-eign laboratory.

Dissolution of the tightly controlledcommand economy has spurred manyRussians to become more independent andself-reliant as well as to participate in thenascent democratic movement. For exam-ple, environmentalists have run for and wonseats on their city and district councils. Butmost Russian citizens remain preoccupiedwith the ongoing political tensions inMoscow among Yeltsin, the parliament,and local soviets, as well as the pressingneed to secure work, food, clothing, andshelter through this dramatic transitionalperiod. Until the political, economic, andjudicial systems can be stabilized, environ-mental and health improvements will con-tinue to be severely compromised.

Rebecca Clay

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