Russia radiating, technicians say
Center warns of health risks
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Buying a kilo of apples or a gold bracelet may not sound like health-threatening activities. But for Moscow’s Radon Center, these items can carry significant levels of radiation, and tracking down and destroying them is all in a day’s work.

Radon, the capital’s only authority for neutralizing radiation outside nuclear plants, says Moscow is brimming with contamination from Soviet-era waste tips as well as food and goods originating from polluted plots and factories. Officials said they disposed of 4,978 kilograms of radioactive material in January alone, and they expect a busy year ahead.

Vladimir Safronov, deputy director of Radon’s technological center for waste reception and transportation, said that, last year, the organization – which is funded by the Moscow government – sent nearly 113,000 kilograms of radioactive contaminants to be encased in cement at a treatment plant near Sergiyev Posad in Moscow Oblast.

Of that figure, 1,398 kilograms was food, mainly goods like fresh berries and dried mushrooms grown on contaminated sites in Russia, Ukraine and elsewhere in the C.I.S. and identified as a health threat after tip-offs from Moscow-city health inspectors.

The radiation level for a typical batch of mushrooms seized last month was 12,000 Bk/kg – a standard used in Russia for measuring food contamination. Officials said that was nearly five times over recommended levels and enough to damage health, perhaps causing cancer or genetic damage.

"We also center our plan on checking certain sites, roads and industrial objects," Safronov said. "We set up ecological monitoring where it’s necessary, recultivating the soil and so on, with our main task being to discover, collect, transport and process sources of excessive radioactivity, including emergencies and accidents."

Moscow is paying for the mistakes of the past, Safronov said, with disused and contaminated Soviet industrial dumps dotting the city. In many cases, the waste came from research institutes working on nuclear weapons projects, and as the dumps were not mapped, experts have to be called in before work can start on any construction site.

"High radioactivity in non-industrial areas usually has an industrial nature," Safronov said. "When it started, the atomic industry recycled radioactive ore to get chemical elements that are rarely found in nature. Typically, this uranium waste was trashed into the city’s ravines and foundation pits.

"During the work of these factories and research institutes, their equipment and territories became contaminated too. Back then, rules of radioactive safety were either absent or not as strict as they should have been."

Radon is working on cleanup projects in Moscow’s Cheryomushki and Troparyovo-Nikulino construction sites' districts, where radiation levels last year reached 1,900 MicroRoentgens per hour (mR/h) and 20,000 mR/h respectively, compared to normal levels for Russia of 10-20 mR/h.

The team is also trying to stop potential pollution of the Moscow River at Kashirka and Kolomenskoye, where radioactive waste buried at a depth of 9 meters is threatening to seep down into the water. One of the solutions being discussed involves replacing 1 meter of soil, planting trees and installing concrete blocks along the riverbank.

Meanwhile, danger can come from some surprising sources. Instead of harmless phosphorous as a luminous material for watch and clock faces, toys and gadgets, Soviet producers sometimes used Radium-226, a radioactive isotope, Safronov said, and many of these items are still in use.

According to Safronov, Russian fire alarm systems often contain Plutonium-239 and can emit 300 mR/h if they are not replaced after 10 years.

"Even handmade gold jewelry might have radioactive components used in smelting," he said, adding that this was something Radon discovered last year.

That could be enough to cause minor health problems, representatives said.

Safronov said Moscow businesses often unwittingly take on a radiation problem when they move into new premises that previously housed radioactive materials.

Several hundred more businesses work with radioactive materials, and 144 of these are set to go through complex monitoring procedures carried out by Radon over the next three years, in line with recent legislation on stepping up anti-radiation measures in the capital.

By VLADA MELKOVA / The Russia Journal



Commento: proprio non tenendo conto di dove avveniva l'inquinamento radioattivo è servito per decenni per truccare le statistiche sull'incidenza dei tumori e sul link cancro-radiazioni. Per avvelenarci rassicurandoci. "Meglio morti che rossi...", dicevano. Almeno per la prima parte la previsione era indovinata.