Pulp and Paper Mill, have contributed significantly to water pollution in Russia.
Air pollution Moscow,
St. Petersburg,
Yekaterinburg, and
Volgograd, as well as other major industrial and population centers, have the highest concentrations of
air pollution. Air pollution is attributed to 17% of childhood and 10% of adult diseases, as well as 41% of
respiratory and 16% of
endocrine diseases. This has caused health issues in many cities as well as in the countryside, as only 8% of
wastewater is fully treated before being returned to waterways. Obsolete and inefficient
water treatment facilities, as well as a lack of funding, have caused heavy pollution, and has also resulted in waterborne disease spread, such as an outbreak of
cholera spread by the
Moskva River in 1995.
Industrial and
chemical waste is often dumped into waterways, including
hydrogen sulfide, which has been linked to the large-scale death of fish in the Black and Caspian seas.
Lake Baikal was previously a target of environmental pollution from paper plants, but cleanup efforts since then have greatly reduced the ecological strain on the lake. The testing and production of
nuclear weapons also affected the environment, such as at the
Mayak atomic weapons production plant near
Chelyabinsk. An example of the effects of radioactive waste can be seen in the construction of the SouthEast Chord highway. Since 2018, Moscow's Department for Transportation and Construction has attempted to create an eight-lane highway over what is now an inactive
nuclear plant. The Moscow Polymetal Plant, owned by Rosatom State Energy Corporation, was shut down over 50 years ago and is said to still contain harmful nuclear waste resulting in it being labeled a radioactive site. Its main purpose was for the extraction and production of uranium and thorium resulting in high levels of radiation in the surrounding area (reported by the environmental justice organization
Greenpeace). The Government of Moscow and Radon State Unitary Enterprise , both responsible for the management of radioactive waste, have claimed that appropriate measures of decontamination have taken place in order for construction of the highway to commence. The main conflict associated with the SouthEast Chord project is nuclear waste storage and its harmful effects to human health and the surrounding environment making this site unsafe for the usage of a highway. According to the
Center for Disease Control and Prevention and their article on the effects of radiation on the human cause, radioactive waste can directly damage the structure of one's DNA as well as major organs. This alteration of DNA can leave victims at high risk of cancer or even death. Ultimately, this all depends on the radiation dosage and, in this case, how frequently a civilian were to drive on this portion of the SouthEast Chord. The main contaminants highlighted are the extraction of uranium and production of thorium for the purpose of nuclear reactors.
Other forms of pollution ==Soil erosion==