Report - UNDP Russia

Box 4.3. Ambient air pollution andpublic health in NovokuibyshevskNovokuibyshevsk (Samara Region) is acity of 112,000 people with an oil refinery and anumber of other petrochemical and chemicalproduction facilities. The city has a centralizedwater supply system, fed by ground water.Depreciation of the municipal water pipelinesystem (150 km long in total) is 70%. The existingmonitoring system does not provide adequateinformation on the state of ground water,particularly near sources of pollution, and it isimpossible to forecast negative impacts onground water, develop preventative actions, orlocalize and eliminate sources of pollution. Somewater drawing facilities are located close to therefinery. Monitoring found significant quantitiesof oil products in ground water within theperimeter of the refinery, as well as in thetownships of Russkiye Lipyagi and ChuvashskiyeLipyagi. Water for drinking and household usedoes not meet existing hygiene norms. Drilling,extraction, transportation and storage of crude oilgenerate oil and drilling sludge, and wastewatersfrom oil extraction and processing facilitiespenetrate ecosystems, polluting them with oilproducts and other chemical compounds. This hasmany of the facilities listed above have hadserious pollution problems in the past. Emissionscontain a wide range of toxic organic substances,the most hazardous of which are carcinogenic,including benzol, carbon dust, formaldehyde andbenzopyrene (Table 4.2).Benzol pollution in the atmosphere isvery hard to estimate. The problem is that thedetection method used by the Russian StateHydrometeorological Service (Roshydromet)has minimum sensitivity of 20 mkg/m 3 ,reflecting Russia’s daily upper limit of 100mkg/m 3 for benzol concentrations in air.However, the WHO recommends a muchalready led to salination and loss of soil fertility,and contamination of vegetation. Oil productshave been detected in soils at allotments and incrops (onions, strawberries and oats) that aregrown there. Oil product concentrations in soil inthe city are up to 200 mkg/m 3 compared withprovisional limits of 15 mkg/m 3 32 set by theNatural Resources Ministry.Risk assessment shows that the biggestcarcinogenic threats are from atmosphericconcentrations of 1.3 butadiene, benzol,formaldehyde, chloroform, acetaldehyde andsome other substances, while the main noncarcinogenicthreats are from nitrogen oxides,gasoline, etc 33 . Novokuibyshevsk is worse affectedby diseases of the CNS, sensory, respiratory anddigestive systems among children than othertowns and cities in the Region and only 8.5% ofchildren, who have been examined, were rated ashealthy 34 . Child health abnormalities are due toother industries located in the city as well asimpact of refining operations. Order No.295 of theState Environmental Committee(Goskomekologiya), dated May 25 th , 1999,confirmed the Report of a State EnvironmentalCommission, which rated Novokuibyshevsk as anenvironmental emergency area.stricter annual norm of 5 mkg/m 3 and this maybe further reduced to 1.7 mkg/m 3 due to thecarcinogenic effect of benzol and acceptablerisk criteria. This new recommendation is basedon the individual risk of leukemia throughoutlife (70 years). The low concentrations,recommended by WHO, cannot be detectedusing methods available in Russia, but weatherstations sometimes detect benzolconcentrations as high as 290 mkg/m 3 . Benzolconcentrations are constantly monitored by 74stations in 23 cities, but the results fail to showreal pollution levels or to specify zones withhazardous levels of carcinogenic risk .32Atlas: Ambient air and public health in Omsk Region, Omsk, 2008N.M.Tsunina, Hygiene assessment of the environment of the territorial industrial complex // Hygiene and Sanitation, 2002, No.4, pp.15-1733Priorities in main environmental protection actions in Samara Region based on cost-efficiency of health risk reduction., M., 1999, 209p.34G.A.Makovetskaya, T.Yu.Savirova, O.N.Gerasimova, The role of the environmental factor in child health // Environment and human health.Thesis at the 2 nd practical science conference, Samara, 1995, pp.61-6281