Moscow death rate 'doubles' in smog

Muscovites wear masks to protect themselves from the toxic smog from peat fires in nearby forests that has blanketed the Russian capital. Photograph: Alexander Demianchuk/ReutersMuscovites wear masks to protect themselves from the toxic smog from peat fires in nearby forests that has blanketed the Russian capital. Photograph:

The death rate in Moscow has doubled as wildfires have blanketed the capital with toxic smoke amid Russia's worst heatwave in over a century, Interfax cited the city's health department chief as saying today.

Alexander Seltsovsky said today that deaths had almost doubled to 700 daily, with heat being the main killer, according to the agency.

The Health Ministry criticised Mr Seltsovsky, saying it was "bewildered by these unofficial figures" and that Moscow's death rates had actually fallen in January-June.

Health Minister Tatyana Golikova told a news conference that the heavy smog with the severe heat was "a real test" indeed for Moscow's residents with vascular and heart diseases. But she said she had no data about a rise in Moscow's death rates.

Moscow was veiled with acrid smoke for a fourth straight day as persistent heat continued to fuel forest and peat fires that officials say have killed 52 people across European Russia since late July.

Morgues are overflowing and one crematorium in the Russian capital is working around the clock in three shifts, according to staff, even as the health ministry disputes Mr Seltsovsky's statement that the monthly death toll doubled in July.

In Mitino on Moscow's northwest, a note at a crematorium warned that it was not accepting any new orders for cremation. The crematorium's four furnaces are currently "processing" 49 bodies per day, with cremations every 20 minutes, according to a timetable available at the reception.

As the scorching heat sets new temperature records almost daily and a thick acrid smog from forest fires chokes the giant city of over 10 million, the question of the real number of heat-induced deaths has become a political issue for Muscovites.

Official data show at least 52 people have died in severe fires raging in parts of European Russia in the past few weeks. But there are no statistics referring to Moscow, amid some media reports that the city's paramedics are told not to include "heat stroke" in death records "to avoid panic".

An unnamed doctor at a Moscow clinic wrote on his Internet site over the weekend that he was wary of diagnosing patients with eat and smoke-related illnesses for fear of dismissal.

Another doctor at a major hospital, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters yesterday that senior management had instructed staff not to link patients' illnesses with the heat.

Reuters

Russia battles to defend nuclear sites from fires

MOSCOW (AFP) – Russia fought a deadly battle Tuesday to prevent wildfires from engulfing key nuclear sites as alarm mounted over the impact on health of a toxic smoke cloud shrouded over Moscow.

Two soldiers were killed by blazing trees as they worked to put out a fire dangerously close to Russia's main nuclear research centre, while workers were also mobilised to fight blazes near a nuclear reprocessing plant.

After almost two weeks of fires that have claimed over 50 lives and even part destroyed a military storage site, the authorities said they were making progress in fighting fires that still covered 174,035 hectares of land

"A positive dynamic in liquidating the wildfires continues to be observed," said the head of the emergencies ministry's crisis unit, Vladimir Stepanov.

"The numbers (of emergency workers) have been increased in those regions where there is a difficult situation with the fires," he added.

The emergencies ministry said that over the last 24 hours, 247 new fires had appeared, more than the 239 that were extinguished, and 557 fires were still raging across the affected region.

Two members of the Russian armed forces were killed Monday fighting wildfires around the major nuclear research centre in Sarov, a town still closed to foreigners as in Soviet times.

Reporting the first death, Interfax news agency said "A burning tree fell on the soldier. He died of cranial trauma on the way to the hospital," quoting defence ministry spokesman Vasily Panchenkov.

The local crisis unit later confirmed that another serviceman, who usually worked at a local prison camp, was also killed by a burning tree while fighting the fire, Interfax said.

Meanwhile, officials said fires close to the town of Snezhinsk in the Urals and home to one of Russia's top nuclear research centres had been localised.

The acrid smog from wildfires 100 kilometres (60 miles) out in the countryside that descended over Moscow lightened Tuesday morning but forecasters warned it could return and the air quality was still dangerously poor.

The Moscow authorities acknowledged for the first time on Monday that the daily mortality rate in Moscow had doubled and morgues were overflowing with bodies but the federal government has yet to confirm that statistic.

Carbon monoxide in the Moscow air was 1.4 times higher than acceptable levels Tuesday, the state pollution watchdog said, a slight improvement from the day before. On Saturday they had been an alarming 6.6 times worse.

Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov, meeting Prime Minister Vladimir Putin for the first time since returning from a much-criticised holiday, said calls to the emergency health services in Moscow had grown by one-fifth.

Luzhkov initially refused to return from holiday, with his aides earning ridicule in the tabloid press by denying there was any crisis in the city.

"You of course did the right thing by coming back from holiday. You did it on time," Putin said pointedly.

The authorities have rejected criticism that they were poorly prepared for the heatwave, which meteorologists have said is the worst in the 1,000 year history of Russia.

"Even if we had started (preparing for the heatwave and fires) 10 years ago we would not have been able to do anything," President Dmitry Medvedev said late Monday on a visit to one of the worst affected regions.

Moreover Russia is such a vast country. "Putting out fires in Luxembourg is presumably easier than in Russia," he remarked.

The heatwave has a huge impact on all areas of Russian society and economists warned Tuesday the record temperatures could have cost the country 15 billion dollars and undercut a modest economic revival.

Worst hit has been the agriculture industry, which has seen 10 million hectares of land destroyed.

Putin, who shocked international markets last week by announcing that Russia was banning grain exports, slashed the grain harvest forecast by another 10 million tonnes.

He also warned the Moscow could even extend the export ban, due to expire on December 31, saying that anyone waiting for that date was doing so "in vain".