cially in Russia and Ukraine. Five of the most harmful industriesmetallurgy, chemicals, forest products. machine buildine. -. and fuels and energy generation-account for about 25% of total output in the NIS I l l . The steel industry epitomizes the “more is better” credo that guided Soviet development and has resulted in the current environmental costs. Starting in the mid-1920s. the USSR began a massive industrial buildup that centered on the steel industry. By 1975, the USSR had become the world’s largest steel Emphasis on heavy industry producer. As the world steel indusThe USSR’s development strat- try modernized by introducing baegy, which centered on an all-out sic-oxygen and electric-arc convertdrive to build heavy industry, has ers, the USSR continued to rely produced an economy with a dis- heavily on open hearth mills, which proportionately high number of en- generate about three times as much vironmentally intensive industries air pollution per unit of output and and a stunted service sector. During use more than twice the energy of seven decades of Soviet power, the newer technologies. This outdated USSR’s l e a d e r s h i p developed method also adversely affects steel smokestack industries in the mis- quality. Open hearth mills leave taken belief that an increase in the many impurities in steel, forcing output of steel, cement, and tractors manufacturers to use even more of was equivalent to economic devel- it, thereby fueling demand for more opment. As industry developed, the steel: a vicious circle [Table 1). The steel industry is hardly an regime neglected the health of peoanomaly: other industries in the ple and ecosystems alike. As a consequence of this pattern NIS are equally inefficient, deof development, the economies of cayed, and oversized. Although enthe Soviet successor states are in- ergy efficiency is difficult to calcuherently more resource and energy late accurately, economies of the intensive than the economies of NIS use about twice as much energy p e r d o l l a r of North America m o s s national a n d EuroDe. iroduct generHeavy industry ERIC GREEN ated as does the dominates American Embossy-Monilo United States e c o n o m i e s the of AP 96440 APO, the region, espeand about three
nvironmental quality in the former Soviet Union revresents the accumulation of more than 70 vears of mistakes involving industrial development strategy, energy policies, and, most tragically, attitudes toward the importance of protecting public health. The consequences-contaminated land, filthy air and water, and widespread disease-will affect the health and prosperity of the newly independent states (NISI for generations to come.
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LEGACY: ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY INTHE NEWLY INDEPENDENT STATES IO Envimn. Sci Tac
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la1 27 No 4 1991
times as much as Japan (3, 4). At the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Russia’s Minister of Ecology, Viktor Danilov-Danilyan, declared that the Russian economy has a distorted structure and “is essentially obsolete, both morally and physically.” In Kemerovo, a Siberian city that is home to several chemical plants moved from European Russia during World War I1 and a coking plant built in the 192Os, the top environmental protection official, Olga Andrakhanova, professed, “We need to rebuild 70% of our industry using a bulldozer.” An International Monetary Fund [IMF) study concluded
that nearly half of USSR industrial production assets were worth little more than their salvage value ( 5 ) . As the central planners tirelessly pursued higher industrial output, no countervailing forces, such as the judiciary, the legislature, or public-interest organizations, were present to protect environmental interests. Although laws formally mandated strict environmental standards for industry, the quest for higher output took precedence over compliance with environmental regulations. Ministries and enterprises were evaluated on the basis of indicators such as tons of cement
produced or hectares of land irrigated. Encouraged to meet output targets at any cost, enterprise managers and workers understood that the authorities would tolerate even flagrant disregard for environmental regulations provided the enterprise met its target. In essence, the economic system embodied implicit incentives to pollute. Investment allocations also reflected the quest for ever higher output. In Central Asia, for instance, the construction of irrigation canals (considered a “productive” investment) was favored over water treatment [an “unproductive” sector).
I inviron.
4, 1993 591
the scale of environmental damage throughout the USSR, the Institute of Geography of the Russian Academy of Sciences devised a system to describe the level of ecological stress. The researchers used six parameters: atmospheric pollution water pollution and depletion of water reserves health of biological resources changes in soil quality and geomorphology damage to or depletion of underground resources, and damage to unique natural heritage sites. In a 1988 study, they found that 16% of the USSR’s territory (3.7 million km’] is in one of three states of ecological stress: catastrophe, crisis, or conflict. More than 20% of the population of the NIS live in these areas. In the catastrophic regions, which cover 676,000 km2, researchers believe that human impact on the environment is irreversible. These areas include several industrial cities in the Ural Mountains and Siberia’s Kuzbass Basin, where the clustering of heavy industry has produced high levels of air and water pollution. In addition, the arid agrcultural land in the Aral Sea basin in Central Asia has sustained permanent damage from excessive chemical use and desiccation of the ecosyst e m surrounding the sea (4). Air pollution Many of Russia’s industrial cities correspond to nightmare images associated with cities of the Industrial Revolution: skylines dominated by smokestacks spewing sooty air and choking fumes that leave a gritty black residue on everything for miles around. Urban air in the NIS is polluted by what locals call a “bouquet” of chemicals, including nitrogen oxides, particulates, sulfur d i o x i d e , c h l o r i n e , a n d formaldahyde (7).The Soviet statistics agency has identified 37 cities where air quality norms were violated egregiously from 1986 to 1990 (8).In many cases, the peak concentrations of more than one pollutant exceeded standards by a factor of 10. In Magnitogorsk, the “City of Steel,” the average concentration of carbon disulfide exceeded the norm by a factor of seven in 1989 (9). Table 2 shows the concentrations of nitrogen dioxide, which can impair lung functioning, in four cities and the maximum permissible concentration. Bratsk, a city in eastern Siberia, recorded peak concentra592 Environ. Sci. Technol., Vol. 27. No. 4, 1993
tions 45 times the norm and 18 times the U.S. standard (the annual U.S. standard is 0.053 ppml. The USSR reduced aggregate emissions from 105 million metric tons in 1981 to 96 million metric tons in 1989 by stepping up pollution control efforts and shifting the power plant fuel mix from coal and petroleum to natural gas (11). As the economy conimcts, this trend is likelv to continue. The disruptions in the Lconomy have forced many large factories to cut hack production or close entirely. Although industrial air pollution will c o n t i n u e t o decline in coming years as the NIS reduce their dependence on heavy industry, the transport sector-particularly motorized vehic l e e w i l l undoubtedly produce more pollution in the future as the number of automobiles swells. Transport already causes more than halfthe air pollution in Moscow, St. Petmburg, and several other large cities. Compared with the United States, the NIS has barely 10% as many cars and its trucks haul less than half the amount of freight (12).Nonetheless, motor vehicles in the NIS reportedly generated 68% as much air pollution as their counterparts in the United States (13). Unlike Europe and the United States, the NIS have not begun eliminating lead from gasoline, which means vehicle exhaust poses more health risks, especially for children. As economies in the region become more consumer oriented, both private car ownership and trucking will increase significantly. Consequently, even as rust-
belt industries close, air quality in the NIS as measured by some parameters is unlikely to improve soon.
Water pollution The NIS, which possess more than 10% of the worlds renewable fresh water resources, have a variety of water pollution problems that mirror both the achievements and shortcomings of the Soviet economy. Factories in the region generate fist-world water pollution problems, whereas many cities make do with third-world waste treatment facilities and unhealthy drinking water. At the high end of the technology ladder. the USSR’s civilian and military nuclear industries hased Drimarilv in Ru s s i i) have re leased dangerous quantities of radioactive waste from their development and . , .production facilities. Accidents at Chelvabinsk-40. a uranium enrichment facility in the Urals, have contami n a t e d t h e local river system and forced the permanent evacuation of several villages. Lake Karachai, where radioactive waste was dumped until the 1960% has been termed the Earth‘s “most polluted spot” (14).The defense sector’s reluctance to disclose information about its activities has magnified the apprehensions of people who live near the network of formerly secret cities in the nuclear weapons complex. Among other sectors, the chemical industry in the NIS is a major source of water pollution. The city of Ufa, which has been dubbed “the hostage of the petrochemical indus-
Urban air is polluted by what locals call a “bouquet Of chemicals, including nitrogen
oxides, particulates, sulfur dioxide, chlorine, and formaldahyde.
A comparison of 1990 steel roduction (in million tons), by method, in the USSR, Unite8States, and Japan
~
try,” has some of the worst industrial water pollution problems in the region. In 1990, a phenol spill from a herbicide plant entered the city’s drinking water, which was reported in a TASS news release to have caused serious injuries to more than 400 people. After belatedly acknowledging the seriousness of the situation, the authorities had to cut off water service to over 600,000 inhabitants, more than half ofUfa’s population (25,26). Reports now indicate that the same plant has exposed Ufa residents to high levels of dioxin, which one local researcher has linked to a 25% increase in the city’s cancer rate during the past decade (1 7). Phenol and petroleum products are also present in high concentrations in the once-pristine rivers of Siberia. In recent years, the Ob, one of Asia’s longest rivers, has contained an average concentration of petroleum products that is a factor of 10 higher than locally permissible levels. The maximum concentration, reported in 1990,exceeded permissible levels by a factor of 134 (see box). Explaining how water quality in the Ob and other river basins deteriorated in recent years even as expenditures on pollution control increased, a government report blamed “delays in construction and reconstruction of water treatment facilities, their inefficient use in conditions of heavier demand, [and] . . . spills of pollutants and other factors” (19). Enterprise managers traditionally have had few incentives to reduce their pollution emissions. Likewise, local governments have not had sufficient resources or incentives to build water treatment facilities. Although construction of new treatment capacity continues, the demand is overwhelming. According to a USSR ministry report, in 1979 64% of waste water was treated adequately to meet Soviet health standards, but by 1990,only 30% was adequately treated (20). Given the dangers posed by effluents in surface waters, many communities in the Ural Mountains region and elsewhere are turning to groundwater sources, but industrial and agricultural waste has contaminated this resource too. Groundwater in the Urals reportedly contains high levels of petroleum products, and in agricultural regions the groundwater also contains high concentrations of pesticides and nitrates (21).
The coastlines of the NIS have served as dumping grounds for industrial, agricultural, and municipal waste. The fate of two bodies of water, the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, is particularly painful for many Russians. The population of the Caspian Sea’s sturgeon, producers of Russia’s fabled black caviar, is diminishing rapidly. This has been attributed to overfishing, industrial pollution in the sea, and dam construction across the Volga River, the sturgeon’s principal spawning ground. Like the Caspian, the Black Sea also occupies an honored place in the Russian consciousness because of its posh resorts and importance in Russian history as the birthplace of the Russian Navy. It too is threatened by dangerous levels of pollution. Many of the scenic beaches on the Black Sea are now off-limits to swimmers because the concentrations of microorganisms and chemicals present are considered dangerous to public health.
Ecology and health Assessing the causal relationship between environmental quality and public health is notoriously difficult. The task is no easier in the NIS, where several intervening variables-such such as smoking, alcohol consumption, inadequate vaccination coverage, and poor occupational safety practices-cloud the relationship between environmental quality and health. Bearing these caveats in mind, data on pollution levels indicate that environmental conditions expose residents of the NIS to levels of health risk factors significantly higher than levels encountered in the United States and other developed countries. A study conducted by the IMF and other international financial organizations calculated that in 68 Soviet cities the average “chronic cancer risks” from pollution exposure exceeded typical developed
I I
country norms by a factor of about 100.In Novokuznetsk, a mining and metallurgy center in Siberia, the risk of cancer from exposure to benzo[a]pyrene exceeds fist-world standards by a factor of 40 (22). Environmental quality is a major factor contributing to the public health crisis in the Aral Sea Basin. Collective farms in the region use excessive amounts of pesticides and fertilizers in an attempt to sustain yields from nutrient-depleted, salinated soil. Much of the runoff is untreated when it enters the drinking water supply. Across the NIS, 18 cities with more than 150,000 inhabitants lack a central water distribution system (23). Central Asia’s water problems are painfully apparent in the rate of infant mortality. Heavy reliance on wells and drainage canals for drinking water facilitates the spread of hepatitis and typhoid. In addition, the evidence suggests that high concentrations of nitrates from runoff is causing methemoglobinemia in local infants (24). This condition inhibits the blood’s capacity to transport oxygen, causing blue skin, coma, and even death. Tashauz, a city on the Amu-Darya River in Turkmenia, has reported infant mortality rates of 66.1 per thousand live births. In some rural areas, less than 10% of the children born reach their first birthday (25). Data are also appearing that quantify the long-term health effects of the 1986 accident at Chernobyl,
Concentratlons (In rng/rn3)of nitrogen oxides In four cities of the former Soviet Unlon in 1989
Donetsk, Ukraine Bishkek. Kyrgyzstan
0.1 1 0.07
Bratsk. Russia
0.07
0.76 0.70 1.83
0.04 0.04 0.04
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which spewed some 50 million curies of radioactive material into the environment. Initial estimates about the health effects of the accident varied widely. Predictions of the number of future Chernobyllinked cancer deaths in former Soviet territory ranged from 18,000 to 50,000 (26). Although we will never have a precise reckoning of the full health consequences of Chernobyl, ominous signs are appearing. A recently published study (27) shows a sharp increase in the incidence of thyroid cancer among children in Belarus: the annual number of new cases increased from two in 1986 to 55 in 1991. World Health Organization scientists involved in the research predicted that, because so many children were exposed to food or milk containing radioactive iodine in the aftermath of the accident, thyroid cancer rates will remain high for many years (27). Chernobyl is but one symbol of the Soviet legacy of environmental neglect, a legacy that will probably manifest itself in premature deaths and high disease rates for decades to come. Environmental management Pledges to improve environmental protection policies have been a part of the reform programs started by Mikhail Gorbachev and now led by Russian president Boris Yeltsin. Unfortunately, the period of experimentation with new forms of environmental management has coincided with profound political and economic instability. Constant reorganization-and even dissolution-of governments at all levels, vague and disputed lines of authority, the uncertain status of laws and regulations, and inadequate funding have conspired to make environmental management a nearly impossible task. The upheaval of the past several years has not had salubrious effects on environmental quality. In 1988, Gorbachev’s government created a cabinet-level agency for environmental protection, known as Goskompriroda, with analogues located in each Soviet republic. In Russia, the Ministry of Ecology and a parliamentary Ecology Committee shoulder responsibility for environmental policy. Although both the executive and legislative branches have promulgated innovative approaches to environmental management-including the “polluterpays” principle and utilization of environmental impact assessments594 Environ. Sci. Technol., Vol. 27, No. 4, 1993
they have not followed through by establishing enforcement structures capable of implementing the new policies. The faltering economy aggravates management shortcomings. As personal incomes fall and enterprises are threatened with bankruptcy, short-term solutions dominate virtually all economic calculations. Enterprise directors are concerned chiefly with paying wages: they have no money for investment in environmental protection. Government relief is not in sight. In an atmosphere of fiscal austerity, the government has insufficient funds for its day-to-day environmental duties of monitoring and enforcement, let alone financing modernization of polluting factories. In an acknowledgment of the low priority
Pledges to improve environmental protection policies have been a part of the reform programs started by Mikhail Gorbachev and now led by President Yeltsin, accorded environmental protection, the Russian Minister of Ecology stated in a Moscow press conference in April 1992 that, given the unstable economic situation, he would not consider closing enterprises for environmental violations. As power shifts away from the central government in Moscow, new threats loom for the environment. For example, political decentralization and confusion over property rights have opened a Pandora’s box of competing claims over the NIS’s valuable natural resources, many of which are located in ecologically sensitive regions. Although officials routinely pay lip service to the need for an environmentally cautious approach to development, economic exigencies now govern most decisions on natural resource development. In many regions of Russia, local authorities are appropriating the rights to natural resources within their borders and turning quick profits from logging, mining, and construction. With increasing frequency, local officials are defying environmental
protection laws by condoning logging in nature reserves or in regions critical to endangered species. Regional authorities in the Russian Far East have reportedly granted a 30year concession to Hyundai, a Korean firm, to conduct logging operations in the Bikin River Basin and on Russia’s east coast. Clearcutting (the preferred method of the foreign firms) of these areas will significantly reduce the habitat area of the Siberian tiger, a species in imminent danger of extinction (28). Poaching is also exacting a heavy toll on the number of tigers in the region. Such crises will continue to occur until property rights are clearly defined, those responsible for protecting the environment have effective enforcement instruments, and the system develops a legitimate method of mediating conflicts between environmental interests and industry. Looking ahead The changes taking place across the NIS hold both promise and peril for the environment. The shift from a militarized economy with an oversized heavy-industry sector to a consumer-oriented one will, on balance, reduce pollution levels. But, as the effects of increased automobile use on air pollution show, improved technology must be introduced to avert new problems as the structure of the economy shifts. The advent of competition, both domestic and foreign, should also be welcomed by environmentalists in the NIS. Irrational pricing, particularly that engendered by energy subsidies, contributed to environmental degradation by failing to reward efficiency improvements and encouraging unsustainable use of natural resources. The introduction of prices that more closely reflect scarcity values should promote energy conservation and a more rational allocation of resources and investment, thereby reducing the size of the NIS’s most environmentally harmful industries. In this case, environmental and economic goals complement each other. Improving the efficiency of natural resource and energy use is essential for improving international competitiveness and effecting environmental improvements. By reversing the policy of isolationism that guided their predecessors, the leaders of the NIS will also be in a much better position to learn from the West’s successes and mistakes in environmental policy.
The NIS will n o t succeed in rev e r s i n g t h e effects of 70 years of misguided policies overnight. Patience and a d d i t i o n a l resources are essential. By the same t o k e n , cont i n u i n g to ignore e n v i r o n m e n t a l problems would e x a c t a higher price as the costs of disease and resource depletion further sap economic vitality. Acknowledgment The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely the author's and d o not necessarily reflect those of the U S . government. The hulk of the data presented here comes from official Soviet sources (principally the State Committee on Statistics and the State Committee on Environmental Protection).
( 8 ) "Okhrana okruzhayushchey sredy i
rational'noye ispol'zovanye prirodnykh resursov": USSR State Committee for Statistics: Moscow. 1991: p. 70. (9) "Sostoyanie prirodnoiy sredy v SSR v 1988 godu": USSR State Committee
for Environmental Protection: Moscow, 1989; p. 46.
(10)"Okhrana okruzhayushchey sredy i
ratsional'noye ispol'zovanee prirodnykh resursov"; USSR State Cammittee for Statistics: Moscow. 1991; pp. 58-69. (11) "Natsional'niy doklad SSSR k konferentsii OON 1992 goda PO okruzhayushchey srede i razvitiyu"; USSR
Ministry of Nature Use and Environmental Protection: Moscow, 1991: p. 140. (12) Peterson. D.
I. Rodio Liberty: Report on fhe USSR,1990,219). (13)Okhrana okruzhayushchey sredy i ratsional'noye ispol'zovaniye prirodnykh ~ ~ S U T S O Y "USSR : Committee for Statistics: Moscow, 1991: p. 107. Statistical Abstroct of the Unifed Stotes. 1989:Washington. DC. 1988. p. 596. (14)Lenssen. N. "Nuclear Waste: The Problem that Won't Go Away"; Worldwatch Paper 106: Worldwatch Institute: Washington, DC. 1991: p.
I
'kansuranium Elements: A Half
Eric Green is (I foreign service of icer who served in the Science o n d Tec/nology section of the US.Embassy in Moscowfrom 1990 to 1992.He is now on os-
signment to Mnnilo, The Philippines. Mr. Green holds o B . A . degree from Grinnell College o n d on M . A . degree from Yale University.
References (1) USSR Ministry of Nature Use and En-
vironmental Protection: "Natsional'niy doklad SSSR k konferentsii OON 1992 god8 PO akruzhayushchey srede i razvitiyu" [draft): Moscow. 1991,p. 19.
(2)
"Okhrana okruzhayushchey sredy i ratsional'noye ispol'zovanye prirodnykh resursov": USSR State Committee for Statistics: Moscow, 1991; p. 731
(3) Chandler, W. et al. Sci. Am. 1990,
263.121-27. (4) Peterson, D. J. Radio Liberty: Report on the USSR,1990,2(8), 16. I.51. "A Studv of the Soviet Economv": In-
ternatioial Monetary F u n d Washington, DC. 1991. (6) Narodnoye Khozyayestvo 1922-1982. p. 265; Naroddnaye Khozyayestvo 1990,p. 490."Okhrana okruzhayushchey sredy i ratsional'noye ispol'zovaniye prirodnykh resursov": USSR State Committee for Statistics: Moscow, 1991: p. 28. (7) "Natsional'nyy doklad SSSR k konferentsii OON 1992 goda PO okruzhayushchey srede i razvitiyu" (draft) USSR Ministry of Nature Use and Environmental Protection: Moscow, 1991:pp. 13949.
(translated in Foreign Broodcost Information Service, JPRS-TEN-92-011, June 23,1992). (18)"Okhrana okruzhayushchey sredy i ratsional'noye ispol'zovaniye prirodnykh resursov": USSR Ministry for Statistics: Moscow, 1991;pp. 102-3, 106. (19)"Okhrana okruzhayushchey sredy i
ratsional'noye ispol'zovaniye prirodnykh resursov": USSR Ministry for Statistics: Moscow. 1991:p. 5. (20)"Natsional'niy doklad SSSR k konferentsii OON 1992 goda PO okruzhayushchey srede i razvitiyu" (draft]: USSR Ministry of Nature Use and Environmental Protection: Moscow, 1991: p. 80. (21) "Natsional'niy doklad SSSR k konferentsii OON 1992 goda PO okruzhayushchey srede i razvitiyu" (draft); USSR Ministry of Nature Use and Environmental Protection: Moscow, 1991:p. 77-79. (22) "A Study of the of the Soviet Economy": International Monetary Fund: Washington. DC, 1991,Vol. 3,p. 5. (23)"Sostoyanie prirodnoi sredy v SSSR v 1988 godu"; USSR State Committee for Environmental Protection: Moscow. 1989: D. 116. (24)Smith, D. 'Soviet Geography 1991, 32(101.561-62. (251 Feshhach. M: Friendly, A.. Jr. Ecocide
in the USSR;Basic Books: New York. 1992:p. 79. (26) Medvedev. Z. The Legocy of Chernobyl; Norton: New York, 1990;p. 179. (27)Medvedev, V. et al. Nature 1992,359, 21-22. (28)
Scott, A,: Gordon. D. Amicuslournal,
eveioped from an internationalsymposium commemorating the 5Mh anniversary of the discovery of transuranium elements. this volume honors the chemists. physicists. materials scientists. and engineers who were the pioneers of transuranium research in the 1940s. Opening with a comprehensive reyiew by Glenn T. Seaborg of the discovery of transuranium elements and his perspective on the future of the field. the volume offers an outline of the discoveries of transuranium elements and of the chemical foundations of transuranium research. written by the pioneers themselves. The volume also emphasizes contemporary research with articles on nuclear chemistry and physics: spectroxopy. photophysics. and photachemistry:inorganic and analytical chemistry: materials physics and chemistry: and solution and environmental chemistry of the transuranium elements. Contents
D
15. (15) TASS wire service report: April 29. 1990. (16)TASS wire service report: April 30. 1990. (17)Nezavisimaya Gazeta, May 15. 1992.
Historical Viewpoints Nuclear Physics and Chemistry Chemistry Separations. Themodynamio rn Materials Physics Materials Chemistry Analfliral Chemistry
0
Lester R. Mons.Argonne National Laboratory. Editor
Jean Fuger. European Institute for Transuranium Elements, Editor 700 pages (1992) Clothbound ISBN 0-8412-2219-3 Goa as
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