Ufa entered top ten cities of Russia with severe air pollution by nitrogen dioxide

UFA, 18 July 2019. /Bashinform News Agency/ translated by Tatiana Aksyutina/.

The independent international non-profit organization Greenpeace processed data from the Tropomi satellites from June 2018 through May 2019. A rating of large cities in Russia with severe air pollution with nitrogen dioxide (NO2) was compiled based on them.

The capital of Bashkortostan - Ufa - took 8th place in the ranking with a figure of 0,22 Dobson units. Moscow took the first place in the study (0.78), St. Petersburg the second (0.38). Pollution in these cities is due to a large number of road transport. The five most polluted cities in terms of NO2 also included Chelyabinsk (0.38), Novosibirsk (0.35) and Krasnoyarsk (0.31). Kazan was in the ninth place (0,19), Omsk in the tenth (0,19).

Nitrogen dioxide is a dangerous toxic gas that causes respiratory symptoms and lung diseases during acute exposure and increases the risk of chronic diseases with long-term exposure. Long-term exposure to nitrogen dioxide is associated with an increase in mortality worldwide. Since nitrogen dioxide is a product of burning fuel, its main source in major Russian cities is motor vehicles.

Representatives of Greenpeace believe that the authorities should publish satellite data on the level of air pollution online and take measures to solve the problem based on them. The Russian branch of Greenpeace is seeking these steps from Rospotrebnadzor. It also favors the introduction of zones with restricted movement of cars of low ecological class in large cities.