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Berezniki, Russia

 Site Description
 Human Exposure & Health Impact
 Site Progress


Site Description 

Location & Size of Site
Berezniki is an industrialized town situated on the banks of the Kama River 176 kms to the north of Perm. The city was founded as a sodium plant in 1883 because the area is rich in potassium salts. This city is listed as one of the most polluted towns in Russia and is on the Federal Target Program list of towns with possible local areas of environmental contamination with dioxins or dioxin-like agents. Berezniki also suffers legacy contamination from the Second World War when the chemical factories actively produced toxic chemicals that still pose a significant health hazard to this day.

Contaminant Type, Source & Quantity
The chemical factories in Berezniki produced many toxic chemicals during the Second World War like mustard gas, lewisite, diphenylchloroarsine, adamsite, and choking gases such as diphosgene. Some of these chemicals are very persistent in the environment and are believed to be responsible for the very high child morbidity rates in the region.

About 10,000 tons of yperite was produced during World War II. There were no purifying facilities and the discharge was discarded without treatment during this period. The ypertie concentrations in effluents averaged 156 mg/liter, and frequently went as high as 320 mg/liter, approaching the solubility of yperite in water.

High levels of chemicals such as carbon sulphide and ammonia have been registered here. The risk from these chemical enterprises is further accentuated due to the topography of the area. The city is situated above mining voids and should these give way, it would prove to be an environmental catastrophe.

Transmission Pathways
Water: The industrial effluents from the chemical factories were directly dumped without any prior treatment into the river during the first few years of production.
Soil: from solid waste

Number of Potentially Affected People
181,900

Health Impact of Pollutant
There is no data available about the health consequences from the past production of chemicals, the rate of illness, nor the ecological situation. Skin diseases, respiratory diseases, blood and blood vessel diseases can be linked to pollution stemming from the chemical industries. However, high child-morbidity rates have been observed in Berezniki and are believed to be from legacy contamination of the chemical enterprises.

Site Progress 
December 2004: This site was reviewed by the Technical Advisory Board. Blacksmith Institute will visit this site.