Carbon Monoxide Smog Pollutes Moscow Air

Moscow is choking under a blanket of thick smog, according to the latest reports from the Russian capital.

The severity of this smog - which is linked to intense heat and to peat fires around the Moscow periphery – ranks it as the worst of its kind to have been experienced by Muscovites in nearly 10 years.

Moscow air pollution is currently ten times beyond levels considered safe and, according to one source, the impact on residents is comparable to smoking well over two packets of cigarettes a day.

As per news agency AFP, Russian aircraft have been engaged in fire-fighting missions, with 516 tonnes of water dropped around the city to date. Temperatures, meanwhile, remain in the high 30 degrees Centigrade: unprecedented in Russia’s recent history.

Moscow Smog

The overall amount of carbon monoxide hovering over Moscow “damages an average of 20% of red blood cells in a human body, which equals to the effect of two packs of cigarettes smoked within three or four hours”, Alexander Chuchalin – the chief pulmonologist in Russia – stressed at a media event held in recent hours.

He added that people living there should counteract the Moscow smog by putting on masks, limiting their exposure to the air by staying inside and taking antioxidants: vitamin E, for example.

Moscow Air Pollution

A low pressure system set to move in within coming hours might alleviate Moscow’s air pollution and, by the weekend, temperatures are set to drop, but still remain in the 30s nonetheless.

“According to preliminary estimates, only in one district where fires are now most severe, over RUB 4.5 billion (USD 148.8 million) is needed”, the Governor of Moscow Oblast, Boris Gromov told journalists, adding: “We have five such districts.”

Gromov is understood to have requested funding from Russian Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin, to combat the fires raging around the Russian capital.

Carbon monoxide has no taste, colour or odour, and it is naturally present in the atmosphere as a result of volcanic activity, fossil fuel burns and forest fires, among other processes.

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