Russia – Berezniki

The Problem

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.  Blacksmith Institute will visit this site…

High child-morbidity rates have been observed in Berezniki and are believed to be from legacy contamination of the chemical enterprises.