It is unpleasant to admit, but Russia is the leader in the list of countries with a bad environment. According to statistics, only 15 major cities of the Russian Federation air meets sanitary standards. Only 15% of the urban population of Russia breathes relatively clean air. In 125 Russian cities annually are recorded in 5-10 times exceeding MPC of the concentration of atmospheric pollution.

Among the dirtiest cities in Russia are: Norilsk, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk, Omsk, Tomsk, Chelyabinsk, Kemerovo, Lipetsk, Novokuznetsk, Magnitogorsk, Nizhny Tagil, Cherepovets. In all of them there are 10-fold excess of the maximum permissible concentrations of at least 3 pollutants at the same time. Norilsk is able to compete with the dirtiest cities in the world: Mexico city, Los Angeles, Athens, Bombay and Cairo. However, it should be borne in mind that the lists of environmentally disadvantaged adopted to include only the major cities of Russia, while the dirtiest may be medium and even small towns-factories. After all, 39% of the urban population of the Russian Federation lives in areas where the degree of air pollution is not monitored at all.

Industrial air pollution in Russia

The main source of air pollution in Russia is industrial facilities. 27 600 enterprises of the country together contain 1,183 million stationary sources of emissions. According to Rosstat, they release into the air ¼ of all pollutants formed during production. Moreover, 22% of emissions from industrial enterprises enter the atmosphere without purification. 78% of contaminants get into wastewater treatment facilities where the majority of them is captured and neutralized (75%).

The air of Russian cities with enterprises of aluminum industry, ferrous metallurgy, chemistry and petrochemistry, production and transportation of oil products, with objects of fuel and energy complex is polluted with high concentrations of benzpyrene, suspended particles, nitrogen dioxide, carbon disulfide and formaldehyde. Emissions of these substances are spread over a distance of 2 to 30 km around a stationary source.

The largest share of greenhouse gas emissions is carbon dioxide (CO2). The main source of release of this pollutant is energy companies that burn fossil fuels.

Air pollution by road

The second most important source of pollution is motor transport.

According to official data, emissions from motor transport in Russia account for about 45% of total revenues of harmful substances into the atmosphere. Such data are contained in the state Commission "On the state and environmental protection of the Russian Federation in 2016". In large cities, this figure is much higher, for example, in the capital – 93.6%. At the same time, the number of vehicles in the country has increased more than one and a half times over the last decade – from 35 million to 57 million units.

Poor development of road networks and road infrastructure in megacities, extremely low traffic management, unacceptable quality of road surfaces, a large number of old cars, the lack of filters on the exhaust pipes — all these factors lead to increased air pollution in Russian cities. Cars with engines on often stop at traffic lights, stand in traffic jams for a long time — as a result, the air in the areas adjacent to the roads is filled with high concentrations of harmful substances. People who inhale it, acquire health problems.

Practically in all large cities of Russia near highways there is a double excess of the maximum permissible concentration of cadmium, lead and selenium dangerous to human health. It is also necessary to take into account that cars not only poison the air with their emissions, but also raise dust clouds full of silicon, iron oxide and barium. Each machine disperses about 10 kg of rubber into the atmosphere.

How is the problem of air pollution by motor transport solved in Russia?

 As part of the current " Transport strategy "in Russia, the authorities should strive to gradually reduce the impact of transport on the environment. Environmentalists Greenpeace asked questions in the administration of 77 cities in an attempt to find out what measures are being taken in this regard. In particular, to determine whether to generate a zone with restriction of the environmental class of cars, as public transport was developed, support infrastructure and the introduction of vehicles on alternative fuels.

Among the positive measures, environmentalists noted the development of electric transport, restrictions on the entry of trucks to the city in St. Petersburg, an attempt to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles in Kaliningrad, the introduction of new transport management systems in Kazan and Yekaterinburg.

The development of a network of Bicycle paths in Moscow, Rostov-on-don and St. Petersburg was particularly noted. It is noted that 83% of buses in Moscow correspond to modern ecological classes of Euro-4 and Euro-5. Also in the capital for several years there is a ban on the entry of trucks below Euro-3 on the TTK, below Euro-2 - on the MKAD.

The main claims of environmentalists are related to the closeness and lack of initiative of local authorities.

Local budgets without Federal support are really unable to cope with such large-scale tasks as the renewal of the public transport fleet or a radical change.

Sources:

http://www.dishisvobodno.ru/zagryaznenie-vozdukha-v-rossii.html