MOSCOW, September 24 (RIA Novosti) - The levels of air pollution practically in half of Russia's regions are greater than that on the average in the country, Gennady Onishchenko, chief Russian sanitary doctor, said on Friday at a seminar-council devoted to the issues of the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol.
"In forty-four constituent entities of the Russian Federation the levels of air pollution are greater than on the average in the country," said Onishchenko
In particular, in his words, the content of carbon dioxide in the air in Russia on the average makes up around 19%, however in some regions (for instance, in the Tambov region) it reaches 90 %. Gennady Onishchenko called motor transport as the main cause of such air pollution.
The number of deaths because of the air pollution in ecologically unfavorable regions is 21,000 per 22.4 million people, or 7% of the annual number of deaths, said Onishchenko in his report on the hazardous effect of the environment on human's health.
