The Ostrava region is a black spot on the map for its extremely poor air quality. It includes not only plenty of dust and carcinogenic or potentionally carcinogenic substances.
Enterprises in the region release into the air a great quantity of reprotoxic substances. These are supposed to share part of the blame for fertility problems and the appearance of some children´s disorders. Arnika used data made available by the polluters themselves. Among the first five biggest air polluters with these reprotoxic substances belong three enterprises in the Moravia-Silesian region. Reprotoxic substances involve, for example, benzene, polyaromatic carbohydrates and heavy metals. The greatest polluter – the Deza company in Valašské Meziříčí, is followed by the chemical plant BorsodChem MCHZ in Ostrava, the smelting works ArcelorMittal Ostrava and the metalworks in Třinec.
This list put together by Arnika stems from data made available by the companies themselves for the Integrated Pollution Register. American toxicologist Ted Schettler warns in his book Generation at Risk of the hazards resulting from such air pollution. Yesterday he came to discuss his findings with students of the Faculty of Health Studies at Ostrava University. “Infertility cases, miscarriages, low birth weight and some disorders in babies are increasing in numbers in many parts of the world and reaserch shows how tightly related they are to harmful substances in the environment,“ pointed out Schettler. A Czech edition of his book will be issued before Christmas. The translation was prepared by Arnika.
“Despite the fact this book was released in the United States already in the year 2000, it still represents the most complex work in this area, comprehensible for lay readers,“ said Vendula Kubačáková, head of Arnika´s branch in Ostrava. According to Schettler, Ostrava region is a hazardous area concerning amounts of reprotoxic substances in the air. „The most dangerous are the smallest fractions of airborne dust, binding to chemical substances and thus penetrating deeply into the lungs,“ warned Schettler. “Of course, closing down the enterprises producing these substances is not the solution, but pushing them to use state-of-the-art technologies, in order to decrease the production of harmful substances,“ he added. The leader in the region in polluting with reprotoxic substances is BorsodChem MCHZ. In 2007 this enterprise infested the air with more than three and a half tons of these substances, especially with benzene “Exposure to the influence of benzene increases the cancer risk in children and is also connected with leucemia,“ said Schettler. Yesterday we were not successful in getting the opinion of the chemical plant in Ostrava, as the staff manager charged with contact with journalists was off on holiday. Essential improvement? Company Arcelor Mittal Ostrava promises essential improvement by 2010. The amount of reprotoxic substances will be also involved.
According to information available to Arnika, the smelting works, during the year 2007, released almost two and a half tons of pollutants into the air, benzoapyrene mostly, which is responsible for damaging the genetic information of the cells. According to the spokesperson of the smelting works, Věra Breiová, an essential contribution to the air improvement will be made by an agglomeration dedusting through the use of textile filters, which are able to decrease dust emmisions by at least 70 percent “Reduction of solid pollutants emission will also have a positive impact on the amount of emission of other pollutants, because these are bound right to these dusty particles,“ said Breiová and assured us that the realisation and preparation of other ecological projects will be continued regardless of the world financial crisis. “Many companies will not be able to afford this,“ added Breiová.
Written by Iva Havlíčková
Region: North Moravia
