[FPSPACE] Russian TV investigates space fuel pollution in central southern Russia

[JamesOberg@aol.com]

Russian TV investigates space fuel pollution in central southern Russia
NTV International, Moscow, in Russian 1930 gmt 6 Dec 00
     Russian NTV television has claimed that Russian military and space 
institutions are still unwilling to acknowledge there is a link between 
illnesses and heptyl rocket fuel which comes down unspent near launch pads 
and missile bases. The problem seems to be particularly bad in Altay
Republic, in southern Russia north of Kazakhstan, where it is claimed a 
quarter the territory is affected by debris or unspent fuel from rockets. The 
following are excerpts from a report by Russian NTV International television 
on 6th December. Subheadings have been inserted.
     [Presenter] Hello. You are watching the Top Secret program. I am Andrey 
Yegorshev. Russia not only remains a space superpower but it plans to expand 
its activities in space. However, information on the negative consequences of 
those activities for people and the environment is still
hidden from the general public. Experts from the Defense Ministry and the 
Russian Aerospace Agency, the only ones involved in the ecological monitoring 
of space launches, have refused to talk to us, thus violating articles 41 and 
42 of the constitution. But we carried out our own investigation to show the 
scale of the socioecological catastrophe which has already happened.

Russia is a dump for space refuse
     [Correspondent] Until recently one could talk openly only about the 
pollution of the space around the earth. But the levels of pollution on earth 
itself are much higher. A total of 20m ha of our country's territory is set 
aside for falling rocket stages. It is officially admitted that 20
regions suffer as a result of space activities. Other countries launch their 
rockets above oceans and that is where the stages of their rockets drop. In 
those countries it is a must to inform all those at sea where the rocket 
stages are expected to fall. But Russian citizens have no such privilege, as 
a rule.
     [Daniil Tabayev, the chairman of the State Council of Altay Republic, 
north of Kazakhstan] The majority of launches are not mentioned in the mass 
media and we do not know anything about them. I mean the launches carried out 
by the Russian Defense Ministry and also some commercial launches involving 
foreign countries. Those launches are most harmful and no-one is really
responsible for them...
     
Rocket fuel is highly toxic
     [Correspondent] The rocket stages contain highly toxic fuel which forms 
poisonous smog when it approaches the earth and spreads to very large areas. 
As a result, there is not only environment pollution, which increases every 
time this happens, but also the destruction of the local population.
     [Mariya Cherkasova, director of a center for independent ecological 
programs] Sometimes rocket stages explode during the fall, which is regarded 
as normal, spreading solid fuel all over the place. And later children and 
hunters collect this fuel and use it to start  bonfires. An amazing picture 
was taken in Archangel Region. It shows a woman using rocket fuel to start up 
a typical Russian stove. You can see a huge flame on the spade which she is 
moving around inside the stove. And there is also heptyl, a liquid rocket 
fuel, of course which is highly toxic...

"Yellow" babies born in risk areas
      We began our activities in Altay by studying the problem of yellow 
children. Women started to give birth to babies with yellow skin. Their skin 
was the same color as an orange. When they were born, they looked normal but 
in a couple of days they turned yellow as soon as breast-feeding
began. It turned out that they were affected by rocket fuel. And only blood 
transfusion can save them. I know places, regions in Russia where blood 
transfusion among the newly born children is a normal procedure...
     [Correspondent] But the situation at cosmodromes is even worse. Those 
dealing with rockets, both professional officers and conscripts, are affected 
by the poisonous fuel. Viktor Shulgin saw all the time while serving as a 
medical assistant in Plesetsk that the levels of [word indistinct] of heptyl 
were two or four times above the norm. And even eight times on one occasion 
in spring, when the snow was melting....
     [Correspondent] According to the Military Space Forces, six per cent of 
booster-rocket launches in the past 25 years have suffered accidents. For 
experts, this is a very high and dangerous figure. If a rocket explodes 
during the first few seconds of its flight, its fuel simply cannot burn in 
the atmosphere...
     It is not accidental that both the military and space departments are 
still unwilling to acknowledge that there is a link between the negative 
effects of heptyl and the illnesses experienced by rocket staff and people 
living in areas where rocket stages come down or near launch pads and missile 
bases...

Altay Republic has bad space rocket pollution
     The gem of Asia. Altay-khan. The legendary land of clear water. The 
mighty Altay... A quarter of the republic's territory is now polluted by 
rockets stages that have separated. But what is really sad is that it is also 
polluted by unused rocket fuel... However, in addition to space showers Altay 
also has rocket and technological showers. At the end of May 1997, there was 
an explosion not far from the village of Kuray, southwest of the republic. 
The Kuray basin was under a brown cloud for a whole three days after it. 
Local people developed all sorts of unusual illnesses. Six women
in the same village had miscarriages over a period of three months and women 
started to give birth to children with yellow skin. People say there is a 
direct link between the tragedy and the testing of so-called low-flying 
gadgets resembling rockets... Have there been any similar cases? I mean those 
unofficial tests.
     [Yuriy Robertus, director of the Altay ecology institute] It is 
difficult to say whether they were tests, but there were several other such 
instances and they still go on.  There are enough witnesses and enough 
evidence to prove this work continues. It seems it has been going on for 
quite a
while. The consequences of this work seem to be rather -
     [Correspondent] - serious.
     [Robertus] Yes, serious. But it is too early to talk about it...
     [Video shows rocket launches, a helicopter in flight, metal objects of 
various shapes and sizes on the ground, residential houses, local people and 
1996 footage of a program on Plesetsk].