Zalina Kairova says initiative group will continue to insist on closing down "Electrozinc"

Zalina Kairova, leader of the initiative group ""Electrozinc" - what do we breath?", says that she and her supporters insist on implementing the court ruling on closing down the metallurgical works "Electrozinc" in Vladikavkaz, the North Ossetia capital, because its exhausts not only contaminate the atmosphere but also directly harm people's health.

"Scholars in Moscow have also repeatedly expressed their opinion on the issue. Boris Rayevich, a well-known ecologist, medical doctor, who had prepared a report for the Public Chamber, took blood samples and hair of children for tests in 2007. The study was conducted upon the order of "Electrozinc". He made a conclusion that the environmental situation around "Electrozinc" was really hard. Unfortunately, detailed results of all tests and samples remained secret and inaccessible for a wide circle of stakeholders, such as Vladikavkaz residents, since the research was carried out at the expense of the enterprise itself", said Kairova to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

The interlocutor reminds him that the initiative group held an action near the building of Rospotrebnadzor, because Gennadi Onischenko, its chief, is to sign a document specifying the size of the sanitation zone around "Electrozinc".

"According to our knowledge, the documents have already arrived or are soon to arrive to the agency for signing. The works belongs to class one hazard. The sanitation zone around such enterprise must be at least one kilometer or, to be safe, up to three kilometers because studies of soils show that the soil has been contaminated for one hundred years within the radius of three kilometers, and it is harmful to live there. But now, as we know, it is proposed to cut the zone down to three hundred meters", says Kairova.

According to some information, the works processes accumulator batteries at the moment, which brings high profits.

Meanwhile, according to the information of the initiative group, there are 3 million tons of wastes on the territory of the works, including cadmium, zinc, lead, thallium, arsenic, and sulfuric anhydride.