Thursday, August 17, 2006

Russia Choking Finland

For the past two weeks, scores of apparently out-of-control forest fires raging in Russia's Leningrad district, adjacent to Finland, have caused severe air pollution. A report in the Swedish-language daily Hufvudstadsbladet claims that the smoke is costing Finland's health services tens of millions of euros, as more and more Finns, mainly the elderly and the infirm (especially sufferers from lung and heart disease), have to visit hospital for treatment. Some rainshowers in recent days have improved the air quality somewhat, but it is still as poor as in the most polluted regions of Europe, a health spokesman is reported as saying.

See also in this blog: Forest Fires in Estonia

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