The dense smoke contains toxic gases like carbon monoxide, which in high concentrations can be lethal.
Carbon monoxide is produced as a result of low intensity combustion, a kind of burning at low temperatures that does not produce flames—just like the burning of a cigarette.
“The air was motionless. It was difficult to breathe,” said Nikolai Shin of Moscow, describing the smoke that on-and-off has been choking Moscow for weeks. Over the last few days the winds have changed blowing the toxic cloud out of Moscow, into other parts of Russia.
“We wore respirators, but they were of little use. I felt feeble and did not want to do anything,” said Shin.
NASA satellite images show a dense plume of smoke produced from the fires that is about 1,860 miles long from east to west.
The smoke contains up to 240 parts per billion of carbon monoxide mainly around Moscow, but it extends as far as China.
Inhaling carbon monoxide “can cause headache, weakness, dizziness, confusion, nausea, disorientation, visual impairment, coma, and death,” according to the California Environmental Protection Agency.
According to Dr. Eric Kasischke of the University of Maryland, chemical reactions in the atmosphere involving carbon monoxide can form smog or ozone, which in high concentrations can damage the respiratory system.
According to a press release from Russia’s Ministry of Health and Social Development on Wednesday, 58 people have been hospitalized, 706 were treated as outpatients, and 53 have died in the fires.
However, biologist Aleksey Yablokov, a member of the Russian Academy of Science, believes the numbers must be much higher. Yablokov told Russia’s Novay Gazeta that he suspects poisonous smog might be killing up to 200 people a day in Moscow. His estimate is based on the fact that the current fires are similar to ones that burned in 2002 that killed 600 Muscovites.
Other air particles in the smoke, such as nitrogen dioxide, can also impact the respiratory system, Kasischke said.
Nitrogen dioxide can cause fluid accumulation in the lungs, allowing less air to be exchanged between the respiratory system and the outside environment.
Kasischke says that “the fires can burn over multiple days, but there is not enough wind and movement of air masses to transport the smoke out of the region. This creates the pervasive smoky conditions that increase risks to human health,” he said.
The smoke can cause eye and respiratory tract irritation, bronchitis, exacerbation of asthma, and premature death, according to the California Environmental Protection Agency.
Radioactive Risk
According to Greenpeace, the fires are approaching Russian nuclear contaminated zones, which they conclude by mapping information from The International Atomic Energy Agency over satellite images of the fire.
“The map based on data acquired on Aug. 9 clearly depicts that nuclear contaminated areas suffer from more than 20 fires. At least three blazes hit the highly contaminated forests of Bryansk region.”
According to Russia’s Emergencies Minister Sergei Shoigu, “there were only two fires in Bryansk region but they were extinguished at an early stage,” Greenpeace quoted him as saying.
“Were that plutonium to burn, the consequences for the region would be catastrophic—the contamination could make the Southern Urals uninhabitable,” reads a statement from Greenpeace.
Greenpeace also says that their analysis shows fires in areas contaminated by the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. If contaminated areas are indeed burning, fallout left from the nuclear disaster could be re-released into the air, to be inhaled along with the smoke.
Russian officials have advised the public to wear face masks outdoors and hang wet towels indoors to attract dust and cool the temperature.
The California Environmental Protection Agency guide also lists ways to reduce smoke exposure, including operating air conditioning in re-circulate mode and using respirators, and avoiding frying or broiling meat, burning candles and incense, and vacuuming.
Additional reporting by Andrey Volkov.
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