Wildfires and heat-wave in the Russian Federation – Public health advice

Overview

High temperatures and sparse rainfall dominated the weather in the Russian Federation during June and July, with temperatures hovering 4–8 °C above average across a large swath of the country. Moscow recorded its highest temperature ever (‎39 °C)‎. Before 2010, the hottest temperature in Moscow was 38.8 °C, recorded 90 years ago. Since the end of July, this record heat-wave has been accompanied by extensive wildfire outbreaks: over 26 000 wildfires in 22 regions of the Russian Federation. They covered a total area of 816 515 hectares, including 1104 sites of peat fires covering an area of 1760 hectares. These wildfires have produced a dense plume of smoke spreading over hundreds of kilometres. Since late July, the Russian Federation authorities have reported high concentrations of carbon monoxide and particulate matter, exceeding manyfold the maximum permissible concentration. The pollution varied strongly over time and across the territory of the city of Moscow and Moscow district. Direct comparison of the monitoring results with WHO air quality guideline levels is difficult owing to differences in monitoring methods and, especially, to the scarcity of data on the respirable fraction of particulate matter (‎with a diameter under 10 μm (‎PM10)‎ or 2.5 μm (‎PM2.5)‎)‎ which has the best documented health effects. Even approximate information nevertheless indicates that the concentration of particulate matter exceeded manyfold the WHO guideline levels.Further concern was raised when, on 9 and 10 August, the fires came close to the forests affected by the Chernobyl nuclear reactor accident in 1986.