VLADIVOSTOK, September 4. /TASS/. Head of Russia’s consumer safety watchdog, the Federal Service for Supervision of Consumer Rights Protection and Human Well-Being, Anna Popova has reassured that there are no radiation-related risks to people’s health in the wake of an explosion at a military site near Severodvinsk in northern Russia.
"Specialists have carried out checks and they are continuing checks - there are no risks to health. In case there are these risks, we will first of all inform the citizens," Popova said on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum in Russia’s Vladivostok.
The accident at a military site near Severodvinsk, a city located in Russia’s northwestern Arkhangelsk Region, occurred on August 8 during the testing of a liquid propellant jet engine. Russia’s State Atomic energy Corporation said on August 10 that five of its employees had died and three others had been taken to the hospital.
The Russian Defense Ministry vowed that there had been "no hazardous emissions into the atmosphere and that radiation levels are within the norm.
Shortly after the accident, the consumer rights watchdog told TASS that the level of air pollution after the blast and the fire at the military test site did not pose any threat to the citizens. Starting from September 2, the watchdog’s specialists in Karelia have launched checks into the radiation level in the cities of Belomorsk and Kem.
The fifth Eastern Economic Forum is taking place in Russia’s Far Eastern city of Vladivostok on September 4-6. Roscongress Foundation is the organizer of the event. TASS news agency is the event’s general information partner, the official photo hosting agency and moderator of the presentation zone focusing on the Russian Far East’s innovation opportunities.