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Russia’s first museum of arsenic opens in Irkutsk

The museum is expected to receive up to 2,000 visitors annually

IRKUTSK, November 10. /TASS/. The first museum of arsenic in Russia has opened in the Siberian city of Irkutsk at the site of a former military plant, the regional government’s press service said on Friday.

"I think tourists will like this museum. This is a new site for industrial tourism. The Irkutsk Region has potential to develop this kind of tourism," Yekaterina Slivina, the head of the regional tourism agency, was quoted as saying.  

The museum’s exposition consists of four parts. "The first hall showcases the use of arsenic as poison: the figures of notorious medieval poisoners. The second hall is a laboratory giving scientific information about this chemical element, its compounds and fields of use," the press service said.

The other two halls are dedicated to the history of the Angarsk arsenic plant and the production of arsenic trioxide.

The museum is expected to receive up to 2,000 visitors annually.

According to Slivina, other industrial enterprises of the Irkutsk Region will also offering excursion programs.

The Angarsk arsenic plant in the town of Svirsk was producing toxic substances for chemical weapons between 1934 and 1949. The three-year project to decontaminate its 13-hectare area was completed in 2013.