Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, February 15, 1993 TAG: 9302150016
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC LENGTH: Medium
CZECH AIR `UNBREATHABLE' GOVERNMENT CALLS BOHEMIA POLLUTION A NATURAL DISASTER
Children have "smog holidays" this week in pollution-stricken northern Bohemia, where some scientists say breathing the air is like smoking 10 cigarettes a day.The legacy of environmental neglect under the Communists is haunting the newly independent Czech Republic, which has declared the region of 1 million people an environmental disaster.
For five days, weather conditions have kept the Czech industrial belt shrouded in heavy smog caused by sulfur dioxide from low-grade brown coal burned in power, heating and chemical plants.
Outraged environmentalists have mounted demonstrations, traffic in the capital was banned, and some pregnant women have been evacuated for fear of the pollution's effect on the unborn.
Schoolchildren have been told to stay home today and Tuesday. Authorities hope the pollution will begin to dissipate Wednesday, with a predicted shift in weather conditions.
On Sunday, seven of 13 monitoring stations in the region registered sulfur dioxide levels above a threshold defined in 1991 legislation as a "natural disaster." Peak levels have been as high as four times the "disaster" rate and are more than 10 times higher than the standard considered safe by scientists, the news agency CTK reported.
Dealing with the ecological disaster is posing dilemmas for the new government.
In a landlocked country with no oil or hydroelectric resources, completing a nuclear power plant near the southern border with Austria would appear the fastest way to end dependence on northern Bohemia's coal-fired power stations.
But Austria, which voted against using nuclear power in 1978, is sure to protest if the plant at Temelin goes on line. As a major trading partner, its objections could carry weight.
And in northern Bohemia, where heavy industry has been clobbered by capitalist economic reforms, 15,000 more jobs could be lost if the area's coal-fired plants are shut down, according to the industrial lobby.
The region's once-famous forests started dying in the 1960s from years of pollution, and once-wooded hills are now as barren as moonscapes.
President Vaclav Havel, in his regular Sunday radio address, called the smog "a horrible thing that cannot be solved overnight."
"Those people breathe unbreathable air, but they will have to breathe it for a little while longer," he added.