THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, August 14, 1995 TAG: 9508130025
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A6 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Short : 43 lines
The average Russian male won't live long enough to retire, even though the typical retirement age there is 60.
In 1991, Russian males' average life expectancy was 65.5, but it dropped the next three years to 62, then 59.8, and last year 57.3 (compared with 72 for American men).
Men born in Russia this year have shorter life expectancies than men born in India, Egypt or Bolivia.
There's more bad news.
While Russian women are faring better, with a life expectancy of 71 years, more than 10 percent of Russian children are being born with serious defects, and half of all schoolchildren there suffer from chronic illnesses.
``What we have here is a disaster,'' said Dr. Alexander Chuchalin, a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
A recent New York Times wire story by Michael Specter said no one can account for the rising number of deaths and the fact deaths now are twice as common as births.
Heart disease, cancer, accidents and deteriorating public-health services and diets account for much of the health problem, but not nearly all.
Specter wrote: ``Frustrated by explanations that don't quite add up, scientists are looking more closely at the history of Soviet ecological abuse for answers - decades of open testing of nuclear weapons, chemical plants spewing deadly toxic materials into the country's most important rivers, generations of factory workers and farmers exposed to huge doses of dangerous pesticides and harmful chemicals.''
Many critics of government regulations that protect the environment would have us believe that environmentalists are nervous Nellies yelling ``Wolf!'' As the communist government ran roughshod over nature for decades, the Soviet Union could dearly have used more nervous Nellies. by CNB