MOSCOW. Nov 11 (Interfax-AVN) - Ongoing dynamic monitoring of the state of health of citizens, living next to chemical weapon storage facilities, has not shown any confirmed differences in the sickness rate of such residents and that of people, living in other regions, Vyacheslav Kulebyakin, state secretary and deputy director general of the Russian Ammunition Agency, told participants in the public forum-dialog on the chemical disarmament problem, which opened in Moscow on Tuesday.
"No diseases, which may be linked with chemical agents, stored in corresponding facilities, have been detected in any of the regions, after citizens were examined," Kulebyakin said.
He noted that in 2004 the health monitoring was planned to be continued in such regions, as the Shchuchye district of the Kurgan region, the Gorny village of the Saratov region, and the Kambarka district of the Republic of Udmurtiya.
According to Kulebyakin, experts of the Medbioextrem federal directorate conduct an obligatory medical examination of all personnel, hired by the first Russian chemical disposal facility, based in the village of Gorny, while personnel of the plant's clinic carry out pre-shift and post-shift checkups on a daily basis. These measures allow any deviations in the personnel's health to be detected on time and recovery steps to be taken.