MOSCOW. Oct 6 (Interfax-AVN) - Medical measures with regards to personnel and citizens, living near chemical weapons storage and disposal facilities, have allowed negative influence of chemical facilities on people's health to be ruled out.
"Not a single case of diseases, caused by chemical weapons disposal facilities to people living next to such facilities, has been registered at the present time," Gennady Onishchenko, head of the Federal Customer Rights Protection Service, said at the meeting of the State Chemical Disarmament Commission in Moscow on Wednesday.
The meeting noted that comprehensive medical checkups of areas around chemical weapons storage and disposal facilities would become tougher. A total of 250 million Russian rubles ($8.2 million) will be allocated to this end in 2005. The assets will be spent on preventive and rehabilitation measures, sanitary-and-epidemiologic monitoring, and medical checkups of personnel and citizens, living near such facilities.
Existing plans envision establishment of a single medical monitoring system for storing, transporting, and disposing of chemical weapons.