Air pollution forces schools in a Moscow suburb to adopt delayed student arrival

Volokolamsk schools asked children to come to school two hours later than normal on Thursday, a day after hydrogen sulfide fumes from a nearby landfill sent more than 50 students to the hospital. Local district officials have offered to allow parents to send their children away from the area to day camps, until the pollution crisis is solved, but parents have reportedly declined, not wanting to interrupt their children’s education.

At the hospital where the poisoned students were treated, a scuffle broke out on Wednesday evening. “You’re a disgrace!” “You’re murderers!” “Resign!” This is what Volokolamsk head Evgeny Gavrilov and Moscow Governor Andrey Vorobyov heard from angry protesters, when they arrived at a local hospital on Wednesday to visit the school children being treated for poisoning caused by hydrogen sulfide released at a nearby landfill. Residents have been protesting the “Yadrovo” trash dump for weeks, several times trying to block garbage trucks, resulting in a handful of detentions by police.

Gavrilov and Vorobyov decided to speak to the crowd, but they found more hostility than sympathy, despite the governor’s pledge to “get rid of the stink” by June. Some locals threw snowballs. Gavrilov later found himself surrounded by angry demonstrators, one of whom started grabbing and shoving him. Police then escorted Gavrilov to shelter, inside the hospital, and riot police were dispatched to the area.