AzovHorizons_PatrickWack-26
August 2021. Mariupol, Ukraine. The slag mountain of the Azovstal Iron and Steel Works on the Sea of Azov. The company, established in 1930 in the former USSR, produces and sells steel products worldwide. According to a Ukrainian Ecology Ministry report in 2016, Azov Stal produced 78,600 tons of atmospheric pollutants and poured 1.4 million cubic meters of waste into the Azov Sea. In 2018 Ukraine's Health Ministry warned the public to avoid swimming at any of the beaches around Mariupol. Mariupol residents are exposed to 10 times more industrial pollution than the average Ukrainian. Itâs the second most-polluted city in Ukraine, according to the Central Geophysical Observatory, a state agency. One in five residents dies of lung cancer. Azovstal has lost 70 % of its production since the beginning of the conflict in Ukraine.