Nearly 150 volunteers and workers involved in cleaning up oil along the Black Sea coast have sought medical assistance over the past month, health officials in the southern Krasnodar region said Wednesday.
Krasnodar region Health Minister Yevgeny Filippov said 146 people required medical attention amid the ongoing clean-up efforts, with three hospitalized and 142 treated as outpatients. He did not specify the nature of their conditions but noted that no medical cases had been reported in annexed Crimea, where the spill has also reached.
Authorities set up six medical stations in cleanup zones, with mobile medical teams patrolling affected coastal areas, Filippov said.
The announcement came on the same day a 17-year-old university student died after reportedly helping clean up a beach in the resort town of Anapa. While the exact cause of his death remains unknown, pro-Kremlin media suggested the teenager may have been exposed to toxic fumes.
Authorities say that around 8,500 volunteers and emergency personnel are involved in cleaning up the oil spill, which occurred on Dec. 15 after a storm damaged two aging tankers carrying 9,200 metric tons of heavy fuel oil.
The spill prompted the Russian government to declare a federal emergency, with President Vladimir Putin describing it as Russia’s most severe environmental disaster in recent years.