Today, markets are full of upholstered furniture, and no one buys it without thinking about what is “inside” hidden under the fabric. The buyer does not carry a Geiger counter with him to the store. I do not want to scare and raise panic, but the fact remains that in 2001-2002 radioactive furniture was sold in Almaty, the question is whether the situation has changed now?
Radioactive forests
There are enough dangerous facilities in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. The notorious Chernobyl nuclear power plant is just worth mentioning. In the Bryansk region, forests were contaminated in 1986 after the Chernobyl accident. Let's add to this the so-called East-Ural radioactive trace (EURT), which was left after the 1957 accident at Mayak. There, too, the forest is “phonating”. In the town of Snezhinsk, there is a nuclear enterprise - a federal nuclear center. Surely there is “something” in the forest too.
Now closer to the point. Somewhere in 2001-2002 I worked as a production director in one furniture firm (the name is not disclosed), which was engaged in the manufacture of furniture and resale of furniture. I don't remember exactly on what date, the commercial director (surname is withheld) informed me that a carload of upholstered furniture from Russia was detained in Almaty, the cargo was being inspected, the radiation background was overestimated! Although this area did not concern me, I was engaged only in production, I managed to find out that apparently the radiation background came from the wooden frame used in the manufacture of armchairs and sofas. The information about the supplier and the sender was naturally hidden. The upholstered furniture was unloaded, probably not without bribes, as it is usually done by greedy merchants, and apparently the upholstered furniture found its buyers....
Mentioned above about “contaminated” forests, this is where the radiation “trace” comes from in furniture. We can only wonder how the “contaminated wood” got to the furniture factory in Russia.
Epilogue. Today, markets are full of upholstered furniture, and no one buys it without thinking about what is “inside” hidden under the fabric. The buyer does not carry a Geiger counter with him to the store. I do not want to scare and raise panic, but the fact remains that in 2001-2002 radioactive furniture was sold in Almaty, the question is whether the situation has changed now?
