Anna-Lena Laurén: Tons of road salt has created a massive protest movement

Every morning when I go out with the dog in our Moskvakvarter is the staircase white. Not of snow, but road salt.

the Salt is carefully scattered at every step, all the way up to the front door. In order to avoid wounds in the paws, the dog must be carried down the steps and along the sidewalk until we come to the snow-covered land in the park. Läderbården on my Russian filtstövlar is full of cracks after several years of contact with vägsaltet.

road Salt is causing great controversy in the Russian cities. Photo: Erich From

on the streets of Moscow. The procedure is often repeated several times per day. The salt has both a solid and liquid form to the solid form is used on sidewalks, the liquid on the road where its effect will end after three hours. Then you have to spray on more. Otherwise, the worse the ice as the salt leaves a thin film behind that collects excess moisture, freezes and becomes glashal.

Vägsaltet consists mainly of acetater, magnesium, and potassium chloride. It is in principle not dangerous for the man – but, according to Vladimir Koroljov, a professor of geology at the Moscow state university, leads the unlimited use of salt in Moscow to other problems.

Salinity in the soil increases due to vägsaltet. The result is that the vegetation decreases. We have also come to the conclusion that vägsaltet has a corrosive effect on steel and asphalt, it says in a research report Koroljov published in the last year.

Motorists, dog owners, and pedestrians complain about in the newspapers, tv and social media that the salt harms the hundtassar and destroy cars and footwear. The irritation is so great that also the state-controlled media such as, for example, Moscow 24 makes the elements in question.

In Moscow disrupts gårdskarlar salt on the steps up to the houses. Photo: Anna-Lena Laurén

in such quantities is because it is a simple way to combat the slipperiness. The salt need only be spread out. It blends effective snow and ice as long as the temperature is not below -30°C. another reason is that the Moscow city buy in gigantic quantities of salt, and then want to get rid of their stock before spring. Therefore, sprinkling gårdskarlarna salt on the steps up to the houses.

Moscow has so much transport that slippery roads would lead to a lot of accidents. We need vägsaltet. Everything that is spread on our streets to be checked and as you can see blooming trees every year. They would not do if it is true that vägsaltet is harmful for the vegetation, " says deputy mayor Peter Birjukov in an interview with the state the Russian Foreign Ministry at the end of december.

believe that vägsaltet is just a way for the higher officials to make money through otkat. It means in all briefs a system where the state or local government officials receiving money under the table by companies and then choose out these companies to the suppliers. Just road salt is extremely lucrative, because the quantities purchased is gigantic.

" It's all about miljardkontrakt. The last thing our officials are thinking of the environment and our health. This will continue as long as the World is the mayor, " says opposition leader Ilya Yashin in a video about vägsaltet from 2018.

In Samara, decided the mayor last year to pull down on the vägsaltet, after residents protested and submitted lists of names. Also in the Chelyabinsk residents have submitted a petition against the salt.

Read more: Over 1,000 complaints about the slip on the Stockholm pavements