Environment : Ill Wind Blows Over City, but Russians Stay : The people say they can’t afford to quit working at a nickel plant that pollutes their land and bodies.

The skyline of this remote settlement in Russia’s far north consists of three large smokestacks that pump sulfur dioxide into the air at a rate of more than 280,000 tons per year.

Depending on the direction of the wind, the noxious gas hovers over Nikel or blows across the border to Norway, just three miles away.

Bare, deformed tree trunks jut out of the snow on the once picturesque rolling hills that surround this town of 20,000, and in summer, acid rain falls over the region killing more vegetation.

Local doctors say the pollution pumped into Nikel’s air is so harmful that only one-third of babies are born healthy. Most children suffer from central nervous system disorders and allergies, and are generally weak and sickly. Adults complain of headaches, tooth decay and bronchial problems.

But inside the grimy, 1940 vintage metal works, Dmitri A. Babin’s face lit up when he was asked about life in Nikel.

“It’s better here than any place else,” Babin, 29, said with a grin. “I earn 20,000 rubles a month,” he added proudly, citing a salary more than 30 times the national average. “I have a Japanese television, two video recorders, a video camera, a car, a summer home in the south and everything else I could possibly want. Of course there are ecological problems; we used to have green forests here and now they’re all dead. But we go out of the area to relax.”

Welcome to a Soviet-style company town.

Dozens of similar settlements, once the mainstays of the country’s centrally orchestrated industrialization, dot the map of the former Soviet Union. Several of them were built on the foundations of Stalinist labor camps.

With populations ranging from a few thousand to a few hundred thousand, these towns are run much like the company towns that thrived in America around the turn of the century. The enterprise director wields extraordinary power over almost all aspects of economic and political life in these towns.

As Russia tries to enter the world economy, these company towns face a host of new problems. The outrage of local citizens and sometimes foreign governments is forcing them to seek ways to control pollution. They must try to hold on to work forces that enjoy new mobility. They also must either make their enterprises profitable or face extinction because the government plans to end subsidies.

Economically, Nikel has a better chance than most to make the adjustment. As part of a billion-dollar-a-year conglomerate, the local mining and refinery enterprise, Pechenganikel, has been able to do a lot to keep its employees satisfied.

It has raised salaries to 22 times what they were a year ago, kept the local grocery stores stocked with all the foods that people in other cities only dream of, brought in foreign-made clothes and other consumer goods and sold them to its workers for low prices.

“If we were not a profitable firm, we couldn’t do this,” said Igor A. Blatov, the director of Pechenganikel, which has facilities both here and in neighboring Zapolyarny.

The enterprise takes a decidedly casual attitude toward the pollution it spews into the atmosphere and spreads over nearby hills. In addition to all that sulfur dioxide, it discards about eight million of the nine million tons of ore it receives each year.

“Our wastes cover 500 hectares (1,235 acres) around Nikel,” Fyodor F. Volkov, the deputy director in charge of the environment, said. “Today we don’t know what to do with it. I hope in the future our descendants will learn how to recycle it.”

Local environmentalists say that given Pechenganikel’s dominance of the economy, theirs can be a lonely battle.

Pechenganikel directly employs 15,000 of the 50,000 people who live in the area, which includes Nikel, Zapolyarny and small nearby settlements. Including those who owe their livelihood indirectly to the enterprise, virtually everybody depends on it.

“The factory’s directors just laugh at us,” commented Sergei P. Gerchancy, a lawyer and local environmentalist. “They come right out and say that the enterprise will do whatever it wants.”

Because of the director’s influence, Gerchancy said, the effects of sulfur dioxide emissions on the local population and environment have never been thoroughly studied.

“If everything nearby dies--all plant and animal life--can you tell me that this does not affect the people here?” Gerchancy asked rhetorically. “But the company feeds, clothes, entertains and gives a lot of money to its workers, so no one will protest against it. So we don’t get anywhere.”

The environmentalists’ goal is not to close the combine but to force it to launch a capital reconstruction project that could cut emissions of sulfur dioxide to negligible levels. Blatov says the cleanup effort may cost as much as $1 billion, and although a Finnish company has submitted plans and estimates, no decision has been made.

“Our mother company earns about $1 billion a year,” said Yuri G. Zudin, the director of Pechenganikel’s local metal refinery. “Half of our profits go to the Russian budget and we get half. If the state decreased its cut from 50% to 30%, then we would have enough money for reconstruction. But it is difficult to tell the state to control its appetite.”

The Norwegian government repeatedly complains that sulfur dioxide from Nikel is polluting its territory. But Russian officials say they have a lot more pressing problems to worry about first, according to Geir Westgaard, a Moscow-based Norwegian diplomat.

“The Scandinavian countries are trying to decide if they should finance (the Pechenganikel reconstruction) on such good terms that the Russians decide to go ahead with the project,” added Rune Castberg, a Norwegian economist who has done a report on the Kola Peninsula, where Nikel is located.

While the pollution continues, local children suffer, according to doctors and child-care professionals.

“None of the children are 100% healthy, and many of them have frequent headaches, weakness and allergies,” said Olga B. Grechany, a teacher at a nursery school, as the children played in a yard looking out on a hill full of scraggly dead trees.

“When I was a child, there was a beautiful forest there,” Grechany said. “I remember going there to pick berries and mushrooms. If the pollution has done that to the trees, just think what it does to the children.”

At Nikel’s pediatric clinic, the chief doctor cited a long list of illnesses from which local children frequently suffer, including acute bronchial asthma, skin diseases and kidney problems. Many of the recurring illnesses were not noticed until 1979, after the metal works started receiving Siberian ore, which has a much higher sulfur content than the ore mined locally.

“But we haven’t been able to prove it comes from the gas,” Nina V. Pospelova, the chief doctor, said. “We need special studies. Only the factory has enough money to fund such tests and of course it will not. The factory director accuses me of being too emotional about this, but how can I not be emotional when our children are breathing that gas and suffering from it?”

In the clinic waiting room, some parents were as passionate in defense of the factory as the doctor was in her attack.

“The factory is our lifeblood,” said Alexei A. Podchevarov, 25, who renovates the factory’s stoves, as he dressed his toddler to go out in the snow. “If it closes, we will all be unemployed. You’ll find us all here, dead from hunger.”

Podchevarov and many other residents who work for the enterprise say Russia’s economy is in such bad shape that there is no other place for them to go. Every city has severe housing and job shortages.

In fact, Nikel’s prosperity is such that even some people who left Nikel to seek their fortunes elsewhere are coming back. Irina B. Skubun, 21, grew up in Nikel but went away to Murmansk, the largest city on the Kola Peninsula, to study. Now eight months pregnant, Skubun left the dormitory room she shared with her husband and moved back home.

“I know that when all three smokestacks are working, you can’t escape from the gas. It’s difficult to breath even in the apartment,” Skubun said. “But we couldn’t live in Murmansk. My husband has been offered a good job here, and we will get our own apartment. We can put up with this gas, because there is a future here for young people.”

But not just anyone can take advantage of Nikel’s riches. Although the Russian government just opened the road leading to the town from Murmansk, enterprise officials said they will now control the inflow of people themselves.

“We plan to build our own border,” Volkov said. “We will not let everyone in.”

The Danger in Sulfur Dioxide

WHAT IS SULFUR DIOXIDE?

Sulfur dioxide (SO2) is a colorless, irritating gas. At high concentrations, it has the pungent odor of burning sulfur. The gas forms naturally from volcanic activity and the decay of organic matter. But is also the byproduct of industrial processes, such as smelting of sulfide ores to produce nickel and other elements, combustion of coal or fuel oils containing sulfur, paper manufacturing and petroleum refining.

HOW IT DAMAGES THE BODY

1) Short-term exposure to sulfur dioxide can cause constriction of the airways.

2) Chronic exposure causes a thickening of the mucus layer of the trachea, similar to chronic bronchitis.

3) Sufficient thickening inactivates the beating hair-like cilia lining the upper airways, which normally remove infectious agents and other minute foreign particles.

The cilia serve a protective function in the trachea. Inhaled particles are trapped in the secretions of associated mucous glands and swept by ciliary movement up towards the pharynx to be ejected by coughing.

TREATMENT

In the event of intense exposure, first aid includes immediately removing victims from the area, irrigating their eyes and contaminated skin with water and treating burns, as needed.

THE URBAN FACTOR

Children in more polluted areas have a higher incidence of coughing, bronchitis and lower respiratory infections compared with those in less polluted cities, according to recent studies. Children are particularly vulnerable because they are more active, breathing through their mouths and bypassing the filtering mechanisms of the nasal passages. Adults also may experience more coughing, wheezing, shortness of breath and emphysema.

SOURCES: A Guide to Commonly Encountered Toxics; Developments in Occupational Medicine, Zenz, Carl; Maxcy-Rosenau Public Health and Preventive Medicine