February 15, 2013. The occupational illness rate decreased by 28.3% in Sverdlovsk Region last year compared with a year earlier, the spokesperson for the regional division of Rospotrebnadzor (the state consumer rights watchdog) reports. According to the statistical data provided by the division, 512 instances of illnesses and poisoning were registered in the region in 2012. The total number of victims came to 480 people, including 98 women; 32 out of these fell ill twice or more often (including 4 women). This comes to 2.7 cases per every 10,000 instances of an illness. Also, the number of

February 15, 2013. After the Development Corporation’s pilot project on the construction of 12 up-to-date, energy-efficient boiler houses in the South Urals has been implemented successfully, the authorities are considering putting up six more boilers with the total capacity of 20 megawatts in Troitsk, the company’s press service reports. This initiative was put forth by the town council. The proposal was considered at a meeting which the Development Corporation’s representatives attended as well. Troitsk town council officials explain that they are now busy replacing the obsolete and

February 15, 2013. 350 Sverdlovsk Region-based volunteers who are going to take part in the World Summer Student Olympics 2013 in Kazan and in the Intercontinental Ski Jumping Cup in Nizhniy Tagil this March have already undergone the necessary training. The said sports events are to become a rehearsal of the 22nd Olympics and Paralympics in Sochi in the winter of 2014f for some of the volunteers from the Urals, Sverdlovsk Region Government’s Press Service & Information Department reports. ‘Sverdlovsk Region’s volunteer center has completed yet another stage of preparing its team for

February 15, 2013. Oblkommunenergo invested more than 7m RUR in the capital repairs of electric plants in Polevskoy District this winter. These figures do not include the spending on production programs and technological hookup, the enterprise’s press service says. So far, the 0.4 kilowatt overhead transmission lines in Proletarskaya St and Mira St in Zyuzelsky and in Kirov St and Naberezhnaya St in Kenchurka have been repaired. The company is also repairing the o.4 kilowatt lines in the town of Polevskoy itself, namely, in Uralskaya St, Volodarskaya St, Lomonosov St, Pobeda St, Turgenev St,

February 15, 2013. The trade union of Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation’s head plant made a gift to all of its workers. All the employees who are also the trade union members are now entitled to the benefits offered within the Trade Union+ discounts and benefits scheme that allows them to get an up to 12% discount in quite a few stores and entertainment venues in Nizhniy Tagil. Uralvagonzavod’s trade union is actually the largest organization of such kind in Russia’s defense industry. Every trade union member (of whom there are a total of 25,000 people) was given a