"The majority of banned chemical poisons and pesticides are kept in improper places. For example, in northern Sakhalin metal containers with DDT were left in the forest," said Im En Sok of Russia's state epidemics control center.

"The 75 storages for waste are overflowing, and most enterprises are not recycling their waste, but simply bury it in improper places," the expert added.

As the amount of toxic waste is bound to increase, a new burial site and storage for waste would be built on the island in an attempt to rein in the danger threatening both the island and the Pacific, ecologists said.

SPACE.WIRE