In Mongolia’s capital, Ulaanbaatar, coal fires heat almost every home. But as extreme weather drives families off the steppes into the city the air is becoming more deadly
The eldest child was away training for the army when his family died in their sleep. All six of them, two adults and four children, were poisoned by carbon monoxide gas seeping out from their coal-fired stove into their home in Ulaanbaatar in January, the coldest month in the world’s coldest capital city.
Mongolians were touched by the tragedy but there was anger a month later when, during a two-day parliamentary hearing forced by a public petition against pollution levels, the government released figures showing there had been 779 deaths from carbon monoxide poisoning in the country in the past seven years. By 19 February, when a couple in their 40s were found lifeless in their bed, that number had risen to 811.
