The EU has offered 100 million euros ($121 million) to close the Metsamor Power Plant out of concern that the Soviet-designed nuclear plant does not have a backup containment system to prevent radioactive leaks in the event of an accident.

They were in fact being taken to the site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster. About 400 died after they were exposed to radiation fallout at the Chernobyl nuclear plant in Ukraine.

“My husband chokes, he has so much difficulty with breathing, the air is not enough for him, he gasps for breath after climbing the fourth floor,” says his wife, Magda Grigoryan. “All this affected his thyroid glands. His throat burns.”

Conditions in both those towns are examples of the republic’s need for the jobs industry provides, but also of the potential unwanted impact of factories on the environment and residents’ health.

Residents of Ararat prefer clothes of lighter colors because so much dust in the air quickly changes black, to gray.

According to Armenia’s Ministry of Ecology, dust in the city of Ararat, some 40 kilometers east of Yerevan, exceeds the allowed concentration limit by 10 times.

While steps are being taken to exploit the wind, Armenia remains a country largely dependent on electricity from nuclear power. And the future looks little different as the National Assembly considers a replacement for the Soviet-built Metsamor nuclear power station.

It is getting hard to breathe in Armenia.

Deforestation and deteriorating air quality have caused asthma and other respiratory ailments to increase dramatically in the last decade, health and environmental officials say. Children are especially at risk.

Non Governmental Organizations engaged in environmental problems say that while focus was centered on damage from the energy crisis (1992-93), greater damage has been done to the forests of Armenia since a market for lumber emerged afterwards.