Ramsar, Mazandaran
From Kazakhstan Encyclopedia
Template:About Template:Redirect Template:Infobox settlement Ramsar (Template:Lang-fa, also Romanized as Rāmsar and Rānsar; formerly, Sakht Sar)[1] is a city in and the capital of Ramsar County, Mazandaran Province, Iran. At the 2012 census, its population was 33,018, in 9,421 families.[2]
Ramsar lies on the coast of the Caspian Sea. It was also known as Sakhtsar in the past. The native people in Ramsar are Gilaks although there are also Mazandarani people living there. They speak the Gilaki language (eastern dialect) although the style they speak has been influenced by the Mazandarani language, making it slightly different than the Gilaki(eastern dialect) spoken in Gilan. The natives of Ramsar call their dialect "Ramsari" as its a combination of Eastern Gilaki and Royan/Western Mazandarani (Mazandarani-Gilaki dialect). They are also able to speak Persian, the official language of Iran.
Contents
Location
Ramsar is the westernmost county and city in Mazandaran. It borders the Caspian Sea to the north, Gilan province to the west, Qazvin Province to the south, and Tonekabon to the east.
History
Tourism
Ramsar is a popular sea resort for Iranian tourists. The town also offers hot springs, the green forests of the Alborz Mountains, the vacation palace of the last Shah, and the Hotel Ramsar. Twenty-seven kilometres south of Ramsar and 2700 meters above sea level in the Alborz mountains is Javaher Deh village, which is an important tourist attraction in Ramsar county.
Ramsar Convention
The Convention on Wetlands, signed in Ramsar in 1971, is an intergovernmental treaty which provides the framework for national action and international cooperation for the conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resources. There are presently 160 Contracting Parties to the Convention, with 1920 wetland sites, totaling 1,680,000 square kilometres, designated for inclusion in the Ramsar List of Wetlands of International Importance. Presently, there are 160 contracting parties, up from 119 in 2000 and from 18 initial signatory nations in 1971.[3] Signatories meet every three years as the Conference of the Contracting Parties (COP), the first held in Cagliari, Italy in 1980. Amendments to the original convention have been agreed to in Paris (in 1982) and Regina (in 1987).[4]
Climate
Template:Weather box Northern Iran, as well as most portions of Iran, is separated by mountains. As a result, the air in Teheran is very dry. When driving to Ramsar from Teheran, one drives up the mountains until he or she arrives at a tunnel. On passing through this tunnel and coming out the other side, the environment is very different; it is more humid and green due to moisture from the Caspian sea.
Radioactivity
Ramsar's Talesh Mahalleh district is the most radioactive inhabited area known on Earth, due to nearby hot springs and building materials originating from them.[5] A combined population of 2,000 residents from this district and other high radiation neighbourhoods receive an average radiation dose of 10 mGy per year, ten times more than the ICRP recommended limit for exposure to the public from artificial sources.[6] Record levels were found in a house where the effective radiation dose due to external radiation was 131 mSv/a, and the committed dose from radon was 72 mSv/a.[7] This unique case is over 80 times higher than the world average background radiation.
The prevailing model of radiation-induced cancer posits that the risk rises linearly with dose at a rate of 5% per Sv. If this linear no-threshold model is correct, it should be possible to observe an increased incidence of cancer in Ramsar through careful long-term studies currently underway.[6] Early anecdotal evidence from local doctors and preliminary cytogenetic studies suggested that there may be no such harmful effect, and possibly even a radioadaptive effect.[8] More recent epidemiological data show a slightly reduced lung cancer rate[9] and non-significantly elevated morbidity, but the small size of the population (only 1800 inhabitants in the high-background areas) will require a longer monitoring period to draw definitive conclusions.[10] Furthermore, there are questions regarding possible non-cancer effects of the radiation background. An Iranian study has shown that people in the area have a significantly higher expression of CD69 gene and also a higher incidence of stable and unstable chromosomal aberrations.[11] Chromosomal aberrations have been found in other studies[12] and a possible elevation of female infertility has been reported.[13]
Radiation hormesis was not observed in a study that also recommended that Ramsar does not provide justification to relax existing regulatory dose limits.[14] Pending further study, the potential health risks had moved scientists in 2001–02 to call for relocation of the residents and regulatory control of new construction.[15][16]
The radioactivity is due to the local geology. Underground water dissolves radium in uraniferous igneous rock and carries it to the surface through at least nine known hot springs.[8] These are used as spas by locals and tourists. Some of the radium precipitates into travertine, a form of limestone, and the rest diffuses into the soil, where it is absorbed by crops and mixes with drinking water. Residents have unknowingly used the radioactive limestone as a building material for their homes. The stone irradiates the inhabitants and generates radon gas which is usually seen to promote lung cancer. Crops contribute 72 µSv/yr to a critical group of 50 residents.[17]
International relations
Twin towns and sister cities
RAMSAR is twinned with:
- Template:Flagicon Portmont, Chile (Since 28 January 2009)
- Template:Flagicon Al Wakrah, Qatar (Since 14 June 2010)
- Template:Flagicon Shiraz, Iran (Since 9 January 2013)
Notable people
- Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei (b. 1960) - politician
- Mohammad Reza Khalatbari (b. 1983) - football player
Gallery
- Hotelghadim.JPG
The Old Hotel of Ramsar
- Ramsar-shah-table.JPG
The desk of Mohammad Reza Shah
- جنگل دالیخانی .jpg
Dalikhani Forest
- Palais ramsar.jpg
Marble palace in Ramsar
- Ramsar Hotel.jpg
Ramsar Hotel
- جواهرده.jpeg
- Ramsar Walkway.jpg
A walkway in front of the old hotel
- جنگل دالیخانی.jpg
Dalikhani Forest
- Esfandiyar Ramsar.jpg
Esfandiyār statue
- North of Iran - Ramsar (palace).jpg
A palace in Ramsar
- Mazandaran Ramsar Coast.jpg
Ramsar Caspian coast
- Ramsar bridge, 2016.JPG
Ramsar Bridge
- Ramsar, Mazandaran Bazar, 23 April 2016.jpg
Ramsar Bazaar
See also
- Rejuvenation (aging)
- Background radiation
- Banana equivalent dose
- History of Iran
- Tourism in Iran
- International rankings of Iran
References
External links
- Ramsar's tourism
- Ramsar's radioactivity
- Photos of Ramsar (Permission to use and copy these photos is hereby granted provided the above copyright notice appears in all the copies and modified versions of photos.)
- ramsar
Template:Ramsar County Template:Mazandaran Province
Template:Authority control
Cite error: <ref> tags exist, but no <references/> tag was found
