His researchers have started to study the dust to establish whether it really is one of the causes of the widespread ill-health. These pesticides have been detected in the milk of breast-feeding women in the area and are believed to slow down mental development. Over the 30 years in her job Ibadullayeva Sarakdin, head of the children's ward in Muynak hospital, has witnessed the children's increasing breathing problems. Often we don't have the medicine to treat them. Most of the deaths are caused by late hospitalisation.
Parents are often reluctant to bring their children in until they are critically ill.
Drinking water that is at least four times saltier than that in the West is also causing an array of complaints from kidney disease to heart problems. But the gravest threat to health is posed by the total collapse of the economy, and the ensuing chronic poverty. Muynak once had a profitable fish canning industry as well as a thriving tourist business. Now it has bankrupt fish processing plants, bankrupt hotels and bankrupt building companies. Even the local cinema has closed.