THE PROBLEM
OF SOIL POLLUTION IN RUSSIA AND ASSOCIATED HEALTH PROBLEMS
Chernih A.M.,
Solodoukhina D.P., Osusu Shell Oghenekevwe
Kursk State
Medical University, Kursk, Russia
Department of
General Hygiene
Delta state
institute of continue education, Warri, Nigeria
1. Soil
pollution in the Russian Federation and associated health risks:
overview of the problem.
Health of a
human is influenced by a large number of factors which include;
political, economic, social, ecological, psychological factors.
Experts from the WHO estimated that 50-52% of health depends on
individual life style, 20-22% on heredity and genetics, 18-20% -
environmental conditions, and 7-12% are determined by health care
system. Some researchers suppose that 80% of the modern diseases are
related to the negative effect of the environment.
Environmental
safety is one of the major factors of population health. In many
regions of Russia there is an alarming ecological situation that is
also determined by the sanitary condition of the soil. Soil pollution
can be the source of secondary air pollution, water, agricultural
products and fodder. Different from other mediums, there is no
possibility of rapid purification of the soil, thus absorbed
chemicals can be preserved there for many years. Soil pollution in
industrial areas can achieve a critical level that presents a real
threat to the health of people. Though in the past years in majority
of Russian cities there is reduction of harmful substances emission,
still a lot of chemical toxicants are detected in the air, soil, food
products etc. This shows that problem of chemical safety is one of
the most important factor for preservation of health of all people,
not only of those who are employed in special industries.
Russian
Federal Center of State Sanitary Epidemiologic Control provides
sanitary-hygienic monitoring of soil pollution by detection of major
chemicals polluting the soil, measuring intensity of pollution,
performing factorial analysis to find the reasons for contents
changes. By the official report of this Center the leading pollutants
for the soil of Russia in the past years have been heavy metals like
lead, cadmium and zinc. Copper, nickel, chrome and mercury are less
common and usually determined by the certain industrial production."
Complex
investigations conducted in Moscow by the leading national institutes
(headed by the National Research Institute of Human Ecology and
Environmental Hygiene named after A.N. Sisin of Russian Academy of
Medical Sciences) detected 19 soil anomalies of complex multi-element
contents that occupy 29% of the city area. Everywhere there were
present of lead, copper, zinc, tin and silver. In some areas there
were elements released by certain factory. The chemical pollution is
aggravated by biological pollution. There were findings of high
microbial and viral contamination of soil and sand in sand-boxes of
children institutions. We must understand that the higher the
chemical pollution of the soil the more the role of the soil as a
transmitting factor of parasitic and infectious diseases. Pathogenic
enterobacteria and helmints are more resistant to chemical soil
pollution than normal soil microorganisms - E. coli antagonists.
In the year
2003 in the Russian Federation the number of soil samples not
satisfying the hygienic standards by sanitary-hygienic parameters
increased from 12.2% (2002) to 12.4%. In12 regions of Russia the
proportion of samples with elevated contents of dangerous pollutants
was 2 -4.3 times higher than average in the country. Six regions
(Samara, Tula, Chita, Sverdlovsk, Khabarovsk regions, Primorskiy
kray) had 29.6 to 53,4% of such samples that was 11-36% higher than
in the year 2002. Particularly dangerous is increasing pollution of
build-up areas with heavy metals. In industrial areas the proportion
of soil samples with increased amount of heavy metals achieved 67.3%
that is 2.3-5.7 times higher than the average in Russia. The worst
situation was in the Far East, Ural, and Siberia.
In the year
2003 there was increase in number of samples with high contents of
mercury from 0.4 to 0.6% (Sverdlovsk, Irkutsk regions, Primorskiy
kray), cadmium - from 2.1% to 2.3% (Moscow, Vologda, Chita,
Sverdlovsk regions, Primorskiy kray).
Table 1
Shows the
list of regions with theproportion of soil chemical pollutants in
the inhabited areas between 2000-2002
#
|
Region of Russian Federation
|
The
proportion of soil samples containing
chemicals above TLV level, %
|
year 2000
|
year 2002
|
|
Russian Federation
|
13.6
|
12.3
|
1
|
Primorskiy krai (Far Fast region)
|
65.1
|
48.6
|
2
|
Moscow
|
30.4
|
41.1
|
3
|
Chitinskayaoblast
|
14.0
|
39.8
|
4
|
Vologodskaya oblast
|
21.8
|
34.5
|
5
|
Sverdlovskaya ohlast
|
36.3
|
34.1
|
6
|
Krasnoyarskiy kray
|
7.6
|
32.1
|
7
|
Saint-Petersburg
|
27.7
|
30.1
|
8
|
Republic of Mordoviya
|
15.4
|
27.3
|
9
|
Novgorodskaya oblast
|
20.2
|
24.7
|
10
|
Orenburgskaya oblast
|
22.0
|
23.1
|
11
|
Irkutskaya oblast
|
25.0
|
23.1
|
12
|
Republic of Udmurtiya
|
20.4
|
17.1
|
Soil of
rural areas is mainly polluted by chemicals used in agricultural
sector. Ecologo-toxicological expertise assessment of the soil
contents in 1998 by the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian
Federation showed that 1.4 mln
Hecter of
the country are polluted by heavy metals.
Table 2
Shows the
remained amount of pesticides in the soil samples above TLVin Russia
in the year 2000
Group of pesticides
|
Number of samples
|
Proportion ,%
|
Mercurous-organic compounds
|
149
|
32.7
|
DDT
|
82
|
18.0
|
Organophosphates
|
52
|
11.4
|
Herbicides of chlorophenyxi-acetic
acid
|
49
|
10.7
|
Pyretroids-insecticides
|
41
|
9.0
|
In the past
years the used of organochlorides ,partically DDT have been reduced
in the country. But the problem of their storage and utilization has
remained unsolved. DDT was excluded from the list of chemicals
eligible for agricultural use in 197, but in 1988about 126 tons of
DDt was used for prevention of some edemic diseases.
A research
in south of Russia (Krasnodarsky kray) showed that breast milk of
women living in that area contained DDT and its metabolites. There
are also more reproductive system disorder among the inhabitants of
this region.
Despite the
fact that the there is a reduction in the use of pesticides in the
past years we must consider their high toxicity and ability to remain
preserved for a long time in the environment.
The
potential effects associated with exposure to organoclorine
pesticides include neurobehavioral disorders, cancer and spontaneous
abortion.
The WHO
experts emphasize on the significant relationship between the level
of toxicants in the soil and food and population health.
Epidemiological studies showed that lead can enter the human body
with food, soil and air.
2.
Contaminants and their effect on health.
There is a
direct correlation between increased concentration of toxic elements
in the soil and occurrence of pathological conditions. For instance,
in Tula region the association between chromium exposure and
malignant neoplasm (r = 0.7), diseases of endocrine system (r = 0.6)
and genitourinary tract diseases (r = 0.6) was detected. In Novgorod
region, association between lead exposure and incidence of
neurological and musculoskeletal diseases in children, neurological
diseases, diseases of blood and neoplasm in adults was detected. Zink
exposure was detected as a factor associated with diseases of the
gastrointestinal system and skin. '
Generally,
in areas with high level of soil pollution there is increased number
of children who have frequent cases of diseases of different classes,
reproductive disorders in women like infertility, premature delivery,
miscarriages, and newborns with low birth weight.
Heavy metals
detected in biological mediums are particularly common in children
population. In the town of Karabash (Chelyabinsk region) 60.3% of
children had increased level of lead in the hair. Systemic exposure
to heavy metals determines certain physiological changes, which have
clinical manifestation in the form of neuralgia, cephalalgia, blood
changes, liver and skin diseases.
Another
aspect of soil pollution in Russia is the contamination of land by
oil and oil products. At all stages of oil fields development from
boring to industrial manufacturing there can be accidental pollution
of the environment because of pipeline breaks, oil storage damages,
or human mistake. Annually out of 300 mln tons of the oil extracted
in the country, 1.5% and more is lost during extraction,
transportation or storage that is around 4.5mln tons per a year.
Today about 800 thousand of hectares of the soil need to be cleaned
from the oil pollution. There is a special concern on this problem
because in the present system of epidemiological monitoring oil is
not included in the number of detected major pollutants. There is
also no research on the role of oil-polluted soil on health of
people.
3. Kursk
region as an area of high electromagnetic field and intensive
agricultural production.
Electromagnetic
pollution of the environment is another issue which becomes a
large-scale problem in Russia. This problem is particularly important
in large cities, which have many various sources of electromagnetic
fields (EMF) and large density of population. In the last ten years
with the rapid development of telecommunication and electronics, the
intensity of EMF has also increased. Electromagnetic radiation is
also used for therapeutic purposes in medical institutions (like
micro-wave therapy, diathermia etc). For these reasons the problem of
EMF and their possible negative effects on health makes more and more
concern for physicians, as well as for ecologists, hygienists,
physicists, biologists. According to the literature the most
sensitive to EMF are immune, nervous, endocrine, and hemopoietic
systems. Irreversible changes in the human organism are observed even
at short-term repeated exposures to EMF of low intensity. For
multiple repetitions of EMF radio-waves biological effect is
cumulated. However, the variety of clinical manifestations and
absence of specific characteristics in changes of health condition
make it very difficult to distinguish EMF as a health hazard or risk
factor for certain pathological conditions. Experimental studies
showed the potential negative effects of EMF on animals, namely it
can lead to death of embryos or malformations, promote development of
neoplasm like cancer of mammary glands in rats. There is weak
association between exposure to EMF and biological effects, absence
of dosage effect give the reason to call EMF promoters but not
inducing or causal factors of cancers. The latter can be viruses,
pesticides, solvents and other physical or biological agents.
Ecological
and hygienic aspects of electromagnetic fields are not well
investigated. It is reasonable to study variation of naturally
existing geomagnetic field particularly in the regions of magnetic
anomalies. The research has shown that there are several magnetic
anomalies on the Earth where geomagnetic field is different from
other areas on average by 10%. In Russia the two largest ones, are
Angaro-Ilimskaya and Kursk magnetic anomalies (KMA). Horizontal
component of GMF induction on the territory of KMA is rising, 80 000
nT, vertical component is up to 170 000 nT, that is 5-6 times more
than in other areas. KMA is spreading from the north-west to the
south-east from the Baltic Sea to the Azov Sea, the width is 250 kms,
the area occupied is around 160 thousand square km2, and it covers 12
regions in Russia and Ukraine (Smolensk, Kaluga, Bryansk, Oryol,
Kursk, Berlgord, Voronezh, Sumi, Kharkov, Donetck, Lugansk, Rostov
regions). Maximal intensity of anomalous GMF was recorded in the
territory of Kursk region in the town Jeleznogorsk, that allows to
consider it as a center of KMA and its anomalous geomagnetic field is
a natural risk factor for health. Geophysical reason for KMA is the
enormous mass of iron quartzite in earth deposits, magnetization of
which under the influence of normal GMF creates the additional field
called anomalous. With increase in sun activity the variation of GMF
is dramatically increasing. Yu. A. Grigoriev proved that GMF is a
risk factor for people working in shielded building. Several authors
increase resistance of shigella Zne to antibiotics in anomalous
regions.
The
incidence of acute gastrointestinal infections in the of KMA is 2-4
times higher than in Kursk, where the intensity of GMA is 4-5 lower.
We raise the
problem GMF and their effect on health because these factors in
association with other environmental pollutant to posed higher risk
on health. Experimental study of combined effect of EMF and
pesticide-chlorpyriphos revealed interaction and synergistic effect
on mortality of rats. For this reason attention should be paid to the
use of agricultural chemical in the area of KMA. legal regulation
should target the use of pesticides in area of KMA because GMF is a
natural non-modifiable factor.
From the
year 1995 the average amount of pesticides per 1 hectare of
cultivated land has decreased gradually and in the year 2002 it was
0.24 kg or 0.11 kg of the active substance. This is obviously a
positive trend that shows reduction of ecological danger for the
population health and environment.
According to
data in Kursk regional center responsible for environmental
monitoring in 2001 about 11.3 thousand hectares of agricultural lands
were contaminated with pesticides, including 10.0 thousand hectares
of ploughed fields (from which 0.9 thousand hectares are moderately
dangerous) and 1.3 thousand hectares of perennial plantings (from
which 0.2 thousand hectares are moderately dangerous). In the last
six years the amount of polluted lands has increased. The major
chemicals -pollutants are simazin, bayleton, and DDT. One of the
areas famous for fruit production (Oboyan) has 89% of land polluted
with the mentioned chemicals. The remained amount of DDT in the soil
was 2.5-2.7 times higher than TLV in spring and 1.9-2.2 times higher
than TLV in autumn.21
Though the
use of pesticides in Kursk region in the last years has decreased, we
observe increase in the list of used chemicals. There must be a
continuous strict monitoring of the use of agrochemicals considering
the larger participation of private commercial organizations
supplying agrochemicals. In the conditions of anomalous geomagnetic
fields in the region more attention should be pay to environmental
safety important for population health.
4. Conclusions and recommendations for improvement of
the situation.
The existing
legal basis in Russia is not enough for effective control and
organization of monitoring system of soil pollution and its risk
assessment. Today there is justification of threshold limit value for
more than 500 substances, the majority of which are pesticides and
only 39 items are industrial chemical pollutants. Absence of legal
norms or their under-development leads to the situation that some of
the ministries and administrative departments set their own levels of
TLV for different substances. So, one of the major directions in
research for preservation and protection of soil should be defining
of chemical substances in the soil in concentrations that are safe
for health.
Recommendations
There should
be:
• improvement
of ranking system of chemical pollutants of soil by their toxicity
and threat with consideration of similar studies in the developed
countries.
• analysis
and reconsideration of legal normative basis and harmonization of TLV
with international standards.
• Development
of norms for the major pollutants like oil, heavy metals, etc.
• Development
of methodology of prognosis of possible changes in health under the
influence of soil pollutants considering the level of soil pollution;
• investigation
of quantitative relationships between soil pollution and response of
the dependent factor in the chain of effect (plant, air, water,
microorganisms, human);
• improvement
of calculation techniques of justification of TLV of different
chemicals and their combinations in the soil;
• development
of methodology of investigation of health status of people as the
integral measurement of soil effect, polluted by chemical and
biological factors
• standardization
of methods used for detection of chemical substances in the soil.
• improvement
of the national and regional law on soil preservation as the basis of
ecological safety and public health.
Preservation
of soil safety is one of the major ecologo-hygienic tasks in the
Russian Federation. In order to solve it there should be a combined
efforts of many professionals -- epidemiologists, hygienists,
occupational therapists, agricultural chemists, public health
specialists. There must be a national policy aimed at development of
long -term sustainable programs to solve ecological and hygienic
problems of soil pollution in the country before it led to
catastrophic consequences.
|