Environmental diseases. How to escape from bad ecology Environmental problems leading to diseases

Experts from the Center for Economic and Political Reforms, with the help of oncologists, found out how industrial enterprises are poisoning citizens - and how to deal with it.

Head of CEPR Nikolay Mironov told AiF why in some cities there are 20% more cancer patients than in neighboring ones, and how to deal with it.

— After a direct line with the president, where we talked about oncology, we decided to study this problem in the regions. They thought that the main problem was medical: optimization of hospitals, lack of specialists, medicines, poor diagnostics, etc. And it exists. But the doctors themselves drew our attention to the causes of cancer in a particular region. And we were surprised to realize that from 2005 to 2015, the increase in the incidence of neoplasms in Russia was 20.4%! Industrial enterprises are responsible for a colossal increase in cancer incidence. The very ecology that people don’t think much about are “dirty” enterprises that produce harmful emissions.

The story here is simple: water, soil, air are polluted. As a result, “dirty” food is on our tables. Harmful substances accumulate over the years in nature and the human body, which ultimately leads to an increase in morbidity. This is not only a Russian problem, but normal environmental policy should work here, and this is our, purely Russian, problem.

There is such a thing as maximum permissible concentration (MPC) - this is a conditional standard for the presence of harmful substances in air or water. Officials set this standard. In relation to it, they calculate how much the enterprise must pay for harmful emissions. And there is a wide field for “discretion”. In 2014 it was increased MPC standard, in particular, for formaldehyde - one of the very dangerous substances - more than 3 times! That is, it can now be thrown away more. This is basic lobbying on the part of industrialists. Well, whether there was an outburst or not - only officials and personnel of the enterprise know. There is also room for manipulation here, so as not to pay for harm to nature and our health.

Where is the most worrying?

To be clear, here are some examples. Back in 2013 Head of the Rospotrebnadzor Department for Irkutsk region Alexey Perezhogin noted that in Bratsk in recent decades environmental situation can be described as a crisis, and the largest aluminum plant in the region accounts for about 70% of all emissions in the city. Most of the plant's capacity operates using outdated Soderberg technology - this is highly polluting environment, emissions of carbon monoxide, benzopyrene, tars. In Europe and even in China, this technology has already been abandoned. And then look at the dynamics of the growth of cancer diseases in the Irkutsk region: in 2007, the incidence per 100 thousand people was 397.91, and in 2016 it was already 460.95. According to the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), the main organs targeted for chemical carcinogenesis during aluminum production are the lungs, bladder, lymphatic system. This is confirmed by statistics: in the Irkutsk region, according to data for 2015, the incidence of cancer of the lungs, trachea, and bronchi was higher (51.78 per 100 thousand in the region and 41.22 in Russia).

We also need to sound the alarm in the Krasnoyarsk Territory. There are also a lot of enterprises there: nickel, aluminum, oil. The main pollutants emitted into the atmosphere include sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, etc. These factories pollute water by releasing iron, copper, petroleum products, fluorine, and manganese. Oncology rates here are also very high: in the region there are 431.6 per 100 thousand population, with the average level in Russia being 402.57.

At the end of 2015, Magnitogorsk (Chelyabinsk region) entered the top ten cities in Russia with the dirtiest air. Air samples taken here in the first quarter of this year recorded a case where the maximum permissible concentration for benzopyrene was exceeded by 28 times! About a third of all atmospheric emissions in the region (and more than 90% in Magnitogorsk) are produced by the Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works. MMK pollutes not only the air, but also the water. The main pollutants include iron, calcium, sulfates, chlorides, suspended solids, petroleum products, nickel, nitrates, manganese, nitrites, copper, ammonium nitrogen, zinc, cyanides, chromium, phenol, fluorine, phosphates. Oncology indicators per 100 thousand population in Chelyabinsk region — 463,08!

The Orenburg region is one of the regions with serious problems in terms of the oncological situation. More than 90% of all pollution comes from the 6 largest enterprises in the region. For the period 2003-2014. The cancer incidence rate increased by 32.7%.

How to fight?

We do not call for closing harmful enterprises. We say that we need to overcome this industrial lobby and introduce modern, more environmentally friendly, but, of course, expensive technologies. It is necessary to change the assessment system, conduct open monitoring and consider environmental damage based on the state of the environment and human health at the location of the polluting facility. And collect a constant fee from enterprises that pollute the environment, while increasing its size so that it is enough to protect nature and human health. It is clear that they will be against it, they will find thousands of reasons, they will start citing the crisis, import substitution, sanctions, but this is all nothing compared to human lives.

And one more important point: it is necessary that the money that enterprises contribute for damaging nature goes to special funds and goes directly to restoring the environment and protecting people’s health. Now more than half of the payment for damage to nature goes to local budgets, but they are full of holes, they don’t have enough money for anything. Therefore, when money comes in, it is not invested in medicine or the environment, but goes to plug budget holes. If trust funds appear, from which money will be spent on medical measures and disease prevention, this will partially solve the problem.

And, most importantly, it is necessary to open information about the real state of affairs so that people understand what danger exists and where it exists.

For several centuries now, man has been actively transforming the world around him, moving further and further away from the natural conditions of existence. As a result, our body is forced to constantly adapt to new conditions. Today, one of the most vulnerable parts of the population are residents major cities. Industrial development and urbanization often have a negative impact on children's health.

Polluted air is the scourge of all large cities. The air we breathe in a big city is oversaturated not only with hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides, but also with salts of heavy metals.

Heavy metals such as cadmium, chromium, mercury, zinc, and lead in high concentrations pose a particular danger to our health.

40–60% of air pollution is caused by cars. With the exhaust gases of cars, salts of heavy metals are released into the atmosphere, the particles of which form aerosols, so the exhaust gases are heavier than air and do not rise upward, but spread over the surface of the earth, which primarily poses a danger to the health of children. According to Russian pediatricians, unfavorable environmental factors accounts for more than 1/3 of childhood diseases. At the same time, children under 5 years of age are most susceptible to negative effects.

Lead is one of the common and dangerous heavy metals. Exhausts from gasoline engine cars are considered the main source of lead pollution: when 1 liter of fuel is burned, 200–400 mg of lead enters the air!

Cadmium is no less common and poses a health hazard; sources of its pollution are the burning of waste, coal, gasoline, and the production of phosphate fertilizers. An additional source of cadmium entering the body is cigarette smoke. Cadmium is eliminated from the body rather slowly - its half-life is about 25–30 years.

It is generally accepted that air polluted with heavy metals primarily affects the lungs, but this is far from the case. Heavy metals, entering the body, form compounds with blood proteins, accumulating in organs and tissues, having a toxic effect on the entire body. Of course, acute poisoning with heavy metals occurs quite rarely - only when environmental disasters. But nevertheless, constant exposure to microdoses of heavy metal salts can lead to diseases of almost all organs and systems of the body. In an environmentally unfavorable environment, children primarily suffer from the kidneys, as an organ that removes toxins. At the beginning, toxic kidney damage may be asymptomatic, manifesting itself in the form of a slight increase in the content of oxalates or protein in the urine, microhematuria. But sooner or later the disease progresses, significantly impairing kidney function. Heavy metals also tend to accumulate in hair and nail beds, making them dull and brittle.

Of course, we cannot completely avoid the adverse effects of environmental factors on health when living in a big city, but we can follow simple recommendations to reduce them to a minimum:

Try not to be near a car with the engine running
Avoid smoking indoors, especially in the presence of a child.
Do not smoke in the car, or while walking if you are spending time with children.
Spend more time in the fresh air rich in oxygen in the forest, park, countryside
Install an air purifier at home that collects dust and harmful impurities;
Try to regularly carry out wet cleaning in the apartment;
Avoid products with artificial preservatives and dyes - harmful chemicals are absolutely useless;
For drinking and cooking, it is better to use filtered water.

To prevent eco-dependent kidney diseases in children, you can use a drug containing water solution levocarnitine, which has antihypoxic, antioxidant properties and is involved in the detoxification of heavy metal salts in the body. Research conducted in leading Russian scientific institutions, has been proven to speed up the elimination of heavy metals from the body. So, as a result of its use in children with kidney pathologies, the excretion of heavy metal salts such as cadmium in the urine increases by 150 times, lead by 2.5 times.

More than half of Samara residents rated the environmental situation in the city as unfavorable. Doctors and environmentalists agree that the state of the environment in the region is deteriorating every day and directly affects the health of residents. Exhaust gases from thousands of cars, tons of industrial dust and high levels of carbon dioxide are what an ordinary city dweller inhales.

Poor ecology and human health have been a hot topic for the last hundred years, from the moment human activity began to actively influence nature. According to WHO, environmental factors form up to 25% of human pathologies. The environmental situation directly affects life expectancy and human health. According to experts, human functional reserves are tested every day for endurance.

In Russia in general and in Samara in particular, the most common “environmental” ailment has become asthma caused by high levels of chemical substances, as well as immune depression caused by heavy metal and dioxide poisoning, and chronic fatigue syndrome. As noted pulmonologist Alexey Zaturin, polluted air mostly affects the respiratory tract, causing bronchitis, emphysema, asthma: “Irritants include sulfur oxide, nitrogen fumes, hydrogen chloride, nitric acid, sulfuric acid, hydrogen sulfide, phosphorus and its compounds. Dust containing silicon oxides causes a severe pulmonary disease - silicosis (a lung disease caused by prolonged inhalation of dust. - Note ed. ). Research conducted recently in the UK has shown a very strong connection between air pollution and mortality from bronchitis. Signs and consequences of air pollutants on the human body manifest themselves mostly in a deterioration in general health: headaches, nausea, a feeling of weakness, decreased or lost ability to work.”

Samara sociologists conducted research, as a result of which they found out the attitude of the region's residents to environmental problems in the region. 51% of respondents assessed the environmental situation as unfavorable. Only a quarter of Samara residents (24%) believe that the environment is to some extent favorable.

However, according to the results of laboratory studies conducted by the Center for Hygiene and Epidemiology of the Samara Region, in 2013, exceeding the maximum permissible concentrations was recorded in 0.46% of air samples, which is lower than the figures for 2012 in the Samara Region (0.69%), and in Russia as a whole – 1.33%. The bulk of unsatisfactory samples were found in major cities areas. Among the pollutants whose concentrations were exceeded were hydroxybenzene, hydrofluoride, aliphatic saturated hydrocarbons, and suspended substances.

As scientists have established, about 10% of harmful substances enter the air atmosphere due to natural phenomena. 90% of air pollutants are industrial products. Their main sources are emissions and smoke from fuel combustion at power plants, exhaust gases from cars, numerous open areas storage of solid waste (solid waste), as well as so-called mixed sources. Harmful substances that enter the atmosphere are carried over long distances and then fall to the ground in the form of solid particles, chemical compounds, which are dissolved in precipitation.

The fragile bodies of young children are especially susceptible to the effects of an unfavorable environment. As noted pediatric pulmonologist Anastasia Zakharyeva, according to research, small particles of dirt from street exhaust and burning heating oil can cause wheezing and coughing and even asthma in children under two years of age. “The genetic factor also plays a significant role in the development of bronchial asthma. The risk increases in children who are often ill or who are bottle-fed. Allergic diseases, including asthma, are more common in children living in overly sterile conditions – hyperhygiene leads to allergies,” says the doctor.

Environmental diseases are turning into human diseases, confirmed neurologist Vladimir Gutorov: “Ecology has become a worldwide problem, a headache for all of humanity. It's no secret that asthma and many diseases of the cardiovascular and immune systems have their origins in environmental pollution. How to protect yourself from bad ecology? My advice is to leave the city more often fresh air, at least for a few hours on weekends, and spend your vacation in nature.”

According to WHO, every 10 years the number of patients with bronchial asthma in the world increases by one and a half times. Over the past 50–60 years, humanity has radically changed its way of life - people live surrounded by synthetic materials, buy products with dyes and preservatives, and breathe air polluted by exhaust fumes. Nature has programmed the human body for completely different living conditions, and the price for such a reboot is a powerful surge in allergic diseases and bronchial asthma.

May 01, 2013

It's no secret that a poor environmental situation causes various pathologies associated with human body. In this article, we invite you to look at the most common and most dangerous pathologies that any citizen of large and small cities can easily get at any time.

Bronchial asthma. The true horror of any person who wants to live life calmly and without unpleasant “surprises.” Bronchial asthma manifests itself as respiratory failure, which in itself is a huge limitation in life. For example, jogging in cold weather will be practically impossible. In some cases, it will not be possible to strain yourself even by jogging in comfortable conditions. During attacks there is a risk of death, which also makes this pathology more than terrible.
Idiopathic allergic reactions. This is when you are allergic to many foods. Today you drank coffee and broke out in a rash, tomorrow you ate a nut and began to choke, and the day after tomorrow you suffered anaphylactic shock while under anesthesia at the dentist. The problem with this type of allergy is that it is extremely difficult to cure and extremely difficult to live with. There should always be antihistamines on hand, and a person who can, if necessary, inject them either into a muscle or directly into a vein.
Dermatological chronic diseases. Perioral dermatitis, as well as seborrheic dermatitis, are not all that can be caused by a rather poor environmental situation on the planet. But both of these dermatitis are extremely difficult to treat. Perioral dermatitis is not only difficult to treat, but also dangerous. For example, tetracycline antibiotics are used for it. In their side effects often includes toxic liver damage and photosensitivity, that is, an extremely strong reaction to ordinary sunlight. Moreover, antibiotics are also dangerous as a drug itself. That is, they can cause an allergic reaction, up to and including the anaphylactic shock described above, which sometimes cannot be treated by doctors in a hospital with a full set of equipment and various topical medications.

These three are the most serious and frequent problems arising from the general poor state of the environment on the planet, and promising serious consequences for any person. Moreover, statistics stubbornly say that fifty years ago, such diseases were extremely rare, and only now they have become very common, which, quite obviously, is associated with the gradual deterioration of the environmental situation as a whole.