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Environmental pollution in south Poland. Sources and effects.

Seven out of twenty-seven areas of ecological hazard are located in South Poland, close to the Silesia-Cracow region. This region is most affected by several factors of both industrial and non-industrial origin. Air pollutants are of prime importance for the whole area. Mining of coal, zinc and lead ores cause a great additional threat to the natural environment and human population. A considerable set of data is available on the air pollution in the city of Cracow and the whole area of Katowice voivodship. In the center of the industrial area the concentrations of SO2 and dust exceed the country average by 7 to 13 times. In the Katowice district alone about 40% of the total amount of solid waste for Poland is located. The air concentrations of manganese, zinc, iron, ammonia, carbon monoxide, lead, cadmium, sulphur and nitrogen oxides, ozone, PAH, phenol, heterocyclic and chlorinated hydrocarbons exceed the allowed limits. Many of the above mentioned contaminants create an appreciable threat to human health. Poor infrastructure, nervous stresses, ugly environments and other factors are potential additional threats to human health, causing civilizational diseases. The ecological awareness of most people is rather poor, and extremely weak within some social groups (coke-plant workers, mine workers).

Air Pollution↗

Epidemiological analyses of the relationship between environmental pollution and asthma.

Epidemiological studies performed on children and young adults indicate that the prevalence of asthma has increased over the past decades in a number of countries. Since genetic determinants alone are unlikely to explain these findings, environmental factors are expected to have an important impact on the prevalence of this disease. Environmental pollution, among many other factors, may play a role in the initiation and manifestation of asthma. However, there is little epidemiological evidence for a causal association between the classical major outdoor air pollutants, such as SO2 or particulate matter, and asthma. Evidence for an association between air pollution from motor vehicles and asthma is still controversial. Thus the indoor environment and other environmental determinants--including lifestyle factors--are likely to be more important as causes of asthma. Epidemiological studies are able to evaluate the effects of environmental factors on the health of human populations in their usual environments. In addition, they can measure associations between long-term environmental exposures and health outcomes. By using refined techniques for exposure and disease assessment, as well as time and cost-effective study designs, environmental epidemiology will increase the knowledge about the role of pollution as a possible cause of asthma.

Air Pollution↗

Influences of the environmental pollution on the immune system: some recent views.

The authors discuss the contemporary progress in preventive immunology with special attention to unfavourable effects of environmental pollution. They followed-up these problems systematically for more than twenty years and in this paper they present some of their results. They stress the importance of the protective effect of balanced nutrition with an adequate supply of vitamins and trace elements. The unfavourable effect of pollution is documented by different health aspects of the population living in the heavily polluted region of Northern Bohemia.

Adolescent↗

Critical review: the health significance of environmental odor pollution.

Environmental odor pollution problems generate a significant fraction of the publicly initiated complaints received by air pollution control districts. Such complaints can trigger a variety of enforcement activities under existing state and local statutes. However, because of the frequently transient timing of exposures, odor sources often elude successful abatement. Furthermore, because of the predominantly subjective nature of associated health complaints, air pollution control authorities may predicate their enforcement activities upon a judgment of the public health impact of the odor source. Noxious environmental odors may trigger symptoms by a variety of physiologic mechanisms, including exacerbation of underlying medical conditions, innate odor aversions, aversive conditioning phenomena, stress-induced illness, and possible pheromonal reactions. Whereas relatively consistent patterns of subjective symptoms have been reported among individuals who live near environmental odor sources, documentation of objective correlates to such symptoms would require as-yet unproven research tools. Therefore, given our current state of knowledge, any differential regulatory response to environmental odor pollution, which is based upon the distinction between community "annoyance reactions" and "health effects," is a matter of legal--not scientific--interpretation.

Air Pollution↗

Environmental pollution around nickel smelters in the Kola Peninsula (Russia).

Air pollution along the border between Norway and Russia has been recorded since 1974 in Sør-Varanger county (Norway) and since 1985 in Murmansk county (Russia). A more extensive collaboration on the environmental pollution problems in the border region was started in 1988 with the establishment of a joint pollution commission. Sulphur dioxide seems to be the most important pollutant causing both environmental damage and adverse health effects. The recommended highest 6-month mean acceptable value for Norway of 40-60 micrograms/m3 was exceeded for two Russian and one Norwegian station during the winter of 1990/91. About 5% of hourly means exceeded 350 micrograms/m3 at the most polluted Norwegian station. The highest value recorded at the nearest populated area in Norway was 2500 micrograms/m3 (The Norwegian Institute for Air Research). Standardized mortality data suggest an increase in deaths from cancer and cardiovascular disease in two cities with nickel refineries, compared to a control city. Further analysis is required to confirm this.

Air Pollutants↗

[Library search of UV spectra of organic environmental pollutants by artificial neural network].

In this paper, the artificial neural network (ANN) was applied to the library search of UV spectra of organic environmental pollutants. The optimization of network parameters was discussed and the effects of noise and impurity were investigated in detail. The use of derivative spectra for ANN library search was proposed to enhance the resolution of the UV spectra. This method could speed up the convergence of the network and could enhance the tolerance of impurity level, but was subject to noise comparing with the ANN using conventional UV spectra. Results show that the ANN is superior to the correlation coefficient method in resistance to noise and impurity.

Databases, Factual↗

Environmental pollution and delivery outcome in southern Sweden: a study with central registries.

OBJECTIVE: To study whether differences in delivery outcome correlated with pollution levels in the municipalities of a county in southern Sweden (Malmöhus). METHODS: The effects of air and ground pollution on delivery outcome were studied in 38,718 women who lived, and were delivered, in Malmöhus county in southern Sweden during the period 1985-90. Delivery outcome was compared between different municipalities arranged according to the degree of pollution. RESULTS: Neither air nor ground pollution affected the odds ratio for short gestation or low birthweight. No significant effect was seen on perinatal deaths or non-trivial malformations, but in the municipality with the highest arsenic concentration, 14 infants died perinatally versus the expected 7.4, and the odds ratio for stillbirths reached formal statistical significance. CONCLUSIONS: Environmental pollution in this county does not seem to be a major determinant of delivery outcome.

Air Pollution↗

Problems and potential for in situ treatment of environmental pollutants by engineered microorganisms.

Molecular microbial ecology could provide tools for studying the structure and function of biodegradative microbial communities useful for in situ removal of environmental pollutants. Detection and monitoring of released organisms in the environment is required and DNA:DNA colony hybridization seems to be one of the highly sensitive and accurate technologies available for achieving this goal. A realistic and pragmatic view is required for analysis of the risks of environmental release of genetically-modified or engineered organisms.

Bacteria↗

Synthesis and identification of major metabolites of environmental pollutant dibenzo[c,mno]chrysene.

Dibenzo[c,mno]chrysene commonly known as naphtho[1,2-a]pyrene (N[1,2-a]P) is an environmental pollutant, recently identified in coal tar extract, in air-borne particulate matter, in marine sediment, and in cigarette-smoke condensate. We recently reported an efficient synthesis of N[1,2-a]P and examined its in vitro metabolism by male Sprague Dawley rat liver S9 fraction, which resulted in a number of dihydrodiol and phenolic metabolites. The synthesis of 10-hydroxy-N[1,2-a]P and fjord region N[1,2-a]P trans-9,10-dihydrodiol, which were identified among the various metabolites, was assigned earlier by comparing with the synthetic standards. The other major metabolites were separated by HPLC and, based on the 1H NMR analysis, were tentatively suggested to be the two K-region dihydrodiols, that is, N[1,2-a]P trans-4,5-dihydrodiol (6) and N[1,2-a]P trans-7,8-dihydrodiol (7), and the hydroxy derivatives of N[1,2-a]P. To unequivocally assign the structure to each of the peaks and to have them in larger amounts for toxicological studies, we have now synthesized the two K-region dihydrodiols and the 1-/3-hydroxy-N[1,2-a]P, short-listed based on the proton NMR of the collected peaks. The K-region dihydrodiols 6 and 7 were prepared by the treatment of N[1,2-a]P with OsO(4) to give a mixture of cis dihydrodiols 2 and 3, followed by pyridinium chlorochromate-assisted oxidation to quinones 4 and 5, and finally reduction with NaBH(4) to afford the dihydrodiols 6 and 7 with the desired trans stereochemistry. The 1-hydroxy-N[1,2-a]P (22) and 3-hydroxy-N[1,2-a]P (23) were synthesized using a photochemical approach. As expected, all the synthesized dihydrodiol and phenolic derivatives of N[1,2-a]P identified with those obtained from in vitro metabolism enabling the assignment of all the major metabolites.

Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid↗

[Molecular-ecological technology of microorganisms and its application to research on environmental pollution].

Nucleicacid probe detection, PCR technique using primer, DNA sequential analysis, and electrophoresis separation and display were summarized and the application of these techniques to research on environmental pollution and future developing directions were discussed. It was pointed out that molecular-ecological technology of microorganisms are playing an important role in studying on relationships between microorganisms and contaminated environment. There are some important advances such as genetic adaptation and evolutionary mechanisms of microorganisms in contaminated environment, the positioning of pollutant-degrading genes of microorganisms and the construction of microbiological engineering bacteria, thus promoting the development of molecular ecology for bioremediation of contaminated environment.

Bacteria↗

Principles and problems of environmental pollution of groundwater resources with case examples from developing countries.

The principles and problems of environmental pollution and contamination are outlined. Emphasis is given to case examples from developing countries of Africa, Asia, and Latin America with a comparative analysis to developed countries. The problems of pollution/contamination are widespread in developed countries but are gradually spreading from the urban to rural areas in the developing countries. Great efforts in research and control programs to check pollution-loading into the environment have been made in the industrialized countries, but only negligible actions have been taken in developing countries. Pollutants emanate from both point and distributed sources and have adversely affected both surface water and groundwaters. The influences of the geologic and hydrologic cycles that exacerbate the incidences of pollution/contamination have not been well understood by environmental planners and managers. Professionals in the different areas of pollution control projects, particularly in developing countries, lack the integrated multiobjective approaches and techniques in problem solving. Such countries as Nigeria, Kenya, Brazil, and India are now menaced by pollution hazards. Appropriate methods of control are hereby suggested.

Africa↗

[Complex evaluation of toxicity due to anthropogenic environmental pollution in ecologic ranking of the territory].

The authors studied possible use of screening cytogenetic methods calculating micronuclei in frog blood cells to indicate degree of environmental pollution and its danger for human health. The data correlate with higher incidence of reproductive disorders in the females and of congenital abnormalities in the children, who live in regions with higher microelements level in soil subjected to the cytogenetic studies. Biogeochemical screening study evaluating ecological situation by means of test-objects to be informative.

Adult↗