On radiation and the harmful effects of other environmental pollutants. However, experts have found that the effect ecology on human health in Russia today is only 25-50% from the totality of all influencing factors. And only through 30-40 years old, according to experts, the dependence of the physical condition and well-being of citizens of the Russian Federation on the environment will increase to 50-70% .
Factors influencing human health
In the meantime, the greatest impact on the health of Russians has Lifestyle which they lead 50% ). Among the components of this factor:
- food character,
- good and bad habits,
- physical activity,
- neuropsychic state (stress, depression, etc.).
In second place in terms of the degree of influence on human health is such a factor as ecology (25% ), on the third - heredity . The proportion of this unmanageable factor is as much as 20% . Remaining 5% fall on medicine .
However, statistics knows cases when the action of several of these 4 factors of influence on human health is superimposed on each other. First example: medicine is practically powerless when it comes to eco-dependent diseases. In Russia, there are only a few hundred doctors specializing in diseases of chemical etiology - they will not be able to help all those affected by environmental pollution.
Second example: a few years after the incidence of thyroid cancer among children and adolescents in Belarus increased 45 times, in Russia and Ukraine - 4 times, in Poland - did not increase at all. Specialist Z. Jaworski, who conducted this study on the territories of 4 countries with approximately the same radioactive contamination, came to the conclusion that the health of Belarusians was seriously undermined by such factors as stress And nature of nutrition. If horrors had not been so intensely whipped up in Belarus then, probably, there would have been fewer cases of oncology. If it were not for the diet of people, their bodies would not absorb radioactive with such greed. Morbidity, as is known, does not depend on the radioactive contamination itself, but on the dose of radiation received.
Ecology as a factor influencing human health
As for ecology as a factor influencing human health, when assessing the degree of its influence, it is important to take into account the scale of environmental pollution:
- global environmental pollution - a disaster for the entire human society, but for one individual it does not pose a particular danger;
- regional environmental pollution - a disaster for the inhabitants of the region, but in most cases it is not very dangerous for the health of one particular person;
- local environmental pollution - poses a serious danger both to the health of the population of a particular city / region as a whole, and to each individual inhabitant of this area.
Following this logic, it is easy to determine that the dependence of a person's health on the air pollution of a particular street where he lives is even higher than on the pollution of the area as a whole. However, the ecology of his home and workplace has the strongest impact on human health. After all, approximately 80% We spend our time in buildings. And indoor air, as a rule, is much worse than outdoors: in terms of concentration of chemical pollutants - on average 4-6 times; according to the content of radioactive radon - 10 times(on the first floors and in the basements - perhaps hundreds of times); by aeroionic composition - 5-10 times.
Thus, for human health it is extremely important:
- what floor does he live on (on the first floor, the probability is higher),
- what material is his house built from (),
- what stove does he use (gas or electric),
- what is the floor in his apartment / house covered with (, or less harmful material);
- What is the furniture made from?
- are present in the dwelling, and in what quantity.
What environmental pollution causes the greatest damage to health
From the enumeration of the critical points of the influence of the ecology of the home on health, we can conclude that the largest number of pollutants enters the human body through the lungs. Indeed, most researchers confirm that daily with 15 kg Inhaled air in the human body penetrates more harmful substances than water, food, dirty hands, through the skin. At the same time, the inhalation route of pollutants entering the body is also the most dangerous. Due to the fact that:
- the air is polluted with a wide range of harmful substances, some of which are able to enhance the harmful effects of each other;
- pollution, entering the body through the respiratory tract, bypass such a protective biochemical barrier as the liver - as a result, their toxic effect is 100 times stronger influence of pollutants penetrating through the gastrointestinal tract;
- the digestibility of harmful substances entering the body through the lungs is much higher than that of pollutants that enter with food and water;
- Air pollutants are hard to hide from: they affect human health 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
However, air pollutants enter the body not only through the lungs, but also through the skin. This happens when a sweaty person (with open pores) walks along a gassed and dusty street in the summer. If, having reached the house, he does not immediately take a warm (not hot!) Shower, harmful substances have a chance to penetrate deep into his body.
Soil and water pollution
Also, a considerable amount of environmental pollutants enters the body with food and water. For example, a person who lives away from highways and industrial enterprises receives the largest share of lead from food ( 70-80% from total intake). More 10% this toxic metal is absorbed with water, and only 1-4% with inhaled air.
Also, the largest part of dioxin penetrates into the human body with food, and with water - aluminum.
Sources:
Alexander Pavlovich Konstantinov. Ecology and health: mythical and real dangers // Ecology and Life, No. 7 (p. 82-85), 11 (p. 84-87), 12 (p. 86-88), 2012
Fundamentals of general ecology.
Ecology originally arose as a general science of the relationship of organisms with the environment. Modern human ecology is an interdisciplinary science that uses the knowledge of natural sciences, such as chemistry, biology, physics, and social sciences - sociology, economics, politics, etc. At the same time, all social, economic and natural conditions are considered in human ecology as equally important components environments that provide various aspects of his life. These sciences study, in fact, the same phenomena - the influence of environmental factors on a person in order to assess their role in shaping the health of the population.
Among the factors that shape the health of the population, environmental factors are the most significant.
An environmental problem is a threat to the very existence of mankind due to the depletion of natural resources and the pollution of the environment that is dangerous for human life. It is these contradictions in the relationship between society and nature that determine the essence of the environmental problem.
Tasks of environmental education:
· The ability to define the "space" resulting from the activities of people (society);
· Discovery and explanation of the rules and laws important for human adaptation in the "space";
Study of a person in "space";
· The study of man in the ecological system;
· Study of the mutual influence of man and the ecological system and the changes arising from this influence;
· Using the acquired knowledge to preserve the “habitat; society.
Environmental factors and public health
Ecological factors are essential properties of the environment that have a direct or indirect effect on living organisms, at least during one of the phases of their individual development. In turn, the body reacts to environmental factors with specific adaptive reactions. By their nature, environmental factors are divided into three groups:
Abiotic factors- influences of inanimate nature
Biotic factors - wildlife influences
Anthropogenic factors- influences caused by reasonable and unreasonable human activity (anthropos - man)
Abiotic factors are divided into:
1.Climatic (light, temperature, moisture, air movement, pressure, solar radiation, precipitation, wind, etc.
2. Edafogenic (edafos - soil): mechanical composition, moisture capacity, air permeability, density.
3. Orographic: relief, height above sea level
4.Chemical: chemical composition of the atmosphere, sea and fresh water, soil
Biotic factors on:
1.phytogenic: plant organisms
2.zoogenic: animals
3. Microbiogenic: viruses, protozoa, bacteria
Anthropogenic factors is a set of environmental factors caused by accidental or intentional human activities. Anthropogenic factors include radiation pollution of water, soil or atmosphere by chemicals as a result of society's activities.
By the nature of the impacts, periodic and non-periodic environmental factors are considered, the action of which is associated with the adaptive capabilities of organisms and natural ecosystems to changes in external influences. Periodic environmental factors include natural phenomena caused by the rotation of the Earth: change of seasons, daily change in illumination, daily, seasonal and secular changes in temperature and precipitation, dynamics of plant food (for animals), etc. Non-periodic factors include environmental factors that do not have a pronounced cyclicity, for example, the chemical composition and mechanical characteristics of the soil, atmospheric air or water.
Human health as a biosocial species is not only a biological category, but is the most important indicator of social progress. According to the definition of the World Health Organization, human health- this is a state of complete physical, mental, sexual, social well-being and the ability to adapt to constantly changing conditions of the external and internal environment and the natural aging process, as well as the absence of diseases and physical defects.
The quality of the environment significantly affects the health of the population. Practically all chemical and physical radiations, to one degree or another, have a harmful effect on human health, and the level of their presence in the environment is important here (concentration of a substance, dose of radiation received, etc.). In case of adverse effects, mutagenic and carcinogenic effects are of paramount importance. The impact of pollution on the childbearing function and health of children is dangerous. A large number of chemicals are characterized by an effect on the metabolic, immune and other systems that perform the protective functions of the body; their change contributes to the development of non-communicable diseases, a large proportion of which are cardiovascular and oncological diseases.
Environmental factors, even at a low level of exposure, can cause significant health problems for people. Environmental pollution, despite the relatively low concentrations of substances, due to the long duration of exposure (almost throughout a person's life) can lead to serious health problems, especially for such fragile groups as children, the elderly, patients with chronic diseases, pregnant women.
The colossal growth in industrial production and the many-fold increase in emissions of pollutants into the environment allow us to assume a significantly increased impact of environmental factors on human health.
The surrounding ecology is formed directly by man himself, who over the past few millennia has been able to globally influence it in such a way that, greatly simplifying his long life, he has developed a special mechanism that continuously affects his health. Every year this influence becomes more and more negative. A person pollutes water, atmosphere, soil, which does not improve their quality, but only harms all living things. Simply put, every person lives in nature. We pollute it. This is dust, smog, . This is what we breathe. We dump toxins from the enterprises built on the banks of the rivers into the rivers. Then we drink it. And if only these actions spoiled the lives of us and our children ...
Sources of environmental pollution
Noise pollution. Any noise that irritates the ear is a source of noise pollution. Harsh and very loud sounds made by factories, trains, cars, machinery. Due to the high noise level, the level of cholesterol in the human body increases, the arteries narrow, the pulse quickens, the work of the nervous system is disturbed, which in particular is expressed in headaches. And, as you know, the percentage of sales of headache medicines is growing by 1-2% year by year. Of course, the headache is not always from the noise, but ... what we have is what we have.
Water pollution. Many types of activities - laundry, dry cleaning, dumping of hazardous waste - make a big contribution to the pollution of the aquatic environment. The special detergents and soaps that people use on a daily basis are also made from "bad" chemicals and synthetic materials that heavily pollute the water of the rivers into which these wastes end up. The water becomes harder, as a result, in America and Europe, cholelithiasis already exists in 1/4 of men and 1/3 of women!
atmospheric pollution. One of the main factors is the emission of car exhaust. With the active development of technology, the number of various vehicles on the roads has increased, which increases the level of negative impact on the atmosphere. Factors damage the protective ozone layer, which actively protects the entire earth from the effects of ultraviolet rays. Its continuous and rapid refinement inevitably entails an enormous and simply terrible threat to human life. This reciprocal influence of environmental factors on a person leads to skin cancer. So the atmospheric factor is not a myth. Over the past 40 years, skin cancer patients have increased 7 times!
radioactive contamination. It is quite rare, but still causes great harm. Pollution of this type is caused by dangerous accidents that have occurred at nuclear power plants, the disposal of nuclear waste, and work in hazardous uranium mines. Such influence causes cancer, congenital pathologies of babies and deviations, as well as other human health problems. More than 80 thousand people are already known to have suffered under Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Edmund Lengfelder, a professor at the University of Munich and a specialist in radiobiology, estimates the death toll from the Chernobyl plant this year at 50,000 to 100,000 people.
Soil pollution. Today, in modern agriculture, many artificial substances and synthetic pesticides are used, which create an imbalance in the earth, and also prevent the normal growth of all plants. Soil is polluted by sewers, hazardous waste, poor agricultural practices, the use of inorganic substances, deforestation, and open work in the mountains. On such lands grow vegetables and berries, fruits and herbs that people consume. So harmful elements enter the body, causing ailments dangerous to health. For example, Soil pollution by car exhausts is recorded even at a distance of 4.5 to 5 km from roads. And how many fields we have stretched along them! For example, manganese, the content of which in the soil should be within a few mg / kg, in reality, in some cases reaches a figure of 700 mg / kg of earth coma. Manganese is dangerous because it leads to diseases of the skeletal system, Parkinson's disease, manganese rickets and manganese insanity. In the soil, it appears due to an excess of fertilizer application, in the air - due to the work of industries. Of the 100 children whose mothers poisoned their bodies during pregnancy with this element of the periodic table, 96-98 were born "idiots."
More about the consequences of environmental pollution
What can't a person live without? For example, without air and water. It is becoming more and more difficult to find good places where there is exactly this water and air that is only clean and healthy for the body.
The atmosphere is becoming more and more polluted, and modern vehicles contribute to this, as well as any kind of industry. Every day, many hazardous substances enter the air: manganese, selenium, arsenic, asbestos, xylene, styrene and others. This long list can be continued for a very long time, almost indefinitely. When all these trace elements penetrate the human body, they can easily provoke the development of oncology diseases, as well as diseases of the nervous system. After all, many have noticed that people have become more aggressive and unbalanced.
Water is the source of full life. Now more than 2/3 of diseases on the planet occur due to the use of ordinary water, which can lead to such diseases:
oncological diseases;
changes in the genetic type, due to which children with various deviations are born;
decreased immunity;
decrease in the work of the reproductive organs in women and men;
diseases of the internal systems of the body - kidneys, liver, intestines and stomach.
This allows you to clearly see that the direct impact of environmental factors on a person is similar to the impact of a time bomb on the whole world - sooner or later the end will come.
The atmosphere and water also negatively affect any food that a person consumes daily. In ordinary products, which should only bring benefits, they bring more and more harmful toxins into the body, as well as other elements that can adversely affect human health. It is for this reason that many diseases appear that cannot be cured.
Trying to create the most comfortable conditions for existence, a person spoils everything that is provided to him by nature. Due to modern inventions, acid rains occur, harmful elements enter the atmosphere and clean water, and products lose their primary quality.
MINISTRY OF HEALTH OF THE IRKUTSK REGION
Regional state educational budgetary institution
secondary vocational education
"State Medical College of Bratsk"
IMPACT OF ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS ON HUMAN HEALTH
Artist: Art. gr. F-137
Moshkovskaya E.D.
Supervisor
Morozova T.V.
Bratsk, 2014
INTRODUCTION
All processes in the biosphere are interconnected. Mankind is only an insignificant part of the biosphere, and man is only one of the types of organic life - Homo sapiens (reasonable man). Reason singled out man from the animal world and gave him great power. For centuries, man has sought not to adapt to the natural environment, but to make it convenient for his existence. Now we have realized that any human activity has an impact on the environment, and the deterioration of the biosphere is dangerous for all living beings, including humans. A comprehensive study of a person, his relationship with the outside world led to the understanding that health is not only the absence of disease, but also the physical, mental and social well-being of a person. Health is a capital given to us not only by nature from birth, but also by the conditions in which we live.
Relevance of the topic: The topic is relevant, since motor vehicles and industrial enterprises have a significant chemical, noise, light and thermal impact on environmental pollution, which negatively affects human health. In addition, cities have their own special social conditions and the level of medical care, which also affect human health.
The purpose of the study: to determine the dependence of the state of human health on environmental factors.
Research objectives:.
Identify factors that affect human health
The influence of these factors on the body
1ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS
Environmental factors - properties of the environment that have any effect on the body. Indifferent elements of the environment, for example, inert gases, are not environmental factors.
Environmental factors are highly variable in time and space. For example, the temperature varies greatly on the surface of the land, but is almost constant at the bottom of the ocean or in the depths of caves.
One and the same environmental factor has a different meaning in the life of cohabiting organisms. For example, the salt regime of the soil plays a primary role in the mineral nutrition of plants, but is indifferent to most land animals. The intensity of illumination and the spectral composition of light are extremely important in the life of phototrophic organisms (most plants and photosynthetic bacteria), while in the life of heterotrophic organisms (fungi, animals, a significant part of microorganisms), light does not have a noticeable effect on life.
Environmental factors can act as irritants that cause adaptive changes in physiological functions; as constraints that make it impossible for certain organisms to exist under given conditions; as modifiers that determine morpho-anatomical and physiological changes in organisms.
Organisms are affected not by static unchanging factors, but by their modes - a sequence of changes over a certain time.
1.1Classifications of environmental factors
By the nature of the impact:
?Directly acting - directly affecting the body, mainly on metabolism;
?Indirectly acting - influencing indirectly, through a change in directly acting factors (relief, exposure, altitude, etc.).
Origin:
Abiotic - factors of inanimate nature:
?climatic: annual sum of temperatures, average annual temperature, humidity, air pressure;
?edaphic (edaphogenic): mechanical composition of the soil, air permeability of the soil, acidity of the soil, chemical composition of the soil;
?orographic: relief, height above sea level, steepness and exposure of the slope;
?chemical: gas composition of air, salt composition of water, concentration, acidity;
?physical: noise, magnetic fields, thermal conductivity and heat capacity, radioactivity, intensity of solar radiation.
Biotic - associated with the activities of living organisms:
?phytogenic - influence of plants;
?mycogenic - the influence of fungi;
?zoogenic - the influence of animals;
?microbiogenic - the influence of microorganisms.
Anthropogenic (anthropic):
?physical: the use of nuclear energy, travel in trains and planes, the impact of noise and vibration;
?chemical: the use of mineral fertilizers and pesticides, pollution of the Earth's shells by industrial and transport waste;
?biological: food; organisms for which a person can be a habitat or a source of food;
?social - connected with the relations of people and life in society.
By spending:
?Resources - elements of the environment that the body consumes, reducing their supply in the environment (water, CO2, O2, light);
?Conditions - elements of the environment that are not consumed by the body (temperature, air movement, soil acidity).
Direction:
?Vectorized - directionally changing factors: swamping, soil salinization;
?Multi-year-cyclic - with alternating multi-year periods of strengthening and weakening of the factor, for example, climate change due to the 11-year solar cycle;
?Oscillatory (impulse, fluctuation) - fluctuations in both directions from a certain average value (daily fluctuations in air temperature, change in the average monthly precipitation during the year).
1.2The effect of environmental factors on the body
Environmental factors affect the body not individually, but in combination, respectively, any reaction of the body is multifactorial conditioned. At the same time, the integral influence of factors is not equal to the sum of the influences of individual factors, since various kinds of interactions occur between them, which can be divided into four main types:
?Monodominance - one of the factors suppresses the action of the others and its value is of decisive importance for the organism. Thus, the complete absence, or the presence in the soil of mineral nutrition elements in a sharp deficiency or excess, prevents the normal assimilation of other elements by plants.
?Synergy is the mutual reinforcement of several factors due to positive feedback. For example, soil moisture, nitrate content, and illumination, with an improvement in the supply of any of them, increase the effect of the impact of the other two.
?Antagonism is the mutual suppression of several factors due to a negative feedback: an increase in the locust population contributes to a decrease in food resources and its population is declining.
?Provocativeness is a combination of positive and negative effects for the body, while the influence of the latter is enhanced by the influence of the former. So, the earlier the thaw occurs, the more the plants suffer from subsequent frosts.
The influence of factors also depends on the nature and current state of the organism, so they have an unequal effect both on different species and on one organism at different stages of ontogenesis: low humidity is detrimental to hydrophytes, but harmless to xerophytes; low temperatures are tolerated without harm by adult conifers of the temperate zone, but are dangerous for young plants.
Factors can partially replace each other: with a decrease in illumination, the intensity of photosynthesis will not change if the concentration of carbon dioxide in the air is increased, which usually happens in greenhouses.
The result of the influence of factors depends on the duration and frequency of their extreme values throughout the life of the organism and its descendants: short-term effects may not have any consequences, while long-term effects through the mechanism of natural selection lead to qualitative changes.
1.3The body's response to changing environmental factors
Organisms, especially those leading an attached, like plants, or a sedentary lifestyle, are characterized by plasticity - the ability to exist in more or less wide ranges of environmental factors. However, with different values of the factor, the organism behaves differently.
Accordingly, such a value is distinguished at which the body will be in the most comfortable state - to grow rapidly, multiply, and show competitive abilities. As the value of the factor increases or decreases relative to the most favorable, the body begins to experience depression, which manifests itself in the weakening of its vital functions and, at extreme values of the factor, can lead to death.
Graphically, a similar reaction of the organism to a change in the values of the factor is depicted as a vital activity curve (ecological curve), in the analysis of which some points and zones can be distinguished:
Cardinal points:
?points of minimum and maximum - the extreme values of the factor at which the vital activity of the organism is possible;
?optimum point - the most favorable value of the factor.
?optimum zone - limits the range of the most favorable factor values;
?pessimum zones (upper and lower) - ranges of factor values in which the organism experiences strong depression;
?zone of vital activity - the range of values of a factor in which it actively manifests its vital functions;
?rest zones (upper and lower) - extremely unfavorable values of the factor at which the organism remains alive, but goes into a state of rest;
?zone of life - the range of values of the factor in which the organism remains alive.
Beyond the boundaries of the life zone are the lethal values of the factor at which the organism is not able to exist.
Changes that occur with an organism within the range of plasticity are always phenotypic, while the genotype encodes only a measure of possible changes - the reaction rate, which determines the degree of plasticity of the organism.
On the basis of an individual vital activity curve, it is possible to predict the specific one. However, since a species is a complex supraorganismal system consisting of many populations distributed over various habitats with unequal environmental conditions, when assessing its ecology, generalized data are used not for individual individuals, but for entire populations. On the gradient of the factor, generalized classes of its values are plotted, representing certain types of habitats, and the abundance or frequency of occurrence of a species is most often considered as ecological reactions. In this case, one should speak no longer about the curve of vital activity, but about the curve of the distribution of abundances or frequencies.
landscape vibration organism pollution
2FACTORS AFFECTING HUMAN HEALTH AND LIFE LIFE
The estimated contribution of various factors affecting the health of the population is assessed in four positions: lifestyle, genetics (biology) of a person, the environment and health care. The data show that lifestyle has the greatest impact on health. Almost half of all cases of diseases depend on it. The second place in terms of impact on health is occupied by the state of the human environment (at least one third of diseases are determined by adverse environmental influences). Heredity causes about 20% of diseases.
A healthy body constantly ensures the optimal functioning of all its systems in response to any changes in the environment, such as changes in temperature, atmospheric pressure, changes in the oxygen content in the air, humidity, etc. Preservation of optimal human activity in interaction with the environment is determined by the fact that for his body there is a certain physiological limit of endurance in relation to any environmental factor, and beyond the limit this factor will inevitably have a depressing effect on human health. For example, as tests have shown, in urban conditions, factors affecting health are divided into five main groups: living environment, production factors, social, biological and individual lifestyle.
When assessing the health of the population, such an important factor of regional characteristics is also taken into account, which consists of a number of elements: climate, topography, degree of anthropogenic pressure, development of socio-economic conditions, population density, industrial accidents, catastrophes and natural disasters, etc. It is a matter of great concern that at present the Russian Federation in terms of mortality and average life expectancy steadily occupies one of the last places among industrialized countries.
2.1Technogenic factors affecting health
The main man-made factors that have a negative impact on health are chemical and physical pollution of the environment.
2.1.1Chemical pollution of the environment and human health
Currently, human economic activity is increasingly becoming the main source of pollution of the biosphere. Gaseous, liquid and solid industrial wastes enter the natural environment in increasing quantities. Various chemicals that are in the waste, getting into the soil, air or water, pass through the ecological links from one chain to another, eventually getting into the human body.
It is almost impossible to find a place on the globe where pollutants would not be present in one or another concentration. Even in the ice of Antarctica, where there are no industrial facilities, and people live only at small scientific stations, scientists have discovered various toxic (poisonous) substances of modern industries. They are brought here by atmospheric flows from other continents.
Substances polluting the natural environment are very diverse. Depending on their nature, concentration, time of action on the human body, they can cause various adverse effects. Short-term exposure to small concentrations of such substances can cause dizziness, nausea, sore throat, cough. The ingestion of large concentrations of toxic substances into the human body can lead to loss of consciousness, acute poisoning and even death. An example of such an action can be smog formed in large cities in calm weather, or accidental releases of toxic substances into the atmosphere by industrial enterprises.
The body's reactions to pollution depend on individual characteristics: age, gender, health status. As a rule, children, the elderly and sick people are more vulnerable.
With a systematic or periodic intake of relatively small amounts of toxic substances into the body, chronic poisoning occurs.
Signs of chronic poisoning are a violation of normal behavior, habits, as well as neuropsychic deviations: rapid fatigue or a feeling of constant fatigue, drowsiness or, conversely, insomnia, apathy, weakening of attention, absent-mindedness, forgetfulness, severe mood swings.
In chronic poisoning, the same substances in different people can cause various damage to the kidneys, blood-forming organs, nervous system, and liver.
Similar signs are observed in radioactive contamination of the environment.
Thus, in areas exposed to radioactive contamination as a result of the Chernobyl disaster, the incidence among the population, especially children, has increased many times over.
Biologically highly active chemical compounds can cause a long-term effect on human health: chronic inflammatory diseases of various organs, changes in the nervous system, an effect on the intrauterine development of the fetus, leading to various abnormalities in newborns.
Doctors have established a direct link between the increase in the number of people suffering from allergies, bronchial asthma, cancer, and the deterioration of the environmental situation in the region. It has been reliably established that such production wastes as chromium, nickel, beryllium, asbestos, and many pesticides are carcinogens, that is, they cause cancer. Back in the last century, cancer in children was almost unknown, but now it is becoming more and more common. As a result of pollution, new, previously unknown diseases appear. Their reasons can be very difficult to establish.
Smoking causes great harm to human health. A smoker not only inhales harmful substances himself, but also pollutes the atmosphere and endangers other people. It has been established that people who are in the same room with a smoker inhale even more harmful substances than he himself.
2.2Physical pollution of the environment and factors affecting human health
The main physical environmental factors that have a negative impact on human health include noise, vibration, electromagnetic radiation, and electric current.
2.2.1The effect of sounds on a person
Man has always lived in a world of sounds and noise. Sound is called such mechanical vibrations of the external environment, which are perceived by the human hearing aid (from 16 to 20,000 vibrations per second). Vibrations of a higher frequency are called ultrasound, a smaller one is called infrasound. Noise - loud sounds that have merged into a discordant sound.
For all living organisms, including humans, sound is one of the environmental influences.
In nature, loud sounds are rare, the noise is relatively weak and short. The combination of sound stimuli gives animals and humans time to assess their nature and form a response. Sounds and noises of high power affect the hearing aid, nerve centers, can cause pain and shock. This is how noise pollution works.
The quiet rustle of leaves, the murmur of a stream, bird voices, a light splash of water and the sound of the surf are always pleasant to a person. They calm him, relieve stress. But the natural sounds of the voices of Nature are becoming more and more rare, they disappear completely or are drowned out by industrial traffic and other noises.
Prolonged noise adversely affects the organ of hearing, reducing the sensitivity to sound.
It leads to a breakdown in the activity of the heart, liver, to exhaustion and overstrain of nerve cells. Weakened cells of the nervous system cannot clearly coordinate the work of various body systems. This results in disruption of their activities.
The noise level is measured in units expressing the degree of sound pressure - decibels. This pressure is not perceived indefinitely. The noise level of 20-30 decibels (dB) is practically harmless to humans, this is a natural background noise. As for loud sounds, here the permissible limit is approximately 80 decibels. A sound of 130 decibels already causes a painful sensation in a person, and 150 becomes unbearable for him. Not without reason in the Middle Ages there was an execution under the bell . The hum of the bell ringing tormented and slowly killed the convict.
The level of industrial noise is also very high. In many jobs and noisy industries, it reaches 90-110 decibels or more. Not much quieter in our house, where new sources of noise appear - the so-called household appliances.
For a long time, the effect of noise on the human body was not specially studied, although already in ancient times they knew about its harm and, for example, in ancient cities, rules were introduced to limit noise.
Currently, scientists in many countries of the world are conducting various studies to determine the impact of noise on human health. Their studies have shown that noise causes significant harm to human health, but absolute silence frightens and depresses him. So, employees of one design bureau, which had excellent sound insulation, already a week later began to complain about the impossibility of working in conditions of oppressive silence. They were nervous, lost their working capacity. Conversely, scientists have found that sounds of a certain intensity stimulate the process of thinking, especially the process of counting.
Each person perceives noise differently. Much depends on age, temperament, state of health, environmental conditions.
Some people lose their hearing even after brief exposure to noise of comparatively reduced intensity.
Constant exposure to strong noise can not only adversely affect hearing, but also cause other harmful effects - ringing in the ears, dizziness, headache, increased fatigue.
Very noisy modern music also dulls the hearing, causes nervous diseases.
Noise has an accumulative effect, that is, acoustic irritation, accumulating in the body, increasingly depresses the nervous system.
Therefore, before hearing loss from exposure to noise, a functional disorder of the central nervous system occurs. Noise has a particularly harmful effect on the neuropsychic activity of the body.
The process of neuropsychiatric diseases is higher among persons working in noisy conditions than among persons working in normal sound conditions.
Noises cause functional disorders of the cardiovascular system; have a harmful effect on the visual and vestibular analyzers, reduces reflex activity, which often causes accidents and injuries.
Studies have shown that inaudible sounds can also have a harmful effect on human health. So, infrasounds have a special effect on the mental sphere of a person: all types of intellectual activity are affected, mood worsens, sometimes there is a feeling of confusion, anxiety, fright, fear, and at high intensity, a feeling of weakness, as after a strong nervous shock.
Even weak sounds of infrasound can have a significant impact on a person, especially if they are of a long-term nature. According to scientists, it is precisely by infrasounds, inaudibly penetrating through the thickest walls, that many nervous diseases of the inhabitants of large cities are caused.
Ultrasounds, which occupy a prominent place in the range of industrial noise, are also dangerous. The mechanisms of their action on living organisms are extremely diverse. The cells of the nervous system are especially susceptible to their negative effects.
Noise is insidious, its harmful effect on the body is invisibly, imperceptibly. Violations in the human body against noise is practically defenseless.
Currently, doctors are talking about noise disease, which develops as a result of exposure to noise with a primary lesion of hearing and the nervous system.
2.2 Influence of vibration
Vibration is a complex oscillatory process with a wide range of frequencies, resulting from the transfer of vibrational energy from some kind of mechanical source. In cities, vibration sources are primarily transport, as well as some industries. On the latter, prolonged exposure to vibration can cause the occurrence of an occupational disease - a vibrational disease, which is expressed in changes in the vessels of the extremities, the neuromuscular and osteoarticular apparatus.
2.2.3 Influence of electromagnetic radiation
Sources of electromagnetic radiation are radar, radio and television stations, various industrial installations, devices, including household ones.
Systematic exposure to the electromagnetic field of radio waves with levels exceeding the permissible levels can cause changes in the central nervous system, cardiovascular, endocrine and other systems of the human body. So, in the apartments of the village. Konosh, Arkhangelsk region, located 600 m from the air defense complex, the energy flux density exceeded the maximum permissible level (MPL) by 17.5 times, which contributed to the occurrence of functional disorders of the central nervous system and blood system in local residents, changes in the functional state of the thyroid gland and immune status.
2.2.4 Influence of the electric field
The electric field to a large extent has a harmful effect on humans. There are three levels of impact:
?direct impact, manifested when staying in an electric field; the effect of this exposure increases with increasing field strength and time spent in it;
?impact of impulse discharges (pulse current) arising from a person touching structures isolated from the ground, bodies of machines and mechanisms on a pneumatic course and extended conductors or when a person, isolated from the ground, touches plants, grounded structures and other grounded objects;
?the impact of the current passing through a person who is in contact with objects isolated from the earth - large-sized objects, machines and mechanisms, extended conductors - drain current.
3.ENVIRONMENTAL SITUATION AND HUMAN HEALTH
3.1Biological pollution and human diseases
In addition to chemical pollutants, biological pollutants are also found in the natural environment, causing various diseases in humans. These are pathogens, viruses, helminths, protozoa. They can be in the atmosphere, water, soil, in the body of other living organisms, including in the person himself.
The most dangerous pathogens of infectious diseases. They have different stability in the environment. Some are able to live outside the human body for only a few hours; being in the air, in water, on various objects, they quickly die. Others may live in the environment from a few days to several years. For others, the environment is a natural habitat. For the fourth - other organisms, such as wild animals, are a place of conservation and reproduction.
Often the source of infection is the soil, which is constantly inhabited by pathogens of tetanus, botulism, gas gangrene, and some fungal diseases. They can enter the human body if the skin is damaged, with unwashed food, or if the rules of hygiene are violated.
Pathogenic microorganisms can penetrate the groundwater and cause human infectious diseases. Therefore, water from artesian wells, wells, springs must be boiled before drinking.
Open water sources are especially polluted: rivers, lakes, ponds. Numerous cases are known when contaminated water sources caused epidemics of cholera, typhoid fever, and dysentery.
With an airborne infection, infection occurs through the respiratory tract when air containing pathogens is inhaled.
Such diseases include influenza, whooping cough, mumps, diphtheria, measles and others. The causative agents of these diseases get into the air when coughing, sneezing, and even when sick people talk.
A special group is made up of infectious diseases transmitted by close contact with the patient or by using his things, for example, a towel, a handkerchief, personal hygiene items and others that were used by the patient. These include venereal diseases (AIDS, syphilis, gonorrhea), trachoma, anthrax, scab. A person, invading nature, often violates the natural conditions for the existence of pathogenic organisms and becomes himself a victim of natural eye diseases.
People and domestic animals can become infected with natural focal diseases, getting into the territory of a natural focus. Such diseases include plague, tularemia, typhus, tick-borne encephalitis, malaria, and sleeping sickness.
Other routes of infection are also possible. So, in some hot countries, as well as in a number of regions of our country, an infectious disease leptospirosis, or water fever, occurs. In our country, the causative agent of this disease lives in the organisms of common voles, widely distributed in meadows near rivers. The disease of leptospirosis is seasonal, more common during heavy rains and during the hot months (July - August). A person can become infected when water contaminated with rodent secretions enters his body.
Diseases such as plague, ornithosis are transmitted by airborne droplets. Being in areas of natural ocular diseases, it is necessary to observe special precautions.
3.2Weather and human well-being
A few decades ago, it never occurred to anyone to connect their performance, their emotional state and well-being with the activity of the Sun, with the phases of the Moon, with magnetic storms and other cosmic phenomena.
In any natural phenomenon that surrounds us, there is a strict repetition of processes: day and night, high and low tide, winter and summer. Rhythm is observed not only in the motion of the Earth, Sun, Moon and stars, but is also an integral and universal property of living matter, a property penetrating into all life phenomena - from the molecular level to the level of the whole organism.
In the course of historical development, a person has adapted to a certain rhythm of life, due to rhythmic changes in the natural environment and the energy dynamics of metabolic processes.
Currently, there are many rhythmic processes in the body, called biorhythms. These include the rhythms of the heart, breathing, bioelectrical activity of the brain. Our whole life is a constant change of rest and activity, sleep and wakefulness, fatigue from hard work and rest.
In the body of each person, like the tides of the sea, a great rhythm eternally reigns, arising from the connection of life phenomena with the rhythm of the Universe and symbolizing the unity of the world.
The central place among all rhythmic processes is occupied by circadian rhythms, which are of the greatest importance for the organism. The reaction of the body to any impact depends on the phase of the circadian rhythm (that is, on the time of day).
This knowledge caused the development of new directions in medicine - chronodiagnostics, chronotherapy, chronopharmacology. They are based on the position that the same remedy at different hours of the day has a different, sometimes directly opposite, effect on the body. Therefore, in order to obtain a greater effect, it is important to indicate not only the dose, but also the exact time of taking the medication.
It turned out that the study of changes in circadian rhythms makes it possible to detect the occurrence of certain diseases at the earliest stages.
The climate also has a serious impact on the well-being of a person, affecting him through weather factors. Weather conditions include a complex of physical conditions: atmospheric pressure, humidity, air movement, oxygen concentration, the degree of disturbance of the Earth's magnetic field, the level of atmospheric pollution.
So far, it has not yet been possible to fully establish the mechanisms of the reactions of the human body to changing weather conditions. And she often makes herself felt by violations of cardiac activity, nervous disorders. With a sharp change in the weather, physical and mental performance decreases, diseases become aggravated, the number of errors, accidents and even deaths increases.
Most of the physical factors of the environment, in interaction with which the human body has evolved, are of an electromagnetic nature.
It is well known that near fast-flowing water, the air is refreshing and invigorating. It contains many negative ions. For the same reason, it seems to us clean and refreshing air after a thunderstorm.
On the contrary, the air in cramped rooms with an abundance of various kinds of electromagnetic devices is saturated with positive ions. Even a relatively short stay in such a room leads to lethargy, drowsiness, dizziness and headaches. A similar picture is observed in windy weather, on dusty and humid days. Experts in the field of environmental medicine believe that negative ions have a positive effect on health, while positive ions have a negative effect.
Weather changes do not equally affect the well-being of different people. In a healthy person, when the weather changes, the physiological processes in the body are timely adjusted to the changed environmental conditions. As a result, the protective reaction is enhanced and healthy people practically do not feel the negative effects of the weather.
In a sick person, adaptive reactions are weakened, so the body loses the ability to quickly adapt. The influence of weather conditions on a person's well-being is also associated with age and individual susceptibility of the body.
3.3Nutrition and human health
Each of us knows that food is necessary for the normal functioning of the body.
Throughout life, the human body continuously undergoes a metabolism and energy exchange. The source of building materials and energy necessary for the body are nutrients that come from the external environment, mainly with food. If food does not enter the body, a person feels hungry. But hunger, unfortunately, will not tell you what nutrients and in what quantity a person needs. We often eat what is tasty, what can be prepared quickly, and do not really think about the usefulness and good quality of the products used.
Doctors say that a full-fledged balanced diet is an important condition for maintaining the health and high performance of adults, and for children it is also a necessary condition for growth and development.
For normal growth, development and maintenance of life, the body needs proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins and mineral salts in the right amount.
Irrational nutrition is one of the main causes of cardiovascular diseases, diseases of the digestive system, diseases associated with metabolic disorders.
Regular overeating, consumption of excessive amounts of carbohydrates and fats is the cause of the development of metabolic diseases such as obesity and diabetes.
They cause damage to the cardiovascular, respiratory, digestive and other systems, sharply reduce the ability to work and resistance to diseases, reducing life expectancy by an average of 8-10 years.
Rational nutrition is the most important indispensable condition for the prevention of not only metabolic diseases, but also many others.
The nutritional factor plays an important role not only in the prevention, but also in the treatment of many diseases. Specially organized nutrition, the so-called medical nutrition, is a prerequisite for the treatment of many diseases, including metabolic and gastrointestinal diseases.
Medicinal substances of synthetic origin, unlike food substances, are alien to the body. Many of them can cause adverse reactions, such as allergies, so when treating patients, preference should be given to the nutritional factor.
In products, many biologically active substances are found in equal, and sometimes in higher concentrations than in the drugs used. That is why, since ancient times, many products, primarily vegetables, fruits, seeds, herbs, have been used in the treatment of various diseases.
Many food products have bactericidal action, inhibiting the growth and development of various microorganisms. So, apple juice delays the development of staphylococcus, pomegranate juice inhibits the growth of salmonella, cranberry juice is active against various intestinal, putrefactive and other microorganisms. Everyone knows the antimicrobial properties of onions, garlic and other foods. Unfortunately, all this rich medical arsenal is not often used in practice.
But now there is a new danger - chemical contamination of food. A new concept has also appeared - environmentally friendly products.
Obviously, each of us had to buy large, beautiful vegetables and fruits in stores, but, unfortunately, in most cases, after tasting them, we found out that they were watery and did not meet our taste requirements. This situation occurs if crops are grown with the use of large amounts of fertilizers and pesticides. Such agricultural products can have not only poor taste, but also be hazardous to health.
Nitrogen is an integral part of compounds vital for plants, as well as for animal organisms, such as proteins.
In plants, nitrogen comes from the soil, and then through food and fodder crops it enters the organisms of animals and humans. Nowadays, agricultural crops almost completely receive mineral nitrogen from chemical fertilizers, since some organic fertilizers are not enough for soils depleted in nitrogen. However, unlike organic fertilizers, in chemical fertilizers there is no free release of nutrients in natural conditions.
So it doesn't work and harmonic nutrition of agricultural crops, satisfying the requirements of their growth. As a result, there is an excess nitrogen nutrition of plants and, as a result, the accumulation of nitrates in it.
An excess of nitrogen fertilizers leads to a decrease in the quality of plant products, a deterioration in their taste properties, a decrease in plant resistance to diseases and pests, which, in turn, forces the farmer to increase the use of pesticides. They also accumulate in plants. The increased content of nitrates leads to the formation of nitrites, which are harmful to human health. The use of such products can cause serious poisoning and even death in a person.
The negative effect of fertilizers and pesticides is especially pronounced when growing vegetables in closed ground. This is because in greenhouses, harmful substances cannot evaporate and be carried away by air currents without hindrance. After evaporation, they settle on plants.
Plants are able to accumulate in themselves almost all harmful substances. That is why agricultural products grown near industrial enterprises and major highways are especially dangerous.
3.4Landscape as a health factor
A person always strives to the forest, to the mountains, to the seashore, river or lake.
Here he feels a surge of strength, vivacity. No wonder they say that it is best to relax in the bosom of nature. Sanatoriums and rest houses are built in the most beautiful corners. This is not an accident. It turns out that the surrounding landscape can have a different effect on the psycho-emotional state. Contemplation of the beauties of nature stimulates vitality and calms the nervous system. Plant biocenoses, especially forests, have a strong healing effect.
The craving for natural landscapes is especially strong among the inhabitants of the city. Even in the Middle Ages, it was noticed that the life expectancy of city dwellers is less than that of rural dwellers. The lack of greenery, narrow streets, small courtyards-wells, where sunlight practically did not penetrate, created unfavorable conditions for human life. With the development of industrial production in the city and its environs, a huge amount of waste polluting the environment has appeared.
A variety of factors associated with the growth of cities, in one way or another, affect the formation of a person, his health. This makes scientists increasingly seriously study the impact of the environment on urban residents. It turns out that the conditions in which a person lives, what the height of the ceilings in his apartment and how sound-permeable its walls are, how a person gets to his place of work, whom he treats on a daily basis, how people around him treat each other, depends on the mood of a person, his ability to work , activity - his whole life.
In cities, a person comes up with thousands of tricks for the convenience of his life - hot water, telephone, various modes of transport, roads, services and entertainment. However, in large cities, the shortcomings of life are especially pronounced - housing and transport problems, an increase in the level of morbidity. To a certain extent, this is due to the simultaneous impact on the body of two, three or more harmful factors, each of which has an insignificant effect, but in the aggregate leads to serious troubles for people.
So, for example, saturation of the environment and production with high-speed and high-speed machines increases stress, requires additional efforts from a person, which leads to overwork. It is well known that an overworked person suffers more from the effects of air pollution, infections.
Polluted air in the city, poisoning the blood with carbon monoxide, causes the same harm to a non-smoker as a smoker smoking a pack of cigarettes a day. A serious negative factor in modern cities is the so-called noise pollution.
Given the ability of green spaces to favorably influence the state of the environment, they must be as close as possible to the place of life, work, study and recreation of people.
It is very important that the city be a biogeocenosis, if not absolutely favorable, but at least not harmful to people's health. Let there be a zone of life. To do this, it is necessary to solve a lot of urban problems. All enterprises that are unfavorable in sanitary terms must be withdrawn from the cities.
Green spaces are an integral part of a set of measures to protect and transform the environment. They not only create favorable microclimatic and sanitary and hygienic conditions, but also increase the artistic expressiveness of architectural ensembles.
A special place around industrial enterprises and highways should be occupied by protective green areas, in which it is recommended to plant trees and shrubs that are resistant to pollution.
In the placement of green spaces, it is necessary to observe the principle of uniformity and continuity in order to ensure the supply of fresh countryside air to all residential areas of the city. The most important components of the urban greening system are plantations in residential areas, on the sites of children's institutions, schools, sports complexes, etc.
The urban landscape should not be a monotonous stone desert. In the architecture of the city, one should strive for a harmonious combination of social (buildings, roads, transport, communications) and biological aspects (green areas, parks, squares).
The modern city should be considered as an ecosystem in which the most favorable conditions for human life are created. Consequently, these are not only comfortable dwellings, transport, and a diverse service sector. This is a habitat favorable for life and health; clean air and green urban landscape.
It is no coincidence that ecologists believe that in a modern city a person should not be divorced from nature, but, as it were, dissolved in it. Therefore, the total area of green spaces in cities should occupy more than half of its territory.
3.5Problems of human adaptation to the environment
In the history of our planet (from the day of its formation to the present), grandiose processes on a planetary scale have continuously occurred and are continuing to transform the face of the Earth. With the advent of a powerful factor - the human mind - a qualitatively new stage in the evolution of the organic world began. Due to the global nature of human interaction with the environment, it becomes the largest geological force.
Man's production activity influences not only the direction of the evolution of the biosphere, but also determines its own biological evolution.
The specificity of the human environment lies in the most complex interweaving of social and natural factors. At the dawn of human history, natural factors played a decisive role in human evolution. The impact of natural factors on a modern person is largely neutralized by social factors. In new natural and industrial conditions, a person at present often experiences the influence of very unusual, and sometimes excessive and harsh environmental factors, for which he is not yet evolutionarily ready.
Man, like other types of living organisms, is able to adapt, that is, adapt to environmental conditions. Human adaptation to new natural and industrial conditions can be characterized as a set of socio-biological properties and characteristics necessary for the sustainable existence of an organism in a particular ecological environment.
The life of each person can be seen as a constant adaptation, but our ability to do this has certain limits. Also, the ability to restore their physical and mental strength for a person is not infinite.
At present, a significant part of human diseases are associated with the deterioration of the ecological situation in our environment: pollution of the atmosphere, water and soil, poor-quality food, and increased noise.
Adapting to adverse environmental conditions, the human body experiences a state of tension, fatigue. Tension is the mobilization of all mechanisms that ensure certain activities of the human body. Depending on the magnitude of the load, the degree of preparation of the organism, its functional, structural and energy resources, the possibility of the organism functioning at a given level decreases, that is, fatigue occurs.
When a healthy person is tired, a redistribution of possible reserve functions of the body can occur, and after rest, strength will appear again. Humans are able to endure the harshest environmental conditions for a relatively long time. However, a person who is not accustomed to these conditions, entering them for the first time, turns out to be much less adapted to life in an unfamiliar environment than its permanent inhabitants.
The ability to adapt to new conditions is not the same for different people. So, many people during long-haul flights with a quick crossing of several time zones, as well as during shift work, experience such adverse symptoms as sleep disturbance, and performance decreases. Others adapt quickly.
Among people, two extreme adaptive types of a person can be distinguished. The first of them is the sprinter, which is characterized by high resistance to short-term extreme factors and poor tolerance to long-term loads. Reverse type - stayer.
Interestingly, in the northern regions of the country, people of the type stayer , which was, apparently, the result of long-term processes of the formation of a population adapted to local conditions.
The study of human adaptive capabilities and the development of appropriate recommendations is currently of great practical importance.
CONCLUSION
The topic seemed very interesting to me, because the problem of ecology worries me a lot, and I want to believe that our offspring will not be as susceptible to negative environmental factors as they are now. However, we still do not realize the importance and global nature of the problem that humanity faces regarding the protection of the environment. All over the world, people strive to minimize environmental pollution, and the Russian Federation has also adopted, for example, a criminal code, one of the chapters of which is devoted to establishing penalties for environmental crimes. But, of course, not all ways to overcome this problem have been solved, and we should take care of the environment on our own and maintain that natural balance in which a person is able to exist normally.
APPENDIX A
APPENDIX B
APPENDIX B
Figure 1 - Factors affecting human health and life expectancy
APPENDIX D
APPENDIX E
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Environmental factor- this is any element of the environment that is not further divided and capable of exerting a direct or indirect effect on a living organism at least during one of the stages of its individual development, or, in other words, from the environmental conditions to which the organism responds with adaptive reactions.
Environmental factors are very diverse both in nature and in their impact on living organisms. They can be roughly divided into three main groups: abiotic, biotic and anthropogenic.
Abiotic factors- these are factors associated with the impact on organisms of inanimate nature, that is, climatic factors (temperature, light, humidity, pressure, etc.); physical properties of soil and water; orographic factors (relief conditions).
Abiotic factors affect the body directly, such as light or heat, or indirectly - as a relief that determines the degree of action of direct factors: illumination, humidity, wind strength, etc.
Biotic relationships are extremely complex. They can also have both direct and indirect effects.
Anthropogenic factors- these are all those forms of human activity that either indirectly affect organisms, changing the natural (natural) environment, and hence the living conditions of living organisms, or directly affect individual species of animals and plants.
Anthropogenic factors, in fact, are also biotic, since they owe their origin to man - a biological being. However, these factors began to be singled out in a special group due to their diversity and specificity.
Depending on the nature of the impacts, anthropogenic factors are divided into two groups:
– factors of direct influence - this is a direct (direct) human impact on the body (mowing grass, cutting down forests, shooting animals, catching fish, etc.);
– factors of indirect influence- this is an indirect (indirect) effect on the body (environmental pollution, habitat destruction, anxiety, etc.).
Depending on the consequences of the impact, anthropogenic factors are divided into the following groups:
– positive factors - factors that improve the life of organisms or increase their numbers (animal breeding and protection, planting and feeding plants, environmental protection, etc.);
– negative factors - factors that worsen the life of organisms or reduce their numbers (cutting down trees, shooting animals, destruction of habitats, etc.).
The most dangerous environmental pollutants. Large volumes of various chemicals, biological agents released into the environment with a low level of control of industrial, agricultural, household and other pollutants do not allow us to establish clearly enough the measure of the health hazard of technogenic pollutants contained in the atmospheric air or soil, drinking water or food.
The most dangerous and toxic heavy metals are cadmium, mercury and lead. A relationship has been established between the amount of cadmium, lead, arsenic found in water and soil and the incidence of malignant neoplasms of various forms among the population of ecologically disadvantaged areas.
Cadmium contamination of foodstuffs usually occurs due to contamination of soil and drinking water from sewage and other industrial wastes, as well as from the use of phosphate fertilizers and pesticides. In the air of rural areas, the concentration of cadmium is 10 times higher than the levels of the natural background, and in the urban environment, the standards can be exceeded up to 100 times. Most of the cadmium a person receives from plant foods.
It is well known that nitrates and nitrites are far from harmless to the body. Nitrates, used as mineral fertilizers, are found in the highest concentrations in green vegetables, such as spinach, lettuce, sorrel, beets, carrots, cabbage. Especially dangerous are high concentrations of nitrates in drinking water, since when they interact with hemoglobin, its functions as an oxygen carrier are disrupted. There are phenomena of oxygen starvation with signs of shortness of breath, asphyxia. In severe cases, poisoning can be fatal. It has been experimentally proven that nitrates also have mutagenic and embryotoxic effects.
Nitrites, which are salts of nitrous acid, have long been used as a preservative in the manufacture of sausages, ham, and canned meat. Another danger of finding nitrites in food products is that in the gastrointestinal tract, under the influence of microflora, nitro compounds with carcinogenic properties are formed from nitrites.
Radionuclides that enter the human body also mainly with food are stable in ecological chains. Of the fission products of uranium, strontium-90 and caesium-137 (having a half-life of about 30 years) are of particular danger: strontium, due to its similarity with calcium, very easily penetrates into the bone tissue of vertebrates, while cesium accumulates in muscle tissues, replacing potassium. They are able to accumulate in the body in quantities sufficient to cause damage to health, remaining in the infected body for almost its entire life and causing carcinogenic, mutagenic and other diseases.
