THE IMPACT OF THE REMEDIATED WASTES OF MINING PROCESSING PLANT ON CYTOGENETIC INDICES IN HEALTHY CHILDREN

Abstract

Environmental pollution with heavy metals and the effects of this pollution have remained challenging since long. Particular interest represents the effects of prolonged exposure to low doses of heavy metals. In order to determine the level of environmental pollution the content of heavy metals in drinking water, soils, pasture grasses, potatoes, and milk produced in the farms and in the hair of children was determined using x-ray fluorescence method and atomic absorption spectrophotometry. Children of primary school age from the vicinity of reclaimed tailing dump of tungesto-molybdic factory and clean zone were examined. To evaluate the cytogenetic status of the children the multisystemic karyological test was used. Soil, drinking water, potatoes and milk in the area of the reclaimed tailing dump were characterized by a low level of heavy metal pollution. There were no significant differences in the heavy metal concentration in children's body from both zones due to the high individual variability. The frequency of micronuclei (4,1 times), biomarkers of cell proliferation (1,5 times), destruction of cell nuclei (2 times) and frequency of apoptotic cells (1,2 times) was higher in children from polluted area. Thus, we identified an implicit genotoxic effect of disposed wastes on the child population living in close proximity to them, which led to a significant increase in the number of children belonging to the groups of medium and high risk.