Trends detected in children’s health and their relation with basic aerogenic risk factors under exposure to specific ambient air contamination caused by metallurgic and wood-processing enterprises

Abstract

Industrial objects including metallurgic and wood-processing enterprises that emit hazardous chemicals into ambient air are often located within or close to residential areas; it results in poorer ambient air quality and health disorders caused by it, first of all, among children. Our research objects were chemicals contents in ambient air in a residential area exposed to emissions from metallurgic and wood-processing enterprises (the test territory) and in an area where there were no such productions (the reference territory), and primary morbidity among children in both of them. We determined priority chemical risk factors basing on hygienic assessment of ambient air quality and calculation of risks that non-carcinogenic effects would occur in organs and systems of children who lived in a zone exposed to the given industrial objects. These factors included aluminum oxide, particulate matter, phenol, and gaseous fluorides and their contents were up to 5.0 times higher than permissible levels. We detected negative trends in primary morbidity among children and established authentic models showing dependence between a probable growth in morbidity as per respiratory diseases, diseases of the nervous system, gastric diseases, diseases of the musculoskeletal system and connective tissue, and diseases of the urogenital system and total doses of chemicals under aerogenic exposure. All the above mentioned indicates that poor ambient air quality in a residential area can make for a growth in related morbidity as per the given nosologies. Established and parameterized cause-and-effect relations allow predicting negative responses in critical organs and systems (as per the given nosologies) of exposed children. It provides scientific substantiation for developing relevant prevention activities aimed at reducing and preventing negative consequences for health of children living in regions where large metallurgic and wood-processing enterprises are located