Health cancer risk assessment for arsenic exposure in potentially contaminated areas by fertilizer plants: a possible regulatory approach applied to a case study in Moscow region-Russia.
At present, fertilizer industry plants are considered as a potential source of soil contamination in Russia. Therefore health risk assessment should be pursued in Russian fertilizer plant areas, but unfortunately risk assessment methodology for contaminated sites does not have yet a regulatory value in Russia. In this paper a possible and intentionally simple regulatory approach for health cancer risk assessment at phosphogypsum waste-storing potentially contaminated sites is presented. The proposed approach is applied to a potential contaminated area located in the Moscow river (Moscow Region) protective zone. At this case-study area, arsenic has been chosen as a contaminant indicator, according to the proposed selection procedure. For estimating the human exposure to arsenic through various pathways the original McKone & Daniels '91 model has been adapted. As a specific result of the risk assessment for the case-study area, it has been shown that arsenic exposure pathways (in risk-ranking order) "ingestion of agricultural products," "groundwater uptake," "dermal contact," and "soil ingestion" pose a significant health risk. From a general point of view, the proposed and applied health risk assessment approach could give some contribution (for comparison and discussion) for policies on contaminated soils to other countries. In this perspective, the paper expressly considers the current Italian regulative situation concerning restricted use of risk analysis and concerning soil quality for agricultural land use.
[The content of petroleum products, benzo(a)pyrene and heavy metals in soils of yamalnenets autonomous district and heavy metals in the hair of children].
The paper presents information about the content of benzo(a)pyrene in soil samples of petroleum products and the content of heavy metals (iron, copper, lead, arsenic, manganese, chromium, cadmium and mercury) in the soil and hair samples of children. Soil samples and hair were taken in October 2014 in the north-western part of the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous District. The values obtained were compared with the approximately permissible levels and maximum allowable concentrations adopted in the Russian Federation. Levels are determined compounds in the soil in general do not exceed the allowable concentrations. In hair samples there was noted marked exceeding of the recommended values for zinc, copper, chromium and iron 10%, 16.7%, 83.3% and 100% samples, respectively. The cause of the high iron content in the hair samples may be due to the quality of consumed water, which is characterized by low mineralization and high iron content. Increased chromium content of more than 80% of the hair samples can be caused, as in the case of iron, the quality of water consumed, but also a high proportion of local foods in the diet of people, rich by chromium. A conducted study on the state of the environment in the village, away from areas of hydrocarbon production, indicates to the low importance of anthropogenic impact.
