Dioxin exposure and public health in Chapaevsk, Russia
Introduction
Published studies of dioxin exposure and its impact on human health are few in number and limited to certain geographical regions. The majority of studies have been concentrated in Italy (after the incident in Seveso), the US, Vietnam (as a result of using Agent Orange), Germany (occupational studies) and other countries. There are two towns in Russia where similar studies are being conducted – Ufa (Bashkiria) and Chapaevsk (Samara Region).
Chapaevsk is located 43 km to the southwest of Samara, on the Chapaevka River, which flows into the Volga River. The population of the town is 83,000. One of the largest environmental polluters in Chapaevsk is the Middle Volga chemical plant. Prior to 1949, the Plant produced chemical blister agents: mustard gas and lewisite. From 1967 to 1987, it produced hexachlorocyclohexane (lindane) and its derivatives. Currently, it produces crop protection chemicals (liquid chlorine, acids, methyl chloroform, vinyl chloride, and some other chemicals). Previously it was considered that hexachlorane production was responsible for dioxin contamination in the city's environment. Tests seemed to confirm it. But after the production was stopped in 1987, a continued output of dioxin was still observed. The study of the present -day chemical production technologies revealed that dioxins and similar compounds can be formed in the production of methyl chloroform, vinyl chloride, dichlorpropionic acid, hexachlorethane, sodium pentachlorphenolate and polychloroform (Environment and public health in Chapaevsk city, 2000).
A large network of industrial plants was created during industrialization in Russia, intended for the production of toxic agents with high chlorine content. One such plant was founded in Chapaevsk, Samara Region. Industrial plants, mainly related to the military-industrial complex, occupied 51% of the total region area. These plants produced 86% of the city's income. They employed approximately half of the city's population.
Beginning in 1989, a stable trend towards reduced production has been observed in the city, as well as in the country as a whole. The greatest reduction of more than 83% took place at the defense plants. The chemical industry reduced production by more than 50%. The reduced volume of production in Chapaevsk is higher than in Samara Oblast and in Russia on the whole.
The first results of dioxin analysis in soil samples indicated high concentrations. High levels of dioxin were registered in soils at the city center, in the soils of gardens and agricultural fields. This led the Chapaevsk City Administration to begin studies to assess the impact of dioxin on human health with the following aims:
- 1.
to estimate environmental exposure to dioxin;
- 2.
to estimate blood and milk levels of dioxin;
- 3.
to estimate incidence and mortality rates, and specifically describe reproductive health in the population according to official statistical data;
- 4.
to assess the impact on genetic characteristics;
- 5.
to assess male sexual maturation and abnormalities in the male reproductive system based on case-control studies.
An article by Revazova et al. (2000) about the cytogenic effects of dioxins in residents of Chapaevsk has been published in this issue of Chemosphere.
Section snippets
Sampling human milk
Sampling of human milk was carried out in December 1997–June 1998 according to the World Health Organization (WHO) criteria. Forty samples of human milk were pooled into seven samples. The average age of mothers was 22.0 years. All surveyed mothers classified their diet as mixed. Ninety percent of women eat fish once a week or rarely, 80% of women eat meat more than two times a week, and dairy products every day. All respondents never smoked, as they self-reported in the interview.
Blood
Blood samples
Results
In 1994 the average concentration of dioxins in air was . The calculations were made when the plant worked at 20% capacity, so one can extrapolate that dioxin air emissions had been higher previously. Moving away from the plant one can see a decrease in the dioxin levels – down to 36.8 ng/kg in downtown (2.7 km from the plant); down to 3.9 ng/kg in the southern part of the city; down to 0.9 ng/kg at 10–15 km from the plant (Table 1). Private home owners (18,000 in Chapaevsk) grow
The chemical fertilizer plant workers
The group most exposed to dioxin are the workers at the chemical fertilizer plant. The plant produced toxic compounds during World War II. There is little published information on the working conditions in those years. The newspaper “Chapaevsk Worker” reported mustard gas concentrations in the air of the working area as being 500 times or higher than the Russian threshold limit value. More than 30 workers died of chemical poisoning by mustard, lewisite and their mixture.
In 1969, the Gorky
Acknowledgements
We assume that Chapaevsk is an incredibly interesting site for further environmental-epidemiological research. Recently, our group has begun joint work with the Harvard School of Public Health and physicians from Chapaevsk to assess sexual maturation of boys. There is also the potential to apply case-control study methods for an investigation of endometriosis, diabetes and other disruptions of the endocrine system.
This work was initiated by the mayor of Chapaevsk, Yuri Lipchenko and his Deputy,
References (47)
Chemosphere
(1994)- et al.
Polychlorinated dioxin and dibenzofuran levels in the environment and food from the Republic of Bashkortostan, Russia
Chemosphere
(1998) - et al.
Change in sex ratio with exposure to dioxin
Lancet
(1996) - et al.
Sex ratio after exposure to dioxin-like chemicals in Taiwan
Lancet
(1999) Levels of dioxins, dibenzofurans and other chlorinated xenobiotics in human milk from Soviet Union
Chemosphere
(1990)- Amirova, Z., 1999. Analyzing a substructure of phenoxyherbicide production workers cohort by the pattern recognition....
- Amirova, Z., et al., 1999. PCDD/Fs levels in blood and human milk from urban and rural areas of Bashkortostan, Russia....
- Amirova, Z., Kruglov, E., 1998. The situation with dioxins in Bashkortostan Republic. Ufa, 115 pp (in...
Profiles of great lakes critical pollutants: a sentinel analysis of human blood and urine
Environ. Health Perspect.
(1998)- Bates, M.N., et al., 1999. PCDDs and PCDFs in the serum of the nonoccupationally exposed New Zealand population. In:...