Ecological and human health risk aspects of burning arsenic-rich coal |
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Authors: | Vladimír Bencko Ji?í Rame? Eleonora Fabiánová Ji?í Pe?ek and Marián Jakubis |
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Institution: | (1) Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology, First Faculty of Medicine, Charles University in Prague, Studničkova 7, 128 00 Praha 2, Czech Republic;(2) Regional Institute of Public Health, Bansk? Bystrica, Slovakia;(3) Faculty of Sciences, Charles University in Prague, Prague, Czech Republic;(4) Regional Institute of Public Health, Prievidza, Slovakia |
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Abstract: | The subject of the study was the ecological and human health consequences of environmental pollution from emissions arising
from burning local coal with an arsenic content ranging from 900 to 1,500 g/tonne of dry substance. The first indication of
environmental pollution by arsenic-containing emissions was the mass extinction of honeybee colonies. The neurotoxic and carcinogenic
aspects of arsenic exposure were followed. On using a group diagnostics approach, significant hearing losses were detected
in exposed children in both air and bone conduction audiometry at high frequency range (4,000 and 8,000 Hz, respectively).
Exposure assessment of the local population of the Prievidza district, Central Slovakia, was based on biological monitoring.
The criterion of higher exposure was arsenic content in hair exceeding concentrations of 3 μg/g of hair. In a 7.5-km radius
of the exposed region, live about two-tenths of the district population who were considered as “exposed” and rest of the district
served as the “reference” population. The subject of our analysis was a database of 1,503 non-melanoma skin cancer (NMSC)
cases (756 in men and 747 in women) collected from 1977 to 1996 in the Prievidza district, Central Slovakia (population ~125,000).
The age standardized incidence of NMSC (each confirmed by histological examination) in non-occupational settings ranged from
45.9 to 93.9 in men and from 34.6 to 81.4 in women. Analysis of our data demonstrates a positive correlation between human
cumulative exposure to arsenic and incidence of NMSC. |
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