[Comparative evaluation of the efficacy of plants for disinfection of medical waste].

There are presented results of the comparative evaluation of the effectiveness of plants for disinfection of medical waste which use 4 most common hardware technologies: treatment by saturated steam pressure, moist heat, microwave exposure and chemical disinfection with refinement. The efficiency ofplants using physical methods of influence was shown to be higher in comparison with hardware chemical disinfection.

[Methodological problems of noninfectious epidemiology and hygiene under chemical pollution of the environment].

In modern conditions the base of the assurance of the safety of human being from harmful factors of environment is the hygienic rationing for the latters. The use of this methodological principle led to the considerable decline in the level of chemical pollution of environment objects. However tens of millions of Russians are exposed to the impact of chemicals above admissible hygienic level. There was noted the high prevalence and mortality rate due to noninfectious diseases of the population. The hygienic science needs to develop and introduce methodology of personification prevention on protection of the person against chemical environmental pollution.

[Approaches of European and Russian legislation in the field of management of medical waste].

A comparative analysis of Russian and European legislation concerning to the waste management has been performed. There were revealed principal differences in Russian and European legislation in methodology of the waste classification. In Europe, there is no methodology for breaking up waste into hazard classes, and for the denomination of the danger there are used hazard lists which fail to give information about the extent of their danger. Medical waste in the European legislation are not selected into the separate category as being included in terms of articles and lists in the annexes to the directives or other legal acts. There are considered requirements of the Russian and European legislation in the area of the landfill waste burial. In the frameworks of the proposals for the implementation of international experience in the waste management there was drafted the project of Sanitary rules on hygiene requirements to the arrangement and the contents of landfills for residential solid waste, which includes requirements concerning not only residential solid waste, but also medical waste.

[Methodical approaches to the substantiation of hygienic requirements for the application of deicing materials].

In the paper there is presented a review of existing guidelines and rules of operation of deicing materials (DIM), as well as opportunities for their processing with the aim to ensure the security for the environment and public health. There are described the ecological- hygienic and toxicological properties of chemicals. There are reported results of a pot experiment for the assessment of the impact of DIM on the lawn.

[Biological, chemical, and radiation factors in the classification of medical waste].

The current classification of medical waste does not consider the sanitary-and-chemical hazard of epidemiologically dangerous and extremely dangerous medical waste (classes B and C). According to the results of the studies performed, the authors propose the improved classification of medical waste, which makes it possible to take into account not only infectious, radiation, and toxicological, but also sanitary-and-chemical hazards (toxicity, carcinogenicity, mutagenicity, and biological activity) of medical waste.

[Skin resorptive effect of petroleum on some biochemical and immunological parameters in experimental animals].

Petroleum and its transformation products accumulated in soil along multiple trophic chains enter the human body, which increases the risk of environmentally induced diseases. A thirty-day experiment studied the cutaneous effect of different doses (4250, 850, and 425 mg/kg) of sunflower oil-emulsified petroleum. Its sensitizing and allergic effects were studied on albino guinea pigs. The activity of N-acetyl-beta-D-glucosaminidase and catalase was determined in the sera of non-inbred male albino rats. Petroleum given in a dose of 4250 mg/kg was found to have a negative effect. When its bioeffect occurred, a protective adaptive response of the body revealed in early stages gave way to tension of its adaptive capacities.

[Experimental estimation of the hazard from combustion products of waste polymeric materials].

The object of the study was waste polymeric materials. Its aim was to reveal the hazard of their combustion. Conditions occurring in the combustion of waste polymeric materials were simulated; methods for chemical analysis were used; biotesting was performed. The study revealed a high hazard from combustion products of waste polymeric materials.

[Estimation of morbidity rates in relation to living conditions].

The scientific and practical evaluation of the cumulative influence of environmental factors on human health presents certain difficulties as the establishment of the level of individual health is methodologically inadequately developed. By employing the clinical studies only, the existing prophylactic medical examination system enables one to detect only the early signs of diseases. Estimating the level of human health should be complemented with criteria for prenosological diagnosis along with the assessment of individual living conditions to enhance the objectivity of determining the population's health status and to elaborate hygienically founded prophylactic measures.

[Analysis of the mutagenic activity of aqueous and buffer extracts from oil-polluted soil samples].

The Ames test on Salmonella typhimurium TA 100 and TA 98 strains were used to study the mutagenic activity of aqueous (pH 7.4) and buffer (pH 4.5) extracts from soil samples containing different oil levels (from 16 to 3526 mg per kg soil), which had been taken from different areas of a town, and buffer extracts from model soil samples added by crude West-Siberian oil (160-15625 mg/kg). The extracts from all soil samples showed no mutagenic activity. The buffer soil sample extract containing oil in the amount of 12290 mg/kg and oil and coal combustion products had a mutagenic effect with metabolic activation on the TA 98 strain. It is suggested that the mutagenic effect of this sample is associated with oil and coal combustion products.

[Topical problems of the comprehensive hygienic characterization of urban environmental factors and their influence on the population's health].

The authors consider the topical problems of the influence of urban environmental factors (the quality of drinking water, the pollution of the ambient and dwelling airs and soil) on the health of residents in the urbanized areas. They show it necessary to apply a comprehensive approach to studying and analyzing the influence of a large number of interrelated factors on the population's health and its vulnerable subgroups, by employing the current sensitive biomedical studies, as well as to develop and introduce noninvasive techniques for the early diagnosis of environment-induced diseases.

[Oil pollution of a number of Moscow residential and recreational areas].

The soils of residential areas were studied in different Moscow districts differing in the level of a man-caused load. Oil pollution was estimated by the soil content of oil hydrocarbons. A correlation was established between the levels of hydrocarbons and the sanitary ill-being of the city's soils.

[Rapid experimental rationale for a waste hazard class by cytotoxicity].

The paper presents the results of experimental and analytical studies substantiating a classification of waste hazard by the cytotoxicity indices. The authors have established a significant correlation between the substance toxicity values obtained in vivo and in vitro and show it possible to make an approximate forecast of the average lethal concentration of substances by the estimates made on cell cultures. The criteria for toxicological waste hazard, which are adequate to those for the hazards of chemicals by DL50, are given.

[Control of industrial waste consumption residues: ecological and hygienic aspects].

The problem in the provision of safe handling of industrial waste and consumption residues is relatively current. According with the United Nations Organization's data, 25 to 33% of the world's notified diseases are directly associated with the low quality of the human environment. Up to now, a list of chemicals encountered in the waste and residues is unavailable in Russia and foreign countries. By keeping in mind the ubiquitous spread of industrial waste and consumption resides due to human vital activity, their huge formations and their very wide diversity in composition, type, and pattern of a possible dangerous effect, it is important to consider the problem associated with waste handling, by evaluating their environmental and hygienic hazard.

[Hygienic evaluation of the effects of petroleum hydrocarbons on crops].

Experience in standardizing the soil levels of chemicals suggests that the translocation hazard index is limiting for most standardized substances. The current unavailability of scientifically grounded maximum allowable concentration of soil petroleum generates a need for studies using this hazard index. The studies were made to examine different soil petroleum levels, by employing various test crops.

[Hygienic evaluation of the effect of petroleum hydrocarbons on the soils of megapolises].

The paper gives the results of studying the quantity of petroleum hydrocarbons in the Moscow soil, as well as the latter's hygienic evaluation by the changes in acidity (pH) and redox potential and by the sanitary state (the levels of Escherichia coli and viable helminthic eggs). The study has ascertained that the petroleum-polluted soils show changes in medium pH and redox conditions that determine the biological activity of the substances and the trend in their disintegration processes and revealed a relationship of thy sanitary state of Moscow soils to their level of petroleum hydrocarbons.

[Evaluation of the hazard of soil-polluting chemicals upon exposure of experimental animals].

The experimental study of the biological activity of the modified calcium chloride produced by a Volgograd plant and that of ash-and-slag of the pharmaceuticals resulting after combustion of a pyrolytic mixture of filtration burning could establish various hazards of these substances.

[The environmental-and-hygienic risk of industrial waste and consumption].

How to safely handle production and consumption residues is a relatively recent problem. According to the data of the United Nations Organization, 25 to 33% of the diseases notified in the world are directly related to the poor human environment. In Russia and foreign countries, there has been no list of chemicals so far. By taking into account the general spread of human vital activity-induced production and consumption residues, the substantial scale of formation and a great variety of the latter's in their composition, types, and the pattern of their possible deleterious action, it is important to consider the problem of handling the residues, by assessing the risk of their hazard.

[The country's geochemical provinces and the population's health].

The paper describes possible conditions for forming the natural and artificial geochemical provinces available on the territory of the Russian Federation, as well as the impact of localities' soil pollution with chemicals on human health, by using specific areas as an example. Emphasis is laid on the fact that it is urgent to substantiate priorities to organize and manage a section of sociohygienic monitoring of localities' soil.

[The ecologo-hygienic problem of soil pollution].

The article covers the ecologo-hygienic aspects of anthropogenic soil pollution, and important directions of research into its sanitary protection. The authors adduce data concerning the levels of actual soil pollution with chemicals and biological agents (microbiological and helminthological ones) in various centers of population, and discuss the variants of solving the ecologo-hygienic problems of soil protection in Russian Federation.