RESUMO
This comprehensive study assessed a number of environmental factors that were potentially able to induce genotoxic effects in man. A set of radiological, physicochemical, and bioindication techniques was used to estimate the quality of water, air, and soil in the places of residence and education of children and adolescents from the boarding school of the town of Tashtagol and schoolchildren from the village of Krasnoye, Kemerovo Region. Excess radon levels in the air of living spaces and classes, a small excess of the maximum allowable concentration of gross forms of heavy metals in individual soil samples, and high toxic effects in the Drosophila gametes exposed to air samples were revealed in the Tashtagol children having higher genotoxic effects in the lymphocyte than those in the Krasnoye village ones. The findings suggest that the marked genotoxic effects recorded over a long time in the lymphocytes of children and adolescents living in Tashtagol may be associated with the complex influence of the above factors. It is north supplementing further investigations by an extended chemical analysis of water, air, snow, and soil samples taken in the places of residence and education of children.
