[Assessment of the health status and working capacity of electric charge plant operators].

High-power broadband electromagnetic pulses of nanosecond range duration have been found to adversely affect the health status and working capacity of electric charge plant operators. A system of measures to protect the workers from exposure to such pulses, which is based on the hygienic regulation of the exposure, has been implemented.

[Health state and performance of operators in electric discharge facilities--sources of electromagnetic impulses].

The authors revealed that potent broadband electromagnetic impulses in nanosecond range have negative influence on health state and performance of electric discharge facilities operators. Created system of measures protecting workers from such impulses is based on hygienic regulation of the exposure.

[Radiation safety of exploitation of radiation sources at the civil aviation airlines]. / Radiatsionnaia bezopasnost' pri ékspluatatsii istochnikov ioniziruiushchikh izluchenii na predpriiatiiakh grazhdanskoi aviatsii.

Radiation risks from isotope-containing equipment, and ionizing and unused X-ray radiation sources are characterized and relevant normative documents with safety requirements to radiation sources installation, radiation safety of aircraft servicing and repair, hand luggage control and heavy luggage registration, personal protection items, system of radiation monitoring at airlines and aircraft works, and liability for breach of performance guidelines are cited.

[Socio-psychological and ecological aspects within the system of nuclear radiation risk mitigation]. / Sotsial'no-psikhologicheskie i ékologicheskie aspekty v sisteme bezopasnosti pri iaderno-radiatsionnykh riskakh.

The authors bring into light several aspects of nuclear radiation risks, i.e. physical safety of nuclear technologies and ecology, place of operator within the nuclear radiation safety system (proficiency, protective culture, safety guides) and consider approaches to the human factor quantification within the system of mitigation of risks from nuclear technologies, and IAEA recommendations on probable risk estimation. Future investigations should be aimed at extension of the radiation sensitivity threshold, personnel selection as by psychological so genetic testing for immunity to ionizing radiation, development of pharmachemical and physical protectors and methods of enhancing nonspecific resistance to extreme, including radiation, environments, and building of radiation event simulators for training.

[Depleted uranium: radiation and ecological safety aspects]. / Obednennyi uran: radiatsionnye i ékologicheskie aspekty bezopasnosti.

The authors have analyzed the ecological, sanitary-and-hygienic and medicobiologic aspects of using the impoverished uranium in armaments and military equipment. The influence of impoverished uranium on human body (600 cases) was studied using medicobiologic investigation. It was shown that the particles of aerosol of mixed uranium oxide cause the radiation and chemical damage of kidneys, lungs and other internals. Uranium's alpha-radiation is very effective in induction of biologic effects during internal irradiation. Taking into account that bone tissue is the critical organ for uranium isotopes the medullar tissue is exposed to alpha-radiation. In the armed conflicts of the last decade wide use of armour-piercing means with elements consisted of impoverished uranium has led to the appearance of new technogenic risk factor for the environment and the man.

[Electromagnetic fields: is there any probability of the risk of cancer?]. / Elektromagnitnye polia: vozmozhen li kantserogennyi risk?

The literature on epidemiological studies of impacts of humans of electromagnetic fields (EMF) including weak ones has been reviewed. The risk of cancer to people in EMF appears to be a complicated problem. Consideration is given to the phenomenon of radiophobia associated with exposure in EMF.

[Morpho-functional status of large-cell hypothalamic nuclei following chronic exposure to wide-range electromagnetic impulses]. / Morfofunktsional'noe sostoianie krupnokletochnykh iader gipotalamusa pri khronicheskom vozdeistvii shirokopolosnykh élektromagnitnykh impul'sov.

In a experiment with white nubilous male rats the morphofuntional state of secretory neurons (SN) of the large-cell hypothalamic nuclei (LCHN) was evaluated with the morphological, morphometric and statistical methods following electromagnetic exposure (500, 100 and 50 impulses once a week) inducing in the animal body the averaged current densities of 1.5 kA/m2. It was stated that 100 EMI a week called forth opposite LCHN reactions, that is suppression of synthesis and elimination of SN neuro-secret in supraoptic nuclei and their activation in the paraventricular nuclei. LCHN reaction to the other frequencies of EM impulses was uniform and included rearrangement of both neurosecretory centers for a lower functional activity. Decrease in the number of effectively functioning SN due to the EM exposure may point to a dead-aptive effect of this factor.

[Radiation risk in aircraft altitude flights]. / Radiatsionnyi risk pri vysotnykh aviatsionnykh poletakh.

The radiation risk in aircraft altitude flights was evaluated from calculated dose fields at the altitude of 10-30 km 0-90 degrees North modulated by the galactic cosmic radiation (GCR) in quiescent heliophysical periods. Results of dose measurements in flight are discussed in the light of present-day radiation limits. The authors suggest that pilots should be subsumed under the category of professionals who work with sources of ionizing radiation.

[Principles and methods of evaluation of radiation risk and pilots' health in accidents of nuclear power objects]. / Printsipy i metodologiia otsenki radiatsionnogo riska i zdorov'ia letchikov pri avariiakh iadernykh ob"ektov.

The article deals with methodic approaches to health state evaluation of pilots who participated in liquidation of events following accidents at nuclear power objects. The main approaches are indeterminancy principle for late radiation effects, economic approach to evaluation of radiation risk, principle of risks comparison, consideration of summarized effect of environmental factors, etc. Some authors' viewpoints are presented.

[The principles and methodology for assessing radiation risk: the medical and socioecological contradictions]. / Printsipy i metodologiia otsenki radiatsionnogo riska: meditsinskie i sotsial'no-ékologicheskie protivorechiia.

An effort has been made to evaluate the environmental and social contradictions as applied to radiation health. Consideration was given to the following issues: the principle of stochasticity and uncertainty of delayed radiation effects of low doses in evaluation of liquidators' health; economic approach to determination of radiation risk and radiation protection programme; risks (natural, domestic, technogenic) comparability principle; simulation of the "man-factor-population-external environment" system; regional and ethnic principles in evaluation of radiation risk; gnosiological approach to formation of a positive image of radiation factor, the principle of economic and social protection; evaluation of radiation health with allowance for specificity of pilot work in highly risky conditions.

[Protective action of mexamine and indralin in intensive electromagnetic irradiation of rats]. / Zashchitnaia aktivnost' meksamina i indralina pri intensivnom élektromagnitnom obluchenii krys.

Protective properties of radioprotectors from indolyl alkylamine group (mexamine and indralin) in rats exposed to powerful electromagnetic irradiation (2.4 GHz, specific absorption rate 90-100 W/kg) was studied. The survival index of tested animals reached the maximum in condition of prophylactic administration of drugs in intervals 20-60 minutes before irradiation. Protective effect of mexamine and indralin connected with hypothermia and desensitization conditioned by the drugs use.

[Microwaves and blood-brain barrier]. / Mikrovolny i gematoéntsefalicheskii barér.

It is presented the analytical review of the effect of radiofrequency and microwave radiation on function on blood-brain barrier (BBB) in experimental animals. Analysis of referenced papers encompasses the issue of the relation of BBB changes on the power and temporal parameters, regimens of generation of acting radiation and its unevenness. Along with this the authors tried to generalize the cited works considering the marker, used in BBB studies, its molecular mass, to present the sensitivity of isolated brain structures under influence of microwaves to the permeability of several substances, their dependence on thermogeneity of acting levels as well as to draw attention to reversibility of detected changes.

[Microwaves and the visual analyzer]. / Mikrovolny i zritel'nyi analizator.

The results of studying an effect of microwaves on the different regions of visual analyzer are investigated. The morphofunctional changes at the light-optic and electron-microscopic levels are revealed. The changes involve not only peripheric area of visual analyzer but also its central regions. Some epidemiologic observations are indicative of: altered sizes of blind spot; decreased magnitudes of optic rheobase and chronaxy; color vision disorder; increased diastolic pressure in central artery of the retina. Study of bioelectrical activity of the retina enabled some investigators to make a conclusion about a reaction disorders occurring in the subcortical visual centers. It is noted that the animal studies not always explain unequivocally the microwave effects on the visual analyzer.

[The possibilities for using new integral indices of the human peripheral blood]. / Vozmozhnosti ispol'zovaniia novykh integral'nykh pokazatelei perifericheskoi krovi cheloveka.

In medical examination of flight personnel two new statistic indexes of integral estimate of changes in peripheral blood were used: integral blood deterioration ratio and entropy of leukocyte blood formula. These indexes have a rather high sensitivity that makes it possible to determine the tendency towards pathological changes in the organism, even if the whole blood picture will be within acceptance limits.

[Epidemiologic studies of the effect of microwaves (neurophysiologic, hematologic and ophthalmologic aspects)]. / Epidemiologicheskie nabliudeniia pri vozdeistvii mikrovoli (neirofiziologicheskie, gematologicheskie i oftal'mologicheskie aspekty).

This paper presents epidemiological and clinical evaluations of subjects exposed to electromagnetic radiations (EMR) in the microwave range with emphasis on neurophysiological, hematological and ophthalmological changes. Special attention is given to neurological and psychogenic effects of EMR as well as to possible development of radiophobia. Ageing, cataract development and genetic signs are considered as objective measures of EMR effects.

[Ultrastructure of the cerebral cortex in the rat after the effect of electromagnetic impulse]. / Ul'trastruktura kory bol'shogo mozga krys posle vozdeistviia élektromagnitnogo impul'sa.

In mature rats an area on the head has been subjected to a single radiation for 1.5 sec with microwaves in the continuous regimen of generation, frequency 2.4 GHz level of the specific absorbed power 5 W/g, that is accompanied with appearance of convulsions. Under anesthesia specimens of the superficial layer of the cerebral superlateral part are taken and subjected to electron microscopical investigation. Immediately after radiation and in 2 h certain disorders in microcirculation and reactive changes of mitochondria in perikaryons, axons, dendrites, synapses of the neurons and in gliocytes are revealed. The mitochondrial changes are designated as "edematous". In 2 and 6 h in karyoplasm of some neurons membranous structures appear; they are interpreted as a result of heat denaturation of the nuclear proteins. In synapses, together with lesions of mitochondria, synaptic complexes undergo destruction and osmiophilic substance is accumulated in the subsynaptic zone along the whole length of the contact. In one day, essential destructive changes are revealed as severe lesions of some neurons, vacuolization and destruction of mitochondria, localized in all the structures. Pathogenesis of the neurological disturbances is based on disturbances of interneuronal interactions, connected with an immediate heat effect of the electromagnetic radiation on the structures responsible for the synaptic transmission and with a rapidly developing tissue hypoxia as a consequence of microcirculatory disturbance and a sharp inhibition of energetic metabolism.

[Experimental study of the effects of acute uneven microwave irradiation]. / Eksperimental'noe izuchenie éffektov ostrogo neravnomernogo mikrovolnovogo oblucheniia.

The purpose of the study was to reveal parts of the body affected by radiation most of all in uneven microwave irradiation (current frequency of 2.4 GHz/s) by the destruction criterion taking account of some indicators of the absorbed power of electromagnetic radiation (EMR). Uneven irradiation was achieved by the screening of some parts of the body with radiopaque material leaving unshielded parts subjected to irradiation. Control over the redistribution of absorbed energy was exercised by means of multichamber phantoms. In experiments on animals (female rats) within the range of specific absorbed power of 15-40 mWg the utmost affection of the cranial segment was revealed. The results show good correlation with a curve of the effect of 50% destruction criterion in total EMR irradiation.