Vol 100, No 1 (2021)

Introduction. This article refers to the authors’ calculation method for studying the effects UF₆ (uranium hexafluoride, UHF) on the human body. A review of this method’s main ideas and the features of the approach to solving the problem at certain stages of the movement of UHF from being released into the air before entering the body is offered. The possibilities of the proposed method and its place in many well-known studies in this direction are described.

Material and methods. The research material is UHF. It serves as the primary working substance in technologies for enriching natural uranium with the ²³⁵U isotope. UHF, due to various circumstances, appears in the production room in a gaseous state. A method for studying the effects of UHF on humans is to describe the distribution processes of UHF molecules in the volume of the working room, chemical transformations of UHF, physical transformations of the resulting products, i.e., all processes accompanied by the delivery of toxic substances and their transfer from the source to the person and before excretion from the body in a natural way. The description of these processes is carried out analytically.

Results. Lists the results that can be obtained by calculation.

Discussion. A discussion of the results is carried out in the following areas. The issue of the possibility of using the described calculation method to solve the problems of ensuring labor safety at work is considered. The question of trust in the calculated values characterizing the effect of UHF on the human body is being studied. To solve this problem, we compared the calculated results obtained for a particular process and the experimental ones implemented in a similar process.

Conclusion. A conclusion is made regarding the advantages and disadvantages of the method under investigation for studying the effects of UHF on humans and determining their place among existing methods.

Introduction. Working conditions at coal-fired power plants cause an increased risk of the formation of chromosomal damage in workers. The contribution of the variability of the structure of the genes controlling the cell cycle and apoptosis to the occurrence of cytogenetic disorders induced by such mutagens has been little studied.

Material and methods. The polymorphic variants of the genes: TP53 (rs1042522), CHEK2 (rs555607708), ATM (rs1801516), TGF-β1 (rs1800469), and the level of chromosomal aberrations (CA) in the lymphocytes of the blood were studied. Three hundred twenty-six workers of coal-fired power plants and 267 individuals who did not work in industrial enterprises were examined. All individuals were Caucasians, residents of Kemerovo (Western Siberia, Russia).

Results. The level of CA in blood lymphocytes in thermal power plant workers was established to be statistically significantly higher than that of residents of the same locality who never works in industrial enterprises (3.05 ± 0.09% versus 1.67 ± 0.07%, p = 0, 000001). The prevalence of the polymorphic variants of the TP53 (rs1042522), CHEK2 (rs555607708), ATM (rs1801516), TGF-β1 (rs1800469) genes in the group of workers was the same to those in the comparison group and corresponded to the global data obtained in Caucasians. In the group of workers with the TT genotype of the TGF-β1 gene, the frequency of metaphases with chromosome damage was statistically significantly higher than in individuals with the CC genotype (4.07 ± 0.41% versus 2.85 ± 0.10%, p = 0.006).

Discussion. For the first time a significant contribution of polymorphic variants of TGF-β1 genes to the formation of chromosomal damage in working coal-fired power plants was revealed. This may be associated with an increased level of expression of the multifunctional cytokine TGF-β1 in owners of the TT genotype and its ability to influence proliferation, apoptosis, telomerase activity, and other critical cellular processes.

Conclusion. The results of the study I, ndicate that not only the complex of industrial genotoxicants, but also individual genetic characteristics of the organism can influence on the formation of cytogenetic disorders in workers at thermal power plants.

Introduction. One of the features of lead is its high ability to disintegrate and significantly contaminate the environment. The contamination of hands or the whole body with lead creates a high probability of penetrating micro- and nanoparticles through the skin into the body. Nowadays, this process is not sufficiently studied. There is evidence that inorganic compounds or metallic particles of lead can penetrate through the skin into a human body.

Material and methods. centrifuge 10000 rpm, laser emitter (wavelength 625-740 nm), optical microscope, voltampermetric analyzer ABA-2, Analysette 12 Dyna Sizer, magnetic stirrer, distiller, Na₂S solution. The studies were conducted in 2017-2018 among the workers of battery sections of technical service stations in Ternopol - 17 people. The research results were processed by the statistical package SPSS 19.

Results. The process of mechanical contamination by the skin with lead, rejection of micro particles from the surface of lead, and, to a lesser extent, ultrafine nanoparticles, which can penetrate the sweat glands, was established to occur. The studies have shown in the washings from the palms particles’ skin are detected mainly in the size of 1 μm - 100 nm. In the process of finding the particles of lead in the sweat glands, their length decreases to Nanoscale, allowing them freely entering the body. The decrease in particle size in the sweat glands occurs due to the formation of soluble lead compounds. Presumably, the main chemical contributing to this process is lactic acid. With increasing exposure, the size of lead particles in the sweat glands decreases. Intensive cleaning of the skin surface by mechanical methods, and detergents, followed by contamination with lead, promotes the penetration of lead particles into the sweat glands and its further spread in the body. The intense physical activity was established to contribute to a decrease in particle size, which suggests chemical interaction of lead with lactic acid and the formation of soluble lead lactate. The assumption is confirmed by studies of the composition of sweat, which is detected lead lactate.

Conclusion. The lead ability to penetrating a human body transcutaneously in the form of nanoparticles and soluble compounds has been proven. Intense physical activity facilitates the penetration of lead into the body.

Introduction. According to WHO experts, chronic non-communicable disease (NCD) is the leading worldwide medical and social problem. In recent decades, the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) population showed changes in nutrition habits, physical activity reduction. It increased the spread of modified chronic NCD’s risk factors.

Material and methods. The authors performed a one-stage study of modified risk factors and frequency analysis of chronic NCD in the North-Eastern Federal University (NEFU) employees who had medical check-ups in 2017 (n = 800): men (n = 260), women (n = 540). The attendees’ age varied from 30 to 54 years. Abdominal obesity (AO) was diagnosed by two criteria: men’s waist ≥ 90 cm and women’s waist ≥ 80 for Asia residents (IDF1); men’s waist ≥ 94 cm and women’s waist ≥ 80 for European residents (IDF2) (IDF, 2006).

Results. This analysis of the study group of NEFU employees showed the median level of SYS and DYS, glucose in serum, and the waist index in both groups, regardless of gender, to be within reference values. The most frequent risk factors of chronic NCD were hypercholesterolemia and abdominal obesity (p = 0.000). A spread of hypercholesterolemia was 16.8%, in men (23.5%) more frequently than in women (13. Every fourth woman and every third man had AO according to IDF criteria compared to attendees without AO (p = 0.000).

Conclusion. A significant positive correlation between AO and age, SYS, DYS, cholesterol and glucose in serum was identified.

Introduction. Oxidative stress can occur as the response to the toxic effects of pesticides. A study of the effect of two generic pesticides on the enzymes of the antioxidant defense system of warm-blooded animals was carried out within the framework of chronic food exposure.

Material and Methods. 90 conventional male rats were kept in the vivarium of the Federal scientific center of hygiene named after F.F. Erisman for a year. Test objects including fungicide of the anilinopyrimidines class (compound A) and insecticide from of the carbamates class (compound B) were introduced into animal feed at doses of 0; 2; 20; 120 and 240 mg/kg body weight and 0; 2.5; 5 and 20 mg/kg body weight, respectively. Doses corresponded to the ranges found in the reports by the Joint Meeting of the FAO/WHO Meeting on Pesticide Residues for the original compounds in chronic toxicity studies. The effect of the studied compounds on the general antioxidant status (the activity of enzymes: superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GPO), glutathione reductase (GR) and catalase (CAT)) was assessed at 3, 6, 9, and 12 months.

Results. The test objects caused statistically significant changes in enzyme activity as early as at 3 months of the treatment, compared with animals of the concurrent negative control. For the compound A: a statistically significant dose-dependent increase in the activity of GR (Rho = 0.381, p = 0.017) and GAP (Rho = 0.355, p = 0.024), but not SOD and CAT, was recorded at 12 months. The compound B caused a statistically significant dose-dependent increase in SOD activity at 9 and 12 months (Rho = 0.491, p = 0.006; Rho = 0.506, p = 0.003)

Conclusion. These observations indicate that compounds A and B could promote lipid peroxidation. Oxidative burst was registered in response to the influence of the compound B, which may have been caused by apoptosis of T-lymphocytes.

Санитарно-эпидемиологическая служба Российской Федерации понесла невосполнимую утрату – 25 января 2021 г. на 84-м году жизни скончался учёный, организатор отечественного здравоохранения и медицинской науки, государственный деятель, академик Российской академии медико-технических наук и Международной академии информатизации, член-корреспондент РАМН (2005 г., в настоящее время – РАН), главный государственный санитарный врач РСФСР (1990–1992), Главный государственный санитарный врач Российской Федерации (1992–1996, доктор медицинских наук, профессор (1999), заслуженный врач Российской Федерации (2002) Евгений Николаевич Беляев.