Ecological and human health risk aspects of burning arsenic-rich coal

• Published in: Environmental geochemistry and health Vol. 31; no. 1; pp. 239 - 243
• Main Authors: Bencko, Vladimír, Rameš, Jiří, Fabiánová, Eleonora, Pešek, Jiří, Jakubis, Marián
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Dordrecht : Springer Netherlands 01.04.2009; Springer Netherlands; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Age Distribution; air; Air Pollutants - analysis; Air Pollutants - poisoning; Apis mellifera; Arsenic; Arsenic - analysis; Arsenic - toxicity; Arsenic Poisoning - epidemiology; Arsenic Poisoning - physiopathology; Biomonitoring; burning; carcinogenicity; children; Coal; cumulative exposure; Databases, Factual; Earth and Environmental Science; Ecology; Emissions; Environment; Environmental Chemistry; Environmental Exposure - adverse effects; Environmental Health; Environmental Monitoring - methods; Epidemiological Monitoring; exposure assessment; extinction; Female; Geochemistry; Hair; Hair - chemistry; Health risk assessment; Health risks; hearing; honey bee colonies; human health; Humans; Incidence; Local population; Male; Mass extinctions; Melanoma; men; monitoring; neurotoxicity; Original Paper; pollution; Power Plants; Public Health; risk; Risk Assessment; Sex Factors; Skin Neoplasms - chemically induced; Skin Neoplasms - epidemiology; Slovakia; Slovakia - epidemiology; Soil Science & Conservation; Studies; Terrestrial Pollution; Time Factors; women; Slovakia; Non-melanoma skin cancer incidence; Arsenic toxicity; Cancer epidemiology; Risk assessment; Biological monitoring
• ISSN: 0269-4042; 1573-2983; 1573-2983
• DOI: 10.1007/s10653-008-9224-3

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.