Biogeochemical Aspects of Local Interaction in the Society–Nature System at Technogenesis of the Biosphere

Abstract

The paper presents evidence that a biogeochemical approach should be applied in analyzing interactions in the system society–nature when the biosphere is affected by anthropogenic impacts, whose key indicator is the health status of the human population. The basic principles and tasks of multilevel medico-ecological monitoring are described, which make it possible to systematically proceed from the qualitative assessment of the state of the human population health and ecological situation to the quantitative assessment of the ecological health risks and regional standards for permissible levels of technogenic factors, with regard to the probable changes in their effects due to the biogeochemical conditions of the environment. The paper provides verification results of the monitoring methods applied at a regional (Republic of Crimea), subregional (in the cities of Sevastopol and Simferopol), and local (individual cohorts of the urban population) levels. Although the official statistics received from various state departments is less informative for the regional research, it nevertheless allowed us to outline (at a reasonable probability level) territories with contrastingly different parameters of environmental health risk. Subregional (within settlements) biomonitoring in Sevastopol and Simferopol has revealed a spatial heterogeneity and loci with higher contents of some heavy metals and other chemical elements in the environment and biosubstrates (soil and plants). Cohort studies of residents of these cities and assessment of 29 chemical elements in the human organism were followed by the examination of the functional state of target systems in humans belonging to risk groups. Results of correlation and regression analysis allowed us to estimate the physiological significance of the elements and the effects of their complex influence at a background exposure.