The most important biotic factors affecting human health include those that determine the sanitary and epidemiological situation. The causative agents of many diseases persist in the environment through development in animal hosts. For example, the causative agent of tularemia (an acute infectious disease) can be transmitted indefinitely from generation to generation in mink populations and, under favorable conditions, infect humans. Natural foci of infections are associated with certain biogeocenoses in which pathogens, vectors and host animals evolve together, adapting to each other. In this case, the pathogen usually does not destroy the host. This is precisely the nature of natural foci of plague, tularemia, yellow fever, malaria, viral hepatitis, and tick-borne encephalitis. The carriers of many of these diseases are blood-sucking insects - mosquitoes, mosquitoes, fleas, ticks. The causative agents of some infectious diseases (for example, rabies, cholera, leptospirosis, brucellosis) do not have vectors.

In nature, pathogenic organisms play a very important role important role limiters of excessive development of populations. As soon as a certain population begins to grow explosively, it is immediately affected by numerous pathogenic viruses, bacteria, protozoa, and fungi. Man was no exception: in ancient and medieval cities, epidemics occurred very often. For example, in the VI century. n. e. North Africa, Syria, Europe and Asia Minor were gripped by the so-called “Black Death” - a plague epidemic that claimed the lives of about 100 million people (more than a third of the then world population). The second major plague epidemic occurred in Europe in the 14th century. and destroyed about 25 million people, that is, almost half of the population of Europe, and not a single living person remained on the island of Cyprus.

The main factors contributing to the emergence of epidemics were high density population (primarily in cities), as well as a catastrophic sanitary condition. The plague, whose natural carriers are rodents and fleas, was transmitted to humans by “domestic” rats. The disease was spread among people not only by fleas, but also by airborne droplets or direct contact. In those days, the plague was almost 100% fatal. As human population density decreased, the epidemic subsided and relative equilibrium was restored.

In the XVII-XIX centuries. Thanks to the development of hygiene and medicine, the likelihood of epidemics has decreased. However, the density of human populations, especially in major cities, not only did not decrease, but on the contrary increased. Because of this, outbreaks of tularemia, cholera, and hepatitis still occur from time to time; The foci of malaria and encephalitis have not been completely eliminated, sexually transmitted diseases are spreading, and new diseases are appearing, for example, AIDS. Another aspect of the indirect impact of biotic factors on humans is associated with food, as mentioned above.

The influence of anthropogenic factors on humans

Paradoxically, the negative impact a person has on their own health is enormous. The variety of means by which a person destroys his health and gene pool is amazing - these are pesticides and household chemicals, heavy metals and plastics, drugs and tobacco, noise and electromagnetic fields, radiation and acid rain, biological and chemical weapons, industrial waste, oil and much more. The influence of only a few groups of man-made factors has been studied, and only a few of their categories, which are considered leading, have been conditionally identified. These include chemical factors - pesticides, mineral fertilizers, heavy metals, highly toxic industrial substances, smoke (including tobacco), building materials and household chemicals; physical factors - noise, electromagnetic radiation and radiation; biological factors - introduction of new species of animals and plants.

Many of these chemicals do not decompose over a long period of time and can accumulate in food chains. Some substances are not eliminated from the body for a long time, accumulating in tissues and organs, so their negative impact on the human body is constantly growing (the so-called cumulative effect). According to some reports, the industry now produces more than 11 thousand types of chemicals, of which about 3 thousand pose a serious threat not only to human health, but also to life itself.

The main method of monitoring the degree of cleanliness of the environment is to assess the content of certain harmful substances in it relative to the maximum permissible concentrations (MPC) and doses (MAD) of these substances both in the biotope and at certain levels of trophic chains. The development of these MPCs and traffic rules is carried out by specialized research organizations. Typically, MPCs reflect the critical range of a factor, beyond which a person falls from the optimum zone to the pessimum zone. Exceeding MPCs and SDAs is always accompanied by a deterioration in public health.

As already noted, pesticides represent a large group various substances to combat pests and diseases of agricultural plants. Many of them have a combined effect, for example, the insecticide DDT destroys insects, nematodes, and rodents. The main characteristics of these pesticides are volatility, the ability to penetrate the skin, accumulate, decompose and be excreted from the body. The industry produces mainly seven groups of pesticides: organochlorine, organophosphorus, organomercury compounds, carbamates, nitrophenols, specific herbicides and fungicides.

Organochlorine compounds (OCCs). The most famous pesticide in this group is the insecticide DDT (dichlorodiphenyltrichloromethylmethane). The insecticidal properties of DDT were discovered by the Swiss chemist P. Müller, for which he was awarded Nobel Prize. In 1943, mass production of DDT began, one millionth of a gram of which instantly paralyzed an insect. By the mid-60s, about 1,500,000 tons of this product had already been produced and sprayed on fields in the world. The use of DDT dramatically increased agricultural production and enabled the "green revolution" in Latin America and Southeast Asia.

However, already in the 1950s, new evidence emerged that some insects had lost their susceptibility to DDT. Information began to arrive about the death of some species of insectivorous birds, bees and shrimp, and about a decrease in the efficiency of pollination of flowering plants. DDT began to appear in elevated concentrations in the tissues of commercial fish, in particular mackerel, the consumption of which led to severe poisoning of people. Increased levels of the drug were found in penguin livers and even in human milk. It turned out that DDT is a chemically stable compound with a natural half-life of 49 years, and has the ability to accumulate in soil and water, from where it enters the food chain. At each subsequent trophic level, the concentration of DDT increased tens, hundreds, and even thousands of times. Getting in such doses to the last consumer of the trophic chain - humans, DDT accumulated in tissues and caused diseases nervous system, heart, liver. So, DDT turned out to be a toxic pesticide with a long period of existence and a pronounced cumulative effect. Due to the danger to human health, this pesticide was banned in almost all countries of the world, but even now its content in human tissue is on average twice the MPC.

Hexachlorocyclohexane, heptachlor, and chlorobenzene are close in their effect to DDT, as a result of which these MOOCs are banned almost everywhere or their use is very limited.

Organophosphorus compounds (OPC), unlike MOC, are today quite intensively produced and used in agriculture. Among them there are toxic substances (metaphos, mercaptophos) and highly toxic (phosphamide), the use of which is completely prohibited; there are compounds of moderate toxicity (chlorophos, karbofos), which are still used to a limited extent; are low-toxic drugs (methylacetophos, avenin), which are used quite widely. Most OPs, even low-toxic ones, are characterized by a cumulative effect and therefore can pose a danger to human health. The toxic effect of FOS is the inhibition of an enzyme that is involved in the process of transmitting nerve impulses. In this case, the functions of all internal organs are disrupted. Poisoning is accompanied by headache, dizziness, and weakness. In severe cases, loss of consciousness occurs, the kidneys, liver, heart are affected, and death is possible.

Compared to MOS, organophosphates are much more potent, but their half-lives are usually shorter, ranging from several weeks to several months.

Organomercury compounds (OMCs) are powerful fungicides and bactericides. They are highly toxic, easily penetrate the brain, and are characterized by a cumulative effect. ROS, primarily granosan and Mercury, are used in some farms for pre-sowing seed treatment. Therefore, most often poisoning is associated with accidental consumption of such disinfected raw materials. Main active substance is mercury. Once in the blood, it accumulates in various organs, binds to enzymes and disrupts their work. In case of poisoning, a metallic taste in the mouth, weakness, and headache appear. High doses of mercury lead to severe impairment of consciousness or death from acute cardiovascular failure. First aid for mercury poisoning is to use the antidote - unithiol.

Poisoning can be caused by any mercury compounds. Mercury itself is NOT deactivated either in the body or in biotopes. It accumulates in soils or water bodies and then migrates through trophic chains, gradually concentrating like DDT. Mercury is removed from the biological cycle only as a result of its removal into the World Ocean and burial in bottom sediments. For example, in Baltic cod the mercury content sometimes reaches 800 mg per 1 kg of weight. That is, after eating five or six of these fish, a person receives as much mercury as is contained in a medical thermometer. Numerous cases of mercury poisoning are known, even at concentrations in the environment below the MPC.

Carbamates. Pesticides of this group are synthesized on the basis of carbamic acid and its derivatives. The most common domestic drugs are Sevim, tiuram, ciram, zineb, and foreign ones are MANEB, zaneb, propoxur, methomil. Carbamates have a wide spectrum of action and therefore can be used as insecticides, fungicides, bactericides, and herbicides. Their common feature is the absence of a cumulative effect, rapid decomposition (within one to several weeks), low toxicity to humans and low volatility. Due to these properties, carbamates are the main group of commercial pesticides used in developed countries. So far, the only negative property of these drugs is considered to be their indiscriminate toxicity to insects, in particular to bees. Recently, data have appeared on the dangers of carbamates for humans - it has been proven that Sevim and some other drugs cause mutagenic effects.

Nitrophenols are phenolic compounds extracted from coal and are used as insecticides, fungicides and herbicides. Nitrophenols affect any cells of the body, that is, they have a nonspecific effect, disrupting the regulation of oxidative phosphoritation processes. As a result, the work of mitochondria is enhanced, and the processes of oxidation and respiration are significantly activated. Nitrophenols are toxic to humans and have carcinogenic properties, so their production and use are prohibited in developed countries.

Specific herbicides. These include the so-called contact herbicides (atrazine, simazine, paraquat) and systemic herbicides (2,4-D, diuron). These drugs disrupt photosynthesis in plants and are therefore used to control weeds. Specific herbicides are unstable and do not exhibit a cumulative effect, but some of them are highly toxic. Based on such herbicides, the defoliant “orange” was developed. It was used by the US Army during the Vietnam War to unmask guerrillas, causing numerous diseases and mutations not only in the Vietnamese who were exposed to the “orange” dust, but also in American soldiers. The consequences of this chemical warfare are still being felt today in both Vietnam and the United States. The active ingredient "orange" is a specific herbicide from the group of dioxins.

Dioxins are the most dangerous environmental pollutants produced by humans. they are combined into two groups of chlorine-containing compounds based on dibenzodioxins and dibenzofurans. Dioxins are very stable substances. They actively accumulate in the environment, are transported by air currents over long distances, and pose a threat to the planet’s water bodies and all humanity. For example, in the Baltics (in water, bottom sediments, fish) there is about 10 g of dioxins, but this is already the maximum limit for the population of Sweden for 50 years. Detection of dioxins requires the use of sensitive analytical techniques.

Midevmisni fungicides. The most famous pesticides of this group are Bordeaux mixture and copper sulfate with the active ingredient - copper sulfate. Midevmisni preparations, like mercury, do not lose their toxicity over time; they accumulate in the soil, partially in grapes, and can enter the human body. Copper causes general poisoning, in which case a metallic taste in the mouth, salivation, and vomiting appear. At high concentrations, the breakdown of red blood cells increases and symptoms of jaundice occur; death is likely. First aid for copper poisoning is to immediately lavage the stomach with a solution of potassium permanganate. Then the victim should be given milk and activated carbon.

In general, poisoning by pesticides and their transformation products in ecosystems is one of the main manifestations of the reverse influence of anthropogenic factors on humans. Taken together, insecticides and herbicides are powerful “drugs” for ecosystems, because they modify the functions of vital links in food chains - consumers and producers. That is, the use of these substances can only occur under the guidance of qualified specialists with official certificates, just as is customary with medicines, used to treat people.

In addition to pesticides, mineral fertilizers are also major environmental pollutants. Today the industry produces several hundred types of nitrogen, phosphate, potassium and combined fertilizers. Tens of millions of tons of fertilizers are applied to soils every year. Plants absorb only about 40% of this mass; the rest ends up in water bodies and pollutes them. Drinking water contaminated with mineral fertilizers (primarily nitrogen) has become common in many regions of the world. In addition, due to excessive concentrations of fertilizers in the soil, they accumulate in excessive quantities in plants and end up at our table.

The active ingredients of many nitrogen fertilizers are nitrate and nitrite compounds, which pose a real threat to human health and life. Nitrates interact with hemoglobin, converting it into a form that is unable to bind oxygen. The lethal dose of nitrates for humans is about 2.5 g. Acute poisoning, accompanied by nausea, diarrhea, bluish skin, chest pain, occurs when the nitrate concentration is about 1 g per 1 liter of drinking water or per 1 kg of food. Mild poisoning, manifested in weakness and general depression, occurs at concentrations of 300 mg/l in adults and 100 mg/l in children.

The third place after poisoning by pesticides and nitrates is occupied by heavy metals - mercury, lead, zinc, manganese, chromium, nickel, which have been used by humans since ancient times. For example, in 1953, more than 200 residents of the Japanese city of Minamata were poisoned by mercury, 52 of them died. As it turned out, the cause of mass poisoning was the consumption of crabs whose tissues contained a lot of mercury. It accumulated in the crabs as a result of the discharge of contaminated wastewater from a chemical plant into the bay, where mercury chloride was used as a catalyst. At the same time, the concentration of mercury in the kidneys of deceased people was 6 times higher than in the bodies of crabs. In this way, the cumulative properties of heavy metals were discovered.

Also in the 20th century. diseases caused by lead poisoning (so-called saturnism) were discovered. Patients with Saturnism experience weakness, apathy, memory impairment, and progressive physical and mental degradation. Indirect information about this disease dates back to the time when lead was made water pipes. Such a water supply system operated, for example, in Ancient Rome, when the life expectancy of Roman patricians did not exceed 25 years.

And although today almost nowhere in the world there are no lead water pipes, the number of cases of saturnism diseases is growing, because lead is released into the atmosphere when gasoline is burned in car engines. In a hundred-meter strip around the highway, the lead content is 100-150 μg per 1 kg of soil, while its average content in the lithosphere is considered normal up to 10 μg/kg. Lead enters the environment during the mining of lead ores. In Ukraine, for example, large amounts of lead contaminated soils and water bodies, and then entered the food chain during the liquidation of the Chernobyl accident. Modern lead contamination of the biosphere confirms this fact: lead content in bones primitive man was only 2 mg, whereas in modern man- 100-200 mg. It is lead, which enters the air in the form of an aerosol, that causes the formation of protoplasmic poison, denatures proteins, and in turn causes disruption of enzymatic activity. It reduces the amount of hemoglobin and destroys red blood cells.

Other heavy metals, like mercury and lead, also have a general toxic effect and primarily affect the nervous system. All of them are capable of accumulating in the human body, have a prolonged effect and are removed from the cycle only after they are washed out into the World Ocean and buried in its bottom sediments.

Today, highly toxic industrial substances (TDS) and fumes have become constant companions of humans. Poisoning of many people with these substances occurs as a result of damage to storage facilities, fires, explosions, emergency emissions from enterprises, disasters in maritime and railway transport in various regions of the world. According to the World Poison Treatment Center, the most common poisonings are chlorine, ammonia, vapors of various acids, hydrogen sulfide, and a mixture of hydrocarbons and mercaptans. As a result of chlorine poisoning, asthmatic bronchitis and toxic pulmonary edema develop, and at high concentrations, chemical burns of the lungs and spasms occur. vocal cords, death may occur. Ammonia poisoning causes laryngitis, tracheitis, tracheobronchitis; in the case of high concentrations, the consequences are the same as with severe chlorine poisoning. Mild poisoning by vapors of acids (sulfuric, perchloric, nitric, acetic, etc.) lead to damage to the respiratory tract, cause skin burns and contribute to the development of skin diseases; at high concentrations, death is possible.

Acid poisoning can cause smog. For example, NO3, which enters the atmosphere from dimogas industrial emissions, interacting with water vapor, carbon dioxide and oxygen, forms nitric acid, aldehydes, and specific nitrate compounds, which settle on the ground in the form of smog. The world-famous London smog, which was formed in winter as a result of burning coal with a high sulfur content. Sulfur dioxide, after interacting with water vapor, settled along with dust particles on the city, forming a gray fog. The consequence was numerous cases of chronic respiratory diseases. Now London has lost this characteristic feature. However, industrial smog can often be observed in the industrial centers of Ukraine - Dneprodzerzhinsk, Krivoy Rog, Mariupol, Donetsk, etc.

Another dangerous source of toxic substances is emissions from automobile gases. The range of toxic substances in them is very diverse: carbon monoxide, tetraethyl lead, nitrogen and sulfur oxides, aldehydes, benzopyrene, etc. - only about 200 items. Systematic exposure to exhaust gases on humans increases the incidence of bronchitis, acute respiratory infections, pneumonia, and cancer. For example, in Japan, about 12% of all diseases are associated with air pollution from cars.

Construction materials and household chemicals are also sources of constant harmful effects on human health. Construction materials, varnishes, paints, organic solvents, synthetic detergents, deodorants, air humidifiers, aerosols, numerous polymers - all this is reflected in the morbidity level of human populations. Among the substances emitted by building materials, formaldehyde and asbestos microparticles pose the greatest threat. Formaldehyde enters the air mainly from wood chips and fibreboards, which are widely used in the production of furniture and interior decoration. The maximum permissible concentration of formaldehyde in the air is OD-0.12 mg/m8. However, the concentration in the air modern apartments on average is about 0.5 mg/m3, and in some cases reaches 3 mg/m3. Formaldehyde causes conjunctivitis, skin inflammation, respiratory diseases, and has certain carcinogenic properties. Asbestos is used as an insulating and fire-fighting material, which is part of asbestos-cement pipes. In the form of microparticles (about 5 microns in diameter), it enters the air and then into the lungs, causing a number of diseases, including cancer.

Various organic solvents, varnishes and paints, deodorants and aerosols have weak and moderate carcinogenic properties and can cause allergic reactions, irritation of mucous membranes, diseases of the respiratory tract, liver and kidneys, and nervous disorders (this is especially true for some solvents and humidifiers). Even chlorinated hot water releases the carcinogen chloroform in small quantities, and plastic products and artificial carpets- toxic to internal organs. Therefore, building materials and household substances made from natural raw materials are becoming increasingly popular.

Noise pollution. The harmful effects of noise on human health have been known for a long time. Back in the 16th century. The German physician Paracelsus believed that it was noise that caused deafness and headaches in miners, millers and minters. During the existence of wars, it became known that mass battle cries or drumming suppress the enemy. The sirens of attack aircraft and dive bombers evoke fear. An explanation has been found for this: loud sounds excite a person and contribute to the entry of a large amount of hormones into the blood, in particular adrenaline, which results in a feeling of danger and fear. Today, the noise level in large cities has increased by tens, hundreds and even thousands of times compared to the 19th century. Sources of noise include all types of transport, industrial facilities, loudspeaking devices, elevators, televisions and radios, musical instruments, crowds of people, and the like.

Radiation, throughout its history, man, like the biosphere as a whole, has been exposed to radioactive radiation, coming from space and from radioactive isotopes scattered in the lithosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere. This radiation constituted a natural radiation background and contributed to the evolutionary process, because it provided a stable, insignificant background of mutations, which in turn increased the genetic diversity of populations and provided material for natural selection. However, from the middle of the 20th century. man began to intensively master atomic energy. Atomic weapons appeared nuclear power plants, research and therapeutic radioactive drugs and devices. As a result of testing and use of nuclear weapons, accidents at nuclear power plants (only at the time of the Chernobyl accident nuclear power plant more than 200 of them have already occurred in the world), violations of hygienic requirements for handling radioactive substances, etc. Radiation doses on the planet and in its individual regions began to grow rapidly.

Strontium-90 (908g), cesium-137 (1 * TSV), iodine-131 (181I) take an active part in metabolic processes among radioactive substances. They became the main polluters of the environment after the Chernobyl accident. These elements enter the body with dust and water; to a certain extent, they have cumulative properties and the ability to accumulate in trophic chains. In humans, radioactive iodine is concentrated in the thyroid gland, cesium in the liver, and strontium in the bones. Iodine-131 causes strong but short-term radiation (it has a short half-life and is eliminated from the body relatively quickly). Strontium and cesium, which have half-lives of thousands of years, cause radiation exposure throughout a person's lifetime.

Ionizing radiation has high biological activity. It negatively affects the living matter of the biosphere, including humans, and in the case of large doses leads to death. Ionizing radiation can act in two ways. Firstly, it affects the carriers of heredity - DNA molecules, causing chromosomal and gene mutations, the consequences of which appear immediately or after several generations. Secondly, ionizing radiation can damage cells and tissues and cause somatic disorders, manifested in burns, cataracts, decreased immunity, abnormal pregnancy, and the development of malignant tumors of various organs.

It has now been proven that there are no harmless doses of radiation: the likelihood of disease increases in direct proportion to the absorbed dose of radiation. Radiation is inherently harmful to life. Low doses of radiation can provoke changes in the cells of a living organism that have not yet been fully established, leading to cancer or genetic damage. At high doses, radiation can destroy cells, damage organ tissue and cause rapid death of the body.

Damage caused by high doses of radiation appears within hours or days. Cancers caused by radiation appear many years after exposure, usually no earlier than one or two decades. And congenital defects and other hereditary diseases caused by damage to the genetic apparatus are noticeable only in the next generation: these are children, grandchildren and more distant descendants of the individual exposed to radiation. A person who has felt the effects of radiation does not necessarily have to develop cancer or become a carrier of hereditary diseases; however, she is more likely or at risk of such consequences than a person who has not received radiation. And this risk is greater, the higher the radiation dose. If the dose is too high, the person may die.

In some cases, very large doses of radiation - about 100 Gy (Gy) - cause such severe damage to the central nervous system (CNS) that death usually occurs within hours or days. At radiation doses of 10 to 50 Gy, when radiation affects the entire central nervous system, the damage may not be so severe as to cause immediate death, but the person is more likely to die within 1-2 weeks from gastrointestinal hemorrhage. At lower doses, there may not be serious damage to the gastrointestinal tract, since the body compensates for them, but death can occur 1-2 months after irradiation and mainly due to the destruction of red bone marrow cells - the main component of the body's hematopoietic system. About half of all victims die from a dose of 3-5 Gy during whole-body irradiation. So, large doses of radiation differ from small ones in that death occurs earlier in the first case, and later in the second. Most often, a person dies as a result of the simultaneous manifestation of all these effects of radiation.

The most vulnerable to radiation are the red bone marrow and other elements of the hematopoietic system; they lose the ability to function normally even at radiation doses of 0.5-1 Gy. Reproductive organs and the eyes also have increased sensitivity to radiation. A single irradiation at a dose of only 0.1 December leads to temporary sterility of men, and doses higher than 2 December cause permanent sterility: only for many years the testes can again produce full-fledged sperm. The ovaries are less sensitive to the effects of radiation, at least in adult women.

Children are even more sensitive to the effects of radiation. Relatively small doses of radiation to cartilage tissue can slow down or even stop bone growth in them, which leads to abnormalities in skeletal development. How younger age child, the greater the effect of radiation on the growth of her bones. A total dose of about 10 Gy received over several weeks of daily exposure causes some skeletal abnormalities. It also turned out that irradiation of a child's brain during radiation therapy can cause changes in her character, memory loss, and in very young children - dementia and idiocy. The bones and brain of an adult are able to withstand high doses.

Dangerous sources of radionuclides entering the human body are water, milk, vegetables, fruits, meat, and fish. Reducing the danger of radiation is significantly influenced by taking into account the half-life of radioactive substances. Almost all countries that use nuclear energy use radiation safety standards and regulations based on the recommendations of the International Commission on Radiation Protection. their goal is to prevent the adverse consequences of human exposure during the use, storage and transportation of radioactive substances and sources of ionizing radiation.

The unjustified introduction of new species can also have unpredictable consequences. For example, in 1966, wild African bees, which are much more aggressive than European ones, were brought to Brazil for the purpose of breeding new promising hybrids. By chance, several bee families found their way into nature. African bees began to spread rapidly, wiping out native bees or interbreeding with them. Their attacks in Latin America killed several hundred people, and bees destroyed tens of thousands of domestic animals. Today, African bees have already begun to “develop” the territory of North America.

So, human ecology as an interdisciplinary science that studies the mutual influence of nature and the human population with the aim of improving health and increasing the social and labor potential of a person was formed almost simultaneously with classical biological ecology. However, a person’s interest in what is happening in the world around him and how it affects health appeared much earlier - when he formed as a thinking being. Over time, knowledge about the relationship in nature, the influence of external factors on the well-being, health and development of mankind was systematized, comprehended, enriched with the results of various experiments and synthesized into a scientific direction that combines acquired natural sciences (astronomy, geology, geography, physics, chemistry, biology, medicine, etc.), social, philosophical and economic branches of scientific activity.

Creation date: 2015/04/30

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), people's health depends 50-60% on economic security and lifestyle, 18-20% on the state of the environment, and 20-30% on the level of medical care. In some sources of information, up to 95% of all human health pathologies are directly or indirectly associated with the state of the environment.

Environmental factors affecting human health can be both natural and anthropogenic; beneficial or harmful to human health. The main natural factors are considered to be meteorological environmental conditions: temperature, air humidity, light, pressure, as well as natural geomagnetic fields. Anthropogenic factors are a set of conditions created by human activity.

The health status of the population is also influenced by social environmental factors. For the region, as for Russia as a whole, these include the consequences of socio-economic instability - deterioration of the sanitary and epidemiological situation, social stress due to disruption of the usual lifestyle and deterioration of nutrition, unemployment and a simultaneous decrease in control over working conditions; economic health crisis, causing the curtailment of preventive work.

It should be noted that there is no clear boundary between environmentally dependent and socially determined diseases. For example, the incidence of scabies can be classified as a disease caused by social reasons(failure to comply with personal hygiene rules), and to diseases caused by environmental factors (increased aggressiveness of the scabies mite due to its genetic changes).

The influence of the entire complex of unfavorable environmental factors leads to overstrain and disruption of the body's protective adaptive reserves and, as a consequence, deterioration of health.

The main medical and demographic indicators of population health for assessing the ecological state of the territory include general morbidity, infant mortality, medical and hygienic violations; The health status of mothers and newborns, the physical and mental development of children, and genetic disorders are considered as additional factors. Some of these indicators are analyzed below.

Morbidity rate in the adult population of the region in the period 1991-1999. varied from 41,461 (1992) to 49,373 (1999) people per 100 thousand population. It is lower than for Russia as a whole.

The Belgorod region ranks fourth among the regions of the Russian Federation in terms of average life expectancy, which is 67 years, which is two years more than the national average.

Infant mortality (children under 1 year of age) in the region has been steadily decreasing, since 1993 from 17.6 to 13.5 per 1000 births, which is lower than the Russian average, where this figure was not lower than 17.

In order for children to be healthy, it is necessary to protect their mothers from the negative effects of harmful environmental factors. However, the health of pregnant women in the Belgorod region, as in Russia as a whole, is characterized by a progressive deterioration: the frequency of pregnancy complications with anemia from 1988 to 1997 increased by 3.5 times, and late toxicosis - by 2 times.

The question of the diverse biological influence of natural geomagnetic fields (GMF) has not yet been sufficiently studied. At the same time, large deposits are located in the Belgorod region iron ores, as a result of which the level of OAB is 3 times higher than normal. An analysis of the incidence of the population of the Belgorod region living in conditions of a magnetic anomaly and in the neighborhood (in normal geomagnetic conditions) showed that the incidence in anomalous areas of neuropsychiatric and hypertensive diseases is 160%, and of rheumatism of the heart, vascular disorders and eczema - 130% in comparison with the incidence in neighboring areas with normal OAB. Therefore, areas with high GMF can be classified as environmental risk zones.

The surrounding ecology is shaped directly by man himself, who over the past few millennia has been able to globally influence it in such a way that, significantly simplifying his long life, he has developed a special mechanism that continuously affects his health. Every year this influence becomes more and more negative. Man pollutes water, the atmosphere, and soil, which does not improve their quality, but only harms all living things. Simply put, every person lives in nature. We pollute it. This is dust, smog, . We then breathe with this. We dump toxins into rivers from factories built on the banks. We drink this later. And if only these actions would ruin the lives of us and our children...

Sources of environmental pollution

Noise pollution. Any noise that irritates the ear is a source of noise pollution. Sharp and very loud sounds made by factories, trains, cars, machinery. Due to the high level of noise, the level of cholesterol in the human body increases, the arteries narrow, the pulse quickens, and the functioning of the nervous system is disrupted, which is particularly reflected in headaches. And, as you know, the percentage of sales of headache medications is growing by 1-2% year after year. Of course, headaches are not always caused by noise, but... what we have is what we have.

Water pollution. Many types of activities - washing, dry cleaning, dumping of hazardous waste - make a large contribution to pollution of the aquatic environment. Special detergents and soaps that people use every day are also made from “bad” chemical components and synthetic materials that heavily pollute the water of the rivers into which these wastes ultimately end up. Water is becoming harder, as a result, in America and Europe, gallstone disease is already present in 1/4 of men and 1/3 of women!

Atmospheric pollution. One of the main factors is the emission of automobile exhaust. With the active development of technology, the number of various vehicles on the roads has increased, which increases the level of negative impact on the atmosphere. Factors harm the protective ozone layer, which actively protects the entire earth from the effects of ultraviolet rays. Its continuous and rapid refinement certainly entails a huge and simply terrible threat to human life. This reciprocal influence of environmental factors on a person leads to skin cancer. So the atmospheric factor is not a myth. Over the past 40 years, the number of skin cancer patients has increased 7 times!

Radioactive contamination. It is quite rare, but still causes great harm. This type of pollution is caused by dangerous accidents that occurred at nuclear power plants, disposal of nuclear waste, and work in hazardous uranium mines. This influence causes cancer, congenital pathologies of babies and abnormalities, as well as other human health problems. It is already known that more than 80 thousand people were injured near Jeroshima and Nagasaki. Professor at the University of Munich, specialist in radiobiology Edmund Lengfelder estimates the number of deaths from the Chernobyl plant this year at 50 - 100 thousand people.

Soil pollution. Today, in modern agriculture, many artificial substances and synthetic pesticides are used, which create an imbalance in the soil and also interfere with the normal growth of all plants. The soil is polluted by sewage ditches, harmful waste, poor agricultural economic activity, the use of inorganic substances, deforestation, and open-pit mining in the mountains. On such lands grow vegetables and berries, fruits and herbs that people consume. This is how harmful elements enter the body, causing health-threatening illnesses. For example, soil pollution from car exhaust is recorded even at a distance of 4.5 to 5 km from roads. And how many fields we have stretching along them! For example, manganese, the content of which in the soil should be within a few mg/kg, in reality in some cases reaches 700 mg/kg of soil. Manganese is dangerous because it leads to diseases of the skeletal system, Parkinson's disease, manganese rickets and manganese madness. In the soil it appears due to excess application of fertilizers, in the air - due to the operation of production facilities. Out of 100 children whose mothers poisoned their bodies with this element of the periodic table during pregnancy, 96-98 were born “idiots”.

More about the consequences of environmental pollution

What can't a person live without? For example, without air and water. It is becoming increasingly difficult to find good places where there is precisely this water and air that is clean and beneficial for the body.

The atmosphere is becoming increasingly polluted, and modern vehicles, as well as any type of industry, contribute to this. Every day, many substances hazardous to health enter the air: manganese, selenium, arsenic, asbestos, xylene, styrene and others. This long list can be continued for a very long time, almost ad infinitum. When all these microelements penetrate the human body, they can easily provoke the development of oncology diseases, as well as ailments of the nervous system. After all, many have noticed that people have become more aggressive and unbalanced.

Water is the source of full life. Now more than 2/3 of the diseases on the planet occur due to the consumption of ordinary water, which can lead to the following diseases:

Oncological diseases;
changes in the genetic type, due to which children are born with different disabilities;
decreased immunity;
decreased functioning of the reproductive organs in women and men;
diseases of the internal systems of the body - kidneys, liver, intestines and stomach.

This allows us to clearly see that the direct influence of environmental factors on a person is like the influence of a time bomb on the whole world - sooner or later the end will come.

The atmosphere and water also negatively affect any food that a person consumes daily. Conventional foods that are supposed to provide only benefits bring more and more harmful toxins into the body, as well as other elements that can have a bad effect on human health. It is for this reason that many diseases appear that cannot be cured.

Trying to create the most comfortable conditions for existence, a person spoils everything that nature has provided to him. Due to modern inventions, acid rain occurs, harmful elements enter the atmosphere and clean water, and products lose their primary quality.

MINISTRY OF HEALTH OF THE IRKUTSK REGION

Regional state educational budgetary institution

secondary vocational education

"State Medical College of Bratsk"

INFLUENCE OF ECOLOGICAL FACTORS ON HUMAN HEALTH

Performer: Art. gr. F-137

Moshkovskaya E.D.

Supervisor

Morozova T.V.

Bratsk, 2014

INTRODUCTION

All processes in the biosphere are interconnected. Humanity is only a small part of the biosphere, and man is only one of the types of organic life - Homo sapiens (reasonable man). Reason separated man from the animal world and gave him enormous power. For centuries, man has sought not to adapt to the natural environment, but to make it convenient for his existence. Now we have realized that any human activity has an impact on the environment, and the deterioration of the biosphere is dangerous for all living beings, including humans. A comprehensive study of man, his relationship with the outside world has led to the understanding that health is not only the absence of disease, but also the physical, mental and social well-being of a person. Health is a capital given to us not only by nature from birth, but also by the conditions in which we live.

Relevance of the topic: The topic is relevant because motor vehicles and industrial enterprises have a significant chemical, noise, light and thermal impact on environmental pollution, which negatively affects human health. In addition, cities have their own special social conditions and level of medical care, which also affect human health.

Purpose of the study: to determine the dependence of human health on environmental factors.

Research objectives:.

Identify factors affecting human health

The influence of these factors on the body

1ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS

Environmental factors are properties of the habitat that have any effect on the body. Indifferent elements of the environment, for example, inert gases, are not environmental factors.

Environmental factors exhibit significant variability in time and space. For example, temperature varies greatly on the surface of land, but is almost constant at the bottom of the ocean or deep in caves.

The same environmental factor has different significance in the life of co-living organisms. For example, the salt regime of the soil plays a primary role in the mineral nutrition of plants, but is indifferent to most terrestrial animals. The intensity of illumination and the spectral composition of light are extremely important in the life of phototrophic organisms (most plants and photosynthetic bacteria), and in the life of heterotrophic organisms (fungi, animals, a significant part of microorganisms) light does not have a noticeable effect on life activity.

Environmental factors can act as irritants that cause adaptive changes in physiological functions; as limiters that make it impossible for certain organisms to exist under given conditions; as modifiers that determine morpho-anatomical and physiological changes in organisms.

Organisms are influenced not by static, unchanging factors, but by their regimes - a sequence of changes over time. certain time.

1.1Classifications of environmental factors

By the nature of the impact:

?Directly acting - directly affecting the body, mainly on metabolism;

?Indirectly acting - influencing indirectly, through changes in directly acting factors (relief, exposure, altitude, etc.).

By origin:

Abiotic - factors of inanimate nature:

?climatic: annual sum of temperatures, average annual temperature, humidity, air pressure;

?edaphic (edaphogenic): soil mechanical composition, soil air permeability, soil acidity, soil chemical composition;

?orographic: relief, height above sea level, steepness and aspect of the slope;

?chemical: gas composition of air, salt composition of water, concentration, acidity;

?physical: noise, magnetic fields, thermal conductivity and heat capacity, radioactivity, intensity of solar radiation.

Biotic - related to the activity of living organisms:

?phytogenic - influence of plants;

?mycogenic - the influence of fungi;

?zoogenic - the influence of animals;

?microbiogenic - the influence of microorganisms.

Anthropogenic (anthropic):

?physical: use of nuclear energy, travel on trains and planes, the effects of noise and vibration;

?chemical: the use of mineral fertilizers and pesticides, pollution of the Earth's shells with industrial and transport waste;

?biological: food; organisms for which humans can be a habitat or source of food;

?social - related to people's relationships and life in society.

By spending:

?Resources - elements of the environment that the body consumes, reducing their supply in the environment (water, CO2, O2, light);

?Conditions are elements of the environment that are not consumed by the body (temperature, air movement, soil acidity).

By direction:

?Vectorized - directionally changing factors: waterlogging, soil salinization;

?Perennial-cyclical - with alternating multi-year periods of strengthening and weakening of a factor, for example, climate change in connection with the 11-year solar cycle;

?Oscillatory (pulse, fluctuation) - fluctuations in both directions from a certain average value (daily fluctuations in air temperature, changes in the average monthly precipitation throughout the year).

1.2The effect of environmental factors on the body

Environmental factors affect the body not individually, but in combination; accordingly, any reaction of the body is multifactorially determined. At the same time, the integral influence of factors is not equal to the sum of the influences of individual factors, since various kinds of interactions occur between them, which can be divided into four main types:

?Monodominance - one of the factors suppresses the action of the others and its magnitude is of decisive importance for the organism. Thus, the complete absence or presence of mineral nutrition elements in the soil in a sharp deficiency or excess prevents the normal absorption of other elements by plants.

?Synergy is the mutual strengthening of several factors due to positive feedback. For example, soil moisture, nitrate content and illumination, while improving the provision of any of them, increase the effect of the other two.

?Antagonism is the mutual suppression of several factors due to negative feedback: an increase in the locust population contributes to a decrease in food resources and its population declines.

?Provocativeness is a combination of positive and negative effects for the body, while the influence of the latter is enhanced by the influence of the former. So, the earlier the thaw comes, the stronger plants suffer from subsequent frosts.

The influence of factors also depends on the nature and current state of the organism, therefore they have different effects on both different species and on one organism at different stages of ontogenesis: low humidity is detrimental to hydrophytes, but harmless to xerophytes; low temperatures are tolerated without harm by adult conifers of the temperate zone, but are dangerous for young plants.

Factors can partially replace each other: when illumination decreases, the intensity of photosynthesis will not change if the concentration of carbon dioxide in the air increases, which usually happens in greenhouses.

The result of the influence of factors depends on the duration and repetition of their extreme values ​​throughout the life of the organism and its descendants: short-term influences may not have any consequences, while long-term ones lead to qualitative changes through the mechanism of natural selection.

1.3The body's response to changes in environmental factors

Organisms, especially those leading an attached, like plants, or sedentary lifestyle, are characterized by plasticity - the ability to exist in more or less wide ranges of values ​​of environmental factors. However, at different values ​​of the factor, the body behaves differently.

Accordingly, its value is identified in which the body will be in the most comfortable state - quickly grow, reproduce, and demonstrate competitive abilities. As the factor value increases or decreases relative to the most favorable one, the body begins to experience depression, which manifests itself in a weakening of its vital functions and, at extreme values ​​of the factor, can lead to death.

Graphically, a similar reaction of the body to a change in factor values ​​is depicted in the form of a vital activity curve (ecological curve), upon analysis of which some points and zones can be identified:

Cardinal points:

?minimum and maximum points - extreme values ​​of the factor at which the life of the organism is possible;

?optimum point - the most favorable value of the factor.

?optimum zone - limits the range of the most favorable factor values;

?pessimum zones (upper and lower) - ranges of factor values ​​in which the body experiences strong depression;

?zone of vital activity - the range of factor values ​​in which it actively manifests its vital functions;

?rest zones (upper and lower) - extremely unfavorable values ​​of the factor at which the body remains alive, but goes into a state of rest;

?life zone - the range of factor values ​​in which the organism remains alive.

Beyond the boundaries of the life zone there are lethal values ​​of the factor at which the organism is not able to exist.

Changes that occur in an organism within the range of plasticity are always phenotypic, while the genotype encodes only a measure of possible changes - the reaction norm, which determines the degree of plasticity of the organism.

Based on the individual life curve, it is also possible to predict the species life curve. However, since a species is a complex supraorganismal system consisting of many populations distributed in different habitats with different environmental conditions, when assessing its ecology, generalized data are used not for individual individuals, but for entire populations. On the gradient of a factor, generalized classes of its values ​​are deposited, representing certain types of habitats, and the abundance or frequency of occurrence of a species is most often considered as ecological reactions. In this case, we should no longer talk about the vital activity curve, but about the distribution curve of abundances or frequencies.

landscape vibration organism pollution

2FACTORS AFFECTING HUMAN HEALTH AND LIFESPAN

Estimated contribution various factors influencing the health of the population is assessed according to four positions: lifestyle, human genetics (biology), external environment and healthcare. Data show that lifestyle has the greatest impact on health. Almost half of all cases of disease depend on it. The second place in terms of impact on health is occupied by the state of a person’s living environment (at least one third of diseases are determined by adverse environmental influences). Heredity causes about 20% of diseases.

A healthy body constantly ensures the optimal functioning of all its systems in response to any changes in the environment, for example, changes in temperature, atmospheric pressure, changes in oxygen content in the air, humidity, etc. The preservation of optimal human life when interacting with the environment is determined by the fact that for his body there is a certain physiological limit of endurance in relation to any environmental factor, and beyond the limit this factor will inevitably have a depressing effect on human health. For example, as tests have shown, in urban conditions, factors influencing health are divided into five main groups: living environment, production factors, social, biological and individual lifestyle.

When assessing the health of the population, an important factor of regional specificity is also taken into account, which consists of a number of elements: climate, topography, the degree of anthropogenic loads, the development of socio-economic conditions, population density, industrial accidents, catastrophes and natural disasters, etc. It is of great concern that the Russian Federation currently ranks one of the last among industrialized countries in terms of mortality and average life expectancy.

2.1Technogenic factors affecting health

The main man-made factors that have a negative impact on health are chemical and physical pollution of the environment.

2.1.1Chemical pollution of the environment and human health

Currently, human economic activity is increasingly becoming the main source of pollution of the biosphere. IN natural environment Gaseous, liquid and solid industrial wastes are entering in ever-increasing quantities. Various chemical substances, found in waste, entering the soil, air or water, pass through ecological links from one chain to another, ultimately ending up in the human body.

It is almost impossible to find a place on the globe where pollutants are not present in varying concentrations. Even in the ice of Antarctica, where there are no industrial productions and people live only at small scientific stations, scientists have discovered various toxic (poisonous) substances from modern industries. They are brought here by atmospheric currents from other continents.

Substances that pollute the natural environment are very diverse. Depending on their nature, concentration, and time of action on the human body, they can cause various adverse effects. Short-term exposure to small concentrations of such substances can cause dizziness, nausea, sore throat, and cough. The entry of large concentrations of toxic substances into the human body can lead to loss of consciousness, acute poisoning and even death. An example of such an action could be smog that forms in large cities in calm weather, or emergency releases of toxic substances into the atmosphere by industrial enterprises.

The body's reactions to pollution depend on individual characteristics: age, gender, health status. As a rule, children, elderly and sick people are more vulnerable.

When the body systematically or periodically receives relatively small amounts of toxic substances, chronic poisoning occurs.

Signs of chronic poisoning are a violation of normal behavior, habits, as well as neuropsychological abnormalities: rapid fatigue or a feeling of constant fatigue, drowsiness or, conversely, insomnia, apathy, decreased attention, absent-mindedness, forgetfulness, severe mood swings.

In chronic poisoning, the same substances in different people can cause different damage to the kidneys, hematopoietic organs, nervous system, and liver.

Similar signs are observed during radioactive contamination of the environment.

Thus, in areas exposed to radioactive contamination as a result of the Chernobyl disaster, the incidence of disease among the population, especially children, increased many times.

Highly biologically active chemical compounds can cause long-term effects on human health: chronic inflammatory diseases of various organs, changes in the nervous system, effects on the intrauterine development of the fetus, leading to various abnormalities in newborns.

Doctors have established a direct connection between the increase in the number of people suffering from allergies, bronchial asthma, cancer, and the deterioration of the environmental situation in this region. It has been reliably established that industrial wastes such as chromium, nickel, beryllium, asbestos, and many pesticides are carcinogens, that is, they cause cancer. Even in the last century, cancer in children was almost unknown, but now it is becoming more and more common. As a result of pollution, new, previously unknown diseases appear. Their causes can be very difficult to establish.

Smoking causes enormous harm to human health. A smoker not only inhales harmful substances, but also pollutes the atmosphere and puts other people at risk. It has been established that people who are in the same room with a smoker inhale even more harmful substances than the smoker himself.

2.2Physical pollution of the environment and factors affecting human health

The main physical environmental factors that have a negative impact on human health include noise, vibration, electromagnetic radiation, electricity.

2.2.1The influence of sounds on humans

Man has always lived in a world of sounds and noise. Sound refers to such mechanical vibrations of the external environment that are perceived by the human hearing aid (from 16 to 20,000 vibrations per second). Vibrations of higher frequencies are called ultrasound, and vibrations of lower frequencies are called infrasound. Noise is loud sounds merged into a discordant sound.

For all living organisms, including humans, sound is one of the environmental influences.

In nature, loud sounds are rare, the noise is relatively weak and short-lived. The combination of sound stimuli gives animals and humans the time necessary to assess their character and formulate a response. Sounds and noises of high power affect the hearing aid, nerve centers, and can cause pain and shock. This is how noise pollution works.

The quiet rustling of leaves, the murmur of a stream, bird voices, the light splash of water and the sound of the surf are always pleasant to a person. They calm him down and relieve stress. But the natural sounds of the voices of Nature are becoming increasingly rare, disappearing completely or are drowned out by industrial transport and other noise.

Long-term noise adversely affects the hearing organ, reducing sensitivity to sound.

It leads to disruption of the heart and liver, and to exhaustion and overstrain of nerve cells. Weakened cells of the nervous system cannot coordinate their work clearly enough various systems body. This is where disruptions in their activities arise.

The noise level is measured in units expressing the degree of sound pressure - decibels. This pressure is not perceived infinitely. A noise level of 20-30 decibels (dB) is practically harmless to humans; it is a natural background noise. As for loud sounds, the permissible limit here is approximately 80 decibels. A sound of 130 decibels already causes pain in a person, and 150 becomes unbearable for him. No wonder there was execution in the Middle Ages to the bell . The roar of the bells tormented and slowly killed the condemned man.

The level of industrial noise is also very high. In many jobs and noisy industries it reaches 90-110 decibels or more. It’s not much quieter in our home, where new sources of noise are appearing - the so-called household appliances.

For a long time The influence of noise on the human body was not specifically studied, although already in ancient times they knew about its harm and, for example, in ancient cities rules were introduced to limit noise.

Currently, scientists in many countries around the world are conducting various studies to determine the effect of noise on human health. Their research showed that noise causes significant harm to human health, but absolute silence also frightens and depresses him. Thus, employees of one design bureau, which had excellent sound insulation, within a week began to complain about the impossibility of working in conditions of oppressive silence. They were nervous and lost their ability to work. And, conversely, scientists have found that sounds of a certain strength stimulate the thinking process, especially the counting process.

Each person perceives noise differently. Much depends on age, temperament, health, and environmental conditions.

Some people lose their hearing even after short exposure to relatively reduced intensity noise.

Constant exposure to loud noise can not only negatively affect your hearing, but also cause other harmful effects - ringing in the ears, dizziness, headaches, and increased fatigue.

Very noisy modern music also dulls hearing and causes nervous diseases.

Noise has an accumulative effect, that is, acoustic irritation, accumulating in the body, increasingly depresses the nervous system.

Therefore, before hearing loss from exposure to noise, a functional disorder of the central nervous system occurs. Noise has a particularly harmful effect on the neuropsychic activity of the body.

The process of neuropsychiatric diseases is higher among people working in noisy conditions than among people working in normal sound conditions.

Noises cause functional disorders of the cardiovascular system; have a harmful effect on the visual and vestibular analyzers, reduce reflex activity, which often causes accidents and injuries.

Research has shown that inaudible sounds can also have harmful effects on human health. Thus, infrasounds have a special impact on the human mental sphere: all types of intellectual activity, mood worsens, sometimes there is a feeling of confusion, anxiety, fright, fear, and at high intensity a feeling of weakness, as after a strong nervous shock.

Even faint sounds Infrasounds can have a significant impact on humans, especially if they are prolonged. According to scientists, it is infrasounds, silently penetrating through the thickest walls, that cause many nervous diseases in residents of large cities.

Ultrasounds, which occupy a prominent place in the range of industrial noise, are also dangerous. The mechanisms of their action on living organisms are extremely diverse. The cells of the nervous system are especially susceptible to their negative effects.

Noise is insidious, its harmful effects on the body occur invisibly, imperceptibly. Disorders in the human body are practically defenseless against noise.

Currently, doctors are talking about noise disease, which develops as a result of exposure to noise with primary damage to the hearing and nervous system.

2.2 Effect of vibration

Vibration is a complex oscillatory process with a wide range of frequencies, resulting from the transfer of vibrational energy from some mechanical source. In cities, the sources of vibration are primarily transport, as well as some industries. In the latter, prolonged exposure to vibration can cause the occurrence of an occupational disease - vibration disease, expressed in changes in the vessels of the extremities, neuromuscular and musculoskeletal systems.

2.2.3 Effect of electromagnetic radiation

Sources of electromagnetic radiation include radar, radio and television stations, various industrial installations, and devices, including household ones.

Systematic exposure to the electromagnetic field of radio waves at levels exceeding permissible levels can cause changes in the central nervous system, cardiovascular, endocrine and other systems of the human body. So, in the apartments of the village. Konosha in the Arkhangelsk region, located 600 m from the air defense complex, the energy flux density exceeded the maximum permissible level (MAL) by 17.5 times, which contributed to the occurrence of functional disorders of the central nervous system and blood system in local residents, changes in the functional state of the thyroid gland and immune status.

2.2.4 Impact electric field

The electric field has a significant harmful effect on humans. Based on the nature of the impact, three levels are distinguished:

?direct effect manifested when staying in an electric field; the effect of this influence increases with increasing field strength and time spent in it;

?exposure to pulse discharges (pulse current) that occurs when a person touches structures isolated from the ground, bodies of pneumatic machines and mechanisms and extended conductors, or when a person isolated from the ground touches plants, grounded structures and other grounded objects;

?the impact of current passing through a person in contact with objects isolated from the ground - large objects, machines and mechanisms, extended conductors - drainage current.

3.ECOLOGICAL CONDITION AND HUMAN HEALTH

3.1Biological pollution and human diseases

In addition to chemical pollutants, there are also biological pollutants in the natural environment that cause various diseases in humans. These are pathogenic microorganisms, viruses, helminths, and protozoa. They can be found in the atmosphere, water, soil, and in the body of other living organisms, including the person himself.

The most dangerous pathogens are infectious diseases. They have different stability in the environment. Some are able to live outside the human body for only a few hours; being in the air, in water, on different subjects, they die quickly. Others can live in the environment from a few days to several years. For others, the environment is their natural habitat. For others, other organisms, such as wild animals, provide a place for conservation and reproduction.

Often the source of infection is the soil, in which pathogens of tetanus, botulism, gas gangrene, and some fungal diseases constantly live. They can enter the human body if damaged. skin, with unwashed food, in violation of hygiene rules.

Pathogenic microorganisms can penetrate groundwater and cause infectious diseases in humans. Therefore, water from artesian wells, wells, and springs must be boiled before drinking.

Open water sources are especially polluted: rivers, lakes, ponds. There are numerous cases where contaminated water sources have caused epidemics of cholera, typhoid fever, and dysentery.

In airborne infection, infection occurs through the respiratory tract by inhaling air containing pathogens.

Such diseases include influenza, whooping cough, mumps, diphtheria, measles and others. The causative agents of these diseases get into the air when sick people cough, sneeze, and even when talking.

A special group consists of infectious diseases transmitted through close contact with a patient or through the use of his things, for example, a towel, handkerchief, personal hygiene items and others that were used by the patient. These include sexually transmitted diseases (AIDS, syphilis, gonorrhea), trachoma, anthrax, and scab. Man, invading nature, often violates the natural conditions for the existence of pathogenic organisms and becomes a victim of natural eye diseases.

People and domestic animals can become infected with natural outbreak diseases when they enter the territory of a natural outbreak. Such diseases include plague, tularemia, typhus, tick-borne encephalitis, malaria, sleeping sickness.

Other routes of infection are also possible. Thus, in some hot countries, as well as in a number of regions of our country, the infectious disease leptospirosis, or water fever, occurs. In our country, the causative agent of this disease lives in the organisms of common voles, which are widespread in meadows near rivers. The disease leptospirosis is seasonal, more common during heavy rains and hot months (July - August). A person can become infected if water contaminated with rodent secretions enters their body.

Diseases such as plague and psittacosis are transmitted by airborne droplets. When in areas of natural eye diseases, special precautions must be taken.

3.2Weather and human well-being

Several decades ago, it never occurred to almost anyone to connect their performance, their emotional state and well-being with the activity of the Sun, with the phases of the Moon, with magnetic storms and other cosmic phenomena.

In any natural phenomenon around us, there is a strict repeatability of processes: day and night, ebb and flow, winter and summer. Rhythm is observed not only in the movement of the Earth, Sun, Moon and stars, but is also an integral and universal property of living matter, a property that penetrates all life phenomena - from the molecular level to the level of the whole organism.

In the course of historical development, man has adapted to a certain rhythm of life, determined by rhythmic changes in the natural environment and the energy dynamics of metabolic processes.

Currently, many rhythmic processes in the body, called biorhythms, are known. These include the rhythms of the heart, breathing, and bioelectrical activity of the brain. Our whole life is a constant change of rest and active activity, sleep and wakefulness, fatigue from hard work and rest.

In the body of every person, like the ebb and flow of the sea, a great rhythm eternally reigns, arising from the connection of life phenomena with the rhythm of the Universe and symbolizing the unity of the world.

The central place among all rhythmic processes is occupied by circadian rhythms, which are of greatest importance for the body. The body's response to any impact depends on the phase of the circadian rhythm (that is, on the time of day).

This knowledge led to the development of new directions in medicine - chronodiagnostics, chronotherapy, chronopharmacology. They are based on the proposition that the same drug at different times of the day has different, sometimes directly opposite, effects on the body. Therefore, to obtain a greater effect, it is important to indicate not only the dose, but also the exact time of taking the medication.

It turned out that studying changes in circadian rhythms makes it possible to identify the occurrence of some diseases at the earliest stages.

Climate also has a serious impact on human well-being, influencing it through weather factors. Weather conditions include a complex of physical conditions: Atmosphere pressure, humidity, air movement, oxygen concentration, degree of disturbance in the Earth's magnetic field, level of atmospheric pollution.

Until now, it has not yet been possible to fully establish the mechanisms of the human body’s reactions to changes in weather conditions. And it often makes itself felt by cardiac dysfunction and nervous disorders. With a sharp change in weather, physical and mental performance decreases, illnesses worsen, and the number of mistakes, accidents and even deaths increases.

Most of the physical factors of the external environment, in interaction with which the human body has evolved, are of an electromagnetic nature.

It is well known that near fast-flowing water the air is refreshing and invigorating. It contains many negative ions. For the same reason, we find the air clean and refreshing after a thunderstorm.

On the contrary, the air in cramped rooms with an abundance of various kinds electromagnetic devices are saturated with positive ions. Even a relatively short stay in such a room leads to lethargy, drowsiness, dizziness and headaches. A similar picture is observed in windy weather, on dusty and humid days. Experts in the field of environmental medicine believe that negative ions have a positive effect on health, while positive ions have a negative effect.

Weather changes do not affect the well-being of different people in the same way. In a healthy person, when the weather changes, physiological processes in the body are timely adjusted to the changed environmental conditions. As a result, it intensifies defensive reaction and healthy people practically do not feel the negative influence of the weather.

In a sick person, adaptive reactions are weakened, so the body loses the ability to quickly adapt. The influence of weather conditions on a person’s well-being is also associated with age and individual susceptibility of the body.

3.3Nutrition and human health

Each of us knows that food is necessary for the normal functioning of the body.

Throughout life, the human body continuously undergoes metabolism and energy. The source of building materials and energy necessary for the body are nutrients, coming from the external environment mainly with food. If food does not enter the body, a person feels hungry. But hunger, unfortunately, will not tell you what nutrients and in what quantities a person needs. We often eat what is tasty, what can be prepared quickly, and do not really think about the usefulness and good quality of the products we eat.

Doctors say that a nutritious diet is important condition maintaining the health and high performance of adults, and for children it is also a necessary condition for growth and development.

For normal growth, development and maintenance of vital functions, the body needs proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins and mineral salts in the quantities it needs.

Poor nutrition is one of the main causes of cardiovascular diseases, diseases of the digestive system, and diseases associated with metabolic disorders.

Regular overeating and consumption of excess carbohydrates and fats are the cause of the development of metabolic diseases such as obesity and diabetes.

They cause damage to the cardiovascular, respiratory, digestive and other systems, sharply reduce ability to work and resistance to diseases, reducing life expectancy by an average of 8-10 years.

Rational nutrition is the most important indispensable condition for the prevention of not only metabolic diseases, but also many others.

The nutritional factor plays an important role not only in the prevention, but also in the treatment of many diseases. Specially organized nutrition, the so-called therapeutic nutrition - required condition treatment of many diseases, including metabolic and gastrointestinal.

Medicinal substances of synthetic origin, unlike food substances, are foreign to the body. Many of them can cause adverse reactions, for example, allergies, therefore, when treating patients, preference should be given to the nutritional factor.

In products, many biologically active substances are found in equal and sometimes in higher concentrations than in those used medicines. That is why, since ancient times, many products, primarily vegetables, fruits, seeds, and herbs, have been used in the treatment of various diseases.

Many foods have bactericidal effects, inhibiting growth and development various microorganisms. Thus, apple juice delays the development of staphylococcus, pomegranate juice inhibits the growth of salmonella, cranberry juice is active against various intestinal, putrefactive and other microorganisms. Everyone knows the antimicrobial properties of onions, garlic and other products. Unfortunately, this entire rich therapeutic arsenal is not often used in practice.

But now a new danger has appeared - chemical contamination of food. A new concept has also appeared - environmentally friendly products.

Obviously, each of us had to buy large, beautiful vegetables and fruits in stores, but, unfortunately, in most cases, after trying them, we found out that they were watery and did not meet our taste requirements. This situation occurs if crops are grown using large amounts of fertilizers and pesticides. Such agricultural products can not only have poor taste, but also be hazardous to health.

Nitrogen is an integral part of compounds vital for plants, as well as for animal organisms, such as proteins.

In plants, nitrogen comes from the soil, and then through food and feed crops it enters the bodies of animals and humans. Nowadays, agricultural crops almost completely obtain mineral nitrogen from chemical fertilizers, since some organic fertilizers not enough for nitrogen-depleted soils. However, unlike organic fertilizers, chemical fertilizers do not freely release nutrients under natural conditions.

This means it doesn’t work and harmonic nutrition of agricultural crops, satisfying the requirements of their growth. As a result, excess nitrogen nutrition of plants occurs and, as a result, accumulation of nitrates in it.

Excess nitrogen fertilizers leads to a decrease in the quality of plant products, a deterioration in their taste properties, and a decrease in plant tolerance to diseases and pests, which, in turn, forces the farmer to increase the use of pesticides. They also accumulate in plants. An increased content of nitrates leads to the formation of nitrites, which are harmful to human health. Consumption of such products can cause serious poisoning and even death in humans.

The negative effect of fertilizers and pesticides is especially pronounced when growing vegetables in closed ground. This happens because in greenhouses, harmful substances cannot evaporate freely and be carried away by air currents. After evaporation, they settle on plants.

Plants are capable of accumulating almost all harmful substances. This is why agricultural products grown near industrial enterprises and major highways.

3.4Landscape as a health factor

A person always strives to go to the forest, to the mountains, to the shore of the sea, river or lake.

Here he feels a surge of strength and vigor. No wonder they say that it is best to relax in the lap of nature. Sanatoriums and holiday homes are being built in the most beautiful corners. This is not an accident. It turns out that the surrounding landscape can have different effects on the psycho-emotional state. Contemplation of the beauty of nature stimulates vitality and calms the nervous system. Plant biocenoses, especially forests, have a strong healing effect.

The attraction to natural landscapes is especially strong among city residents. Back in the Middle Ages, it was noticed that the life expectancy of city dwellers was shorter than that of rural residents. The lack of greenery, narrow streets, small courtyards, where sunlight practically did not penetrate, created unfavorable conditions for human life. With the development of industrial production, a huge amount of waste has appeared in the city and its surroundings, polluting the environment.

Various factors associated with the growth of cities, to one degree or another, affect the formation of a person and his health. This forces scientists to increasingly study the influence of the environment on city residents. It turns out that the person’s mood and ability to work depend on the conditions in which a person lives, the height of the ceilings in his apartment and how sound-permeable its walls are, how a person gets to his place of work, who he interacts with on a daily basis, and how the people around him treat each other. , activity is his whole life.

In cities, people come up with thousands of tricks for the convenience of their lives - hot water, telephone, various types of transport, roads, services and entertainment. However, in large cities, the disadvantages of life are especially pronounced - housing and transport problems, increased morbidity rates. To a certain extent, this is explained by the simultaneous impact on the body of two, three or more harmful factors, each of which has an insignificant effect, but together leads to serious troubles for people.

For example, saturation of the environment and production with high-speed and high-speed machines increases stress and requires additional effort from a person, which leads to overwork. It is well known that an overtired person suffers more from the effects of air pollution and infections.

Polluted air in the city, poisoning the blood with carbon monoxide, causes the same harm to a non-smoker as smoking a pack of cigarettes a day by a smoker. A serious negative factor in modern cities is the so-called noise pollution.

Considering the ability of green spaces to favorably influence the state of the environment, they need to be brought as close as possible to the place where people live, work, study and relax.

It is very important that the city be a biogeocenosis, even if not absolutely favorable, but at least not harmful to people’s health. Let there be a zone of life here. To do this, it is necessary to solve a lot of urban problems. All enterprises that are unfavorable from a sanitary point of view must be moved outside the cities.

Green spaces are an integral part of a set of measures to protect and transform the environment. They not only create favorable microclimatic and sanitary conditions, but also increase artistic expressiveness architectural ensembles.

A special place around industrial enterprises and highways should be occupied by protective green zones, in which it is recommended to plant trees and shrubs that are resistant to pollution.

In the placement of green spaces, it is necessary to observe the principle of uniformity and continuity to ensure the flow of fresh country air into all residential areas of the city. The most important components of the city’s greening system are plantings in residential neighborhoods, on the sites of child care institutions, schools, sports complexes etc.

The urban landscape should not be a monotonous stone desert. In city architecture, one should strive for a harmonious combination of social (buildings, roads, transport, communications) and biological aspects (green areas, parks, public gardens).

A modern city should be considered as an ecosystem in which the most favorable conditions for human life are created. Consequently, it is not only comfortable housing, transport, and a diverse range of services. This is a habitat favorable for life and health; clean air and green urban landscape.

It is no coincidence that ecologists believe that in a modern city a person should not be cut off from nature, but, as it were, dissolved in it. Therefore, the total area of ​​green spaces in cities should occupy more than half of its territory.

3.5Problems of human adaptation to the environment

In the history of our planet (from the day of its formation to the present), grandiose processes on a planetary scale have continuously occurred and are occurring, transforming the face of the Earth. With the advent of a powerful factor - the human mind - a qualitatively new stage in the evolution of the organic world began. Due to the global nature of human interaction with the environment, it becomes the largest geological force.

Human production activity influences not only the direction of evolution of the biosphere, but also determines its own biological evolution.

The specificity of the human environment lies in the complex interweaving of social and natural factors. At the dawn of human history, natural factors played a decisive role in human evolution. The impact of natural factors on modern man is largely neutralized by social factors. In new natural and industrial conditions, a person is now often influenced by very unusual, and sometimes excessive and harsh environmental factors, for which he is not yet evolutionarily ready.

Humans, like other types of living organisms, are capable of adapting, that is, adapting to environmental conditions. Human adaptation to new natural and industrial conditions can be characterized as a set of socio-biological properties and characteristics necessary for the sustainable existence of an organism in a specific ecological environment.

Each person's life can be considered as a constant adaptation, but our ability to do this has certain limits. Also, the ability to restore one’s physical and mental strength is not endless for a person.

Currently, a significant part of human diseases are associated with the deterioration of the ecological situation in our environment: pollution of the atmosphere, water and soil, poor-quality food, and increased noise.

Adapting to unfavorable environmental conditions, the human body experiences a state of tension and fatigue. Tension is the mobilization of all mechanisms that ensure certain activities of the human body. Depending on the magnitude of the load, the degree of preparation of the body, its functional-structural and energy resources, the ability of the body to function at a given level is reduced, that is, fatigue occurs.

When a healthy person gets tired, a redistribution of possible reserve functions of the body can occur, and after rest, strength will reappear. Humans are capable of withstanding the harshest natural conditions for relatively long periods of time. However, a person who is not accustomed to these conditions, who finds himself in them for the first time, turns out to be much less adapted to life in an unfamiliar environment than its permanent inhabitants.

The ability to adapt to new conditions varies from person to person. Thus, for many people, during long-distance flights with rapid crossing of several time zones, as well as when shift work adverse symptoms such as sleep disturbances and decreased performance occur. Others adapt quickly.

Among people, two extreme adaptive types of people can be distinguished. The first of them is a sprinter, characterized by high resistance to short-term extreme factors and poor tolerance to long-term loads. The reverse type is a stayer.

It is interesting that in the northern regions of the country people like stayer , which was apparently the result of long-term processes of formation of a population adapted to local conditions.

The study of human adaptive capabilities and the development of appropriate recommendations is currently of great practical importance.

CONCLUSION

The topic seemed very interesting to me, since the problem of ecology worries me very much, and I want to believe that our offspring will not be as susceptible to negative environmental factors as they are currently. However, we still do not realize the importance and globality of the problem that humanity faces regarding environmental protection. All over the world, people strive to minimize environmental pollution; the Russian Federation has also adopted, for example, a criminal code, one of the chapters of which is devoted to establishing punishment for environmental crimes. But, of course, not all ways to overcome this problem have been solved and we should take care of the environment ourselves and maintain the natural balance in which humans are able to exist normally.

APPENDIX A

APPENDIX B

APPENDIX B

Figure 1 - Factors influencing human health and life expectancy

APPENDIX D

APPENDIX D

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MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND SCIENCE OF THE RF

BELGOROD STATE TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY

THEM. SHUKHOV

Department of Physical Education and Sports

On the topic: “Environmental factors affecting human health”

Completed by: student gr. TV-42

Chumakov A.V.

Checked by: Assoc. Kramskoy S.I.

Belgorod 2004

Introduction.

1. Ecology and human health:

1.1. chemical pollution of the environment and human health;

1.2. biological pollution and human diseases;

1.3. the influence of sounds on humans;

1.4. weather and human well-being;

1.5. nutrition and human health;

1.6. landscape as a health factor;

1.7. problems of human adaptation to the environment;

Conclusion.

Bibliography.

Introduction

All processes in the biosphere are interconnected. Humanity is only a small part of the biosphere, and man is only one of the types of organic life - Homo sapiens (reasonable man). Reason separated man from the animal world and gave him enormous power. For centuries, man has sought not to adapt to the natural environment, but to make it convenient for his existence. Now we have realized that any human activity has an impact on the environment, and the deterioration of the biosphere is dangerous for all living beings, including humans. A comprehensive study of man, his relationship with the outside world has led to the understanding that health is not only the absence of disease, but also the physical, mental and social well-being of a person. Health is a capital given to us not only by nature from birth, but also by the conditions in which we live.

1. Ecology and human health.

1.1. Chemical pollution of the environment and human health.

Currently, human economic activity is increasingly becoming the main source of pollution of the biosphere. Gaseous, liquid and solid industrial wastes are entering the natural environment in increasing quantities. Various chemicals found in waste, entering the soil, air or water, pass through ecological links from one chain to another, ultimately ending up in the human body.

It is almost impossible to find a place on the globe where pollutants are not present in varying concentrations. Even in the ice of Antarctica, where there are no industrial productions and people live only at small scientific stations, scientists have discovered various toxic (poisonous) substances from modern industries. They are brought here by atmospheric currents from other continents.

Substances that pollute the natural environment are very diverse. Depending on their nature, concentration, and time of action on the human body, they can cause various adverse effects. Short-term exposure to small concentrations of such substances can cause dizziness, nausea, sore throat, and cough. The entry of large concentrations of toxic substances into the human body can lead to loss of consciousness, acute poisoning and even death. An example of such an action could be smog that forms in large cities in calm weather, or emergency releases of toxic substances into the atmosphere by industrial enterprises.

The body's reactions to pollution depend on individual characteristics: age, gender, health status. As a rule, children, elderly and sick people are more vulnerable.

When the body systematically or periodically receives relatively small amounts of toxic substances, chronic poisoning occurs.

Signs of chronic poisoning are a violation of normal behavior, habits, as well as neuropsychological abnormalities: rapid fatigue or a feeling of constant fatigue, drowsiness or, conversely, insomnia, apathy, decreased attention, absent-mindedness, forgetfulness, severe mood swings.

In chronic poisoning, the same substances in different people can cause different damage to the kidneys, hematopoietic organs, nervous system, and liver.

Similar signs are observed during radioactive contamination of the environment.

Thus, in areas exposed to radioactive contamination as a result of the Chernobyl disaster, the incidence of disease among the population, especially children, increased many times.

Highly biologically active chemical compounds can cause long-term effects on human health: chronic inflammatory diseases of various organs, changes in the nervous system, effects on the intrauterine development of the fetus, leading to various abnormalities in newborns.

Doctors have established a direct connection between the increase in the number of people suffering from allergies, bronchial asthma, cancer, and the deterioration of the environmental situation in this region. It has been reliably established that industrial wastes such as chromium, nickel, beryllium, asbestos, and many pesticides are carcinogens, that is, they cause cancer. Even in the last century, cancer in children was almost unknown, but now it is becoming more and more common. As a result of pollution, new, previously unknown diseases appear. Their causes can be very difficult to establish.

Smoking causes enormous harm to human health. A smoker not only inhales harmful substances, but also pollutes the atmosphere and puts other people at risk. It has been established that people who are in the same room with a smoker inhale even more harmful substances than the smoker himself.

1.2.Biological pollution and human diseases

In addition to chemical pollutants, there are also biological pollutants in the natural environment that cause various diseases in humans. These are pathogenic microorganisms, viruses, helminths, and protozoa. They can be found in the atmosphere, water, soil, and in the body of other living organisms, including the person himself.

The most dangerous pathogens are infectious diseases. They have different stability in the environment. Some are able to live outside the human body for only a few hours; being in the air, in water, on various objects, they quickly die. Others can live in the environment from a few days to several years. For others, the environment is their natural habitat. For others, other organisms, such as wild animals, provide a place for conservation and reproduction.

Often the source of infection is the soil, in which pathogens of tetanus, botulism, gas gangrene, and some fungal diseases constantly live. They can enter the human body if the skin is damaged, with unwashed food, or if hygiene rules are violated.

Pathogenic microorganisms can penetrate groundwater and cause infectious diseases in humans. Therefore, water from artesian wells, wells, and springs must be boiled before drinking.

Open water sources are especially polluted: rivers, lakes, ponds. There are numerous cases where contaminated water sources have caused epidemics of cholera, typhoid fever, and dysentery.

In airborne infection, infection occurs through the respiratory tract by inhaling air containing pathogens.

Such diseases include influenza, whooping cough, mumps, diphtheria, measles and others. The causative agents of these diseases get into the air when sick people cough, sneeze, and even when talking.

A special group consists of infectious diseases transmitted through close contact with a patient or through the use of his things, for example, a towel, handkerchief, personal hygiene items and others that were used by the patient. These include sexually transmitted diseases (AIDS, syphilis, gonorrhea), trachoma, anthrax, and scab. Man, invading nature, often violates the natural conditions for the existence of pathogenic organisms and becomes a victim of natural eye diseases.

People and domestic animals can become infected with natural outbreak diseases when they enter the territory of a natural outbreak. Such diseases include plague, tularemia, typhus, tick-borne encephalitis, malaria, and sleeping sickness.

Other routes of infection are also possible. Thus, in some hot countries, as well as in a number of regions of our country, the infectious disease leptospirosis, or water fever, occurs. In our country, the causative agent of this disease lives in the organisms of common voles, which are widespread in meadows near rivers. The disease leptospirosis is seasonal, more common during heavy rains and hot months (July - August). A person can become infected if water contaminated with rodent secretions enters their body.

Diseases such as plague and psittacosis are transmitted by airborne droplets. When in areas of natural eye diseases, special precautions must be taken.

1.3.The influence of sounds on humans

Man has always lived in a world of sounds and noise. Sound refers to such mechanical vibrations of the external environment that are perceived by the human hearing aid (from 16 to 20,000 vibrations per second). Vibrations of higher frequencies are called ultrasound, and vibrations of lower frequencies are called infrasound. Noise is loud sounds merged into a discordant sound.

For all living organisms, including humans, sound is one of the environmental influences.

In nature, loud sounds are rare, the noise is relatively weak and short-lived. The combination of sound stimuli gives animals and humans the time necessary to assess their character and formulate a response. Sounds and noises of high power affect the hearing aid, nerve centers, and can cause pain and shock. This is how noise pollution works.

The quiet rustling of leaves, the murmur of a stream, bird voices, the light splash of water and the sound of the surf are always pleasant to a person. They calm him down and relieve stress. But the natural sounds of the voices of Nature are becoming increasingly rare, disappearing completely or are drowned out by industrial transport and other noise.

Long-term noise adversely affects the hearing organ, reducing sensitivity to sound.

It leads to disruption of the heart and liver, and to exhaustion and overstrain of nerve cells. Weakened cells of the nervous system cannot clearly coordinate the work of various body systems. This is where disruptions in their activities arise.

The noise level is measured in units expressing the degree of sound pressure - decibels. This pressure is not perceived infinitely. A noise level of 20-30 decibels (dB) is practically harmless to humans; it is a natural background noise. As for loud sounds, the permissible limit here is approximately 80 decibels. A sound of 130 decibels already causes

a person experiences pain, and 150 becomes unbearable for him. It is not for nothing that in the Middle Ages there was execution “by the bell.” The roar of the bells tormented and slowly killed the condemned man.

The level of industrial noise is also very high. In many jobs and noisy industries it reaches 90-110 decibels or more. It’s not much quieter in our home, where new sources of noise are appearing - the so-called household appliances.

For a long time, the influence of noise on the human body was not specifically studied, although already in ancient times they knew about its harm and, for example, in ancient cities rules were introduced to limit noise.

Currently, scientists in many countries around the world are conducting various studies to determine the effect of noise on human health. Their research showed that noise causes significant harm to human health, but absolute silence also frightens and depresses him. Thus, employees of one design bureau, which had excellent sound insulation, within a week began to complain about the impossibility of working in conditions of oppressive silence. They were nervous and lost their ability to work. And, conversely, scientists have found that sounds of a certain strength stimulate the thinking process, especially the counting process.

Each person perceives noise differently. Much depends on age, temperament, health, and environmental conditions.

Some people lose their hearing even after short exposure to relatively reduced intensity noise.

Constant exposure to loud noise can not only negatively affect your hearing, but also cause other harmful effects - ringing in the ears, dizziness, headaches, and increased fatigue.

Very noisy modern music also dulls hearing and causes nervous diseases.

Noise has an accumulative effect, that is, acoustic irritation, accumulating in the body, increasingly depresses the nervous system.

Therefore, before hearing loss from exposure to noise, a functional disorder of the central nervous system occurs. Noise has a particularly harmful effect on the neuropsychic activity of the body.

The process of neuropsychiatric diseases is higher among people working in noisy conditions than among people working in normal sound conditions.

Noises cause functional disorders of the cardiovascular system; have a harmful effect on the visual and vestibular analyzers, reduce reflex activity, which often causes accidents and injuries.

Research has shown that inaudible sounds can also have harmful effects on human health. Thus, infrasounds have a special impact on the human mental sphere: all types of

intellectual activity, mood deteriorates, sometimes there is a feeling of confusion, anxiety, fright, fear, and at high intensity

feeling of weakness, as after a strong nervous shock.

Even weak infrasound sounds can have a significant impact on a person, especially if they are long-lasting. According to scientists, it is infrasounds, silently penetrating through the thickest walls, that cause many nervous diseases in residents of large cities.

Ultrasounds, which occupy a prominent place in the range of industrial noise, are also dangerous. The mechanisms of their action on living organisms are extremely diverse. The cells of the nervous system are especially susceptible to their negative effects.

Noise is insidious, its harmful effects on the body occur invisibly, imperceptibly. Disorders in the human body are practically defenseless against noise.

Currently, doctors are talking about noise disease, which develops as a result of exposure to noise with primary damage to the hearing and nervous system.

1.4. Weather and human well-being

Several decades ago, it never occurred to almost anyone to connect their performance, their emotional state and well-being with the activity of the Sun, with the phases of the Moon, with magnetic storms and other cosmic phenomena.

In any natural phenomenon around us, there is a strict repeatability of processes: day and night, ebb and flow, winter and summer. Rhythm is observed not only in the movement of the Earth, Sun, Moon and stars, but is also an integral and universal property of living matter, a property that penetrates all life phenomena - from the molecular level to the level of the whole organism.

In the course of historical development, man has adapted to a certain rhythm of life, determined by rhythmic changes in the natural environment and the energy dynamics of metabolic processes.

Currently, many rhythmic processes in the body, called biorhythms, are known. These include the rhythms of the heart, breathing, and bioelectrical activity of the brain. Our whole life is a constant change of rest and active activity, sleep and wakefulness, fatigue from hard work and rest.

In the body of every person, like the ebb and flow of the sea, a great rhythm eternally reigns, arising from the connection of life phenomena with the rhythm of the Universe and symbolizing the unity of the world.

The central place among all rhythmic processes is occupied by circadian rhythms, which are of greatest importance for the body. The body's response to any impact depends on the phase of the circadian rhythm (that is, on the time of day). This knowledge led to the development of new directions in medicine - chronodiagnostics, chronotherapy, chronopharmacology. They are based on the proposition that the same drug at different times of the day has different, sometimes directly opposite, effects on the body. Therefore, to obtain a greater effect, it is important to indicate not only the dose, but also the exact time of taking the medication.

It turned out that studying changes in circadian rhythms makes it possible to identify the occurrence of some diseases at the earliest stages.

Climate also has a serious impact on human well-being, influencing it through weather factors. Weather conditions include a complex of physical conditions: atmospheric pressure, humidity, air movement, oxygen concentration, the degree of disturbance of the Earth's magnetic field, and the level of atmospheric pollution.

Until now, it has not yet been possible to fully establish the mechanisms of the human body’s reactions to changes in weather conditions. And it often makes itself felt by cardiac dysfunction and nervous disorders. With a sharp change in weather, physical and mental performance decreases, illnesses worsen, and the number of mistakes, accidents and even deaths increases.

Most of the physical factors of the external environment, in interaction with which the human body has evolved, are of an electromagnetic nature.

It is well known that near fast-flowing water the air is refreshing and invigorating. It contains many negative ions. For the same reason, we find the air clean and refreshing after a thunderstorm.

On the contrary, the air in cramped rooms with an abundance of various kinds of electromagnetic devices is saturated with positive ions. Even a relatively short stay in such a room leads to lethargy, drowsiness, dizziness and headaches. A similar picture is observed in windy weather, on dusty and humid days. Experts in the field of environmental medicine believe that negative ions have a positive effect on health, while positive ions have a negative effect.

Weather changes do not affect the well-being of different people in the same way. In a healthy person, when the weather changes, physiological processes in the body are timely adjusted to the changed environmental conditions. As a result, the protective reaction is enhanced and healthy people practically do not feel the negative influence of the weather.

In a sick person, adaptive reactions are weakened, so the body loses the ability to quickly adapt. The influence of weather conditions on a person’s well-being is also associated with age and individual susceptibility of the body.

1.5.Nutrition and human health

Each of us knows that food is necessary for the normal functioning of the body.

Throughout life, the human body continuously undergoes metabolism and energy. The source of the building materials and energy necessary for the body are nutrients coming from the external environment, mainly with food. If food does not enter the body, a person feels hungry. But hunger, unfortunately, will not tell you what nutrients and in what quantities a person needs. We often eat what is tasty, what can be prepared quickly, and do not really think about the usefulness and good quality of the products we eat.

Doctors say that nutritious nutrition is an important condition for maintaining the health and high performance of adults, and for children it is also a necessary condition for growth and development.

For normal growth, development and maintenance of vital functions, the body needs proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins and mineral salts in the quantities it needs.

Poor nutrition is one of the main causes of cardiovascular diseases, diseases of the digestive system, and diseases associated with metabolic disorders.

Regular overeating and consumption of excess carbohydrates and fats are the cause of the development of metabolic diseases such as obesity and diabetes.

They cause damage to the cardiovascular, respiratory, digestive and other systems, sharply reduce ability to work and resistance to diseases, reducing life expectancy by an average of 8-10 years.

Rational nutrition is the most important indispensable condition for the prevention of not only metabolic diseases, but also many others.

The nutritional factor plays an important role not only in the prevention, but also in the treatment of many diseases. Specially organized nutrition, the so-called therapeutic nutrition, is a prerequisite for the treatment of many diseases, including metabolic and gastrointestinal diseases.

Medicinal substances of synthetic origin, unlike food substances, are foreign to the body. Many of them can cause adverse reactions, such as allergies, so when treating patients, preference should be given to the nutritional factor.

In products, many biologically active substances are found in equal and sometimes higher concentrations than in the drugs used. That is why, since ancient times, many products, primarily vegetables, fruits, seeds, and herbs, have been used in the treatment of various diseases.

Many food products have bactericidal effects, inhibiting the growth and development of various microorganisms. Thus, apple juice delays the development of staphylococcus, pomegranate juice inhibits the growth of salmonella, cranberry juice is active against various intestinal, putrefactive and other microorganisms. Everyone knows the antimicrobial properties of onions, garlic and other products. Unfortunately, this entire rich therapeutic arsenal is not often used in practice.

But now a new danger has appeared - chemical contamination of food. A new concept has also appeared - environmentally friendly products.

Obviously, each of us had to buy large, beautiful vegetables and fruits in stores, but, unfortunately, in most cases, after trying them, we found out that they were watery and did not meet our taste requirements. This situation occurs if crops are grown using large amounts of fertilizers and pesticides. Such agricultural products can not only have poor taste, but also be hazardous to health.

Nitrogen is an integral part of compounds vital for plants, as well as for animal organisms, such as proteins.

In plants, nitrogen comes from the soil, and then through food and feed crops it enters the bodies of animals and humans. Nowadays, agricultural crops almost completely obtain mineral nitrogen from chemical fertilizers, since some organic fertilizers are not enough for nitrogen-depleted soils. However, unlike organic fertilizers, chemical fertilizers do not freely release nutrients under natural conditions.

This means that there is no “harmonious” nutrition of agricultural crops that satisfies the requirements of their growth. As a result, excess nitrogen nutrition of plants occurs and, as a result, accumulation of nitrates in it.

Excess nitrogen fertilizers leads to a decrease in the quality of plant products, a deterioration in their taste properties, and a decrease in plant tolerance to diseases and pests, which, in turn, forces the farmer to increase the use of pesticides. They also accumulate in plants. An increased content of nitrates leads to the formation of nitrites, which are harmful to human health. Consumption of such products can cause serious poisoning and even death in humans.

The negative effect of fertilizers and pesticides is especially pronounced when growing vegetables in closed ground. This happens because in greenhouses, harmful substances cannot evaporate freely and be carried away by air currents. After evaporation, they settle on plants.

Plants are capable of accumulating almost all harmful substances. This is why agricultural products grown near industrial enterprises and major highways are especially dangerous.

1.6. Landscape as a health factor

A person always strives to go to the forest, to the mountains, to the shore of the sea, river or lake.

Here he feels a surge of strength and vigor. No wonder they say that it is best to relax in the lap of nature. Sanatoriums and holiday homes are being built in the most beautiful corners. This is not an accident. It turns out that the surrounding landscape can have different effects on the psycho-emotional state. Contemplation of the beauty of nature stimulates vitality and calms the nervous system. Plant biocenoses, especially forests, have a strong healing effect.

The attraction to natural landscapes is especially strong among city residents. Back in the Middle Ages, it was noticed that the life expectancy of city dwellers was shorter than that of rural residents. The lack of greenery, narrow streets, small courtyards, where sunlight practically did not penetrate, created unfavorable conditions for human life. With the development of industrial production, a huge amount of waste has appeared in the city and its surroundings, polluting the environment.

Various factors associated with the growth of cities, to one degree or another, affect the formation of a person and his health. This forces scientists to increasingly study the influence of the environment on city residents. It turns out that the person’s mood and ability to work depend on the conditions in which a person lives, the height of the ceilings in his apartment and how sound-permeable its walls are, how a person gets to his place of work, who he interacts with on a daily basis, and how the people around him treat each other. , activity is his whole life.

In cities, people come up with thousands of tricks for the convenience of their lives - hot water, telephone, various types of transport, roads, services and entertainment. However, in large cities, the disadvantages of life are especially pronounced - housing and transport problems, increased morbidity rates. To a certain extent, this is explained by the simultaneous impact on the body of two, three or more harmful factors, each of which has an insignificant effect, but together leads to serious troubles for people.

For example, saturation of the environment and production with high-speed and high-speed machines increases stress and requires additional effort from a person, which leads to overwork. It is well known that an overtired person suffers more from the effects of air pollution and infections.

Polluted air in the city, poisoning the blood with carbon monoxide, causes the same harm to a non-smoker as smoking a pack of cigarettes a day by a smoker. A serious negative factor in modern cities is the so-called noise pollution.

Considering the ability of green spaces to favorably influence the state of the environment, they need to be brought as close as possible to the place where people live, work, study and relax.

It is very important that the city be a biogeocenosis, even if not absolutely favorable, but at least not harmful to people’s health. Let there be a zone of life here. To do this, it is necessary to solve a lot of urban problems. All enterprises that are unfavorable from a sanitary point of view must be moved outside the cities.

Green spaces are an integral part of a set of measures to protect and transform the environment. They not only create favorable microclimatic and sanitary-hygienic conditions, but also increase the artistic expressiveness of architectural ensembles.

A special place around industrial enterprises and highways should be occupied by protective green zones, in which it is recommended to plant trees and shrubs that are resistant to pollution.

In the placement of green spaces, it is necessary to observe the principle of uniformity and continuity to ensure the flow of fresh country air into all residential areas of the city. The most important components of the city’s greening system are plantings in residential neighborhoods, on the sites of child care institutions, schools, sports complexes, etc.

The urban landscape should not be a monotonous stone desert. In city architecture, one should strive for a harmonious combination of social (buildings, roads, transport, communications) and biological aspects (green areas, parks, public gardens).

A modern city should be considered as an ecosystem in which the most favorable conditions for human life are created. Consequently, it is not only comfortable housing, transport, and a diverse range of services. This is a habitat favorable for life and health; clean air and green urban landscape.

It is no coincidence that ecologists believe that in a modern city a person should not be cut off from nature, but, as it were, dissolved in it. Therefore, the total area of ​​green spaces in cities should occupy more than half of its territory.

1.7.Problems of human adaptation to the environment

In the history of our planet (from the day of its formation to the present), grandiose processes on a planetary scale have continuously occurred and are occurring, transforming the face of the Earth. With the advent of a powerful factor - the human mind - a qualitatively new stage in the evolution of the organic world began. Due to the global nature of human interaction with the environment, it becomes the largest geological force.

Human production activity influences not only the direction of evolution of the biosphere, but also determines its own biological evolution.

The specificity of the human environment lies in the complex interweaving of social and natural factors. At the dawn of human history, natural factors played a decisive role in human evolution. The impact of natural factors on modern man is largely neutralized by social factors. In new natural and industrial conditions, a person is now often influenced by very unusual, and sometimes excessive and harsh environmental factors, for which he is not yet evolutionarily ready.

Humans, like other types of living organisms, are capable of adapting, that is, adapting to environmental conditions. Human adaptation to new natural and industrial conditions can be characterized as

a set of socio-biological properties and characteristics necessary

for the sustainable existence of an organism in a specific ecological environment.

Each person's life can be considered as a constant adaptation, but our ability to do this has certain limits. Also, the ability to restore one’s physical and mental strength is not endless for a person.

Currently, a significant part of human diseases are associated with the deterioration of the ecological situation in our environment: pollution of the atmosphere, water and soil, poor-quality food, and increased noise.

Adapting to unfavorable environmental conditions, the human body experiences a state of tension and fatigue. Tension is the mobilization of all mechanisms that ensure certain activities of the human body. Depending on the magnitude of the load, the degree of preparation of the body, its functional-structural and energy resources, the ability of the body to function at a given level is reduced, that is, fatigue occurs.

When a healthy person gets tired, a redistribution of possible reserve functions of the body can occur, and after rest, strength will reappear. Humans are capable of withstanding the harshest natural conditions for relatively long periods of time. However, a person who is not accustomed to these conditions, who finds himself in them for the first time, turns out to be much less adapted to life in an unfamiliar environment than its permanent inhabitants.

The ability to adapt to new conditions varies from person to person. Thus, many people, during long-distance flights with rapid crossing of several time zones, as well as during shift work, experience such unfavorable symptoms as sleep disturbances and decreased performance. Others adapt quickly.

Among people, two extreme adaptive types of people can be distinguished. The first of them is a sprinter, characterized by high resistance to short-term extreme factors and poor tolerance to long-term loads. The reverse type is a stayer.

It is interesting that in the northern regions of the country, people of the “stayer” type predominate among the population, which was apparently the result of long-term processes of formation of a population adapted to local conditions.

The study of human adaptive capabilities and the development of appropriate recommendations is currently of great practical importance.

Conclusion

The topic seemed very interesting to me, since the problem of ecology worries me very much, and I want to believe that our offspring will not be as susceptible to negative environmental factors as they are currently. However, we still do not realize the importance and globality of the problem that humanity faces regarding environmental protection. All over the world, people strive to minimize environmental pollution; the Russian Federation has also adopted, for example, a criminal code, one of the chapters of which is devoted to establishing punishment for environmental crimes. But, of course, not all ways to overcome this problem have been solved and we should take care of the environment ourselves and maintain the natural balance in which humans are able to exist normally.

Bibliography:

1. “Take care of yourself from diseases.”/ Maryasis V.V. Moscow. - 1992 - pp. 112-116.

2. Nikanorov A.M., Khoruzhaya T.A. Ecology./ M.: Prior. Publishing House - 1999.

3. Petrov V.V. Environmental law of Russia / Textbook for universities. M. - 1995

4. “You and Me.” Publisher: Young Guard. / Editor-in-chief Kaptsova L.V. - Moscow. - 1989 - pp. 365-368.

5. Environmental crimes. - Commentary on the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation./ Publishing house “INFRA M-NORMA”, Moscow, 1996, p.586-588.

6. Ecology. Textbook. E.A. Kriksunov./ Moscow. - 1995 - pp. 240-242.

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