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

Abstract

The subject of the study was the ecological and human health consequences of environmental pollution from emissions arising from burning local coal with an arsenic content ranging from 900 to 1,500 g/tonne of dry substance. The first indication of environmental pollution by arsenic-containing emissions was the mass extinction of honeybee colonies. The neurotoxic and carcinogenic aspects of arsenic exposure were followed. On using a group diagnostics approach, significant hearing losses were detected in exposed children in both air and bone conduction audiometry at high frequency range (4,000 and 8,000 Hz, respectively). Exposure assessment of the local population of the Prievidza district, Central Slovakia, was based on biological monitoring. The criterion of higher exposure was arsenic content in hair exceeding concentrations of 3 microg/g of hair. In a 7.5-km radius of the exposed region, live about two-tenths of the district population who were considered as "exposed" and rest of the district served as the "reference" population. The subject of our analysis was a database of 1,503 non-melanoma skin cancer (NMSC) cases (756 in men and 747 in women) collected from 1977 to 1996 in the Prievidza district, Central Slovakia (population approximately 125,000). The age standardized incidence of NMSC (each confirmed by histological examination) in non-occupational settings ranged from 45.9 to 93.9 in men and from 34.6 to 81.4 in women. Analysis of our data demonstrates a positive correlation between human cumulative exposure to arsenic and incidence of NMSC.

Arsenic in the environment—risks and management strategies

“…Rahman, Mahbub M et al (2008) present an interesting result from the study on As interactions with invertebrate and vertebrate lipid particles that are associated with proteins that may lead to detoxification by cell-free or cellular sequestration mechanisms. The final paper by Bencko et al (2008) deals with the assessment of ecological and human health consequences of environmental pollution caused by burning local coal in the power plants with the emission of exceedingly high concentrations of As (900-1,500 g/ ton). Exposure assessment of the local population of the Prievidza district, Central Slovakia, revealed a positive correlation between the cumulative human exposure to As and incidence of non-melanoma skin cancer (NMSC).…”

Recruitment strategies and challenges: Lessons learned from a coal ash and children's health study

“…Most researchers have conducted studies in workers exposed to fly ash. Occupational researchers report relationships between exposure to fly ash and increased arsenic and mercury levels in exposed workers (Zeneli, Sekovanic, Ajvazi, Kurti, & Daci, ), increased oxidative stress (Zeneli et al, ), increased frequencies of chromosomal aberrations (Bauman, & Horvat, ; Leonard, Deknudt, Leonard, & Decat, ), respiratory effects (Cho, Cho, Shrivastava, & Kapre, ), and earlier mortality from cancer (Bencko, Rames, Fabianova, Pesek & Jakubis, ).…”

Trimethyltin-induced cochlear degeneration in rat

“…Chronic exposure to heavy metals and their organic derivatives can cause serious and potentially lethal harm to humans ( Jarup, 2003 , Prasher, 2009 ). Many heavy metals such as lead, mercury, cadmium, arsenic, manganese, cobalt, platinum and copper, which are widely used in manufacturing, are neurotoxic leading to a diverse array of debilitating clinical symptoms ( Ding et al., 1999 , Ding et al., 2007 , Ding et al., 2009 , Ding et al., 2011a , Ding et al., 2011b , Ding et al., 2011c , Bencko et al., 2009 , Ikeda et al., 2010 , He et al., 2011 , Li et al., 2011 , Shargorodsky et al., 2011 , Wu et al., 2011 , Ding et al., 2012a , Ding et al., 2012b , Hoshino et al., 2012 , Ding et al., 2013 , Liu et al., 2014 , Wang et al., 2014 , Li et al., 2015 ). During manufacturing, many heavy metals are inadvertently released into the environment posing serious risk to the public.…”