[Assessment of the impact of socio-economic factors on the health state of the population of the Sverdlovsk region in the system of social-hygienic monitoring].

There was investigated the impact of socioeconomic factors on medical and demographic processes in working age population. For the assessment of the impact of living conditions and environmental factors on mortality rate in a population of the Sverdlovsk region factor-typological, correlation and regression analyzes were applied There was shown an availability of statistically significant correlation relationships between mortality of the population of working age and socio-economic characteristics (degree of home improvement, quality of medical care, the level of social tension, the level of the demographic load), as well as between their increments with taking into account the time shifts. The effect of the value of the purchasing power on the mortality rate of the working population has been established The purchasing power was shown to be connected with a mortality rate of working population from external causes more stronger than death from all causes.

[Nanotechnologies: prediction of the possible negative effect of insoluble nanoparticles on the body].

In addition to the devices given in the guidelines of the Russian Inspectorate for the Protection of Consumer Rights and Human Welfare "Evaluation of the Safety of Nanomaterials" (2007) to characterize the biological activity of nanoparticles, one should use a chemiluminometer, a cheaper and easy-to-use device that gives unique information on the activation of the nonspecific bactericidal system of phagocytes in contact with nanoparticles. According to the nature of activation, all nanomaterials can be divided into 5 classes of potential hazard and carcinogenicity.

[Hygienic evaluation of direct heating of the air delivered to the shaft].

The paper gives the results of exploring a test pre-heating system for the air (APHS) delivered to the shaft. The system has been first used in the Urals. The supply air is heated by burning natural gas in the air current. The APHS system with a RG air heater (000 "Gas-Engineering") is equipped in addition to the existing heaters to enhance heat supply reliability in northern conditions. The data of the studies show that in all periods of the heating season (interseason, moderate frosts, the coldest month), the concentrations of hazardous substances, such as nitric oxides, nitric dioxide, sulfur dioxide, carbon dioxide, benz(a)pyrene, solid aerosol in the shaft-delivered air, do not exceed those given in the existing regulation provided that the design operating conditions are met. With the maximum gas consumption, the coldest month only was marked by the nitric dioxide content being greater than the standard values, causing the maximum projected natural gas consumption to be lower in the APHS system. The air level of nitric dioxide proved to be a major hygiene indicator while using this air heater.

[The importance of social stress and effective occupational motivation in the forming of life-style, population health, and the development of demographic processes in Russia].

The body of pathogenetic mechanisms that have caused super high and super early mortality of able-bodied people due to socioeconomic reforms is caused by a special form of stress, the so called "social stress", having a specific origin. The reason for it is loss of effective occupational motivation by population, a motivation based on the ability to provide decent existence for oneself and one's family with honest labor. Within the 20th century there were only four periods when population health improved, and all these periods were associated with a rise in occupational motivation. Chronic social stress, unlike common stress, does not mobilize the protective force of the organism. It causes the biggest health loss in able-bodied population, leading to the development of the exhaustion phase of general adaptation syndrome, breakdown of the dynamic stereotype of higher nervous activity, the forming of the phenomenon of "programmed death of the organism--phenoptosis", and disorder of free-radical balance of the organism in heterozygous individuals who have grown poor. Analysis of the causes and mechanisms of the development of medico-demographic crisis suggests that the nation's viability has lowered not because of the reforms themselves, but due to the strategy of their conduction.

[The mutagenic action of the dust of natural zeolites and chrysotile asbestos]. / Issledovanie mutagennogo deistviia pyli prirodnykh tseolitov i khrizotil-asbesta.

The cell chemiluminescence method was used to demonstrate the ability of asbest and zeolite dusts from 8 deposits of the USSR to induce generation of free oxygen radicals in the phagocytosing cells suspension. It has been found that asbest and zeolite (0.01 and 0.05 mg/ml) increase levels of cells with chromosome aberrations in human cell cultures. The cytogenetic effect of asbest was inhibited by superoxide dismutase (50 mg/ml). The damaging effect of zeolite was decreased by the pharmacological drug bemithyl (0.007-0.07 mM) and completely eliminated by catalase (20 mg/ml). The results obtained indicate that mutagenic effect of dust particles of asbest and zeolite is mediated by oxygen radicals.

[Pathogenicity basis in medical and social strategies in preventive health services]. / Patogeneticheskoe obosnovanie strategii meditsiny i obshchestva v okhrane zdorov'ia naseleniia.

Pathogenetic processes inherent in the social reform course pre-conditioning an extra high and extra young mortality of population and the worsened physical development of children were analyzed. Four main factors, which confirm that the below processes are involved in the above phenomenon, are defined; they are: CNS (dynamic stereotype of the higher nervous activity) neuroendocrinal regulation (stress), free radical oxidation (phenoptosis) and population gene pool (heterozygosity). Social (deliberate labor motivation) and medical (individual prevention) priorities are substantiated to improve the health state in Russia.

[The pathogenetic approach to studying the influence of the environmental factors on the population health]. / O patogeneticheskom napravlenii izucheniia vliianiia faktorov okruzhaiushchei sredy na zdorov'e naseleniia.

The pathogenetic approach to studying the influence of the environmental factors on the population health does not regard the organism as a "black box" and makes it possible not only to evaluate a scope of risk or to substantiate the parameters of the safe impact degree, it also can be used to specify the biological mechanisms of the influence of the above factors. This can be a foundation for the elaboration of actual methods for the medical-and-biological prevention, treatment and rehabilitation. The pathogenetic approach rests on the knowledge of mechanisms of the organism protection from unfavorable impacts. The protection mechanisms of the organism from the extreme conditions of the Far North, from causative agents of infections, from suspended particles and from toxic substances have been analyzed in the article. The pathogenetic trend of study will enable the centers for the sanitary-and-epidemiological supervision to add the methods for individual health protection to their activity related with public health protection.

[Medicine strategy in population's health care on the eve of 21-st century]. / Strategiia meditsiny v okhrane zdorov'ia naseleniia na poroge XXI veka.

The reforms have done great damage to the population's health and reduced birth rates in Russia. They were implemented as "shock therapy" which broke up a "dynamic stereotype" in the vast majority of individuals. The break-up of the "dynamic stereotype" was due to the fact that there were persons who had been grown under market economy in Russia at all. It is the circumstances that fundamentally distinguishes the conditions in Russia from those in Eastern Europe and Baltic countries. On the eve of the 21st century, the medical strategy for health care of Russia's population can be only prophylactic. This includes 3 main vectors: 1) prevention of infective diseases of viral origin in particular; 2) control of chronic noninfectious diseases; 3) prevention of hereditary and congenital diseases. At present, the "classical" recipes for healthy lifestyle are not sufficiently effective under the Russian conditions. There is a need for a fresh comprehensive approach to this problem on the assumption that there is a common pathogenetic link (the effects of active oxygen forms and other free radical products) in the mechanism of the factors of the environment and vital functions. In this connection, the most important task of medicine in the prevention of chronic noninfectious diseases is to enhance the body's resistance to their damaging action. Not only should healthy lifestyle, but also the most important biological reserve, such as cross-adaptation, be placed at the service of prophylaxis. It enhances the body's resistance to different environmental factors during adaptation to one of them. Intermittent hypoxia is the most active adaptive effect. For realization of its preventive effect, it is expedient to set up centers of adaptation medicine and prophylaxis. For prevention of hereditary and congenital diseases, both governmental and medical policies should be to implement a "desired child" programme.

[Free radical oxidation as a link of early and prolonged adaptation to environmental factors]. / Svobodnoradikal'noe okislenie kak zveno srochnoi i dolgovremennoi adaptatsii organizma k faktoram okruzhaiushchei sredy.

Analyzing his own findings and the data available in the literature, the author has found that free radicals are a connecting link in the development of early and prolonged adaptation. With rapid adaptation, they make a weighty contribution to the body's bactericidal protection and antimicrobial constitutional immunity. This role is mainly played by the oxygen-dependent phagocytic bactericidal system that generates active oxygen forms and by the inducible arginine-dependent connective tissue cell system that synthesizes nitrogen oxide. While performing, the above enzymatic systems spend their cell energy resources on two concurrent processes: the formation of free radical products and the work of ionic pumps that restore an intracellular ionic and osmotic balance. This causes the accelerated expenditure of the body's energy "currency" ATP and the development of energy deficiency in the cells and tissues. Energy shortage serves as a signal for triggering the cellular genetic apparatus to primarily induce the increased development of the cell energy system, namely that of mitochondria, and the activation of the key systems responsible for steady-state long-term individual adaptation of the immune system, antioxidative protection, etc. It has been now ascertained that there is a common pathogenetic link (excessive production of free radicals) in the mechanism responsible for the influence of not only infections on the body, but other environmental factors (fibrogenic dust, ionizing or ultraviolet radiation, cooling, toxic agents oxidized on cytochrome P-450, hypoxia, hyperoxia, etc.) and vital functions (physical overstrain, emotional stress, informational overload, etc.). The above factors all cause the same metabolic change in different ways: the production of higher quantities of active oxygen forms, nitrogen oxide, and other radical products. So the generation of free radicals is an universal connecting link of early and prolonged adaptation. The fact that there is a common link (the excessive production of radicals) in the mechanism of influence of environmental factors and vital activities makes the most important biological reserve (cross adaptation that lies in higher resistance to the whole complex of active influences at adaptation to one of them) serve as a preventive means. The most rapid increase in the production of free radicals and the development of energy-rich products are achieved by hypoxia. So the adaptive and preventive effect of dosage hypoxia are the most pronounced.

[Human ecology. Which is the main challenge to Russia?]. / Ekologiia cheloveka. V chem glavnaia problema dlia Rossii?

The main direction in the study of human ecology in Russia today is to provide evidence for how to maintain environmental balance in the biosphere of the Earth, though the above factor also exerts a constantly growing negative impact on the health and life quality of the population. During the years of the reforms in the country, all the principal medical and demographic indices have undergone negative changes. To overcome the medicodemographic crisis should be now a priority problem to be solved in human ecology in Russia. The crisis was mainly caused by the "shock" strategy of the reforms. To eliminate the negative medicodemographic consequences, a strong working motivation should be firstly created for the population, that is to create such conditions that allow people to earn well-deserved living by honest work. All this requires the development of small business, democratization of private property forms of private property, and changes in the Government's policy concerning work payment. Medical scientists should clarify how biological mechanisms, that is negative social, economic and psychological factors, cause a drastic increase in mortality, particularly in the able-bodied population. This process is likely to involve three regulation levels; the central nervous system (dynamic stereotype break, as called by I. P. Pavlov), the neuroendocrine system (great stress, as described by G. Selye), molecular-cellular free radical processes (phenoptosis, as outlined by V. P. Skulachev). Five factors that most negatively affect human health and demographic processes were identified.

[Reforms and demographic crisis]. / Reformy i demograficheskii krizis.

During reformation years all basic medical and demographic indices have undergone negative changes in Russia. Since 1992 there has been a steady-state decrease in the population due to the fact that mortality rates are extremely greater than birth ones. In 2001, the Russian population reduced in number by nearly a million. The birth rates are twice less than that requires for a simple reproduction of generations. Extremely high death rates remain among the population, in able-bodied males. The main reasons for the demographic crisis are the negative consequences of the implemented reforms rather than the transition from traditional to the new present-day reproduction of the population. It is problematic now to correct the situation via active migration of Russian-speaking persons. This requires enormous funds to provide comers with jobs and dwelling. It is unreal to diminish annual departure of 100 thousand persons, mainly young educated professionals from the country, though it is joust not only a demographic, but a strategic problem. In 2001 there was a some rise in birth rates. But this is the most illusive way of solving the demographic crisis. Just in the USSR, the high educational level of the population, the socioeconomic emancipation of females and progress in medicine gave rise to the transition to the present-day reproduction of the population, which is characterized by low birth and death rates. So the population is unlikely to be replenished by high birth rates. The main way of overcoming the demographic crisis is to reduce mortality and not to allow young people to die prematurely. For this it is necessary to know the biological mechanisms responsible for extremely high mortality. It is most likely to be due to breakdown in the dynamic stereotype of higher nervous performance, as stated by I. P. Pavlov. Today it is insufficient to control alcoholism, traumatism, and smoking by healthy lifestyle propaganda in order to reduce death rates in Russian. All these disasters took place after the Great Patriotic War, but an aspiration for long and happy life was prevalent in the consciousness of the people who has won the war. At present, neither the whole able-bodied population nor all young people have an internal aim at living long. To overcome this tragic gap in the consciousness requires primarily a great working motivation.

[Changes in the functional status of the liver in the course of chronic obstructive bronchitis]. / Izmenenie funktsional'nogo sostoianiia pecheni v techenii khronicheskogo obstruktivnogo bronkhita.

Hypoxia conditioned by chronic pulmonary insufficiency is associated in patients with chronic obstructive bronchitis with a more intense free-radical oxidation. A reduced ventilation of the lungs is concurrent in patients with a higher level of malonic aldehyde, as well as with a lower activity of superoxide dismutase and catalase. The liver is involved into the pathological process as a back-feed mechanism in response to the oxidation shift in tissues. Changes of the blood amine-acid spectrum, disproteimenia and hyper-fermentation observed in patients with chronic obstructive bronchitis (COB) denote the impaired hepatocyte condition. The regulating liver function is displayed through an intensified synthesis of endogenous antioxidants: 1) high-molecular--superoxide dismutase, catalase, ceruloplasmia and albumin; 2) low-molecular--uric acid, thiol compounds, biogenic amines, bilirubin, cholesterol as well as molecules of the bioenergetics cycles. As for the early COB stages, a higher level of antioxidant enzymes is more pronounced, whereas, the low-molecule endogenous antioxidants are in the forefront in the disease later stages.

[Corpuscular mutagenesis and its prevention]. / Korpuskuliarnyi mutagenez i ego profilaktika.

The carcinogenic and mutagenic activity of dust containing chrysotile-asbestos and zeolites, as well as the role of active oxygen species in their cytotoxic and mutagenic actions are discussed. Superoxide dismutase (50 mg/ml) was demonstrated to prevent the mutagenic effects of chrysotile-asbestos and latex, catalase (20 mg/ml) to prevent the same of zeolites in experiments on cultured human whole blood. The intraperitoneal administration of dusts of chrysotile-asbestos and zeolites in a dose of 50 mg/kg to C57B1/6 mice was found to elevate the count of cells with chromosomal aberrations in the peritoneal liquid and bone marrow cells of mice, which was dependent on dust exposure time. It was revealed that ascorbic acid, rutin, chemically modified flavonoid of Scutellaria Baicalensis Georgy, drugs such as bemitil and thomersol in the broad range of concentrations (10(-7)-10(-3) M) decreased or completely reduced the clustogenic action of zeolites and chrysotile-asbestos on cultured human whole blood. The ability of bemitil (1.8-19 mg/kg) rather than the others to prevent the mutagenic effect of chrysotile-asbestos was confirmed by the method of recording chromosomal aberrations in the cells of peritoneal liquid and bone marrow in mice. The findings suggest that the mutagenic effects of the corpuscular xenobiotics under study are mediated by active oxygen species and that the use of the models in vitro and in vivo is adequate for investigations into corpuscular mutagenesis. Based on their own data and literature data, the authors have defined possible lines of further research of corpuscular mutagenesis.

[Effect of chrysotile-asbestos and zeolites dust on generations of reactive oxygen species by alveolar macrophages and granulocytes]. / Vliianie pyleí khrizotil-asbesta i tseolitov na generatsiiu aktivnykh form kisloroda al'veoliarnymi makrofagami i granulotsitami.

Different characteristics of the influence of dusts of chrysotile--asbestos, mordenite, erionite and klinoptilolite on the total generation of the active forms of oxygen by the alveolar macrophages and the generation of O2- and H2O2 by the granulocytes give the possibility to connect some of these characteristics with the peculiarity of biological action these dusts. It is discovered the most strong activating properties has the dust of chrysotile--asbestos, and the most cytotoxic effect has the dust of klinoptilolite.

[Carcinogenic hazard in the manufacture of technical-grade carbon]. / O kantserogennoi opasnosti v proizvodstve tekhnicheskogo ugleroda.

As a result of retrospective studies on cancer mortality among workers engaged in the carbon black industry, it was found that the mortality rate from cancer of the lung, stomach and gastrointestinal tract within this cohort of workers is higher compared with the population of the surrounding district and distant to it.

[Pathogenesis and classification of dust-related disease]. / Patogenez i klassifikatsii pnevmokoniozov.

The author justifies basic principles for new dust diseases classification resting upon contemporary ideas concerning pathogenesis of occupational respiratory diseases caused by dust.

[The key task of human ecology in Russia]. / Glavneishaia zadacha ékologii cheloveka v Rossii.

All major medical and demographic indices changed for the worse in the country during the reform years. Due to the prevalence of mortality over the birth rate, the country's population has been decreasing at a growing pace topping, now, one million people annually. Therefore, the overcoming of the medical-and-demographic crisis alongside with searching for ways of how to preserve the ecological balance must now be on the top of the agenda of human ecology in Russia. An improvement of health and of demographic processes is possible only if there emerges a profound labor motivation in people, i.e. conditions will be provided, which would ensure the possibility to earn by honest labor. The promotion of small business, democratization of private property and changes of the governmental policy in respect to remuneration of labor are needed for this. The biological mechanisms of an extremely increased mortality level among the able-bodied population comprise, obviously, three key pathological processes, i.e. impaired functioning of the central nervous system (break-down of the dynamic stereotype, I.P. Pavlov), an over-tension in the neuro-endocrine regulation (an excessive stress, H. Selye), activation of formation of free radicals (triggering of phenoptosis, V.P. Skulachyov).

[Molecular and cellular mechanisms for protecting the respiratory organs from hazardous effects]. / Molekuliarnye i kletochnye mekhanizmy zashchity organov dykhaniia ot neblagopriiatnykh vozdeistvii.

Knowledge of the mechanisms of the body's defense from poor exposures underlies the pathogenetical approach to examining the influence of environmental factors on human health. The respiratory organs are protected from poor exposures by several interrelated systems and mechanisms. The most important ones are an inspired air conditioning system, a respiratory tract self-cleansing system, a pulmonary non-specific bactericidal protection system, an alveolar respiratory surface self-cleansing system, a toxic substance metabolic and neutralizing system, and a specific immune defense system. Free radicals also play a great role in the physiology and pathology.

[Catalytic properties of dust as criteria of its occupational hazards]. / Kataliticheskie svoistva pyli kak kriterii ee professional'noi opasnosti.

The catalytic properties of fire clay (kaolin) and mullet dusts versus quartz, asbestos, and coal ones were studied. Kaolin and mullet were found to have different catalytic capacities mainly of forming free radicals. The dust of kaolin increased the level of superoxide anion radical and hydrogen peroxide in the granulocytic suspension and H2O2/O2 ratio to a lesser extent than that of mullet and quartz. Differences in the catalytic capacity of the examined dusts confirm the findings from the investigations of their effects on plasma lipid peroxidation (LPO). Kaolin and quartz were the least in elevating LPO. As compared with kaolin and quartz, the effects of mullet and asbestos were 2.5 and 6.5 higher, respectively. The substances were different in their genotoxicity.

[Fibrogenicity of dust emitted by highly aluminiferous refractories]. / Fibrogennost' pyli vysokoglinozemistykh mullitovykh ogneuporov.

The authors proved variable clinical and pathogenetic features of disease in workers under long occupational exposure to dust of kaolin and its baking products. Therefore, special experimental studies should cover kaolin and mullite as primary and final product in entire technologic sequence of high-alumina refractories production. Natural refractory clay and mullite dust were administered to rats intratracheally during chronic experiments. Lungs of the rats exposed to mullite dust demonstrated reliable changes of lipid content in 1 month and those of hydroxyproline content--in 3 months. When exposed to intratracheal administration of kaolin and mullite dust, respiratory system develops typical changes--slow development of benign diffuse and sclerotic form of pneumoconiosis that is associated or, more frequently, preceded by chronic dust bronchitis.