Uranium isotopes in public drinking water and dose assessment for man in Poland.

238U, 234U and 235U were determined in tap water from municipal water pipes that drew their supply from surface water or ground water in various locations in Poland. Average activity concentrations of 238U, 234U and 235U in tap water from surface water were 9.6 +/- 7.1, 12.8 +/- 9.7 and 0.41 +/- 0.31 Bq m(-3), respectively, whereas from ground water they were 4.5 +/- 6.0, 5.7 +/- 6.9 and 0.19 +/- 0.27 Bq m(-3), respectively. Activity concentrations of 234U were higher than 238U. Ratios of 234U/238U ranged from 1.07 to 2.60, indicating the lack of equilibrium between these isotopes. The average 235U/238U ratio was 0.043 +/- 0.008, being close to 0.046 for natural uranium. Average annual intake with water and food was 7.6 +/- 5.1 Bq for 238U and 9.5 +/- 6.6 Bq for 234U. Annual committed effective doses calculated from these intakes for adults were 0.34 +/- 0.23 and 0.47 +/- 0.32 microSv, respectively; 235U contributed to the total dose from the uranium isotopes by about 2%.

Geographical Information System (GIS) as a tool for monitoring and analysing pesticide pollution and its impact on public health.

Geographical Information System (GIS) combines information from cartography sources (i.e. maps), earthbound surveys, remote sensing (i.e. aerial and satellite imagery) and creates overlapping layers that can be accessed, transformed, and manipulated interactively in one spatial structure. Thanks to the great flexibility of GIS, its possible applications are countless. For example, dynamic databases created by GIS can manage information from various sources and make spatial correlations with epidemiological data about temporal distribution of environmentally-related diseases. GIS has also been increasingly used to monitor, analyse and model pesticide migration in the environment. GIS analysis has proved to be a valuable tool in environmental and public health studies yielding important results that may ultimately help prevent excessive or uncontrolled exposure to xenobiotics, including pesticides. Despite its obvious advantages GIS technology is still not commonly used for such studies, particularly in the developing countries where the knowledge about GIS technology and its accessibility is limited. The presented review briefly explains the basic features of GIS and discusses exemplary studies where this technology has been successfully used for monitoring and analysing pesticide pollution and its impact on public health.