[Hygienic problems of hot water supply for the population].

The paper reviews the literature on the current hygienic problems of centralized hot water supply for the population. It gives data on the types of domestic hot water used by the population in quantities and at temperatures. The paper considers the importance of meeting the standards for the temperature of hot water at the points of water pumping to prevent legionellosis and other diseases associated with the opportunistic microflora being in hot water. The possible negative effect of chlorinated water disinfection byproducts, present in hot water on the population's health is considered in detail.

[Hygienic bases for listing the indicators for evaluation and control of the safety of drinking water].

The authors describe their developed methodology to draw up lists for drinking water quality control on the whole territory of the Russian Federation and at specific waterworks of its subjects. The paper considers a 4-step scheme for applying the methodology and a possibility of its use to add and shorten the lists, by keeping in mind the local sanitary situation. The proposed scheme for listing the priority substances and indicators may be regarded as the optimal solution for equalization of mutually exclusive trends in the quality control of drinking water by a sanitary service and water canals and ensures its safety to human health, reasonably focusing attention only on the minimum of actually priority substances that are individual to each water supply system.

[Topical aspects of hot water supply to the population].

The aspects of hot water supply, which determine the safety of hot water delivered to the population, are considered. The authors underline the antiepidemic value of hot water temperature maintenance at the water pumping points of not below 60 degrees C as only this measure liably prevents water multiplication of Legionella pneumophila that induces legionellosis, a severe disease, as well as other high temperature-resistant microorganisms. The results of estimating the residential use of hot water, according to which the hot water script is diverse and accounts for as many as 17 different operations made by women and, in some cases, taken an average of 1.5 hours to the maximum of up to 4 hours a day, are given. There is a need for mandatory monitoring for the level of chloroform in the chlorine-decontaminated water supplied to the population.

[Methodology of harmonizing hygienic standards for water substances, and its application to improving sanitary water legislation].

The article deals with methodology of harmonizing hygienic standards in order to correct and improve Russian sanitary water legislation. This methodology allows drawing on the world experience in the field of water hygiene, which is profitable in terms of cost-effectiveness and can contribute greatly to the national legislation.

[Classification of hazards of water pollutants].

The paper considers materials on the substantiation of criteria, indices, and their gradation for a new variant of the hygienic classification of hazards of water-contaminating substances. Emphasis is placed on the significance of a ratio of the maximally inactive concentrations (MIC) in terms of the toxicological sign of harmfulness to the threshold concentrations (TC) in terms of their effects on the organoleptic properties of water and on the general sanitary regime of water reservoirs. Only two types of late effects of substances, which are of individual significance for classification, such as carcinogenicity and reproductive effects, are identified. It is stated that a class of hazard may be toughened for high-stable substances, but neither the stability nor any other indices of the potential hazard of substances is the ground for reducing their hygienic standards in water.

[Hygienic evaluation of the combined effect of portable water chloroform].

The paper considers the significance of complex entrance of chloroform from portable water into the human body (enterally, inhalationally, and through the intact skin). It shows it necessary to toughen the maximum permissible concentration (MPC) of chloroform in the portable drinking, by taking into account of the multiplicity of routes of its action on the population. The authors present the results of their own investigations of the levels of chloroform in the air of bath and shower rooms before and after taking a shower and filling the bath with water, as well as in the airspace layer above the water of an indoor swimming pool, by using chromatographic mass-spectrometry.

[Biotesting drawbacks in the hygienic evaluation of sewage].

The paper considers unfavorable consequences of the use of biotesting to define the conditions of effluent discharge into water objects. Evaluation of discharge hazard by the index "no toxicity" in the biological tests has been shown to allow both safe 100-1000-fold excesses of hygienic MAC in water; routine short-term experiments on biotest objects are not informative as to the substances that have carcinogenic and other long-term and specific effects; biotesting cannot replace the existing state system of sanitary standards and regulations which remain the basis of the population's health care in the field of water hygiene and sanitary protection of water reservoirs.

[Harmonization of hygienic standards with the foreign requirements for the quality of drinking water].

The concept of and criteria for harmonization of hygienic standards with the foreign requirements for the quality of drinking water were developed. On their basis, more than 100 sanitary standards for water substances were harmonized with the WHO and EC recommendations and the USA and Canadian standards for drinking water quality. Thirty sanitary standards were corrected and 12 ones were newly established without making experimental studies, among them 18 for carcinogenic substances. The paper provides evidence for the reliability and effectiveness of the Russian sanitary standardization system as to most standardized water substances. It also presents the harmonized standard normal values included into the documents of the water sanitary legislation of Russia.

[Chlorination of water as a high hazard to human health]. / Khlorirovanie vody kak faktor povyshennoi opasnosti dlia zdorov'ia naseleniia.

The problems associated with the formation of halogen-containing compounds (HCC) during water chlorination are under consideration. It is indicated that their wide spread (in drinking and reservoir water, air, foodstuffs), the multitude of routes by which they enter the body (through the gastrointestinal tract, inspired air, and undamaged skin), their high toxicity, accumulation, and carcinogenic effects now determine the significance of HCC as a factor that constitutes a serious hazard to all contingents of the whole population of the country. Cardinal solution of the HCC-related problem is to ban chlorination of water, to expose it to UV, and to use other up-to-date safe modes of its decontamination.

[The criteria of threshold effects of environmental pollutants]. / Kriterii porogovogo deistviia khimicheskikh veshchestv, zagriazniaiushchikh razlichnye ob"ekty okruzhaiushchei sredy.

A set of criteria, indices and methods applicable to determining the threshold doses and concentrations of chemical substances was critically examined, analyzed and summarized. A differentiated notion for the hazard effect threshold and for threshold effects, with due respect for which the daily doses and norms are substantiated for various environmental objects, is described. An original interpretation of the hygienic evaluation of an enhanced enzyme activity, mainly of the microsomal hepatic enzymes, is suggested; it is noteworthy, that this aspect was often regarded as a physiological response to the detoxication of chemicals. An advantage of calculating the reference doses as compared to other mathematical methods of determining the threshold values is demonstrated. The article is intended to promote and enhance the safety of hygienic regulation, which is a basis for the state environmental monitoring.

[Principles of and criteria for sanitary standardization of antitumor cytostatics in the water of aqueous objects]. / Printsipy i kriterii gigienicheskogo normirovaniia protivoopukholevykh tsitostatikov v vode vodnykh ob"ektov.

The list of sanitary standards with the mark "absent" should include antitumor cytostatics as the drugs satisfying the following criteria: extreme hazard and toxicity, late adverse effects, primarily mutagenic and carcinogenic properties; lack of highly sensitive methods for their determination in water; lack of 100%-efficiency methods for sewage purification. A complex of protective measures is justified and sanitary recommendations are given to protect the aqueous environment during cytostatic production.

[Applied aspects of allometry use in human ecology]. / Pikladnye aspekty ispol'zovaniia allometrii v ékologii cheloveka.

The paper shows it possible to use allometric equations to detect human and animal biological differences, including longevity. An actual man is shown to generally live 5 times longer than his allometric model constructed on the mean life longevity in mammals of different species from shrewmouse to elephant. The longer life of man is accounted for by his biosocial nature and by the influence of many socioeconomic factors. Therefore the mean longevity may serve as a universal integral index of the socioeconomic policy of some countries and regions. Critical considerations should be hold for the attempts to substitute the socioeconomic situation by the pure ecological one when outlining prospects of society development. Environmental protection programmes should not become an end in themselves, but they should be only a constituent of the general concept of development wherein priority is given to the socioeconomic problems of the population's life.

[Hygienic and ecological criteria of hazards in the protection of aqueous biota]. / Gigienicheskie i ékologicheskie kriterii vrednosti v oblasti okhrany vodnykh ob"ektov.

Man is not always sensitive to toxic agents than the representative of the aqueous biota. Almost in every fifth case, human sensitivity to water pollutants is higher and that to a number of compounds is more than 100 times greater. Therefore, there cannot be unified environmental and hygienic standards and fishery and sanitary MAC of water agents should be taken apart to provide a reliable safety of human water consumption.

[The ecological hygiene assessment of the water environment based on factor analysis]. / Ekologo-gigienicheskaia otsenka vodnoi sredy na osnove faktornogo analiza.

Regularities of the formation and spread of pollution of water objects in the area of sewage discharges of the cellulose-paper works were revealed. The bottom nature of water pollution and their change in their contribution in relation to the distance were determined. The bottom pollution of water was comparable with that due to sewage and varied from 46 to 69%. The transformation of organic matter makes a significant contribution to the total water pollution.