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Assessment of the soil quality is ofprime importance essential for the characterization of the ecological and hygienic condition of the territory, as the soil is the first link of the food chain, the source of secondary air and water pollution, as well as an integral index of ecological well-being of the environment. Herewith the qualitative analysis of soil complicated by the specifics of the soil genesis in the urban environment, in which an important role is played by manmade land bulk and alluvial soils; the inclusion of construction of material debris and household garbage in upper horizons; the growing up of the profile due to the perpetual introduction of different materials and intensive aeolian deposition. It is advisable to consider the currently neglected question of the study of soil vapor containing volatile chemicals. These pollutants penetrate into the building through cracks in the foundation and openings for utilities. Soil evaporation may accumulate in residential areas or in the soil under the building. Because of this, it is necessary to pay attention to the remediation of areas allocated for the built-up area, possessing a large-scale underground parking. Soil contamination is the result of significant anthropogenic impacts on the environment components. In general, about 89.1 million people (62.6% of the population of the country) live in terms of complex chemical load, determined by contamination offood, drinking water, air and soil. The list of microbiological and sanitary-chemical indices of the assessment of soils of urban areas may vary in dependence on the data obtained in pilot studies due to changes and additions to the assigned tasks. Timely forecast for the possibility of the usage of released lands of urban territories for the construction and the creation of new objects for different purposes should become the prevention of chronic non-infectious diseases in the population residing in urban areas.

One of the main criteria which determine the possibility of the use of a particular type of ice-melter reagents (IMR) is the degree of their safety for the environment and human health, which is reflected in the establishment of safe doses and concentrations. In this regard, the current area of research is to improve the ecological and epidemiological principles of risk assessment of modern types of anti-icing agents. Currently available data concerning monitoring soil studies and the snow held in various cities of Russia, show that there is a process of accumulation of the main components of IMR - sodium and chlorine ions in the areas related to the roadway. The article is designated a problem of existing methodological approaches to the assessment of the phytotoxic impact in the investigation of anti-icing agents in the laboratory. There was executed the comparative characteristics of the results of the preliminary pilot studies on the phytotoxic properties of IMR under using different substrates for germination of seeds - soil and filter paper. The data obtained are characterized by differences in the degree of phytotoxic action of the same species depending upon ice-melter reagents methodical setting circuit laboratory experiment. As a result, there was shown the imperfection of the existing method of rapid analysis in relation to ice-melter materials (IMM).

In the paper there is presented a review of existing guidelines and rules of operation of deicing materials (DIM), as well as opportunities for their processing with the aim to ensure the security for the environment and public health. There are described the ecological- hygienic and toxicological properties of chemicals. There are reported results of a pot experiment for the assessment of the impact of DIM on the lawn.

The article presents data on the levels of soil pollution by polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in different regions of Russia and foreign countries. For the time present proposed regulatory value for the regulation of PCBs in soils of different land uses have been established to be set mainly on the results of the calculations of risk. However used initial values and features of the methodology for calculating determine significant variability of proposed levels of PCBs in soils. Analysis of the discussed problem of regulation of PCBs in soils in different countries permitted to make the conclusion that for the sound management of PCBs in the environment, it is necessary, first of all, the solution of questions of selection of a single standardized PCBs sample and the most appropriate method for risk assessment for the characterization of the state of contaminated soils.

An important step in developing measures for the management, conservation and restoration of soils contaminated with various chemicals, is a timely development of regulatory documents and their revision in the light of modern knowledge. Address issues related to the harmonization of the maximum permissible concentration (MAPC) of some chemical elements, improving the methodology of valuation methodology for the development of hygienic regulation of combinations of chemicals in the soil, as well as the improvement of computational methods study estimated allowable concentrations of chemicals of various classes of compounds and their combinations in the soil should be carried out in accordance with international requirements and trends towards integration with Europe.

Petroleum and its transformation products accumulated in soil along multiple trophic chains enter the human body, which increases the risk of environmentally induced diseases. A thirty-day experiment studied the cutaneous effect of different doses (4250, 850, and 425 mg/kg) of sunflower oil-emulsified petroleum. Its sensitizing and allergic effects were studied on albino guinea pigs. The activity of N-acetyl-beta-D-glucosaminidase and catalase was determined in the sera of non-inbred male albino rats. Petroleum given in a dose of 4250 mg/kg was found to have a negative effect. When its bioeffect occurred, a protective adaptive response of the body revealed in early stages gave way to tension of its adaptive capacities.

The Ames test on Salmonella typhimurium TA 100 and TA 98 strains were used to study the mutagenic activity of aqueous (pH 7.4) and buffer (pH 4.5) extracts from soil samples containing different oil levels (from 16 to 3526 mg per kg soil), which had been taken from different areas of a town, and buffer extracts from model soil samples added by crude West-Siberian oil (160-15625 mg/kg). The extracts from all soil samples showed no mutagenic activity. The buffer soil sample extract containing oil in the amount of 12290 mg/kg and oil and coal combustion products had a mutagenic effect with metabolic activation on the TA 98 strain. It is suggested that the mutagenic effect of this sample is associated with oil and coal combustion products.

The paper gives the results of studying the quantity of petroleum hydrocarbons in the Moscow soil, as well as the latter's hygienic evaluation by the changes in acidity (pH) and redox potential and by the sanitary state (the levels of Escherichia coli and viable helminthic eggs). The study has ascertained that the petroleum-polluted soils show changes in medium pH and redox conditions that determine the biological activity of the substances and the trend in their disintegration processes and revealed a relationship of thy sanitary state of Moscow soils to their level of petroleum hydrocarbons.

Experience in standardizing the soil levels of chemicals suggests that the translocation hazard index is limiting for most standardized substances. The current unavailability of scientifically grounded maximum allowable concentration of soil petroleum generates a need for studies using this hazard index. The studies were made to examine different soil petroleum levels, by employing various test crops.

The paper presents the results of experimental and analytical studies substantiating a classification of waste hazard by the cytotoxicity indices. The authors have established a significant correlation between the substance toxicity values obtained in vivo and in vitro and show it possible to make an approximate forecast of the average lethal concentration of substances by the estimates made on cell cultures. The criteria for toxicological waste hazard, which are adequate to those for the hazards of chemicals by DL50, are given.

The soils of residential areas were studied in different Moscow districts differing in the level of a man-caused load. Oil pollution was estimated by the soil content of oil hydrocarbons. A correlation was established between the levels of hydrocarbons and the sanitary ill-being of the city's soils.

The experimental study of the biological activity of the modified calcium chloride produced by a Volgograd plant and that of ash-and-slag of the pharmaceuticals resulting after combustion of a pyrolytic mixture of filtration burning could establish various hazards of these substances.

The article covers the ecologo-hygienic aspects of anthropogenic soil pollution, and important directions of research into its sanitary protection. The authors adduce data concerning the levels of actual soil pollution with chemicals and biological agents (microbiological and helminthological ones) in various centers of population, and discuss the variants of solving the ecologo-hygienic problems of soil protection in Russian Federation.

The fact that the volume of waste steadily grows, makes its handling one of the most topical scientific, technical, and socioeconomic problems in the world. The article covers important ecological and hygienic problems of waste handling and the effects of waste of human health.