Health indices of the rural population living in the area affected by the Krasnoyarsk mining and chemical combine

Radioactive contamination of the floodplain of the Yenisei River with the wastes dumped by the Krasnoyarsk Mining, and Chemical Combine (MCC) might cause external and internal irradiation of a large part of rural population inhabiting the banks of the Yenisei. Due the lack of comprehensive data on the dose status and doses received by the population, the health parameters of the population were studied by comparing the recorded incidences of diseases and mortality in the areas located at different distances from the MCC, in the periods before and after the MCC was put into operation, and in different age groups. Also studied were territorial differences in the immunologic and immunogenetic statuses of some groups of population. It has been found out that in the district subjected to radioactive contamination (RAC-districts) there are characteristic shifts in the pathologies that are the main markers of the radiation factor. With possible accumulation of radiation doses the shifts become more distinct, and with the distance from the MCC less distinct. Time and space gradients of the cancer morbidity and mortality rate in the RAC-area have been found. In the riverside settlements of the RAC-area the mortality from malignant neoplasms (MN) of blood, blood-forming organs, and lymphatic system is higher than in the settlements located farther from the Yenisei. As the distance from the MCC down the Yenisei gets longer, the mortality of children due to congenital developmental defects and leukaemia decreases. The space gradient has been also found for most somatic disorders originating from stressogenic (psycho-emotional strain) and immunodeficient states. Besides increased incidence of cancer, in the RAC-area there is a higher incidence of pathological states determined to a large extent genetically - complicated pregnancies and their outcome, mortinatality, and congenital developmental defects. Investigations of immunologic and immunogenetic statuses of the RAC-district population have shown negative deviations from the Middle Siberian norm