Assessment of Environmental Hazards to Public Health in Temperate Urban Argentina

AbstractHuman health risk in urban areas depends on multiple environmental features. We performed a year-round survey in a highly urbanized district located in temperate Argentina (General San Mart ín, Buenos Aires) to establish baseline information about environmental hazards associated with health risks. Sampling was stratified into low and high hazardous zones according to estimated indexes previously developed for the area for four hazards: drinking water and air pollution, and mosquito a nd rodent infestation. Water from wells showed lower concentrations of aluminum, manganese and iron, and higher values of arsenic than tap samples, with the latter showing records above the maximum permitted for arsenic, aluminum and chromium. Benzene concentration in air was higher in summer than i n winter, and in areas close to dumps and landfills, gas stations, high traffic pathways and industries with respect to low hazard areas. Adult mosquito collections were more abundant in high hazardous areas, three species from the genusCulex dominated the captures and the proportion of individuals from each species was variable seasonally and spatially. Rodent activity was recorded inside and outside dwellings, and its observed values did not differ between low and high hazardous areas. In the comparison between field data and estimated hazard maps, high accuracy was obtained for air pollution maps, intermediate accuracy for water pollution and mosquito infestation, and poor accuracy for ro...
Source: EcoHealth - Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research