Introduction: Motor transport with internal combustion engines powered by diesel fuel and gasoline is one of the main sources of ambient air pollution since its emissions pose an urgent medical and environmental challenge.
The objective of the study was to identify priority types of pollutants from emissions of motor vehicles powered by internal combustion engines based on the results of a systematic review in order to substantiate the main preventive strategy to mitigate the associated public health adverse effects.
Methods: We did keyword search for relevant publications in several electronic databases, such as the Russian Science Citation Index, CyberLeninka, Scopus, and WoS. Research papers published in 2000–2021 were selected for the analysis. Out of 103 topical full-text publications, 59 works met the criteria for inclusion in the systematic review.
Results: We observed that atmospheric emissions of internal combustion engines represent a complex agglomeration of gases, vapors, and particulate matter. The chemicals present in the emissions impair the oxygen transport function by inhibiting cellular respiration, cause irritation of mucous membranes, have mutagenic and carcinogenic effects, contribute to the occurrence of acid rains and to global warming. The biological effect of airborne particles largely depends on their size. It has been established that an increase in the number of airborne particles with an aerodynamic diameter less than 10 μm is associated with the risk of endothelial inflammation, thrombosis, increased cell permeability, and DNA methylation. It has been also demonstrated that a 5 µg/m³ increment in ambient concentrations of fine particles (< 2.5 μm) causes a 7 % increase in the mortality rate. At the same time, PM_2.5 exposure-related risks of excess deaths from cardiovascular diseases are twice as high as those posed by exposure to PM₁₀.
Conclusions: Diesel and gasoline engine exhausts are a significant risk factor for human health. An effective preventive strategy should be aimed at replacing heavy hydrocarbon motor fuels by compressed gas using hydrogen cells and electric motors.

Introduction: More than 100 million cubic meters of sewage sludge are accumulated annually at municipal wastewater treatment facilities of the Russian Federation. Its quantity depends on sewage treatment techniques while its qualitative composition is determined by the components of wastewater, efficiency of treatment facilities, and local industries. Sewage sludge contains toxic substances (heavy metal salts, toxic organic matter, etc.) and various types of microorganisms including pathogenic bacteria, all posing hazards to human health and environment.
Objective: To summarize and systematize information about fluidized bed incineration of sewage sludge and to compile the list of pollutants emitted by incinerators and subject to control in ambient air.
Materials and methods: We used data analysis methods based on review and summarization of up-to-date research data found in Scopus, PubMed, and RSCI abstract and citation databases for 2021–2022. The article selection criterion included the presence of information about effective techniques of sewage sludge disposal. Having reviewed 40 articles, we selected 30 appropriate full-text publications on the topic.
Results: We established that incineration is considered to be an effective and universal contemporary method of reducing a large amount of sewage sludge and generating energy.
Conclusion: Compared to other techniques of thermal treatment, sewage sludge incineration is promising in terms of equipment and techniques. However, more attention shall be paid to the mechanism of incineration, equipment, temperature conditions, and other factors affecting generation of pollutants, as well as to control of air emissions from sewage sludge incinerators at wastewater treatment plants.

Introduction: For small and medium-sized towns, background concentrations of ambient air pollutants are traditionally used to estimate dispersion of the latter in accordance with Temporary Recommendations envisaging both background indicators and background long-term average concentrations.
Objective: To assess the appropriateness of applying background long-term average concentrations of air pollutants to estimating average annual concentrations and assessing health risks in towns where regular ambient air monitoring data are not available.
Materials and methods: In 2022, we have ranked air pollutants based on information from two volumes of current permissible emission standards valid in 2019–2025. Of 38 chemicals emitted by an industrial enterprise and 51 by another, we selected 21 and 20 priority pollutants, respectively. Health risks in the population were assessed based on lifetime (70 years) chronic exposure estimates.
We established dispersion of air pollutants using the unified program for estimating atmospheric pollution “Ecologist”, Integral LLC, St. Petersburg. Concentrations of two airborne chemicals, which background values should be considered, were determined. Both carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic health risks were assessed both including and excluding background air pollution levels. We evaluated total carcinogenic risks and summed up hazard coefficients by effect on target organs and systems.
Results: The findings of health risk assessment, which neglected background long-term average concentrations of airborne industrial pollutants, demonstrated acceptable levels of chronic carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic risks in both towns while the inclusion of those data resulted in unacceptable risks in Town 1.
Discussion: Health risk assessment for the urban population based on background long-term average concentrations of airborne industrial pollutants produces unacceptable risk levels. It is advisable to study this problem in the process of updating the risk assessment guidelines in order to eliminate contradictions.

Introduction: The increase in time people spent in rooms of various functional purposes makes special demands on the quality of artificial lighting, which increasingly compensates for the lack of daylight. In 2021, Russian Sanitary Regulations and Standards SanPiN 1.2.3685-21 came into force setting new requirements for qualitative and quantitative characteristics of artificial lighting in residential and public buildings, thus necessitating improvement of instrumental control methods.
Objective: To develop and substantiate requirements pertaining to organization of instrumental control, procedure and conditions for measuring lighting indicators in the premises of residential and public buildings in order to control their compliance with the updated hygienic standards.
Materials and methods: We reviewed 17 regulatory documents and guidelines containing the requirements for illumination and measurement of its parameters and analyzed more than 30 proposals for lighting assessment received from 28 territorial bodies and institutions of the Russian Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing (Rospotrebnadzor). We also considered ten main issues concerning instrumental control of lighting suggested for discussion at the meetings on activities and assignments of physical laboratories of Rospotrebnadzor Centers for Hygiene and Epidemiology in 2018–2020 and issues of illumination measurement and assessment in different types of buildings posing challenge for specialists of the Inspection Body in the course of sanitary and epidemiological expert examination of measurement results.
Results: We have determined method approaches to organizing and taking measurements of lighting indicators and specified the choice of monitored parameters, measuring points and conditions.
Conclusion: When developing guidelines for measuring and assessing lighting inside and outside residential and public buildings, it is necessary to systematize the requirements of valid method documents, eliminate existing contradictions, and determine the choice of indicators, measuring points and conditions to be monitored.

Background: Studies of wild berries of local shrubs carried out in the Murmansk Region showed an increased accumulation of heavy metals in them, especially near the Severonickel plant. High concentrations of industrial pollutants were measured in blueberries, lingonberries and crowberries.
Objective: To assess health effects of population exposure to nickel and copper in wild berries of small shrubs in the Murmansk Region.
Materials and methods: We tested metal contents in blueberries, lingonberries and crowberries gathered in August–September of 2016–2018 at ten stationary monitoring plots located along the industrial pollution gradient in the meridional (south) direction on the leeward side of the Severonickel plant. Health risk assessment was conducted in accordance with Guidelines R 2.1.10.1920-04, Health Risk Assessment from Environmental Chemicals.
Results: Values of carcinogenic risk from oral exposure to nickel contained in the berries were unacceptably high (> 1.0E-03) at all monitoring plots. Estimates of chronic non-carcinogenic risk from nickel exposure were also high while those from copper exposure were unacceptable only for crowberry. Hazard index values for the unidirectional effect of copper and nickel on the digestive tract and liver were unacceptably high (> 1.0) at most monitoring plots for all the berries studied.
Discussion: High risk values for the local population necessitate the development of recommendations for exposure reduction, such as limiting the annual consumption of berries to 6 kg, avoiding berry picking at a distance of up to 15 km from the Severonickel plant, etc.
Conclusions: The predicted levels of carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic risks associated with exposure to nickel and copper were estimated as unacceptably high, thus indicating a pronounced industrial impact on boreal ecosystems in the zone of influence of the enterprise, extending more than 15 km from its industrial site. It is critical to develop appropriate recommendations for the population consuming wild-growing blueberries, cowberries and crowberries picked in this industrially contaminated area.

Background: The shipbuilding industry is one of the leading sectors of the national economy of our country. In St. Petersburg, shipyards employ up to 60 % of all blue-collar workers, most of them being engineering technicians and shipbuilding specialists. Chippers occupy a special place among the latter. It is known that chippers performing heavy and extremely heavy physical labor often develop occupational diseases induced by hand and arm overstrain, such as epicondylosis, rotator cuff syndrome, and osteoarthritis. Prolonged static and dynamic loads on the upper extremities in combination with hand-arm vibration and forced postures cause dystrophic changes in the cartilage (arthrosis), and then in the bone tissue (osteoarthritis), thus necessitating appropriate preventive measures to preserve work ability of shipbuilders, including chippers.
Objective: To evaluate effectiveness of specially developed and patented techniques based exposure to low-intensity laser radiation for restoring occupationally impaired functions of the musculoskeletal system.
Material and methods: In 2021, we studied working conditions of 38 chippers and 25 engineering technicians aged 35 to 58 years, with at least 10 years of employment, experiencing muscle tension and overstrain of the upper extremities. All the workers were examined by a surgeon and a neurologist. To restore the functional state of the upper limb blood supply, laser radiation in the red region of the spectrum was applied to the back surface of workers’ hands. Regional blood circulation of the hands was then evaluated using a Mizar-REO rheograph, Mizar LLC, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation.
Results: After ten 5-minute sessions of radiation therapy, the number of complaints of general fatigue, irritability, lethargy, weakness, and sleep disturbance decreased by 2.5 and 3 times in chippers and engineering technicians, respectively. The number of complaints of headaches, pain in the heart and hands reduced as well. Only two chippers reported persistence of some minor pains in their hands. The regional blood circulation also demonstrated an objective improvement.
Conclusion: Exposure of the dorsal side of hands to low-intensity laser radiation in the red region of the spectrum effectively relieves vasospasm of the upper extremities and leads to an improvement in blood supply. Introduction of the developed preventive care measure will contribute to occupational disease and disability prevention.

Introduction: Vibration disease is a prevalent occupational disorder of the musculoskeletal, nervous, and vascular systems.
Objective: To study recent trends in vibration disease rates among industrial workers in the Russian Arctic.
Materials and methods: Public health monitoring data on working conditions and occupational diseases in the population of the Russian Arctic for 2007–2020 were analyzed using Microsoft Excel 2016 and Epi Info, v. 6.04d.
Results: In 2007–2020, whole-body and hand-arm vibration ranked seventh (5.7 %) and tenth (1.5 %) in the general structure of industrial hazards identified at the local enterprises, respectively. Among etiologic factors of occupational diseases, these two types of vibration occupied the third and fourth places, while their cumulative exposure was second (29.5 %) only to the increased severity of labor processes. In 2007–2020, vibration disease was first diagnosed in 2,234 workers, mostly men (99.5 %) of early retirement age (51.0 ± 0.1 years) engaged in mining (91.3 %). The risk of developing vibration disease due to hand-arm vibration was higher than from whole-body vibration: RR = 3.37; CI 2.48–4.59; χ² = 67.0; p < 0.001. The average annual incidence rate of vibration disease was 4.23 per 10,000 workers. Over 14 years, the number of vibration disease cases and its share in the structure of occupational disorders tended to increase while the number of years of employment in workers with vibration disease decreased from 24.9 ± 0.3 to 23.2 ± 0.2 (p < 0.001).
Conclusion: The increased number of vibration disease cases and a shorter length of service until the disease onset, which can hardly be attributed to deteriorating working conditions, require a proper explanation.

Introduction: The work of firefighters is associated with a high risk to health and life. During firefighting, firemen are exposed to a combination of various factors, among which chemical agents rank first. Of all the toxic products of combustion, the most dangerous are genotoxic substances having a high cumulative effect and a very long clearance time, including dioxins and dioxin-like polychlorinated biphenyls generated during low-temperature combustion of organic chlorine compounds.
Objective: To study karyopathological manifestations of the genotoxic effects of dioxins in firefighters, depending on the length of service and various polymorphic variants of the xenobiotic detoxification genes.
Materials and methods: The cytogenetic status of firefighters was assessed using an extended micronucleus test of buccal epithelium. The study was conducted in 2019–2022 involving 252 firefighters, 86 rescuers and other professionals. The risk of cytogenetic abnormalities in epitheliocytes was assessed using calculation methods and expressed as an index of accumulation of cytogenetic disorders. For each subject, two smears of buccal epithelium were prepared followed by the analysis of two thousand intact cells.
Results: We noted an increase in the frequency of karyotype aberrations in buccal epithelial cells of firefighters compared to controls correlating with the length of service and dioxin concentrations in blood lipids. The analysis of the relationship between various polymorphic variants of xenobiotic detoxification genes, dioxins in blood lipids of firefighters, and the index of accumulation of cytogenetic damage showed that individuals with a combination of six genotypes (EPHX1 Tyr/Tyr, CYP1A1 A/A, GSTT1 I/I, GSTM1 I/I, GSTP1 A /A, and GSTP1 C/C) possessed xenobiotic detoxification enzymes with high activity and better resistance to karyotypic changes induced by genotoxicants.
Conclusion: The levels of cytogenetic disorders established in the present study give evidence of adverse health effects of occupational exposure to toxic combustion products in firefighters of the State Fire Service of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations.

Introduction: Working conditions in the production of crude nickel and copper pose an increased risk of occupational diseases.
Objective: To collect new data on health disorders in workers engaged in the production of crude nickel and copper in the Arctic.
Materials and methods: We analyzed general medical conditions and occupational diseases in 760 workers engaged in the production of crude nickel and copper in 2008–2020.
Results: Nickel compounds, workplace air concentrations of which exceed the permissible exposure limit by 7.6–157.0 times in various unit process areas, represent the main occupational hazard in converter matte processing. According to the regular check-up data for 2008, the most prevalent general medical conditions included diseases of the eye (18.4 %), musculoskeletal (14.7 %) and respiratory (12.5 %) systems. Every 10-year increment in the length of service was associated with an increase in the incidence of diseases of the musculoskeletal, circulatory and endocrine systems (p < 0.001) in the workers. In 2009–2020, 91 occupational diseases were first diagnosed in 50 of 760 employees, among which respiratory diseases prevailed (68.9 %), and the average annual incidence rate was 0.998 cases per 100 workers. Mill and smelter operators (16.7 % and 13.4 % of all workers, respectively) were at higher risk of developing an occupational disease, and their annual incidence rates were 1.389 and 1.122 cases per 100 workers, respectively. We observed a clear dose-response relationship between the exposure and occupational disease rates in the workers concerned: occupational diseases developed in 32.9 % of workers with very high occupational exposure and in 17.6 %, 12.0 %, 2.0 %, and 0.3 % of workers exposed to high, medium, moderate, and low levels of airborne nickel compounds.
Conclusion: We have obtained new data on non-occupational and occupational disorders in the crude nickel and copper production workers enabling early and targeted disease prevention.

Background: The production and use of nanomaterials keeps demonstrating a significant annual increase leading to enhanced health risks for humans and especially those exposed to nanoparticles at workplaces. While the knowledge of potential toxicity related to nanotechnologies is still evolving and other more sophisticated risk management strategies are being developed, evaluated and put into practice, personal protective equipment for those handling nanoparticles should be available immediately.
Objective: To summarize and systematize information about personal protective equipment already used and recommended for use by workers exposed to nanoparticles in the occupational setting.
Materials and methods: We used data analysis methods based on review and generalization of contemporary research data  found in Medline, PubMed, and Scopus abstract and citation databases and on information portals as of January 2022. The article selection criterion was availability of information about hygienic assessment of personal protective equipment for workers occupationally exposed to nanoparticles; having reviewed over 528 original articles, we chose 39 full-text publications.
Results: We established that the principles of certification of filters and their further use for protection against nanoparticles under industrial conditions are not always observed in the production of filters, especially in terms of their pore size. Data on the use of special protective clothing is very limited and shows that available protective equipment may not ensure the required level of protection.
Conclusion: This literature review has revealed problems in the regulatory framework and practical hygienic assessment of personal protective equipment against nanoparticles, one of which is the discrepancy between real working conditions and processes simulated in the laboratory. We have established that particle diameter, charge and shape, air flow rate and humidity, as well as the model and type of filters determine the efficiency of respiratory protective equipment used to protect workers against nanoparticles in the workplace air.