Public health problems in the Aral Sea region
Encyclopedia
After irrigation projects diverted water from the Aral Sea
Aral Sea
The Aral Sea was a lake that lay between Kazakhstan in the north and Karakalpakstan, an autonomous region of Uzbekistan, in the south...

 it began to dry up and left behind salts, other minerals and toxins in the soil. These not only contaminated the soil but also were picked up by winds and storms, and traveled to other areas, including over crop lands. This has led to increased health problems like respiratory diseases and cancers, among others. The change in the size of the Aral has also affected the local climate and resulted in increased occurrence and worsening of storms.

Background

There is no doubt that the shrinking of the Aral Sea has resulted in health problems for the local community. However, there is debate as to what extent of these problems can be sourced to this environmental situation. The full effects could take a generation to fully materialize and patterns of health problems to show up.
Some of the main reasons why the Aral sea area suffered greatly were from "over irrigation and water mismanagement." Environmental impacts resulting from the changes in the Aral Sea region that could affect human health are "the salinization of the water table, pesticide
Pesticide
Pesticides are substances or mixture of substances intended for preventing, destroying, repelling or mitigating any pest.A pesticide may be a chemical unicycle, biological agent , antimicrobial, disinfectant or device used against any pest...

s in the environment and food chain
Food chain
A food web depicts feeding connections in an ecological community. Ecologists can broadly lump all life forms into one of two categories called trophic levels: 1) the autotrophs, and 2) the heterotrophs...

, dust storms and air quality."

In the Uzbek region years of mono culture agriculture of cotton fields left soils depleted of naturally occurring minerals and nutrients. This eventually led to an increased use of pesticides and fertilizers to try and counter these new soil deficiencies. However, these increased chemicals found their way into the soils, water, and finally the Aral sea. These types of agricultural activities have also "resulted in widespread soil erosion, chemical pollution, and poor water quality and quantity."

Effects on Infant Mortality Rates

As the sea dries up the contaminants become exposed on the surface and enter into the soil while also being blown into the air. These environmental impacts have had wide ranging effects on health of local residents. Increases in the occurrence of many diseases and conditions have been noted and linked to the shrinking of the Aral. Facing the highest risk from exposure to contaminants and toxins are infants and children. This has contributed to an increasing infant mortality rate in the area. According to Newbold the infant mortality rate is defined as "the number of deaths of infants younger than one year of age per one thousand births."

Infant Mortality rates have been increasing in this region since the 70's, while elsewhere in the world it has generally been going down. For residents of the Aral sea region living there has led to high "exposure to industrial pollutants such as polychlorinated biphenyl
Polychlorinated biphenyl
Polychlorinated biphenyls are a class of organic compounds with 2 to 10 chlorine atoms attached to biphenyl, which is a molecule composed of two benzene rings. The chemical formula for PCBs is C12H10-xClx...

 (PCB) compound
Organic compound
An organic compound is any member of a large class of gaseous, liquid, or solid chemical compounds whose molecules contain carbon. For historical reasons discussed below, a few types of carbon-containing compounds such as carbides, carbonates, simple oxides of carbon, and cyanides, as well as the...

s and heavy metals but also to pesticides." This phenomenon leading to increased infant mortality rates has been reported as high as 70 in Kazakhstan as of 1993. Toxins can come from all sources including breathing them in from the air, drinking water, and food. However, a new baby does not have much choice about what to eat or drink. It has been found that these contaminants can be passed down through breast feeding and "in a number of areas the physicians recommend against breast feeding babies, as the nursing mothers milk is toxic."

As seen in Table 1, other surrounding countries and areas have also experienced an increase in infant mortality rates. Although there are many other factors that contribute to infant mortality rates, the environmental state in the area has a definite influence on increasing rates. When compared with developed countries these rates can illustrate differences in health care and access to health care between the areas.

Table 1: Infant Mortality Rates, 1985 -2008

1985-1990 1990-1995 1995-2000 2004 2008
Afghanistan 170 160 152 165 163
Kazakhstan 36 35 35 52 29
Kyrgyzstan 45 40 40 42 50
Turkmenistan 58 55 55 74 74
Uzbekistan 53 44 44 62 48
Tajikistan 58 57 57 50 65
United Kingdom 5.3 4.9
Canada 5.2 5.4
USA 6.7 6.6

List of Adverse Health Effects

In Turkmenistan
Turkmenistan
Turkmenistan , formerly also known as Turkmenia is one of the Turkic states in Central Asia. Until 1991, it was a constituent republic of the Soviet Union, the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic . Turkmenistan is one of the six independent Turkic states...

 alone, 50% of all reported illnesses in children are related to respiratory system difficulties. The effects of this situation are far reaching and affect people in a wide range of ailments. Following is a list of health problems contributing to high infant mortality, death, and lower standard of living in the Aral Sea area:
  • diarrhea
    Diarrhea
    Diarrhea , also spelled diarrhoea, is the condition of having three or more loose or liquid bowel movements per day. It is a common cause of death in developing countries and the second most common cause of infant deaths worldwide. The loss of fluids through diarrhea can cause dehydration and...

    l diseases
  • vaccine
    Vaccine
    A vaccine is a biological preparation that improves immunity to a particular disease. A vaccine typically contains an agent that resembles a disease-causing microorganism, and is often made from weakened or killed forms of the microbe or its toxins...

     preventable diseases such as tuberculosis
    Tuberculosis
    Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...

  • nutritional deficiencies
    Malnutrition
    Malnutrition is the condition that results from taking an unbalanced diet in which certain nutrients are lacking, in excess , or in the wrong proportions....

  • upper respiratory tract infection
    Upper respiratory tract infection
    Upper respiratory tract infections are the illnesses caused by an acute infection which involves the upper respiratory tract: nose, sinuses, pharynx or larynx...

    s
  • teratogenesis
  • endocrine disruption
  • neurodevelopmental effects
  • behavioral effects
  • other respiratory diseases
  • gastro-enteritis
  • typhoid fever
    Typhoid fever
    Typhoid fever, also known as Typhoid, is a common worldwide bacterial disease, transmitted by the ingestion of food or water contaminated with the feces of an infected person, which contain the bacterium Salmonella enterica, serovar Typhi...

  • hepatitis
    Hepatitis
    Hepatitis is a medical condition defined by the inflammation of the liver and characterized by the presence of inflammatory cells in the tissue of the organ. The name is from the Greek hepar , the root being hepat- , meaning liver, and suffix -itis, meaning "inflammation"...

  • esophageal cancer
    Esophageal cancer
    Esophageal cancer is malignancy of the esophagus. There are various subtypes, primarily squamous cell cancer and adenocarcinoma . Squamous cell cancer arises from the cells that line the upper part of the esophagus...

  • various other cancers
  • elevated rates of hypertension
    Hypertension
    Hypertension or high blood pressure is a cardiac chronic medical condition in which the systemic arterial blood pressure is elevated. What that means is that the heart is having to work harder than it should to pump the blood around the body. Blood pressure involves two measurements, systolic and...

  • heart disease
    Heart disease
    Heart disease, cardiac disease or cardiopathy is an umbrella term for a variety of diseases affecting the heart. , it is the leading cause of death in the United States, England, Canada and Wales, accounting for 25.4% of the total deaths in the United States.-Types:-Coronary heart disease:Coronary...

  • anemia
    Anemia
    Anemia is a decrease in number of red blood cells or less than the normal quantity of hemoglobin in the blood. However, it can include decreased oxygen-binding ability of each hemoglobin molecule due to deformity or lack in numerical development as in some other types of hemoglobin...

  • kidney disease

Solutions

A large concern of remediation of the area is the reduction of the blowing salt and minerals from the exposed sea bed. Some solutions include constructing dikes to control water flows and restricting the water amounts diverted for irrigation. However, the health effects have already been felt and will continue to be present for a long time even if the situation is turned around in the very near future.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK