Arsenic pollution of soils and morbidity prevalence in Racha-Lower Svaneti district of Georgia

Biomonitoring Air Pollution Using Moss in Georgia

“…3. Group of magnetic and paramagnetic particles, sample 8. which is apparently due to the poor condition of the old ore deposits of shut-down plants [5][6][7]. The higher concentrations of I and Br in moss from Norway are due to the proximity of the sea in this country, whereas moss in Georgia was mostly collected in the mountains.…”

“…One was taken near Rikoti Pass, which passes a highway that connects two main cities of Georgia (Tbilisi and Kutaisi), and the other one is not far from Kutaisi. The main environmental pollution sources in sampled regions are transportation, mining of manganese, metallurgy, machinery, human waste, and burials of old industrial waste from Soviet times [5][6][7][8][9].…”

“…Georgia is a mountainous country in the Caucasus with specific geographic conditions and climate, characterized by high-level anthropogenic pollution in some districts, namely Lower Svaneti, Kutaisi, Zestafoni, and others [5][6][7][8][9]. In 2014 a preliminary collection of Georgian moss (16 samples from different sites around the country) was investigated in collaboration with JINR [10].…”

Arsenic Pollution and Human Health Risk Assessment in the Region of Racha-Lechkhumi and Kvemo Svaneti of Georgia

“…Arsenic tops the list of the 20 most dangerous compounds compiled jointly by The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ASTDR, 1999) and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA, 2001). Arsenic and its compounds are also considered by the World Health Organization (WHO) to be the most problematic substances for human health (Chirakadze, Buachidze et al, 2016), and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IACR, 2012) ranks them as the rst category of carcinogenic hazards. The Basel Convention of 22 March 1989, concerning the transboundary movement of hazardous waste and its disposal, classi ed arsenic as controlled waste.…”

“…However, the waste generated in the process is still stored in old, depreciated buildings and past production waste enters the river through the water coming out of an abandoned eld and causes signi cant contamination of soils and waters of adjacent areas. (Bakradze, Vodyanitskii et al, 2018;Bagrationi, Gvakharia et al, 2015) Until today the great amount of toxic waste of arsenic production is mainly stored in two villages in this region -Uravi and Tsana (Chirakadze, Buachidze et al, 2016;Bagrationi, Gvakharia et al, 2015), near the territory of the factories (more than 120 000 tons' waste, containing 4-9 % of white arsenic), which was not located safely and there was a high risk of ecological disaster in rivers, and soils, especially risks of natural disasters ( oods, rockslide, erosion etc.). Uravi's concrete burial ground, which covers up to 60,000 tons of arsenic, was crushed by the side of Lukhuni River and washed directly in the river, further exacerbating the expected dangers (Gurguliani, 2014).…”