Field assessment of environmental hazards to human health in temperate urban Argentina

SALOMONE V; RUBIO A; CASTESANA P; CARDO MV; VADELL MV; MORANDEIRA N

ECOHEALTH

SPRINGER

Lugar: Berlin; Año: 2021 vol. 18 p. 250 - 266

1612-9202

Human health risk in urban areas depends on multiple environmental features. We performed ayear-round survey in a highly urbanized district located in temperate Argentina (General San Martı´n, 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 and 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 in 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 weremore abundant in high hazardous areas, three species from the genus Culex 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 rodent infestation. How to improve field surveys and estimated maps are both discussed, highlighting the need for dynamic feedback between GIS-based models and environmental monitoring.