The Town of the XXI Century
Series of reports on ecological situation in Central Asia

THE LADY'S FACE OF THE PLANET

The Aral Sea theme continues to be among the most serious ones

The Health care Committee of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Republican Scientific Center for protection of mothers and children studied the health conditions of women and children in especially disadvantaged regions.

Particularly these agencies consider hat the most alarming situations have developed in East-Kazakhstan, Kyzyl-Orda, Semipalatinsk, Pavlodar, Aktubinsk, South-Kazakhstan regions and the city of Almaty. Environmental pollution in East-Kazakhstan, Pavlodar and Aktubinsk regions is related to the work of industrial plants. Air pollution in Almaty is mainly caused by exhausts of vehicles. The disadvantageous environmental conditions are present in Semipalatinsk region and a directly related to the closeness of the nuclear testing range, and the people in Kyzyl-Orda suffer from the heavy consequences of the drying out of Aral Sea.

Health care Committee of the Republic of Kazakhstan studied health conditions of people living in these regions and particularly the health conditions of women and children. Below the table shows the percentages of pregnant women suffering from anemia.

The levels of pregnant women suffering from anemia, %, 1997

All over Kazakhstan the percentage of people suffering from anemia is 54,3%.

(!) The second place after anemia is taken by heart diseases. In East-Kazakhstan region the level of these diseases is twice as high as the Nation-wide average.

(!) In Kyzyl-Orda region the level of kidney diseases is 1,5 times higher than the Republican-wide average level.

(!) In East-Kazakhstan death rate among mothers is 2 times higher than the Nation-wide average and 20 times higher than the average for the developed countries.

(!) In East-Kazakhstan region out of every 1000 of newborn 474 suffer from various diseases, in Kyzyl-Orda - 391 out of every 1000, in Almaty - 350 diseased children are born for every 1000 of newborn.

(!) In accordance of the Center for protection of mothers and children, the percaentage of premature pregnancy terminations in Kyzyl-Orda and Semipalatinsk regions is 1,5 times higher than the Nation-wide average.

(!) In Semipalatinsk region, the level of abnormalities, such as Down syndrome, various forms of anencifaly is higher than the Nation-wide avergae, which is reflected in the death rates among the newborn.

(!) The suicide levels have increased in Semipalatinsk.

(!) Almaty holds the first place in the Republic for respiratory and allergic diseases.

The head gynecologist of the Health care Committee of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Saule Galimovna Nukusheva, published the article "Health conditions of women living in the Aral sea region" (authors Kaupova N.A., S.G. Nukusheva, S.I. Galeeva). We quote some parts of the article:

Health conditions of about one-and-a-half thousand women (1444) living in Aral sea region were studied. It was determined tha women living in Kazalinskii and Yanykurgan regions are not distinguished by remarkable health conditions: 62,9% of women in these regions had various kinds of diseases, consequently the health index was only 37,1%, and among pregnant women this ratio was even lower at 20%.

Heart diseases are characteristic for women of the region (24,5%).

Diseases common for women living in Aral Sea region

     Age groups,      Hypertony     Rheumatism     Heart diseases 
     (years) 
     15-19                 4,7           4,3            2,4 
     20-29                 6,7           4,3            3,3 
     30-39                 10,5          4,8            3,8 
     40-49                 24,7          9,1            10,2 
     50-59                 35,6          6,7            14,6 
     60-69                 26,2          7,1            8,4 
     Over 70               39,2          1,4            13,2 
     Total                 17,0          5,4            2,1 

For a long time it has not been a secret that people living in this region drink dirty water. There is almost everything in it! It contains chemical fertilizers, chemicals, aimed at destruction of weeds and harmful insects, highly concentrated mineral salts, and of course, the bacteria. All this causes the development of digestive organs' diseases. For example, about one fourth of women suffers from gastric and intestinal diseases (24,6%). The diseases are represented by gastritis, discensy, cholesystitos, gastroduodenite. More than third of the women has all of these diseases. Moreover, the majority of these diseases become chronic and worsen at older ages.

Disease of the urine system are also present in this region. The main diseases are represented by chronic pilonephrite, chronic cystite, and kidney stone disease. Endocrine system diseases are found among women twice as often as among men.

The level of nervous system diseases is also high. In Kazalinsk and Yanykurgan regions almost one out of every ten women suffered from nervous system diseases and the peak of these diseases is reached in the most productive age (20-50 years).

Doctors note that in recent years death rate of mothers dying from sepsis is not decreasing. The main reason for this is represented by chronic centers of infections. For example, high percentage of women suffer from caries, and it is more often registered among younger women, paradanthosis - is registered among 64 percent of women, and the number of women suffering from this disease increases at older ages.

Regional particularity is represented by the high levels of anemia, from which about half of the women (40,5%) suffer, and mainly young women aged from 29 to 30 suffer from this disease.

Research done on gynecological diseases showed that 65% of the women had various kinds of gynecological diseases. Every second women suffered from complications during pregnancy and birth.

After all this material has been studied, specialists have made the conclusion that the main reason for poor health of women living not far from Aral Sea is represented by poor living conditions, low quality water containing nitrates and pesticides, non-balanced nutrition, and of course, low sanitary culture.

Instead of the epilogue

As we can see the technical progress may have tragic consequences. We can recollect the words of the great classical author, Lev Tolstoi, who thought of cities as of the hell's creations, where people are physically killed at steaming roaring factories and are morally killed in dark poor houses. That is why the duke preferred to live as a villager. Maybe he was right: civilization is destructive, but the people now do not have a recourse, they have to somehow deal with what they have created.