THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN THE EVALUATION OF ECOLOGICAL ENVIRONMENT AND POPULATION HEALTH IN THE WEST OF JILIN PROVINCE, CHINA

West Jilin Province, which was located on the northeast of China, was the region of endemic fluorosis and arsenism. The Hydro-geochemical Characteristics research, which considered the prevention of fluorosis as main branch, has been carried out there. However, to our knowledge, fewer researches focused on the relationships between contents and distributions of disease-related elements in the ecological environment and the health of people have been performed. In order to find clues for these, we carried out a study to explore situations of contents and distributions of disease-related elements in the ecological environment from January 2006 to February 2008. According to relevant national standards and criteria, samples of atmosphere, groundwater, surface water, aquatic products (fish) were collected, and 31 elements were tested. The average enrichment factor for each element and factor analysis results showed that elements of F, Ni, Mo, Co, Cr, Cu, Mn, P, Hg, Ca, Fe and Mg were main factors to influence atmosphere quality, while elements of U, Th, Pb, C, As, Al, K, Na, B and N were the secondary. Most of elements might mainly come from nature or dust particles produced by sandy soil or rock decay, while elements of Pb, C, As, Al and B might come from human activities pollution. The average contents of elements of F, Mn and As in shallow groundwater were respectively 1.53 mg/L, 290.4 μg/L and 15.87 μg/L, while all of them exceeded the standards, with the excess rates of 62.0%, 67.4% and 27.68%, respectively. The quality of the surface water was fairly good, but it showed the enrichment of F and Fe element in some lakes. In some kinds of fish, contents of Se and Cr exceeded national standards separately. Results showed that contents of some disease-related elements were significantly higher than national standards in the ecological environment in the west of Jilin province. It indicated that abnormal contents and distributions of some disease-related elements in the ecological environment might affect the incidence and prevalence of some endemic diseases. Strengthened monitoring of harmful elements in the environments should be performed to provide more scientific evidences for disease prediction, prevention and health promotion.