Home – Home – Jornals – Geography and Natural Resources 2023 number 2

An assessment is made of the geoecological consequences of dust storms as natural phenomena, the intensity and development of which depend, among other things, on the anthropogenic transformation of territories. According to the Russian Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring (Roshydromet), cases of dangerous dust storms occur every year on the territory of the Russian Federation according to long-term data. At the same time, the most intense and longest dust storms in the mid-20^th-early 21^st centuries were observed in the south of the European part of Russia, in Rostov oblast. In view of the importance of studying the carcinogenic hazard of suspended solids, including particles of 2.5 to 10 mm, in the surface air layer, among the geoecological consequences of dust storms, we authors assessed an additional number of cases of carcinogenesis due to the intensification of the regime of dust storms in the plains of the South of the European part of Russia. Results from calculating the values of individual and population carcinogenic risks to public health for the period 2015-2020 suggest that the dust storms in the year 2020 caused a high level of air pollution by suspended solids, causing a serious geoecological hazard and increasing an additional number of cases of possible development of oncogenic diseases formations among urban residents of Rostov-on-Don by 21-36 % compared with the average values of the study period. The assessment obtained for the geoecological situation, caused by a significant increase in carcinogenic risk due to a sharp increase in the maximum concentrations of suspended solids and atmospheric dust thickness values during the period of intense dust storms in 2020, proves the need for further observations and studies.