Ecotoxicants in the System Water-Soil-Plant and Possible Risks to Public Health

The article presents the results of a study on the content of arsenic, lead, cadmium and mercury in water, soil and in plant products that are directly used by humans for nutrition. During four years of observation, water analysis demonstrates high arsenic concentrations. The arsenic content ranges from 0.033 to 0.048 mclkg versus 0.01 MAC and exceeds almost 3.3-5 times. Lead content exceeds 10 times. In the course of the research, it was found that artesian water is the source of arsenic contamination of plant foods with arsenic. For many years, artesian water has been used by the population to irrigate cultivated plants. Arsenic is intensively accumulated by many plants: 9 out of 20 have its concentration above the maximum permissible. It was found that the most actively absorb and accumulate arsenic figs, potatoes and cucumber. The high content of lead is dominated in parsley, dill and watercress salad. All detected elements have a cumulative and toxic effect and are carcinogenic and belong to the first class of danger. Arsenic is a substance that has both carcinogenic and pronounced general toxic effects. With this in mind, scientists have identified correlations between oncological disease and the use of water containing elevated concentrations of arsenic as sources (Alissa, Ferns, 2011; Gasanguseinava, 2010; 2018 Putilova, 2006; Ashurbekova et al., 2018). Comparison of the results of artesian water studies used in the Terek-Kumsky basin for domestic water supply, conducted earlier at the Institute of Geology, DSC of RAS, and the results of our research show that the constant chemical composition of artesian water remains, the arsenic content exceeds the maximum permissible concentrations of WHO average 10.0 - 20.0 times, according to GOST - an average of 1.8-2.0 times.