Geographical control on human health in Lithuania

Abstract

The influence of the man-made pollution on the human health as well as an impact on the natu¬ral environment is increasingly realised by the society. On the other hand, the influence of the living natu¬ral environment on the human health and behavior is still little studied and mainly concerns specific regions showing anomalous natural conditions (access concentrations of particular chemical elements, frequent natural disasters, etc.), while low-variety natural systems like those of Lithuania are believed to have no control on the human health. The presented study shows however that the living environment has a discemable influence on the geographical variations of the rate of somatic and psychic diseases. The recognition of those relationships is an important issue for developing of the control population. Five groups of the geological factors were analysed in Lithuania (1) gravity and magnetic fields, (2) concentra¬tions of geochemical elements in the soil, (3) sub-soil lithology, (4) landscape, (5) drinking water chemis- >";. try. Environmental factors were correlated with the spatial variations of the schizophrenia, alcoholic lijt^ psychosis, tuberculosis, cancer, infection, cardiac-vascular, and respiratory diseases. The statistical meth- " aa ods were applied to ensure an objective identification of relationships. The different formats of data were unified using GIS techniques that enabled scaling of geological databases to 45 administrative regions of ; Lithuania. The obtained consistent relationships can be used for the territorial planning in Lithuania and adjacent territories showing similar geological conditions.