Chemical pollution of the human environment and issues of the development of ecological culture

Stozhko Natalia ORCID: 0000-0002-0018-8803 Doctor of Chemistry Professor, Department of Physics and Chemistry, Ural State University of Economics 620144, Russia, Sverdlovsk region, Yekaterinburg, ul. 8 Marta, 62, room 304 sny@usue.ru

Sudakova Natalia ORCID: 0000-0003-1921-0713 PhD in Physics and Mathematics Associate Professor, Department of Physics and Chemistry, Ural State University of Economics 620144, Russia, Sverdlovsk region, Yekaterinburg, ul. 8 Marta, 62, room 304 sudaknp@usue.ru

1.      Introduction

The aim of the study is a comparative analysis and assessment of the state of chemical pollution of the environment in modern conditions and the development of recommendations for the formation of a modern ecological culture aimed at ensuring chemical safety. The relevance of the topic is due to many factors, among which one can name both endogenous (depreciation of fixed assets of industrial enterprises and infrastructure, lack of financial resources for the construction of treatment facilities and the mass introduction of new technologies to ensure chemical safety, etc.) and exogenous factors (growth of macroeconomic instability and geopolitical turbulence, negatively affecting the processes of ensuring chemical safety and contributing to the growth of chemical pollution of the environment).

The human habitat is an object of not only technical and technological, but also socio-cultural, as well as organizational and legal regulation. It is obvious that even the most advanced technology is not able to ensure the high quality of the environment and, consequently, the necessary level of environmental safety of people if there is no ecological culture in society or if it is at a low level. This applies to all forms of environmental pollution, including chemical pollution, especially increasing in recent years, as well as the legal formalization of environmental policy. In this regard, the question of the formation of a modern ecological culture in the conditions of growing chemical pollution of the environment is becoming more and more urgent.

2.      Research methodology

The study uses a number of key categories, which presupposes their clear definition. Since there are certain discrepancies in the definition of such categories in different works, in this work the author will adhere to the following interpretation of them:

The environment is a complex of surrounding physical, chemical, geographical, biological, social, cultural and political conditions that determines the form and nature of existence.

Habitat (anthropogenic environment) – part of the environment – the area of existence and vital activity.

The natural environment is a part of the environment of natural origin that has a direct or indirect impact.

Technosphere is a part of the environment that has an anthropogenic origin and represents a set of technical and technological factors that affect life.

Chemical pollution is the entry into the environment of chemicals that are not peculiar to it and worsen the chemical properties of environmental objects.

Chemical safety is a condition in which the conditions of chemical pollution of the environment, its subjects and objects are excluded.

Ecological culture is a system of principles, norms, institutions and behavioral techniques that ensures the harmonious nature of relationships in the "man – nature" system.

The methods of structural-functional, program-target and dialectical research were used in the work. The object of the study is the state of chemical pollution of the environment. The subject of the study is the need for the formation and development of modern ecological culture.

3.      Results

In modern literature there are two main approaches to assessing the situation: optimistic and pessimistic. Linking the state of ecology with the progress of mankind, some authors note that "at the present stage, the health of mankind is in a much better state than ever before" ^{[1, p. 33]}. Various considerations are given to prove this thesis. For example, the fact that "total life expectancy in the world increased from 26 years in 1820 to 72 years in 2020, and mortality in the first year of life during the same period decreased from 20% to less than 1% ^{[1, p. 32]}. Health as a key parameter of the well-being of the population has allowed modern economists, starting from the previous economic theory of well-being (A. Pigou, P. Samuelson, A. Cecil, J. Hicks, etc.), to formulate and actively promote a new concept of the "happiness economy" ^[2-5].

On the other hand, the current global economic, environmental and geopolitical crisis does not give grounds for such optimistic judgments and orients researchers to more balanced and critical ideas about the state of the economy and ecology, which is presented in the concept of economic discrimination (G. Becker, M. Spence, K. Arrow, etc.), one of the manifestations of which is the transformation of whole countries and regions of the world in a warehouse for chemical and industrial waste.

Despite the vast territory in the Russian Federation, in 2019 a record was set for the formation of such waste, which amounted to 7.75 billion tons, which is 4 times more than it was at the time of the beginning of observations in 2002 (2 billion tons). Coal mining (5.2 billion tons) and metal ores (1.635 billion tons) are leading in the ranking of the main pollutants, while chemical production occupies only the sixth place (42 million tons) (Finehpertiza. URL: https://finexpertiza.ru/press-service/researches/2020/rekord-proizvodstv-otkhod ). But the dynamics of chemical pollution is steadily increasing, and its consequences are becoming more and more obvious. This is especially true of chemical pollution of the atmosphere, which annually absorbs up to 11 cubic km of chemicals, as well as the hydrosphere (contamination of water with radioactive particles, oil and petroleum products, etc.) and the earth. In general, all sources of chemical pollution of the environment can be either anthropogenic or natural (natural). And in this "bundle" anthropogenic pollution (the result of human economic activity), of course, prevails. As for chemical pollution, it is the most dangerous compared to physical, radiation, biological or mechanical pollution, since the sources of chemical pollution can be not only concentrated, but also diffuse objects. Thus, a concentrated object, for example, a drain of industrial waste entering the environment, or a source of radiation can be relatively easily controlled. Whereas a diffuse source, for example, chemically polluted atmospheric precipitation (chemical rains, etc.) is practically not amenable to operational control. The global water cycle negates efforts to rehabilitate the environment in cases when neighboring countries do not support such efforts or when neighboring regions do not have a real opportunity to do it effectively and comprehensively. Consequently, one of the most important conditions for the formation of a modern ecological culture is the rejection of costly and delayed financing of chemical pollution issues, and the transition to advanced and predictive financing. This can be achieved, firstly, through priority, targeted budget financing, secondly, through the creation of federal and regional environmental insurance funds, and thirdly, through a drastic increase in economic sanctions (fines) for violations of environmental legislation. It seems reasonable to bring such economic sanctions in line with the nature and type of chemical pollutants. The most dangerous chemicals today are: asbestos, dioxins, cadmium, arsenic, mercury compounds, lead, etc. Therefore, the amount of penalties for such pollutants should be significantly increased.

One of the most important directions of the development of ecological culture and the preservation of the environment is the prevention and control of its chemical pollution. The prevention of chemical pollution is determined, firstly, by the availability of the necessary competencies of economic entities, secondly, by the necessary technologies and equipment, thirdly, by effective monitoring of the internal environment of the enterprise, and fourthly, by monitoring exogenous factors affecting the possibility of chemical pollution.

The main chemicals that are toxic and harmful to the environment are prescribed in the Stockholm Convention on POPS in 2011 and 2013. Particular attention is paid to toxic chemical pollutants, such as chlorine-containing pesticides and industrial chemicals, and to limiting their release into the environment. However, the convention practically does not say anything about the rehabilitation or elimination of the main sources of inorganic pollution: industrial wastewater, polluted precipitation and effluents of agricultural complexes (residues of mineral fertilizers, pesticides, manure and plant residues, etc.). Therefore, today a special place in the development of ecological culture is played by the principles of identifying the sources and the chemicals themselves, their indication and documentation of the results obtained ^[6], as well as the practice of rationing and reducing chemical pollutants in the biosphere, lithosphere, atmosphere and hydrosphere ^[7].

In recent years, chemical pollution of the biosphere has been most active, and therefore the assessment of the toxicity of chemicals (pollutants) and their maximum permissible concentrations (MPC) is of particular importance. In modern literature, there are seven most important indicators of the danger of chemicals (Timofeeva E. A. Chemical pollution of the biosphere and environmental offenses. URL: https://teach-in.ru/file/synopsis/pdf/chemical-pollution-of-the-biosphere-timofeeva-M.pdf ), however, in connection with the development of technical and technological processes in production, it is necessary to expand this list to include transgenic as well as mutational hazard parameters of specific chemicals, their possible cumulative and synergistic effect. This applies primarily to anthropogenic pollution caused by technical and technological practices. The modern technosphere is one of the main sources of chemical pollution of the environment (discharges of spent fuel and chemical raw materials). In this regard, a new concept has appeared in science – technosphere safety, a significant amount of research has been accumulated in this area (Literature review on the topic "Technosphere safety". URL: https://volgau.com/Portals/0/21/210301/nb_emf_tehnosfernaya_bezopasnost.pdf?ver=EKdfT-8Q5uAoLaYlfCFfzw%3d%3d).

If we talk about the actual chemical pollution of the environment, then along with the identification and study of its sources and technologies for their elimination, a separate topic is the disposal of chemical pollutants. The pages of the journal "Chemical Safety" have been considering various technologies for the elimination of chemical pollutants for a number of years: the technique of aerobic biological cleaning, the use of various sorbents, physical and chemical absorption processes, the use of high-temperature plasma pyrolysis, hydrolysis, etc.

In the Russian Federation in recent decades, the issue of protecting the natural environment from chemical pollution has been increasingly raised. This is quite understandable: 44 million people live in areas of increased chemical danger in the Russian Federation. A certain regulatory framework has been accumulated, in particular, a draft Federal Law "On the safety of chemical products" has been developed (URL: https://docs.cntd.ru/document/1200057769 ), draft Federal Law "On Chemical Safety in the Russian Federation" (URL: https://www.ecours.ru/content/predlagaetsya-prinyat-federalnyy-zakon-o-himicheskoy-bezopasnosti-v-rossiyskoy-federacii ), etc. But at the moment this database is still in the formation stage, it is not completed.

Quite a lot of scientific research has been devoted to this topic ^[8-13]. The issue of chemical safety of the environment is often raised ^[14-15]. This is due to the development of the chemical industry and the growth of man-made pressure on the environment. There are currently about 23 thousand large and medium-sized enterprises operating in the Russian Federation related to the chemical industry. In addition, there are about 20 thousand small enterprises, as well as structural divisions of chemical profile in companies operating in other industries. The chemical complex has more than 20 sub-sectors and produces about 16 thousand types of products. Currently, the chemical industry is one of the most important drivers of the country's economic development.

However, the development of the chemical industry in recent decades has led to the emergence of the so-called cumulative effect associated with the ability of chemicals to accumulate in the environment over time. Moreover, the current scale of chemical pollution may not manifest itself in the current period or reveal itself extremely weakly, but after decades, at some point it becomes clear that a singularity has arisen, in other words, a point in the development of a situation where it is no longer possible to do with the previous methods and traditional ideas about chemical pollution. And the danger of such a situation is due to the fact that the latent nature of the development of the situation is replaced by an explosive type of development, when the delayed consequences come in an avalanche and create not just a real threat, but sometimes an inevitable crisis situation. Bifurcation or change of a stable algorithm for the development of a situation forms a non-equilibrium mode of development, which not only turns out to be extremely dynamic, but also unpredictable. The history of the covid-19 pandemic has clearly shown such an exponential and avalanche-like nature of the development of the situation.

There are different ideas about the cumulative effect ^[16-18], as well as different versions of working with it ^[19-22]. However, most authors consider the cumulative effect without taking into account its negative characteristics. With regard to chemical pollution, for example, there are still stable ideas about the safety of waste disposal, which costs manufacturers much cheaper than using environmentally friendly technologies and equipment for their disposal. Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 1589-r dated 25.07.2017 in accordance with Article 12 of the Federal Law "On Production and Consumption Waste" dated 22.05.1998 approved a list of types of waste that contain useful components (182 items), the disposal of which is prohibited. But a large amount of waste that does not contain useful components and is allowed to be disposed of remains outside the scope of solving the issue. Thus, the "Environmental Doctrine of the Russian Federation", adopted by the Government Decree of 31.08.2002, has remained incomplete for more than 20 years. As a result, the deepening of the ecological crisis, the relatively weak effectiveness of the existing environmental monitoring in the country, the insufficient level of state and public control over the situation. Moreover, the necessary technologies for recycling and recycling of waste are available ^[23].

As a result, there is an increase in various risks and a decrease in chemical (environmental) safety. This is especially typical for old industrial regions, in particular, for the Ural region. It is no secret, for example, that in the Sverdlovsk region there is not a single reservoir officially recognized by the sanitary and epidemiological service as suitable for bathing. Yekaterinburg ranks 16th in the environmental rating of Russian cities, Chelyabinsk region – 80 out of 85. And Perm is the first place in the Volga Federal District in terms of wastewater discharge, of which 18.2% is discharged without treatment.

In general, over the past decade and a half across the country, according to Roshydromet, thousands of cases of large volumes of harmful chemicals entering rivers and lakes with untreated wastewater from industrial enterprises have been registered: 2677 cases of manganese ingress, 1326 – suspended substances, etc. (Which reservoirs in Russia are the dirtiest. URL: https//journal.tinkoff.ru/statistic-water).

It should be borne in mind that many chemicals are capable of reacting and therefore belong to the category of highly active waste. Unlike plastic or any other solid type of waste, chemicals are often dumped in a liquid state, less often in solid fractions. At the same time, the use of containers does not guarantee that the environment will not be poisoned at some point in time. Therefore, when designing and constructing a container (tank) storage system for chemical waste, it is necessary to take into account the wear factor of containers due to the nature of such waste and the associated risks. The most expedient seems to be the disposal of such highly active waste or at least their curing (transformation into solid and less aggressive and more stable fractions). Such technologies are also available ^{[24, p. 7]}.

Thus, an ecological culture is needed that would help minimize the risks associated with chemical pollution of the environment and would significantly increase the effectiveness of chemical safety measures. As you know, there are two types of chemical pollutants. Nature as a whole has adapted to natural types of chemical pollutants, has developed ways of self-regulation and self-purification (self-reproduction). The environment was not ready for anthropogenic chemical pollutants, especially on the scale at which it is happening now. Accordingly, modern ecological culture should contain certain principles and ways of working with two types of chemical pollutants. In this case, it will be more consistent with the idea of a circular economy – a closed-cycle economy, which still remains unattainable, since "currently the Russian economy is characterized by a model of linear consumption of resources", which after use "return to the environment again" ^[25], and there are various economic barriers to its implementation. In particular, the high capital intensity of waste recycling projects, their transportation, etc. ^{[26, p. 79]}. According to forecasts, by 2050 the global volume of waste may amount to 3.4 billion tons (World Bank Report. Press release. 2018. 20.09. URL: https//www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2018/09/20/global-waste-to-grow-by-70-persent-by-2050-unless-urgent-fction-is-taken-world-bank-report).

Therefore, awareness of the urgency of the issue is no longer urgent. Without exaggeration, our survival and existence depends on how quickly the necessary real, rather than declarative, environmental responsibility will be formed, first of all, by the economic entities themselves – the main environmental pollutants, as well as the entire population of the country. And such awareness and formation of ecological culture is no longer possible on the basis of exclusively economic principles (opportunity costs, critical loads, "polluter pays", the principle of sustainability, etc.). It is necessary to rethink their role in the conditions of steadily growing geopolitical and macroeconomic uncertainty and turbulence.

Thus, the idea of sustainable development, which appeared in the last century, clearly does not reflect reality today. Formulated back in 1992 in the Declaration adopted at the II World Conference on Ecology in Rio de Janeiro, this principle presupposed the preservation of the environment (Rio Declaration on Environment and Development. URL: https://www.un.org/ru/documents/decl_conv/declarations/riodecl.shtml). 30 years after the adoption of this Declaration, the environment should no longer be preserved in its existing form, but restored, reproduced, and radically improved. It is worth noting that a number of principles (27 in total in the Declaration) are still not being implemented. This concerns the 25th principle, according to which "States must respect international law ensuring the protection of the environment", or the 27th principle, according to which "States cooperate in good faith in the implementation of the principles of this Declaration". The policy of sanctions against a number of countries by the collective West and its open opposition to new centers of world development negatively affect the state of the environment and the formation of the world ecological culture.

Therefore, it is necessary to learn to live in conditions of growing risks and instability. Modern society has long turned into a "risk society" (W. Beck), and therefore the previous ideas about stability, no matter how tempting they may be, need to be corrected. Similarly, it is necessary to adjust the "polluter – pays" principle. The current norms of penalties for environmental pollution (from 20 thousand rubles to 40 thousand rubles for officials and from 100 thousand rubles to 200 thousand rubles for legal entities) they clearly do not correspond to the damage that is being inflicted on nature today. Thus, Rosprirodnadzor estimated the damage from the accident and the diesel fuel spill at the MMC Norilsk Nickel CHP plant (2020) at 148 billion rubles, while the perpetrators themselves were ready to pay only 21.4 billion rubles.

An important aspect of rethinking the problem of chemical pollution is the revision of the norms of maximum permissible concentrations of pollutants in the environment (MPC). It is clear that they were developed a long time ago, in a qualitatively different, more "calm" situation. But the cumulative negative effect of chemical pollution today is such that the MPC should be much tougher, as well as legal sanctions for their violators. At the same time, it seems insufficient to make appropriate adjustments to existing laws, it is necessary to restructure the entire law enforcement practice, especially in terms of stopping various kinds of ways to evade responsibility for environmental offenses and crimes.

Thus, some of the existing principles of ecological culture and environmental management should be adjusted to take into account the new reality that is taking shape literally before our eyes, as well as supplemented with general humanitarian principles; environmental and social security, environmental and social responsibility, social justice, social partnership.

The specificity of socio-cultural regulation, as a process of formation and development of the human environment, is manifested not only in the principles and technologies, but also in the direction of this process itself. The key direction of socio-cultural regulation of the environment today is its reclamation. On its own, nature is no longer able to recover and overcome the shocks and the damage that modern civilization inflicts on it. This is especially clearly seen in the state of the land, without regular reclamation of which it is no longer possible to carry out effective agricultural activities. The situation is similar with the clogging of reservoirs, as a result of which their hydrological regime is violated, as well as with the state of the air, especially in megacities and industrial production centers ^[27].

4.      Conclusions

Thus, all the listed elements of the process of socio-cultural regulation in the formation and development of the human habitat indicate that this process is a very special type of modification, restructuring, transformation of the reality surrounding a person. Despite the existing administrative and economic barriers, the development of ecological culture becomes a matter of overcoming the previous environmental externalities and preventing new ones, including the growing chemical pollution of the environment. Modern society is on the threshold of a new epistemological paradigm associated with the understanding of the decisive importance of modern ecological culture in its fate ^[28].

Consequently:

1. It is necessary to develop a long-term and long-term federal strategy (program) for the prevention and elimination of specifically chemical pollution in conditions of growing macroeconomic instability, uncertainty and risks, and appropriate regulations that take into account the dynamics and specific nature of this type of pollution of the environment.

2. It is necessary to complete the development and adoption of an appropriate regulatory framework for dealing with chemical pollution and related risks, for which it seems relevant to adopt the Federal "Environmental Code", special federal laws "On Environmental Culture" and "On chemical Safety", the drafts of which have been developed, but have not yet been adopted.

3. It is necessary, as soon as possible, to significantly increase the literacy of the population in the field of chemical safety, for which it would be useful to include appropriate training courses (special courses) in the curricula of institutions of secondary and higher professional education.

4. It seems necessary to develop a new methodology for monitoring, assessing and stopping chemical pollution at enterprises and organizations that are sources of such pollution in order to overcome existing administrative and economic barriers to the formation of an environmentally friendly (circular) economic model of development.

5. It is time to revise some principles and norms of environmental policy, to adjust its main direction – from the idea of preserving the "status quo" to the systemic reclamation of the environment. Specialized environmental insurance funds can play a special role in this area, the creation of which at the federal and regional levels seems extremely timely.