The toxic contamination        of soil,          atmosphere    and water resources of the city is determined by human activity in the following spheres:

1. Agriculture. Chemical pollution by pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, etc. does not actually occur within the city boundaries, one can speak only about pollution caused by the transfer of pollutants from adjacent agricultural territories.

2. Industrial production. Pollution is caused by the operation of industrial enterprises, transport, the centralized heat and power complex, etc.

3. Other activities. Pollution caused by domestic wastes from the population, private heating systems, etc. 

            Though the scope of atmospheric and water pollution monitoring is not sufficient, it is carried out on a rather regulated level, using appropriate methodology, procedures, norms and indicators worked out for that purpose. Soil is one of the basic components of the environment, but there are no general methods, standardized procedures, justified indicators of the hygienic state of soils that could be used for hygienic soil assessment. The existing standards of soil state assessment cannot be considered satisfactory. As a result, there is practically no regular monitoring of soil pollution and pollution assessments are based on single-instance research or expert works.

            A comparative analysis of the investigation of the ecological state of urbanized t erritories allows to draw a conclusion that the following kinds of pollution are peculiar to them:

- biological pollution;

- heavy metal pollution;

- carbohydrate pollution.