[Diagnosis of the territories with the use of integral indices of chemical contamination of soil and grounds, relied on the background and hygienic standards].

Analysis of the efficiency of diagnosis of lands for different functional appropriations with integral indices of chemical contamination of soils and grounds under different environmental conditions showed: the greatest accuracy of the information about the structure and degree of contamination of territories is provided by the index relying on hygienic standard (index of soil contamination, ISC). The number of hygienically dangerous lithochemical anomalies revealed by ISC is several times more than the fixed by the index of total pollution of soils by trace elements (Zc), focused only on their background levels. Index Zc is in many respects subjective and unacceptable in complex soil geochemical conditions where the selection of the regional background is impossible. ISC account not only in trace elements, but other hygienically regulated substances (As, Hg, mobile forms of metals, water-soluble salts, carbohydrates, etc.) either.