Monitoring of people and workers exposure to the electric, magnetic and electromagnetic fields in an Italian national cancer Institute

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The paper reports the electric, magnetic and electromagnetic fields (<it>emf</it>) measurements carried out in the <it>Regina Elena National Cancer Institute (NCI)</it>. Several devices, used in diagnostics and in medical cures, can represent sources of <it>emf </it>for the workers and for the public subjected to the treatments. The aim is to evaluate their exposition, in order to assess the compliance with the law.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The investigations have been carried out in the departments of: intensive care, physiotherapy, MR presstherapy and in the surgical rooms. The measurements have been performed using broad band probes in the frequency ranges 5 Hz÷30 kHz and 100 kHz-3 GHz.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The variability of the magnetic induction (B(μT)) levels is between 0,05 μT and 80 μT. The statistical distribution shows that most of the measurements are in the range 0,05<B = 0,5 μT and the 89% of the B(μT) levels are within the 3 μT.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The measurement of the <it>emf </it>levels in the <it>NCI </it>is recommended because of the presence of the oncological patients; their long stay near the equipments and their day-long exposure represent additional risk factors for which a prudent avoidance strategy have to de adopted.</p

The potential monetary benefits of reclaiming hazardous waste sites in the Campania region: an economic evaluation

BACKGROUND: Evaluating the economic benefit of reducing negative health outcomes resulting from waste management is of pivotal importance for designing an effective waste policy that takes into account the health consequences for the populations exposed to environmental hazards. Despite the high level of Italian and international media interest in the problem of hazardous waste in Campania little has been done to reclaim the land and the waterways contaminated by hazardous waste. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to reduce the uncertainty about health damage due to waste exposure by providing for the first time a monetary valuation of health benefits arising from the reclamation of hazardous waste dumps in Campania. METHODS: First the criteria by which the landfills in the Campania region, in particular in the two provinces of Naples and Caserta, have been classified are described. Then, the annual cases of premature death and fatal cases of cancers attributable to waste exposure are quantified. Finally, the present value of the health benefits from the reclamation of polluted land is estimated for each of the health outcomes (premature mortality, fatal cancer and premature mortality adjusted for the cancer premium). Due to the uncertainty about the time frame of the benefits arising from reclamation, the latency of the effects of toxic waste on human health and the lack of context specific estimates of the Value of Preventing a Fatality (VPF), extensive sensitivity analyses are performed. RESULTS: There are estimated to be 848 cases of premature mortality and 403 cases of fatal cancer per year as a consequence of exposure to toxic waste. The present value of the benefit of reducing the number of waste associated deaths after adjusting for a cancer premium is euro11.6 billion. This value ranges from euro5.4 to euro20.0 billion assuming a time frame for benefits of 10 and 50 years respectively. CONCLUSION: This study suggests that there is a strong economic argument for both reclaiming the land contaminated with hazardous waste in the two provinces of Naples and Caserta and increasing the control of the territory in order to avoid the creation of new illegal dump sites

Negation

The Encyclopedia of Earthquake Engineering is designed to be the authoritative and comprehensive reference covering all major aspects of the science of earthquake engineering, specifically focusing on the interaction between earthquakes and infrastructure. The encyclopedia comprises approximately 265 contributions. Since earthquake engineering deals with the interaction between earthquake disturbances and the built infrastructure, the emphasis is on basic design processes important to both non-specialists and engineers so that readers become suitably well-informed without needing to deal with the details of specialist understanding. The content of this encyclopedia provides technically inclined and informed readers about the ways in which earthquakes can affect our infrastructure and how engineers would go about designing against, mitigating and remediating these effects. The coverage ranges from buildings, foundations, underground construction, lifelines and bridges, roads, embankments and slopes. The encyclopedia also aims to provide cross-disciplinary and cross-domain information to domain-experts. This is the first single reference encyclopedia of this breadth and scope that brings together the science, engineering and technological aspects of earthquakes and structures