Effectiveness of Interventions to Reduce Pesticide Exposure in Agriculture

The harmful effects of acute pesticide poisoning have been well documented as an established hazard of agricultural work, while the evidence of the association between chronic pesticide exposure and health consequences, continues to emerge. Despite many pesticides have been banned or restricted in several developed countries, exposures to these toxic agents are still occurring in most of the developing world. The objective of this review is to determine the effectiveness of educational interventions designed to reduce exposure to pesticides in order to prevent health effects in agricultural workers. Intervention approaches to prevent pesticide exposure in agriculture vary vastly from country to country probably depending on the level of development achieved. Although many of the papers on educational safety interventions reported some positive results, the availability of randomized controlled trials for this topic is limited and several interventions exclusively measured changes in attitudes or knowledge of participants, with scarce efforts to determine if there was a consistent reduction in pesticide exposure.We conclude that although educational interventions show some efficacy at raising participants’ awareness of pesticide risks, studies using better quality educational approaches are needed

Androgen receptor polymorphisms and testicular cancer risk

Testicular cancer (TC) is currently the most common malignant solid tumour in Caucasian males aged 15-39 years. Epidemiological evidence suggests that its onset may be due to an imbalance in the action of steroidal sex hormones and their receptors. A faulty androgen receptor signalling pathway can, in fact, cause various male reproductive disorders. The androgen receptor (AR) gene has two polymorphic segments consisting of CAG and GGC repeats. The length of CAG repeats has been shown to affect the regulation of AR activity. In our study, we used fragment analysis to evaluate the AR gene repeats of 302 TC patients and 322 controls, to establish if there is any association between repeat number and TC. This study of the largest Italian caseload investigated to date highlighted three particularly significant aspects. First, a CAG repeat number of ≥25 may be considered a risk factor for the onset of TC, given its greater frequency in patients in comparison with controls. This difference became significant for the non-seminoma group. Second, men with CAG repeats below 21 or above 24 were found to have a, respectively, 50 and 76% higher risk of TC than those with CAG 21-24, suggesting that these too can be considered a risk factor for TC. Finally, stage II patients were more likely to have a CAG repeat number 24 than stage I patients. © 2014 American Society of Andrology and European Academy of Andrology

Correlation Analysis of Cocoa Consumption Data with Worldwide Incidence Rates of Testicular Cancer and Hypospadias

The underlying reasons for the increasing occurrence of male reproductive diseases (MRD) such as hypospadias, cryptorchidism, and testicular cancer (TC) over the last decades are still unknown. It has been hypothesized that the risk of MRD is determined in utero and that pregnancy dietary intake could also affect MRD risk in the offspring. Various studies in animals reported that cocoa and theobromine, the main stimulant of cocoa, exert toxic effects on the testis, inducing testicular atrophy and impaired sperm quality. A correlation analysis was conducted to examine the possible role of cocoa consumption on the occurrence of selected MRD during the prenatal and early life period of cases. The incidence rates between 1998–2002 of TC in 18 countries obtained from Cancer Incidence in Five Continents were correlated with the average per-capita consumption of cocoa (kg/capita/year) (FAOSTAT-Database) in these countries from 1965 to 1980, i.e. the period corresponding to the early life of TC cases. In order to test the above correlation in the case of hypospadias, the mean prevalence at birth in 20 countries (1999–2003) with average per-capita consumption of cocoa in these countries in the same period corresponding to pregnancy were used. The consumption of cocoa in the period 1965–80, was most closely correlated with the incidence of TC in young adults (r=0.859; p<0.001). An analogous significant correlation was also observed between early cocoa consumption and the prevalence rates of hypospadias in the period 1999–2003 (r=0.760; p<0.001). Although the ecological approach used in this study cannot provide an answer on the causal relationship between consumption of cocoa in early life and TC and hypospadias, the results are suggestive and indicate the need of further analytic studies to investigate the role of individual exposure to cocoa, particularly during the prenatal and in early life of the patients

Environmental Factors Affecting Growth and Occurrence of Testicular Cancer in Childhood: An Overview of the Current Epidemiological Evidence

Testicular cancer (TC) is the most frequently occurring malignancy among adolescents and young men aged 15–34 years. Although incidence of TC has been growing over the past 40 years in several western countries, the explanations for this increase still remain uncertain. It has been postulated that early life exposure to numerous occupational and environmental estrogenic chemicals, such as endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs), may play a contributing role in the etiology of TC, but the subject is still open to additional investigation. Recently, it has also been suggested that prenatal and postnatal environmental exposures associated with child growth and development might also be involved in TC progression. This review of current epidemiological studies (2000–2015) aims to identify environmental factors associated with TC, with a particular focus on infancy and childhood factors that could constitute a risk for disease development. It may also contribute towards recognizing gaps in knowledge and recent research requirements for TC, and to point out possible interactions between child growth and development in relation to prenatal and postnatal environmental exposures

Environmental Factors Affecting Growth and Occurrence of Testicular Cancer in Childhood: An Overview of the Current Epidemiological Evidence

Testicular cancer (TC) is the most frequently occurring malignancy among adolescents and young men aged 15–34 years. Although incidence of TC has been growing over the past 40 years in several western countries, the explanations for this increase still remain uncertain. It has been postulated that early life exposure to numerous occupational and environmental estrogenic chemicals, such as endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs), may play a contributing role in the etiology of TC, but the subject is still open to additional investigation. Recently, it has also been suggested that prenatal and postnatal environmental exposures associated with child growth and development might also be involved in TC progression. This review of current epidemiological studies (2000–2015) aims to identify environmental factors associated with TC, with a particular focus on infancy and childhood factors that could constitute a risk for disease development. It may also contribute towards recognizing gaps in knowledge and recent research requirements for TC, and to point out possible interactions between child growth and development in relation to prenatal and postnatal environmental exposures

Increased availability of estrogens to the foetus and the risk of testicular cancer in later life: Does insulin have a role?

[No abstract available

Geological map of the eastern sector of the Gorgoglione Basin (southern Italy)

In this paper we report new stratigraphic data related to a new geological map of the Miocene Gorgoglione Basin of southern Italy, traditionally considered as a piggy-back or wedge-top basin filled by a turbidite-like succession. Well exposed outcrops in the study area (eastern sector of the basin) show four unconformities in the Castelmezzano-Pietrapertosa area. Two of these unconformities pass to paraconformities southeastward, in the Cirigliano-Gorgoglione area. Based on new stratigraphic data the "succession of the Gorgoglione Flysch" can be divided into different informal units: Val Miletta formation and Gorgoglione supersynthem. The latter can be subdivided into the Cirigliano and Castelmezzano synthems. The previously established Cirigliano synthem is here divided into three subsynthems. The lowermost sediments of the Gorgoglione Flysch on the eastern sectors correspond to a complex unit (Val Miletta formation) including Numidian-like quartzarenites, Gorgoglionelike sandstones, and, at the top of the formation, an olistostrome of varicoloured clays, belonging to the Argille Variegate Group. The stratigraphic analyses and the biostratigraphic results based on calcareous plankton assemblage, improve the reconstruction of the geometries of the sedimentary bodies and the time-space facies evolution of the synthems. Sedimentologic and petrographic characters of the upper part of the Castelmezzano synthem show a clear fining and thinning upward trend. Medium- and fine-grained arenites, varying in composition from quartz sandstones to siltstones and shales, are locally marked by abundant planktonic foraminifera and are interpreted as contourites. Moreover, the relationships between tectonics and sedimentation are analyzed. The data are used to propose a scheme of the Burdigalian to Tortonian tectono-stratigrafiphic evolution of the eastern sector of the basin