Health impact of the emissions from a refinery: case-control study on the adult population living in two municipalities in Lomellina, Italy

Background: In the municipalities of Sannazzaro de’ Burgondi and Ferrer Erbognone (District of Lomellina, Pavia, Lombardy, Italy), an oil refinery is operating since 1963. In 2008, the company running the plant (eni S.p.A.) asked the competent bodies the permission for building a new facility (“EST”). The present work is aimed at evaluating the ante-operam health impacts of the existing facility refinery. Methods: A case-control study design was implemented. Cases were subjects admitted to hospital in 2002-2014 due to acute respiratory, cardiovascular or gastrointestinal conditions. Controls were selected among those who had not been hospitalised in that timespan. Cases and controls had to be alive at enrolment, aged 20-64 years, and were frequency-matched by age, gender and municipality. Data were extracted from the health insurance registry and from Hospital Discharge Records (ATS Pavia). Enrolled subjects were asked to complete a mailed survey. Environmental exposure was the fallout of refinery emissions (PM10) at participants’ homes, as predicted by an AERMOD model. Results: 541 respondents (125 cases, 416 controls) were included in the analyses. Response bias was excluded. Individual PM10 exposure was not significantly different between cases and controls, while it was significantly associated with municipality (being higher in Sannazzaro). The crude effect estimate of PM10 over case/control status indicated a not-significant excess of hospitalisation with the increase in PM10 exposure. Multivariate analyses confirmed those results. Conclusion: Findings indicate a possible excess of hospitalisation risk in most exposed people, but the effect is not statistically significant and may be affected by bias

Outreach activities of the Extreme Energy Events Project

The Extreme Energy Events Project (EEE) represents a breakthrough in outreach activities in Cosmic Ray Physics: high school students are protagonists of an experiment to measure Extensive Air Showers at ground. They start their experience at CERN with the construction of the three high performing Multigap Resistive Plate Chambers constituting the telescope that is then installed inside their school; then they take care of the telescope operation and data analysis. Presently 60 telescopes are installed in Italy and, since 2014, coordinated data taking have been performed during each school year providing a huge amount of candidate muon tracks. Every year hundreds of students and teachers are involved in the activities directly correlated to EEE. The COVID-19 pandemic has strongly affected the experimental activities of the EEE Project. However in the last two years the online activities were strengthened, with an intense programme of collaboration meetings, masterclasses, and hugely successful topical seminars. Starting from the fall of 2021, the improvement of epidemiological situation made it possible to start some of the EEE activities in presence

Model-independent search for the presence of new physics in events including H → γγ with s \sqrt{s} = 13 TeV pp data recorded by the ATLAS detector at the LHC

Abstract A model-independent search for new physics leading to final states containing a Higgs boson, with a mass of 125.09 GeV, decaying to a pair of photons is performed with 139 fb−1 of s $$\sqrt{s}$$ = 13 TeV pp collision data recorded by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. This search examines 22 final states categorized by the objects that are produced in association with the Higgs boson. These objects include isolated electrons or muons, hadronically decaying τ-leptons, additional photons, missing transverse momentum, and hadronic jets, as well as jets that are tagged as containing a b-hadron. No significant excesses above Standard Model expectations are observed and limits on the production cross section at 95% confidence level are set. Detector efficiencies are reported for all 22 signal regions, which can be used to convert detector-level cross-section limits reported in this paper to particle-level cross-section constraints

Combination of the W boson polarization measurements in top quark decays using ATLAS and CMS data at s = 8 TeV

Abstract: The combination of measurements of the W boson polarization in top quark decays performed by the ATLAS and CMS collaborations is presented. The measurements are based on proton-proton collision data produced at the LHC at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV, and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 20 fb−1 for each experiment. The measurements used events containing one lepton and having different jet multiplicities in the final state. The results are quoted as fractions of W bosons with longitudinal (F0), left-handed (FL), or right-handed (FR) polarizations. The resulting combined measurements of the polarization fractions are F0 = 0.693 ± 0.014 and FL = 0.315 ± 0.011. The fraction FR is calculated from the unitarity constraint to be FR = −0.008 ± 0.007. These results are in agreement with the standard model predictions at next-to-next-to-leading order in perturbative quantum chromodynamics and represent an improvement in precision of 25 (29)% for F0 (FL) with respect to the most precise single measurement. A limit on anomalous right-handed vector (VR), and left- and right-handed tensor (gL, gR) tWb couplings is set while fixing all others to their standard model values. The allowed regions are [−0.11, 0.16] for VR, [−0.08, 0.05] for gL, and [−0.04, 0.02] for gR, at 95% confidence level. Limits on the corresponding Wilson coefficients are also derived

HEALTH IMPACT OF THE EMISSIONS FROM A REFINERY: CASE-CONTROL STUDY ON THE ADULT POPULATION LIVING IN TWO MUNICIPALITIES IN LOMELLINA, ITALY

In the municipalities of Sannazzaro de’ Burgondi and Ferrera Erbognone (Pavia, Italy), an oil refinery is operating since 1963; the private company running the plant was authorised to set up a new facility on the condition of sponsoring an epidemiological study. For this reason, the University of Pavia developed the CONSAL Project (Conoscenza e Salute). The present thesis focuses on the ante-operam phase of Study 1. Its specific aim was to investigate the health impacts of the emissions from the refinery on the adult population, mutually adjusting the estimates for additional information collected through a survey. The study was designed as a case-control. Cases were the subjects admitted to hospital between 2002 and 2014 due to acute conditions of respiratory, cardiovascular or gastrointestinal systems; controls were selected among the subjects that were not hospitalised. Cases and controls, with a ratio of 3:1, had to be alive, aged 20-64 years in the reference timespan, and were balanced for age, gender and municipality. Data were extracted from the databases of the local Health Protection Agency; personal information were also checked with the Municipal Registries. 1046 subjects (257 cases, 789 controls) were enrolled and received a mailed survey; 15 were later excluded because of death or unavailability. Respondents were 563 (54.6%), with a significant difference by municipality and no difference by age, gender or case/control status. 22 subjects declared to live elsewhere, so 541 were included in the analyses. The fallout of refinery’s emissions was predicted by the AERMOD model; PM10 was chosen as a tracer pollutant. Individual exposure was assigned on the basis of the home address and then recoded in 2, 3 or 4 clusters by using K-means models. The 2-clustered PM10 exposure came out to coincide with the two municipalities. An excess of “risk” with the increase in clustered PM10 level was found; however, none of the effect estimates was statistically significant. The Odds Ratios (ORs), between 1.40 and 1.60, were similar with municipality (2-clustered exposure) and 3- or 4-clustered exposures. Logistic regression analyses disclosed similar (and still non-significant) estimates while adjusting for age, gender, lifetime cigarette smoking and for being diagnosed or treated for other diseases that could be ascribed to the definition of case. A comparative analysis of informativity showed that the best model is the one using municipality instead of 3- or 4-clustered exposures. A secondary analysis, evaluating the influence of several factors on self-perceived health, disclosed that living further from the refinery was reducing the “risk” of a negative self-perception of health (OR=0.859), albeit the effect was not statistically significant. The results described above are consistent with toxicological and epidemiological evidence. However, they might have been affected by various biases. First, the definition of cases and controls might have been influenced by the use of administrative databases. Moreover, restricting to hospitalised cases might have excluded those with a less severe condition while, at the same time, restricting to those who were alive at the time of assessment might have excluded the most-severe ones. In addition, the unexpectedly strong association between predicted PM10 concentrations and municipality, and the fact that the enrolment of cases and controls was balanced by municipality, may have led to an underestimation of the effects of environmental exposure. It should also be considered that those factors are measured in the present, while the outcome occurred in the past. Finally, the response rate was lower than expected, so that study power was reduced. Concluding, the results indicate a non-conclusive evidence supporting a possible excess of hospitalisation risk among people living in Sannazzaro de’ Burgondi, in comparison with those from Ferrera Erbognone

Validation of the italian version of the dizziness handicap inventory, the situational vertigo questionnaire, and the activity-specific balance confidence scale for peripheral and central vestibular symptoms

Neurophysiological measurements of the vestibular function for diagnosis and follow-up evaluations provide an objective assessment, which, unfortunately, does not necessarily correlate with the patients\u2019 self-feeling. The literature provides many questionnaires to assess the outcome of rehabilitation programs for disequilibrium, but only for the Dizziness Handicap Inventory (DHI) is an Italian translation available, validated on a small group of patients suffering from a peripheral acute vertigo. We translated and validated the reliability and validity of the DHI, the Situational Vertigo Questionnaire (SVQ), and the Activities-Specific Balance Confidence Scale (ABC) in 316 Italian patients complaining of dizziness due either to a peripheral or to a central vestibular deficit, or in whom vestibular signs were undetectable by means of instrumental testing or clinical evaluation. Cronbach\u2019s coefficient alpha, the homogeneity index, and test\u2013retest reproducibility, confirmed reliability of the Italian version of the three questionnaires. Validity was confirmed by correlation test between questionnaire scores. Correlations with clinical variables suggested that they can be used as a complementary tool for the assessment of vestibular symptoms. In conclusion, the Italian versions of DHI, SVQ, and ABC are reliable and valid questionnaires for assessing the impact of dizziness on the quality of life of Italian patients with peripheral or central vestibular deficit

Validation of the Italian Version of the Dizziness Handicap Inventory, the Situational Vertigo Questionnaire, and the Activity-Specific Balance Confidence Scale for Peripheral and Central Vestibular Symptoms

Neurophysiological measurements of the vestibular function for diagnosis and follow-up evaluations provide an objective assessment, which, unfortunately, does not necessarily correlate with the patients’ self-feeling. The literature provides many questionnaires to assess the outcome of rehabilitation programs for disequilibrium, but only for the Dizziness Handicap Inventory (DHI) is an Italian translation available, validated on a small group of patients suffering from a peripheral acute vertigo. We translated and validated the reliability and validity of the DHI, the Situational Vertigo Questionnaire (SVQ), and the Activities-Specific Balance Confidence Scale (ABC) in 316 Italian patients complaining of dizziness due either to a peripheral or to a central vestibular deficit, or in whom vestibular signs were undetectable by means of instrumental testing or clinical evaluation. Cronbach’s coefficient alpha, the homogeneity index, and test–retest reproducibility, confirmed reliability of the Italian version of the three questionnaires. Validity was confirmed by correlation test between questionnaire scores. Correlations with clinical variables suggested that they can be used as a complementary tool for the assessment of vestibular symptoms. In conclusion, the Italian versions of DHI, SVQ, and ABC are reliable and valid questionnaires for assessing the impact of dizziness on the quality of life of Italian patients with peripheral or central vestibular deficit

Food knowledge level among Tanzanian women of childbearing age: developing a score for the food knowledge questionnaire

Food knowledge (FK) is one of the factors that contribute to malnutrition conditions in developing countries, together with food safety, food security and food access. FK is defined as 'the competence to understand healthy nutrition concepts'; it impacts individuals' life due to its relationship with food behaviour and eating habits. Therefore, acting on FK can represent a starting point for improving the health status of vulnerable populations. The authors present a total score of an FK questionnaire (FKQ) and its relation to the socio-demographic characteristics of a specific target population: Tanzanian women of childbearing age. The results of the manuscript complement evidence of construct validity of the FKQ by providing an algorithm to compute a total score as a measure of FK. The strength of this tool, and its score, lies in the fact that the questionnaire has been validated and is easy to administer