EAACI position paper on occupational rhinitis

The present document is the result of a consensus reached by a panel of experts from European and non-European countries on Occupational Rhinitis (OR), a disease of emerging relevance which has received little attention in comparison to occupational asthma. The document covers the main items of OR including epidemiology, diagnosis, management, socio-economic impact, preventive strategies and medicolegal issues. An operational definition and classification of OR tailored on that of occupational asthma, as well as a diagnostic algorithm based on steps allowing for different levels of diagnostic evidence are proposed. The needs for future research are pointed out. Key messages are issued for each item

Efficient CO2 fixation by surface Prochlorococcus in the Atlantic Ocean

Nearly half of the Earth’s surface is covered by the ocean populated by the most abundant photosynthetic organisms on the planet—Prochlorococcus cyanobacteria. However, in the oligotrophic open ocean, the majority of their cells in the top half of the photic layer have levels of photosynthetic pigmentation barely detectable by flow cytometry, suggesting low efficiency of CO2 fixation compared with other phytoplankton living in the same waters. To test the latter assumption, CO2 fixation rates of flow cytometrically sorted 14C-labelled phytoplankton cells were directly compared in surface waters of the open Atlantic Ocean (30°S to 30°N). CO2 fixation rates of Prochlorococcus are at least 1.5–2.0 times higher than CO2 fixation rates of the smallest plastidic protists and Synechococcus cyanobacteria when normalised to photosynthetic pigmentation assessed using cellular red autofluorescence. Therefore, our data indicate that in oligotrophic oceanic surface waters, pigment minimisation allows Prochlorococcus cells to harvest plentiful sunlight more effectively than other phytoplankton

Additional file 1: of Respiratory health effects of exposure to low levels of airborne endotoxin – a systematic review

Supplement 1. Pubmed search strategy. Supplement 2. Study incentives and other airborne exposures found to be associated with the outcome variables. Table S2. Study incentives and other airborne exposures found to be associated with the outcome variables. Supplement 3: Quality Assessment of included studies. Table S3. Quality Assessment of included studies based on the NIH Quality Assessment Tool for Observational Cohort and Cross-Sectional Studies. Supplement 4. Results tables Table S4.1. Overview of results – questionnaire outcomes among subjects exposed to bioaerosols. Table S4.2. Overview of results – spirometry outcomes among subjects exposed to bioaerosols. Table S4.3. Overview of results – exposure-response relationships between endotoxin exposure and respiratory outcomes. Table S4.4 Analysis of effects of endotoxin exposure on respiratory health in subgroups. Supplement 5: Best evidence synthesis. (DOCX 56 kb