Contaminación por cromo proveniente de procesos industriales en la parte alta de la comuna de Talca y su efecto en la calidad de aguas para consumo humano

48 p.En Chile las comunidades aledañas a los pueblos y ciudades, ya sea por razones económicas y/o técnicas, se abastecen de agua potable proveniente de las denominadas Planta de Agua Potable Rural o simplemente de pozos que usualmente se ubican dentro de los sitios de los usuarios.Para la autorización de la construcción de dichos pozos, basta con que cumplan con un caudal suficiente y necesario para el uso que se vaya a dar y que se ubique a 200 metros o más de otro que ya exista. En el caso del presente estudio, se trata de un conjunto de veinte y dos parcelas de agrado que poseen pozos que tienen una profundidad que oscila entre los 16 y los 20 metros de profundidad. Dentro de la zona considerada para el presente estudio, se ubican tres empresas que se dedican a la impregnación de madera, en cuyo proceso se utiliza sales de cromo, cobre, arsénico y boro (CCA, CCB), elementos que al estar presentes en el agua potable, presentan un alto riesgo para la salud de los seres humanos, si sus concentraciones superan los niveles permitidos por la normativa vigente (NCH 409). En la presente investigación se monitoreo 13 pozos y dos cursos de aguas superficiales, aledaños a dichas empresas para determinar los niveles de cromo de sus aguas, considerando el alto poder cancerígeno y mutagénico que presenta este elemento para la salud de las personas. Los resultados obtenidos, indicaron que uno de los puntos muestreados registró un valor de 2,15 mg/L de cromo total, lo que equivale a una concentración cuarenta veces mayor que el indicado por la NCH 409 (0,05 mg/L). Esta situación obligó a su propietario a no utilizar dicha agua debido al potencial riesgo para la salud de sus usuarios. La relación existente entre los pozos se muestra en las diferentes cartografías del lugar.Para concluir, se ha confeccionado un tríptico que será distribuido entre los alumnos de escuelas y colegios cercanos a la zona de estudio, con el objeto de que la comunidad tome conciencia del riesgo a que pueden estar sometidos, con la presencia de cromo en el agua potable que normalmente utilizan. /ABSTRACT: In Chile the surrounding communities near to the small towns and cities, whether due to economics or technical reasons, get drinkable water from the so called Rural Plant of Drinkable Water or simply from wells that are usually located near the areas of the users. In order to obtain legal authorization for building these wells, it is enough these communities comply with a necessary and sufficient flow for the usage they will give and it is also necessary that this new well is located in a distance of 200 meters from the one that already exists. This study involves 22 country houses that own wells between 16 and 20 meters depth. In the land area considered for this study, there are three companies which currently work in the wood impregnation and they use salts of chromium, copper, arsenic and boron (CCA, CCB) in their production processes. These elements represent a high level of risk for the human being health when they are in the drinkable water, especially if their concentrations exceed the permissible levels established by current regulations (NCH 409).The current study monitored 13 wells and 2 superficial water courses located near these companies in order to examine levels of chromium in the water and also the high carcinogenic and mutagenic potential that this element contains for the human being health when consuming it. The obtained results showed that one of the analyzed sources as a sample, detailed a 2,5 mg/L of total chromium, which is equivalent to a concentration 40 times higher than allowed by the NCH 409 (0,05mg/L). Because of the high danger for the users, the owner of this land had to abandon the use of this water. The current relation between the wells conditions are showed in the different cartographies of the area.Finally, focused on the objective these communities are aware about the hazard they are exposed with the presence of chromium in the drinkable water they normally use, a brochure has been prepared to be distributed between students and schools located near to the studied area

Efecto de una intervención estructurada de enfermería en disminución del hábito tabáquico en mujeres fumadoras

Introduction: Tobacco consumption is associated with an increase in female morbidity and mortality. This habit also implies deterioration in the quality of life related to health. The purpose of this research was to determine the effect of a structured intervention that motivated women to reduce their daily consumption of cigarettes and improve their quality of life.Method: Experimental design with pre-test-post-test and control group with allocation of the groups at random. Out of 120 people, the two groups were approved with five characteristics. The sample was homologated again because the home interview was answered by only 64 people. The intervention group consisted of 10 women between 18 and 65 years old from the Bio-Bio region, and the control group by 20 women. A semi-structured questionnaire with sociodemographic characteristics, test, questionnaires and scales that measured the variables associated with consumption, and subjective and behavioral guidelines, with prior informed consent, was applied. The structured intervention consisted of: active learning methods, counseling with emphasis on strengthening the perception of self-efficacy. Results: The difference of means in time and the difference of means between the groups (treatment group and control group) is of almost 5 cigarettes (4,8). This interaction (time-group) results has a level of significance less than one in ten thousand. Conclusions: This intervention requires periodic reinforcement to achieve smoking cessation and affect the quality of life related to health of women with smoking.Introducción: El consumo del tabaco está asociado al incremento de la morbilidad y la mortalidad femenina. Este hábito implica además un deterioro en la calidad de vida relacionada con salud. El propósito de esta investigación fue determinar el efecto de una intervención estructurada que motivara a las mujeres a disminuir el consumo diario de cigarrillos y mejorar su calidad de vida. Método: Diseño experimental con preprueba-postprueba y grupo de control con asignación de los grupos al azar. De 120 personas se homologaron los dos grupos con cinco caracteristicas, se homologó nuevamente la muestra porque respondieron la entrevista en domicilio sólo 64 personas. El grupo intervención estuvo constituido por 10 mujeres entre 18 y 65 años de la región del Bio- Bío, y el grupo control por 20 mujeres. Se aplicó un cuestionario semiestructurado de características sociodemográficas, de test, cuestionarios y escalas que midieron las variables asociadas al consumo, y las orientaciones subjetivas y conductuales, previo consentimiento informado. La intervención estructurada estuvo conformada por: métodos activos de aprendizaje, consejería con énfasis en el fortalecimiento de la percepción de autoeficacia. Resultados: La diferencia de medias en el tiempo y la diferencia de medias entre los grupos (grupo tratamiento y grupo control) es de casi 5 cigarrillos (4,8), esta interacción (tiempo-grupo) resulta a un nivel de significación menor al uno por diez mil.Conclusiones: Esta intervención requiere de reforzamiento periódico hasta lograr la deshabituación tabáquica e incidir en la calidad de vida relacionada con salud de las mujeres con hábito tabáquico. &nbsp

A comparison of energy efficiency certification in housing: a study of the Chilean and Spanish cases

Faced with implementing policies that seek to improve the energy efficiency of housing and reduce the impact of CO2 emissions, several countries are introducing (unilaterally or by international agreement) energy certification systems that allow the effects of these policies to be evaluated. This study aims to compare the energy efficiency certification systems in Spain and Chile, identifying convergent and divergent parameters, enabling the existing gaps to be identified and improvements noted for both systems. To do so, 20 sample dwellings in Santiago de Chile were evaluated, along with the local calculating tools in both countries. The analysis considered the aspects of regulation, its reach, the characterization of the models and the necessary indicators. The comparison identified, among others, differences such as obligatory implementation of the system, a study of the existing buildings in the focus area, the prevailing indicators for evaluating the effects of the buildings, the low incidence of mixed energy systems in the Chilean system and the possibility of proposing and evaluating improvements in the Spanish system. As a result, higher energy requirements and greater CO2 emissions were identified in the Chilean system, reaching differences of 42 kWh/m2/year in consumption and 14 kgCO2/ m2/year in emissions with regard to the Spanish qualification. The results of this comparison have facilitated the identification of improvements that will increase the evaluation standards of the Chilean system.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Disentangling transport movement patterns of trucks either transporting pigs or while empty within a swine production system before and during the COVID-19 epidemic

Transport of pigs between sites occurs frequently as part of genetic improvement and age segregation. However, a lack of transport biosecurity could have catastrophic implications if not managed properly as disease spread would be imminent. However, there is a lack of a comprehensive study of vehicle movement trends within swine systems in the Midwest. In this study, we aimed to describe and characterize vehicle movement patterns within one large Midwest swine system representative of modern pig production to understand movement trends and proxies for biosecurity compliance and identify potential risky behaviors that may result in a higher risk for infectious disease spread. Geolocation tracking devices recorded vehicle movements of a subset of trucks and trailers from a production system every 5 min and every time tracks entered a landmark between January 2019 and December 2020, before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. We described 6,213 transport records from 12 vehicles controlled by the company. In total, 114 predefined landmarks were included during the study period, representing 5 categories of farms and truck wash facilities. The results showed that trucks completed the majority (76.4%, 2,111/2,762) of the recorded movements. The seasonal distribution of incoming movements was similar across years (P > 0.05), while the 2019 winter and summer seasons showed higher incoming movements to sow farms than any other season, year, or production type (P < 0.05). More than half of the in-movements recorded occurred within the triad of sow farms, wean-to-market stage, and truck wash facilities. Overall, time spent at each landmark was 9.08% higher in 2020 than in 2019, without seasonal highlights, but with a notably higher time spent at truck wash facilities than any other type of landmark. Network analyses showed high connectivity among farms with identifiable clusters in the network. Furthermore, we observed a decrease in connectivity in 2020 compared with 2019, as indicated by the majority of network parameter values. Further network analysis will be needed to understand its impact on disease spread and control. However, the description and quantification of movement trends reported in this study provide findings that might be the basis for targeting infectious disease surveillance and control.The MSHMP is a Swine Health Information Center (SHIC) funded project (Project # 19-235 SHIC).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Key market values for bottled wine in an emerging market: product attributes or business strategy?

This article focuses on the emerging bottled Chilean red wine market and studies the main determinants of the consumer price of wine sold on the domestic market. A hedonic price function was estimated for a sample of 810 wines using a quantile regression (QR) model. The database contains three variables groups to explain price: objective variables (national, international, and vine quality designations), subjective variables (wine score), and business strategies used by wine producers.Postprint (author's final draft

Hearing Impairment and Quality of Life in Adults with Asymmetric Hearing Loss: Benefits of Bimodal Stimulation

Objectives: Bimodal stimulation for asymmetric hearing loss is an emerging treatment with proven audiometric outcomes. Our objectives are to assess the changes of the hearing impairment and the quality of life of patients treated with this type of stimulation, when compared to a unilateral Cochlear Implant (CI) stimulated condition. Materials and methods: 31 patients with asymmetric hearing loss (Group 1) were recruited for the study. They were divided into three groups, based on their hearing loss in the ear treated with the hearing aid: Group 1A (Pure Tone Audiometry (PTA) between 41 and 70 decibels (dB)); Group 1B, (PTA between 71 and 80 dB) and Group 1C (PTA between 81 and 90 dB). 30 patients had profound, bilateral hearing loss. Then, users of a unilateral cochlear implant were recruited for the control group. Their hearing impairment and quality of life were analyzed with questionnaires Abbreviated Profile of Hearing Aid Benefit (APHAB), Speech, Spatial and Qualities of Hearing Scale (SSQ) and the Health Utilities Index (HUI). They were followed up for at least 2 years. Results: The group with the asymmetric hearing loss obtains a statistically significant clinical improvement in the APHAB under category "with hearing aid" compared to "without hearing aid". The group with the asymmetric hearing loss benefits more across basically all variables compared with the control group in the SSQ. Group 1A obtains the best outcome of the sample in the HUI. Conclusion: Bimodal stimulation and better hearing in the ear treated with the hearing aid reduce hearing impairment and improve the quality of life

Temporal dynamics of co-circulating lineages of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus

Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome Virus (PRRSV) is the most important endemic pathogen in the U.S. swine industry. Despite control efforts involving improved biosecurity and different vaccination protocols, the virus continues to circulate and evolve. One of the foremost challenges in its control is high levels of genetic and antigenic diversity. Here, we quantify the co-circulation, emergence and sequential turnover of multiple PRRSV lineages in a single swine-producing region in the United States over a span of 9 years (2009–2017). By classifying over 4,000 PRRSV sequences (open-reading frame 5) into phylogenetic lineages and sub-lineages, we document the ongoing diversification and temporal dynamics of the PRRSV population, including the rapid emergence of a novel sub-lineage that appeared to be absent globally pre-2008. In addition, lineage 9 was the most prevalent lineage from 2009 to 2010, but its occurrence fell to 0.5% of all sequences identified per year after 2014, coinciding with the emergence or re-emergence of lineage 1 as the dominant lineage. The sequential dominance of different lineages, as well as three different sub-lineages within lineage 1, is consistent with the immune-mediated selection hypothesis for the sequential turnover in the dominant lineage. As host populations build immunity through natural infection or vaccination toward the most common variant, this dominant (sub-) lineage may be replaced by an emerging variant to which the population is more susceptible. An analysis of patterns of non- synonymous and synonymous mutations revealed evidence of positive selection on immunologically important regions of the genome, further supporting the potential that immune-mediated selection shapes the evolutionary and epidemiological dynamics for this virus. This has important implications for patterns of emergence and re-emergence of genetic variants of PRRSV that have negative impacts on the swine industry. Constant surveillance on PRRSV occurrence is crucial to a better understanding of the epidemiological and evolutionary dynamics of co-circulating viral lineages. Further studies utilizing whole genome sequencing and exploring the extent of cross-immunity between heterologous PRRS viruses could shed further light on PRRSV immunological response and aid in developing strategies that might be able to diminish disease impact

Validation of the CALL score as a mortality prediction tool in a cohort of hospitalized COVID-19 patients in Chile

IntroductionThe CALL score is a predictive tool for respiratory failure progression in COVID-19. Whether the CALL score is useful to predict short- and medium-term mortality in an unvaccinated population is unknown.Materials and methodsThis is a prospective cohort study in unvaccinated inpatients with a COVID-19 pneumonia diagnosis upon hospital admission. Patients were followed up for mortality at 28 days, 3, 6, and 12 months. Associations between CALL score and mortality were analyzed using logistic regression. The prediction performance was evaluated using the area under a receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC).ResultsA total of 592 patients were included. On average, the CALL score was 9.25 (±2). Higher CALL scores were associated with increased mortality at 28 days [univariate: odds ratio (OR) 1.58 (95% CI, 1.34–1.88), p &lt; 0.001; multivariate: OR 1.54 (95% CI, 1.26–1.87), p &lt; 0.001] and 12 months [univariate OR 1.63 (95% CI, 1.38–1.93), p &lt; 0.001; multivariate OR 1.63 (95% CI, 1.35–1.97), p &lt; 0.001]. The prediction performance was good for both univariate [AUROC 0.739 (0.687–0.791) at 28 days and 0.869 (0.828–0.91) at 12 months] and multivariate models [AUROC 0.752 (0.704–0.8) at 28 days and 0.862 (0.82–0.905) at 12 months].ConclusionThe CALL score exhibits a good predictive capacity for short- and medium-term mortality in an unvaccinated population