Occupational Hazards in veterinarians: an updating.

Background: The veterinarian is a complex and varied work: risks in veterinary activity show are more typical of manual work than medical profession. Many reviews analyzed occupational risks related to veterinarians, but compared to the past current risks are more different. This review analyzes veterinary profession considering main occupational risk factors, as defined by World Health Organization: physical, chemical, biological or other agents that may cause harm to an exposed person in the workplace and is potentially modifiable. Methods: Publications investigating physical, chemical, biological, cancer and stress risk as well as effects associated with these exposures through veterinary practice were searched in the PubMed and Web of Science database. Publications were judged to be covered in the review when the following inclusion criteria applied: Articles should be published in the English language; Articles published after 2000; Studies reporting some numerical data about exposures and subjects considered; Studies concerning health effects regarding only veterinarians associated with exposure to animals, not general population. Results: Compared to the past, when the main risk of occupational disease was represented by zoonosis (in particular mycotic infections, mange, swine erysipelas, anthrax and tuberculosis), current risks are also represented by new entities such as mental and physical stress. However injuries, radiations, chemicals, zoonosis and allergies continue to represent a considerable portion of professional risks. Conclusions: Zoonosis, injuries and trauma remain the main occupational risk for veterinarians today, but new emerging risks, such as psychological risks are becoming increasingly important for these workers

Risk factors for latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) in health profession’s students of the University of Parma

Background and aim of the work: Nowadays Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the major Public Health problems for several professional categories. According to Italian law, University students are compared to workers: the main risk for them is represented by biological risk, in particular by blood-transmitted or by air-transmitted agents. As for TB, many scientific studies demonstrated that prevalence of latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) in Medicine and Surgery students was lower than those in health workers and in general population. The main aim of this study is the evaluation both of reliability and predictive value of a specific anamnestic questionnaire for previous exposure to Mycobacterium tuberculosis, in order to identify individuals at risk for TB. The Mantoux Tuberculin Skin Test (TST) would be executed to compare results of questionnaire. Methods: The study included Health Profession’s Degrees who were examinated during health surveillance in the period between June 2014 and March 2016. A questionnaire including 10 closed questions was presented to every student. The questionnaire was considerated positive with at least one positive answer. Results: The questionnaire was presented to 580 students, 500 of which completed TST; 466 students were Italian (93.2%). Questionnaire resulted positive in 89 students (17.8%); 15 of them presented positive TST: 14 of them was strangers (93.3%). Sensibility and specificity of questionnaire resulted 100% and 84% respectively. Conclusions: Our data suggested that anamnestic questionnaire could be considerated an efficient mean for identifying candidates for tuberculin screening in a TB- low prevalence population

Effect of exposure to detergents and other chemicals on biomarkers of pulmonary response in exhaled breath from hospital cleaners: a pilot study

PURPOSE: The main aim of the study was to provide evidence whether professional cleaning was associated with biomarkers of lung damage in non-invasively collected biological fluids (exhaled air and exhaled breath condensate--EBC). MATERIALS AND METHODS: This cross-sectional study involved 40 cleaners regularly exposed to cleaning detergents and 40 controls. The subjects completed a standard questionnaire from European Community Respiratory Health Survey (ECRHS II) and underwent a spirometry. Fractional exhaled nitric oxide (F(E)NO) was measured online, and pH, ammonium (NH(4) (+)), H(2)O(2) and 4-hydroxynonenal (4-HNE) were assayed in EBC. RESULTS: Among the cleaners, the frequency of asthma and rhinitis was, respectively, 2.5 and 20%. The most frequently reported symptoms were sneezing (27.5%), nasal and/or pharyngeal pruritus (25%), ocular pruritus (22.5%) and cough (22.5%). There were no significant differences in comparison with the control group. Median F(E)NO levels were higher in African than in Caucasian cleaners (21.5 [16.5-30.0] ppb and 18.0 [13.5-20.5] ppb; p < 0.05). H(2)O(2)-EBC (0.26 [0.09-0.53] μM vs. 0.07 [0.04-0.15] μM; p < 0.01), NH(4) (+)-EBC (857 [493-1,305] μM vs. 541 [306-907] μM; p < 0.01) and pH-EBC (8.17 [8.09-8.24] vs. 8.06 [7.81-8.10]; p < 0.01) were higher in the cleaners than in the controls. Finally, the cleaners showed significant correlations between pH-EBC and NH(4) (+)-EBC (r = 0.33, p < 0.05) and a weak correlation between 4-HNE-EBC and H(2)O(2)-EBC (r = 0.37, p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: The promising role of EBC analysis in biomonitoring of exposed workers was confirmed. It was also possible to identify the potential biomarkers of exposure to alkaline products (increased ammonium-EBC and pH-EBC levels) and potential biomarkers of oxidative stress (increased H(2)O(2)-EBC levels correlated with 4-HNE-EBC levels) in workers with no signs of airway diseases

Biomarkers of exposure to stainless steel tungsten inert gas welding fumes and the effect of exposure on exhaled breath condensate

The respiratory tract is the main target organ of the inhaled hexavalent chromium (Cr-VI) and nickel (Ni) contained in stainless steel (SS) welding fumes (WFs). The aim of this study was to investigate the Cr and Ni content of the exhaled breath condensate (EBC) of SS tungsten inert gas (TIG) welders, and relate their concentrations with oxidative stress and inflammatory biomarkers. EBC and urine from 100 SS TIG welders were collected pre-(T0) and post-shift (T1) on a Friday, and pre-shift (T2) on the following Monday morning. Both EBC and urinary Cr concentrations were higher at T1 (0.08 μg/L and 0.71 μg/g creatinine) and T0 (0.06 μg/L and 0.74 μg/g creatinine) than at T2 (below the limit of detection [LOD] and 0.59 μg/g creatinine), and EBC Ni concentrations generally remained <LOD. EBC hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) concentration increased from 0.18 μM at T0 to 0.25 μM at T1, but had decreased to 0.16 μM by T2. EBC malondialdehyde (MDA) concentrations were higher at T0 (2.79 nM) and T1 (2.98 nM) than at T2 (2.43 nM), and EBC 4-hydroxy-nonenal (HNE) concentrations were higher at T0 (0.53 nM) than at T2 (0.51 nM). These findings confirm that, unlike Ni-EBC, Cr-EBC is a reliable biomarker of exposure even at very low environmental concentrations. However, given the weak relationship between the biomarkers and effects of exposure, we speculate that other substances generated during SS TIG welding also play a role in generating lung oxidative stress

Biomarkers of respiratory allergy in laboratory animal care workers: an observational study

Objectives: Laboratory animal allergy is a highly prevalent occupational disease among exposed workers. The aim of the study was to validate the biomarkers of airway inflammation in laboratory animal (LA) care workers. Methods: All of the participants in this observational study (63 LA care workers and 64 controls) were administered a clinical questionnaire, underwent spirometry and a skin prick or radioallergosorbent test for common and occupational aeroallergens, and the fraction of exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO50), exhaled breath condensate hydrogen peroxide (EBC H2O2) and serum pneumoprotein levels were measured. Multivariate analysis (ANCOVA) was used to assess the interactions of the variables. Results: FeNO50levels correlated with exposure (p = 0.002), sensitisation (p = 0.000) and age (p = 0.001), but there was no interaction between exposure and sensitisation when age was considered in the model (p = 0.146). EBC-H2O2levels were higher in the sensitised workers than in the sensitised controls [0.14 (0.08–0.29) µM vs 0.07 (0.05–0.12) µM; p < 0.05]. Serum surfactant protein A (SP-A) levels were unaffected by exposure, sensitisation or age, although higher levels were observed in symptomatic workers; however, SP-D levels were influenced by exposure (p = 0.024) and age (p = 0.022), and club cell 16 levels were influenced by sensitisation (p = 0.027) and age (p = 0.019). Conclusions: The presence of the clinical symptoms associated with LA exposure and high FeNO levels should prompt further medical assessments in LA workers. Although EBC-H2O2levels do not seem to reflect eosinophilic inflammation, serum SP-A levels could be used to monitor progression from rhinitis to asthma