Profesionalno oštećenje vanadijumom

Es werden industrielle Gesundheitsschaden durch Vanadin dargestellt. 7 Fälle mit Dauerschaden sind beschrieben. Nachuntersuchungen bei einschlägigen Arbeitern führten zu dem Ergebnis, dass durch Änderung des technischen Verfahrens Gesundheitsstörungen weitgehend eingeschränkt werden können.U toku posljednjih petnaest godina znatno se povećala upotreba vanadijuma u industriji. Autor je već 1939. god. opisao karakteristična profesionalna oštećenja. Od tog su vremena postojala o toksičnosti vanadijuma vrlo nejasna i često suprotna mišljenja pojedinih autora. Vanadijumska kiselina, koja nastaje u toku kemijskog i tehničkog procesa preradbe, djeluje štetno na zdravlje. Ona ne izaziva resorptivno toksične promjene, nego karakteristična oštećenja sluznice očiju i dišnih putova. Katkad dolazi i do pneumonije s karakterističnim jezikom crnozelene boje (vjerojatno se radi o taloženju vanadijumskog hidroksida). Opažene su i alergične promjene kože. Posljednjih su godina i drugi autori potvrdili spomenule nalaze, a opaženi su i neki drugi faktori. koji govore za profesionalno oštećenje. Autor je naknadnim istraživanjem došao do zaključka, da se promjenom tehničkog procesa može znatno smanjiti opasnost upotrebe vanadijuma u industriji. Kod ljudi, koji su duže vrijeme bili na jako eksponiranim mjestima, nastaju trajne promjene u oblik-u emfizema sa svim njegovim komplikacijama

Fluor as a problem of general hygiene and occupational medicine

Fluor je problem općehigijenskog i industrijsko-medicinskog značenja. Tri je poglavlja prikazano, prvo, kako je fluor važan za pučanstvo, pogotovu u pogledu zubne njege, drugo, kako prirodno i industrijsko razvijanje fluora zna u nekim krajevima ugroziti živa bića, i konačno treće, kako fluor kod izvjesnih vrsta radnika može izazvati specifično profesionalno oboljenje.Chapter I discusses fluor in connection with its bioenic properties. It is one of the biogenic elements whose traces we find in most living creatures. The part fluor plays in the prevention of dental caries is well known. The article sets forth the alfinity of fluor with genetic tooth tissue and in this connection it is stressed that fluor does not exerce its action on milk-teeth and teeth ill old age. Many instances are given to illustrate the importance of fluor in the prophylaxis of dental caries through fluorization of drinking water. Chapter II deals with acute and chronic fluor poisoning of men, animals and plants. Clinical observations were confirmed by animal tests. Chapter Ill puts forward the importance of fluor in professional pathology. Changes caused by fluor were first observed in 1932 as osteosclerosis (fluorosis) in workers engaged in the production of criolite. Since then many findings all over the world have confirmed the noxiousness of fluor. Occupational fluorosis appearing in most cases as an affection of bones shows, in the first stage, irregularities in bone formation: the bony trabeculac in the spongy substance arc thickened causing blurred contours in X-ray pictures. In the second stage the thickening of the trabeculae progresses and partly unclear, homogeneous shades can be seen. There appear periosteal layers and growths. The connecting parts of tendons are calcified. The bony substance of hollow bones thickens and the medullary cavities narrow down. In the third stage the bone structure is hardly distinguishably. Eburnation set, in. accompanied by periosteal growths and progressive calcification of the connecting tissues of tendons and ligaments. All these changes are particularly apparent in the pelvis and in the lumbal part of the vertebral column. A good prophylactic measure is a change of working place after five years of work in an exposed position and X-ray examinations every three years. The author mentions the American regulations concerning the maximal concentrations of fluor dust in workshops (0.2-0.3 mg/m3 air), Close collaboration of hygienists. health workers, labour inspectors and technical experts is commendable in order to organize protection from Fluor poisonings. In most countries damages caused by fluor rank among occupational diseases entailing a right to compensation

Assessment of water use for estimating exposure to tap water contaminants.

Epidemiological studies examining the association between exposure to tap water contaminants (such as chlorination by-products) and disease outcomes (such as cancer and adverse reproductive outcomes) have been limited by inaccurate exposure assessment. Failure to take into account the variation in beverage and tap water consumption and exposure to volatile contaminants through inhalation and dermal absorption can introduce misclassification in assessing the association between exposure to tap water contaminants and health. To refine exposure assessment of tap water contaminants, we describe in detail the tap water consumption, showering, and bathing habits of pregnant women and their male partners as assessed by a questionnaire and a 3-day water diary. We found good agreement between questionnaire and 3-day water diary values for drinking water intake (Pearson's r = 0.78) and for time spent showering(r = 0.68) and bathing (r = 0.78). Half of the participants consumed tap water on a regular basis with an overall mean +/- 1 standard deviation (SD) of 0. 78 +/- 0.51 l/day. Our results further suggest that full-time employees, compared to women working part-time or less, have more heterogeneous consumption patterns over time. Seventy-nine percent of women and 94% of men took showers for an average of 11.6 +/-4.0 min and 10.4 +/- 4.8 min, respectively. Baths were taken more frequently by women than men (21% vs. 3%) for an average of 22.9 +/-10.1 min and 21.3 +/- 12.4 min, respectively. Thus, these patterns of tap water use should be considered in the design and interpretation of environmental epidemiology studies

Maternal Occupational Exposure to Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons: Effects on Gastroschisis among Offspring in the National Birth Defects Prevention Study

Background: Exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) occurs in many occupational settings. There is evidence in animal models that maternal exposure to PAHs during pregnancy is associated with gastroschisis in offspring; however, to our knowledge, no human studies examining this association have been conducted

Trends in Occupational Exposure to Styrene in the European Glass Fibre-Reinforced Plastics Industry

Aim: This study presents temporal trends of styrene exposure for workers in the European glass fibre-reinforced plastics (GRP) industry during the period 1966–2002

Infantile zinc deficiency: Association with autism spectrum disorders

Elucidation of the pathogenesis and effective treatment of autism spectrum disorders is one of the challenges today. In this study, we examine hair zinc concentrations for 1,967 children with autistic disorders (1,553 males and 414 females), and show considerable association with zinc deficiency. Histogram of hair zinc concentration was non-symmetric with tailing in lower range, and 584 subjects were found to have lower zinc concentrations than −2 standard deviation level of its reference range (86.3–193ppm). The incidence rate of zinc deficiency in infant group aged 0–3 year-old was estimated 43.5 % in male and 52.5 % in female. The lowest zinc concentration of 10.7 ppm was detected in a 2-year-old boy, corresponding to about 1/12 of the control mean level. These findings suggest that infantile zinc deficiency may epigenetically contribute to the pathogenesis of autism and nutritional approach may yield a novel hope for its treatment and prevention

Diversity in sound pressure levels and estimated active space of resident killer whale vocalizations

Author Posting. © The Author, 2005. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Springer for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Comparative Physiology A: Sensory, Neural, and Behavioral Physiology 192 (2006): 449-459, doi:10.1007/s00359-005-0085-2.Signal source intensity and detection range, which integrates source intensity with propagation loss, background noise and receiver hearing abilities, are important characteristics of communication signals. Apparent source levels were calculated for 819 pulsed calls and 24 whistles produced by free-ranging resident killer whales by triangulating the angles-of-arrival of sounds on two beamforming arrays towed in series. Levels in the 1-20 kHz band ranged from 131-168 dB re 1μPa @1m, with differences in the means of different sound classes (whistles: 140.2 ± 4.1 dB; variable calls: 146.6 ± 6.6 dB; stereotyped calls: 152.6 ± 5.9 dB), and among stereotyped call types. Repertoire diversity carried through to estimates of active space, with “long-range” stereotyped calls all containing overlapping, independently-modulated high-frequency components (mean estimated active space of 10-16km in sea state zero) and “short-range” sounds (5-9 km) included all stereotyped calls without a high-frequency component, whistles, and variable calls. Short-range sounds are reported to be more common during social and resting behaviors, while long-range stereotyped calls predominate in dispersed travel and foraging behaviors. These results suggest that variability in sound pressure levels may reflect diverse social and ecological functions of the acoustic repertoire of killer whales.Funding was provided by WHOI’s Ocean Ventures Fund and Rinehart Coastal Research Center and a Royal Society fellowship

Maternal occupational exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and congenital heart defects among offspring in the national birth defects prevention study

There is evidence in experimental model systems that exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) results in congenital heart defects (CHDs); however, to our knowledge, this relationship has not been examined in humans. Therefore, we conducted a case-control study assessing the association between estimated maternal occupational exposure to PAHs and CHDs in offspring