Identification of dangerous fibers: some examples in Northern Italy

The presence of asbestiform minerals has to be foreseen in the planning of infrastructural activities: Asbestos can be a component of sedimentary rocks or of mafic and ultra mafic metamorphic rocks. Surveys and core drilling, in addition to providing important information on the quality of the rock and its geotechnical characteristics, allow for a prediction of the presence of asbestiform minerals in the areas affected by mining or infrastructural activities. During the excavation, workers can be exposed to the asbestos risk, therefore, the control of the air quality and of the excavated materials are fundamental for the safety of involved people. In this work some problems we met in the analysis of airborne filters and bulk samples from sites in northern Italy are presented. The asbestos fibers present in rocks as accessory minerals, are often different in habit and dimension from the well-known asbestos fibers used as industrial minerals and moreover can be erroneously identified as minerals morphologically and chemically similar present in the same rock or environment. In the case of tunnel muck it could be contaminated by substances used for the excavation that could modify colours and optical properties of asbestos minerals. In the PCOM (Phase Contrast Optical Microscope) analysis chrysotile, sepiolite and antigorite, due to their different refraction index, when the fibers have dimension > 0,5 micron and aren’t contaminated by lubricant can be easely identified even if the morphology of chrysotile is very similar to that of sepiolite. In Electron Scanning Microscope (SEM) the discrimination between chrysotile and antigorite on the airborne filters is not always possible because the fibers of thin dimensions show similar habit and spectrum. In the case of the tremolite amphibole, morphology changes from prismatic to fibrous depending on its origin (p.eg. Monastero, Val Grana, Verrayes, Brachiello). Both prismatic and asbestiform tremolite (Gamble and Gibbs, 2007; Addison and McConnel, 2007) may show inhalable elements with width less than 3 micron, length more than 5 micron and width length ratio 1:3, whose dangerousness (fiber coming from fibrous tremolite or the cleavage fragments coming from prismatic tremolite) could be different and it is object of epidemiologic studies

Safety of Rotavirus Vaccination in Preterm Infants Admitted in Neonatal Intensive Care Units in Sicily, Italy: A Multicenter Observational Study

Rotavirus (RV) is among the most common vaccine-preventable diseases in children under five years of age. Despite the severity of rotavirus pathology in early childhood, rotavirus vaccination for children admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), who are often born preterm and with various previous illnesses, is not performed. This multicenter, 3-year project aims to evaluate the safety of RV vaccine administration within the six main neonatal intensive care units of the Sicilian Region to preterm infants. Methods: Monovalent live attenuated anti-RV vaccination (RV1) was administered from April 2018 to December 2019 to preterm infants with gestational age ≥ 28 weeks. Vaccine administrations were performed in both inpatient and outpatient hospital settings as a post discharge follow-up (NICU setting) starting at 6 weeks of age according to the official immunization schedule. Any adverse events (expected, unexpected, and serious) were monitored from vaccine administration up to 14 days (first assessment) and 28 days (second assessment) after each of the two scheduled vaccine doses. Results: At the end of December 2019, 449 preterm infants were vaccinated with both doses of rotavirus vaccine within the six participating Sicilian NICUs. Mean gestational age in weeks was 33.1 (±3.8 SD) and the first dose of RV vaccine was administered at 55 days (±12.9 SD) on average. The mean weight at the first dose was 3388 (SD ± 903) grams. Only 0.6% and 0.2% of infants reported abdominal colic and fever above 38.5 ◦C in the 14 days after the first dose, respectively. Overall, 1.9% EAEs were observed at 14 days and 0.4% at 28 days after the first/second dose administration. Conclusions: Data obtained from this study confirm the safety of the monovalent rotavirus vaccine even in preterm infants with gestational age ≥ 28 weeks, presenting an opportunity to improve the vaccination offer both in Sicily and in Italy by protecting the most fragile infants who are more at risk of contracting severe rotavirus gastroenteritis and nosocomial RV infection