The Italian Meta-Analysis MISA and Causal Inference on the Short-Term Effects of air Pollution

La maggior parte degli studi sugli effetti acuti dell’inquinamento atmosferico è basata sull’analisi delle serie temporali di inquinanti ed esiti sanitari. In Italia, sono stati effettuate due indagini di questo tipo, MISA1 e MISA2.Questo lavoro, prendendo come riferimento i risultati dello studio MISA2, si propone di dare una risposta a tre aspetti molto rilevanti per l’interpretazione dei risultati derivanti da analisi di questo tipo: i. su quali basi sia possibile fondare il processo di inferenza causale nell’interpretazione dell’associazione di breve periodo fra indicatori di inquinamento ambientale ed esiti sanitari, ii. in quale misura i singoli inquinanti atmosferici siano da considerarsi pericolosi per la salute umana; iii. quanto siano affidabili le stime del rischio

contextualising the policy decision to ban asbestos

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Cánceres relacionados con el asbesto en Brasil

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Valutazioni di impatto sanitario, sorveglianza, epidemiologica e studi di intervento nelle aree a rischio. Health Impact Assessment, surveillance and intervention studies in contaminated areas

xlla fine di agosto 2013 ? stato approvato un provvedimento congiunto dei Ministeri di salute e ambiente che stabilisce i criteri metodologici utili per la redazione del rapporto di valutazione del danno sanitario (VDS). In presenza di uno ?stabilimento [ritenuto - n.d.r.] di interesse strategico nazionale? tale documento dovr? essere predisposto annualmente dagli Enti interessati (ASL, ARPA). Il rapporto di valutazione deve informare dello stato di salute connesso a rischi attribuibili all\u27attivit? dello stabilimento in esame, fornire elementi di valutazione per il riesame dell\u27autorizzazione integrata ambientale per indirizzarla a soluzioni tecniche pi? efficaci nel ridurre i potenziali esiti sanitari indesiderati, valutare l\u27efficacia in ambito sanitario delle prescrizioni. Il decreto di definizione dei criteri di valutazione del danno sanitario era previsto dal Decreto n. 207/2012, varato per garantire la produzione dell\u27ILVA di Taranto e l\u27applicazione dell\u27Autorizzazione integrata ambientale

International scientific cooperation on asbestos-related disease prevention in Latin America.

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Comments on the Causation of Malignant Mesothelioma: Rebutting the False Concept That Recent Exposures to Asbestos Do Not Contribute to Causation of Mesothelioma

Background: European asbestos manufacturers and their expert witnesses have advanced the claim that recent exposures to asbestos are not of significance in the causation of malignant mesothelioma. They argue that in cases of prolonged exposure to asbestos only the earliest exposures contribute to mesothelioma induction. Methods: The Collegium Ramazzini examined this claim and compared it with the findings of the Epidemiology and Public Health Working Group of the Second Italian Consensus Conference on Pleural Mesothelioma. This independent Working Group noted that earlier exposures are more effective in inducing mesothelioma, but that subsequent exposures also contribute and cannot be excluded. They found convincing evidence to support the conclusion that mesothelioma incidence is proportional to cumulative asbestos exposure. Conclusion: The Collegium Ramazzini concludes that risk of malignant mesothelioma is proportional to cumulative exposure to asbestos in which all exposures - early as well as late - contribute to the totality of risk. The Collegium Ramazzini rejects as false and scientifically unfounded the notion that only the earliest exposures to asbestos contribute to mesothelioma induction

Occupational Burden of Asbestos-related Cancer in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico

Background: An estimate at the national level of the occupational cancer burden brought about by the industrial use of asbestos requires detailed routine information on such uses as well as on vital statistics of good quality. A causal association with asbestos exposure has been established for mesothelioma and cancers of the lung, larynx, and ovary. Objectives: The aim of this study was to provide estimates of the occupational burden of asbestos-related cancer for the Latin American countries that are or have been the highest asbestos consumers in the region: Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico. Methods: The burden of multifactorial cancers has been estimated through the approach suggested for the World Health Organization using the population attributable fraction. The following data were used: • Proportion of workforce employed in each economic sector • Proportion of workers exposed to asbestos in each sector • Occupational turnover • Levels of exposure • Proportion of the population in the workforce • Relative risk for each considered disease for 1 or more levels of exposure Data on the proportion of workers exposed to asbestos in each sector are not available for Latin American countries; therefore, data from the European CAREX database (carcinogen exposure database) were used. Findings: Using mortality data of the World Health Organization Health Statistics database for the year 2009 and applying the estimated values for population attributable fractions, the number of estimated deaths in 5 years for mesothelioma and for lung, larynx, and ovary cancers attributable to occupational asbestos exposures, were respectively 735, 233, 29, and 14 for Argentina; 340, 611, 68, and 43 for Brazil; 255, 97, 14, and 9 for Colombia, and 1075, 219, 18, and 22 for Mexico. Conclusions: The limitations in compiling the estimates highlight the need for improvement in the quality of asbestos-related environmental and health data. Nevertheless, the figures are already usable to promote a ban on asbestos use

Arretium or Arezzo? A Neural Approach to the Identification of Place Names in Historical Texts

This paper presents the application of a neural architecture to the identification of place names in English historical texts. We test the impact of different word embeddings and we compare the results to the ones obtained with the Stanford NER module of CoreNLP before and after the retraining using a novel corpus of manually annotated historical travel writings

Letter

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Comments on: Further studies of Bolivian crocidolite-Part IV: Fibre width, fibre drift and their relation to mesothelioma induction: Preliminary findings, by Ilgren EB, van Orden DR, Lee RJ, Kamiya YM, Hoskins JA

Comments on: Further studies of Bolivian crocidolite-Part IV: Fibre width, fibre drift and their relation to mesothelioma induction: Preliminary findings, by Ilgren EB, van Orden DR, Lee RJ, Kamiya YM, Hoskins JA