1,721,270 research outputs found
[Airport related air pollution and health effects]
No full textAirport is an extremely complex emission source of airborne pollutants that can have a significant impact on the environment. Indeed, several airborne chemicals emitted during airport activities may significantly get worse air quality and increase exposure level of both airport workers and general population living nearby the airports. In recent years airport traffic has increased and consequently several studies investigated the association between airport-related air pollution and occurrence of adverse health effects, particularly on respiratory system, in exposed workers and general population resident nearby. In this context, we carried out a critical evaluation of the studies that investigated this correlation in order to obtain a deeper knowledge of this issue and to identify the future research needs. Results show that the evidence of association between airport-related air pollution and health effects on workers and residents is still limited
Low exposure to lead and reproductive health: a cohort study of female workers in the ceramic industry of Emilia-Romagna (Northern Italy)
No full textAims: to assess the effects of low levels of lead exposure on reproductive health (miscarriage, fertility, multiple births, sex ratio at birth, incidence of some diseases during pregnancy), following a cohort of female workers exposed to lead in the ceramic tile industry in the Municipalities of Scandiano (RE) and Sassuolo (MO), Northern Italy.Design: a cohort of 2,067 female workers was considered. These workers repeatedly underwent blood lead levels testing at the Toxicology Laboratory of Scandiano (RE) in the period 1998-2004. Follow-up was performed for each subject for the 12 months following any blood lead testing. Data on miscarriages and live births were obtained through a linkage with hospital discharge records. Results were compared with the frequency of events in the general female population in the Emilia-Romagna Region (Northern Italy). The frequency of multiple births was also examined, as well as the ratio of male-to-female infants and maternal diseases during pregnancy. An internal analysis within the cohort was conducted to evaluate the associations with increasing lead levels.Results: the women under study accumulated 5,722 person-years of observation. The age distribution of study subjects was not different from the one observed in the Region. Thirty-one miscarriages and 212 live births were recorded. The miscarriage rate (5.42‰) among the study subjects was not different from the regional reference, while the fertility rate (37.05‰) was lower (RR: 0.72; 95%CI 0.63-0.83). The frequency of multiple births (1.9%) was similar to the regional rate (1.2%). Eighty-six females (40.57%) and 126 males (59.43%) were born, compared to regional percentages of 49% females and 51% males. Of all the indicators examined, only miscarriage showed a positive trend among women exposed to lead. In addition, women exposed to lead had a higher frequency of hypertension during pregnancy (RR: 1.34; 95%CI 1.07-1.68), problems with the amniotic cavity (RR: 1.16; 95%CI 1.02-1.33), and prolonged pregnancy (RR: 1.37; 95%CI 1.09-1.73).Conclusions: the cohort of female subjects under study showed rate of miscarriage similar to the general population and a lower fertility rate. There were a higher percentage of male births and an increase of some conditions during pregnancy possibly related to lead exposur
Pathology reporting of malignant pleural mesothelioma first diagnosis: a population-based approach
No full textAccurate pathologic diagnosis and reporting in malignant pleural mesothelioma are essential for clinical care, and cancer registration. Practical guidelines for pathologists are provided in publications and textbooks but it is unclear how these recommendations are applied in routine practice. We investigated the characteristics of pathology reports, and the extent to which they meet guideline standards. We reviewed 819 pathology reports relating to a first diagnosis of malignant pleural mesothelioma. Data sources were a regional section of the Italian network of the Mesothelioma Registry (2001-2014) and a pathology archive (1990-2000). We evaluated tumor characteristics, the diagnosis field including terminology and immunohistochemistry (IHC) workup, and report completeness (the proportion of items recorded). We investigated also two IHC panels identified by the most used markers in current practical guidelines, one best suited for epithelioid mesotheliomas (combinations of at least 2 positive and at least 2 negative mesothelioma markers) and the other best suited for sarcomatoid mesotheliomas (positive mesothelioma markers plus cytokeratins). Reports (753 histology, 66 cytology, IHC-confirmed 86%) were 74% complete and always narrative. Missing data were related to clinical history (76%), tumor laterality (61%), specimen size (38%), and histological subtype (23%). The proportion of cases with IHC was higher for epithelioid (90%) than sarcomatoid mesothelioma (87%). Compliance to IHC recommendations was higher for epithelioid (59%) than sarcomatoid mesothelioma (11%). The mean number of stains was significantly higher for sarcomatoid than epithelioid mesothelioma (p<0.000; Kruskal-Wallis test). Our findings show that although guidelines are designed to improve actual reporting practices, there is ample room for improvement in their application to standardize the diagnosis of mesothelioma. Synoptic pathology reporting needs to be implemented to better utilize pathology information
Saharan dust and the association between particulate matter and daily hospitalisations in Rome, Italy
No full textIntroduction Outbreaks of Saharan dust have been shown to exacerbate the effect of particulate matter (PM) on mortality. Their role on PM-morbidity association is less clear. This study aims to evaluate the effect of Saharan dust on the PM-hospitalisations association in Rome, Italy. Methods We studied residents hospitalised in Rome between 2001 and 2004 and performed a time-series analysis to explore the effects of PM2.5, PM2.5-10 and PM10 on cardiac, cerebrovascular and respiratory emergency hospitalisations, respectively. Saharan dust days were identified by combining Light Detection and Ranging observations and analyses from operational models. We tested a dust-PM interaction to evaluate the hypothesis that the PM effect on hospitalisations would be enhanced on dust days. Results We studied 77 354, 26 557 and 31 620 hospitalisations for cardiac, cerebrovascular and respiratory diseases, respectively, providing effect estimates per IQR. PM2.5-10 was associated with cardiac diseases (3.93%; 95% CI 1.58 to 6.34). PM 10 was associated with cardiac (3.37%; 95% CI 1.11 to 5.68), cerebrovascular (2.64%; 95% CI 0.06 to 5.29) and respiratory diseases (3.59%: 95% CI 0.18 to 7.12). No effect of PM2.5 was detected. Saharan dust modified the effect of the PM2.5-10 on respiratory hospitalisations, higher during dust days compared with dust-free days (14.63% vs -0.32%; p value of interaction=0.006). Saharan dust also increased the effect of PM10 on cerebrovascular diseases (5.04% vs 0.90%, p value of interaction=0.143). Discussion A clear enhanced effect of PM2.5-10 on respiratory diseases and of PM10 on cerebrovascular diseases emerged during Saharan dust outbreaks
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
[A cohort study on mortality and morbidity in the area of Taranto, Southern Italy]
No full textthe area of Taranto has been investigated in several environmental and epidemiological studies due to the presence of many industrial plants and shipyards. Results from many studies showed excesses of mortality and cancer incidence for the entire city of Taranto, but there are no studies for different geographical areas of the city that take into account the important confounding effect of socioeconomic position
Long-term exposure to air pollution and risk of venous thromboembolism in a large administrative cohort
Full text linkBackground: Venous thromboembolisms (VTE) are one of the most frequent cause among the cardiovascular diseases. Despite the association between long-term exposure to air pollution and cardiovascular outcomes have been widely explored in epidemiological literature, little is known about the air pollution related effects on VTE. We aimed to evaluate this association in a large administrative cohort in 15 years of follow-up. Methods: Air pollution exposure (NO2, PM10 and PM2.5) was derived by land use regression models obtained by the ESCAPE framework. Administrative health databases were used to identify VTE cases. To estimate the association between air pollutant exposures and risk of hospitalizations for VTE (in total and divided in deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE)), we used Cox regression models, considering individual, environmental (noise and green areas), and contextual characteristics. Finally, we considered potential effect modification for individual covariates and previous comorbidities. Results: We identified 1,954 prevalent cases at baseline and 20,304 cases during the follow-up period. We found positive associations between PM2.5 exposures and DVT, PE and VTE with hazard ratios (HRs) up to 1.082 (95% confidence intervals: 0.992, 1.181), 1.136 (0.994, 1.298) and 1.074 (0.996, 1.158) respectively for 10 μg/m3 increases. The association was stronger in younger subjects (< 70 years old compared to > 70 years old) and among those who had cancer. Conclusion: The effect of pollutants on PE and VTE hospitalizations, although marginally non-significant, should be interpreted as suggestive of a health effect that deserves attention in future studies
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