1,721,052 research outputs found
[Military condition and cancer morbidity: the stock of the situation]. [Condizione militare e morbosità per cancro: il punto della situazione.]
No full textIARC monographs: 40 years of evaluating carcinogenic hazards to humans.
No full textBackground: Recently, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) Programme for the Evaluation of Carcinogenic Risks to Humans has been criticized for several of its evaluations, and also for the approach used to perform these evaluations. Some critics have claimed that failures of IARC Working Groups to recognize study weaknesses and biases of Working Group members have led to inappropriate classification of a number of agents as carcinogenic to humans.
Objectives: The authors of this Commentary are scientists from various disciplines relevant to the identification and hazard evaluation of human carcinogens. We examined criticisms of the IARC classification process to determine the validity of these concerns. Here, we present the results of that examination, review the history of IARC evaluations, and describe how the IARC evaluations are performed. Discussion: We concluded that these recent criticisms are unconvincing. The procedures employed by IARC to assemble Working Groups of scientists from the various disciplines and the techniques followed to review the literature and perform hazard assessment of various agents provide a balanced evaluation
and an appropriate indication of the weight of the evidence. Some disagreement by individual scientists to some evaluations is not evidence of process failure. The review process has been modified over time and will undoubtedly be altered in the future to improve the process. Any process can in theory be improved, and we would support continued review and improvement of the IARC processes. This does not mean, however, that the current procedures are flawed.
Conclusions: The IARC Monographs have made, and continue to make, major contributions to the scientific underpinning for societal actions to improve the public’s healt
[Deprivation indices in small-area studies of environment and health in Italy].
Full text linkThe use of deprivation indices in small-area studies of environment and health is described, with particular reference to the Italian context. Deprivation indices can represent a proxy for individual deprivation and/or contextual deprivation. In Italy, deprivation indices have been constructed using Census variables. They are applied at census tract level in studies with a local basis; in national based studies, they can be used at municipality level. In SENTIERI Project (Mortality study of residents in Italian polluted sites) an ad hoc deprivation index at municipal level was used (DI SENTIERI). Its strength and weaknesses are discussed. In addition, suggestions about the use of socioeconomic indices in small area studies of environment
and health are given
Lung cancer mortality in a cohort of workers in a petrochemical plant: occupational or residential risk?
Full text linkGela area is an Italian polluted site qualifying for remediation because of widespread contamination from a petrochemical complex. This study investigates mortality and morbidity of the cohort of employees in Gela petrochemical plant with the aim of disentangling the health effect of work and residence. Work experience was classified in terms of job title, while an ad hoc mobility model was applied to define qualitative categories of residence in Gela as probable residents and probable commuters. Mortality rate ratio for lung cancer was 1.60 (90% CI 1.01-2.53) in workers probable resindents compared to probable commuters. For the same comparison, Hospital Discharge Prevalence Ratio for COPD was 1.39 (0.94-2.07). The crude categories of work and residence limits the interpretation of the causal nature of the study results. Despite several limitations, the results for respiratory pathologies are compatible with an etiological role of the documented contamination.The purpose of the present study is to examine the role of environmental (non occupational) exposures in lung cancer risk among petrochemical workers at a large petrochemical plant built on the Sicilian coast in the immediate vicinity of the town of Gela, Italy in 1960. The cohort included workers employed in the Gela petrochemical plant in 1960-1993. We looked at mortality rates for the period 1960-2002. An internal comparison was performed between two categories of workers with different likelihood of residence in Gela during the period of employment. The rate ratio of mortality from lung cancer comparing "probable residents" with "possible non residents," adjusted for age, calendar period, andjob classification (only blue collar, only white collar and both), was 1.66 (90% Confidence Interval 1.07-2.58). Although the information collected is quite sparse and no inferences can be made about risk sources, the results show a possible excess of residential/environmental risk from lung cancer mortality for those workers more likely to have been residents in Gela
Impatto sulla salute dei siti inquinati: metodi e strumenti per la ricerca e le valutazioni
No full textL’epidemiologo in tribunale:requisiti, standard professionali e considerazioni deontologiche.
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