Large geographic and ethnic variations in incidence and mortality rates of cutaneous malignant melanoma (CMM) suggest inverse correlations with the degree of skin pigmentation and latitude. Increases in CMM incidence and mortality rates have occurred in virtually all white populations, more markedly in those that permanently (immigrants) or temporarily (tourists/vacationers) ...

The food and agriculture industry employs 14.6% of the female industrial work force in France. Workers are exposed to a variety of environmental and organizational constraints (eg, irregular schedules, cold, uncomfortable postures, repetitive movements). In 1987-1988 a medical examination and questionnaire were administered to 726 workers with menstrual periods in ...

Cobalt and nickel, matrices of hard metal, have been shown to be respiratory sensitizers. Airborne dust at hard metal-grinding worksites in a factor with a work-force of about 180 grinders was analysed for cobalt and nickel. The electron-microscopic X-ray microanalysis of airborne dust particles demonstrated that they had the same ...

Pentachlorophenol (PCP) is ubiquitous in the Canadian environment, as a result of the large quantities used in the wood preservation and wood protection industries. In the past decade, agricultural and wood protection applications of PCP in Canada have been sharply curtailed. A multimedia approach was used to update estimates of ...

To determine whether exposure to radiofrequency radiation (RFR) would induce sufficient thermal stress to activate endogenous opioid mechanisms, male Swiss Webster mice were exposed to 10, 15, and 20 mW/cm2 RFR in a 2450-MHz waveguide system for 10 min at specific absorption rates (SARs) of 23.7, 34.6, and 45.5 W/kg, ...

The effect of osmotic changes on fertilized mouse ova was studied by measuring their survival, defined as development into hatching blastocysts, after exposure to various concentrations of ethanediol (ethylene glycol). In addition, a Boyle-van't Hoff plot was derived from exposing ova to hypotonic and hypertonic solutions ranging from 0.1 to ...

A model describing the lognormal total distribution of contaminant levels inside a respirator (CI) is applied to assessing the probability of toxicant overexposure among a population of respirator wearers; the model accounts for between-wearer and within-wearer variability in ambient exposure levels (CO) and decimal fraction respirator penetration (P) values. The ...

Exposure to machining fluid aerosols in the automotive industry is associated with a variety of respiratory symptoms including cross-shift changes in pulmonary function, cough, asthma, and phlegm. Lubricating and cooling fluids used in machining operations are predominantly water and thus are susceptible to microbial growth. In the present study, the ...

A case of preventable fatality and a nearly greater disaster as a result of methyl bromide fumigation of a restaurant is presented. Methyl bromide is a nearly odorless, volatile hydrocarbon used as a fumigant in the food industry. As a result of this episode, recommendations are made for worker and ...

The purpose of this study was to identify the significant microenvironments that can lead to chromium exposure in Hudson County, New Jersey residential settings near or on soil contaminated with chromium waste. Measurements were made in indoor air, outdoor air, and house dust. Surface dust was found to be the ...

An increasingly important topic in risk assessment is the estimation of human exposure to environmental pollutants through pathways other than inhalation. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has recently developed a computerized methodology (EPA, 1990) to estimate indirect exposure to toxic pollutants from Municipal Waste Combuster emissions. This methodology estimates health ...

Total body dose of 2,4-D was determined in 10 volunteers following exposure to sprayed turf 1 hour following application and in 10 volunteers exposed 24 hours following application. Each group of 10 volunteers was divided in half and five wore long pants, a short-sleeved shirt, socks and closed footwear. The ...

Konzo is a distinct form of tropical myelopathy characterised by abrupt onset of spastic paraparesis. Epidemics in East Africa have been attributed to dietary cyanide exposure from insufficiently processed cassava but a study done in Zaire disputed such an aetiology. We investigated a konzo-affected population in rural Zaire and measured ...

To estimate the quantitative relation between exposure to respirable silica dust and risk of an attack of silicosis, 1151 workers exposed to silica dust and employed from 1958 to 1987 in a tungsten mine in China were investigated. The results showed that the ratio of respirable silica dust concentration to ...

Analysis of air samples indicated that concentrations of respirable free silica from sandblasting equipment used inside an unventilated painting room greatly exceeded the current OSHA standard and NIOSH recommended criteria. Lack of ventilation in the design materials studio resulted in excessive wood dust concentrations; levels averaged 29 mg/m3 which was ...

Natural furocoumarins, some of which are carcinogenic, are widespread components of the diet which are frequently consumed. Because of the paucity of samples, the wide scatter of analytical values, and other limitations in the data, only broad conclusions can be drawn. Most of the exposure is from limes, with smaller ...

Pure-tone hearing thresholds and anamnestic data pertaining to nosocusis and exposure to gun noise were analyzed for 9778 male railroad train-crew workers. A major portion of losses in hearing sensitivity due to railroad noise are obscured in comparisons of hearing levels of trainmen with the hearing levels of the unscreened ...

Mechanised production of peat for fuel consumption is associated with high concentrations of organic dust, which is inhaled by the peat workers. In the present study 17 workers at two peat bogs in northern Sweden were examined. Personal sampling of total dust and the respirable fraction was performed during several ...

The ubiquity of lead in our environment, its toxic nature and its potential to alter behavior of humans and animals has stimulated much research. In addition to the well known, but complex, changes in activity and performance of learned tasks following exposure to lead, an increasing body of literature suggests ...

A chronic inhalation study of a test toner was conducted by exposure of groups of F-344 rats for 6 hr/day, 5 days/week for 24 months. The test toner was a special Xerox 9000 type xerographic toner, enriched in respirable-sized particles compared to commercial toner, such that it was about 35% ...

A multimedia transport model was used to evaluate the environmental partitioning of benzo-a-pyrene (BaP). Measured and predicted environmental concentrations were used to estimate the accumulation of BaP in the food chain and the subsequent extent of human exposure from inhalation and ingestion. Results show that BaP partitions mainly into soil ...

The Total Human Environmental Exposure Study (THEES) focuses on benzo(a)pyrene (BaP) as an example of a combustion-generated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) compound. Primary pathways for environmental exposures to BaP are inhalation and ingestion. This program of field studies was conducted in Phillipsburg, New Jersey, a small, industrial city in the ...

Hay, grain, silage, and bedding are the sources of mold dust in agriculture. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effect of different farming methods on exposure to airborne microbes. The study material comprised 50 silage, 54 hay, 47 grain, and 70 bedding samples taken on 18 ...

The effect of exposure methods on pesticide solution transmission and mechanism was examined for three fabrics. Drop and spray methods of exposure were used. The drop method of exposure resulted in significantly higher amounts of pesticide transmission than did the spray method. Using the drop method, a lower proportion of ...

Formaldehyde (FA) has been commercially produced since the early 1900s. Its widespread use in a variety of applications is known to result in appreciable exposure of workers and of a section of the general population. Formaldehyde is a normal metabolite in mammalian systems. It occurs in air as a product ...

A survey of chronic respiratory symptoms was undertaken in 1127 asbestos workers engaged in asbestos mining, asbestos cement production, production of friction materials or in the manufacture of asbestos textile. A control group of 593 persons was also surveyed. The exposure of asbestos workers was analysed by evaluating separately the ...

Quantitation of food consumption is necessary when determining mutation responses to multiple chemical exposures in the sex-linked recessive lethal assay in Drosophila. One method proposed for quantitating food consumption by Drosophila is to measure the incorporation of 14C-leucine into the flies during the feeding period (Thompson and Reeder: Environmental Mutagenesis ...

STUDY OBJECTIVE: To determine whether there is an effect on the prevalence of respiratory symptoms, an alteration in lung function, or an increase in the cough threshold to capsaicin among workers chronically exposed to hot chili (Capsicum) peppers. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study of responses to a structured questionnaire, lung function assessed ...

As part of a multidisciplinary longitudinal approach to assess the roles of airborne cotton dust and endotoxins in affecting the respiratory health of cotton textile workers, this study was designed to quantify the endotoxin contamination of airborne vertically elutriated and total dusts. Yarn preparation areas (opening through fine spinning) were ...

A multimedia transport model was used to evaluate the environmental partitioning of benzene. Measured and predicted environmental concentrations were used to estimate the accumulation of benzene in the food chain and the subsequent extent of human exposure from inhalation and ingestion. Results show that benzene partitions mainly into air (99.9%) ...

Interstitial pulmonary fibrosis due to 'hard metal' exposure is well known, and the presence of cobalt has always been considered as the causative factor. Recently interstitial pulmonary fibrosis has been described in diamond polishing workers. In this study the dust composition in different polisher's workplaces where diamond disks are in ...

Recent advances in research on low-level lead poisoning point to the need to increase efforts to prevent exposure. Current biomedical consensus accepts that blood lead levels as low as 5 to 15 mcg/dL are risky to fetuses, young children, and adults. Lead at low dose is associated with increased blood ...

The extent of probable intake of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (dioxins) and polychlorinated dibenzofurans (furans) from exposure to process liquor, effluent, sludge, and pulp contaminated with dioxins/furans in pulp mills was examined. It is expected that intake of dioxins/furans by skin exposure may exceed their intake by inhalation. Limiting skin exposure to ...

Formaldehyde, a widely used industrial chemical to which humans are ubiquitously exposed, presented cause for concern when it was demonstrated to be carcinogenic in laboratory animals. Risk assessment protocols subsequently applied to formaldehyde are of questionable validity in light of the results of recent mechanistic investigations of biological responses to ...

A 35-year-old furniture refinisher came to the occupational medicine clinic with complaints of upper respiratory irritation, fatigue, and lightheadedness occurring on a daily basis after using a methylene chloride-containing paint stripper. Determinations of blood carboxyhemoglobin (COHb) on three occasions showed an apparently linear elevation of COHb as a function of ...

Our study determined whether lambs' food preferences developed as a result of exposure to specific foods early in life and whether the presence of the mother affected the development of dietary preferences. In the first experiment, lambs were fed wheat (W) and mountain mahogany (MM) (Cercocarpus montanus) from 50 to ...

In 1985 the Health and Safety Executive set a gravimetric Control Limit for airborne Man-Made Mineral Fibre and in 1987 a respirable fibre number Recommended Limit for Superfine MMMF. A limited investigation was carried out of the use of glass and ceramic fibre products used as protection against welding 'batter' ...

Acetone concentrations in urine samples from 28 workers exposed to acetone in a fiber-reinforced plastics factory were determined by directly injecting urine supernate into a gaschromatograph with FID detectors. Acetone concentrations in the urine from ten nonexposed subjects were also determined. The 8-h time-weighted exposure intensity of individual workers was ...

An assessment of the occupational exposure to styrene and associated chemicals in Denmark was carried out by retrieving all measurements from the archives of the Danish National Institute of Occupational Health. A total of 2,528 air samples containing styrene had been collected from 256 workplaces during the years 1955-88 and ...

Gram-negative bacterial endotoxins are contaminants of dusts from agricultural products. They represent a potential health hazard for farmers working in many different processes. However, the occurrence of endotoxins has not been well characterized in the various farming operations. Therefore, two farming activities with potential for generating airborne endotoxins were studied: ...

In an epidemiological study carried out in three textile mills at Ahmedabad, India, 929 workers were examined from the spinning departments. The mean prevalence of byssinosis in the blow section was 29.62%, whereas in the card section it was 37.83%. The concentrations of cotton dust (dust less fly) were high ...

The effect of exposure time and concentration on the tissue-specific accumulation of Zn in two fiddler crabs, Uca annulipes and Uca triangularis, obtained from polluted (Visakhapatnam Harbor) and unpolluted (Bhimilipatnam) areas was studied. Hepatopancreas registered major accumulation of Zn when the crabs were exposed to sublethal concentrations (6.38 to 15.39 ...

Whole-body vibrations (WBV) were measured at the seatpan of load-haul-dump (LHD) vehicles of 3.5-, 5-, 6- and 8-yard capacity at two underground mines. Twenty-two sets of measurements were made involving 11 vehicles, 8 operators and 4 work locations. In each set frequency-weighted rms and peak accelerations were measured in the ...

Interrupted feedings of teneral, laboratory-reared Glossina morsitans morsitans were used to study mechanical transmission of Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense. Intervals between exposure of individual flies on parasitaemic rats and refeeding on clean rats were varied from five minutes to 24 hours. Direct transmissions were demonstrated at each interval up to 160 ...

Exposure to cadmium and lead was studied using a dietary survey. Data for 1348 individuals aged 25-64 years were collected using 3-day food records. In addition to the dietary intake of heavy metals, the effect of the following were also analyzed: smoking frequency, place of residence, occupation and age. Total ...

This paper uses a six compartment environmental partitioning model to explore the transport and accumulation of pentachlorophenol (PCP) within and between various environmental media. Environmental concentrations were then used to estimate the amount of PCP entering the food chain and the long-term, average daily intake of PCP by the general ...

Data from EPA's TEAM Study allow us to identify the major sources of exposure to benzene for much of the U.S. population. These sources turn out to be quite different from what had previously been considered the important sources. The most important source of exposure for 50 million smokers is ...

Exposure to silica dust among Danish stone workers was assessed from data collected in 1948-1980. After 1970, the exposure level was given in milligrams per cubic-meter and an exposure index (concentration of respirable dust divided by the threshold limit value for quartz) was calculated. The median index was 2.1 for ...

Recent reports suggest that intermittent nitroglycerin (NTG) treatment, incorporating a daily nitrate-free interval, can avoid the tolerance associated with continuous NTG therapy. This study has investigated whether an in vitro model of NTG tolerance could be used to examine the mechanisms of tolerance avoidance (by intermittent NTG exposure) and tolerance ...

Vanadium was determined in urine and blood of two workers (Worker Nos. 1 and 2 with direct exposure to vanadium pentoxide) and 13 fellow workers (with indirect or no vanadium exposure), and the results were compared by means of personal and stationary sampling of vanadium in air. Worker No. 1, ...