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Biomedical subjects

A Fait

Publications and source records attributed to A Fait.

9 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2000

Biological Monitoring of Pesticide Exposure: a review. Introduction.

Pesticides are used worldwide in agriculture, industry, public health and for domestic applications: as a consequence, a great part of the population may be exposed to these compounds. In spite of this extensive use, knowledge on the health risks associated with prolonged exposure is rather poor, and major uncertainties still exist. Epidemiological observations in man have so far produced little conclusive information, mainly because of weaknesses in exposure assessment. Therefore, information on the type and levels of exposure is fundamental in order to better understand and characterize risk to human health. Exposure assessment can be carried out via measurement of environmental concentrations, as well as via determination of the chemical or its metabolites in body tissues (biological monitoring). Besides indices of internal dose, biological monitoring also includes measurements of early effects attributable to interaction between the chemical agent and the human body. Biological monitoring has the advantage, over environmental monitoring, of determining the dose actually absorbed via any possible route: differences in absorption can be taken into account. whether they are due to biological variability or to use of protective equipment. When, in some cases, a combination of occupational and non-occupational exposure occurs, this also can be taken into consideration by biological monitoring. Few reference documents have been published on biological monitoring of pesticides. For this reason, the Office of Occupational Health of the World Health Organization gave ICPS a mandate to prepare a monograph specifically addressed to reviewing methods for biological monitoring of pesticide exposure. This review is based on more than 300 studies published over the period 1980-1999. For the most representative chemical classes, the available biological exposure indices are reported. Both indices of internal dose and. when available, of early effects are discussed. The reported tests were used to monitor exposure of pesticide applicators in agriculture and public health, manufacturing and formulating workers. subjects poisoned after accidental exposure or attempted suicide, volunteers involved in pharmacokinetic studies, as well as sub-groups of the general population exposed to environmentally persistent pesticides. Single chapters deal with organophosphorus insecticides, carbamate pesticides, dithiocarbamates, phenoxyacids, quaternary ammonium compounds. coumarin rodenticides, synthetic pyrethroids, organochlorine pesticides, chlorotriazines, and pentachlorophenol.

Animals↗
PubMed1999

Risk assessment and management of occupational exposure to pesticides.

Occupational exposure to pesticides in agriculture and public health applications may cause acute and long-term health effects. Prevention of adverse effects in the users requires actions to be undertaken in the pre-marketing and post-marketing phase of these products. The pre-marketing preventive actions are primary responsibility of industry and the public administration. Admission of pesticide use (registration) is carried out by considering the toxicological properties of each pesticide (hazard identification), determining the dose-response relationship (NOEL identification), assessing or predicting the exposure level in the various scenarios of their use, and characterising the risk. The decision about admission takes into consideration the balance between risks and benefits. The post-marketing preventive activities consist of the promotion of a proper risk management at the workplace. Such a management includes the risk assessment of the specific conditions of use, the adoption of proper work practices, and the health surveillance of the workers. Each country should develop an adequate National Plan for Prevention of Pesticide Risk which allocates different roles and tasks at the central, regional and local level.

Humans↗
PubMed1998

Risk assessment and health surveillance of pesticide workers.

Occupational health has two main objectives: the protection of workers from health hazards associated with the working environment, and the promotion of workers' health. Fundamental aspects of health protection are health risk management, information and training, first aid and medical treatment. Risk management comprises risk characterization, and exposure assessment. Integrating information on the identified hazards and exposure levels, and assessing the likelihood and severity of health effects performs risk characterization. Health surveillance includes medical surveillance and biological monitoring. The physician in charge of the occupational health programme, taking into account the results of the risk assessment process should determine frequency and contents of periodical medical examinations. Pre-employment medical examinations should be carried out in order to determine the physical ability to do the job the candidate is recruited for. Periodical medical examinations are aimed at detecting, in an early and reversible phase, any adverse effect attributable to exposure. A worker should undergo a broad medical examination when returning to work after a significant illness. Records of occupational health programmes should be filed and kept for at least 30 years.

Humans↗
PubMed1995

Programmes and activities of the International Centre for Pesticide Safety.

The International Centre for Pesticide Safety (ICPS) is a research unit of the National Health Service created by the Government of the Region of Lombardy at the proposal of the World Health Organization-Regional Office for Europe, in cooperation with the University of Milan, and in agreement with the Italian Ministry of Health. ICPS operates in the following areas of activity: information and documentation on pesticide toxicity to man and environment, epidemiological, toxicological and clinical research on effects of pesticides in man; training and education of personnel in public health, assessment of environmental and health impact of pesticides by means of Geographical Information Systems, laboratory research for development and standardisation of methods for residue measurement in environmental and biological media. ICPS is also a centre of international meetings and continuing education courses. A number of projects carried out or underway at ICPS are briefly described in this paper.

Environmental Exposure↗
PubMed1993

Health effects in man from long-term exposure to pesticides. A review of the 1975-1991 literature.

The scientific literature published over the period 1975-1991 on long-term health effects from prolonged exposure to pesticides has been reviewed, in order to document the state-of-knowledge on the mortality and morbidity of groups of the population exposed to pesticides. Specific aims of the review were to identify (1) which groups of the population have been more broadly surveyed, (2) which adverse effects have been consistently associated with specific pesticide exposures, (3) which are the pesticides of concern and (4) which health effects would require special attention in future research. The literature on acute effects and animal toxicology studies have not been considered at all in this monograph. In the period of interest, 440 papers have been published. Apart from 97 reviews and a small number of case reports, approximately half of the original investigations were of the case-control design (n = 108), while the remaining papers reported results from proportionate mortality (n = 10), cohort (n = 66) or cross-sectional studies (n = 51), carried out on pesticide applicators (n = 48), agricultural workers (n = 26) or people employed in the pesticide manufacturing industry (n = 50). Most of the case-control studies related to cases of cancer from various sites, especially myelolymphoproliferative disorders (MLP) and soft-tissue sarcomas (STS). When compared to the general population total mortality has been found to be consistently lower among pesticide manufacturers as well as among other groups of workers. This observation has been mostly attributed to the 'healthy worker effect' or, in the case of agricultural workers, to the healthier lifestyle of farm families. With the exception of deaths by accidental causes, non-cancer causes of death (mainly represented by cardiovascular diseases), were generally found to be less frequent than expected among manufacturers or users of pesticides, in particular among farmers. No consistent evidence of a global cancer mortality different from that of the general population has been reported among pesticide manufacturers or applicators. On the other hand, the papers examined have been strikingly consistent in reporting a low overall cancer risk among agricultural workers; life-style, clean air, low prevalence of smoking have been hypothesized so as to explain this observation. Numerous studies considered the possible link between exposure to phenoxyherbicides and occurrence of certain types of cancer, especially STS and MLP disorders.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Humans↗
PubMed1989

Polychlorinated biphenyl congeners in adipose tissue lipid and serum of past and present transformer repair workers and a comparison group.

The concentrations of individual PCB's were determined in both serum and adipose tissue lipid from 35 transformer repair workers currently exposed to PCBs, mainly Aroclor 1260, 17 previous transformer repair workers, and 56 comparison workers never occupationally exposed to PCBs. The analysis used fused-silica capillary gas chromatography with electron capture detector (FSCGC/ECD) and FSCGC with negative ion chemical ionization mass spectrometry to verify PCB congener levels. Eighty-nine PCB peaks were identified and confirmed. More congeners were detected in adipose tissue. In serum approximately 50% of peaks were below the level of detection. Statistical techniques to account for left and interval censoring allowed comparison of concentration distributions even where data were incomplete. We found that unquantifiable levels were unlikely to contribute substantially to the true values for total [PCBs] over and beyond the contribution of the measured values. However, the total serum [PCBs] determined by FSCGC/ECD greatly exceeded that from standard packed cell gas chromatography (PCGC/ECD). The underestimation was less marked for adipose samples. In serum the total [PCBs] was highest in currently exposed workers and lowest in unexposed workers, with past-exposed workers clearly intermediate. In adipose tissue [PCBs] in the currently exposed group was much higher than in the other two groups, in whom the distribution of results was broadly similar. In all worker groups hexachlorinated and heptachlorinated species predominated followed by octachlorinated and pentachlorinated. The relative distribution of individual PCB congeners in the three groups was similar although the amounts varied. The seven major peaks in serum and adipose tissue were 2,3,5,6,3',4',5'/2,3,4,5,2',4',5' hepta-CB; 2,3,4,2',3',5' hexa-CB; 2,4,6,3',4',5'/2,4,5,2',4',5'/2,3,4,5,2',5' hexa-CB; 2,3,4,5,2',3',4' hepta-CB; 2,3,4,5,2',3',5',6'/2,3,4,5,6,2',3',5', octa-CB; 2,4,5,3',4',/3,4,5,2',3' penta-CB; and 2,3,4,2',3',4'/2,3,5,6,2',4',5'/2,3,4,5,2',4',6' multi-CB. The distribution of PCB peaks in our populations differs from that in capacitor workers (exposed to less highly chlorinated PCBs) and from Yu-Cheng patients suggesting differing toxic potentials from PCBs in these three circumstances.

Adipose Tissue↗
PubMed1983

Influence of sex, age, and smoking habits on the urinary excretion of D-glucaric acid.

Reference values for urinary D-glucaric acid and the influence of sex, age and smoking habits were evaluated with a low-pH enzymatic method. D-Glucaric acid measured on spot urine samples from 573 healthy subjects gave mean concentrations (mumol/1) and D-glucaric acid/creatinine ratios (mmol/mol creatinine) of 56.1 (+/- 22.9) and 3.05 (+/- 0.99) for males and 53.3 (+/- 20.9) and 3.35 (+/- 0.95) for females. No difference between morning and evening was observed for urinary D-glucaric acid/1 values, but D-glucaric acid/creatinine was higher in the evening samples for both sexes. There was a negative correlation between D-glucaric acid/1 values and age in males but not in females: the decrease of D-glucaric acid concentration was, however, quantitatively very small. Smoking produced a significant increase in D-glucaric acid concentration and in the D-glucaric acid/creatinine ratio for males and also partially for females.

Adolescent↗