The effect of 109 social, medical, housing, and hygienic factors on morbidity of 2,096 individuals was studied in 881 apartments in Copenhagen. "Thriving" (satisfaction), followed by "housing standard" and "personal hygiene," turned out to be the most prominent predictor for health. "Thriving of parents" was also important for the health of children. Excluding "thriving" in the analyses, "housing standard" and "personal hygiene" or components of these group factors were the important predictors for the health of the population studied, except for children below 3 years of age. For the health of these, the number of rooms used for sleeping purposes was the best predictor. The only other parameter found to influence the morbidities investigated was the total yearly income of the family, which was found to be a secondary predictor for adult morbidity during the last month of the investigation (March 1973). The analyses applies were Pearson correlation, AID-program, factor and multiple regression analyses.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

pH effects on ciliomotility and morphology of respiratory mucosa.

Tracheal cilia of cows exposed, in vitro, for 20 hours to different acidities and alkalinities of sulfuric acid and sodium hydroxide, respectively, showed ciliomotility at pH values as low as 4.9, while the epithelial cells began to be expelled from the mucosa at pH 6.7, initiating a reduction of ciliary function around this pH value. In alkaline reactions, ciliostasis occurred at pH 9.76. Destroyed cilia were found above pH 10.15, while they were morphologically unchanged at pH values as low as 4.0, the lowest value examined. The first symptoms, however, of adverse effects were intracellular edema and the simultaneous occurrence of cellular polyps in both acid and alkaline reactions at pH 6.7 and 9.5, respectively. The results indicate that the early effects of air pollutants are better demonstrated by transmission electron microscopy studies than by, e.g., studies of ciliomotility.

Animals↗