D Vechambre | PubMed Health

PubMed1998

Benzene exposure in car mechanics and road tanker drivers.

The purpose of this study was to identify professional factors related to benzene exposure and to deduce suitable safety measures. Atmospheric benzene, urinary muconic acid (tt-MA) and leukocyte alkaline phosphatase activity (LAPA) were evaluated among 66 car mechanics, 34 road tanker drivers, and 28 nonexposed workers. Professional and medical questionnaires were filled in at the same time. Atmospheric benzene was significantly higher among road tanker drivers than among car mechanics. The arithmetic mean +/- SD, median, and geometric mean values were, respectively, 0.48 +/- 1.49, 0.14, and 0.06 mg/m3 among car mechanics and 1.88 +/- 4.18, 0.68, and 0.65 mg/m3 among road tanker drivers. In the latter case the increase was caused by transport of unleaded petrol and correlated with the volume of the tank. Among car mechanics, tobacco smoking, windy conditions, dismantling of petrol filters, and handling of petrol increased atmospheric benzene levels. Urinary muconic acid was increased significantly among car mechanics (148 +/- 137, 127, and 111 micrograms/g) and among road tanker drivers (309 +/- 420, 137, and 151 micrograms/g) as compared with the controls (49 +/- 46, 33, and 33 micrograms/g). Among road tanker drivers, alcohol intake and transportation of unleaded petrol increased the excretion of muconic acid, which was also directly related to the volume of the tank. Among car mechanics, professional factors (dismantling of petrol filters, handling of and washing of hands with petrol) and nonprofessional factors (tobacco smoking and damaged skin on the hands and forearms) increased muconic acid excretion. In the control group, tobacco smoking increased its excretion. LAPA was not significantly modified among exposed workers. There was a weak but significant linear correlation between LAPA and muconic acid. These results suggest that to reduce exposure to benzene in unleaded petrol, individual and collective safety measures should be imposed in both occupations.

Air Pollutants, Occupational↗

PubMed1981

[Secondary amputation of the penis in the sequelae of local therapy with iridium 192 for carcinoma (author's transl)].

The author reports 4 cases of severe delayed irradiation complications which required partial or complete secondary amputation of the penis for sequelae of local therapy with Iridium. After reviewing the modes of spread of carcinoma of the penis and the various therapeutic possibilities in the light of these 4 cases, the author raises the question as to whether such conservative treatment by interstitial radiotherapy is well-founded. He would tend to suggest immediate surgery giving an identical result at the price of much shorter treatment and which would be free of the complications reported following radiotherapy.

Aged↗

PubMed1980

[Adenocarcinoma developing in a non-functioning tuberculous kidney. One case (author's transl)].

The authors report a case of necrosed carcinoma oif the kidney presenting clinically with fever and a large abdomino-lumbar palpable mass and developing thirty years after functional exclusion of the kidney by tuberculosis. The two particular features were: displacement by the tumour or calcifications in this known mastic kidney, and the poor vascularisation of a necrosed tumour irrigated by an artery of small calibre. The association of tuberculosis and carcinoima, although rare, is no less well known: discovery of a carcinoma in a nephrectomy specimen (for tuberculosis), discovery of tuberculosis in the parenchyma around a carcinoima of the kidney. The rarest possibility remains that of development of a carcinoma of the kidney in a kidney non-functioning and mastic for years, but is sufficiently rare not to be an argument in favour of the excision of all non-functional tuberculous kidneys after adequate antituberculous therapy.

Adenocarcinoma↗