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D Zmirou-Navier

Publications and source records attributed to D Zmirou-Navier.

3 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

Waterborne microbial risk assessment: a population-based dose-response function for Giardia spp. (E.MI.R.A study).

BACKGROUND: Dose-response parameters based on clinical challenges are frequently used to assess the health impact of protozoa in drinking water. We compare the risk estimates associated with Giardia in drinking water derived from the dose-response parameter published in the literature and the incidence of acute digestive conditions (ADC) measured in the framework of an epidemiological study in a general population. METHODS: The study combined a daily follow-up of digestive morbidity among a panel of 544 volunteers and a microbiological surveillance of tap water. The relationship between incidence of ADC and concentrations of Giardia cysts was modeled with Generalized Estimating Equations, adjusting on community, age, tap water intake, presence of bacterial indicators, and genetic markers of viruses. The quantitative estimate of Giardia dose was the product of the declared amount of drinking water intake (in L) by the logarithm of cysts concentrations. RESULTS: The Odds Ratio for one unit of dose [OR = 1.76 (95% CI: 1.21, 2.55)] showed a very good consistency with the risk assessment estimate computed after the literature dose-response, provided application of a 20 % abatement factor to the cysts counts that were measured in the epidemiological study. Doing so, a daily water intake of 2 L and a Giardia concentration of 10 cysts/100 L, would yield an estimated relative excess risk of 12 % according to the Rendtorff model, against 11 % when multiplying the baseline rate of ADC by the corresponding OR. This abatement parameter encompasses uncertainties associated with germ viability, infectivity and virulence in natural settings. CONCLUSION: The dose-response function for waterborne Giardia risk derived from clinical experiments is consistent with epidemiological data. However, much remains to be learned about key characteristics that may heavily influence quantitative risk assessment results.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2006

[Democracy and science advice: the case of environmental health risks].

Science advice, in the context of environmental health, is an activity consisting in bringing together and evaluating available scientific data at a given moment on a particular question or concern regarding the hazardous nature of an agent or substance--whether it be of a physical, chemical or microbiological nature. Science advice also relates to assessing health risks linked to the quality of the environment, in vue of rendering this information useful to those in charge of decision making and risk management. Naturally, many groups are interested by a potential hazard or risk, and they all would like to effectively intervene over the course of the process in order to influence the decision or measure taken. In this article, the author recalls that risk is an entity which is both scientific and political by nature. Hence, this demand is well founded. Nevertheless, he proposes and explicates a series of different steps, whether concurrent or successive, throughout the entire process of science advice in support of decision-making on matters related to environmental risk. He justifies why hazard and risk assessment, followed by risk analysis, requisites a clear delineation of the roles of the various actors so that their own responsibilities could be clearly attributed. The "procedural" approach of science advice, which is more and more frequently implemented within international expert groups in the international arena, satisfactorily achieves the target of objectivity, transparency and accountability.

Decision Making↗