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Biomedical subjects

E Flak

Publications and source records attributed to E Flak.

50 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMed1982

[Effect of various occupational psychosocial factors on the incidence of headache].

The sociomedical examinations of 975 workers of the Cracow Measuring Apparatus Plant, carried out in form of standardized interviews, have been aimed at specifying the relationship between certain psychosocial working environment conditions and general and unilateral headaches. The findings indicated different occurrence of general and unilateral headaches in specific occupational categories and workers representing different educational background. The general and unilateral headaches afflicted more frequently those workers who got nervous during their work and those who were in conflict with their-co-workers. The men holding managerial posts (directing small staff-groups for a short time) complained more frequently of headaches.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Human exposure to pollutants in Poland.

Serious environmental problems caused by decades of mismanagement of Poland's natural resources have been brought to light in recent years. All environmental media--air, water, food, and soil--have been burdened with toxic chemicals. Some environmental problems are so severe that the sources of pollution and the mitigation techniques needed are obvious, requiring no further research, but rather common sense, monies, and determination to implement the necessary controls and mitigation procedures. This paper will not address these obvious cases. Rather it will address that spectrum of environmental problems which requires a better understanding of public health risk in order to develop effective risk management strategies. Because these problems are numerous and monies limited, policy makers will need to set priorities both for research projects and control options. Using environmental concentration data presently available from Poland (especially for air), the paper will estimate human exposures, will point out research and monitoring needs, and hopefully, will lend credence to the concept that environmental policies and risk reduction strategies will be most effective if the Total Human Exposure Concept is used as the guiding scientific principle in risk assessment and management programs.

Air Pollutants↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Predictive value of ventilatory indices in elderly subjects].

Epidemiological studies of Kraków citizens enabled to calculate spirometric predictive values of elderly subjects. The study group was composed of 341 males and 843 females, aged 65-89 years. In every subject anthropomorphic and spirometric (FVC, FEV1.0, FEV0.5) calculations were carried out. Using the multiple regression analysis predictive indices of normal spirometric values were calculated. Monograms were also made, allowing easy access to normal values.

Aged↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Combined effects of tobacco smoking, occupational factors and atmospheric air pollution as risk factors of bronchial carcinoma. Results of retrospective studies in Cracow].

A case-control study was conducted in order to assess the combined effect of smoking, occupation and air pollution on lung cancer risk. Cases were male and female residents of Cracow whose deaths occurred within a 6 years period (1980-1985) and were attributed to primary lung cancer. The control series were selected by frequency matching to cases by sex and age (+/- 5 years) from the subjects who died of other causes than cancer or respiratory diseases. Through a mailed simple questionnaire data were collected on demographic variables, occupation, smoking habits and residency. Estimates of adds ratio were found to increase with the amount of prior cigarette consumption expressed in pack-years. In men the odds ratio estimates for suspected occupational exposure in men lasting longer than 20 years was 1.72 (1.39-2.17); for job category (manual vs nonmanual) 1.27 (1.01-1.62). Both occupational variable did not reach significance level in women. The standardized odds ratio for the highest air pollution level in men was 1.47 (1.08-2.01), while for women found to be insignificant.

Aged↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Prevalence of hypertension and cardiovascular risk factors in workers of petrochemical industry. The Pavia Study.

The survey carried out in the large sample (2379 workers) of petrochemical industry in Lombardia region was intented to provide current estimates of prevalence of hypertension and cardiovascular risk factors in the industrial population. The prevalence of elevated blood pressure (borderline hypertension and definite hypertension) was 40% in men and 19% in women, the rate for definite hypertension were 17% in men and 7% in women. The relative impact of age and weight on blood pressure status appeared to be rather substantial. Estimated positive effects of the weight control program cold have reduced the prevalence of hypertension by about 45%. The survey data confirmed that subjects with hypertension were more often dyslipidemic, had higher blood glucose and serum uric acid levels than normotensive persons. It was rather intriguing to find very clear, however, not very strong effect of uric acid level on blood pressure also among normotensive workers. The importance of this factor may be strengthened by the fact that there was also statistically significant association between the changes in the optic fundi and serum uric acid level after controlling for age and blood pressure. The results of the study disclosed the positive effects of physical activity at leisure on blood pressure status and this was independent on weight and age. The high consumption of wine increased the relative risk of hypertension mainly in men. On the basis of the survey data collected it was not possible to confirm a definite relationship between smoking and hypertension.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

The effect of prolonged occupational exposure to the low concentrations of nitrogen oxides in combination with ammonia on chronic bronchitis and the lung function.

The purpose of this study was the assessment of the effect of low concentrations of nitrogen oxides and ammonia on the appearance of the chronic bronchitis symptoms and lung function. The material in total consisted of 183 workers employed in the Chemical Factory in Tarnów (Poland). The study methods encompassed the environmental factors in all places of work and the questionnaire based interviews with the lung function testing of the workers. The results obtained prove that prolonged effect of the exposure to nitrogen oxides, even below the accepted safety level, causes a more frequent appearance of chronic bronchitis symptoms and lower FMF values. This may signal the narrowing of bronchiole as a result of the exposure to nitrogen oxides, independent of the effects on the mucous membranes of the bronchi, demonstrated by the excessive prevalence of chest symptoms. There is no reason to believe, as based on the results of this study, that the effects of nitrogen oxides could be in any way dependent on the tobacco smoking or on the accompanying concentrations of NH3.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

The joint effect of overweight and familial predisposing factors on the occurrence of hypertension in the industrial population. The Pavia study.

The main purpose of the study was to assess the effect of overweight and predisposing familial factors on the occurrence of hypertension in the industrial population. The data were based on large sample (1523 males and 438 females) of workers employed in the petrochemical industry. The results of the cross-sectional study show that the prevalence of hypertension and borderline hypertension was significantly related to age, obesity and cardiovascular familial history. The effect of obesity alone was slightly stronger than the impact of family history on the occurrence of hypertension among men, but inverse relationship has been found in women Relative excess risk due to interaction between obesity and heredity was 0.60 in males and 2.75 in females. Total proportion of hypertension cases attributable to overweight and heredity together or singly in men was 71.5% and in women 79.4%. That part of the disease attributable to interaction between both factors was 17.1% in men and 56.7% in women.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Exposure misclassification error in studies on prenatal effects of tobacco smoking in pregnancy and the birth weight of children.

Adverse effects of maternal smoking have been mostly identified through epidemiologic investigations that have used questionnaires to assess active and passive smoking. However, unvalidated self-reports of cigarette smoking may bias true estimates of relative risk of smoking-related health outcomes. This report is based on two separate investigations. First, within a molecular epidemiologic study of the relationship between environmental exposures (smoking, air pollution, diet) and developmental impairment, we have compared self-reported tobacco smoke exposure during pregnancy to plasma cotinine measurements in mothers. One hundred and fifty-eight patients from obstetrical wards in Cracow and in Limanowa, Poland were included in the parent study. Biochemically-identified smokers were defined as persons with plasma cotinine levels greater than 25 ng/mL. The data showed that exposure classification based on self-reported smoking status compared with cotinine values was of low sensitivity (52%) but of high specificity (98%). We assessed the effect of this exposure classification error on the association between low birth weight (LBW) and smoking in pregnancy using data from a related epidemiologic study of children's health in Cracow involving 1115 subjects. The odds ratio (OR) estimates for smoking and LBW after adjustment for exposure misclassification error were significantly higher than before adjustment (crude OR = 2.9, corrected OR = 5.1). The estimated attributable fraction (AF(pop)) based on the crude OR amounted to 22%; however, after adjustment it reached 50%. The corresponding values for the attributable fraction in the exposed group (AF(exp)) were 66% and 80%. These results illustrate the value of validating questionnaire responses on smoking during pregnancy against reliable biologic markers.

Adult↗