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Biomedical subjects

J C Robinson

Publications and source records attributed to J C Robinson.

At least 127 records · Page 7Linked to original sources
PubMed1986

Job hazards and job security.

This paper studies the link between occupational health hazards and job security. Consistent with the underlying hypothesis that firms utilizing hazardous technologies tend to employ low-skilled workers who can be discharged easily in case of a downturn in business, the analysis indicates that workers in hazardous positions are more likely to face involuntary job loss than are those in safe positions. These workers may be particularly sensitive to political arguments that efforts to reduce exposure to toxins in the workplace and the general environment are responsible for layoffs and plant closures. The paper discusses policy alternatives that could reduce the impact of health regulations on job security.

Accident Prevention↗
PubMed1986

The role of specialized clinical services in competition among hospitals.

Because duplication of services among hospitals can be costly, it is important to understand the circumstances under which duplication occurs among hospitals within a region. In this sample of 3,584 community hospitals surveyed in 1972, we analyzed the impact of competition on the availability of specialized clinical services, with special focus on mammography, emergency services, cobalt therapy, heart surgery, and cardiac catheterization. We found that the presence of nearby institutions and services increases the availability of most of these services in neighboring hospitals. This supports the hypothesis that competition among hospitals within an open-ended reimbursement environment takes the form of nonprice competition for community-based physicians through the acquisition of expensive clinical facilities.

Cardiac Catheterization↗
PubMed1986

Philosophical origins of the economic valuation of life.

Cost-benefit analysis--applying economic reasoning to increasingly complex health policy decisions--continues to be a source of vehement disagreement among its practitioners. re than merely technical issues in measurement and accounting are involved; basic social values embedded in different intellectual traditions are coming into conflict. The "human capital" and "willingness-to-pay" approaches can each aid policy formulation, but neither can substitute for open political process.

Accounting↗
PubMed1986

Hazard pay in unsafe jobs: theory, evidence, and policy implications.

Critics of OSHA argue that an unregulated labor market gives firms incentives to improve working conditions. Analysis of the relation between wages and hazardous working conditions confirms that workers in hazardous jobs are paid marginally more than comparable workers in safe jobs. But hazardous occupations are concentrated in low-skill and low-pay strata. The empirical findings have important implications for "right-to-know" and related occupational health strategies.

Accident Prevention↗
PubMed1985

Characterization of tobacco products: a comparative study of the tar, nicotine, and carbon monoxide yields of cigars, manufactured cigarettes, and cigarettes made from fine-cut tobacco.

Yields of tar, nicotine, and carbon monoxide were compared in selected Canadian brands of manufactured and hand-rolled cigarettes, and small and large cigars. To control for varying volumes of smoke delivery per cigarette or cigar, standardized comparisons in milligrams of toxic substance per liter of smoke were made. The mean deliveries per liter of smoke and tar, nicotine, and carbon monoxide were highest for small cigars, followed by hand-rolled and manufactured cigarettes; large cigars had the lowest deliveries. Five out of six brands of cigarettes handmade from fine-cut tobacco delivered significantly more tar, nicotine, and carbon monoxide per cigarette or per liter than did the identically named manufactured brand.

Carbon Monoxide↗
PubMed1985

The impact of hospital market structure on patient volume, average length of stay, and the cost of care.

A variety of recent proposals rely heavily on market forces as a means of controlling hospital cost inflation. Sceptics argue, however, that increased competition might lead to cost-increasing acquisitions of specialized clinical services and other forms of non-price competition as means of attracting physicians and patients. Using data from hospitals in 1972 we analyzed the impact of market structure on average hospital costs, measured in terms of both cost per patient and cost per patient day. Under the retrospective reimbursement system in place at the time, hospitals in more competitive environments exhibited significantly higher costs of production than did those in less competitive environments.

Costs and Cost Analysis↗
PubMed1985

Racial inequality and occupational health in the United States: the effect on white workers.

While a number of studies have shown that black workers in the United States face higher levels of occupation-related hazards to health and safety than do whites, even controlling for differences in education and experience, little attention has been paid to the implications of racial inequality for the overall level of hazard in the economy. Alternative theories of the causes of occupational diseases and injuries imply that greater inequality helps white workers, by assigning them to the safer jobs, or on the contrary hurts white workers, by weakening the unity and bargaining power of the workforce as a whole. This article analyzes the impact of racial inequality on the level of hazard reported by white workers. Consistent with the institutional and Marxian theories of the labor market, the statistical findings indicate that white workers employed in occupations and industries containing greater numbers of blacks report greater exposure to hazard than comparable white workers in occupations and industries employing fewer blacks.

Black or African American↗
PubMed1985

Steroid receptor analysis by size-exclusion liquid chromatography: considerations for the clinical laboratory.

Steroid receptor activity can be more quickly estimated by size-exclusion chromatography than by conventional analysis on sucrose gradients, and profiles of receptor activity are better resolved. Here we discuss several factors affecting this form of analysis in clinical laboratories. The composition of the elution buffer influences steroid receptor elution and recovery: high ionic strength, neutral pH, and the presence of dimethylformamide are important. Of the TSK-SW (Beckman) size-exclusion chromatographic columns we considered, the TSK-G2000SW column appeared to be the most appropriate. "Reference" elution profiles are presented for several marker proteins and estrogen receptor forms generated under different sample-treatment conditions. In examining the sensitivity of receptor analyses by this method, we used fresh rodent preparations, a commercial receptor reference (Estrocept), and human tumor material obtained by needle biopsy. We also compared frozen and lyophilized receptor preparations with fresh ones.

Animals↗
PubMed1984

Maintain levels of nicotine but reduce other smoke constituents: a formula for "less-hazardous" cigarettes?

Twenty-two volunteers who smoked more than 20 cigarettes with "high" nicotine yields (0.8 to 1.2 mg) per day participated in an 8-week study designed to test the hypothesis that smoking cigarettes with a constant level of nicotine but reduced deliveries of tar, carbon monoxide, and hydrogen cyanide leads to a decrease in smoke absorption. All subjects smoked their usual high-nicotine brand for the first 3 weeks (P1), and the absorption of smoke constituents was determined from levels of thiocyanate and cotinine in saliva and serum, levels of carbon monoxide in expired air, and levels of carboxyhemoglobin in the blood. During the final 5 weeks (P2), the treatment group (16 subjects) switched to the "light" version of their usual brands (similar yields of nicotine but with reduced yields of tar, carbon monoxide, and hydrogen cyanide); the control group (6 subjects) smoked their usual brands for the duration of the study. Average levels of cotinine for the subjects who switched during P2 were not significantly different from those of the control group as was expected. Slight reductions were noted in average expired-air carbon monoxide levels, blood carboxyhemoglobin, and saliva thiocyanate, but these reductions were smaller than anticipated based on brand characteristics. The results suggest that the ratio of smoke constituents is different when individuals, rather than machines, smoke cigarettes. Yields determined under subject-defined conditions are necessary in order to properly evaluate the role of nicotine in the design of "less-hazardous" cigarettes.

Carbon Monoxide↗
PubMed1984

Yields of tar, nicotine, and carbon monoxide in the sidestream smoke from 15 brands of Canadian cigarettes.

Sidestream smoke yields for 15 brands of cigarettes were determined under conditions where mainstream yields were approximately equal to those used for determining the values which appear on packages of Canadian cigarettes. Sidestream yields of tar, nicotine, and carbon monoxide were much higher than mainstream yields for all brands tested. The average sidestream-to-mainstream ratios for the 15 brands were 3.5, 6.6, and 6.8 for tar, nicotine, and carbon monoxide, respectively. The highest yields of sidestream were obtained from the brands with the lowest mainstream yields.

Canada↗
PubMed1984

Racial inequality and the probability of occupation-related injury or illness.

Public policies aimed at reducing occupational injury and illness are uncoordinated--and often at odds--with those aimed at reducing racial inequality in employment. Several dimensions of discrimination and job quality are examined empirically; the average black worker is at a 37 to 52 percent greater health risk than is the average white worker. Health policy and industrial relations policy must be coordinated if equality is to be achieved.

Black or African American↗
PubMed1983

A comparison of the yields of tar, nicotine, and carbon monoxide of 36 brands of Canadian cigarettes tested under three conditions.

A number of countries, including Canada, sponsor routine monitoring of cigarette tar, nicotine, and carbon monoxide yields which are evaluated by cigarette-smoking machines according to a standard protocol. These standardized yields continue to decline as tobacco companies modify their brands to meet consumers' demand for "light" products. This trend toward cigarettes with low average deliveries of toxic substances may reduce health risks for some people. However, switching to low-yield cigarettes may not result in reduced risks for smokers who smoke these cigarettes intensively. Thirty-six brands of Canadian cigarettes, including 28 with ventilated filters, were tested under standard conditions and 2 others in order to determine how yields of tar, nicotine, and carbon monoxide change when cigarettes are manipulated by smokers in order to increase their smoke intake. While the rank order yields of tar, nicotine, and carbon monoxide was preserved, the average yields of all three substances more than doubled when cigarettes were intensively smoked in comparison with standard smoking.

Carbon Monoxide↗
PubMed1983

A critical method of evaluating tests for male infertility.

Considerable uncertainty surrounds the selection of test values that separate infertile from fertile men in the evaluation of male infertility. We herein describe an objective method of determining these values, referred to as threshold values, for different infertility tests. Using test results from fertile men threshold values were chosen such that 96 per cent of the semen samples from the fertile men were scored as fertile. These threshold values then were used to evaluate 100 semen samples from 74 men presenting for evaluation of infertility. Using this method we constructed infertility profiles on each of the 100 semen samples presented for infertility evaluation and found that the zona pellucida-free hamster egg penetration test (a measure of a spermatozoon's ability to undergo capacitation and penetrate an egg) identified 66 per cent of these samples as infertile, while multiple exposure photomicrography (a quantitative measure of sperm motility) identified 54 per cent of these samples as infertile. This compares with results from routine semen analyses using the same method, which identified none of the samples as infertile by sperm motility grade, 1 per cent by semen pH, 4 per cent by the percentage of motile sperm, 7 per cent by the total count of motile sperm, 10 per cent by the total sperm count, 11 per cent by the semen leukocyte concentration, 12 per cent by the concentration of motile sperm, 13 per cent by ejaculate volume, 16 per cent by sperm concentration and 27 per cent by sperm morphology. This method of analyzing infertility test results provides insight into the potential causes of male infertility and offers a critical approach towards understanding the complex problem of male fertility dysfunction.

Female↗
PubMed1983

Estimating the hazards of "less hazardous" cigarettes. III. A study of the effect of various smoking conditions on yields of hydrogen cyanide and cigarette tar.

A brand of cigarette with nominal tar and nicotine yields of 4.0 mg and 0.4 mg, respectively, was examined under various machine-smoked conditions that reflect the wide range of human smoking behavior. Three levels of each of five smoking parameters--butt length, puff duration, puff interval, puff volume, and ventilation occlusion--were examined, and the effects on puff number and total particulate matter (TPM) as well as gas phase, particulate phase, and total HCN yields were estimated. Yields of hydrogen cyanide (a ciliatoxic agent) and TPM varied significantly under different smoking conditions. Ventilation occlusion had the most pronounced effect, accounting for 34% of the response variation of TPM yields and 42% of the response variation for total hydrogen cyanide yields. In the survey of available brands, total hydrogen cyanide yields varied from 2 to 233 micrograms/cigarette for the 115 brands tested, a range less than that observed for a single brand smoked under various nonstandard conditions, providing a possible explanation for the previously noted lack of correspondence between HCN yields under standard conditions and levels of thiocyanate in samples of smokers' plasma and saliva. In addition, hydrogen cyanide yields and efficiency of filters in removing HCN were examined under standard smoking conditions. Acetate filters, the most common variety, were found to remove an average of about 14% of the hydrogen cyanide from the mainstream smoke.

Analysis of Variance↗