Biomedical subjects

M J Csicsaky

Publications and source records attributed to M J Csicsaky.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1998

[Concepts for the regulation of mixtures of toxic pollutants in environmental hygiene].

In view of the increasing accumulation of large-scale livestock production facilities in the western parts of Lower Saxony the question rises how ecology and economy can be conciliated and how the protection of human health can be assured. Based on existing legislation this is hard to achieve because of the weak legal position of the administration when trying to prohibit the further expansion of livestock production as opposed to the strong legal position of owners and investors. Presently there is no agreement within the scientific community on safe limits for airborne pathogens and it is quite obvious that thresholds for peak concentrations do not solve the problem of background level exposures. Apart from the unsatisfactory current practise to licence farm animal units in the outskirts of existing villages only, in future the introduction of the EC Environmental Management and Auditing Scheme (EMAS) in animal production may improve the situation. This management system is intended to permanently reduce the environmental impact of a production site and implements the ALARA-PRINCIPLE (as low as reasonably achievable) which is known from protection measures against radiation. As the implementation of the EMAS so far works only on a voluntary basis, an incentive is needed. If dealers and consumers give preference to products from producers having adopted the EMAS, this would be a very efficient incentive. Before this could be put into practise, however, the EMAS criteria originally designed for industrial production sites will have to be adapted to the special conditions of animal production.

Animal Husbandry↗

PubMed1989

Risk modelling: which models to choose?

Using as examples excess lung cancer mortality in coke oven workers and lung tumor induction in rats by inhalation of diesel engine emissions or cadmium chloride aerosol, the maximum likelihood estimate and the upper limit of risk were determined using a set of conventional risk models. The additional safety offered by going to the upper limit of the 95% confidence interval when deriving a unit risk value was found to be less than a factor of 5 in all but one case, and usually much less than 2. It is concluded that the selection of an adequate model is the most critical step in risk assessment, and that an additional safety factor may be required to allow for a better protection of the public in case models other than the most conservative ones come into use.

Animals↗

PubMed1989

Health effects during a smog episode in West Germany in 1985.

In January 1985 a smog period occurred for 5 days in parts of West Germany, including the Rhur District. Mortality (24,000 death certificates), morbidity in hospitals (13,000 hospital admissions, 5400 outpatients, 1500 ambulance transports) and consultations in doctors' offices (1,250,000 contacts) were studied for a 6-week period including the smog episode and a time interval before and thereafter. The study region was the State of North Rhine-Westfalia (16 million inhabitants), but the analysis is restricted to the comparison of the polluted area and a control area (6 million inhabitants each). During the smog period, mortality and morbidity in hospitals increased in the polluted area, but there was no substantial increase in the control area. The increases were for the total number of deaths 8 vs. 2% (polluted area vs. control area), for hospital admissions 15 vs. 3%, for outpatients 12 vs. 5% and for deliveries by ambulance to hospitals 28% in the polluted area (not investigated in the control area). The effects were more pronounced for cardiovascular diseases than for respiratory diseases. The consultations in doctors' offices show a slight decrease (-2 vs. -4%). Regression analysis shows a moderate influence of temperature, but a strong influence of ambient air pollution. The maxima of the ambient concentrations are more important on the same day, whereas the influence of the daily averages is more pronounced after a delay of 2 days. The results are discussed considering other possible confounders such as indoor pollution and psychogenic influences of the alarm situation. In total, the study suggests moderate health effects due to increased air pollution during the smog episode.

Acid Rain↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Neurotoxic substances also posing a cancer risk: a warning.

A large proportion of compounds studied for their neurotoxic potential are at the same time suspected or proven carcinogens. This is demonstrated using the International Neurotoxicology Association (INA) Professional Interest Directory and publications from the field of neurotoxicology as examples. In addition to listing these compounds, the classification scheme used by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), the Commission of the European Communities (EC), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the German MAK-Commission of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DGF) and the U.S. National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) to make qualitative risk assessments is explained. Finally, a short initiation to quantitative risk assessment as performed by the US EPA and the World Health Organization (WHO) is given in order to put the reader into a position as to assess the cancer risk incurred by his/her co-workers and by himself.

Carcinogens↗