[Prioritizing prescriptions in a ambulatory care setting: a tool to achieve appropriateness of care in public health management]. / Il sistema di prioritarizzazione delle prescrizioni nell'ambito della specialistica ambulatoriale: uno strumento operativo nell'ottica dell'appropriatezza assistenziale.

Waiting lists are one of the main Public Health issues within developed countries. To promote appropriateness about General Practitioners' (GPs) prescriptions, during 2009 the project "Priority setting in outpatient prescriptions" in Latium Region has been approved. Regional referees, Latium Public Health Agency managers and advisors, managers and advisors of three Local Public Health Units (LPHUs) within the Latium region and some voluntarily recruited General Practitioners (each one with more than 800 patients enrolled) were included in a team work with the duty to develop the project. During two selected months of 2010, 46 GPs have forwarded overall 2.229 medical prescriptions. The six most numerous prescriptions were picked out and analyzed by the team work. 42% of these prescriptions were identified as belonging to category D of the priority level--"standard", while 42% and 41% of prescriptions bore the expressions of "control" and "diagnostic purpose" respectively. Among these ones, 75% were represented by bilateral mammography, prescribed to women aged between 50 and 69 years: but for those people bilateral mammography is already provided free of charge within the regional program of breast cancer screening, making the routine prescription by their physician a useless duplication, unacceptable in a healthcare system of good quality. Therefore at the conclusion of the project, the team work suggests proper standards be applied by healthcare professionals and GPs to achieve a significant objective: mammography appropriateness prescriptions.

[Hygienic-medical evaluation of the environmental presence of asbestos]. / Valutazione igienico-sanitaria sulla presenza di amianto nell'ambiente.

The importance of environmental pollution by asbestos fibers is stressed, regardless of the more specific pollution in workshops and factories. Indeed, due to the presence of asbestos in a great variety of products, air, water, food, and indoor pollution has become more and more widespread and is reaching fairly high concentrations so as to constitute a serious risk to general health, especially by its carcinogenic effect. The highly technical problem of prevention is also broached. This may lead to specific and even global decontamination provided legislation is drastic, controls are severe and continuous and the public is thoroughly informed.

[Indoor pollution]. / Inquinamento "indoor".

The authors discuss problems associated with indoor atmospheric pollution including a large number of pollutants coming partly from outdoors and produced partly by internal sources. Passive tobacco smoke, radon decay products, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, formaldehyde, asbestos fibers, microorganisms and allergens are the most important contaminants. Health risks associated with indoor air pollution require an overall strategy to control sources, dilute indoor contaminants and promulgate specific regulations.

[The problem of radon pollution in closed environments]. / Il problema dell'inquinamento da radon negli ambienti confinati.

Radon is the most serious cause of human irradiation and can accumulate indoors in large quantities. The authors examine some aspects of human exposition to natural radioactivity, survey the Italian and international literature on indoor radon concentrations, and finally, set out some guidelines for prevention and control of radon pollution.

[Pollution of confined air in non-industrial environments]. / L'inquinamento dell'aria confinata in ambienti non industriali.

Indoor atmospheric pollution includes a lot of pollutants coming partly from outdoors and produced partly by internal sources. Concerns about potential public health problems are based on evidence that urban residents typically spend more than 90 percent of their time indoors and concentrations of some contaminants are higher indoors than outdoors. Adverse effects of indoor air pollution are obviously dependent on the type of pollutant; among the more important indoor contaminants are passive tobacco smoke, radon decay products, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, formaldehyde, asbestos fibers, microorganisms and allergens. Efforts to assess health risks associated with indoor air pollution are limited by insufficient information about the number of people exposed, the pattern and severity of exposures and the health consequences of exposures. An overall strategy should be developed to control sources, dilute indoor contaminants and promulgate specific regulations.