Assessment of the biological effects of welding fumes emitted from metal inert gas welding processes of aluminium and zinc-plated materials in humans.

The aim of this study was to investigate biological effects and potential health risks due to two different metal-inert-gas (MIG) welding fumes (MIG welding of aluminium and MIG soldering of zinc coated steel) in healthy humans. In a threefold cross-over design study 12 male subjects were exposed to three different exposure scenarios. Exposures were performed under controlled conditions in the Aachener Workplace Simulation Laboratory (AWSL). On three different days the subjects were either exposed to filtered ambient air, to welding fumes from MIG welding of aluminium, or to fumes from MIG soldering of zinc coated materials. Exposure was performed for 6 h and the average fume concentration was 2.5 mg m(-3). Before, directly after, 1 day after, and 7 days after exposure spirometric and impulse oscillometric measurements were performed, exhaled breath condensate (EBC) was collected and blood samples were taken and analyzed for inflammatory markers. During MIG welding of aluminium high ozone concentrations (up to 250 µg m(-3)) were observed, whereas ozone was negligible for MIG soldering. For MIG soldering, concentrations of high-sensitivity CRP (hsCRP) and factor VIII were significantly increased but remained mostly within the normal range. The concentration of neutrophils increased in tendency. For MIG welding of aluminium, the lung function showed significant decreases in Peak Expiratory Flow (PEF) and Mean Expiratory Flow at 75% vital capacity (MEF 75) 7 days after exposure. The concentration of ristocetin cofactor was increased. The observed increase of hsCRP during MIG-soldering can be understood as an indicator for asymptomatic systemic inflammation probably due to zinc (zinc concentration 1.5 mg m(-3)). The change in lung function observed after MIG welding of aluminium may be attributed to ozone inhalation, although the late response (7 days after exposure) is surprising.

Children are left out.

The author suggests that large numbers of children and adolescents in America are being left out of mental health and mental health care. He discusses areas, such as poverty, teenage pregnancy, and violence, in which public policy has failed. He calls for interdisciplinary collaboration in work with children and emphasizes the need for psychiatrists and allied health professionals to take major public health and government policy roles to ensure that child and adolescent health and mental health are taken seriously.

Apartheid medicine. Health and human rights in South Africa.

Human rights and health care under apartheid in South Africa were studied. Human rights violations, such as detention without charge or trial, assault and torture in police custody, and restriction orders, have had devastating effects on the health of persons experiencing them. These violations have occurred in the context of a deliberate policy of discriminatory health care favoring the white minority over the black majority. South Africa's medical societies have had mixed responses to the health problems raised by human rights violations and inequities in the health care system. The amelioration of health care for all and prevention of human rights violations depend on ending apartheid and discrimination and greater government attention to these problems.

KIE: In April 1989, the authors visited South Africa under the auspices of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine, the American Psychiatric Association, and the American Public Health Association. The purpose of the trip was "to assess the effects of apartheid on the delivery of health care and to examine the roles South African health professionals have played in helping and hindering the promotion of health care rights." This summary of the group's full report covers: 1) health care under apartheid; 2) medical education; 3) human rights violations and health professionals (including torture, hunger strikes and restrictions, harrassment of health professionals, the physician and the prison system, and the impact of detention on children); 4) the response of the medical community to human rights violations; and 5) concluding observations.