Persistent respiratory symptoms in clean-up workers 5 years after the Prestige oil spill.

OBJECTIVES: Fishermen who had participated in clean-up activities of the Prestige oil spill showed an excess risk of respiratory symptoms 1-2 years later, but the long-term persistence of these health effects is unclear. The aim of this study was to evaluate the persistence of these respiratory symptoms 5 years after clean-up work. METHODS: Subgroups of 501 fishermen who had been exposed to clean-up work and 177 non-exposed individuals were re-interviewed by telephone in 2008, including the same symptom questions as in the initial survey. Associations between participation in clean-up work and respiratory symptoms were assessed using log-binomial and multinomial regression analyses adjusting for sex, age and smoking. RESULTS: Information from 466 exposed (93%) and 156 non-exposed (88%) fishermen was obtained. The prevalence of lower respiratory tract symptoms (including wheeze, shortness of breath, cough and phlegm) had slightly decreased in both groups, but remained higher among the exposed (RR 1.4, 95% CI 1.1 to 1.9). The risk of having persistent respiratory symptoms (reported both at baseline and at follow-up) increased with the degree of exposure: RR ratio 1.7 (95% CI 0.9 to 3.1) and 3.3 (95% CI 1.8 to 6.2) for moderately and highly exposed, respectively, when compared with those without any symptoms. Findings for nasal symptoms and for respiratory medication usage were similar. CONCLUSIONS: Participation in clean-up activities of oil spills may result in respiratory symptoms that persist up to 5 years after exposure. Guidelines for preventive measures and a continued surveillance of clean-up workers of oil spills are necessary.

Lingual kinematics and coarticulation for alveolopalatal and velar consonants in Catalan.

Vertical lingual movement data for the alveolopalatal consonants /ʃ/ and /ɲ/ and for the dorsovelar consonant /k/ in Catalan /aCa/ sequences produced by three speakers reveal that the tongue body travels a smaller distance at a slower speed and in a longer time during the lowering period extending from the consonant into the following vowel (CV) than during the rising period extending from the preceding vowel into the consonant (VC). For two speakers, two-phase trajectories characterized by two successive velocity peaks occur more frequently during the former period than during the latter, whether associated with tongue blade and dorsum (for alveolopalatals) or with the tongue dorsum articulator alone (for velars). Greater tongue dorsum involvement for /ɲ/ and /k/ than for /ʃ/ accounts for a different kinematic relationship between the four articulatory phases. The lingual gesture for alveolopalatals and, less so, that for velars may exert more prominent spatial and temporal effects on V2 than on V1 which is in agreement with the salience of the C-to-V carryover component associated with these consonants according to previous coarticulation studies. These kinematic and coarticulation data may be attributed to tongue dorsum biomechanics to a large extent.

The role of the spectral and temporal cues in consonantal vocalization and glide insertion.

This study investigates the perceptual role of several acoustic characteristics to glide generation processes affecting the consonants [t], [beta] and [eta], i.e., the vocalization of syllable-final [t] and syllable-initial [beta] into [w], and the insertion of [j] before syllable-final [eta]. Results from identification tests with synthetic speech stimuli performed on Catalan-speaking informants reveal that both the formant frequency characteristics (at the consonant steady-state period for [t] and [beta], and at the endpoint of the vowel transitions for [eta]), and the onset or onset/offset time of the vowel transitions may play an active role in vocalization and glide insertion. Mostly for the changes [t] > [w] and [eta]> [jeta], glide identification was triggered by formant frequency variations rather than by variations in the temporal implementation of the vowel transitions. The implications of the perception results for the interpretation of the sound changes of interest are evaluated.

An articulatory investigation of lingual coarticulatory resistance and aggressiveness for consonants and vowels in Catalan.

Lingual movement data for Catalan vowel-consonant-vowel sequences reveal differences in contextual coarticulatory variability in tongue position at the middle of the consonant for p>/n/>dark/l/>/s/>> and at vowel midpoint for /u/>/a/>/i/. The velar stop /k/ exhibits a high degree of contextual variability in the horizontal dimension but not in the vertical dimension. These differences in coarticulatory sensitivity are attributed to differences in articulatory constraint, e.g., palatality and frication cause a higher degree of resistance in the consonant than laterality. A higher degree of contextual variability for dark /l/ than expected appears to be associated with speaker-dependent differences in darkness degree. Contextual variability is greater at regions not involved in closure or constriction formation, e.g., at the tongue dorsum than at the tongue front for alveolars. Coarticulatory resistance and coarticulatory aggressiveness are positively correlated: Phonetic segments, which are especially resistant to coarticulatory effects from the adjacent segments, exert maximal coarticulation on them. Consequently, highly constrained segments such as alveolopalatal consonants turn out to affect tongue position for less constrained segments such as back vowels rather than vice versa.

Bulky dna adducts in cord blood, maternal fruit-and-vegetable consumption, and birth weight in a European mother-child study (NewGeneris).

BACKGROUND: Tobacco-smoke, airborne, and dietary exposures to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) have been associated with reduced prenatal growth. Evidence from biomarker-based studies of low-exposed populations is limited. Bulky DNA adducts in cord blood reflect the prenatal effective dose to several genotoxic agents including PAHs. OBJECTIVES: We estimated the association between bulky DNA adduct levels and birth weight in a multicenter study and examined modification of this association by maternal intake of fruits and vegetables during pregnancy. METHODS: Pregnant women from Denmark, England, Greece, Norway, and Spain were recruited in 2006-2010. Adduct levels were measured by the 32P-postlabeling technique in white blood cells from 229 mothers and 612 newborns. Maternal diet was examined through questionnaires. RESULTS: Adduct levels in maternal and cord blood samples were similar and positively correlated (median, 12.1 vs. 11.4 adducts in 108 nucleotides; Spearman rank correlation coefficient = 0.66, p < 0.001). Cord blood adduct levels were negatively associated with birth weight, with an estimated difference in mean birth weight of -129 g (95% CI: -233, -25 g) for infants in the highest versus lowest tertile of adducts. The negative association with birth weight was limited to births in Norway, Denmark, and England, the countries with the lowest adduct levels, and was more pronounced in births to mothers with low intake of fruits and vegetables (-248 g; 95% CI: -405, -92 g) compared with those with high intake (-58 g; 95% CI: -206, 90 g). CONCLUSIONS: Maternal exposure to genotoxic agents that induce the formation of bulky DNA adducts may affect intrauterine growth. Maternal fruit and vegetable consumption may be protective.

Genotoxic effects in swimmers exposed to disinfection by-products in indoor swimming pools.

BACKGROUND: Exposure to disinfection by-products (DBPs) in drinking water has been associated with cancer risk. A recent study (Villanueva et al. 2007; Am J Epidemiol 165:148-156) found an increased bladder cancer risk among subjects attending swimming pools relative to those not attending. OBJECTIVES: We evaluated adults who swam in chlorinated pools to determine whether exposure to DBPs in pool water is associated with biomarkers of genotoxicity. METHODS: We collected blood, urine, and exhaled air samples from 49 nonsmoking adult volunteers before and after they swam for 40 min in an indoor chlorinated pool. We estimated associations between the concentrations of four trihalomethanes (THMs) in exhaled breath and changes in micronuclei (MN) and DNA damage (comet assay) in peripheral blood lymphocytes before and 1 hr after swimming; urine mutagenicity (Ames assay) before and 2 hr after swimming; and MN in exfoliated urothelial cells before and 2 weeks after swimming. We also estimated associations and interactions with polymorphisms in genes related to DNA repair or to DBP metabolism. RESULTS: After swimming, the total concentration of the four THMs in exhaled breath was seven times higher than before swimming. The change in the frequency of micronucleated lymphocytes after swimming increased in association with higher exhaled concentrations of the brominated THMs (p = 0.03 for bromodichloromethane, p = 0.05 for chlorodibromomethane, p = 0.01 for bromoform) but not chloroform. Swimming was not associated with DNA damage detectable by the comet assay. Urine mutagenicity increased significantly after swimming, in association with the higher concentration of exhaled bromoform (p = 0.004). We found no significant associations with changes in micronucleated urothelial cells. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings support potential genotoxic effects of exposure to DBPs from swimming pools. The positive health effects gained by swimming could be increased by reducing the potential health risks of pool water.

Phonetic typology and positional allophones for alveolar rhotics in Catalan.

The present study reports electropalatographic and acoustic data on the positional and contextual characteristics of alveolar taps and trills in Majorcan, Valencian and Eastern Catalan. The two consonant classes are invariably opposed by degree of tongue dorsum contact and F2, but only differentiated by place of articulation when constriction location for the trill is sufficiently retracted. Trills are produced with less than three contacts and may exhibit a single contact in utterance-initial position and, less often, in /Cr, VrV/ sequences. Word-final and, to a lesser extent, preconsonantal rhotics are implemented as taps in Majorcan and Valencian, and strengthened into trills in Eastern Catalan. Moreover, there appears to be an inverse relationship between initial strengthening, and intervocalic weakening and the absence of syllable-final strengthening, for Valencian rhotics, which could be indicative of a pattern of intersegmental organization. Shortening and articulatory reduction turned out not to be necessarily related for extremely short Valencian taps, which undergo much undershoot intervocalically but are highly constricted in /C , rC/ sequences. Other research aspects such as devoicing and intergestural timing for Catalan alveolar rhotics are also investigated.

Underlying voicing in Majorcan Catalan word-final stop-liquid clusters.

This study investigates the extent to which phonetic voicing is maintained in word-final clusters composed of an underlying voiced stop followed by nonsyllabic /l/ or /r/ in Majorcan Catalan. Electropalatographic and acoustic data for five speakers of this Catalan dialect reveal that, in agreement with the non-syllabic status of the liquid, voicing for /l/ is only available if occurring during the preceding stop. The rhotic is always phonetically voiceless. Speakers differ regarding the extent to which they keep the underlying stop voicing distinction and the production strategies they use for that purpose. This distinction is highly robust and distributed over the entire syllable in nasal-stop-/l/ clusters for some speakers, but much less clear or absent for those speakers who devoice /l/ as a general rule. Underlying stop voicing is cued primarily by stop closure duration and vocal fold vibration, or else by closure duration rather than by voicing. It may be concluded that the word-final devoicing process operating in Catalan does not apply to Majorcan Catalan tautosyllabic stop clusters with a liquid, and that phonetic voicing may affect just the stop or both the stop and the liquid. The implications of these findings for sound change are discussed.