[Mortality study in a cohort of entertainment workers]. / Studio di mortalità su una coorte di addetti al settore dello spettacolo.

SUMMARY: Introduction. Malignant mesotheliomas have been observed in entertainment workers in the last decades. They have been evaluated as occupationally exposed to asbestos contained in tools used for fireproof and sound-absorbing purposes. Aim of the study. To evaluate the mortality of workers engaged in a Florentine theatre where a large quantity of asbestos was found in the '80s, put in place 20 years earlier. Methods. It is a cohort study on entertainment workers with follow-up period ranged from 1-1-1970 till 31-12-2018. Standardized Mortality Ratios (SMRs) and their 95% Confidence Intervals (95% IC) were calculated by gender and job ("manual workers" and "all other jobs"), using age and sex specific mortality rates of Tuscan population. Results. The cohort includes 826 workers (389 manual workers and 437 engaged in other jobs) engaged by the Florentine theatre between 01/01/1937 and 31/12/1990. Excesses of mortality for all causes are observed in manual workers, either males (301 cases; SMR 304,0; 95% IC 271,5-340,3) or females (86 cases; SMR 429,8; 95% IC 348,0-531,0). The group of the other workers presents deficits of mortality by all causes, cancers and cardiovascular diseases in both genders. One death for pleural cancer is observed in a manual worker. Discussion. The results are in line with previous observations in similar occupations. In the examined Florentine theatre the asbestos exposures were important only for the manual workers who worked in the technical rooms characterized by the presence of friable asbestos sprinkled and in a bad state of maintenance.

Ultra-trace determination of total mercury in Italian bottled waters.

Mercury (Hg) is a widespread, highly toxic persistent pollutant with adverse health effects on humans. So far, concentrations below the method detection limit have always been reported by studies on the concentration of mercury in bottled water when determined using instrumental analytical methods. These are often very expensive and are unaffordable for many laboratories. In this work, a less expensive method based on cold vapour atomic fluorescence spectrometry has been employed to determine total mercury (HgT) concentrations in bottled natural mineral waters. In all, 255 waters representing 164 different typologies were analysed. They came from 136 springs located in 18 Italian regions. In all samples, HgT concentrations were found in the range of sub-nanogram to a few nanograms per litre, well below the National and European regulatory limit (1 µg L-1). Differences in HgT concentrations were related not only to the environmental characteristics of the springs but also to the extent and impact of human activities. Higher concentrations were found in waters coming from regions with former mining and/or natural thermal and volcanic activity. These data allowed us to estimate the mercury intake by population (adults, children and toddlers) from drinkable mineral waters consumption. The mean mercury daily intake was found to be remarkably lower, not only than the provisional tolerable value (1 µg L-1 according to European and Italian legislation) but also than the estimated provisional tolerable weekly intake (PTWI) value (4 µg kg-1 body weight) recommended by the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA).