[Indoor pollution]. / Inquinamento indoor.

The Author reports more important phases from the beginning of housing to now: the indoor pollution time. Shelter is a basic need; humans require protection against the elements, somewhere to store and prepare the food, and a secure place to raise offspring; but indoor environment is not always safe. It has been known since Hippocrates' time that housing conditions affect health. Today situation starts from the enormous growth of urbanization. At 1888 in Italy first legislation on health, including healthy building, has been issued. The prevention policies were based on local hygiene regulations. At present housing programmes of who stress the problem in consideration too of the great part of time that, in industrialized Countries, we all pass at home, in the indoor environment. Following the general introduction the Author relates on the features of indoor climate, that may be identical that out of doors, or may be modified by heating, cooling, humidification and ventilation. Larger commentaries are reported on indoor pollution and its increasing by modern technology producing several new hazards. Physical, chemical and biological indoor air pollutants, with their principal sources and health damages associated, are analyzed. In conclusion the author shows some data from a research on indoor pollution in the houses of Rome.

[Community medicine in developing countries]. / La medicina di comunità nei paesi in via di sviluppo.

PIP: Community medicine (CM) addressing the global problems of human health has been intensifying in concert with primary health care (PHC) in developing countries, especially since the 1977 session of the WHO launched a program called "Heath for all by 2000" whose central component was PHC. An international conference in Alma Ata in 1978 on PHC stressed essential health care for all communities supported by practical methods that were scientifically valid and socially acceptable, assistance that was accessible to all members of the community. The objectives of PHC were: promotion of proper nutrition, safe water supplies, basic hygiene, maternal-child hygiene, vaccination against major infectious diseases, prevention and control of endemic local diseases, health education, and proper treatment of common diseases and injuries. A PHC post on the village level of Cm would have 1 community health worker (CHW) and 1 traditional birth assistant (TBA) providing health care for 500-1500 people. On the district level, a PHC unit would have 2 CHWs and 2 TBAs for 10,000 people. On the regional level, a PHC center would have 1 physician, 2 attendant nurses, 2 obstetricians, 1 technician, 1 pharmacist, and 1 administrator. Finally, on the national level, hospitals would take care of health needs. The lack of properly trained staff and resources poses the biggest problem in the organizational structure of Cm, but this could be overcome by collaborating with rural medicine and traditional medicine.^ieng