[The organization and management of First Aid in the workplace: critical issues and innovations to be introduced]. / L'organizzazione e la gestione del Prime Soccorso nei luoghi di lavoro: aspetti critici e innovazioni da introdurre.

Develop an effective First Aid's system in workplaces is significantly important to the outcomes of accidents at work, thus contributing positively to create healthy and safe environments, improving responsible attitude and risk perception by workers. The italian regulation (D. Lgs. 81/08; DM 388/03) gives an important role to First Aid within the system for managing health and safety in workplaces and requires the employers to designate and train workers and organize facilities in the workplace. However, to ensure that First Aid's system actually contributes to increasing health and safety in workplaces, it's necessary to verify its effectiveness, beyond the law compliance. The article stands to evaluate the critical issues and related innovations to be introduced in this context, by analyzing data from literature and field experiences involving actors in the prevention system. The goal is to provide suggestions and action proposals to improve first aid's system in workplaces, paying particular attention to the aiders training (selection, motivation, teaching methods, retraining), as well as introduce to innovations to allow an immediate and timely emergency response (company equipments, other useful devices). On this last aspect, it has given particular emphasis to the introduction of semi-automatic defibrillator (AED), which is essential in case of sudden cardiac arrest with ventricular fibrillation, and special aiders training by means of BLSD (Basic Life Support and Defibrillation) courses based on international guidelines.

Urinary phthalate monoesters concentration in couples with infertility problems.

The widespread use of phthalates results in human exposure: phthalates are rapidly metabolized to their respective monoesters and other oxidative products, which are glucuronidated and excreted through the urine and feces. Several in vivo studies showed that some phthalates, in particular diethyl-hexyl phthalate (DEHP), diethyl phthalate (DEP), di(n-butyl)phthalate (DnBP) and n-butylbenzylphthalate (BBzP), are able to interact with the human endocrine system, interfering with the reproduction ability. In this study, 56 couples were recruited from a centre of assisted reproduction. Spot urine samples were collected and five urinary metabolites of the above phthalates were determined using an HPLC/MS/MS analytical method with isotopic dilution. The results were compared with those of 56 couples of parents of one or more children and the statistical analysis revealed a significant difference between the two groups in terms of urinary concentrations of phthalates metabolites. A further step will be the correlation of these results with information on the life styles and working conditions collected through a specifically designed questionnaire.