Occupational exposure to inorganic dust and risk of gout: a population-based study.

BACKGROUND: Risk factors operating independently of hyperuricemia could be of importance in determining why only a minority of people with hyperuricemia develop gout. Exposure to inorganic dust has been linked to other inflammatory diseases and could influence the development of gout. OBJECTIVES: To evaluate if occupational exposure to inorganic dust increases the risk of gout. METHODS: Individuals aged 30-65 years with a first gout diagnosis in 2006-2012 in the population-based healthcare database of the Western Swedish Healthcare Region (VEGA) and population controls matched by age and sex were included. Data on occupation was collected from the Swedish occupational register. Exposure status was assigned by means of a job exposure matrix. Data on gout-related comorbidities was collected from VEGA. Alcohol use disorder and obesity were related both to gout and exposure to inorganic dust and were adjusted for in multivariate analyses. ORs were calculated using conditional logistic regression. RESULTS: 5042 gout cases and 20 682 controls were included. Exposure to inorganic dust was associated with gout in both unadjusted (OR 1.12, 95% CI 1.04 to 1.20) and multivariate (OR 1.08, 95% CI 1.00 to 1.16) analyses of the whole population. In sex-stratified multivariate analyses, dust exposure was significantly associated with gout in women (adjusted OR 1.26, 95% CI 1.05 to 1.51), but not in men (adjusted OR 1.05, 95% CI 0.97 to 1.13). CONCLUSIONS: We describe for the first time an association between exposure to inorganic dust and gout. After adjusting for confounders, the findings were statistically significant for women but not for men.

Seasonal characteristic composition of inorganic elements and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in atmospheric fine particulate matter and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid of COPD patients in Northeast China.

OBJECTIVE: To explore the composition characteristics of atmospheric fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF), and their impact on the development of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). METHODS: The atmospheric PM2.5 samples and BALF samples from COPD patients were collected from June 2, 2017 to October 30, 2018, and allocated into a high-risk of PM2.5 inhalation group and a low-risk PM2.5 inhalation group according to the heating season in Harbin. Inorganic elements were detected by ICP-MS, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were detected by GC/MS. RESULTS: Twenty-six inorganic elements were found in 54 BALF specimens. There was a high correspondence in inorganic elements between BALF and atmospheric PM2.5. Trace elements Cr, Mn, V, and Co, and toxic trace elements Al, Pb, Cd, As, and Ag were above the upper limit of normal blood. There were significant higher K, Ti, Fe, Co, Cu, Se, Rb, Ag, and Sb in BALF of the high-risk PM2.5 inhalation group (p < 0.05). Sixteen PAHs were detected in 32 BALF samples. The main components of BALF and atmospheric PM2.5 were the high molecular weight PAHs, and the species and concentration of PAHs in BALF and atmospheric PM2.5 are highly consistent. CONCLUSION: The types and concentrations of inorganic elements and PAHs in BALF of COPD patients are highly consistent with those of atmospheric PM2.5. The sustained high concentrations of Benzo(a)anthracene, Chrysene, Benzo(b)Fluoranthene, Benzo(k)Fluoranthene, Indeno(123-c,d)Pyrene, and Benzo(a)Pyrene in BALF of COPD patients may have long-term adverse effects on COPD patients.

Public health costs accounting of inorganic PM2.5 pollution in metropolitan areas of the United States using a risk-based source-receptor model.

In order to design effective strategies to reduce the public health burden of ambient fine particulate matter (PM2.5) imposed in an area, it is necessary to identify the emissions sources affecting that location and quantify their contributions. However, it is challenging because PM2.5 travels long distances and most constituents are the result of complex chemical processes. We developed a reduced-form source-receptor model for estimating locations and magnitudes of downwind health costs from a source or, conversely, the upwind sources that contribute to health costs at a receptor location. Built upon outputs from a state-of-the-art air quality model, our model produces comprehensive risk-based source apportionment results with trivial computational costs. Using the model, we analyzed all the sources contributing to the inorganic PM2.5 health burden in 14 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) in the United States. Our analysis for 12 source categories shows that 80-90% of the burden borne by these areas originates from emissions sources outside of the area and that emissions sources up to 800 km away need to be included to account for 80% of the burden. Conversely, 60-80% of the impacts of an MSA's emissions occurs outside of that MSA. The results demonstrate the importance of regionally coordinated measures to improve air quality in metropolitan areas.

Active sunscreen ingredients in Australia.

UV radiation exposure is the major contributor to photocarcinogenesis and photoageing. Reducing UV radiation exposure can be achieved by using adequate sunscreen preparations. The use of sunscreen can significantly reduce the incidence of squamous cell carcinoma, actinic keratoses and invasive melanoma. In the Australian market over 900 sunscreen products are available, each with their own brand, formulation and ingredients. It can be difficult for dermatologists and consumers to determine which are the most effective and appropriate products to use. We discuss the specific active ingredients found in sunscreen formulations available in Australia, their mode of protection, photostability, solubility, and side-effects and the methods used by the Therapeutic Goods Administration to determine the ratings and efficacy of each sunscreen.

Occupational exposure to chemicals drives the increased risk of asthma and rhinitis observed for exposure to vapours, gas, dust and fumes: a cross-sectional population-based study.

OBJECTIVES: Occupational exposure to the composite measure vapours, gases, dusts and fumes (VGDF), contribute to the burden of asthma and rhinitis. The objective was to evaluate occupational exposure to VGDF, which is further divided into the components chemicals, organic and inorganic dust in relation to asthma and rhinitis. METHODS: Previously examined participants from three population-based cohorts in the Obstructive Lung disease In Northern Sweden (OLIN) studies were re-examined during 2002-2004. In total, 4036 participated in a structured interview and answered a questionnaire on occupational exposures. RESULTS: Occupational exposure to VGDF increased the risk of asthma, and concomitant asthma and rhinitis. Exposure to chemicals, but not dust, showed a similar pattern. Exposure to chemicals increased the risks (OR, 95% CI) of rhinitis without asthma (1.29, 1.10 to 1.52), asthma without rhinitis (1.42, 1.15 to 1.77) and concomitant asthma and rhinitis (1.60, 1.31 to 1.96) when adjusted for confounders such as age, smoking habits, body mass index and sex. The association between exposure to chemicals and asthma and rhinitis remained independent of exposure to dust and was also so when excluding exposure to isocyanates and welding fumes. The results were similar for women and men, as well as for never-smokers and participants without a history of allergy. CONCLUSIONS: In this cross-sectional population-based study, occupational exposure to chemicals contributed substantially to the increased risk of asthma and rhinitis observed for occupational exposure to VGDF.

Implications for public health demands alternatives to inorganic and synthetic flocculants: bioflocculants as important candidates.

Chemical flocculants are generally used in drinking water and wastewater treatment due to their efficacy and cost effectiveness. However, the question of their toxicity to human health and environmental pollution has been a major concern. In this article, we review the application of some chemical flocculants utilized in water treatment, and bioflocculants as a potential alternative to these chemical flocculants. To the best of our knowledge, there is no report in the literature that provides an up-to-date review of the relevant literature on both chemical flocculants and bioflocculants in one paper. As a result, this review paper comprehensively discussed the various chemical flocculants used in water treatment, including their advantages and disadvantages. It also gave insights into bioflocculants production, challenges, various factors influencing their flocculating efficiency and their industrial applications, as well as future research directions including improvement of bioflocculants yields and flocculating activity, and production of cation-independent bioflocculants. The molecular biology and synthesis of bioflocculants are also discussed.

Nanoparticles in medicine: Current challenges facing inorganic nanoparticle toxicity assessments and standardizations.

Although nanoparticles research is ongoing since more than 30years, the development of methods and standard protocols required for their safety and efficacy testing for human use is still in development. The review covers questions on toxicity, safety, risk and legal issues over the lifecycle of inorganic nanoparticles for medical applications. The following topics were covered: (i) In vitro tests may give only a very first indication of possible toxicity as in the actual methods interactions at systemic level are mainly neglected; (ii) the science-driven and the regulation-driven approaches do not really fit for decisive strategies whether or not a nanoparticle should be further developed and may receive a kind of "safety label". (iii) Cost and time of development are the limiting factors for the drug pipeline. Knowing which property of a nanoparticle makes it toxic it may be feasible to re-engineer the particle for higher safety (safety by design). FROM THE CLINICAL EDITOR: Testing the safety and efficacy of nanoparticles for human use is still in need of standardization. In this concise review, the author described and discussed the current unresolved issues over the application of inorganic nanoparticles for medical applications.

[CHEMICAL FACTOR IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF ENDOCRINE DISEASES].

In the presented review there is discussed the dynamics of diseases of the endocrine system of the population, including diabetes and thyroid pathology and the modern view on the importance of chemical factors (pesticides, arsenic, essential and toxic elements) for their formation.

Plant and fungal food components with potential activity on the development of microbial oral diseases.

This paper reports the content in macronutrients, free sugars, polyphenols, and inorganic ions, known to exert any positive or negative action on microbial oral disease such as caries and gingivitis, of seven food/beverages (red chicory, mushroom, raspberry, green and black tea, cranberry juice, dark beer). Tea leaves resulted the richest material in all the detected ions, anyway tea beverages resulted the richest just in fluoride. The highest content in zinc was in chicory, raspberry and mushroom. Raspberry is the richest food in strontium and boron, beer in selenium, raspberry and mushroom in copper. Beer, cranberry juice and, especially green and black tea are very rich in polyphenols, confirming these beverages as important sources of such healthy substances. The fractionation, carried out on the basis of the molecular mass (MM), of the water soluble components occurring in raspberry, chicory, and mushroom extracts (which in microbiological assays revealed the highest potential action against oral pathogens), showed that both the high and low MM fractions are active, with the low MM fractions displaying the highest potential action for all the fractionated extracts. Our findings show that more compounds that can play a different active role occur in these foods.

Occupational exposure in parkinsonian disorders: a 43-year prospective cohort study in men.

BACKGROUND: Several occupations and occupational exposures have been investigated for associations with Parkinson's disease. Common findings are increased risk associated with pesticide exposure and no association between Parkinson's disease and welding. METHODS: We explored the association between a broad range of possible occupational risk factors and Parkinson's disease as well as Parkinson's disease plus other forms of Parkinsonism (referred to as Parkinsonian disorders), using prospectively collected data in the population-based Swedish Twin Registry. A cohort of 14,169 Swedish men was followed for up to 43 years. We identified 234 Parkinsonian disorder cases including 204 Parkinson's disease cases with complete data. We assessed exposure to 14 chemical and biological compounds through a job exposure matrix. Hazard ratios (HR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) adjusted for age, smoking, and education were used to estimate the relative risk of disease associated with exposure. RESULTS: Exposure to inorganic dust was associated with increased risk of Parkinson's disease and Parkinsonian disorders, HR 1.6 (95% CI 1.1-2.4) and 1.5 (1.0-2.2) respectively. There was no association between Parkinson's disease or Parkinsonian disorders and occupational exposure to pesticides, welding smoke, metal dust, wood dust, animal handling, stone and concrete dust, chrome and nickel dust, quartz dust, organic dust, oil, asbestos, organic solvents and irritating gas. CONCLUSIONS: Inorganic dust should be explored further as a potential risk factor for Parkinson's disease. Occupational exposure to pesticides and twelve other compounds explored in this study may not be associated with risk of Parkinson's disease in Swedish men.

Secondary absorbed doses from light ion irradiation in anthropomorphic phantoms representing an adult male and a 10 year old child.

Secondary organ absorbed doses were calculated by Monte Carlo simulations with the SHIELD-HIT07 code coupled with the mathematical anthropomorphic phantoms CHILD-HIT and ADAM-HIT. The simulated irradiations were performed with primary (1)H, (4)He, (7)Li, (12)C and (16)O ion beams in the energy range 100-400 MeV/u which were directly impinging on the phantoms, i.e. approximating scanned beams, and with a simplified beamline for (12)C irradiation. The evaluated absorbed doses to the out-of-field organs were in the range 10(-6) to 10(-1) mGy per target Gy and with standard deviations 0.5-20%. While the contribution to the organ absorbed doses from secondary neutrons dominated in the ion beams of low atomic number Z, the produced charged fragments and their subsequent charged secondaries of higher generations became increasingly important for the secondary dose delivery as Z of the primary ions increased. As compared to the simulated scanned (12)C ion beam, the implementation of a simplified beamline for prostate irradiation with (12)C ions resulted in an increase of 2-50 times in the organ absorbed doses depending on the distance from the target volume. Comparison of secondary organ absorbed doses delivered by (1)H and (12)C beams showed smaller differences when the RBE for local tumor control of the ions was considered and normalization to the RBE-weighted dose to the target was performed.

Housing interventions and control of health-related chemical agents: a review of the evidence.

Subject matter experts systematically reviewed evidence on the effectiveness of housing interventions that affect health outcomes associated with exposure to chemical agents, such as pesticides, lead, volatile organic compounds, as well as the radon gas. Particulates were also examined, and the role of ventilation on exposures was assessed. The review included both published literature and peer-reviewed reports from the US Environmental Protection Agency. Four of the 14 interventions reviewed had sufficient evidence to demonstrate their effectiveness and are ready for implementation: radon air mitigation by using active soil depressurization systems, integrated pest management to reduce exposures to pesticides, smoke-free home policies making indoor areas smoke-free (ie, no smoking allowed anywhere at any time), and residential lead hazard control. Four interventions needed more field evaluation, 3 needed formative research, and 3 either had no sufficient evidence of effectiveness or had evidence the interventions were ineffective. This evidence review shows that housing improvements are likely to help reduce radon-induced lung cancer, cardiovascular mortality related to secondhand smoke, and neurological effects from exposure to pesticides and lead paint. Investing in housing interventions may yield important savings from reduced disease and injury from avoidable exposures to chemical agents.

Sustainability, synthetic chemicals, and human exposure.

Public concerns regarding exposures to synthetic chemicals are increasing. Globally, there are increasing concentrations of many synthetic chemicals within the environment. The ubiquitous extent of some chemicals makes human exposure unavoidable. Biomonitoring has emerged as the optimal method for assessing exposures. The extent of human exposure and contamination occurs throughout the life cycle and is widespread. Although there is limited information on health risks for the majority of chemicals within our environment, and those identified with biomonitoring, many are known or suspected to cause human harm. Continued global and national unsustainable development regarding synthetic chemicals will increase the extent of environmental and human contamination unless precautionary action is implemented. Precautionary legislation may protect ecological and public health until societal sustainability is achieved.

Inorganic agricultural dust exposure causes pneumoconiosis among farmworkers.

Early studies of agricultural respiratory diseases focused on allergic disorders due to organic dust exposure. However, agricultural workers in dry climate regions are exposed to substantial concentrations of inorganic dusts from agricultural soils. Exposures to inorganic dusts are dependent on the specific crop and task, but are commonly several milligrams of respirable dust per cubic millimeter. In vitro toxicity studies show the dust's cytotoxicity to be intermediate between controls and crystalline silica. However, in some assays of reactive oxygen species generation, such as H(2)O(2), hydroxyl radical, and nuclear factor kappaB generation, the agricultural dusts are more potent than silica. A recent study of human lung samples among deceased Latino males characterized the deposition of agricultural dusts in the lung and the pulmonary response to these dusts. Careful histologic analyses in this study demonstrated that farmwork was significantly associated with mineral dust small airways disease and pneumoconiosis (macules and/or nodules). These associations persisted in multivariate analysis. Cigarette smoking was independently associated with these outcomes, but the interaction of mineral dust and smoking was not significant. Limited studies of farmworkers exposed to inorganic dusts show respiratory symptoms and restrictive pulmonary function with exposure. Overall, the evidence supports a causal association of mineral dust exposure and pneumoconiosis. Inorganic mineral dusts should no longer be considered merely a nuisance, but rather a cause of mixed-dust pneumoconiosis. The prevalence and natural history of this disorder are unknown.

Indicators as a tool for the evaluation of effective national implementation of the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS).

This paper briefly outlines the United Nations Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS) and what is meant by GHS implementation in terms of policy-related information for decision-makers plus a framework of actions to enable such policies to be effectively undertaken. The paper discusses the need for simple indicators to measure progress with GHS implementation. Two groups of indicators have been described that comprehensively reflect basic components of GHS implementation. The first group was presented as aggregated indicators or indices, for national capability evaluation. Indicators to evaluate management performance linked to stated objectives were presented as the second group. Information from an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) published questionnaire on GHS implementation and a questionnaire by the Intergovernmental Forum on Chemical Safety (IFCS) on chemical safety that included GHS have provided the basic information for applying the management capability indicators approach. Through the use of information in these two questionnaires, country-relevant and regional progress with GHS implementation was illustrated. Despite the GHS implementation target of 2008 set by the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation, very few countries have reported they have achieved this target. The simple management indicators proposed in this paper are based on adoption of a questionnaire and a numerical scoring system that could be used to chart progress towards GHS implementation. It was concluded, therefore, that the use of indicators as described in this paper does provide a quick survey of the overall situation in a country and facilitates comparison between countries across regions in terms of GHS implementation. Furthermore such results may indicate which countries require additional assistance with GHS implementation thus strengthening policies and actions across all sectors and involving governments, business, trade, and civil society.

Engineered inorganic nanoparticles and cosmetics: facts, issues, knowledge gaps and challenges.

The cosmetic industry is among the first adaptors of nanotechnology through the use of engineered nanoparticles (ENPs) to enhance the performance of their products and meet the customers' needs. Recently, there have been increasing concerns from different societal stakeholders (e.g., governments, environmental activist pressure groups, scientists, general public, etc.) concerning the safety and environmental impact of ENPs used in cosmetics. This review paper seeks to address the twin concerns of the safety of cosmetics and the potential environmental impacts due to the constituent chemicals-the ENPs. The safety aspect is addressed by examining recently published scientific data on the possibility of ENPs penetrating human skin. Data indicates that although particular types of ENPs can penetrate into the skin, until now no penetration has been detected beyond the stratum corneum of the ENPs used in cosmetics. Yet, important lessons can be learned from the more recent studies that identify the characteristics of ENPs penetrating into and permeating through human skin. On the part of the environmental impact, the scientific literature has very limited or none existent specific articles addressing the environmental impacts of ENPs owing to the cosmetic products. Therefore, general ecotoxicological data on risk assessment of ENPs has been applied to ascertain if there are potential environmental impacts from cosmetics. Results include some of the first studies on the qualitative and quantitative risk assessment of ENPs from cosmetics and suggest that further research is required as the knowledge is incomplete to make definitive conclusions as is the case with skin penetration. The authors conclude that the cosmetic industry should be more transparent in its use of nanotechnology in cosmetic products to facilitate realistic risk assessments as well as scientists and pressure groups being accurate in their conclusions on the general applicability of their findings. Transparency in cosmetics needs nanotechnology, but nanotechnology in cosmetics also needs transparency...

Occupational medicine physician's guide to neuropathy in the workplace, part 2: electromyography and cryptogenic and toxic neuropathy.

The Occupational Medicine Forum is prepared by the ACOEM Occupational and Environmental Medical Practice Committee and does not necessarily represent an official ACOEM position. The Forum is intended for health professionals and is not intended to provide medical or legal advice, including illness prevention, diagnosis or treatment, or regulatory compliance. Such advice should be obtained directly from a physician and/or attorney. Inquiries and contributions to the Forum should be forwarded to Joseph J. Schwerha, MD, MPH by e-mail at schwer@pitt.edu.

Prediction of chemical carcinogenicity by machine learning approaches.

In this paper we report a successful application of machine learning approaches to the prediction of chemical carcinogenicity. Two different approaches, namely a support vector machine (SVM) and artificial neural network (ANN), were evaluated for predicting chemical carcinogenicity from molecular structure descriptors. A diverse set of 844 compounds, including 600 carcinogenic (CG+) and 244 noncarcinogenic (CG-) molecules, was used to estimate the accuracies of these approaches. The database was divided into two sets: the model construction set and the independent test set. Relevant molecular descriptors were selected by a hybrid feature selection method combining Fischer's score and Monte Carlo simulated annealing from a wide set of molecular descriptors, including physiochemical properties, constitutional, topological, and geometrical descriptors. The first model validation method was based a five-fold cross-validation method, in which the model construction set is split into five subsets. The five-fold cross-validation was used to select descriptors and optimise the model parameters by maximising the averaged overall accuracy. The final SVM model gave an averaged prediction accuracy of 90.7% for CG+ compounds, 81.6% for CG- compounds and 88.1% for the overall accuracy, while the corresponding ANN model provided an averaged prediction accuracy of 86.1% for CG+ compounds, 79.3% for CG- compounds and 84.2% for the overall accuracy. These results indicate that the hybrid feature selection method is very efficient and the selected descriptors are truly relevant to the carcinogenicity of compounds. Another model validation method, i.e. a hold-out method, was used to build the classification model using the selected descriptors and the optimised model parameters, in which the whole model construction set was used to build the classification model and the independent test set was used to test the predictive ability of the model. The SVM model gave a prediction accuracy of 87.6% for CG+ compounds, 79.1% for CG- compounds and 85.0% for the overall accuracy. The ANN model gave a prediction accuracy of 85.6% for CG+ compounds, 79.1% for CG- compounds and 83.6% for the overall accuracy. The results indicate that the built models are potentially useful for facilitating the prediction of chemical carcinogenicity of untested compounds.

Resposta de vacas leiteiras à substituição total de milho por polpa cítrica e à suplementação com microminerais orgânicos I: consumo e digestão / Response of lactating cows to the total replacement of corn by citrus pulp and to the supplementation of organic trace minerals I: intake and digestion

Avaliou-se a resposta de vacas leiteiras à substituição total de milho maduro finamente moído por polpa cítrica peletizada. O teor dietético do milho foi 10 por cento e o de polpa 24 por cento nos tratamentos com milho, e o de polpa foi 33 por cento nas dietas exclusivas com polpa. Simultaneamente, foi avaliada a substituição total de fontes inorgânicas de Cu, Mn, Se, Zn e Cr por fontes orgânicas. Quatro dietas baseadas em silagem de milho foram geradas por arranjo fatorial dos dois fatores. Dezesseis vacas receberam os tratamentos em quadrado latino 4x4. O efeito da substituição de fontes inorgânicas por fontes orgânicas de microminerais não foi conclusivo. O consumo diário de matéria seca foi 19,4kg na polpa e 20,5kg na dieta com milho (P=0,03). O consumo de matéria orgânica digestível foi maior nas dietas com milho (P<0,01). Houve tendência de queda na taxa fracional de degradação ruminal in situ da MS da silagem de milho (P=0,11) e de aumento no tamanho da fração indigestível (P=0,15) nas dietas com milho, sugerindo que a degradação de forragens não determinou o menor consumo nas dietas com polpa. A substituição total de milho por polpa cítrica pode reduzir o consumo e a digestibilidade.

The response of lactating cows to the total replacement of finely ground mature corn by pelleted citrus pulp was evaluated. Treatments with corn contained 10 percent corn and 24 percent citrus pulp while citrus diets contained 33 percent citrus pulp. The complete replacement of inorganic sources of Cu, Mn, Se, Zn, and Cr by organic sources was simultaneously evaluated. Four corn silage based diets were generated by a factorial arrangement of the two factors. Sixteen cows received the treatments in 4x4 latin squares. The effect of substituting inorganic by organic mineral sources was not conclusive. Daily dry matter intake was 19.4kg for citrus diets and 20.5kg with corn (P=0.03). The digestible organic matter intake was increased by corn supplementation (P<0.01). There was a trend for a decreased fractional rate of in situ ruminal degradation of corn silage dry matter (P=0.11) and for increased size of the indigestible fraction (P=0.15) in diets with corn, suggesting that degradation of forages did not determine the lower intake for citrus diets. The total substitution of corn by citrus pulp may decrease intake and digestibility.

Exponential growth of new chemicals and evolution of information relevant to risk control.

The number of new chemicals synthesized and marketed increases exponentially. The database CAS REGISTRY at present contains more than 33 million organic and inorganic substances. However, the little information regarding the potential hazard associated with a large amount of chemicals is an old known problem in the European Union and also in the United States. This critical problem may find a solution in the collaboration of the different involved countries and in a planned task setting at international level. Both in the United States (e.g., the "Gore Initiative") and in European Union (the REACH policy) a big effort has been dedicated to this solution, within standardized procedures and an appropriate collaboration.