Pilot study on the short-term prediction of symptoms in children with hay fever monitored with e-Health technology.

Forecasting symptoms of pollen-related allergic rhinoconjunctivitis at the level of individual patients would be useful to improve disease control and plan pharmacological intervention. Information Technology nowadays facilitates a more efficient and easier monitoring of patients with chronic diseases. We aimed this study at testing the efficiency of a model to short-term forecast symptoms of pollen-AR at the "individual" patient level. We analysed the data prospectively acquired from a group of 21 Italian children affected by pollen-related allergic rhinoconjunctivitis and recorded their symptoms and medication "Average Combined Score" (ACS) on a daily basis during April-June 2010-2011 through an informatics platform (Allergymonitor™). The dataset used for prediction included 15 variables in four categories: (A) date, (B) meteo-climatic, (C) atmospheric concentration of 5 pollen taxa, and (D) intensity of the patient's IgE sensitization. A Partial Least Squares Discriminant Analysis approach was used in order to predict ACS values above a fixed threshold value (0.5). The best performing predicting model correctly classified 77.8% ± 10.3% and 75.5% ± 13.2% of the recorded days in the model and test years, respectively. In this model, 9/21 patients showed ≥ 80% correct classification of the recorded days in both years. A better performance was associated with a higher degree of patient's atopic sensitization and a time lag > 1. Symptom forecasts of seasonal allergic rhinitis are possible in highly polysensitised patients in areas with complex pollen exposure. However, only predictive models tailored to the individual patient's allergic susceptibility are accurate enough. Multicenter studies in large population samples adopting the same acquisition data system on smart phones are now needed to confirm this encouraging outcome.

Asbestos hazards in the city of Rome, Italy.

A review is made of asbestos as a health hazard, and attention is drawn to possible dangers due to exposure to asbestos in the city of Rome in and outside the work place. The exposure to asbestos of workers of the ATAC company (the public concern of urban passenger transport of Rome) is examined. This is particularly dangerous for workers who repair equipment with asbestos components, such as brake linings. Exposure to asbestos may also occur in inhabitants who live and work close to where asbestos fibres collect. The study evaluates the contamination of asbestos fibres in both work and urban environment among people directly or indirectly exposed to this pollutant.

Charcoal sampling and gas chromatographic determination of N,N-dimethylformamide in air samples from a polyurethane plant.

A charcoal sampling method and a gas chromatographic determination of N,N-dimethylformamide in the air of a plant producing polyurethane lumps is described. The collection efficiency was checked by drawing standard N,N-dimethylformamide air mixtures through the sampling tube at 0.1 1/min and detecting the organic vapors spectrophotometrically at 215.4 nm. At 1,000 mg/m3, samplings could be carried out for 190 min with negligible N,N-dimethylformamide losses (lower than 1%). The analysis of N,N-dimethylformamide was performed by gas chromatography on Porapack Q and Tenax GC after extraction with 2 ml of acetone/100 mg of charcoal, with a mean recovery of 90 (SD 2) %, in the range of 0.05-0.5 mg of N,N-dimethylformamide/100 mg of charcoal. The relative standard deviation of the entire procedure was 3.5%. Because of the good adsorbing efficiency of the charcoal, short-term sampling could be carried out at a relatively high N,N-dimethylformamide concentration. Stationary and personal sampling resulted in mean values ranging between 1.26 and 1.60 mg/m3. The method is particularly suitable in instances where other pollutants are present, and therefore it can be used also for other work areas as well.

Interferences in the spectrophotometric S-diphenylcarbazide determination of environmental hexavalent chromium in a chromium and zinc plating plant.

A study on the determination of environmental hexavalent chromium [Cr(VI)] was carried out in a chromium and zinc plating plant. The atmospheric particulate was collected both on glass wool filters and with an electrostatic sampler; Cr(VI) was determined by the S-diphenylcarbazide method. The filtered and electrostatically collected Cr(VI) was extracted with both 1.4% sulfuric acid and 7% sodium carbonate. Strong interference was observed when extraction was carried out with the acid medium. Alkaline extraction permits 95 +/- 6 (+/- SD)% recovery of the total chromium and has been shown to be suitable in releasing Cr(VI). The analyses of the alkaline samples were carried out with the standard addition method to compensate for a depressive interference of 26 +/- 8 (+/- SD)%. The absorbance decrease of the Cr-S-diphenylcarbazide complex is a time function, and it should be measured within a few minutes of the reagent addition.

[Gas chromatographic determination of biphenyl and 2-phenylphenol in the environmental air of dyeing-plant rooms of the textile industry]. / Determinazione gascromatografica del bifenile e del 2-fenilfenolo nell'aria ambientale delle sale tintoria dell'industria tessile.

A report is made on a method of sampling and analysis of biphenyl and 2-phenylphenol which are present in the environmental air of the dyeing plant rooms of the textile industry. The sampling is carried out by filtering environmental air through small pipes containing two layers of Porapak Q 80-100 mesh, the first one of 150 mg for the analysis and the other, of 50 mg, for the control, with a flux of about 1 l/min. The report includes the description of some tests concerning shifting and displacement with various fluxes, as well as the recovery of known quantities and the stability of the sampling. The saturation for the mixture of the two pollutants was about 130 mg/g of biphenyl and more than 100 mg/g of 2-phenylphenol. The gaschromatographic analysis was carried out on 2 ml of cyclohexane; methylacetate 80:20 by which was obtained the absorbent used for the sampling. An analytical column was used with 3% Apiezon L, 1% phosphoric acid, 2% Carbowax 20 M on Chromosorb W HP 80-100 mesh. These results were also confirmed by other two reference columns. This method was applied successfully to the analysis of the air of the work environment under examination.

[Determination of antimony from environmental air in the working area using flameless atomic absorption with a graphite furnace]. / Determinazione dell'antimonio per assorbimento atomico senza fiamma con fornace di grafite nell'aria di ambienti di lavoro.

Particulates of antimony present in area of plants producing a catalyst containing iron an antimony have been determined. The environmental aereosol, filtered through micropore filters, is analyzed in the form of stabilized aqueous suspension by atomic adsorption flameless graphite furnace. The limit of air revealability permitted by the method is 0.2 mcg/m3. With the above mentioned revealability limit it is possible to perform very rapid drawings of environmental air, so that noxiouslity of even very short-time processing can be controlled.

[Improvement of pollution produced by chemical agents in the mechanical industry]. / Bonifiche da agenti chimici nell'industria meccanica.

In outdoor factory environments many defiling substances are produced by different working processes. Reclamation operations must, therefore, be directed to the single types of pollution involved. A series of corrective operations, aiming at the elimination of fumes, frinding powders, solvent vapours, paint pigments and hydrocarbon vapours, are described.

[Reduction of lubricating-oil aerosol concentration in the weaving room]. / Riduzione della concentrazione di aerosoli di oli lubrificanti nelle sale tessitura.

In this work the authors describe a weaving work room where they had determined particulate oil aerosol above TLV. The reduction of the oil aerosol has been obtained with the construction of an extraction and immission air suitable system.