The psychological impact of diagnosis of sinonasal, nasopharyngeal, and laryngeal cancers: a systematic review.

Objective: High risk of degraded quality of life and psychological distress is observed in patients diagnosed with sinonasal, nasopharyngeal, and laryngeal cancers, which could be caused by exposure to carcinogens in workplaces. This review aimed to investigate the psychological impact of diagnosis associated with the possible occupational etiology of such neoplasms and to explore the instruments that evaluate the quality of life (QoL), anxiety, and depression in these patients.

Methods: Studies were considered for the review only if they described aspects of the psychological impact of the diagnosis of sinonasal, nasopharyngeal, and laryngeal cancers and reported results distinguished by the tumor site.

Gender Differences in Sinonasal Cancer Incidence: Data from the Italian Registry.

Background: Although rare, sinonasal cancers (SNCs) have a high occupational attributable fraction.

Methods: We applied gender-based approaches to descriptive analyses, incidence, and patterns of exposures using the Italian National Sinonasal Cancer Registry (ReNaTuNS: Registro Nazionale Tumori Naso-Sinusali).

Results: The study included 2851 SNC patients.

Exposures to IARC Carcinogenic Agents in Work Settings Not Traditionally Associated with Sinonasal Cancer Risk: The Experience of the Italian National Sinonasal Cancer Registry.

The aim of this study is to highlight tasks and jobs not commonly considered at high risk for sinonasal cancer (SNC) identified by Regional Operating Centers currently active in the Italian National Sinonasal Cancer Registry (ReNaTuNS), which retrieve occupational histories through a standardized questionnaire. Data on exposures to IARC carcinogenic agents in work settings unknown to be associated with SNC risk were collected and analyzed. Out of 2,208 SNC cases recorded in the ReNaTuNS database, 216 cases and their worked exposure periods were analyzed.

[The new national guidelines for the keeping of the Italian Sinonasal Cancer Registry (ReNaTuNS)].

Sinonasal cancers (SNC) are rare tumours with predominant occupational aetiology associated with exposures to specific carcinogens. In Italy, SNC incidence has been under compulsory surveillance since 2008, through the National Sinonasal Cancer Registry (ReNaTuNS), a nationwide cancer registry coordinated by the National Institute for Insurance Against Accidents at Work (Inail). The ReNaTuNS has a regional structure with local registries, established at Regional Operating Centres (CORs).

[Pleural malignant mesotheliomas from environmental exposures to asbestos In Italy].

Pleural mesothelioma clusters from outdoor environmental exposure have been highlighted also in Italy and, on the basis of epidemiological surveillance coordinated by the Italian National Mesothelioma Register, their frequency has been estimated at about 4.5%. Epidemiological studies and evaluations of some regional mesothelioma registers have made it possible to highlight that the dispersion of asbestos fibers in the outdoor environment was the only ascertained cause of mesothelioma in subjects from asbestos-cement factories, from the Balangero mine (Piedmont Region), from some serpentine rock quarries with tremolite outcrops in the Southern Apennines and in Alta Val di Susa (Piedmont Region); from chrysotile and serpentine caves in Valmalenco (Lombardy Region).

Is Mesothelioma Unrelated to the Lung Asbestos Burden? Comment on Visonà et al. Inorganic Fiber Lung Burden in Subjects with Occupational and/or Anthropogenic Environmental Asbestos Exposure in Broni (Pavia, Northern Italy): An SEM-EDS Study on Autoptic Samples. 2021, , 2053.

We read with interest the report by Visonà and coworkers on the lung asbestos fiber burden in an autopsy series of decedents from mesothelioma (MM: 59 cases) and individuals who "suffered from asbestosis and died of its complications" (13 cases) [...

[The new ReNaTuNS operating manual for nasal sinus tumor case management].

No abstract available.

[Effects of Asbestos on Human Health. Document of the Italian Epidemiological Association (AIE)].

Objectives: the Italian Epidemiological Association (AIE) intends to formulate assessments and recommendations on the most relevant and critical aspects in the preparation, conduct, and interpretation of epidemiological investigations on the health effects of exposure to asbestos and asbestos-like fibres.

Design, Setting, And Participants: the document was prepared by a working group of AIE associates, with a broad curriculum of epidemiological investigations, starting from the evaluation of scientific evidence, and was subsequently evaluated by the AIE governing body.

Results: the topics covered included: • consumption and presence of asbestos; • association between asbestos exposure and disease; • epidemiological surveillance of asbestos related diseases in Italy; • risk function for asbestos related diseases; • increased risk and anticipation of the disease; • interaction between asbestos and other carcinogens; • diagnosis in epidemiological studies; • assessment of exposure to asbestos; • epidemiological evidence on asbestos related diseases.

SARS-CoV-2: exposure to high external doses as determinants of higher viral loads and of increased risk for COVID-19. A systematic review of the literature.

The determinants of the risk of becoming infected by SARS-CoV-2, contracting COVID-19, and being affected by the more serious forms of the disease have been generally explored in merely qualitative terms. It seems reasonable to argue that the risk patterns for COVID-19 have to be usefully studied in quantitative terms too, whenever possible applying the same approach to the relationship 'dose of the exposure vs pathological response' commonly used for chemicals and already followed for several biological agents to SARS-CoV-2, too. Such an approach is of particular relevance in the fields of both occupational epidemiology and occupational medicine, where the identification of the sources of a dangerous exposure and of the web of causation of a disease is often questionable and questioned: it is relevant when evaluating the population risk, too.

[About the asbestos and the Position Paper on asbestos of the Italian Society of Occupational Medicine].

The SIML Position Paper dedicated to asbestos (PPA) is addressed (mainly) to competent practitioners (CP) for the purposes to provide a guidance about a set of items classified as markedly interesting: the actuality of asbestos exposure and the evaluation of the related risk; the diagnosis of the asbestos related diseases; the shape of the risk functions (namely about mesotheliomas); the causal relationship between exposure and disease; the medical surveillance of the workers currently and previously exposed. The scientific literature doesn't acknowledge the idea that nowadays in Italy the frequency of pleural mesotheliomas deriving from environmental asbestos from outdoor sources exposures is really a relevant item. Inside the SIML PPA the chapter concerning industrial hygiene and environmental monitoring themes shows inaccuracies and deficiencies, so resulting of scarce utility for the CPs that should be called for a more cooperative role in front of the employers.

[The "new carcinogens' directive" from the European Union: new tasks waiting for us, new opportunities in front of us (and that we need not to waste) in Italy].

The new EU directive on the protection of workers from the risks related to exposure to carcinogens and mutagens at work, issued on December 2017, will be integrated inside the Member States' national laws not later than 17th January 2020. The new directive brings in force new binding occupational exposure limit values (BOELVs) for several agents, some of great importance such as hard wood dusts, a set of hexavalent chromium compounds and crystalline silica dust; for some cases, the entry into force of the new limits is delayed in time. The new directive clarifies that the limit values are established considering factors distinct from health necessities too.

Feasibility study for interspecialistic collaboration in active research of urothelial neoplasms of professional origin.

Introduction: In Italy only a small fraction of cancer is reported to the supervisory body and recognised as professional by the insurance institution. Among the causes of this sub-notification, especially for lowgrade etiologic fractional cancers such as bladder cancers are the lack of knowledge of carcinogenicity in the occupational field and the consequent incomplete medical history collections.

Objectives: Diagnosis of occupational bladder neoplasms and activation of systematic surveillance of tumors of professional origin through an "active research" program.

The epidemiology of malignant mesothelioma in women: gender differences and modalities of asbestos exposure.

Introduction: The epidemiology of gender differences for mesothelioma incidence has been rarely discussed in national case lists. In Italy an epidemiological surveillance system (ReNaM) is working by the means of a national register.

Methods: Incident malignant mesothelioma (MM) cases in the period 1993 to 2012 were retrieved from ReNaM.

Sinonasal cancer in the Italian national surveillance system: Epidemiology, occupation, and public health implications.

Background: Sinonasal cancer (SNC) is a rare tumor with predominant occupational etiology associated with exposures to specific carcinogens. The aim of this study is to describe SNC cases recorded in Italy in the period 2000-2016.

Methods: Clinical information, occupational history, and lifestyle habits of SNC cases collected in the Italian Sinonasal Cancer Register were examined.

Fatal silicosis in a funeral arts' craftsman.

Background: The current scientific debate on silica and cancer has often led to overlooking the persisting risk of lung fibrosis from crystalline silica.

Case Report: During 2000, when 54 years old, a funeral arts' craftsman began to suffer from persistent, hacking cough; radiography and high resolution computed tomography (HRCT) showed thin sub-pleural nodulations of the lungs, mainly in the upper fields. Two years later, increasing dyspnoea appeared and HRCT revealed vast consolidative opacities in both upper fields.

Upper airway and eye involvement in polyurethane shoe sole production workers.

Objectives: This cross-sectional study was aimed to investigate the prevalence of work-related upper and lower airway and eye symptoms in 118 workers in polyurethane shoe soles (PSS) production.

Methods: Workplace monitoring of methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI) and solvents was performed. Subjects completed a study-specific questionnaire and underwent anterior rhinoscopy, skin prick tests for common aeroallergens, spirometry, nasal peak inspiratory (NPIF) and expiratory flow (NPEF).

[Assessment of exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in asphalt workers by measurement of urinary 1-hydroxypyrene].

Introduction: Asphalt workers are potentially exposed to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). As some PAHs are classified as carcinogenic, the assessment of occupational exposure to these agents is of the utmost importance in preventing toxic effects.

Objectives: To assess exposure to PAHs by urinary 1-hydroxypyrene (1-OHPyr).

[Biological monitoring of PAH exposure among asphalt workers].

Aim of this work was the assessment of exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) by urinary 1-hydroxypyrene (1-OHPyr) in asphalt workers. Median levels of 1-OHPyr resulted higher in asphalt workers than in controls (184 vs. < 20 ng/L, p < 0.

[Preventing asbestos-related diseases: operative action for Italian cooperation with Latin-American countries].

The present paper was aimed at promoting countermeasures based on scientific evidence and international cooperation for evaluating the impact on health caused by exposure to asbestos fibres in the workplace and the environment. Scientific evidence regarding asbestos made available by the international scientific community, decades of experience gained in Italy on this issue and being aware that adopting measures to combat the health effects caused by asbestos exposure should be verified considering the specificity of various national and local contexts in Latin-America form the basis for identifying four main areas for intervention which may be developed in the field of technical and scientific cooperation between Italy and Latin-America countries: promoting access to information about asbestos, interventions for reducing exposure to asbestos, health surveillance of exposed subjects and mesothelioma detection. Integrating Colombian and Italian researchers' abilities may lead to such results being achieved, thereby contributing to banning asbestos, which is already underway in Latin-America.

[The LaboRisCh algorithm, a tool for the assessing chemical risk for health: scientific uncertainty management].

The LaboRisCh algorithm is a practical tool for the first-level assessment of the health risk from chemicals in research laboratories and similar workplaces. Through the assessment of the risk index related to each agent (Ra), the algorithm leads to the calculation of the value of a baseline risk index (Rb), and finally to a corrected risk index (Rc). The value of Rc sets the relevant condition in one of three health risk zones.

[LaboRisCh: an algorithm for assessment of health risks due to chemicals in research laboratories and similar workplaces].

Background: Chemical risk assessment in research laboratories is complicated by factors such as the large number of agents to be considered, each present in small quantities, and the very short and erratic periods of exposure, all of which make reliable environmental and biological monitoring particularly difficult and at times impossible. In such environments, a preliminary evaluation procedure based on algorithms would be useful to establish the hazard potential of a given situation and to guide the appropriate intervention.

Objectives: The LaboRisCh model was expressly designed to assess the health risk due to chemicals in research laboratories and similar workplaces.