[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).

[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.

[Occupational accidents among immigrant women in the Italian North-Eastern regions (Veneto and Friuli Venezia Giulia)].

Objectives: to describe occupational accidents among foreign women working in two regions of North-Eastern Italy, in the perspective of a desirable prevention policy.

Setting And Design: frequency distribution of occupational accidents among foreign women covered by the National Institute for Insurance against Work Accidents (INAIL) in 2000.

Participants: foreign female workers employed in two regions of North-Eastern Italy.