Building Resilient Agricultural Communities: A Process for Addressing Mental Health Challenges in Agricultural Communities.

The impacts of stress on physical and mental health are increasingly salient, and understanding how occupational stress interacts with occupational health and safety will shape conditions and cultures for workers. The Upper Midwest Agricultural Safety and Health Center (UMASH) recognized a need to better understand occupational stressors and mental health outcomes in agriculture, and identify barriers to mental health care along with interventions to improve this system. UMASH hosted a one-day working forum that framed agricultural stress and poor mental health, and potential for interventions, for Minnesota farmers, agricultural workers, and their families.

Association of chromosome translocation rate with low dose occupational radiation exposures in U.S. radiologic technologists.

Chromosome translocations are a well-recognized biological marker of radiation exposure and cancer risk. However, there is uncertainty about the lowest dose at which excess translocations can be detected, and whether there is temporal decay of induced translocations in radiation-exposed populations. Dosimetric uncertainties can substantially alter the shape of dose-response relationships; although regression-calibration methods have been used in some datasets, these have not been applied in radio-occupational studies, where there are also complex patterns of shared and unshared errors that these methods do not account for.

Work history and mortality risks in 90,268 US radiological technologists.

Objectives: There have been few studies of work history and mortality risks in medical radiation workers. We expanded by 11 years and more outcomes our previous study of mortality risks and work history, a proxy for radiation exposure.

Methods: Using Cox proportional hazards models, we estimated mortality risks according to questionnaire work history responses from 1983 to 1989 through 2008 by 90,268 US radiological technologists.

Diagnostic X-ray examinations and increased chromosome translocations: evidence from three studies.

Controversy regarding potential health risks from increased use of medical diagnostic radiologic examinations has come to public attention. We evaluated whether chromosome damage, specifically translocations, which are a potentially intermediate biomarker for cancer risk, was increased after exposure to diagnostic X-rays, with particular interest in the ionizing radiation dose-response below the level of approximately 50 mGy. Chromosome translocation frequency data from three separately conducted occupational studies of ionizing radiation were pooled together.

Temporal stability of urinary and plasma biomarkers of tobacco smoke exposure among cigarette smokers.

Intraindividual variability of measurements of 4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanol (NNAL), nicotine, cotinine, and r-1,t-2,3,c-4-tetrahydroxy-1,2,3,4-tetrahydrophenanthrene (PheT) over time is uncertain. From 70 habitual smokers' plasma and urine sampled bimonthly for a year we analysed plasma for NNAL, cotinine and PheT, and urine for NNAL, cotinine and nicotine. We estimated the intraclass correlation coefficients (rho(I)) for each measurement.

Blood spots as an alternative to whole blood collection and the effect of a small monetary incentive to increase participation in genetic association studies.

Background: Collection of buccal cells from saliva for DNA extraction offers a less invasive and convenient alternative to venipuncture blood collection that may increase participation in genetic epidemiologic studies. However, dried blood spot collection, which is also a convenient method, offers a means of collecting peripheral blood samples from which analytes in addition to DNA can be obtained.

Methods: To determine if offering blood spot collection would increase participation in genetic epidemiologic studies, we conducted a study of collecting dried blood spot cards by mail from a sample of female cancer cases (n = 134) and controls (n = 256) who were previously selected for a breast cancer genetics study and declined to provide a venipuncture blood sample.

Routine diagnostic X-ray examinations and increased frequency of chromosome translocations among U.S. radiologic technologists.

The U.S. population has nearly one radiographic examination per person per year, and concern about cancer risks associated with medical radiation has increased.

Increased frequency of chromosome translocations associated with diagnostic x-ray examinations.

Informative studies of cancer risks associated with medical radiation are difficult to conduct owing to low radiation doses, poor recall of diagnostic X rays, and long intervals before cancers occur. Chromosome aberrations have been associated with increased cancer risk and translocations are a known radiation biomarker. Seventy-nine U.

No evidence for differences in DNA damage assessed before and after a cancer diagnosis.

The overwhelming majority of studies that have found increased cancer risk associated with functional deficits in DNA repair used a case-control design, in which measurements were made after cancer diagnosis. However, there are concerns about whether the cancer itself or cancer treatment affected the conclusions (reverse causation bias). We assessed the effect of cancer diagnosis among 26 breast cancer controls who had blood collected during 2001 to 2003 and again in 2005 to 2006 after being diagnosed with cancer.

Self-reported medical conditions in perfluorooctanesulfonyl fluoride manufacturing workers.

Objective: To evaluate whether some cancers, other conditions, and pregnancy outcomes were related to occupational perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) exposure.

Methods: We surveyed current and former employees of a perfluorooctanesulfonyl fluoride production facility, using a self-administered questionnaire to ascertain several cancers and health conditions. Female cohort members also completed a brief pregnancy history.

Retrospective biodosimetry among United States radiologic technologists.

Measurement of chromosome translocations in peripheral blood lymphocytes has been used to quantify prior exposure to ionizing radiation, including for workers exposed to low, chronic doses. We assessed translocation frequencies in a subset of U.S.

Randomized trial of financial incentives and delivery methods for improving response to a mailed questionnaire.

In a follow-up study, only 64% of 126,628 US radiologic technologists completed a questionnaire during 1994-1997 after two mailings. The authors conducted a randomized trial of financial incentives and delivery methods to identify the least costly approach for increasing overall participation. They randomly selected nine samples of 300 nonresponders each to receive combinations of no, 1.