Iodine nutritional status and thyroid effects of exposure to ethylenebisdithiocarbamates.

Introduction: Italy is still characterized by a mild iodine deficiency and is among the most intensive users of chemical products for agriculture in Europe. The aim of this study was i) to evaluate thyroid effects of exposure to mancozeb, a fungicide widely used in agriculture, in a sample of Italian grapevine workers, and ii) to verify whether the iodine intake may modulate the risk of thyroid disruption due to the mancozeb metabolite ethylenthiourea (ETU).

Methods: One hundred seventy-seven occupationally exposed male workers (29 from Chianti, a mild iodine deficient area, and 148 from Bolzano an iodine sufficient province) and 74 non-occupationally exposed male controls (34 from Chianti and 40 from Bolzano) were enrolled in the study.

[Solar ultraviolet radiation risk in outdoor workers: a specific project of Tuscany Region (Italy)].

Objective: The aims of Tuscany Regional project were: to study the sun protection attitude of outdoor workers; to measure solar ultraviolet (UV) exposure in work environment; to describe the frequency of photoaging, precancerous lesions, and skin cancers in outdoor workers; to collect information on solar ultraviolet radiation exposure from incident cases of Non-Melanoma Skin Cancer (NMSC) recruited from Tuscany Cancer Registry.

Design: Outdoor workers completed a questionnaire devoted to collect information on sun protection attitudes during a typical summer working week. Environmental and personal measurements were carried out.

[Promoting the quality of health surveillance of workers exposed to wood dust, with particular care to NPSC, in the territory of the Health Agency of Florence].

Wood dust can cause occupational-related naso-sinusal cancer, characterized by a latency period of about 40 years. The Tuscany Cancer Registry estimates that cases of NPSC are from 20-25 per year into the Region (33% related to wood dust). These neoplasms are surgically treatable at early-stage and, for this reason, a rapid endoscopic diagnosis is considered to be reasonably useful for prognostic issues.

Occupational exposure to styrene in the fibreglass reinforced plastic industry: comparison between two different manufacturing processes.

Background: Styrene is used in manufacturing fiberglass reinforced plastics: and occupational exposure was related to neurotoxicology and genotoxicity. The sum of the metabolites mandelic and phenylglyoxylic acids is the ACGIH biomarker for occupational exposure with a BEI of 400 mg/g of creatinine in end shift urine corresponding to a airborne styrene concentration of 85 mg/m3. There are two main molding processes, open and closed, the last more effective at controlling worker's styrene exposure.

[Priority in occupational health in the USL 10 area of Florence].

In order to experience a method for the choice in Public Health, a list of the problems in occupational health in Florence has been characterized one, using for the definition of the priorities a "Minnesota Department of Health's Community Health Services Planning Manual--Guidelines for Local Public Health Agencies: CHS Plan Cycle 2002-2003". The following priorities problems of health are emerged in order of: exposure to chemistries in agricultural workers, fatal and serious injures among construction and agricultural workers, musculoskeletal disorders by biomechanical overload of the upper limbs, hearing loss. For everyone of they, has been indicated a possible strategy.

Mortality due to asbestos-related causes among railway carriage construction and repair workers.

The objective of this study was to further clarify the cancer risk associated with asbestos exposure in railway carriage construction and repair. The cohort included 734 subjects employed between 1 January 1945 and 31 December 1969. Vital status was ascertained at 31 December 1997.

Art glassware and sinonasal cancer: report of three cases.

In a multicenter study on the occupational etiology of sinonasal cancer (s.n.c.

Environmental household exposures to asbestos and occurrence of pleural mesothelioma.

We reviewed the certificates of 39,650 deaths which occurred in the period 1975-1988 in Leghorn and of 45,900 in La Spezia (Italy) in the period 1958-1988. In total 262 cases have been recorded as pleural mesothelioma. The main occupational exposures occurred in the shipbuilding industry.