Combined Before-and-After Workplace Intervention to Promote Healthy Lifestyles in Healthcare Workers (STI-VI Study): Short-Term Assessment.

Health care workers (HCWs) are prone to a heavy psycho-physical workload. Health promotion programs can help prevent the onset of chronic and work-related diseases. The aim of the STI-VI 'before-and-after' study, with assessments scheduled at 6 and 12 months, was to improve the lifestyle of HCWs with at least one cardiovascular risk factor.

Biomonitoring occupational sevoflurane exposure at low levels by urinary sevoflurane and hexafluoroisopropanol.

This study aimed to correlate environmental sevoflurane levels with urinary concentrations of sevoflurane (Sev-U) or its metabolite hexafluoroisopropanol (HFIP) in order to assess and discuss the main issues relating to which biomarker of sevoflurane exposure is best, and possibly suggest the corresponding biological equivalent exposure limit values. Individual sevoflurane exposure was measured in 100 healthcare operators at five hospitals in north-east Italy using the passive air sampling device Radiello(®), and assaying Sev-U and HFIP concentrations in their urine collected at the end of the operating room session. All analyses were performed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry.

High-frequency hearing thresholds: effects of age, occupational ultrasound and noise exposure.

Purpose: It has been suggested that high-frequency audiometry (HFA) could represent a useful preventive measure in exposed workers. The aim was to investigate the effects of age, ultrasound and noise on high-frequency hearing thresholds.

Methods: We tested 24 industrial ultrasound-exposed subjects, 113 industrial noise-exposed subjects and 148 non-exposed subjects.

Biological monitoring of exposure to perchloroethylene in dry cleaning workers.

Background: Perchloroethylene (PCE) is the most widely used solvent in dry cleaning.

Objectives: The aim was to evaluate PCE pollution and to identify the most reliable biological indicators for the assessment of workers' exposure.

Methods: The study was performed in 40 dry cleaning shops covering a total of 71 subjects.

A longitudinal study for investigating the exposure level of anesthetics that impairs neurobehavioral performance.

There is conflicting evidence on the level of anesthetics that impairs neurobehavioral performance, leading to differences in exposure standards (25 or 50 ppm for N(2)O). Thirty-eight operating room nurses and 23 unexposed nurses were asked to provide information on confounding variables: age, gender, years of schooling, alcohol and coffee consumption, smoking, length of work, symptoms (Euroquest) and results of Block Design test. Afterward, all workers were repeatedly examined (on Monday and Friday of a working week, before and after workshift) for stress and arousal (Mood Scale) and complex reaction times (Color Word Vigilance, CWV), the latter being the outcome.

Comparison of exposure assessment methods in occupational exposure to benzene in gasoline filling-station attendants.

The aim of this study was to assess gasoline filling-station attendants' exposure to benzene and to determine which biological exposure index (BEI), trans,trans-muconic acid (t,t-MA) or S-phenylmercapturic acid (S-PMA), shows better correlation with environmental exposure. Exposure to benzene was measured using passive samplers (Radiello) attached to the collar of the overalls of subjects (n=33) just before the work-shift (approximately 8h); analysis was performed by GC-FID. S-PMA and t,t-MA were determined, respectively, by an immunochemiluminescent assay based on specific monoclonal antibodies and by HPLC-UV at 264 nm.

Biological indices of kidney involvement in personnel exposed to sevoflurane in surgical areas.

Background: Fluoride, a main metabolite, and one degradation product of sevoflurane (SEV), called Compound A, are known to cause kidney effects in experimental animals. Other than in volunteers and patients, no research is available on exposed workers. The possible effects on the kidney in workers exposed in surgical areas were studied.