[Definition of hospital discharge, serious injury and death from traffic injuries].

Road traffic injury surveillance involves methodological difficulties due, among other reasons, to the lack of consensus criteria for case definition. Police records have usually been the main source of information for monitoring traffic injuries, while health system data has hardly been used. Police records usually include comprehensive information on the characteristics of the crash, but often underreport injury cases and do not collect reliable information on the severity of injuries.

Association between cannabis and cocaine use, traffic injuries and use of protective devices.

The effect of cannabis and cocaine use on non-fatal traffic injuries and use of motorcycle helmets or car seatbelts was assessed in a nationwide sample of 17,484 car or motorcycle drivers surveyed in 2005 in Spain. Logistic regression was used to adjust for distance driven and potential confounders. Cocaine use ≥ 1 day/week and cannabis use >4 days/week were associated with more traffic injuries.

Impact of the demerit point system on road traffic accident mortality in Spain.

Background: To assess the effect of the Demerit Point System (DPS), introduced in Spain on 1 July 2006, on the number of fatalities due to road traffic accidents, using a methodology that controls for the seasonal variation and trend in the data series.

Methods: Time-series analysis by ARIMA models of 29 113 fatalities in road traffic accidents (at the accident scene or within 24 h thereafter), between January 2000 and December 2007. The model permitted estimation of an intervention parameter, together with its 95% CI, to calculate the number of fatalities that would have occurred if the DPS had not been implemented, after controlling for the effect of other measures introduced in 2004.

Organochlorine pesticide exposure in children living in southern Spain.

Despite the prohibition of most persistent organochlorine (OC) pesticides in Spain, their presence has been widely documented in adult human tissues. However, scarce information is available on the exposure of children. The aim of the present study was to investigate the presence of 16 OC pesticide residues in 52 fat samples collected from boys with a mean age of 7yr (0-15yr) living in Southern Spain and to assess the association between OC pesticide levels and child characteristics.

Evaluating trihalomethane content in drinking water on the basis of common monitoring parameters: regression models.

The presence of trihalomethanes (THMs) in potable-water sources is an issue of great interest because of the negative impact THMs have on human health. The objective of this study was to correlate the presence of trihalomethanes with more routinely monitored parameters of water quality, in order to facilitate THM control. Water samples taken at various stages of treatment from a water treatment plant were analyzed for the presence of trihalomethanes with the Fujiwara method.