Undergraduate Environmental Public Health Education.

Environmental, occupational, and public health in the United States are practiced across a fragmented system that makes work across those areas more difficult. A large proportion of currently active environmental and occupational health professionals, advocates, policy makers, and activists are nearing retirement age, while some of our major health challenges are heavily influenced by aspects of environment. Concurrently, programs that educate undergraduate college students in environmental health are faced with multiple, often competing demands which can impede progressive movement toward dynamic curricula for the needs of the twenty-first century.

Biomarkers of Human Cardiopulmonary Response After Short-Term Exposures to Medical Laser-Generated Particulate Matter From Simulated Procedures: A Pilot Study.

Objective: We conducted an exposure chamber study in humans using a simulated clinical procedure lasing porcine tissue to demonstrate evidence of effects of exposure to laser-generated particulate matter (LGPM).

Methods: We measured pre- and post-exposure changes in exhaled nitric oxide (eNO), spirometry, heart rate variability (HRV), and blood markers of inflammation in five volunteers.

Results: Change in pre- and post-exposure measurements of eNO and spirometry was unremarkable.

Application of a two-zone model to estimate medical laser-generated particulate matter exposures.

We estimated particulate matter exposures for two simulated medical laser procedures using a near-field/far-field model. Size-specific mass emission rates obtained from a laboratory-based emission chamber study were used with estimated room size, air exchange rate, and interflow between zones to demonstrate the potential exposure range. Modeled steady-state concentrations for the near-field ranged between 80 and 2140 μg/m(3) and between 40 and 1650 μg/m(3) in the far-field.

Characterization of size-specific particulate matter emission rates for a simulated medical laser procedure--a pilot study.

Prior investigation on medical laser interaction with tissue has suggested device operational parameter settings influence laser generated air contaminant emission, but this has not been systematically explored. A laboratory-based simulated medical laser procedure was designed and pilot tested to determine the effect of laser operational parameters on the size-specific mass emission rate of laser generated particulate matter. Porcine tissue was lased in an emission chamber using two medical laser systems (CO2, λ = 10,600 nm; Ho:YAG, λ = 2100 nm) in a fractional factorial study design by varying three operational parameters (beam diameter, pulse repetition frequency, and power) between two levels (high and low) and the resultant plume was measured using two real-time size-selective particle counters.

Groundwater arsenic in Chimaltenango, Guatemala.

In the Municipality of Chimaltenango, Guatemala, we sampled groundwater for total inorganic arsenic. In total, 42 samples were collected from 27 (43.5%) of the 62 wells in the municipality, with sites chosen to achieve spatial representation throughout the municipality.

A pilot study to determine medical laser generated air contaminant emission rates for a simulated surgical procedure.

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) estimates that half a million health-care workers are exposed to laser surgical smoke each year.

Photodynamic therapy: occupational hazards and preventative recommendations for clinical administration by healthcare providers.

Objective: Photodynamic therapy (PDT) as a medical treatment for cancers is an increasing practice in clinical settings, as new photosensitizing chemicals and light source technologies are developed and applied. PDT involves dosing patients with photosensitizing drugs, and then exposing them to light using a directed energy device in order to manifest a therapeutic effect. Healthcare professionals providing PDT should be aware of potential occupational health and safety hazards posed by these treatment devices and photosensitizing agents administered to patients.

Long-term health experience of jet engine manufacturing workers: IX. further investigation of general mortality patterns in relation to workplace exposures.

Objective: To evaluate mortality rates among a cohort of jet engine manufacturing workers.

Methods: Subjects were 222,123 workers employed from 1952 to 2001. Vital status was determined through 2004 for 99% of subjects and cause of death for 95% of 68,317 deaths.

Long-term health experience of jet engine manufacturing workers: VIII. glioblastoma incidence in relation to workplace experiences with parts and processes.

Objective: To determine whether glioblastoma (GB) incidence rates among jet engine manufacturing workers were associated with workplace experiences with specific parts produced and processes performed.

Methods: Subjects were 210,784 workers employed between 1952 and 2001. We conducted nested case-control and cohort incidence studies with focus on 277 GB cases.

Long-term health experience of jet engine manufacturing workers: VI: incidence of malignant central nervous system neoplasms in relation to estimated workplace exposures.

Objective: To determine whether glioblastoma (GB) incidence rates among jet engine manufacturing workers were associated with specific chemical or physical exposures.

Methods: Subjects were 210,784 workers employed from 1952 to 2001. We conducted a cohort incidence study and two nested case-control studies with focus on the North Haven facility where we previously observed a not statistically significant overall elevation in GB rates.

Long-term health experience of jet engine manufacturing workers: VII: occupational exposures.

Objective: To reconstruct agent-specific occupational exposures for a cohort of jet engine manufacturing workers for use in an epidemiological mortality study.

Methods: Potential chemical and physical exposures at eight jet engine manufacturing and overhaul/repair plants were evaluated for the period 1952 to 2001. Eleven agents were selected for detailed examination, and a job-exposure matrix was constructed.

Long-term health experience of jet engine manufacturing workers: V. Issues with the analysis of non-malignant central nervous system neoplasms.

Objective: We attempted to examine non-malignant central nervous system (CNS) neoplasms incidence rates for workers at 8 jet engine manufacturing facilities in Connecticut. The objective of this manuscript is to describe difficulties encountered regarding these analyses to aid future studies.

Methods: We traced the cohort for incident cases of CNS neoplasms in states where 95% of deaths in the total cohort occurred.

Long-term health experience of jet engine manufacturing workers: IV. A comparison of central nervous system cancer ascertainment using mortality and incidence data.

Purpose: To compare ascertainment of central nervous system (CNS) neoplasms with the use of mortality and incidence data as part of an occupational epidemiology study.

Methods: Deaths were identified by matching the cohort of 223,894 jet engine manufacturing employees to the U.S.

Long-term health experience of jet engine manufacturing workers: III. Incidence of malignant central nervous system neoplasms.

Objective: To explore a perceived unusual occurrence of glioblastoma at one jet engine manufacturing facility located in North Haven (NH), Connecticut (CT).

Methods: Subjects were 212,513 workers ever employed in 1 of 8 manufacturing facilities from 1952 to 2001 and at risk from 1976 to 2004. We identified 722 cases of CNS neoplasms mainly by tracing through 19 state cancer registries.

Occupational needlestick injuries in a US airport.

Objective: To characterize needlestick injuries (NSIs) among airport workers, and to suggest preventive strategies.

Methods: A retrospective chart review (2003-2008) of workers evaluated at a clinic in a large US airport that provides occupational health services.

Results: Over a period of 6 years, 14 NSI cases were seen.

Exposure to human waste from spills while servicing aircraft lavatories: hazards and methods of prevention.

Workers service the lavatories of commercial aircraft approximately 11 million times per year in the United States and may have exposure to the spectrum of pathogenic viruses, bacteria and parasites potentially found in human waste. An industrial hygiene walk-through of the workplace was conducted by an interdisciplinary occupational health and safety team, and lavatory waste operators and supervisors and the process was observed. Exposure to untreated waste can occur through dermal, ingestion, and inhalation in quantities ranging from droplets to large spills.

Methodological issues in a retrospective cancer incidence study.

The authors traced incidence of central nervous system cancer in a large occupational cohort of jet engine manufacturing workers from 1976 to 2004 in the 24 US states that comprised 95% of the cohort deaths. The cohort of approximately 224,000 employees was matched with cancer registry data; all central nervous system cancer matches were requested with their diagnostic data. This paper highlights the obstacles encountered while conducting this retrospective cancer incidence study.

Long-term health experience of jet engine manufacturing workers: II. Total and cause-specific mortality excluding central nervous system neoplasms.

Objective: As part of an exploratory investigation of an unusual occurrence of glioblastoma at one jet engine manufacturing facility located in North Haven, Connecticut (CT), we examined total and cause-specific (excluding central nervous system neoplasms) mortality rates at eight of the company's CT facilities.

Methods: Subjects were 223,894 workers ever employed in one or more of the manufacturing facilities from 1952 to 2001. Vital status was determined through 2004 for 99% of subjects and cause of death for 95% of 68,701 deaths.

Long-term health experience of jet engine manufacturing workers: I. Mortality from central nervous system neoplasms.

Objective: In response to an unusual occurrence of glioblastoma at one jet engine manufacturing facility located in North Haven (NH), Connecticut (CT), we examined mortality rates from central nervous system (CNS) neoplasms at NH and seven other company facilities.

Methods: Subjects were 223,894 workers ever employed in one or more of the company's eight CT manufacturing facilities from 1952 to 2001. Vital status was determined through 2004 for 99% of subjects and cause of death for 95% of 68,701 deaths.