Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) represent a possible hazard for the ecosystems, with adverse outcomes on wildlife and humans. POPs have always received interest from the scientific community, ...and they have also been subject to legal restrictions worldwide on their application and commercialization. Among the broad spectrum of POPs, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) are considered emerging contaminants due to their potential effect on the ecosystem and human health. These contaminants are widely employed in countless applications, from surfactants and building materials to food packaging. On the other hand, their chemical structure gives them the ability to interact with the environment, causing possible toxic effects for humans and environment. Human biomonitoring is a necessary instrument to indagate the impact of PFASs on human health: in recent years several studies have found detectable levels of PFASs in several biological matrices in humans (blood, hair, nails, and urine).
Here, we review the most recent scientific literature concerning analytical methods employed in the identification and quantification of PFASs focusing on biological matrices. It has been noted that liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry is the main analytical instrumentation employed, while blood and/or serum samples are the main employed human matrices whereas the use of non-invasive matrices is still at the beginning. Various issues directly related to human metabolism of PFASs and the effective amount of PFAS absorbed from the environment still need to be investigated.
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•Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFASs) occurrence and human biomonitoring.•PFASs identification and quantification in biological matrices.•Extraction, clean-up procedures, and instrumental conditions for PFASs analysis.
A liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) method was developed and fully validated, according to U.S. Food and Drug Administration guidance, for the simultaneous determination of ...phenylmercapturic acid, benzylmercapturic acid and
o-methylbenzyl mercapturic acid in human urine as biomarkers of exposure to benzene, toluene and xylenes (BTX). After solid phase extraction and LC separation, samples were analyzed by a triple–quadrupole mass spectrometer operated in negative ion mode, using isotope-labeled analogs as internal standards (ISs). The method meets all the validation criteria required. The limits of detection of the three analytes, ranging from 0.30 to 0.40
μg
l
−1, and the high throughput make the method suitable for the routine biological monitoring of co-exposure to BTX both in the occupational and environmental settings. The validated method was applied to assess exposure to BTX in a group of 354 urban traffic wardens.
Objectives
This study analyzes the validity of new, more sensitive and specific urinary biomarkers of internal dose, namely, urinary benzene for benzene and urinary toluene and
S
-benzylmercapturic ...acid (SBMA) for toluene, to assess their efficacy when compared to traditional biomarkers for biological monitoring of occupational exposure to low concentrations of these two toxic substances.
Methods
Assessment was made of 41 workers occupationally exposed to benzene and toluene, 18 fuel tanker drivers and 23 filling-station attendants, as well as 31 subjects with no occupational exposure to these toxic substances (controls). Exposure to airborne benzene and toluene was measured using passive Radiello
®
personal samplers worn throughout the work shift. In urine samples collected from all subjects at the end of the workday, both the traditional and the new internal dose biomarkers of benzene and toluene were assessed, as well as creatinine so as to apply suitable adjustments.
Results
Occupational exposure to benzene and toluene resulted significantly higher in the fuel tanker drivers than the filling-station attendants, and higher in the latter than in controls. Significantly higher concentrations of
t,t
-muconic acid (
t,t
-MA),
S
-phenylmercapturic acid (SPMA), urinary benzene, SBMA and urinary toluene were found in the drivers than the filling-station attendants or the controls. Instead, urinary phenol and hippuric acid were not different in the three groups. In the entire sample, airborne benzene and toluene values were significantly correlated, as were the respective urinary biomarkers, showing coefficients ranging from 0.36 to 0.98. Subdividing the subjects by smoking habit, higher coefficients were evident in non-smokers than in smokers; at multiple regression analysis
t,t
-MA, SPMA and urinary benzene and toluene were dependent on the number of cigarettes smoked daily and on airborne benzene and toluene, respectively. Instead, SBMA was dependent only on airborne toluene.
Conclusions
Our research confirmed the validity of
t,t
-MA and SPMA for use in the biological monitoring of exposure to low concentrations of benzene. Urinary benzene showed comparable validity to SPMA; both parameters are affected by smoking cigarettes in the hours before urine collection, so it is best to ask subjects to refrain from smoking for 2 h before urine collection. Urinary toluene was found to be a more specific biomarker than SBMA.
Knee osteoarthritis in a chestnut farmer - Case Report Mattioli, Stefano; Graziosi, Francesca; Curti, Stefania ...
Annals of Agricultural and Environmental Medicine,
2017-Mar-21, Letnik:
24, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Several studies have dealt with the issue of professional risk factors and onset of knee osteoarthritis (OA). In particular, occupational epidemiological studies have provided evidence that ...activities resulting in biomechanical overload may be linked with an increased risk of knee OA - also among farmers. To our knowledge, no cases of knee OA among chestnut farmers have been reported in the literature.
We report the case of a 70-year-old Caucasian male who has worked for more than 50 years on a chestnut farm. In 2007, an X-ray and a MRI, performed after a workplace accident to his left knee, showed the presence of knee OA. His job required a range of repetitive tasks, such as squatting, kneeling, climbing, walking on sloping terrain, assuming uncomfortable postures, and lifting and carrying heavy loads for the great majority of the working day. All the aforementioned tasks are known occupational risk factors for knee OA. Regarding individual risk factors, at the time of the first diagnosis of knee OA, the worker was 64-years-old with a body mass index of 26.5 kg/m2. He reported no cases of arthritis among his relatives and no sports playing on his part. In addition, his medical history revealed the presence of two minor lumbar disc herniations and tendinitis of the long head of the biceps.
Considering the lack of major individual risk factors for knee OA, it is reasonable to suppose that five decades of exposure to biomechanical overload as a chestnut farmer was a relevant risk factor for the onset of the disease.
A sensitive and specific HPLC–ESI-MS/MS method for the direct determination of glucosamine in human plasma has been developed and validated. Plasma samples were analyzed after a simple, one-step ...protein precipitation clean-up with trichloroacetic acid using a polymer-based amino high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) column and a water/acetonitrile mobile phase elution gradient, with
d-1-
13Cglucosamine as the internal standard. Detection was performed by mass spectrometry, using an electrospray source and employing multiple reaction monitoring to separately monitor glucosamine and the internal standard. The limit of quantification of the method was 10
ng/ml of glucosamine and the calibration curve showed a good linearity up to 1000
ng/ml. The precision (R.S.D.) and the accuracy (bias) of the method at the limit of quantification were 13.8 and 4.0%, respectively, and the mean recovery of glucosamine at three concentration levels was 101.6
±
5.7%. The method was applied for the determination of glucosamine concentrations in human plasma samples collected from untreated healthy volunteers and, in a separate bioavailability study, to evaluate plasma glucosamine pharmacokinetics profiles after oral administration of crystalline glucosamine sulfate.
Criteria for diagnosis and compensation of occupational musculoskeletal diseases varies widely between countries as demonstrated by the large differences between countries with comparable economics ...and social systems (for example, within the European Union). Several countries have a list of occupational diseases and sometimes these lists include diagnostic and attribution criteria, but these criteria are usually not very specific, and they may also be very different.
The aim of this paper is to explicitly define what are the information needed for an evidence-based diagnosis and attribution of an occupational musculoskeletal disease.
Based on the general framework of evidence-based medicine, a review is presented of the information required to define: - when a musculoskeletal disease is present, according to the best available techniques; - how to define a relevant exposure to biomechanical risk factors, according to the best available techniques.
Criteria are presented to combine information regarding the diagnosis of a musculoskeletal disease and exposure to biomechanical risk factors for an evidence-based attribution of the disease to the occupational exposure. The criteria use a probabilistic model that combine epidemiologic and medical findings, workplace exposure assessment, and non-occupational factors evaluation.
The use of the proposed criteria may improve the process of diagnosis and attribution of an occupational musculoskeletal disease. In addition, it makes possible to associate a probability rank to the attribution and, ultimately, it may improve the overall quality of the decisional process of the occupational physician.
To compare the effects of Global Postural Reeducation (GPR) with Manual Therapy (MT) in participants with chronic nonspecific neck pain (NP).
Pre- and post-treatment analysis of cross-over data from ...an RCT was done. Seventy-eight subjects with chronic nonspecific NP aged 18 to 80 years completed the trial. The group who had received GPR crossed-over to MT and the previous MT group received GPR for 9 sessions once or twice a week. Measures were assessed at pre-treatment and post-treatment. Outcome measures included pain intensity Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), disability (Neck Disability Index), cervical Range of Motion (ROM), and kinesiophobia Tampa Scale of Kinesiophobia (TSK).
GPR targeted to crossed-over participants produced greater improvements in pain Diff=-8.6; 95%CI=(-13.3; -3.8), disability Diff=-1.5; 95%CI=-2.8; -0.1, kinesiophobia Diff=-1.8; 95%CI=(-3.2; -0.3), and flexion/extension neck ROM Diff=5.6; 95%CI=(1.8; 9.3) at post-treatment compared to the MT group. When evaluating clinical improvement, by means of Minimal Clinically Important Differences, we found that GPR relevantly reduced neck disability with respect to MT OR=2.13; 95% CI=(1.05; 4.35), whereas the improvement of pain did not differ between groups OR=1.84; 95%CI=0.85; 3.99).
These results within the crossed-over group confirm previous findings from an RCT with the same sample. Sequence of treatment (GPR-to-MT vs MT-to-GPR) does not seem to weaken the greater effects of GPR compared to MT approach for chronic NP. Our findings suggest that GPR can induce hypoalgesic effects, reduce disability and kinesiophobia, and improve flexion/extension in neck ROM.
Abstract Introduction In an evolving environment, new factors like artificial intelligence (AI) are creating emerging physical and psychosocial risks to a safe and healthy working environment. New ...technologies like AI need to be introduced mindfully to avoid negative unintended consequences. Materials and Methods The specific risks from the above factors that could impact workers are being identified by researchers and educators in occupational health. There is urgency to get ahead of potential harm. Two case examples will be discussed which have received much recent attention. Results Potential risks at work arise from: (1) using AI in human resources departments to offset human tasks involved in managing worker’s performance (people analytics). If the algorithms are improperly trained and do not include human interventions and ethical considerations in their formulation, workers could be exposed to increased physical and psychosocial risks and stress. (2) the vision of Industry 5.0, where the human and automation work together as collaborative robots (cobots). While there are certain advantages to allowing this synthetic pairing, there are also risks, including robot / human collisions, where the robot may perform in unpredictable ways. Conclusions Occupational health and safety experts will need: (1) better understanding and training in both - the effects of people analytics on workers, and of the actual algorithms themselves; and (2) to collaborate with engineers, psychologists and sociologists in the design of cobots’ dynamics to make sure that risks are minimized from the beginning. A risk framework and potential mitigations will be presented.
During the Covid-19 outbreak, a recurrent subject in scientific literature has been brought back into discussion: whether surgical masks provide a sufficient protection against airborne SARS-CoV-2 ...infections.
The objective of this review is to summarize the available studies which have compared the respective effectiveness of surgical masks and filtering facepiece respirators for the prevention of infections caused by viruses that are transmitted by the respiratory tract.
The relevant scientific literature was identified by querying the PubMed database with a combination of search strings. The narrower search string "(surgical mask *) AND (respirator OR respirators)" included all the relevant articles retrieved using broader search strategies. Of all the relevant articles found, seven systematic reviews were selected and examined.
The currently available scientific evidence seems to suggest that surgical masks and N95 respirators/FFP2 confer an equivalent degree of protection against airborne viral infections.
Since surgical masks are less expensive than N95 respirators but seem to be as effective in protecting against airborne infection and they are also more comfortable for the user, requiring less respiratory work, they should be the standard protective device for health care workers and especially for workers who carry out non-medical jobs. Filtering facepiece respirators, whose extended use is less comfortable for the wearer, may be preferred for procedures which require greater protection for a shorter time.
The categories of urban workers undergoing prolonged exposure to gasoline due to vehicle emissions, evaporation and traffic fumes are considered occupationally exposed to benzene, even if at low ...concentrations. The aim of this study was to evaluate the specificity of unmetabolized benzene excreted in urine (UBz) and
S-phenylmercapturic acid (SPMA) as biomarkers of exposure to very low levels of benzene, and to study the impact of putative individual confounders like smoking and alcohol habits, co-exposure to other toxicants and body mass index on the exposure assessment. Environmental and biological monitoring of exposure to benzene were performed in 114 Urban Policemen. The mean value of UBz in non-smokers was significantly lower than in either groups of light to moderate smokers and heavy smokers (0.24, 1.82 and 2.82
μg
L
−1, respectively). On the contrary, SPMA values did not discriminate exposure resulting from smoking habits. Moreover, the concentration of UBz in non-smokers appears to be correlated with environmental benzene concentration (BenzA) (
R
2
=
0.13,
β
=
0.37,
p
=
0.002). On the other hand, no significant correlation was found between SPMA concentration (corrected for creatinine excretion and log transformed, LogSPMA) and LogBenzA (
R
2
=
0.003,
β
=
0.05,
p
=
0.6). Our findings reinforce previous research on the use of unmetabolized urinary benzene as a specific and sensitive biomarker of low-level exposure to benzene and confirm that smoking habits strongly influence the excretion of UBz.
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