To evaluate the impact of adult tobacco use on the health of children.
A literature review identified relevant research reports. Meta-analysis was used to compute a pooled risk ratio for each ...condition studied. The risk ratios were combined with data on exposure rates to produce estimates of the population-attributable risk.
Each year, among American children, tobacco is associated with an estimated 284 to 360 deaths from lower respiratory tract illnesses and fires initiated by smoking materials, more than 300 fire-related injuries, 354,000 to 2.2 million episodes of otitis media, 5200 to 165,000 tympanostomies, 14,000 to 21,000 tonsillectomies and/or adenoidectomies, 529,000 physician visits for asthma, 1.3 to 2 million visits for coughs, and in children younger than 5 years of age, 260,000 to 436,000 episodes of bronchitis and 115,000 to 190,000 episodes of pneumonia.
The use of tobacco products by adults has an enormous adverse impact on the health of children. Although more research is needed in several areas, action to reduce the morbidity and mortality among children should not be delayed. New laws and policies are needed to grant children protection from bodily injury and death attributable to use of tobacco products by others.
BACKGROUND: Environmental living conditions co-sorting with economic status may influence the disease morbidity rate of childhood asthma in ethnic minority urban poor populations.
OBJECTIVES: This ...study was carried out to assess exposure and sensitization to environmental allergens in southeast San Diego children with current asthma-related symptoms and to determine the utility of environmental control measures.
METHODS: Children, 9 to 12 years old, with current asthma-related symptoms were identified and enrolled at four school sites. Skin prick testing with aeroallergens was performed, and allergen in collected dust (from mattresses, pillows, and bedroom carpets) was quantified by enzyme immunoassay. Environmental control instruction and products were provided.
RESULTS: Of 41 subjects who underwent skin testing, 51.2% were reactive to environmental allergens (39% to mite, 22% to cockroach, and 9.8% to cat). Mean allergen levels for sensitized subjects were: Der p 1 (11 subjects), 18,722 ng/gm dust; Der f 1 (8 subjects), 5345 ng/gm dust; Fel d 1 (3 subjects), 214 ng/gm dust; Bla 1 (8 subjects), 7.15 U/gm dust; and Bla 2 (8 subjects) 7.13 U/gm dust. Environmental allergen exposure levels were not significantly different between sensitized and nonsensitized subjects. Environmental control measures for mite exposure were completed in six homes of sensitized subjects. One month after treatment, allergen levels fell 91.2% for Der p 1, 98.9% for Der f 1, and 88.2% for Fel d 1. One year after treatment, mite and cat allergen levels remained low. Environmental control had no consistent impact on cockroach allergen levels.
CONCLUSION: Environmental allergen sensitization and exposure may be cofactors contributing to increased disease severity in urban poor populations. (J A
LLERGY C
LIN I
MMUNOL 1996;98:288-94.)
The study determined priority chemicals in the ambient air and air of enclosed spaces of the town's administrative districts, by taking into account the formation of a community health risk. The ...industrial town's areas were ranked by the hazard of carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic effects caused by the varying intraenvironmental distribution of substances. The distribution of pollutants in the study areas with varying anthropogenic exposures allows one to consider suspended matter, cadmium, nickel, and formaldehyde in the air of residential areas and formaldehyde, phenol, and suspended matter in the air of enclosed spaces as universal markers of exposure for dwelling environmental factors in the identification of toxicants and in the assessment of community health risk within the framework of sociohygienic monitoring and as indicators for the assessment of the immediate and final results of purpose-oriented departmental programs.
The effect of toxins of a Cyanobacterium sample of the Shershnevo Reservoir on DNA, which was presented by cyanobacteria of the Microcystis genera, on the bone marrow of male CBA mice (whose age was ...3 months and weight 24 g) was evaluated. With intraperitoneal administration, LD50 and LD16 of this sample for male CBA mice were 48.4 and 42.1 mg/kg, respectively. Administration of Microcystis cyanobacterial sample from the Shershnevo Reservoir in doses of 1/10 of LD16 and 1/2 of LD16, and LD16 was found to cause a dose-dependent reduction in the number of bone marrow nucleated cells, a dose-dependent increase in the rate of cell apoptotic death, a reduction in the duration of a cell cycle (within the first 12 hours), which gave way to an increase in the duration of the cycle 24 hours after administration, a dose-dependent increase in the frequency of micronuclei in the murine bone marrow eryphrocytes, and a dose-dependent decrease in the polychromatophil/normochromatophil ratio in the murine bone marrow.
Chronic exposure to toxigenic molds in water-damaged buildings is an indoor environmental health problem to which escalating health and property insurance costs are raising a statewide concern in ...recent times. This paper reviews the structural and functional properties of mycotoxins produced by toxigenic molds and their interactive health implications with antifungal drugs. Fundamental bases of pathophysiological, neurodevelopmental, and cellular mechanisms of mycotoxic effects are evaluated. It is most likely that the interactions of mycotoxins with antifungal drugs may, at least in part, contribute to the observable persistent illnesses, antifungal drug resistance, and allergic reactions in patients exposed to chronic toxigenic molds. Safe dose level of mycotoxin in humans is not clear. Hence, the safety regulations in place at the moment remain inconclusive, precautionary, and arbitrary. Since some of the antifungal drugs are derived from molds, and since they have structural and functional groups similar to those of mycotoxins, the knowledge of their interactions are important in enhancing preventive measures.
Although it has become an accepted standard to acknowledge the patient as a full partner in health care decisions, replacing traditional authoritative relationships with those based on an ...emancipatory model, the experiences of persons living with chronic illness confirm that this paradigm shift is not yet apparent in many health care relationships. In this paper, the authors present a qualitative secondary analysis of combined data sets from their research into chronic illness experience with two quite different chronic diseases — Type I Diabetes (a socially legitimized chronic disease) and Environmental Sensitivities (a disease which is currently treated with considerable scepticism). Comparing the experiences of individuals with diseases that are quite differently socially constructed, it becomes possible to detect common underlying health professional values and attitudes that powerfully influence the experience of living with and negotiating health care for a chronic illness. In the discussion of findings from this study, the authors examine the implications of the spiral of behaviors that fuels mutual alienation in chronic illness care relationships if professionals are unable to value patient expertise.
PDF
