Environmental risk limits for zinc

Environmental Riks Limits (ERLs) were derived for zinc. ERLs serve as advisory values to set environmental quality standards in the Netherlands. The ERLs for zinc closely follow the outcomes of earlier discussions on zinc within the Water Framework Directive and EC Regulation 793/93. The ERLs refer to values that are not corrected for the bioavailability of zinc. The implementation of biovailabilty into the final environmental quality standards for zinc is a crucial follow-up discussion, including both technical and policy-related aspects.VROM-DGM-SA

Smartphone Addiction and Health Issues among Young Adults in India: A Cross Sectional Study

Purpose: Since smartphone usage across the world has increased in the recent years, the present study aims to explore smartphone addiction in young college going adults and common factors associated with it. Method: 306 female college students volunteered to be part of this study. Demographic information including smartphone usage and sleeping hours per day were collected using a self-administered questionnaire. Smartphone Addiction Scale (SAS) was used to evaluate level of addiction to smartphone. Results and discussion: SAS score of participants was 137.64, which shows higher rate of addiction to smartphone. 27.1% of the participants complained of pain and other health related symptoms, 66.3% reported awareness of symptoms occurring due to mobile overuse, 34.6% reported changes in sleeping pattern and 43.5% in sleeping hours. Conclusion: A higher rate of addiction to smartphone is associated with negative effects on health, social life and might present difficulties to performance in education

A STUDY ON BIRTH ASPHYXIA AT TERTIARY HEALTH CENTRE

Background: Birth asphyxia is an important cause of morbidity and mortality in neonatal period. Methodology: This was the cross sectional study conducted in the tertiary care centre of Ahmedabad on the full term babies with birth asphyxia. The maternal, fetal and newborn correlates were recorded according to predesigned proforma. Results: There were total 401 (6.6%) babies born with apgar score of less than 7 at one minute and among them, 320 (79.8%) were full term babies and 81 (20.2%) were preterm babies. Among the babies 52.5% were male, 56.9% were primigravida, and only 41.9% had antenatal care present, 42.2% had MSL and 47.2% were small for date babies. Conclusion: Birth asphyxia is common the babies of the mother who had not received proper antenatal care. Maternal anaemia, primipara, meconium stained liquor babies have more chances of getting birth asphyxia.

Chronic Toxicity of Binary‐Metal Mixtures of Cadmium and Zinc to Daphnia magna

The present study characterized the chronic effect of binary‐metal mixtures of cadmium (Cd) and zinc (Zn) on Daphnia magna. The titration design was chosen to characterize the 21‐d chronic effects of the binary‐metal mixtures on survival, growth, reproduction, and metal accumulation in D. magna. Using this design, increasing concentrations of Zn (10, 20, 40, 80, 120, 160, and 200 μg/L) were titrated against a constant concentration of 1.5 μg/L Cd. The results demonstrated that Cd was highly toxic to D. magna. In a mixture with Cd and Zn, sublethal concentrations of 10 and 20 μg/L Zn were insufficient to protect D. magna from chronic Cd toxicity, whereas mixtures containing 40, 80, and 120 μg/L Zn provided strong protective effects to D. magna at all endpoints and resulted in less‐than‐additive effects. At higher Zn concentrations, such as 160 and 200 μg/L, Zn appeared to contribute to the toxicity. The less‐than‐additive effects observed in the Cd–Zn mixture can be explained by the decrease in body Cd concentration when the Zn concentration was increased in the exposure media. Embryos analyzed for morphological alterations in the Cd–Zn mixtures demonstrated severe developmental defects. The effect of Cd on undeveloped embryos while both Zn and Cd are present in the organisms raises a question of whether the competitive binding mechanism of Zn and Cd is still happening at the cellular level in the organisms. The results of the present study are useful for development of the biotic ligand model and environmental quality guidelines for metal mixtures

Caring for the caregivers: A cross-sectional study of the burden experienced by family caregivers of children with cancer in South Gujarat

Background: In India, family members undertake the care of a considerable number of patients with chronic illnesses like cancer at home, yet despite the recognition of their pivotal role as caregivers, scant attention is given to the suffering they endure. Aims and Objectives: The aim of the study is to study the sociodemographic characteristics of caregivers and children/adolescents with cancer undergoing cancer treatment and assess the caregiver’s burden of children/adolescents suffering from cancer. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study involving caregivers of children having cancer who were availing services at Cancer Institute (Lions Cancer Detection Center), New Civil Hospital, Surat, to identify the burden among caregivers of children of 0–19 years of age group. A total of 237 participants were enrolled in the study from June 2019 to November 2019. Using a standardized, validated version of the Zarit Burden Interview was used for data collection. Data entry into Microsoft Excel and analysis was done by Epi Info. Univariate analysis was done to calculate mean and standard deviation while bivariate analysis by Chi-square test. Results: The study population consisted of 99 (41.8%) males and 138 (58.2%) female caregivers aged 18–58 years. One hundred and twenty-five (52.7%) caregivers reported no or minimal burden while 64 (27.0%) caregivers reported mild-to-moderate burden. Conclusion: In view of the substantial burden on family caregivers coupled with the lack of an adequate number of cancer hospitals, there is a public health imperative to recognize this important group. All levels of health staff in cancer hospitals in developing countries should be sensitized to the various burdens faced by family caregivers

Speed of Onset of Donor Brain Death Leads to Differences in Renal Function and Expression of Inflammatory and Oxidative Stress Markers in Rat Kidneys

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Reversible Inferolateral ST-Segment Elevation Associated with Small Bowel Obstruction

ST-segment elevation is an important and alarming electrocardiographic sign that necessitates immediate attention but does not always indicate that the primary pathology is cardiac in origin. It needs to be interpreted in the clinical context as several pathological conditions involving especially gastrointestinal tract may lead to delayed diagnosis and treatment as well as complications from invasive unnecessary interventions. We present two patients, a 64-year-old male and a 71-year-old female, who were admitted to the emergency room of a community-based hospital with similar complaints of worsening epigastric abdominal pain and were diagnosed later with small bowel obstruction. Both patients reported a history of abdominal surgeries in the past. Also in both patients the ECG showed signs of ST-segment elevation in inferior and lateral leads. These ECG changes were related to the intra-abdominal pathology as no evidence of contributing coronary artery disease could be found. In addition, prompt resolution of ST-segment elevation was seen after surgical treatment. The pathophysiological etiology of electrocardiographic changes accompanying small bowel obstruction is yet to be explored

A Model-Based Prioritisation Exercise for the European Water Framework Directive

A model-based prioritisation exercise has been carried out for the Water Framework Directive (WFD) implementation. The approach considers two aspects: the hazard of a certain chemical and its exposure levels, and focuses on aquatic ecosystems, but also takes into account hazards due to secondary poisoning, bioaccumulation through the food chain and potential human health effects. A list provided by EU Member States, Stakeholders and Non-Governmental Organizations comprising 2,034 substances was evaluated according to hazard and exposure criteria. Then 78 substances classified as “of high concern” where analysed and ranked in terms of risk ratio (Predicted Environmental Concentration/Predicted No-Effect Concentration). This exercise has been complemented by a monitoring-based prioritization exercise using data provided by Member States. The proposed approach constitutes the first step in setting the basis for an open modular screening tool that could be used for the next prioritization exercises foreseen by the WFD