Mortality from lung cancer in workers exposed to sulfur dioxide in the pulp and paper industry.

Our objective in this study was to evaluate the mortality of workers exposed to sulfur dioxide in the pulp and paper industry. The cohort included 57,613 workers employed for at least 1 year in the pulp and paper industry in 12 countries. We assessed exposure to SO(2) at the level of mill and department, using industrial hygiene measurement data and information from company questionnaires; 40,704 workers were classified as exposed to SO(2). We conducted a standardized mortality ratio (SMR) analysis based on age-specific and calendar period-specific national mortality rates. We also conducted a Poisson regression analysis to determine the dose-response relations between SO(2) exposure and cancer mortality risks and to explore the effect of potential confounding factors. The SMR analysis showed a moderate deficit of all causes of death [SMR = 0.89; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.87-0.96] among exposed workers. Lung cancer mortality was marginally increased among exposed workers (SMR = 1.08; 95% CI, 0.98-1.18). After adjustment for occupational coexposures, the lung cancer risk was increased compared with unexposed workers (rate ratio = 1.49; 95% CI, 1.14-1.96). There was a suggestion of a positive relationship between weighted cumulative SO(2) exposure and lung cancer mortality (p-value of test for linear trend = 0.009 among all exposed workers; p = 0.3 among workers with high exposure). Neither duration of exposure nor time since first exposure was associated with lung cancer mortality. Mortality from non-Hodgkin lymphoma and from leukemia was increased among workers with high SO(2) exposure; a dose-response relationship with cumulative SO(2) exposure was suggested for non-Hodgkin lymphoma. For the other causes of death, there was no evidence of increased mortality associated with exposure to SO(2). Although residual confounding may have occurred, our results suggest that occupational exposure to SO(2) in the pulp and paper industry may be associated with an increased risk of lung cancer

Lung cancer mortality in towns near paper, pulp and board industries in Spain: a point source pollution study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>This study sought to ascertain whether there might be excess lung cancer mortality among the population residing in the vicinity of Spanish paper and board industries which report their emissions to the European Pollutant Emission Register (EPER).</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This was an ecological study that modelled the Standardised Mortality Ratio (SMR) for lung cancer in 8073 Spanish towns over the period 1994–2003. Population exposure to industrial pollution was estimated on the basis of distance from town of residence to pollution source. An exploratory, near-versus-far analysis was conducted, using mixed Poisson regression models and an analysis of the effect of municipal proximity within a 50-kilometre radius of each of the 18 installations.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Results varied for the different facilities. In two instances there was an increasing mortality gradient with proximity to the installation, though this was exclusively observed among men.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The study of cancer mortality in areas surrounding pollutant foci is a useful tool for environmental surveillance, and serves to highlight areas of interest susceptible to being investigated by ad hoc studies. Despite present limitations, recognition is therefore due to the advance represented by publication of the EPER and the study of pollutant foci.</p

Airborne asbestos fibers detection in microscope images using re-initialization free active contours.

Breathing in asbestos fibers can lead to a number of diseases, the fibers become trapped in the lung and cannot be removed by either coughing or the person's immune system. Atmospheric concentrations of carcinogenic asbestos fibers, have traditionally been measured visually using phase contrast microscopy. However, because this measurement method requires great skill, and has poor reproducibility and objectivity, the development of automatic counting methods has been long anticipated. In this paper we proposed an automated fibers detection method based on a variational formulation of geometric active contours that forces the level set function to be close to signed distance function and therefore completely eliminates the need of the costly re-initialization procedure. The method was evaluated using a ground truth of 29 manually annotated images. The results were encouraging for the further development of the proposed method

Polyamine-linked oligonucleotides for DNA triple helix formation.

The concept of antigene therapy of disease is based on the ability of an oligonucleotide (the therapeutic agent) to bind to double-stranded genomic DNA (the target associated with the disease). Examples are herein given of the linkage of a series of polyamines to a 21-mer homopyrimidine oligonucleotide. These conjugated 21-mers can each form a triple helix with an appropriate double-stranded homopurine-homopyrimidine DNA according to Hoogsteen base-pairing rules. No triple helix was found when unmodified third strand was used at 10 mM sodium phosphate, pH 6.5, 100 mM sodium chloride solution. In contrast, the spermine-conjugated oligonucleotide had a melting temperature of 42 degrees C. According to the melting profile, the appended spermine moiety was found to affect the Tm only of the triple helix, but not of the subsequent melting of the underlying double helix. The Tm enhancing ability of the spermine-conjugate was found to be better than that of other polyamine-conjugates