Spatial and temporal variations of trace element distribution in soils and street dust of an industrial town in NW Spain: 15 years of study

Extensive spatial and temporal surveys, over 15 years, have been conducted in soil in urban parks and street dusts in one of the most polluted cities in western Europe, Avilés (NW Spain). The first survey was carried out in 1996, and since then monitoring has been undertaken every five years. Whilst the sampling site is a relatively small town, industrial activities (mainly the steel industry and Zn and Al metallurgy) and other less significant urban sources, such as traffic, strongly affect the load of heavy metals in the urban aerosol. Elemental tracers have been used to characterise the influence of these sources on the composition of soil and dust. Although PM10 has decreased over these years as a result of environmental measures undertaken in the city, some of the “industrial” elements still remain in concentrations of concern for example, up to 4.6% and 0.5% of Zn in dust and soil, respectively. Spatial trends in metals such as Zn and Cd clearly reflect sources from the processing industries. The concentrations of these elements across Europe have reduced over time, however the most recent results from Avilés revealed an upward trend in concentration for Zn, Cd, Hg and As. A risk assessment of the soil highlighted As as an element of concern since its cancer risk in adults was more than double the value above which regulatory agencies deem it to be unacceptable. If children were considered to be the receptors, then the risk nearly doubles from this element.

Infrared thermography to quantify the risk of breast cancer.

From the last decades, infrared thermography is quite often associated with things other than clinical medicine. For example, the chemical, automobile, aeronautic industries and civil engineering. However, thermography is where infrared images of the breast are analyzed by board certified thermographers and an abnormal thermogram is reported as the significant risk for the existence of breast tumor (Ng, 2009). Thermography is a painless, noninvasive, no radiation, as well as being cheaper and faster, easier access. The aim of this review was to identify the views of clinicians on the use of thermography for quantifying the risk of breast cancer. We used articles published recently in a reliable database. Thermography has been convicted over the years; it has been labeled by subjective interpretation. Most of the reviewed articles agree that mammography is currently the main examination chosen by doctors for the screening of breast cancer (Acharya et al., 2010; Kennedy et al., 2009). However, several studies have reported promising results for the technique (Wang et al., 2010). Additionally, some authors suggest that thermography is complementary to other diagnostic methods, and that the best strategy for the early detection of breast cancer would be to use them together (Kennedy et al., 2009; Hersh, 2004). The combination of thermal imaging with other tests would increase accuracy, sensitivity and specificity of the evaluation and allow a better quantification of the risk of breast cancer.