Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon levels in three pelagic fish species from Atlantic Ocean: inter-specific and inter-season comparisons and assessment of potential public health risks

The concentrations of 18 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were determined in three commercially valuable fish species (sardine, Sardina pilchardus; chub mackerel, Scomber japonicus; and horse mackerel, Trachurus trachurus) from the Atlantic Ocean. Specimens were collected seasonally during 2007–2009. Only low molecular weight PAHs were detected, namely, naphthalene, acenaphthene, fluorene and phenanthrene. Chub mackerel (1.80–19.90 microg/kg ww) revealed to be significantly more contaminated than horse mackerel (2.73–10.0 microg/kg ww) and sardine (2.29–14.18 microg/kg ww). Inter-specific and inter-season comparisons of PAHs bioaccumulation were statistically assessed. The more relevant statistical correlations were observed between PAH amounts and total fat content (significant positive relationships, p < 0.05), and season (sardine displayed higher amounts in autumn–winter while the mackerel species showed globally the inverse behavior). The health risks by consumption of these species were assessed and shown to present no threat to public health concerning PAH intakes.

Exposure and genotoxicity assessment methodologies: the case of formaldehyde occupational exposure

Formaldehyde (FA) ranks 25th in the overall U.S. chemical production, with more than 5 million tons produced each year. Given its economic importance and widespread use, many people are exposed to FA occupationally. Recently, based on the correlation with nasopharyngeal cancer in humans, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) confirmed the classification of FA as a Group I substance. Considering the epidemiological evidence of a potential association with leukemia, the IARC has concluded that FA can cause this lymphoproliferative disorder. Our group has developed a method to assess the exposure and genotoxicity effects of FA in two different occupational settings, namely FAbased resins production and pathology and anatomy laboratories. For exposure assessment we applied simultaneously two different techniques of air monitoring: NIOSH Method 2541 and Photo Ionization Detection Equipment with simultaneously video recording. Genotoxicity effects were measured by cytokinesis-blocked micronucleus assay in peripheral blood lymphocytes and by micronucleus test in exfoliated oral cavity epithelial cells, both considered target cells. The two exposure assessment techniques show that in the two occupational settings peak exposures are still occurring. There was a statistical significant increase in the micronucleus mean of epithelial cells and peripheral lymphocytes of exposed individuals compared with controls. In conclusion, the exposure and genotoxicity effects assessment methodologies developed by us allowed to determine that these two occupational settings promote exposure to high peak FA concentrations and an increase in the micronucleus mean of exposed workers. Moreover, the developed techniques showed promising results and could be used to confirm and extend the results obtained by the analytical techniques currently available.

Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy Bone Marrow Transplantation: tradução e validação

OBJETIVO: Traduzir para o português e validar o questionário de qualidade de vida Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy - Bone Marrow Transplantation (FACT-BMT) em pacientes transplantados de medula óssea. OBJETIVO: O estudo foi realizado em Ribeirão Preto, SP, em 2005. O FACT-BMT (versão 3) traduzido e a versão em português do Short Form-36 Health Survey (SF-36) foram aplicados simultaneamente em 55 pacientes consecutivos com leucemia, submetidos ao transplante e em seguimento. Dois parâmetros clínicos foram utilizados para testar a sensibilidade do questionário: tempo decorrido do transplante e presença ou não de doença do enxerto contra o hospedeiro. Foi utilizada a análise de variância (ANOVA) com o teste post hoc de Tukey. Aplicou-se o coeficiente alfa de Cronbach, padronizado para todas as questões, escore final e domínios. RESULTADOS: A média de idade dos pacientes foi 34,8±8,1 anos, com escolaridade média de 10,8±4,7 anos, sendo 78,1% do sexo feminino. A duração média de tempo pós-transplante foi de 29,8±32,19 meses. Nenhuma alteração do formato original do questionário foi observada no final do processo de tradução e adaptação cultural. A consistência interna foi alta (0,88). A correlação entre o questionário traduzido e o SF-36 variou de 0,35 a 0,57, considerada de moderada a boa para a maioria dos domínios de qualidade de vida. A avaliação das validades de construto e concorrente foi satisfatória e estatisticamente significativa. CONCLUSÕES: A versão para o português do FACT-BMT foi validada satisfatoriamente para a aplicação em pacientes brasileiros de ambos os sexos submetidos ao transplante de medula óssea.

Comparative study between two distinct methods for attenuation correction and the use of no-attenuation correction for the assessment of relative uptake of 99mTc-DMSA on pediatric patients

Introduction: Although relative uptake values aren’t the most important objective of a 99mTc-DMSA scan, they are important quantitative information. In most of the dynamic renal scintigraphies attenuation correction is essential if one wants to obtain a reliable result of the quantification process. Although in DMSA scans the absent of significant background and the lesser attenuation in pediatric patients, makes that this attenuation correction techniques are actually not applied. The geometric mean is the most common method, but that includes the acquisition of an anterior (extra) projection, which it is not acquired by a large number of NM departments. This method and the attenuation factors proposed by Tonnesen will be correlated with the absence of attenuation correction procedures. Material and Methods: Images from 20 individuals (aged 3 years +/- 2) were used and the two attenuation correction methods applied. The mean time of acquisition (time post DMSA administration) was 3.5 hours +/- 0.8h. Results: The absence of attenuation correction showed a good correlation with both attenuation methods (r=0.73 +/- 0.11) and the mean difference verified on the uptake values between the different methods were 4 +/- 3. The correlation was higher when the age was lower. The attenuation correction methods correlation was higher between them two than with the “no attenuation correction” method (r=0.82 +/- 0.8), and the mean differences of the uptake values were 2 +/- 2. Conclusion: The decision of not doing any kind of attenuation correction method can be justified by the minor differences verified on the relative kidney uptake values. Nevertheless, if it is recognized that there is a need for an accurate value of the relative kidney uptake, then an attenuation correction method should be used. Attenuation correction factors proposed by Tonnesen can be easily implemented and so become a practical and easy to implement alternative, namely when the anterior projection - needed for the geometric mean methodology – is not acquired.

Assessment of nursing students and nurses' orientation towards patient-centeredness

Background - Being patient centered is a core value for nursing. Patient centered-care has been related to patient and health provider satisfaction, better health outcomes, higher quality of care and more efficient health care delivery. Objectives - The purpose was to assess the orientation adopted by nurses and students in patient care, using The Patient-Practitioner Orientation Scale, as well as to compare the results between resident nurses and students from different academic years. Settings - Public School of Nursing and a Central Hospital, in Lisbon (Portugal). Participants - Students in the first, second and fourth year of nursing school and nurses participated in the study. Methods - For data collection, we used The Patient-Practitioner Orientation Scale (European Portuguese version), an instrument designed to measure individual preferences toward the dimension of caring a sharing in health professional-patient relationship. Students and nurses also filled out two additional questions about their perception of competence in technical and communication skills. Additional demographic information was also collected, including gender, age, academic year and length of professional experience. Results - A total of 525 students (84.7% female) and 108 nurses (77.8% female) participated in this study. In general, caring sub-scores, measuring the preference of about attending to patient emotional aspects, were higher than sharing sub-scores, measuring beliefs about giving information and perceiving patient as a member of the health team. Students were significantly more patient-centered throughout their nursing education (p<0.001). Comparing to students in the second and fourth academic years (p<0.001) nurses' scores were significantly lower both in total PPOS and in caring and sharing subscales. Conclusions - These results reinforce the idea that patient centeredness may be developed in academic context. The scores obtained highlight the importance of studies that aim to identify factors that may explain the decrease of patient centeredness in professional practice.

Assessment of genotoxicity in oral epithelial cells of health professionals occupationally exposed to ionizing radiations

Dissertação de Mestrado em Ambiente, Saúde e Segurança.

Complementarity of conventional and molecular methods in the assessment of fungal contamination caused by Aspergillus fumigatus complex in one Portuguese composting plant

The handling of waste and compost that occurs frequently in composting plants (compost turning, shredding, and screening) has been shown to be responsible for the release of dust and air borne microorganisms and their compounds in the air. Thermophilic fungi, such as A. fumigatus, have been reported and this kind of contamination in composting facilities has been associated with increased respiratory symptoms among compost workers. This study intended to characterize fungal contamination in a totally indoor composting plant located in Portugal. Besides conventional methods, molecular biology was also applied to overcome eventual limitations.

Global material analysis on phosphorus flows, supply horizon and impact assessment on phosphorus depletion

Different problems are daily discuss on environmental aspects such acid rain, eutrophication, global warming and an others problems. Rarely do we find some discussions about phosphorus problematic. Through the years the phosphorus as been a real problem and must be more discussed. On this thesis was done a global material flow analysis of phosphorus, based on data from the year 2004, the production of phosphate rock in that year was 18.9 million tones, almost this amount it was used as fertilizer on the soil and the plants only can uptake, on average, 20% of the input of fertilizer to grow up, the remainder is lost for the phosphorus soil. In the phosphorus soil there is equilibrium between the phosphorus available to uptake from the plants and the phosphorus associate with other compounds, this equilibrium depends of the kind of soil and is related with the soil pH. A reserve inventory was done and we have 15,000 million tones as reserve, the amount that is economical available. The reserve base is estimated in 47,000 million tones. The major reserves can be found in Morocco and Western Sahara, United Sates, China and South Africa. The reserve estimated in 2009 was 15,000 million tone of phosphate rock or 1,963 million tone of P. If every year the mined phosphate rock is around 22 Mt/yr (phosphorus production on 2008 USGS 2009), and each year the consumption of phosphorus increases because of the food demand, the reserves of phosphate rock will be finished in about 90 years, or maybe even less. About the value/impact assessment was done a qualitative analysis, if on the future we don’t have more phosphate rock to produce fertilizers, it is expected a drop on the crops yields, each depends of the kind of the soil and the impact on the humans feed and animal production will not be a relevant problem. We can recovery phosphorus from different waste streams such as ploughing crop residues back into the soil, Food processing plants and food retailers, Human and animal excreta, Meat and bone meal, Manure fibre, Sewage sludge and wastewater. Some of these examples are developed in the paper.

Assessment of fungal contamination in waste sorting and incineration: case study in Portugal

Organic waste is a rich substrate for microbial growth, and because of that, workers from waste industry are at higher risk of exposure to bioaerosols. This study aimed to assess fungal contamination in two plants handling solid waste management. Air samples from the two plants were collected through an impaction method. Surface samples were also collected by swabbing surfaces of the same indoor sites. All collected samples were incubated at 27◦C for 5 to 7 d. After lab processing and incubation of collected samples, quantitative and qualitative results were obtained with identification of the isolated fungal species. Air samples were also subjected to molecular methods by real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT PCR) using an impinger method to measure DNA of Aspergillus flavus complex and Stachybotrys chartarum. Assessment of particulate matter (PM) was also conducted with portable direct-reading equipment. Particles concentration measurement was performed at five different sizes (PM0.5; PM1; PM2.5; PM5; PM10). With respect to the waste sorting plant, three species more frequently isolated in air and surfaces were A. niger (73.9%; 66.1%), A. fumigatus (16%; 13.8%), and A. flavus (8.7%; 14.2%). In the incineration plant, the most prevalent species detected in air samples were Penicillium sp. (62.9%), A. fumigatus (18%), and A. flavus (6%), while the most frequently isolated in surface samples were Penicillium sp. (57.5%), A. fumigatus (22.3%) and A. niger (12.8%). Stachybotrys chartarum and other toxinogenic strains from A. flavus complex were not detected. The most common PM sizes obtained were the PM10 and PM5 (inhalable fraction). Since waste is the main internal fungal source in the analyzed settings, preventive and protective measures need to be maintained to avoid worker exposure to fungi and their metabolites.

Fungal contamination assessment in Portuguese elderly care centers

Individuals spend 80-90% of their day indoors and elderly subjects are likely to spend even a greater amount of time indoors. Thus, indoor air pollutants such as bioaerosols may exert a significant impact on this age group. The aim of this study was to characterize fungal contamination within Portuguese elderly care centers. Fungi were measured using conventional as well as molecular methods in bedrooms, living rooms, canteens, storage areas, and outdoors. Bioaerosols were evaluated before and after the microenvironments' occupancy in order to understand the role played by occupancy in fungal contamination. Fungal load results varied from 32 colony-forming units CFU m(-3) in bedrooms to 228 CFU m(-3) in storage areas. Penicillium sp. was the most frequently isolated (38.1%), followed by Aspergillus sp. (16.3%) and Chrysonilia sp. (4.2%). With respect to Aspergillus genus, three different fungal species in indoor air were detected, with A. candidus (62.5%) the most prevalent. On surfaces, 40 different fungal species were isolated and the most frequent was Penicillium sp. (22.2%), followed by Aspergillus sp. (17.3%). Real-time polymerase chain reaction did not detect the presence of A. fumigatus complex. Species from Penicillium and Aspergillus genera were the most abundant in air and surfaces. The species A. fumigatus was present in 12.5% of all indoor microenvironments assessed. The living room was the indoor microenvironment with lowest fungal concentration and the storage area was highest.

Planning and implementing a new assessment strategy using an e-learning platform

One of the most difficult issues of e-Learning is the students’ assessment. Being this an outstanding task regarding theoretical topics, it becomes even more challenging when the topics under evaluation are practical. ISCAP’s Information Systems Department is composed of about twenty teachers who have been for several years using an e-learning environment (at the moment Moodle 2.3) combined with traditional assessment. They are now planning and implementing a new e-learning assessment strategy. This effort was undertaken in order to evaluate a practical topic (the use of spreadsheets to solve management problems) common to shared courses of several undergraduate degree programs. The same team group is already experienced in the assessment of theoretical information systems topics using the b-learning platform. Therefore, this project works as an extension to previous experiences being the team aware of the additional difficulties due to the practical nature of the topics. This paper describes this project and presents two cycles of the action research methodology, used to conduct the research. The first cycle goal was to produce a database of questions. When it was implemented in order to be used with a pilot group of students, several problems were identified. Subsequently, the second cycle consisted in solving the identified problems preparing the database and all the players to a broader scope implementation. For each cycle, all the phases, its drawbacks and achievements are described. This paper suits all those who are or are planning to be in the process of shifting their assessment strategy from a traditional to one supported by an e-learning platform.

Toxicological Assessment of Coated versus Uncoated Rubber Granulates Obtained from Used Tires for Use in Sport Facilities

Reuse of tire crumb in sport facilities is currently a very cost-effective waste management measure. Considering that incorporation of the waste materials in artificial turf would be facilitated if the rubber materials were already colored green, coatings were specifically developed for this purpose. This paper presents an experimental toxicological and environmental assessment aimed at comparing the obtained emissions to the environment in terms of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), heavy metals, and ecotoxicity for coated and noncoated rubber granulates. This study is a comprehensive evaluation of the major potential critical factors related with the release of all of these classes of pollutants because previous studies were not systematically performed. It was concluded that between the two types of coatings tested, one is particularly effective in reducing emissions to the environment, simultaneously meeting the requirements of adherence and color stability.

Assessment of genotoxic effects in nurses handling cytostatic drugs

Several antineoplastic drugs have been classified as carcinogens by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) on the basis of epidemiological findings, animal carcinogenicity data, and outcomes of in vitro genotoxicity studies. 5-Fluorouracil (5-FU), which is easily absorbed through the skin, is the most frequently used antineoplastic agent in Portuguese hospitals and therefore may be used as an indicator of surface contamination. The aims of the present investigation were to (1) examine surface contamination by 5-FU and (2) assess the genotoxic risk using cytokinesis-block micronucleus assay in nurses from two Portuguese hospitals. The study consisted of 2 groups: 27 nurses occupationally exposed to cytostatic agents (cases) and 111 unexposed individuals (controls). Peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) were collected in order to measure micronuclei (MN) in both groups. Hospital B showed a higher numerical level of contamination but not significantly different from Hospital A. However; Hospital A presented the highest value of contamination and also a higher proportion of contaminated samples. The mean frequency of MN was significantly higher in exposed workers compared with controls. No significant differences were found among MN levels between the two hospitals. The analysis of confounding factors showed that age is a significant variable in MN frequency occurrence. Data suggest that there is a potential genotoxic damage related to occupational exposure to cytostatic drugs in oncology nurses.

Risk Assessment of Chronic Exposure to Magnetic Fields near Electrical Apparatus

Conferência: 9th International Symposium on Occupational Safety and Hygiene (SHO) Guimaraes, Portugal - FEB 14-15, 2013