J Toxicol Env Heal A
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J Toxicol Env Heal A · Jan 2008
Air pollution: costs and paths to a solution in Hong Kong--understanding the connections among visibility, air pollution, and health costs in pursuit of accountability, environmental justice, and health protection.
Air quality has deteriorated in Hong Kong over more than 15 yr. As part of a program of public accountability, photographs on Poor and Better visibility days were used as representations of the relationships among visibility, air pollution, adverse health effects, and community costs for health care and lost productivity. Coefficients from time-series models and gazetted costs were used to estimate the health and economic impacts of different levels of pollution. ⋯ Direct costs and productivity losses avoided would be over US$240 million a year. The dissemination of these findings led to increased demands for pollution controls from the public and legislators, but denials of the need for urgent action arose from the government. The outcome demonstrates the need for more effective translation of the scientific evidence base into risk communication and public policy.
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J Toxicol Env Heal A · Jan 2008
Interaction of hydration, aging, and carbon content of soil on the evaporation and skin bioavailability of munition contaminants.
Water plays a key role in enhancing the permeability of human skin to many substances. To further understand its ability to potentially increase the bioavailability of soil contaminants, artificial sweat was applied to excised pig skin prior to dosing with munition-contaminated soils. Skin was mounted in chambers to allow simultaneous measurement of evaporation and penetration and to control air flow, which changed the dwell time of skin surface water within a l-h period post application of test materials. ⋯ Soil in contact with sweaty skin may give the same result. Skin absorption of 26DNT from soil was over 50-fold higher than the value for dryer skin and over 200-fold higher than the value obtained when there was no sweat application. While the hydration effect was less dramatic for RDX and TNT, soil contaminants more closely matching the physical properties of 26DNT may be similarly affected by hydration.
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J Toxicol Env Heal A · Dec 2007
Gemfibrozil ingestions reported to Texas poison control centers, 2000-2005.
Review of the literature failed to identify any information on potentially adverse ingestions of the cholesterol-lowering drug gemfibrozil (GEM) reported to poison control centers. Data from Texas poison control centers were used to describe the pattern of isolated GEM ingestions reported during 2000-2005. A total of 118 cases were identified. ⋯ A specific adverse clinical effect was listed for 9% of the cases, being gastrointestinal (5%), neurological (3%), or cardiovascular (1%). A specific treatment was listed for 54% of the cases, most frequently decontamination by dilution (39%) or food (15%). Potentially adverse isolated GEM ingestions reported to poison control centers generally do not involve serious medical outcomes and are successfully managed at home with a favorable outcome.
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J Toxicol Env Heal A · Nov 2007
Pediatric montelukast ingestions reported to Texas poison control centers, 2000-2005.
Limited information exists on the toxicity of pediatric ingestions of the drug montelukast used in the treatment of chronic asthma. All ingestions of montelukast involving children age 0-5 yr reported to Texas poison control centers during 2000-2005 were retrieved. For a subset of cases where the final medical outcome and dose in milligrams or milligrams per kilogram were known, the pattern of exposures by final medical outcome and management site was evaluated. ⋯ The proportion of cases with a minor effect increased from 5% for ingested dose of < or = 100 mg to 10% for > 100 mg but was 5% for dose < or = 5 mg/kg and > 5 mg/kg. The proportion of cases managed with health care facility involvement increased from 15% for ingested dose of < or = 100 mg to 56% for > 100 mg and rose from 10% for dose < or = 5 mg/kg to 47% for dose > 5 mg/kg. Pediatric montelukast ingestions of doses up to 536 mg or 33.71 mg/kg do not appear likely to result in serious adverse effects and usually can be managed at home.
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J Toxicol Env Heal A · Nov 2007
Contaminated soils (I): In vitro dermal absorption of benzo[a]pyrene in human skin.
Dermal absorption of the lipophile and potential carcinogen benzo[a]pyrene (BaP) in soils from contaminated sites was simulated in vitro using human skin exposed to 14C-BaP-spiked soil. This study is the first in a series of tests at Health Canada with several soil contaminants spanning a wide range of lipophilicity conducted with viable human skin. Breast skin was obtained fresh from a local hospital and dermatomed to a thickness of 0.4-0.5 mm. ⋯ Including the 42-h depots there was 16 and 50% absorption with and without soil, respectively, with respective depots of 7 and 39%. As there was no significant difference between the 24- and 42-h depots both with and without soil, the data suggest the depot for BaP was not bioavailable for at least the additional 18-h post soap wash exposure. The bioavailability of BaP is discussed in relation to previous in vitro and in vivo studies in perspective with dermal exposure to contaminated soils.