[ensu] Nov 14, 28 & Dec 12: IES/GOEHU Environment & Health seminars
- From: ENSU <utorensu@xxxxxxxx>
- To: ensu@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 1 Nov 2002 13:41:28 -0500 (EST)
FYI
--- Mona El-Haddad <m.elhaddad@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: >
From: "Mona El-Haddad" <m.elhaddad@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: <m.elhaddad@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: Nov 14, 28 & Dec 12: IES/GOEHU Environment
> & Health seminars
> Date: Fri, 1 Nov 2002 13:09:12 -0500
>
> Institute for Environmental Studies &
> Gage Occupational and Environmental Health Unit
> ENVIRONMENT AND HEALTH SEMINAR SERIES: Thursdays at
> 4:00 p.m.
> Room 113, Koffler Institute for Pharmacy Management
> 569 Spadina Ave., at Bancroft Ave., north of College
> St.
>
>
> For a map and updates, please see
> http://www.utoronto.ca/env/seminars/e
> <http://www.utoronto.ca/env/seminars/e&h-fall.html>
> &h-fall.html
>
> No registration required ? all are welcome.
>
> For more information, please contact
> Mona El-Haddad (416-978-6526;
> <mailto:m.elhaddad@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> m.elhaddad@xxxxxxxxxxx)
>
> THU NOVEMBER 14 2002
> Michael Jerrett, Assistant Professor, School of
> Geography and Geology,
> McMaster University
> Spatial analysis of the air pollution-mortality
> association in the
> context of ecologic confounders
> Lack of control for confounding by ecological
> covariates that may relate
> to sulfate air pollution and mortality was a key
> criticism of the two
> studies that were the focus of the Particle
> Reanalysis Project. To
> assess the validity of this criticism, the following
> question was
> addressed: ?Does sulfate air pollution exert health
> effects when the
> impact of other individual and ecologic variables
> thought to influence
> health is taken into account?? A related question
> arises from the
> possibility of autocorrelation in the mortality
> risks and ecologic
> covariates. Failure to control for autocorrelation
> can lead to false
> positive significance tests and may indicate bias
> resulting from a
> missing variable or group of variables.
> More than 25 individual risk factors and 20
> ecologic variables
> representing environmental, socioeconomic,
> demographic, health care and
> lifestyle determinants of health were controlled in
> a two-stage
> multilevel analysis. Four modeling strategies were
> used to control for
> spatial autocorrelation. Of the 20 ecologic
> variables tested, only
> sulfate and sulfur dioxide were significant in
> models that incorporate
> spatial autocorrelation. Accounting for
> autocorrelation also reduces
> the size and certainty of the sulfate effect on
> mortality when compared
> to results generated from Cox models where
> independent observations are
> assumed. Confidence limits for the sulfate relative
> risk include unity
> in models that simultaneously control for sulfur
> dioxide and
> autocorrelation.
>
> REMAINING FALL SEMINARS:
> THU NOVEMBER 28 2002
> Gary Liss, Assistant Professor, Department of Public
> Health Sciences and
> Gage Occupational and Environmental Health Unit,
> University of Toronto;
> Medical Consultant, Ontario Ministry of Labour
> Comparison of medically unexplained symptoms between
> radiographers and
> physiotherapists
> Medical radiation technologists (radiographers or
> MRTs) may develop
> occupational asthma and a poorly characterized
> condition known as
> ?darkroom disease?. MRTs have exposure to
> irritating and sensitizing
> chemicals involved in developing and fixing films
> including
> glutaraldehyde, formaldehyde, acetic acid and SO2.
> It is unknown
> whether previous investigations of MRTs have
> included questionnaire
> items regarding their ?sensitivities? to chemicals,
> used to define
> multiple chemical sensitivities (MCS), also known as
> idiopathic
> environmental illness (IEI). A questionnaire survey
> was conducted to
> ascertain, among MRTs as compared with a control
> group of
> physiotherapists, the prevalence of
> physician-diagnosed asthma,
> respiratory and non-respiratory symptoms, as well as
> responses to items
> previously proposed by Kipen (2000) and Kreutzer
> (1999) to identify
> those possibly having chemical sensitivities.
> Responses were analyzed
> among 1110 MRTs and 1523 physiotherapists who never
> smoked. Findings
> from the exposure assessment in a sample of
> darkrooms will be presented,
> as well as the results comparing reported asthma,
> respiratory and
> non-respiratory symptoms, and the proportions of
> each profession meeting
> these MCS/ IEI definitions. Possible interpretation
> and mechanisms of
> the findings will also be discussed. This study was
> supported by a
> grant from the Research Advisory Council of the
> Workplace Safety &
> Insurance Board. Collaborators included Susan
> Tarlo, Jim Purdham, Jamie
> Doherty, Mickey Kerr, Justina Greene and Lisa
> McCaskell.
> THU DECEMBER 12 2002 ***NEW SEMINAR ADDED***
> Tor Norseth, Senior Physician, National Institute of
> Occupational Health
> and Professor of Preventive Occupational Medicine at
> the Faculty of
> Medicine, Dept of General Practice and Community
> Medicine, Oslo, Norway.
>
> Nickel Refining at the Kola Peninsula, Russia: a
> health hazard to the
> public?
> Pollution from the Russian nickel refining industry
> in the cities of
> Nikel and Zapolyarny close to the Norwegian border
> has been a matter of
> great concern during the last decade. A
> comprehensive collaborative
> Norwegian-Russian monitoring and research programme
> on environmental
> pollution and pollution effects was started in 1988
> and revealed harmful
> effects on the environment on both sides of the
> border, but few studies
> have until recently concentrated on human health.
> The one-hour WHO guideline level of 350 ug/m3 of
> SO2 has frequently
> been exceeded, specifically on the Russian side of
> the border. During
> short time SO2 pollution episodes, the maximum
> one-hour concentrations
> could reach levels as high as 3000 ug/m3 and 4000
> ug/m3 on the Norwegian
> and Russian side, respectively. These levels may
> cause acute respiratory
> distress in asthmatics and naturally cause much
> concern among the public
> in the border area. The increasing vegetation
> damage, of course most
> conspicuous in close proximity to the plants,
> naturally added to the
> concern. So did the gradually opening up of the
> border, which had been
> virtually closed since the second world war because
> of the extensive
> Russian military installation in the area. People
> could see what
> happened to the environment.
> In Sør-Varanger on the Norwegian side of the
> border, a movement
> called ?Stop The Death Clouds? was established in
> 1990. Soon after that,
> as many as 4000 people had joined the movement,
> corresponding to more
> than one member per household in the community. The
> movement also had
> Russian members. The gradual opening of the border
> had interesting
> effects. The organization did indeed put a
> considerable pressure on the
> Norwegian government to finance the renovation of
> the Nikel smelter.
> Health was included in the bilateral monitoring
> programme in 1992
> because of the increasing concern for human health
> in the area.
> Cross-sectional population-based studies with a
> common protocol were
> started in Sør-Varanger municipality (Norway) and in
> Nickel and
> Zapolyarny (Russia) in 1994/95. Comparison studies
> were performed in
> Tromsø (Norway) and in Apatity, Kirovsk and Umba in
> Russia.
> In his presentation Dr. Norseth will report on
> methodological
> peculiarities caused by performing a
> population-based study in a
> population not entirely happy by receiving ?official
> letters? caused by
> bad experience with such letters. He will, however,
> also report on very
> fruitful collaboration crossing cultural borders.
> Lung diseases,
> allergy and pregnancy outcomes are important
> problems, and he will give
> you some thoughts and reflections on science, values
> and politics by
> comparing the principles of the populations based
> survey they applied in
> the Norwegian-Russian collaboration with what he
> experienced with the
> risk assessment paradigm used in the Port Colborne
> case.
>
>
______________________________________________________________________
Post your free ad now! http://personals.yahoo.ca
Other related posts:
- » [ensu] Nov 14, 28 & Dec 12: IES/GOEHU Environment & Health seminars
