Exposure to Environmental Endotoxin and Health Effects

Health effects studies related to occupational and environmental exposure.

This paper describes adverse health effect studies conducted at the Institute for Medical Research and Occupational Health since its foundation fifty years ago to the present day. The presentation of the studied problems is based mainly on the type of exposure--occupational or environmental--and partly on disease entities. The review is organised around the following topics: metals, organic sol...

Does environmental endotoxin exposure prevent asthma?

The evidence as to whether exposure to environmental airborne endotoxin plays a protective or an inducing role in the development of asthma is reviewed. Studies of endotoxin and atopy, endotoxin and asthma, and farming and asthma are considered and, in each instance, a distinction is made between evidence of primary causation and evidence of secondary causation. It is concluded that, although i...

Health Effects of Exposure to Environmental Tobacco Smoke

Respiratory health effects of exposure to environmental tobacco smoke.

Tobacco smoke is a major component of indoor air pollution. Exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) is prevalent worldwide despite growing awareness of its adverse health effects on non-smokers. ETS contains the same toxic substances as identified in mainstream tobacco smoke. Cotinine (a metabolite of nicotine) can be measured in urine and serum of non-smokers exposed to ETS and reflects ...

Environmental exposure to pesticides and respiratory health.

Respiratory effects of environmental exposure to pesticides are debated. Here we aimed to review epidemiological studies published up until 2013, using the PubMed database. 20 studies dealing with respiratory health and non-occupational pesticide exposure were identified, 14 carried out on children and six on adults. In four out of nine studies in children with biological measurements, mothers'...