W hen a large-scale chemical incident occurs and large numbers of people are seeking care for chemical exposure at local hospitals, personnel at local or state health departments can be overwhelmed and unsure of how to best proceed. The Assessment of Chemical Exposures (ACE) program at the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) is available to help public health agencies respo...

The Deepwater Horizon oil spill is unparalleled among environmental hydrocarbon releases, because of the tremendous volume of oil, the additional contamination by dispersant, and the oceanic depth at which this release occurred. Here, we present data on general toxicity and mutagenicity of upper water column waters and, to a lesser degree, sediment porewater of the Northeastern Gulf of Mexico (...

Metal contamination in agricultural soils is of increasing concern due to food safety issues and potential health risks. Accumulation of Heavy and trace metals in vegetables occur by various sources but soil is considered the major one. Consumption of vegetables containing (heavy/trace) metals is one of the main ways in which these elements enter the human body. Once entered, heavy metals are d...

INTRODUCTION Flooding accounts for about 40 per cent of all natural disasters that occur worldwide. In 2002-2003 many counties in England experienced severe floods. Floods are particularly important in public health terms as they may have multiple environmental consequences. METHODS Details of floods reported to Chemical Hazards and Poisons Division, London [CHaPD(L)] were analysed and a lite...

BACKGROUND Although antenatal influenza vaccination is an important public health intervention for preventing serious infection in pregnant women and newborns, reported vaccine coverage is often <50%. Concern for the safety to the fetus is a commonly cited reason for vaccine hesitancy and refusal. The incidence of stillbirth following pandemic vaccination has been previously studied; however, n...

OBJECTIVE Using Taiwan's National Health Insurance claim data, we evaluated the age-, sex-, and urbanization-specific incidence density and relative risks of hip fracture in the diabetic population. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Diabetic patients (n = 500,868) and an age- and sex-matched control group (n = 500,248) were linked to inpatient claims (1997-2002) to identify hospitalizations for non...

BACKGROUND Although numerous studies have shown that perineural invasion (PNI) is linked to prostate cancer (PCa) risk, the results have been inconsistent. This study aimed to explore the association between PNI and biochemical recurrence (BCR) in patients with PCa following radical prostatectomy (RP) or radiotherapy (RT). METHODS According to the PRISMA statement, we searched the PubMed, EMB...

BACKGROUND Recent studies show that microRNA-145 (miR-145) might be an attractive tumor biomarker of considerable prognostic value. To clarify the preliminary predictive value of miR-145 for prognosis in various malignant neoplasms, we conducted a meta-analysis of 18 relevant studies. METHODS Eligible studies were identified by searching the online databases PubMed, EMBASE, and Web of Science...

Graphene is a promising candidate for the replacement of the typical transparent electrode indium tin oxide in optoelectronic devices. Currently, the application of polycrystalline graphene films grown by chemical vapor deposition is limited for their low electrical conductivity due to the poor transfer technique. In this work, we developed a new method of preparing tri-layer graphene films wit...

BACKGROUND More than 80 million Americans may be at risk of a chemical exposure because they live near one of the 101 most hazardous chemical facilities or near routes used to transport hazardous chemicals. One approach to hazard reduction is to use less toxic alternatives. Chlorine, one of the chemicals posing the greatest public health danger, has several alternatives depending on the applica...