Occupational morbidity among children employed in brassware industry

Fifty seven male children between ages of 10-16 years engaged in the brassware industry at Moradabad in Northern India were studied for occupational morbidity. The finding were compared with those obtained in the children (n = 29) engaged in other ancillary units which did not involve exposure to the metal fumes and dust in their work environment. The study showed a high prevalence of respiratory morbidity in the children engaged in the main units in comparison to those employed in the ancillary units (40.3 vs 27.6%; p less than 0.05). This was associated with significantly higher prevalence of pulmonary impairment in the former group (21.0%) particularly demonstrating restrictive ventilatory abnormality (10.5%) followed by bronchial obstruction (7.0%). The high respiratory morbidity may be attributed to chronic exposure to the fumes and dust of the metals such as nickel, chromium and cadmium. The children employed in the ancillary as well as in the main units showed high prevalences of musculo-skeletal disorders (27.6 and 22.8%) which may be caused by sustained faulty posture adopted during work and physical stress.

Air monitoring network program in Saudi Arabia

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has initiated a program to install air quality network stations throughout the country in order to measure concentration of the ambient air pollutants. The site selection of these stations is an important objective to be accomplished and must be done based on scientific and rational work. To accomplish this objective, a modified version of atmospheric transport and dispersion model, known as air resources laboratories - atmospheric transport and dispersion (ARL- ATAD) model, is used to evaluate long range transport and diffusion of air pollutants from major pollution causing sources such as refineries, open-air burning of associated gases of oil fields and major industries. Hourly meteorological data for a period of three years (from 1977 to 1979) on wind speed, wind direction, pressure, and temperature from 20 synoptic stations in Saudi Arabia is processed and used as model input. In addition to these, meteorological data from three upper air stations is also processed in order to determine base and top of critical inversion heights. Various pollution causing sources are identified within the study area. Air trajectories are drawn with sources as the origins of the trajectories and the dispersion characteristics is studied with distance and time. Based on long term meteorological records, the adversely affected zones are statistically identified for potential station sites.

Spirometric changes after open mitral surgery

New York Heart Association (NYHA) functional classification of cardiac patients is assessed by subjective impairment of respiratory reserve. We objectively studied pulmonary function by spirometry in 31 random patients (average age 27.2 years) with rheumatic mitral valve (MV) disease undergoing open surgery (7 reconstruction, 24 replacement) preoperatively, predischarge and at 3 month follow-up. Better preoperative spirometric parameters were observed in class II nonsmoker patients with smaller cardiothoracic ratio (CTR) and normal pulmonary artery pressure (PAP). After surgery mean PAP decreased to 19.0 +/- 6.7 mmHg, MV gradient dropped to 3.4 +/- 2.9 mmHg, average CTR decreased to 52.3 /- 5.5%. MV area increased significantly from 0.8 +/= 0.49 to 2.45 +/- 1.23 cm2. Forced vital capacity (FVC), forced expiratory volume in one second FEV1), flow rates at 25%-75% of expired vital capacity (FEF 25-75%) and maximum voluntary ventilation (MVV) decreased significantly in all patients at discharge. Prolonged postoperative ventilatory support over 10 hours led to markedly reduced predischarge FVC, FEV1, FEF50, MVV and maximum mid expiratory flow rate (MMEFR). Prolonged cardiopulmonary bypass over 80 minutes caused further decrease in FVC. After 3 months all these parameters improved in all above the preoperative level but remained below the predicted values. Despite improvement in NYHA class, impaired spirometry was observed in 11 patients. Functional or hemodynamic improvement did not correlate with spirometric changes.

Potential role for vascular surgeons during a COVID-19 outbreak: management, workload, and outcomes from the initiation of a central venous line service for patients with COVID-19 undergoing ventilation during the initial UK peak

This is a report by a vascular unit in London on the initiation of a central venous line service for patients with COVID-19 undergoing ventilation during the initial UK peak. It includes views on management, workload, and overall outcomes.

Lung function norms in healthy working women

Two hundred seventy four healthy working women subjects representing different states were subjected to pulmonary function testing to establish linear multiple regression model. Lung functions were considered as dependent variables while age, height and weight as independent variables. Highly significant negative correlation of all lung function parameters with age and positive correlations with height and weight were observed. Females showed a decline of 0.203, 0.199 and 0.210 litres per decade in FVC, FEV0.75 and FEV1.0 parameters respectively. An increase in FVC, FEV0.75 and FEV1.0 values was found to be 0.0217, 0.0132 and 0.0178 litres respectively per unit centimeter increase in height.

MERS-CoV seroconversion amongst Malaysian Hajj pilgrims returning from the Middle East, 2016-2018: results from the MERCURIAL multiyear prospective cohort study

Prospective cohort study to investigate the potential exposure to the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome-Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) following Hajj pilgrims is still very limited. Here, we report the antibody seroconversion study results obtained from successive three years cohort studies (2016-2018) involving the Malaysian Hajj pilgrims returning from the Middle East. A cohort study of Hajj pilgrims from Malaysia enrolled 2,863 participants from 2016-2018, all of whom consented to provide paired blood samples for both pre- and post-Hajj travel to the Middle East. ELISAs and micro-neutralization assays were performed to detect the presence of MERS-CoV IgG antibodies. Sociodemographic data, symptoms experienced during Hajj, and history of exposure to camels or camel products were recorded using structured pre- and post-Hajj questionnaires. A 4-fold increase in anti-MERS-CoV IgG between paired pre-Hajj and post-Hajj serum samples in twelve participants was observed. None of the twelve ELISA-positive sera had detectable levels of virus-neutralizing antibodies. All reportedly had mild symptoms of respiratory symptoms at a certain point during the pilgrimage, implying mild or asymptomatic infections. No association between post-Hajj serum positivity and a history of exposure to camels or camel products was obtained. Findings from the study suggest that serologic conversion to MERS-CoV occurred in at least 0.6% of the Hajj pilgrims returning from the Middle East. Since all the seroconvertants had mild to no symptoms during the sampling period, it highlights the likelihood of occurrence of only low infectivity spillover infections among the Hajj pilgrims.

Long-term SO2 dispersion modeling over a coastal region

Air dispersion modeling over coastal regions has proven to be a remarkable challenge in the field of air quality. Many conventional plume dispersion models, such as ISC2 and HYSPLIT, are unable to model such dispersion with the precision that is necessary to accurately predict ground-level concentrations in coastal areas. Considering this, the present work was carried out with two primary objectives: i) to evaluate the effectiveness of currently available mathematical models in predicting plume dispersion over a coastal region and ii) to study the impact of sulfur dioxide emissions from a petroleum refinery over a different community located in the adjacent area. This study demonstrates that CALPUFF predictions are more reliable compared to those of the other models studied, however the operation of CALPUFF is highly data intensive and in many instances, it is difficult to obtain all required input data. This is a particular problem for regions outside ofthe United States of America where sufficient data is difficult to obtain. In addition, the study concluded that the predicted annual average SO2 concentrations in the nearby communities are well within regulatory limits.