| 1. |
- Andersson, Eva, 1955, et al.
(författare)
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Gliomas among men employed in the Swedish pulp and paper industry.
- 2002
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Ingår i: Scandinavian journal of work, environment & health. - 0355-3140. ; 28:5, s. 333-40
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- OBJECTIVES: This study investigated whether previous findings of an increased risk of gliomas among workers in some pulp and paper mills could be confirmed for all Swedish pulp and paper mill workers and whether the increase could be attributed to certain occupational groups. METHODS: The study was based on the Swedish Cancer Environment Register, which links the incidence of cancer from 1971 to 1990 and the 1960 and 1970 census data on codes of occupation and industry for the whole population. Standardized incidence ratios (SIR) were used to estimate the risks for men in different occupations in pulp (N = 28,142) and paper (N = 39,169) mills in 1960, 1970 or both years as compared with those of all gainfully employed men in Sweden. RESULTS: Maintenance workers employed in pulp or paper mills in 1960, 1970 or both years, as well aspulp workers, showed an increased incidence of gliomas in 1971-1990 [SIR 1.5, 95% confidence interval (95% CI) 1.1-2.1 and SIR 1.5,95% CI 1.0-2.2, respectively], whereas the incidence among process workers in paper mills was lower than expected (SIR 0.6, 95% CI 0.3-0.9). Taken together, all employed men in the pulp mill industry had an increased incidence of gliomas (SIR 1.3, 95% CI 1.0-1.7). CONCLUSIONS: Pulp mill workers, but not paper mill workers, were found to have more gliomas in 1971-1990 than expected. There was an increased risk of gliomas among maintenance workers in both pulp and paper mills. Few risk factors for brain tumors are recognized, and the causes of the increase are not obvious.
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| 2. |
- Barany, E, et al.
(författare)
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Trace elements in blood and serum of Swedish adolescents: Relation to gender, age, residential area, and socioeconomic status
- 2002
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Ingår i: Environmental Research. - : Elsevier BV. - 1096-0953 .- 0013-9351. ; 89:1, s. 72-84
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The influence of gender, age, residential area, and socioeconomic status on the blood and serum levels of 13 trace elements was studied in boys and girls living in two Swedish cities with different socioeconomic and environmental characters. The same groups of adolescents were sampled twice, at ages 15 (n = 372) and 17 (n = 294) years. All the investigated factors were shown to be of importance. Age was important for most elements; e.g., copper levels in both blood and serum increased in girls, and selenium increased in serum from both genders. Lead decreased approximately 10%, in blood from the first to the second sampling, and cadmium increased in blood, however not in nonsmokers. The age factor may also reflect temporal changes in environmental exposure, especially for nonessential elements. Girls had higher levels of cobalt and copper, while lead in blood was higher in boys. Smoking girls had higher copper levels than nonsmoking girls. Residential area influenced all elements. The teenagers with university-educated mothers had higher levels of cadmium in blood than those with only primary school-educated mothers.
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| 3. |
- Gerdtham, Ulf, et al.
(författare)
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Do life-saving regulations save lives ?
- 2002
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Ingår i: Journal of Risk and Uncertainty. - : Springer Nature. - 1573-0476 .- 0895-5646. ; 24:3, s. 231-249
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Life-saving regulations may be counter-productive since they have an indirect mortality effect through the reduction in disposable income. This paper estimates the effect of income on mortality, controlling for the initial health status and a host of personal characteristics. The analysis is based on a random sample of the adult Swedish population of over 40,000 individuals followed up for 10-17 years. The income loss that will induce an expected fatality is estimated to be $6.8 million when the costs are borne equally among all adults, $8.4 million when the costs are borne proportionally to income and $9.8 million when the costs are borne progressively to income.
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| 4. |
- Gerdtham, Ulf, et al.
(författare)
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The Determinants of Health in Sweden
- 2002
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Ingår i: Individual Decisions for Health. - New York : Routledge. - 9780415273930 - 0415273935 ; , s. 113-127
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Bokkapitel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)
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| 5. |
- Håkansson, Anders, et al.
(författare)
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Kurser i grundläggande forskningsmetodik till nytta för kliniker. Tolv års erfarenheter från Sydsverige
- 2002
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Ingår i: Läkartidningen. - 0023-7205. ; 99:10, s. 80-1083
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Tidskriftsartikel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- At the Department of Community Medicine at Lund University we have given courses in basic research methodology since 1989. The course has yielded 20 points of university credit, the equivalent of one full-time semester of studies, and it has been run part-time, covering one and a half years. Our aim has been to provide a large number of physicians with basic training in research methods, and to stimulate the engagement of new scientific students from the whole Southern Health Care Re-gion. During the first ten years, 138 general practitioners (20% of the GPs of the region) and 202 specialists completed our courses. Up till now, 19 GPs (14%) and 19 specialists (9%) have begun PhD studies. During the last two years, another 100 physicians from southern Sweden have attended our courses, as well as GPs from Zealand in Denmark. We have been developing our course in basic research methods during a twelve-year period, and it is now well established in our health care region. We feel that we have succeeded in reaching the two goals we had set up: to give a large number of physicians a fundamental knowledge of research meth-ods and to recruit and increase the number of PhD students. We believe that medical research and development must flourish also outside the traditional university settings.
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| 6. |
- Lindberg, Gunnar, et al.
(författare)
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Use of calcium channel blockers as antihypertensives in relation to mortality and cancer incidence: a population-based observational study
- 2002
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Ingår i: Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety. - : Wiley. - 1053-8569. ; 11:6, s. 493-497
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Abstract Purpose Treatment with blood pressure lowering drugs may reduce morbidity and mortality. However, the efficacy and effectiveness may differ between antihypertensive agents. The current investigation aimed to compare mortality and cancer incidence in hypertensive patients treated with calcium channel blockers (CCB) or with other antihypertensive drugs (AHD). Methods All patients in two outpatient clinics treated with AHD who underwent an annual check-up during 1989 or 1990 were selected. Fatal events were identified through 1997 and incident cancers through 1998. Results Two hundred and fourteen patients on CCB and 1029 on other AHD were identified. Overall mortality and the combined mortality from myocardial infarction and stroke were higher in CCB users; hazard ratios adjusted for sex, age, co-morbidity and other and risk factors were 1.84 (95% CI 1.25-2.72) and 2.37 (95% CI 1.27-4.44), respectively. The risk estimates for cancer mortality and for cancer incidence did not differ significantly. Conclusions Results from clinical trials as well as observational studies, including the present one, indicate a higher mortality risk and a higher cardiovascular morbidity risk associated with use of CCB. Accordingly, CCB should not be regarded as first line drugs in hypertension.
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| 7. |
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| 8. |
- Albin, Maria, et al.
(författare)
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Incidence of asthma in female Swedish hairdressers.
- 2002
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Ingår i: Occupational and Environmental Medicine. - : BMJ. - 1470-7926 .- 1351-0711. ; 59:2, s. 119-23.
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- OBJECTIVE: To investigate the risk of asthma in hairdressers. METHODS: The incidence of asthma was retrospectively estimated in a Swedish nationwide study including all female hairdressers certified from vocational schools from 1970 to 1995, and a stratified sample of women from the general population were referents. A postal questionnaire included questions on respiratory tract symptoms, atopy, smoking, working periods as a hairdresser, and number of specific hair treatments performed/week. Reported exposures were validated by occupational hygienists. Rate ratios of incidence (IRRs) of asthma were estimated by Poisson regression, adjusted for calendar year of observation, hay fever, smoking, and region of domicile. RESULTS: The crude incidences of asthma/1000 person-years were: 3.9 during active years as a hairdresser, 2.8 among the hairdressers when not working in the profession, and 3.1 among the referents. The corresponding IRR for being an active hairdresser compared with the referents was 1.3 (95% confidence interval (95% CI) 1.0 to 1.6). Moderate effects on risk of asthma were found both from hairdressing work (IRR=1.6 (1.1 to 2.2) among never-smokers) and from smoking (IRR=1.6 (1.2 to 2.2) among referents). However, the combined effect from hairdressing work and smoking (IRR=1.5 (1.0 to 2.1)) was less than expected (p=0.02). No effect modification by respiratory atopy was found. The hairdressers most often performing hair bleaching treatments (IRR=1.5 (0.7 to 3.0)) or using hair spray (IRR=1.4 (0.8 to 2.4)) had, compared with the most infrequent users, a slightly, but not significantly higher incidence of asthma. Exposure to persulphates in hair bleach was estimated to be 0.04-0.15 mg/m(3) during mixing of the powder. Reported average number of bleaching treatments agreed well with those performed according to a diary. CONCLUSIONS: Active hairdressing work was associated with a moderately increased incidence of asthma among lifelong non-smokers. The results are moderately supportive, but not conclusive, of associations between asthma and exposure to hair bleach or hair spray.
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| 9. |
- Andersson, Eva, 1955
(författare)
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Asthma and cancer among pulp and paper mill workers
- 2002
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- There were two main aims of this thesis. One was to study if repeated high exposures to irritant gases give rise to new-onset asthma, and the other was to study if exposure in pulp and paper mills were associated with cancer.Two studies were case-referent studies of male mortality in parishes surrounding three sulfite (N=780) and four sulfate mills (N=2480). An increased mortality from asthma was found among workers in sulfite mills, possibly as a result of accidental exposure to sulfur dioxide. Brain tumor mortality was two to three times higher than expected among both sulfite and sulfate mill workers. In sulfate mills, the excess mortality was seen among workers from maintenance departments, wood rooms and saw mills. The workers from the sulfate mills had an increased mortality from lung cancer and pleural mesotheliomas, probably caused by asbestos exposure. Stomach cancer mortality was not increased in any of the studies.One study investigated glioma incidence between 1971 and 1990 among men in different occupations in Swedish pulp and paper mills from census and cancer incidence data in the Cancer Environment Register 6070. All gainfully employed Swedish men were used as a reference group. Standardized incidence ratios were calculated using 5-year birth cohorts stratified by calendar period and region. A 50% excess incidence of gliomas was found among maintenance workers in the pulp and paper industry and among process workers in pulp mills. Process workers in paper mills showed a lower incidence than expected. The reasons for these findings are not obvious.In a historical cohort study, 101 bleachery workers and 314 paper department workers were investigated by questionnaires with items on airway symptoms and exposure to irritant gases. About 50% of the irritant gas-exposed workers had experienced high exposures giving respiratory symptoms (gassings). Incidence rates of adult-onset physician-diagnosed asthma and adult-onset wheeze were calculated and Cox regression analyses were performed. The incidence of asthma was significantly increased among bleachery workers during mill working years compared to paper workers (5.4 and 1.0 cases per 1000 person-years, respectively), especially among workers who reported gassings. The incidence of new-onset wheeze was also increased among the workers with gassings. Both for asthma and wheeze, the risk estimate was five times higher for those reporting gassings, stratified for sex, and controlled for hay fever and smoking.It was shown that repeated high exposure to irritant gases gave rise to new-onset asthma among bleachery workers. Such exposure should be prevented. It was also found that glioma incidence was increased in some occupations in pulp and paper mills. Mortality from lung cancer and pleural mesotheliomas was increased, probably caused by asbestos exposure.
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| 10. |
- Axmon, Anna, et al.
(författare)
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Female fertility in relation to the consumption of fish contaminated with persistent organochlorine compounds.
- 2002
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Ingår i: Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment and Health. - 0355-3140. ; 28:2, s. 124-132
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- OBJECTIVES: The purpose of the study was to assess the effect of exposure to presistent organochlorine compounds through the consumption of fatty fish from the Baltic Sea on human fertility. METHODS: Information on time to pregnancy, miscarriages, and subfertility was collected retrospectively by self-administered questionnaires in two cohorts of fishermen's sisters from the Swedish east coast, by the Baltic Sea, and the west coast, where fish are less contaminated. Along with cohort affiliation, fish consumption and growing up in a fishing village or fisherman's family were used as measures of exposure within the eastcoast cohort (ie, the exposed cohort). RESULTS: There was no support for a negative effect of the consumption of fatty Baltic Sea fish on time to pregnancy, miscarriages, or subfertility. On the contrary, some evidence pointed towards a protective effect of fatty fish consumption within both cohorts. CONCLUSIONS: No evidence of reduced fertility was found for women who could be assumed to have a high lifetime consumption of fatty fish contaminated by persistent organochlorine compounds. A possible explanation for this finding is that a positive effect of some of the constituents in fatty fish could be strong enough to disguise the hazardous effects of exposure to persistent organochlorine compounds.
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