Neurological and neuropsychological deterioration in artisanal gold miners from the town of Andacollo,Chile

It is widely known that human exposure to mercury vapor can cause neurological and neuropsychological deterioration. We have investigated if a population of Chilean artisanal gold-mining workers heavily exposed to elemental mercury (Hg⁰) display neurological and neuropsychological impairment. Male volunteers occupationally exposed to Hg⁰ (“gold miners”, n = 35) were recruited and compared with a group of unexposed workers (n = 40). Blood specimens were obtained from both groups for total mercury quantification. Upon neurological examination, 71% of the “gold miners” group showed abnormalities expressed as frontal impairment, tremor, or simultaneously frontal impairment, parkinsonism, and pyramidal syndrome. In contrast, only 16% of the individuals in the control group displayed neurological abnormalities. The “gold miners” group also showed impairment of the neuropsychological performance and the distribution of abnormal scores for almost all the neuropsychological tests applied was significantly higher in this group compared to the control group. Educational level, alcohol intake, and smoking habits did not influence the outcome of the neurological or neuropsychological examinations. Finally, despite that the higher blood mercury concentrations were found in the “gold miners” group, they were not significantly different from the values obtained in the control group.     

An expert system for assessing safety and security of heterogeneous public water sources

We have implemented a diagnostic system designed to advise on the likely causes of sanitary problems with public water sources. The approach to the problem makes extensive use of rule based expert systems and multi media information (maps, data, text, expert knowledge). The rules were based on actual water survey data, with a weighting scheme designed to highlight causes of health risks approximately in reverse order of importance (where such order may be presumed to exist). Out put is a vailable in one of several languages.     

Parental risk perceptions of childhood pedestrian road safety: a cross cultural comparison

INTRODUCTION: This cross-sectional community-based randomized telephone survey, aimed to compare the parental risk perceptions on childhood pedestrian road safety among three different major community language speaking groups and the mainstream English speaking Australians in Sydney, Australia. METHOD: This was a community-based telephone survey with subjects randomly selected from the population of specific cultural languages in Sydney. RESULTS: Results indicated that Chinese and Arabic speaking parents or caregivers perceived the road environments as significantly less hazardous for their 4-12 year old children as pedestrians when compared with Vietnamese and English speaking parents. This was true even after adjusting for the age of child, socioeconomic status, and the living environments of respondents. CONCLUSION: The implication of the results was discussed in light of possible application to childhood safety behavior across different cultures. IMPACT TO THE INDUSTRY: The results obtained have highlighted the importance of cultural factors in risk perceptions, and safety behaviors. Cultural differences in risk perceptions should be taken into consideration in the design of safety education programs.     

Pollution monitoring in Southeast Asia using biomarkers in the mytilid mussel Perna viridis (Mytilidae: Bivalvia)

Mytilid mussels have been extensively used in marine pollution monitoring programmes in temperate regions of the world although widespread subtropical representatives such as Perna viridis have only comparatively recently been utilised to monitor the sublethal effects of pollution in Southeast Asia. P. viridis is considered a subtropical equivalent of the temperate Mytilus sp. and has considerable potential for pollution monitoring throughout its geographical range. This paper reviews the current status of biomarkers in P. viridis and provides some recommendations on biological-effects monitoring to facilitate the assessment of coastal pollution in Southeast Asia.     

Application of the Australian river bioassessment system (AUSRIVAS) in the Brantas River, East Java, Indonesia

Assessment of river 'health' using biological methods, particularly those based on macro-invertebrates, is now commonplace in most developed countries. However, this is not the case in most developing countries, where physical and chemical methods are used to assess water quality, with very little use of biological assessment methods. This paper reports on a project that aimed to assess the possible introduction of biological assessment of river condition using the Australian River Assessment System (AUSRIVAS) into Indonesia. The paper addresses three components of the project: (1) science--does the bioassessment method work in this tropical region? (2) resources--are they adequate and if not what additional resources are needed? (3) politics--what needs to be done to convince the agencies (both central and provincial) to take up such a new philosophy and approach? A pilot study was run in the upper Brantas River, East Java. A total of 66 reference sites and 15 test sites were sampled and the macro-invertebrates collected were identified to family level. A rigorous quality-control protocol was introduced to ensure the data were reliable and reproducible. The macro-invertebrate data were used to develop a predictive model of the AUSRIVAS type for the upper Brantas River, and the model was then used to assess the 'health' of sites that were presumed to be damaged in this section of the river. A number of difficulties were experienced during the study, including: locating reference sites sufficiently unmodified by humans; lack of skills to identify animals collected; and a paucity of facilities required for aquatic macro-invertebrate identification (e.g. identification keys and good quality binocular microscopes). For resources, the major constraint to the introduction of a bioassessment capability in Indonesia is the lack of personnel trained in the bioassessment techniques. An 'on-the-job' training approach was adopted, largely because of the specialist nature of this work. Six Indonesians were trained and will now become the 'trainers' of further Indonesian scientists (we have called this process 'training-the-trainers'). For politics, it was hoped that the AUSRIVAS method would be suitable for introduction into the Indonesian national Clean River Program. A strategy was developed and implemented to ensure the method and its outputs were accepted technically by the Indonesian scientific community, and also by the resource managers and relevant government officials. Experience shows that if the latter do not see how the bioassessment information will be used for management purposes they will not accept the method even if it is scientifically sound.     

Occurrence and fate of endogenous steroid hormones, alkylphenol ethoxylates, bisphenol A and phthalates in municipal sewage treatment systems

Steroid hormones, alkylphenol ethoxylates(APEOs) and phthalic acid esters(PAEs) are emerging endocrine disrupting chemicals(EDCs) that can interfere with the endocrine function in organisms at low concentrations. The occurrence, distribution behavior, removal rate and the fate of 31 target EDCs in sewage treatment plants, which consist of various treatment facilities and receiving water in Hong Kong, were investigated. Estrone,nonylphenol-di-ethoxylate and diethyl phthalate were found to be dominant in each group of influent samples with concentrations ranging from 11–33, 747–3945 and 445–4635 ng/L,respectively. Conversely, progesterone, nonylphenol-mono-ethoxylate and bis(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate were the most abundant in dewatered sludge, with concentrations ranging from 0.9–237, 75–19,743 and 4310–37,016 ng/g(dry weight). The removal rates of primary sedimentation and disinfection approaches were lower than 30% for most of the chemicals,while those of activated sludge and reverse osmosis were greater than 80% for more than two-thirds of the compounds, noticeably decreasing the estrogenic risk of sewage discharged into the environment. Steroid hormones were removed via biological degradation, while some APEOs and PAEs adsorbed to the sludge. Victoria Harbor poses a low to medium estrogenic risk mainly contributed by estrone and estradiol and deserves attention.     

双酚A暴露对斑马鱼胚胎期代谢作用的影响

运用基于GC/MS的代谢组学方法,以受精卵在双酚A(BPA)中暴露4d后的斑马鱼胚胎为对象,研究了其体内挥发性和半挥发性代谢组分变化.暴露浓度设定为0,0.5,1.5,4.5mg/L,包括US EPA假定的“安全水平”(1.5mg/L).结果表明,1.5mg/L BPA暴露能使斑马鱼体内花生四烯酸和胆固醇的相对百分含量极显著降低,饱和脂肪酸、氨基酸、葡萄糖和肌糖的相对百分含量显著升高.因此,1.5mg/L BPA能干扰斑马鱼胚胎期的正常代谢.     

Fetal methylmercury exposure as measured by cord blood mercury concentrations in a mother-infant cohort in Hong Kong

This study was designed to examine newborn infants in Hong Kong prenatally exposed to levels of methylmercury considered to increase risk of neurotoxic effects and to examine subject characteristics that modify the degree of prenatal mercury exposure. Mercury concentrations in 1057 sets of maternal and cord blood samples and 96 randomly selected maternal hair samples were measured. Subject characteristics were measured or collected by questionnaire. Of the 1057 cord blood samples collected only 21.6% had mercury concentrations less than 29 nmol/L (5.8 micro g/L). Median maternal hair mercury concentration was 1.7 ppm. The geometric mean cord to maternal blood mercury ratio was 1.79 to 1. Increasing maternal fish consumption and maternal age were found to be associated with increased cord blood mercury concentrations. Marine fish consumption increased cord blood mercury concentrations more than freshwater fish (5.09%/kg vs 2.86%/kg). Female babies, maternal alcohol consumption and increasing maternal height were associated with decreased cord blood mercury concentrations. Pregnant women in Hong Kong consume large amounts of fish and as a result, most of their offspring have been prenatally exposed to moderately high levels of mercury. In this population, pregnant women should choose freshwater over marine fish and limit fish consumption.     

用蛋白磷酸酶抑制法测定水体中的微囊藻毒素类物质

建立了一种灵敏的测定水体中微囊藻毒素类物质的方法。从鱼肝脏中分离的蛋白磷酸酶２Ａ被微囊藻毒素抑制，并且抑制与毒素剂量相关，抑制模式表现为典型的Ｓ型曲线。根据末知样品存在时蛋白磷酸酶的相对活力，可由本研究得出的标准曲线及公式，计算样品中可能存在的微囊藻毒素类物质。研究表明，在一年的观测周期内，即使没有可见的水华发生，东湖及鱼池中仍有可检测出微囊藻毒素类物质。