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From the 2002 through 2009 years 419 health care workers of the Hospital of Lecco, occupationally exposed to X-ray, were invited to undergo a cancer screening programme for the early diagnosis of cervical, breast, colorectal and prostate cancers. A total of 341 subjects performed the screening tests with an overall compliance of 83,8%; the participation rate to each test was significantly higher than that of general population. Breast cancer was diagnosed and treated in 5 women, cervical premalignant lesions in 8 women and colorectal adenomas in 13 subjects; no prostate cancer was detected. The participation rate, the premalignant and malignant findings and the cost-effectiveness analysis are consistent with the possibility that cancer screening programme can be set out as health promotion activity in health care workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims of this study were to define (1) whether toluene diisocyanate (TDI) bronchial hyper-responsiveness persists in subjects with occupational asthma after long-term cessation of exposure; (2) whether evolution of specific bronchial TDI sensitization and symptoms and functional abnormalities of asthma were coincident, and (3) the determinants at the time of diagnosis of patients’ outcome. Twenty-five nonatopic spray painters with occupational asthma due to TDI were re-examined 58 ± 7 (46–73) months after removal from exposure. On both examinations, the severity of asthmatic symptoms and the need for antiasthma treatment over the past 12 months were graded and lung function tests, measurement of airway responsiveness to methacholine (PD20), circulating total IgE and TDI-HSA specific IgE, skin tests with common inhalant allergens and specific bronchial challenge with TDI were carried out. Seven subjects were still TDI-reactors and 18 lost reactivity to it. All persistent reactors had still asthma and their symptom score, medication score, FEV1, PD20 and serum IgE were unchanged between assessments. In the 18 subjects no longer responsive to TDI, 8 had still features of asthma: their symptom and medication score had improved significantly, but FEV1, PD20 and serum IgE had not significantly changed; the other ten patients no longer reactors to TDI were also asymptomatic and their PD20 had become normal. The duration of symptomatic exposure to TDI was the only feature at diagnosis that differentiated patients with persistent TDI airway hyper-responsiveness and asthma from those who were no longer responsive to TDI but still asthmatic and those who were no longer responsive to TDI and no longer asthmatic (4 ± 1. 6; 2. 1 ± 0. 8; 0. 6 ± 0. 3 years, respectively; p < 0. 001). Our study demonstrates that airway sensitization to TDI and symptoms and functional airway abnormalities of asthma can persist for years after cessation of exposure and may have different outcome. If avoidance of the offending agent takes place within few months after the development of symptoms, remission of asthma and of TDI bronchial hyper-responsiveness can occur, whereas waiting for years makes it too late to cure asthma and, in the end, to reverse specific sensitization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A study was performed on twenty-five workers exposed to polyurethane varnishes exclusively catalysed with TDI, who developed asthma to this substance. The aim of the study was to establish, using bronchial provocation tests, whether a cross-response to MDI exists. The results were positive but no definitive evidence has been reached because there was cross-response in only 48% of cases. It is interesting, however, that cross-responders did not predominate among the subjects with a late reaction to TDI (P=00038), whereas cross-responders were in the majority among the subjects with a dual reaction to TDI (P = 00334). It is possible that the pattern of the asthmatic reaction to BPT with TDI influences the cross-reaction to other isocyanates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on a study related to the allergic contact dermatitis from 1,2-dichloropropane (1,2D). 1,2D solvent, used widely in domestic spot-removers, pesticides, and industrial degreasers, and to dilute paints or varnishes and coat surfaces with adhesives, has been associated increasingly with contact dermatitis. Patients investigated were painters or metalworkers in the engineering industry. They were seen between 1985 and 1988. Patch testing demonstrated an allergic response in all 10 patients. The presence of 1,2 D in commercial thinners is insufficiently known, and therefore this substance is not tested.