Cent Eur J Public Health 1999, 7(2)
Present and future challenges to environmental health in Europe
Van der Heijden K.
Cent Eur J Public Health 1999, 7(2):55-56 
Centennial of the Institute of Hygiene at Czech Faculty of Medicine, Charles University of Prague
Bencko V.
Cent Eur J Public Health 1999, 7(2):57-59
Hepatitis B and C virus infections among pregnant women in Maiduguri, Nigeria
Baba M.M., Onwuka I.S., Baba S.S.
Cent Eur J Public Health 1999, 7(2):60-62
The prevalence of hepatitis B virus surface antigen (HBsAg) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) antibody among 158 pregnant women attending the ante-natal clinic in a Teaching Hospital in Nigeria was investigated. Sera from pregnant women were tested by ELISA for the presence of HBsAg HCV antibody. Of the 158 serum samples tested, 25 (15.8 %) and 4 (2.5 %) were positive for the presence of HBsAg and HCV antibody respectively. The prevalance of HBsAg was significantly higher (p < 0.05) than HCV infection. No mixed infection with the two virus strains was observed among the pregnant women. However, all the HCV and most of the HBsAg positive women belong to...
Air pollution by solid particles and public health: When can we conclude on causality
Bencko V., Vostal J.
Cent Eur J Public Health 1999, 7(2):63-66
The concept of cause in epidemiology has multiple implications because modern science is universally predicated upon the cause and effect relationships. Differences between traditional, infection-oriented and present, ecology-oriented epidemiology show major difficulties of identifying causality of non-specific diseases that are attributed to environmental factors. While epidemiology remains primarily a set of techniques tightly bound to other biomedical sciences and operates in a widely open area of population health, variables such as complex interactions and numerous confounding or ethical constraints frequently render causal interpretation of the...
Polyhalogenated hydrocarbons: Body burden of the Czech and Slovak populations. I. Polychlorinated biphenyls
Èerná M., Bencko V.
Cent Eur J Public Health 1999, 7(2):67-71
Human exposure to PCBs in the environment is widespread because of the environmental persistance of these compounds, their chemical stability and lipophilicity resulted in bioaccumulation in the food chain. The objective of this paper is to summarize and review the data concerning biomonitoring of human exposure to PCBs in the former Czechoslovakia, and - more recently - in the Czech and Slovak Republics published in the local and international journals. The levels of total PCBs detected in the breast milk ranged from 0.5 to 3.45 mg/kg fat. Of the set of detected indicator congeners the highest levels were found in congener 153 (475.3 µg/kg fat...
Epidemiologic risk analysis of environmentally attributed exposure on airway diseases and allergies in children
Herbarth O., Fritz G.J., Behler J.C., Rehwagen M., Puliafito J.L., Richter M., Schlink U., Sernaglia J., Puliafito E., Puliafito C., Schilde M., Wildführ W.
Cent Eur J Public Health 1999, 7(2):72-76
The aim of the study was to detect possible environmental factors influencing the health of the less mobile population of preschool children. The relationship between outdoor exposure of the immediate 'micro-environment' where most of a preschool child's time is spent and the increased risk to respiratory ill health and allergies has been investigated in approximately 1000 children, aged 3-9 years. The findings suggest an increased risk of asthma (odds ratio OR = 1.8) and allergies (OR = 1.5) with exposure to traffic-attributable emmissions. Domestic heating-attributed emmissions were found to increase the risk to bronchitis-type illnesses (OR = 1.4).
Effects of reduced air pollution on children's pulmonary function
Turnovska T., Kostianev S.
Cent Eur J Public Health 1999, 7(2):77-79
Air pollution is one of the most important risk factors of respiratory diseases. We found worsened health indices in 10 year-old children (n = 61; age = 10.4 ± 0.4 years; height = 142 ± 7 cm; mean ± SD) during a 1986 study in one of the most pollution endangered regions of Bulgaria (total suspended particle matter, TSPM = 520 ± 61 µg/m3; mean ± SE and annual mean concentration of SO2 = 98 ± 19 µg/m3; mean ± SE). Both vital capacity (VC) and forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1) were consistently lower (X = 88.5 % and 82.5 %, respectively) than Bulgarian reference values....
Effect of environmental lead on hearing in women and children
Szanto C., Gurzau E., Bodor E.
Cent Eur J Public Health 1999, 7(2):80-82
The study of the effect of lead on hearing in women and children living in a town polluted with lead, revealed a lowering of the hearing threshold among the investigated groups. The women aged 20-50 years and children aged 7-12 years, never left the town. The lead concentration in the environment exceeded by 50-100 times normal values (0.0007 mg/m3/24 h). The subjects with a otological history were excluded from the study. The exposed groups comprised 77 women, 70 men (of the same age as women) and 152 children. The reference groups - 75 women and 150 children of the same age as the exposed ones - were selected from a non-polluted town,...
Relationship between exposure to mercury recycling emissions and respiratory immunity disorders
Reichrtová E., Bencko V., Hurbánková M.
Cent Eur J Public Health 1999, 7(2):83-86
A field and laboratory study focused on the effects of exposure to emissions originating from a mercury recycling plant on the respiratory immunity was conducted. The reason for the study was to elucidate the association between the exposure to emissions and the increased morbidity for respiratory diseases reported in the residing children. To simulate the children respiratory exposure, an animal model in the polluted area was used. A group of Wister rats was respiratorily exposed during six months to the pollutants in the ambient air in a location of the regional elementary school. Comparing to a non-exposed control group, the increased mercury concentration...
Fruit and vegetables and ischaemic heart disease in Eastern Europe: A hospital-based case control study in Sofia, Bulgaria
Georgieva L.M., Powles J.W., Ness A.R., Penev B.P., Dragoichev T.D., Popova S.R.
Cent Eur J Public Health 1999, 7(2):87-90
Background: Consumption levels for saturated fats do not explain why mortality attributed to ischaemic heart disease (IHD) has generally fallen in established market economies but not in eastern Europe. We hypothesised that low intakes of fresh fruit and vegetables would be strongly associated with ischaemic heart disease in Bulgaria. Methods: Patients (n = 155) were admitted to the cardiology unit, Central Clinical Hospital, Sofia, aged 45 to 69, with confirmed diagnoses of ischaemic heart disease. Controls (n = 154) were patients admitted for minor elective Surgery. Measurements were made of blood pressure, height and weight and a blood sample taken...
Experimental background to nutritional supplementation of children from radiopolluted territories
Nechitailo Y.N., Pishak V.P., Porokhnyak-Hanovska L.A., Shapovalov V.P., Timoschuk V.V.
Cent Eur J Public Health 1999, 7(2):91-93
The biological action of vitamins, herbs and minerals original nutritional supplements produced by Mineral Resources International (USA) was experimentally assessed in laboratory rats which were under long-term exposure to incorporated low level Cesium-137 radionuclide (137Cs) radiation at 1200 Bq and immobility stress. The influence of the studied complex on accumulation and elimination of 137Cs, the level of hormone activity in blood, lipid peroxidation processes in endocrine organs, hypothalamus, as well as in the liver and lungs were assessed. The morphofunctional state of the brain and endocrine organs was also studied. It was revealed that the...
Emission of thermophilic actinomycetes in composting facilities, their immediate surroundings and in an urban area
Haas D.U., Reinthaler F.F., Wüst G., Skofitsch G., Groth I., Degenkolb T., Schumann P., Marth E.
Cent Eur J Public Health 1999, 7(2):94-99
During the composting process, meso- and thermophilic microorganisms are released into the ambient air. It is known that human health can be endangered by massive concentrations of bacteria and moulds in the aerosol of compost. The focus of this investigation was on the main pathogens of extrinsic allergic alveolitis (EAA), Saccharopolyspora sp., Saccharomonospora sp., Streptomyces sp. and Thermoactinomyces sp. (family Bacillaceae). From March 1996 until April 1997, airborne microorganisms were sampled in and around two different composting facilities (open and closed system) using Andersen 6-stage viable cascade impactors. Additional control sampling...
Health and social aspects of migration
Nesvadbová L., Rutsch J., Kroupa A., Sojka S.
Cent Eur J Public Health 1999, 7(2):100-104
Part of longitudinal study of health state and social problems of different potentially risky groups of migrating people, legal and illegal employment of foreigners, actual situation in the Czech Republic.
The holistic approach of neurotoxicology in ecotoxicology context
Szilárd J.
Cent Eur J Public Health 1999, 7(2):105-106
At the end of the 20th century we can say that the enthusiasm and expectations about natural sciences that was present at the end of the 19th century in many respects have not been fulfilled. There are too many dangers created by man and/or science: storage of toxic waste, variability, mutation of pathogens, pharmacons, chemicals, radiation, and so on. There is a really wide scale where these cosmic, ecological, technical and human factors, changes of climate etc. combine in front of our eyes. All these have a reasonable effect on the morbidity and mortality scales. In many respects it is the consequence of the harmful effects...