BACKGROUND Modern operating rooms are considered to be aseptic environments. The use of surgical mask, frequent air exchanges, and architectural barriers are used to reduce airborne microbial populations. Breaks in surgical technique, host contamination, or hematogenous seeding are suggested as causal factors in these infections. This study implicates contamination of the operating room air as ...

OBJECTIVES Greenhouse operations are an important sector of the horticulture industry, also known as the Green Industry. The objectives of this study were (i) to investigate exposure levels to airborne culturable fungi, bacteria (total culturable bacteria and actinomycetes), endotoxin, and (1→3)-β-D-glucan in three Midwest greenhouses during summer and winter using multiple exposure assessment ...

Emissions data are often lacking or uncertain for many airborne contaminants. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) emitted from combustion sources fall into this category. Currently available ambient-air emission inventories of PAHs either fail to account for population-based activities, such as residential wood combustion (RWC) and motor vehicle (MV) activity, and/or report ‘‘total PAH’’ or...

the study aimed to investigate the microsporogenesis, tapetum and pollen development in petunia hybrida juss.under control and air pollution condition. the connective shows a well-developed placentoid, giving thesporogenous tissue a crescent-shape. the sporogenous tissue of each of the four anther locules is surrounded bydimorphic tapetum. the outer (towards the epidermis) and inner (towards th...

Post-fire runoff has the potential to be a large source of contaminants to downstream areas. However, the magnitude of this effect in urban fringe watersheds adjacent to large sources of airborne contaminants is not well documented. The current study investigates the impacts of wildfire on stormwater contaminant loading from the upper Arroyo Seco watershed, burned in 2009. This watershed is adj...

INTRODUCTION Air from animal feeding operations (AFOs) has been shown to transport numerous contaminants of public health concern. While federal statutes like the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA) generally require that facilities report hazardous releases, AFOs have been exempted from most of these requirements by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). We asse...

Honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) are bioindicators of environmental pollution levels. During their wide-ranging foraging activity, these hymenopterans are exposed to pollutants, thus becoming a useful tool to trace the environmental contaminants as heavy metals, pesticides, radionuclides and volatile organic compounds. In the present work we demonstrate that bees can also be used as active sample...

Potential causalities due to airborne disease transmission and risk of chem-bio terrorism in commercial airliner cabins can be reduced by fast responses. Fast responses are only possible by using sensors at appropriate locations in the cabins. Cost, size and weight factors restrict the number of sensors that could be installed inside a cabin. Since release locations and seating patterns of pass...

The present review is based on findings from 178 publications retrieved through an extensive search of the MedLine/PubMed database for a 25 years time period (1980-2004) and 10 manually identified papers. Among the cytogenetic biomarkers that are frequently used in field studies, chromosome aberrations (CA) and micronuclei (MN) but not sister chromatid exchanges (SCE) were found consistently in...

In the United States, 1.2 million workers are exposed to metalworking fluids. During operations, aerosols are produced and airborne contaminants can be inhaled. Although biocides are used to control the bacterial content of metalworking fluids, they can create health-related problems, and their efficiency remains to be proved. The objectives of this project were (1) to verify whether rigorous c...