Healthy plants look good, grow well, and are productive. Plants remain healthy as long as conditions favor normal plant growth and development. Sometimes plants are unhealthy, and this occurs when something irritates the plant. The irritation may be somewhat continuous, acting over an extended period, or it may occur nearly instantaneously. Continuous irritation causes disease; instantaneous ir...

STUDY OBJECTIVE Standard treatment for girls with labial fusion has included topical estrogen cream, manual separation, or surgery. Side effects may limit the use of topical estrogen. Betamethasone has recently shown efficacy at separating labial fusion. Local irritation and inflammation may be an initiator of labial fusion. No adverse effects of betamethasone treatment have been documented. Lo...

Abstract Introduction To effectively manage chronic conditions such as VVA, daily or semi-daily patient compliance to a treatment regimen is essential. Despite the fact that risk of cancer recurrence prevents many women from treating their VVA with hormone therapy, over-the-counter moisturizers and lubricants relatively low: 40% find them completely unsatisfactory due difficulty use lack desire...

A frequent empirical observation is that cold-induced counter-irritation may attenuate itch. The aim of this randomized, single-blinded, exploratory study was to evaluate the counter-irritation effects of cold-stimulation and topical application of transient receptor potential TRPA1/M8-agonists (trans-cinnamaldehyde/L-menthol, respectively), on histamine-induced itch, wheals and neurogenic infl...

Methods of evaluating eye preparations from a human safety standpoint have remained somewhat obscure. Toxicology and predictive irritancy studies in animal models can be readily retrieved from the literature (1-4), but methods for human testing are not as available. The rabbit is the species of choice for the preliminary evaluation of potential ocular irritation from toiletties, cosmetics and h...

BACKGROUND The current study evaluates the mortality of 2,354 workers first employed at a Baltimore chromate production plant between 1950 and 1974. METHODS The National Death Index (NDI Plus) was used to determine vital status and cause of death. Cumulative chromium (VI) exposure and nasal and skin irritation were evaluated as risk factors for lung cancer mortality. RESULTS There are 91,18...

We evaluated the airway irritation of isoprene, isoprene/ozone, and isoprene/ozone/nitrogen dioxide mixtures using a mouse bioassay, from which we calculated sensory irritation, bronchial constriction, and pulmonary irritation. We observed significant sensory irritation (approximately 50% reduction of mean respiratory rate) by dynamically exposing the mice, over 30 min, to mixtures of isoprene ...