Biomedical subjects

M Koivusalo

Publications and source records attributed to M Koivusalo.

57 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

PubMedDate not supplied

Drinking water mutagenicity and leukemia, lymphomas, and cancers of the liver, pancreas, and soft tissue.

The acid, mutagenic compounds present in chlorinated drinking water have caused concern about the potential cancer risk of drinking-water mutagenicity. In this study, past exposure to drinking water mutagenicity was assessed for the years 1955 and 1970 in 56 Finnish municipalities, using the historical information on water quality and treatment. Cases of leukemia, lymphomas, and cancers of the liver, pancreas, and soft tissue were derived from the Finnish Cancer Registry for two periods: 1966-1976 and 1977-1989. Relative risk was estimated in an additive Poisson regression model, adjusting for age, gender, social class, urbanity, and time period. In an ordinary municipality that was supplied with mutagenic drinking water (3,000 net rev/l), the observed exposure-response relationship indicated a relative risk of 1.1-1.3 for lymphomas and 1.1-1.2 for pancreatic cancer, compared with municipalities in which nonmutagenic drinking water was consumed.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

The World Trade Organization: implications for health policy.

Agreements negotiated at the World Trade Organization already have important implications for health and health policy. They impact on the ability of governments to regulate trade in the interests of health; on national and international governance and public health standards; and on the future of the precautionary principle. Agreements on trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights and trade in health services could benefit the multi-national health care and pharmaceutical industries, and impact negatively on cost and equity.

Developing Countries↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Drinking water chlorination by-products and cancer.

This review discusses the relation between by-products of drinking water chlorination and cancer in the light of present toxicological and epidemiologic evidence. During the chlorination of drinking water, a complex mixture of by-products forms from chlorine and the organic and inorganic compounds present in raw water. The quality and quantity of such compounds depend on the specific nature of the organic material in raw waters, the inorganic material in raw water, pH, temperature, other water treatment practices, and the chlorine timing and dose added. Chlorination by-products are important mainly when surface water is used for drinking water as more organic compounds are present in surface waters than in ground waters. The gastrointestinal and urinary tract are the cancer sites that are most often associated with the use of chlorinated surface water or with the quantity of chlorination by-products in the water-supply network. Yet the microbial quality of drinking water should not be compromised by excessive caution over the potential long-term effects of disinfection by-products because the risk of illness and death resulting from exposure to pathogens in untreated drinking water may be several orders of magnitude greater than the cancer risks from chlorination by-products.

Carcinogens↗