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Achieving dust lead clearance standards after lead hazard control projects: an evaluation of the HUD-recommended cleaning procedure and an abbreviated alternative.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD's) Guidelines for the Evaluation and Control of Lead-Based Paint Hazards in Housing strongly recommend that after lead hazard control interventions all walls, ceilings, floors, and other horizontal surfaces be cleaned using a three-step process to reduce lead-contaminated dust and debris. The three steps are: an initial vacuuming using a machine equipped with a high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter (HEPA vacuum), wet wash with a lead cleaner, and a final HEPA vacuum. This study evaluated the effectiveness of two cleaning protocols: (1) the HUD-recommended three-step procedure, and (2) an abbreviated two-step cleaning procedure that omits the final HEPA vacuum. Cleaning procedures were evaluated in 27 dwelling units that had undergone significant lead hazard control interventions likely to produce lead dust. Dust lead samples were collected on floors and in window sills and troughs prior to the lead control hazard intervention, after the wet wash step of the cleaning procedure, and after completion of the second HEPA vacuuming. The results of the study demonstrate that dust lead surface loading on smooth and cleanable surfaces following the three-step and two-step cleaning procedures can achieve 1995 federal guidance dust clearance levels and levels substantially lower. Although the dust lead clearance rates before and after the second HEPA vacuum were the same, the time saved by omitting the second HEPA is small relative to the other elements of the cleaning process.

Air Pollution, Indoor↗

Agenda setting for smoking control in Japan, 1945-1990: influence of the mass media on national health policy making.

Agenda setting is regarded as a key process in policymaking. This study first examines the trends in newspaper articles on smoking and health and the debates on the issue in the Diet in Japan for the period 1945-1990. Then relationships of those articles and debates with national administrative actions are analyzed. Although the media helped set the agenda in the Diet before the emergence of the nonsmokers' rights movement, it did not do so thereafter. On the other hand, media reports continued to be associated with various aspects of administrative policy making throughout the study period and played an important role in mobilizing administrative agencies. Effects of mass media on agencies were regarded as largely independent of the debates in the Diet. It is also noted that simple "scientific" reports on the health hazards of smoking had no association either with agency action or with Diet debates. This indicates that issue building, which consists of creating a package of ideas about the facts, the causal theories, the responsibilities, and the feasible solutions, is important when scientific facts are to be dealt with by policymakers.

Government Programs↗

Landscape with dead sheep: what they did to Gruinard Island.

In the context of intensified international concern about biological weapons (BW), this article looks at the pioneering British research in this field during the Second World War, which caused the long-term contamination of Gruinard Island in north-west Scotland. Public Record Office documents have been examined to show how scientists reported on the experiments at the time and what they thought about their (top secret) work, as well as how politicians directed their efforts and used their results, leading to continued BW research post-war. In the 1960s the contamination became known and discussed in the media and was eventually the subject of a public announcement. Decontamination was not regarded as a practical proposition until the 1980s and was undertaken in 1986 in two areas of the island, which was declared safe in 1990. Some doubts remain locally about the extent and effectiveness of the clean-up process, along with a legacy of bitterness.

Animals↗

The UK, health and peace-building: the mysterious disappearance of Health as a Bridge for Peace.

The problem of how to build peace in post-conflict societies continues to loom large for governments and development agencies worldwide. This article examines the involvement of the UK development community in the creation of the World Health Organization's 'Health as a Bridge for Peace' (HBP) programme. It argues that the new development policy context brought in by the United Kingdom Labour administration in 1997 appeared to provide fertile ground for health-sector initiatives such as these to become an important part of the UK's peace-building strategy, but that HBP in fact failed to take root. The role of individuals, the changing departmental focus of the Department for International Development (DFID), its relationship with WHO, and the absence of persuasive evidence for the efficacy of HBP are highlighted as being crucial in explaining the policy's mysterious disappearance.

Global Health↗

Impact of the effect of economic crisis and the targeted motorcycle safety programme on motorcycle-related accidents, injuries and fatalities in Malaysia.

In 1997, a Motorcycle Safety Programme (MSP) was introduced to address the motorcycle-related accident problem. The MSP was specifically targeted at motorcyclists. In addition to the MSP, the recent economic recession has significantly contributed to a reduction of traffic-related incidents. This paper examines the effects of the recent economic crisis and the MSP on motorcycle-related accidents, casualties and fatalities in Malaysia. The autocorrelation integrated moving average model with transfer function was used to evaluate the overall effects of the interventions. The variables used in developing the model were gross domestic product and MSPs. The analysis found a 25% reduction in the number of motorcycle-related accidents, a 27% reduction in motorcycle casualties and a 38% reduction in motorcycle fatalities after the implementation of MSP. Findings indicate that the MSP has been one of the effective measures in reducing motorcycle safety problems in Malaysia. Apart from that, the performance of the country's economy was also found to be significant in explaining the number of motorcycle-related accidents, casualties and fatalities in Malaysia.

Accidents, Traffic↗

Determinants of fertility decline in China, 1981: analysis of intermediate variables.

This study examines the proximate determinants of fertility in China by making use of the data collected by the One-per-Thousand Sample Fertility Survey of 1982. The results indicate that the most important inhibitor of potential fertility is deliberate control. Its contribution to fertility change has been far greater than all other proximate determinants. The marital structure of the population is also an important factor, while lactational infecundability and induced abortion are relatively unimportant. Comparative results by using data from the In-depth Fertility Survey conducted in Shanghai Municipality, Hebei and Shaanxi Provinces in April 1985 agree well in the ranking of the four intermediate factors. The findings point to successful family planning program and government population policies, which propelled the fertility transition to a substantial degree. Further research needs and policy implications of the results of the study are discussed.

Adolescent↗

Guide to sexually transmitted disease resources on the Internet.

The Internet provides patients, clinicians, teachers, and researchers with immediate access to reliable information, authoritative recommendations, and the latest research findings and statistics, but quickly finding the best sources while avoiding the unreliable and obsolete can be a problem. We searched the Internet for the most useful English-language Web sites on sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), with annotations, in 4 tables: sites for patients, for clinicians and teachers, and for researchers, and sites dedicated to a single STD. In the process, we found that government-sponsored sites tended to have the most reliable information. This held true regardless of the kind of information we were seeking. Several university-sponsored sites contained information that was outdated or erroneous. Commercial and nonprofit sites sometimes evinced a bias that could mislead some readers. Both health care professionals and laypersons seeking information about STDs on the World Wide Web should generally start their search at government-sponsored sites.

Authorship↗

Avian influenza: an agricultural perspective.

Recent outbreaks of infection with highly pathogenic H5N1 strains of avian influenza virus in poultry in Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Middle East have raised concern over the potential emergence of a pandemic strain that can easily infect humans and cause serious morbidity and mortality. To prevent and control a national outbreak, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) conducts measures based on the ecology of avian influenza viruses. To prevent an outbreak in the United States, the USDA conducts surveillance of bird populations, restrictions on bird importation, educational outreach, and regulation of agricultural practices, in collaboration with local, state, and federal organizations. To manage an outbreak, the USDA has in place a well-established emergency management system for optimizing efforts. The USDA also collaborates with international organizations for disease prevention and control in other countries.

Agriculture↗

Seasonal and pandemic influenza preparedness: a global threat.

The increase in the incidence of avian influenza worldwide in both poultry and humans introduces the potential for another influenza A pandemic that could pose a significant threat to both human health and the global economy. The impact of the next influenza pandemic will be influenced, in part, by how well the medical, government, business, and lay communities are prepared. Despite the additional tools and resources that have become available since prior epidemics, there are limits to the quantity of antiviral drugs that can be manufactured and concerns over the current vaccine production systems. Despite these challenges, there is an opportunity to take action before the emergence of a pandemic influenza strain and, possibly, to prevent its spread or at least mitigate its impact on the world. In February 2006, a group of representatives from federal, state, and local governments; professional bodies; academia; and the pharmaceutical industry met to review the current state of preparedness in the United States for a potential influenza pandemic and its relationship to seasonal influenza. The goal of the meeting was to examine the recently revised US Department of Health and Human Services plan for preparedness and response to an influenza pandemic and to make recommendations to actualize this plan at the state and local levels.

Animals↗

An overview of nosocomial infection control in Brazil.

Brazil is the largest country in Latin America, with a population of 146 million people. The socioeconomic development and the distribution of population and health services varies widely within the country. There are approximately 1.2 million hospital admissions per month, 80% of them paid by a government healthcare program that follows the diagnosis-related groups (DRGs) model. The Ministry of Health has been trying to establish a nationwide nosocomial infection control program since 1983. Most Brazilian hospitals now have some kind of infection control activity, but only a few of them have complete programs. Infrastructural deficiencies, the scarcity of well-trained healthcare workers, and the widespread occurrence of multiresistant Staphylococcus aureus and gram-negative bacteria are some of the challenges faced by Brazilian hospitals in the control of nosocomial infection.

Bacterial Infections↗

WebWatch. Government Resources.

This regular WebWatch column is designed to keep readers in the forefront of the ever-expanding number of electronic resources relevant to AIDS Patient Care and STDs, provide guidelines on how to evaluate the material; and supply regular updates on new on-line locations and developments on the Web. The Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) are shown in bold type and search terms are shown underlined in the text. Explanations and notes are italicized.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗

Toxicology analysis by means of the JSM-method.

MOTIVATION: A model for learning potential causes of toxicity from positive and negative examples and predicting toxicity for the dataset used in the Predictive Toxicology Challenge (PTC) is presented. The learning model assumes that the causes of toxicity can be given as substructures common to positive examples that are not substructures of negative examples. This assumption results in the choice of a learning model, called the JSM-method, and a language for representing chemical compounds, called the Fragmentary Code of Substructure Superposition (FCSS). By means of the latter, chemical compounds are represented as sets of substructures which are 'biologically meaningful' from the expert point of view. RESULTS: The chosen learning model and representation language show comparatively good performance for the PTC dataset: for three sex/species groups the predictions were ROC optimal, for one group the prediction was nearly optimal. The predictions tend to be conservative (few predictions and almost no errors), which can be explained by the specific features of the learning model. AVAILABILITY: by request to finn@viniti.ru; serge@viniti.ru, http://ki-www2.intellektik.informatik.tu-darmstadt.de/~jsm/QDA.

Algorithms↗

Putting the Predictive Toxicology Challenge into perspective: reflections on the results.

MOTIVATION: Chemical carcinogenicity is of primary interest, because it drives much of the current regulatory actions regarding new and existing chemicals, and its experimental determination involves time-consuming and expensive animal testing. Both academia and private companies are actively trying to develop SAR and QSAR models. This paper reviews the new Predictive Toxicology Challenge (PTC) results, by putting them into the context of previous attempts. RESULTS: A marked dependency of the prediction ability of the different algorithms on the training sets was observed, pointing to a still insufficient coverage of the chemical carcinogens 'universe'. A theoretical treatment of the possible developments of the Artificial Intelligence approaches is sketched.

Algorithms↗