Chemical Carcinogenesis and Mutagenesis

Cancer is a common name for about 200 diseases characterized by abnormal cell growth. According to Kundson (1), the causes of cancer may be classified into the following groups: 1. genetic predisposition 2. environmental factors 3. environmental factors superimposed on genetic predisposition 4. unknown factors Typical examples of the first group are childhood cancers such as retinoblastoma (a genetically predisposed malignancy of the retina), neuroblastoma (a malignancy of the brain), and Wilms’ tumor (a malignancy of the kidney). In adults, an example is polyposis of the colon, a genetic condition that frequently leads to colon cancer. The third group is represented by xeroderma pigmentosum, a genetic condition characterized by a deficient DNA excision repair mechanism (see the discussion later in this chapter). Individuals so predisposed develop skin cancer when exposed to ultraviolet light. The variable susceptibility of the population to the carcinogenic effects of cigarette smoke may also reflect genetic predisposition. Very little can be said about the fourth group because the causes of this group of cancers are not known. Groups 2 and 3 combined (i.e., cancer attributable to environmental causes, with or without genetic predisposition) probably account for 60– 90% of all cancers (2). The environment, in this context, involves not only air, water, and soil, but also food, drink, living habits, occupational exposure, drugs, and practically all aspects of human interaction with the surroundings. This definition implies that a great majority of cancers could be prevented by avoiding exposure to potential carcinogens and by changing living habits. It is therefore not surprising that the study of chemical carcinogenesis represents a major aspect of environmental toxicology. Table 5.1 gives an overview of estimated environmentally associated cancer mortality or incidence in the United States. The data presented in this table have to be considered as rough estimates only. There are great variations in the estimates, depending on the investigators and their methods of collecting the pertinent statistics. The Office of Technology Assessment report on cancer risk offers a more in-depth treatment of this subject.

2019 ◽  
Vol 58 (13) ◽  
pp. 1423-1428 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris A. Rees ◽  
Lois K. Lee ◽  
Eric W. Fleegler ◽  
Rebekah Mannix

School shootings comprise a small proportion of childhood deaths from firearms; however, these shootings receive a disproportionately large share of media attention. We conducted a root cause analysis of 2 recent school shootings in the United States using lay press reports. We reviewed 1760 and analyzed 282 articles from the 10 most trusted news sources. We identified 356 factors associated with the school shootings. Policy-level factors, including a paucity of adequate legislation controlling firearm purchase and ownership, were the most common contributing factors to school shootings. Mental illness was a commonly cited person-level factor, and access to firearms in the home and availability of large-capacity firearms were commonly cited environmental factors. Novel approaches, including root cause analyses using lay media, can identify factors contributing to mass shootings. The policy, person, and environmental factors associated with these school shootings should be addressed as part of a multipronged effort to prevent future mass shootings.


2021 ◽  
pp. 237337992098726
Author(s):  
Siobhan Hickling ◽  
Alexandra Bhatti ◽  
Gina Arena ◽  
James Kite ◽  
Justin Denny ◽  
...  

COVID-19 has altered public health higher education and its impact on pedagogy will be felt long into the future. In response to social distancing measures, teaching academics implemented a number of changes to curricula. It is important to better understand and begin to evaluate these changes, as well as set a course for future changes to public health curricula both during and after the pandemic to best enable transformative learning. Teaching academics have an understanding of academic hierarchies and student perceptions and are well placed to provide insights into current and future changes to pedagogy in response to the pandemic. A survey was developed to examine changes that academics had made to their teaching in response to COVID-19. Responses were received from 63 public health teaching academics from five universities in Australia, the United States, and Canada. Public health teaching academics rapidly implemented a number of changes to their teaching, including alterations that enabled online teaching. The great majority of changes to teaching were related to tools or techniques, such as synchronous tutorials delivered in a video meeting room. There remains further work for the public health pedagogy community in reevaluating teaching aims and teaching philosophies in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. This could include examination of the weighting of different topics, including communicable diseases, in curricula. A series of questions to assist academics reformulating their curricula is provided. Public health teaching evolved rapidly to meet the challenges of COVID-19; however, ongoing adaptation is necessary to further enhance pedagogy.


Endocrines ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 171-184
Author(s):  
Filippo Egalini ◽  
Mirko Parasiliti Caprino ◽  
Giulia Gaggero ◽  
Vincenzo Cappiello ◽  
Jacopo Giannelli ◽  
...  

Autoimmune rheumatological diseases’ incidence and prevalence have risen over the last decades and they are becoming increasingly important worldwide. Thyroid autoimmune diseases share with them an imbalance in the immune system that lead to a pro-inflammatory environment. Usually this is the result of a multi-factorial process. In fact, it includes not only a possible genetic predisposition, but also environmental causes like microbiota dysbiosis, diet rich in processed foods, exposure to toxicants and infections. However, many aspects are currently under study. This paper aims to examine the factors that participate in the developing of rheumatological and thyroid autoimmune diseases. Moreover, as glucocorticoids still represent a leading treatment for systemic autoimmune rheumatological diseases, our secondary aim is to summarize the main effects of glucocorticoids treatment focusing on iatrogenic Cushing’s syndrome and glucocorticoids’ withdrawal syndrome.


1974 ◽  
Vol 125 (584) ◽  
pp. 25-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. L. Cazzullo ◽  
E. Smeraldi ◽  
G. Penati

Many inheritance models of schizophrenia have been proposed, in view of its variable age at onset, variable familial occurrence and the relevant influence of a great number of environmental factors (Gottsman and Shields, 1967; Heston, 1970; Ödegård, 1972). However, the real genetic predisposition to schizophrenia has not yet been experimentally verified, and genetic markers have to be looked for, i.e. we need some character, genetically determined, whose transmission is associated with schizophrenia transmission: the more polymorphous the character, the greater will be the probability of finding such associations.


PEDIATRICS ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 101 (Supplement_2) ◽  
pp. 525-539 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Rosenbaum ◽  
Rudolph L. Leibel

The prevalence of obesity in children and adults in the United States has increased by more than 30% over the past decade. Recent studies of the physiology and molecular genetics of obesity in humans have provided evidence that body weight (fat) is regulated. Some of the genes encoding the molecular components of this regulatory system have been isolated from rodents. The increasing prevalence of obesity in the United States apparently represents the interaction of these genes with an environment that encourages a sedentary lifestyle and consumption of calories. The rapid increase in the prevalence of obesity emphasizes the role of environmental factors, because genetic changes could not occur at this rate. Thus, understanding of the relevant genes and how their effects are mediated by environment and development should lead to more effective prophylaxis and therapy of obesity. Although no clear environmental factors have been identified as causative of obesity, the rapid increases in the prevalence of obesity and the seeming voluntary immutability of adult body fatness can be taken as tacit evidence that the pediatric environment can be altered in a way that affects adult body weight.


2018 ◽  
Vol 74 (7) ◽  
pp. e72-e83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marianne Granbom ◽  
Nancy Perrin ◽  
Sarah Szanton ◽  
Thomas K.M. Cudjoe ◽  
Laura N Gitlin

Abstract Objectives It is unclear how home environmental factors influence relocation decisions. We examined whether indoor accessibility, entrance accessibility, bathroom safety features, housing type, and housing condition were associated with relocations either within the community or to residential care facilities. Methods We used prospective data over 4 years from the nationally representative National Health and Aging Trends Study in the United States of Medicare beneficiaries 65 years and older living in the community (N = 7,197). We used multinomial regression analysis with survey weights. Results Over the 4 years, 8.2% of the population moved within the community, and 3.9% moved to residential care facilities. After adjusting for demographics and health factors, poor indoor accessibility was found to be associated with moves within the community but not to residential care facilities. No additional home environmental factors were associated with relocation. Discussion One-floor dwellings, access to a lift, or having a kitchen, bedroom, and bathroom on the same floor may help older adults age in place. Understanding which modifiable home environmental factors trigger late-life relocation, and to where, has practical implications for developing policies and programs to help older adults age in their place of choice.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey K. Stine

Green Persuasion traces the history and evolution of volunteer-based public lands stewardship in the United States as well as the Advertising Council’s work promoting environmental causes, such as the Smokey Bear fire prevention and the Keep America Beautiful campaigns. The Take Pride in America program, developed during the Reagan administration, was revised, neglected, and readopted by subsequent presidencies. Working with the U.S. Department of the Interior, the Ad Council enlivened the Take Pride initiative with public service announcements featuring celebrity spokespersons Clint Eastwood, Charles Bronson, and Louis Gossett Jr. Green Persuasion offers valuable insights into how and why Americans have expressed care of the nation’s landed inheritance in their collective political choices.


Author(s):  
Priya Rewatkar ◽  
Manoj Patil

Introduction: Wilms's tumour was named after Carl Max Wilhelm Wilms, a 19th century German surgeon. Wilm’s tumor is derived from primitive metanephric blastema and is a form of childhood carcinoma that begins in the kidneys (also called nephroblastoma). In infants, it is the most common form of kidney carcinoma. 9 out of 10 kidney cancers in kids is Wilms Tumor. Carcinoma can spread to other parts of the body. The incidence is around seven new cases per million children in the United States, with a peak incidence between the ages of 2 and 3 years. Main symptoms and important clinical findings: A 11 yrs. old female child was admitted in Acharya Vinoba Bhave Rural Hospital, Wardha on 08/02/2021 with chief complaint of breathing difficulty, shortness of breath, blood in the urine, nausea and vomiting. After physical examination and investigations, doctors diagnosed it as a case of Wilm’s tumor. The main diagnoses, therapeutic interventions and outcomes: After physical examination and investigations like MRI, doctor diagnosed it as a case Wilm’s tumour. Tab. Actinomycin D (Dactinomycin), tab. Vincristine (chemotherapy) were started and calcium and multivitamin supplements were given for 7 days to enhance immune function. Tab. Septran 160 mg OD and tab. Acenet 400 mg OD, tab. Bactrim 5mg OD was also prescribed. Patient took all treatment and outcome was good. Her signs and symptoms improved. Conclusion: Accurate diagnosis and timely initiation of treatment speeded up recovery.


2009 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dan Bustillos

Imagine that you possess an indicator for a disease or illness that has nothing to do with your body. It is not a genetic predisposition to acquire cancer or a vice that raises the probability of contracting some dread disease, though estimates of its health risks have placed it on par with having diabetes. It has nothing to do with the environmental pollutants you are exposed to or whether you can afford health care. It is not a physical susceptibility that renders you more easily reachable by the clutches of pathology. No, this indicator of health hinges on certain learned abilities and skills, and it is a barrier to health that is totally within the health field's power and resources to lift.The condition hinted at above is the inability to speak English proficiently in the United States. Today, more than one-sixth of the United States population speaks a language other than English at home, and this number (approximately 50 million people) is increasing rapidly.


PEDIATRICS ◽  
1959 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 369-370

A STUDY of the general practitioners' opinions about that portion of their practice devoted to pediatrics is the subject of a recent report. In view of the fact that the great majority of pediatric care in the United States is provided by general practitioners, this report is of interest to pediatricians as well as general practitioners. In this study, approximately 125 general practitioners living in the state of Washington were interviewed. All of them had graduated from medical school after 1950. The data obtained showed that the proportion of general practice devoted to pediatrics in 1957 was virtually identical to that reported in the survey made by the Academy of Pediatrics in 1948. In 1948, one-third of the general practitioners' patients were children; the figure obtained in 1957 was 34%.


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