LEO is comprised of local experts who collect observations about unusual environmental events in their communities. They apply local and traditional knowledge, western science and modern technology to record and share observations and to raise awareness about the conditions in the circumpolar north. There are LEO participants in Alaska and Canada in over 100 communities.
Key Laboratory of the Public Health and Safety, Ministry of Education, Department of Environmental Health, School of Public Health, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, China.
The epidemiological data based on the exposure of pentachlorophenol (PCP) and cancer incidence and mortality were analyzed to study the relationship between PCP exposure and cancer risk.
According to the online search of relevant literatures, Poisson regression was used to analyze mortality rates for major cancer sites and fixed-effect model was employed to assess cancer SMR. The dose-response relationship between PCP exposure and cancer risk was also analyzed.
Major cancer mortality rates of exposure populations researched in American and Canadian studies were approximate to or lower than national male cancer mortality rates respectively. The incidence rate of colorectal cancer in occupational exposure population was over 16.4 times in comparison with the population exposed from to drinking water and food. The pooled SMR value of kidney cancer was 1.34 (95% CI 1.02-1.77). The pooled RR for major cancer mortality increased with the rise of PCP exposure level.
A potential dose-response relationship between PCP exposure and cancer risk could exist. In comparison with to the population to exposed from the drinking water and food, the risk of colorectal cancer in occupational exposure population was higher. PCP may be one of the risk factors of the kidney cancer in occupational exposure population.
Environmental heat is a health risk especially for the elderly and those with a pre-existing disease. Mortality effects of prolonged heat waves in Finland were studied for different age groups, genders, causes of death, and places of death. Mortality due to various causes of death increased significantly in people aged 75 or above. The increase in risk was higher in health care facilities than other places of death. In the future, more efficient mitigation of adverse health effects of heat is needed as the population ages and climate change proceeds. Special attention should be given to the conditions in health care facilities.
The nurses and the public health nurses identified mostly individuals as the focus of their service although also families and groups are increasingly receiving services. Orientation towards communities or environments is rather rare. The modes of nursing practice of nurses differentiated from each other quite a lot. On the basis of the results two main modes had been identified: organization oriented and people oriented mode. The organization oriented made is somewhat stereotyped, rather guided by rules and regulations than by the needs of people. The people oriented mode is based on the needs of clients. The needs are being assessed openly and by exploring the situation. Client-centred objectives are being established more often and the interventions are better identified than in the organization oriented mode. The interventions are focused to support the resources of the clients f.e. their own thinking processes and other abilities. On the basis of the interviews it seems to be that nursing practice is in the middle of a transition period. The accountability for one's practice is being gradually accepted. Nursing practice is developing to a more individual direction and the viewpoints of people will be better understood.
The purpose of this article is to describe patients' sleep in hospital. The article is based on a study of patients' sleep in a hospital's medical or surgical ward and to clarify the disturbance factors relating to their sleep. The patients of the Central Hospital of Northern Carelia's two medical and two surgical wards took part in the research. The data were collected by a structured questionnaire and a follow-up questionnaire in May-June 1996. Of the replies of 181 patients, the results of 177 were taken to the final analysis. The data were analysed by statistical methods. The data and the results are presented in frequency and percent distributions, and the background variables of those patients sleeping well and those sleeping poorly are analysed and compared. The results indicated that 65% of the researched patients slept badly in the hospital. Environmental factors were found to be related to most of the patients' sleep disturbances: 80% of them regarded those factors as the cause for their disturbed sleep. Other patients, noise, and the nurses' work were regarded as the most disturbing of the environmental factors. The internal factors had disturbed patients' sleep in the hospital less than the environmental factors. Pain was regarded as the most sleep disturbing internal factor: over half of the researched patients felt disturbed by it. During their stay in the hospital the patients experienced more positive (trust, contentment, safety) than negative feelings (fear, anxiety, depression, distrust), and those who experienced negative feelings had more difficulties in sleeping.
