Annual Review of Public Health

Our medical research library holds 8 studies published in Annual Review of Public Health (1983–2013). Each entry links to the study's record on PubMed and, where there is one, to the publisher's page and a free full text. 3 have an abstract, the authors' own summary as PubMed records it: open "Abstract" to read it. For 2 studies PubMed has no abstract for, we give the abstract printed in the article or, where there is none, a summary we wrote from it, each labeled as such.

About the journal

• Publisher: Annual Reviews Inc
• Published: 1980 to the present, United States
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0163-7525 (print), 1545-2093 (electronic)
• Its record in the NLM Catalog

2010s

• The worldwide pandemic of asbestos-related diseases. L. Stayner, L.S. Welch, R. Lemen. 2013;34:205-16. Review PubMed · Publisher

  Abstract

  Asbestos-related diseases are still a major public health problem. The World Health Organization (WHO) has estimated that 107,000 people worldwide die each year from mesothelioma, lung cancer, and asbestosis. We review what is known about asbestos use, production, and exposure and asbestos-related diseases in the world today, and we offer predictions for the future. Although worldwide consumption of asbestos has decreased, consumption is increasing in many developing countries. The limited data available suggest that exposures may also be high in developing countries. Mesothelioma is still increasing in most European countries and in Japan but has peaked in the United States and Sweden. Although the epidemic of asbestos-related disease has plateaued or is expected to plateau in most of the developed world, little is known about the epidemic in developing countries. It is obvious that increased asbestos use by these countries will result in an increase in asbestos-related diseases in the future.

1990s

• Occupational health in the 1990s. D.H. Wegman, L.J. Fine. 1990;11:89-103. Review PubMed · Publisher

  Abstract

  Where have we come since the Occupational Safety and Health Act was passed in 1970? Have we made progress in this country toward "safe and healthful working conditions for working men and women?" Many hazardous exposures that were prevalent before the creation of NIOSH, OSHA, and MSHA have been reduced. Exposure to asbestos, coal dust, silica, lead, and cotton dust are common examples. Through OSHA's Hazard Communication Standard and state Right to Know laws as well as an increase in the dissemination of information, the average employer and worker today is better informed of specific hazards on the job, and more attentive to safety measures. However, the high toll of work related disease and injuries continues today.

1980s

• Asbestos as a public health risk: disease and policy. H. Weill, J.M. Hughes. 1986;7:171-92. Review PubMed · Publisher

• Is there a public health function?. A. Wolman. 1986;7:1-12. PubMed · Publisher

• Occupational health: the intersection between clinical medicine and public health. L. Rosenstock, P.J. Landrigan. 1986;7:337-56. Historical article · Review PubMed · Publisher

  Summary

  This review examined the historical isolation of occupational health in the United States from clinical medicine and public health and proposed strategies to integrate it with both. The authors traced the field's history, linking its isolation to workers' compensation programs and to post-World War II health insurance that almost always excluded work-related conditions. They reported that most (70%) of about 100 million US workers worked in plants without medical care services, that fewer than 15% worked in plants with physician services, and that only about 1000 physicians had become board-certified in occupational medicine since 1955. They outlined features of occupational disease relevant to prevention, including latency, exposure dose and multifactorial causation, illustrated by the combined effect of smoking and asbestos exposure on lung cancer. They described the clinician's tools, criteria for causality in occupational epidemiology, and the Sentinel Health Event (Occupational) list of 50 work-related diseases. A case study of benzene and leukemia summarized a NIOSH cohort study of about 1000 Ohio rubber workers (7 leukemia deaths observed vs 1.25 expected) and the 1980 Supreme Court decision that vacated a 1 ppm benzene standard. The authors noted that the standard remained at 10 ppm despite later dose-response data. They recommended clinician education, integration of occupational health into traditional medical services, development of biologic markers, and occupational disease reporting systems, including record linkage.

  PubMed has no abstract for this study, and the article doesn't print one. We wrote this summary from the full article with the help of AI. It is not the authors' wording.

• Airborne asbestos and public health. D.L. Davis, B. Mandula. 1985;6:195-221. PubMed · Publisher

• Quantitative risk assessment of environmental hazards. S.L. Brown. 1985;6:247-67. PubMed · Publisher

  Abstract

  Quantitative risk assessment may never become a rigorous scientific discipline because of the inherent difficulties in working with highly uncertain and often controversial data and methods, and because the predictions of risk assessment may not be subject to validation in their most important areas of application. However, the potential benefits of having quantitative estimates of risk may make quantitative risk assessment a valuable adjunct to traditional methods for making individual and social decisions about health hazards in the home, workplace, and general environment. Risk assessment, which is the process of estimating risks to populations exposed to hazardous agents or activities, must be distinguished from risk management, which is the process of forming and implementing a strategy for accepting or abating the risks. To the extent possible, these two processes should be kept separate. Quantitative risk assessment is in principle capable of estimating individual or lifetime excesses of specific health effects from exposures to a specified hazard. These excesses may be estimated on an absolute basis or expressed as a relative risk in comparison with the baseline risk that would exist without exposure. An individual risk is usually expressed in terms of the probability of developing the health effect in some time period following a specified exposure, whereas a population risk is the overall number of effects expected in a defined population with a defined distribution of exposure levels and patterns. The variation of risk with time after exposure may imply a constant absolute risk, a constant relative risk, or some other dependence on time, usually after a minimal latent period has elapsed. Risk estimates can rarely be made directly from observed human data, and models for extrapolating or projecting risk estimates from the conditions of observation to the actual conditions of exposure must be used. Dose-response relationships are used for extrapolating from high laboratory or occupational exposures to low exposures encountered more frequently in human populations. Thresholds of dose or nonlinear dose-response relationships may be related to nonlinear pharmacokinetics prior to the ultimate exposure of the critical organ to the proximate carcinogen or other hazardous agent. Time-response models estimate risks for periods after exposure longer than have been observed in epidemiologic studies. Extrapolations from experiments with laboratory animals to humans are made difficult because of great differences in size, lifespan, physiology, and metabolism between human and animal.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

• Health effects of indoor pollutants. M.D. Lebowitz. 1983;4:203-21. PubMed · Publisher

  Summary

  This review analysed the sources, concentrations, health risks and public health concerns of indoor pollutants. It was prompted partly by energy-saving "tightening" of buildings and by the fact that most people spend 75 to 90% of their time indoors. Drawing largely on published studies and National Research Council reports, the author covered radon progeny, asbestos and synthetic fibers, consumer products, airborne biological agents, formaldehyde, indoor combustion products and passive smoking, and discussed total personal exposure. Occupational asbestos exposure was described as a known cause of lung cancer, mesothelioma and asbestosis. Indoor asbestos release was described as mostly activity-related, episodic and local. Data were limited, applied mostly to schools and office buildings, and indicated that general public exposure there was apparently exceedingly low. Control by fixatives was judged probably better than removal. Synthetic fibers were described as much less important than asbestos for lung fibrosis and mesothelioma. Formaldehyde was presented as a presumed human carcinogen and as an irritant and sensitizer; an estimated 10-20% of the US population might develop symptoms at levels below 0.05 ppm. Findings on gas stoves and passive smoking were contradictory. The author concluded that indoor pollution had been almost totally ignored as a public health issue and that further epidemiological studies were needed. He also concluded that priority should go to common pollutants with known health effects.

  PubMed has no abstract for this study, and the article doesn't print one. We wrote this summary from the full article with the help of AI. It is not the authors' wording.

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