Exposure To Diesel Exhaust And Lung Cancer Risk In Australia
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$581,519.00
Summary
Exposure to diesel exhaust increases the risk of lung cancer. One in five Australians is exposed to diesel exhaust in the workplace. This project will provide an exposure-response relation between diesel exhaust and lung cancer based on Australia-specific data. We will also estimate the number of lung cancer cases due to diesel exhaust exposure in Australia. We will do this by studying all miners in WA in the last 15 years, by linking several databases that are available in WA.
Thousands of chemicals are used in Australian workplaces. For many of these chemicals it is not known if they are harmful to people who work with them. Unless we can measure how much of a chemical a worker has been exposed to, we cannot determine if the chemical is harmful. While we can test what chemicals a worker is currently exposed to, it is more difficult to estimate how much chemical exposure they have had in the past. This project aims to improve the ways we estimate past chemical exposur ....Thousands of chemicals are used in Australian workplaces. For many of these chemicals it is not known if they are harmful to people who work with them. Unless we can measure how much of a chemical a worker has been exposed to, we cannot determine if the chemical is harmful. While we can test what chemicals a worker is currently exposed to, it is more difficult to estimate how much chemical exposure they have had in the past. This project aims to improve the ways we estimate past chemical exposure. We will build on existing best-practice methods to improve occupational exposure assessment. New computer technology will be used to develop an intelligent evolving database that can be used when asking people about jobs they have had in the past. Experts can examine the answers to the questions to decide whether the worker was exposed to particular chemicals. New methods of processing information, called artificial neural networks, will be used to automate some of these decisions.Read moreRead less
Air Pollution And Mortality And Morbidity In Adult Australians (APMMA Study): A Large Population Based Cohort Study
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$1,041,410.00
Summary
This study will investigate the link between respiratory and cardiovascular disease and mortality and exposure to long-term air pollution. We will use cutting edge methods to assign neighbourhood air pollution levels to a large cohort of NSW adults (n>265,000) previously recruited in the 45 and Up Study. The study results will be of utmost importance in setting outdoor air pollution standards and informing cost benefit analyses of air pollution control strategies.
About 1.5 million Australians may be currently exposed to carcinogens in their jobs. This estimate is based on European data and we need Australian information in order to direct future Australian research, policy and practice. The project will survey 5000 Australian workers to estimate the exposure to up to 53 prioity occupational chemicals. This will provide a sound basis for estimating the occupational risk of cancers for Australian workers and determining how to decrease the number of cancer ....About 1.5 million Australians may be currently exposed to carcinogens in their jobs. This estimate is based on European data and we need Australian information in order to direct future Australian research, policy and practice. The project will survey 5000 Australian workers to estimate the exposure to up to 53 prioity occupational chemicals. This will provide a sound basis for estimating the occupational risk of cancers for Australian workers and determining how to decrease the number of cancers caused by work.Read moreRead less
It is self-evident that people should be able to go to work and know that their work is not giving them cancer. Despite modern health and safety laws, about 5000 Australians a year contract cancer related to their previous work exposures. My research provides evidence to link chemical and other exposures at work with later cancer development. I also develop new methods to accurately assess past exposure to chemicals. The aim of my research is to make the workplace safer.
Climate Change Impacts On Workplace Heat Extremes: Health Risk Estimates And Adaptive Options
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$741,938.00
Summary
Global warming will bring more hot (and extremely hot) days as Australia warms within the projected range of 2-4oC by 2070. Working in the heat is uncomfortable and requires rest breaks, yet pressure to keep working risks overheating and serious health problems. We will study the current effects on health and productivity on heat exposed workers, and model future trends in likely impacts under climate change in 8 (urban and rural) regions, with and without adaptive health protection strategies.
Effects Of Lead And Socio-cultural Factors On Cognition And Behaviour Of Children In Port Pirie And Broken Hill
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$394,825.00
Summary
The effect of lead on children's 'intelligence' is controversial. Poorer IQ scores in children with higher exposure to lead, have been found reasonably consistently, - but there is disagreement on whether lead exposure is simply a common ASSOCIATE of poor IQ, or whether it actually CAUSES deficits. In 1994, the NHMRC prudently recommended a graded series of interventions to be implemented, depending on the proprtion of children in the community with blood lead concentrations in specific categori ....The effect of lead on children's 'intelligence' is controversial. Poorer IQ scores in children with higher exposure to lead, have been found reasonably consistently, - but there is disagreement on whether lead exposure is simply a common ASSOCIATE of poor IQ, or whether it actually CAUSES deficits. In 1994, the NHMRC prudently recommended a graded series of interventions to be implemented, depending on the proprtion of children in the community with blood lead concentrations in specific categories above 10 ug lead -100 ml of blood. The choice of this figure (10 ug-dl) was more pragmatic than scientific; there being very little data on the health effects of exposures below 10 ug-dl available at that time. A recent analysis of pooled data from past studies has now suggested there may be very large effects on child IQ at blood lead concentration BELOW 10 ug-dl. Health authorities will soon be lobbied intensely to spend vast sums on new lead abatement programs. Cities like Port Pirie and Broken Hill (where cooperative programs have achieved such significant reductions in lead exposure that a high percentage of their children now have blood lead levels below 10 ug-dl), will be forced to examine expensive options to avoid closure of the industries which provide their economic backbones, if this analysis proves to be correct. Our proposal argues that before committing to new and costly abatement programs, there is an urgent need to augment our evidence-base by conducting a new study ofchildren with lead exposures below 10 ug-dl, using more modern measures of intelligence. The study will pay closer attention to some of the socio-cultural and inherited determinants of child IQ which may have confounded the lead-IQ association in past studies, and will supplement IQ assessments (which are now considered to derive from a very old and narrow view of intelligence) with new tools for measuring 'intelligence' that may be less socio-culturally dependent.Read moreRead less