International archives of occupational and environmental health
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Int Arch Occup Environ Health · Jan 1997
Occupational exposure to sevoflurane and nitrous oxide in operating room personnel.
To quantify the exposure of operating room personnel to sevoflurane and nitrous oxide. ⋯ To keep exposure low, sevoflurane and N2O were used in a modern working environment: a low-leakage anaesthesia machine, high room ventilation rates, scavenging system, no intermittent mask ventilation, low to medium concentrations of sevoflurane, and strict control of the cuff pressure. Nevertheless, exposure could not be kept under NIOSH threshold values in all cases.
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Int Arch Occup Environ Health · Jan 1997
Risk of spontaneous abortion and maternal exposure to organic solvents in the shoe industry.
A high risk of spontaneous abortion was observed in women exposed to organic solvents during pregnancy. Since this risk was not found in the shoe industry, where these solvents are widely used, we carried out a case-control study on the risk of spontaneous abortion in a health district (Veneto, Northern Italy) where about 8,000 people work in shoe manufacturing. Aliphatic hydrocarbons were generally used; their concentrations were repeatedly below the mixture TLVs in the observation period. ⋯ Our results support the hypothesis that spontaneous abortion may be an adverse effect of exposure to high levels of organic aliphatic solvents in women employed in shoe manufacture.