Results from a Ukrainian-US collaborative study: prevalence and predictors of respiratory symptoms among Ukrainian coal miners.

BACKGROUND: Underground coal mining is an expanding industry in Ukraine, yet little is known about the burden of respiratory disease among Ukrainian miners. METHODS: A Fogarty International Center-supported collaboration between researchers at the University of Illinois and the Institute of Occupational Health in Kyiv, Ukraine formed to improve capacity for conducting and monitoring medical surveillance among Ukrainian coal miners. A cross-sectional survey among a random sample of working and former miners was conducted; demographic, work, and health information were collected using a standardized questionnaire. Weighted prevalence rates were calculated and predictors of respiratory symptoms explored. RESULTS: Improvements in infrastructure, including spirometry and chest radiography testing, transformed medical surveillance among these miners. Results from the health study included that the prevalence of respiratory symptoms was higher among former compared to current miners (shortness of breath 35.6% vs. 5.1%; chronic bronchitis 18.1% vs. 13.9%, respectively). A statistically significant exposure-response relationship was observed between years mining and respiratory symptoms in former miners and between years mining at the coal face and respiratory symptoms among current miners. Evidence of downward bias from the healthy worker survivor effect was observed. CONCLUSIONS: This successful international collaboration built a sustainable infrastructure for conducting workplace medical surveillance and research. The resulting study was the first in the western literature to report on respiratory symptoms in this population; likely underestimation of disease rates due to selection and measurement biases was demonstrated. Efforts should continue to build this collaboration and to characterize and reduce respiratory illness among Ukrainian coal miners.

[Level, structure and dynamics of combined forms of occupational diseases among coal miners of Donetsk region]. / Uroven', struktura i dinamika sochetannykh form profzabolevaemosti u gornorabochikh ugol'nykh shakht Donetskoi oblasti.

The authors presented data on levels, structure and dynamics of combined occupational diseases in coal miners of Donetsk region in Ukraine, analyzed possible mechanisms of such diseases.

[Substantiation of MPEL of acoustic exposure in accordance with its informational value]. / K obosnovaniiu PDU akusticheskogo vozdeistviia s uchetom ego informatsionnoi znachimosti.

The authors suggest that information component of acoustic impact, leading to physiologic changes, should be considered through regulation of entropy in occupational acoustic environment when being an information source. Studies of hearing and some vegetative functions before and after a noise lasting for hour proved that with the current levels (60-80 dB A) and entropy (1.25-2.85 byte/symbol) higher energy of the stimulus is balanced by its lower information load.

[Changes in the psychophysiological status of operational workers resulting from the occupational load]. / Izmenenie psikhofiziologicheskogo sostoianiia u rabotnikov operatorskogo truda v rezul'tate professional'noi nagruzki.

The authors studied psychophysiologic state of operators in coal industry and metallurgy, who were considered healthy and suitable for the work. Only 60% of the examined metallurgy operators and 21% of those engaged into coal industry appeared to meet the occupational medical requirements. By the end of the working shift 50% of the operators showed decrease of attention and 28-36%--depression of visual and hearing memory. Occupational overload induced compromised psychophysiologic parameters in 70% of the examinees. Heating combined with other hazards resulted in marked asymmetry of heating sensation, changed body heating, lower hearing sensation, worse attention, memory, decision making, emotional state.

[Diurnal rhythm of physiologic functions in workers exposed to noise]. / Sutochnaia dinamika fiziologicheskikh funktsii u rabotaiushchikh v usloviiakh shuma.

To reveal the mechanisms of adaptation to occupational factors, the authors screened the workers exposed to noise for changes of pulse rate, blood pressure, catecholamines content, auditory threshold within a day. The study showed that adaptation to unfavorable work conditions deteriorates within a day (from morning to night shifts). Reliability of catecholamines level was conditioned by the night fall of catecholamines level and its changes within a day. Compromised adaptation to chronic unfavorable occupational factors result in unstable catecholamines level. Functional state of hearing is mediated by vegetative state including catecholamines content.

[The stability of the hearing function as a problem of otoergonomics]. / Ustoichivost' funktsii slukha kak problema otoérgonomiki.

Hearing stability was measured by the method using physiologic dependence: the better were body possibilities to resist the unfavourable effect of acoustic environment, the higher was the tolerance threshold. Hearing stability measured by the suggested method appeared to be an individual stable characteristic that can be predicted.

[Substantiation and assessment of the effectiveness of hygienic recommendations for healthier work conditions of operators at seismic-acoustic stations]. / Obosnovanie i otsenka éffektivnosti gigienicheskikh rekomendatsii po ozdorovleniiu uslovii truda operatorov seismoakusticheskih stantsii.

The labour conditions of seismic operators were studied as a sample of similar professions engaged in acoustic control services. Depending on the number of the sectors under control and the seismic activity in the area, the enthropy of the sounds controlled and the information volume were assessed within 2.2-2.62 and 1.29-1.81 bit/symbol, respectively. The physiological functions' analysis in dynamics for a shift and a week revealed the peculiar features of overstrain characteristic of the working hours in a shift, particularly towards the 3rd and 6th day of the week. The recommendations proposed were designed to reduce overstrain and improve the operators' functional state at work.

[Membrane mechanisms of the effect of alkylating cytostatic agents]. / Membrannye mekhanizmy deistviia alkiliruiushchikh tsitostatikov.

The data bearing witness to realization of the cytostatic activity of alkylating agents by means of interaction with cell membrane receptors was obtained. Alkylating agents block receptors of the polyphosphoinositol system. It is shown that chloralkylamines inhibiting sites coincide with M-++cholinomimetics and alpha-adrenergic receptors, inhibitors of H-histamine receptors, cyclo- and lypoxigenase inhibitors. Such likeness is determined by identical structures of the molecule active part, and quantum-chemical calculations.