From hazard identification to risk assessment: The role of the prevention technician in the carcinogenic risk assessment for formaldehyde.

The Prevention Technician in the Environment and Workplaces (PTEW) is a health professional who works in the identification, assessment, and management of risk in living and working places. The PTEW implements specific corrective actions at reducing exposure levels to chemicals such as formaldehyde. The aim of this report was to update the formaldehyde risk assessment document (RAD). The risk assessment process was divided into three steps as follows: (1) preliminary data collection, (2) an on-site visit to identify the use patterns and process, and (3) application of the algorithm to calculate the exposure levels of healthcare workers. In addition, with the introduction of closed-circuit systems, 23 devices were evaluated to identify possible airborne dispersion of formaldehyde. The algorithm was applied in 31 hospital units and the results allowed us to classify the staff in two levels of exposure for each hospital unit; healthcare workers were classified as "exposed" or "potentially exposed." Most of the HCWs are categorized as potentially exposed, and only workers working in laboratories are considered to be exposed. The results showed that devices must be used properly according to the user manual. To increase the level of worker safety, we have proposed to introduce closed-circuit safe handling systems and keeping the duration and intensity of exposure at the lowest possible levels according to the "ALARA" principle. The assignment of the Italian PTEW is to achieve excellence in the levels of health and safety of patients and hospital workers by pursuing a shared mission: improving the quality of public health.

Unveiling the changes in urban atmospheric CO2 in the time of COVID-19 pandemic: A case study of Florence (Italy).

The outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic was accompanied by global mobility restrictions and slowdown in manufacturing activities. Accordingly, cities experienced a significant decrease of CO2 emissions. In this study, continuous measurements of CO2 fluxes, atmospheric CO2 concentrations and δ13C-CO2 values were performed in the historical center of Florence (Italy) before, during and after the almost two-month long national lockdown. The temporal trends of the analyzed parameters, combined with the variations in emitting source categories (from inventory data), evidenced a fast response of flux measurements to variations in the strength of the emitting sources. Similarly, the δ13C-CO2 values recorded the change in the prevailing sources contributing to urban atmospheric CO2, confirming the effectiveness of carbon isotopic data as geochemical tracers for identifying and quantifying the relative contributions of emitting sources. Although the direct impact of restriction measurements on CO2 concentrations was less clear due to seasonal trends and background fluctuations, an in-depth analysis of the daily local CO2 enhancement with respect to the background values revealed a progressive decrease throughout the lockdown phase at the end of the heating season (>10 ppm), followed by a net increase (ca. 5 ppm) with the resumption of traffic. Finally, the investigation of the shape of the frequency distribution of the analyzed variables revealed interesting aspects concerning the dynamics of the systems.