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Lung Cancer Screening in the Occupational Setting – An Update

Categories: Cancer, reproductive and cardiovascular diseases, Respiratory health, Technology

 Last year we posted two blogs on the use of computerized tomography (CT) scans of the chest for lung cancer screening — Helical CT Scans and Lung Cancer Screening and Low-dose CT Scans and Lung Cancer Screening in the Occupational Setting.  Since the postings, various organizations have provided guidance with differing implications for early detection of lung cancer in workers who have been exposed to lung carcinogens in the occupational setting. This blog provides an update on scientific investigation and the various recommendations that have been made in this area.

Wildland Fire Fighting Safety and Health

Categories: At-risk populations, Cancer, reproductive and cardiovascular diseases, Emergency response, Outdoor work, Personal protective equipment, Respiratory health

Photo courtesy of Todd Wyckoff, New Jersey Forestry Services

Wildland fires continue to increase in the Western United States as hot, dry and windy conditions persist, resulting in an extended fire season and factors conducive to fires. Currently, drought conditions are prevalent in the West due to low snow-pack levels, below average rainfall, record setting temperatures and high winds, resulting in a greater than average number of fires this year. Since January 2012, over 32,000 fires have burned almost 3.3 million acres in the US. [NIFC, 2012a].  Additionally, in the last 50 years, there has been a general increase in the occurrence and severity of forest wildfires in the US, as over 5 million wildfires have burned over 206 million acres [NIFC, 2012b]. 

When wildland fires occur in the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI), the area where houses meet undeveloped land, they can easily become catastrophic because a large number of people, homes and structures are at-risk. When a fire ignites in these areas, a quick and aggressive response from wildland fire agencies and wildland fire fighters is required. 

NFL Players Tackling Heart Disease

Categories: Cancer, reproductive and cardiovascular diseases, Sports and entertainment

A football player in a green jersey holding a football.Many football players are essentially paid to be big—really big—especially those whose job is to block or stop the big guys on the other team.  There is a good chance that these players weigh in at sizes that are classified as obese as defined by body mass index (BMI).  In the general population, high BMI generally correlates with high body fat, and we know that high body fat is a risk factor for death (mortality) and heart disease.  Is the same true for elite athletes, for whom high BMI may relate to increased muscularity rather than increased body fat?  What if the athlete plays a position where size simply matters, regardless of whether size is related to muscle or to body fat?   And what happens when former athletes are no longer conditioning at their playing-day levels?  Do professional football players die earlier than or more often from heart disease or cancer than the average American male?   New research from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) helps answer these and other questions.

Low-dose CT Scans and Lung Cancer Screening in the Occupational Setting

Categories: Cancer, reproductive and cardiovascular diseases, Respiratory health, Technology

In early 2011 NIOSH posted a blog entry commenting on the preliminary results from the National Lung Screening Trial (NLST), funded by the National Cancer Institute, that found a 20.3% reduction in deaths from lung cancer among current or former heavy smokers who were screened with low-dose helical computed tomography (CT) versus those screened by chest X-ray (CXR). On June 29, 2011, the peer-reviewed primary results from the NLST were published online in the New England Journal of Medicine. This is an update to the previous blog.1

The National Lung Screening Trial

The National Lung Screening Trial (NLST)2 was a national randomized controlled trial launched by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in 2002 to determine whether annual screening with low-dose helical CT would lead to earlier detection and reduced mortality from lung cancer relative to screening with CXR.

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