Diss. (sammanfattning) Stockholm : Karol. inst., 2001. / Härtill 5 uppsatser.

A research report submitted to the School of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Witwatersrand in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Public Health. 20 October 2014 / Background: Health experts are calling sugar the new tobacco (Action on Sugar, 2014). The WHO recently revised its recommendations for a maximum daily limit on sugar intake of 25 grams. Yet a 2012 study showed that South African children and adolescents are consuming up to 50 grams and 100 grams per day respectively (Steyn et al., 2003). Sugar is now recognized for its role, not only in promoting caries, obesity and diabetes, but also in the development of cancers. The World Cancer Report 2014, warns of a ‘cancer tidal wave’ over the next 20 years (IARC, 2014) Health promotion alone is insufficient; drawing on the example of tobacco control, such as advertising restrictions, legislation is the key to prevention. The sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) industry is the leader among all sectors in marketing to young people (Arredondo et al., 2009), thus a similar approach is recommended for restricting SSB advertising to reduce chronic disease risk. There is no data regarding SSB advertising and obesogenic environments in South Africa. This pilot study is the first to describe the location, content and characteristics of outdoor print advertisements for SSBs and fast foods in South Africa. Methodology: This is a secondary analysis of data collected as part of a larger 2013 study investigating the obesogenic environment in Soweto, South Africa. All visible outdoor advertising and branding of SSBs and fast food in a five-square kilometer demarcated area were included. Data on content, quantity, location, size and type of advertisements was collected in the field and a photograph was taken for further analysis. Comparisons were drawn to photographs of alcohol advertising in the same area. Data was captured using a coding sheet and was analysed descriptively and using inferential statistics. The advertisements included billboards, banners, posters, pole advertisements, painted signs, branded school signs, branded shop signs, directional signs and branded umbrellas and fridges. A total of 237 photographs were included in the study. Results: The main findings of this study indicate a significant presence of advertising and branding for sugar-sweetened beverages in Soweto. SSB and fast food advertising and branding accounted for 62.86% of all advertising in the area under study. Of all SSB and fast food brands available in South Africa, Coca-Cola accounted for 86.58% of this advertising and branding. Unlike alcohol advertising, which is restricted to the locations in which alcohol is sold, advertising for SSBs is pervasive throughout the community, seen everywhere from shops and schools to transit stops and on street sides. Most SSB advertising and branding signage is medium or large in size. Images of people were only present in a small number of the adverts. However when people were present, they were consistently young people under the age of 35. The race of people in the adverts consistently represented the black African demographic of Soweto. While the main goal of the adverts appears to be product and brand recognition, there is a trend across the SSB adverts to convey messages of happiness, positivity, friendship, fun and well-being, suggesting that consumption of these products would lend to such outcomes for the consumer. A small percentage also promoted special deals to encourage product purchase. Conclusion: SSB advertising in Soweto is extensive, far surpassing advertising for junk food or alcohol. The government should consider implementing legislation, to restrict SSB advertising. The country should also urgently move to adopt WHO’s new guidelines on the daily upper limit for sugar intake (Mann, 2012), and to limit SSB intake specifically, which should be reflected in revisions to South Africa’s food-based dietary guidelines. Further research should focus on the association between the high rate of exposure to SSB advertising in Soweto and the level of consumption of SSBs and on the understanding of the advertising environment and how this affects the health literacy of South African children and adolescents.

Yes

Diss. (sammanfattning) Stockholm : Karol. inst. / Härtill 5 uppsatser.

No description available.

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Medicine / Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (F AS), the most severe form of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (F ASD), has traditionally been associated with maternal alcohol consumption during pregnancy. However, a number of animal studies have shown an association between paternal preconception alcohol consumption and developmental abnormalities in the offspring that resemble the features of F AS. Dysregulation of epigenetic factors (such as DNA methylation) in the presence of alcohol may provide a plausible mechanism by which paternal alcohol consumption could result in offspring affected with features of F AS. Imprinted genes are expressed in a parentof- origin manner due to DNA methylation at distinct differentially methylated regions (DMRs) and are essential for normal embryonic development. There are only two known paternally methylated DMRs in humans, with an additional one described in mice - associated with Rasgrfl. The first aim of this study was to determine whether the human RASGRFl gene contains a DMR and whether this DMR is paternally methylated. In order to assess the imprint status of RASGRF 1, a number of computational assessments were done to identify key features of imprinted loci. Pyrosequencing analysis was used to assess the methylation status of various CpO islands surrounding RASGRFi in peripheral blood and sperm DNA samples. The RASGRF i-associated CpO regions were not found to exhibit differential methylation in a parent-of-origin manner. The second aIm of the study was to examine the effect of paternal alcohol consumption on the methylation status of the IG-DMR locus in male gametes and to detennine whether alcohol is correlated with methylation in a dose-dependant manner. Methylation assessment was done using the quantitative pyrosequencing technology. While an overall reduction in methylation was noted in males who consumed alcohol after adjusting for confounding variables, the amount of alcohol consumed did not correlate with overall methylation. When analyzed by individual CpG sites, alcohol consumption was found to correlate preferentially with demethylation at CpG 3 while alcohol-dosage preferentially correlated with demethylation at CpG 7. Age was significantly correlated with an increase in the overall methylation at JG-DMR and at individual sites within JG-DMR. In conclusion, these findings support the hypothesis that paternal preconception alcohol consumption can lead to hypomethylation of nonnally hypennethylated DMRs of specific imprinted genes in human spenn. This in tum could have significant implications with regard to the regulation of developmentally significant genes in the zygote and fetus, resulting in developmental, behavioral and neurocognitive disorders.

INTRODUCTION According to ILO (2000), in developing countries about 59 per cent of labour force belongs to the agriculture sector. This is a particularly serious concern from the viewpoint of promoting the health of a population and reduction of social vulnerability in a country like Mozambique where more than half of the population depends on agriculture as their means of survival and wage earning. The current study attempts to address the agriculture mineral dust as occupational hygiene and health risk factors among agriculture workers, taking into account that dust that is breathed in may contain quartz, known as a carcinogenic and pathogenic agent. OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY The study aims to pinpoint risk potential to health that may be caused by mineral dust through assessing occupational exposure doses to respirable dust and quartz during plowing, and primary and secondary tilling operations identified in the study, as the major dust risk operations; and the more prevailing operations in maize and root plant on medium sized farms‟ production cycle. MATERIALS AND METHODS Sampling of dust was conducted on 2 medium sized farms selected by convenience in the district of Boane (study setting) based on geological map soil characterisation of the study area. Full-time period dust samples were collected from 4 different tractor operators. The tractor operators were identified as the risky group. In total were taken seventy valid samples; thirty-nine from maize and thirty-one from root plant. Three tractor operators were fully engaged in maize cultivation and 1 was engaged in root plant during the period of the study data collection. In all occasions, the „open-cabbed‟ tractor machines were observed and used by tractor operators. The involved sampling subjects‟ operators were informed in advance about the study purpose and they accepted participation in the research. Nineteen dust samples were randomly selected for determination of the quartz fraction using the MDHS 101 Infrared Spectrophotometer Method. Active dust sampling MDHS 14/3 HD-cyclone method was applied with GLA 5000 filter type. All quality control procedures applied in active dust sampling method and gravimetric determination of concentration were checked in order to accept or reject samples for further analysis and determination of exposure concentration. RESULTS Standard statistical procedures and sampling strategy data analysis and interpretation procedures, including the SPSS software version 11.5 were used to produce valid results and findings. In the specific case of the agriculture sector, workers are found in changeable conditions and working time, therefore the effective working time distribution was estimated varying at a level of 311.6 min., 95 per cent CI (294-329.7). The observed minimal and maximal values were 179 and 500 min., respectively. The filter medium potential contamination was checked out through determination of the mass variation of the blank samples. The filter contamination was assumed possible through absorption and/or adsorption of humidity at level of minus 0.00407 mg with lower limit of minus 0.01 and upper limit of 0.00183 mg. The results on exposure indicate high exposure dose in maize crop cultivation in contrast to root plant crop cultivation. The findings show that in medium-sized farming, the average exposure to respirable dust is 0.702 (SD 0.571) and the average exposure for respirable quartz is 0.074 (SD 0.06). About 96 per cent of respirable dust exposure measurements were found in compliance with the South Africa standard for respirable dust; and for respirable quartz 74 per cent, 45 per cent and 17 per cent of exposure measurements were in compliance with the SA, NIOSH and ACGIH occupational exposure limits respectively. Each tractor operator‟s measurements showed a significant variation of the exposure concentration, probably due to the intraday and interday variation. The exposure measurements geometric standard deviation (GSD) was found equal or above 2.0 for both maize and root plant measurements and this indicates the influence of environmental factors in the exposure profile variation. CONCLUSION The research is supportive of some international published studies in which respirable quartz exposure in agriculture sector, although highly variable, has potential significance for over-exposure. The measurements of exposure to respirable quartz have shown over-exposure scenarios. However some were found below the permitted exposure limits.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Health Sciences, 1997.

No description available.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Linköping : Univ., 2001. / Härtill 6 uppsatser.