Legionella pneumophila is a gram-negative bacterium responsible for Legionnaire's disease, and is commonly transmitted via aerosolized water. Legionella colonization of emergency eyewash and shower stations may pose an exposure hazard to users of these stations. There is little information about the role of these stations as significant reservoirs for Legionella. Samples were collected from 67 stations in an industrial facility. At the time of this study, the stations within this facility were under a routine maintenance program that included at least monthly flushing. This study also included the analysis for other bacterial organisms to determine an association between the presence and concentration of other bacteria and Legionella. All samples resulted in no detection of Legionella, yet 12 of the samples contained large counts of other bacteria. Thus, this study supports that properly maintained emergency eyewash and shower stations do not appear to be a significant source for aerosol transmission of Legionella.

La relation entre exposition sonore environnementale et performance scolaire a été étudiée auprès des 900 élèves scolarisés en CE2 en 2006-2007 dans les écoles publiques de la ville de Besançon (120 000 habitants). Un questionnaire, complété par les familles de 724 élèves a permis de localiser les habitations et recueillir les facteurs associés à leur réussite ou échec scolaire.L'exposition sonore de cette population a été évaluée par deux approches complémentaires : une campagne de mesure, conduite au domicile de 44 enfants pendant 8 jours consécutifs (niveaux sonores intra- et extra-domiciliaires) ; une carte stratégique de bruit, à l'échelle de la ville (niveaux sonores en façade des écoles et du domicile de chacun des élèves). Ces niveaux sonores ont été confrontés aux résultats obtenus lors des évaluations diagnostiques de l'Education nationale, organisées à l'entrée en CE2, à l'aide de modèles de régressions linéaires multi-niveaux. Un lien significatif entre niveau d'exposition sonore en façade de l'école et baisse des scores obtenus en français et mathématiques a été mis en évidence, y compris après ajustement sur les facteurs de confusion. La tendance est similaire entre niveau sonore en façade du domicile et score en français, bien qu'en limite de signification après ajustement sur les cofacteurs.Ce travail s'inscrit dans une démarche pluridisciplinaire d'évaluation du risque environnemental, avec un accent particulier porté sur l'évaluation de l'exposition. L'évaluation de l'impact des nuisances sonores sur la santé est d'autant plus importante que l'exposition sonore environnementale concerne une large part de la population, en Europe et dans le monde / The aim of this thesis was to quantify children's exposure to environmental ambient noise at home and at school and to assess the relation between noise exposure and school performance of 8-9 year-old-schoolchildren. This study was conducted among the 900 children living in a 120, 000 inhabitants city and attending one of the 35 public primary schools in key stage 2, year 4 in 2006-2007. Questionnaires were distributed to the families to locate the children's home and collect data on potential confounding factors associated with school achievement or failure. These questionnaires were completed by 724 families living in the city.A noise measurement campaign was performed at the residence of 44 randomly sampled schoolchildren (outdoor and indoor noise levels during one week) and a strategic noise map was built at the city scale to calculate the outdoor environmental ambient noise levels at home and at school. These noise levels were compared with the children's school performance at the national standardised assessment test in French and mathematics. A linear exposure-effect relation between noise exposure at school and impaired Mathematics score was found after adjustment for confounding factors. Furthermore, both the ambient noise exposure at school and at home individually considered were found to be associated with an impaired children French performance.This study mainly focused on the assessment of the noise exposure in an urban area. The magnitude of the effect we observed on school performance may seem to be modest, but, when considering the number of people potentially chronically exposed to similar environmental noise levels, this effect may be of importance.