Objective: To determine incipient industrialisation health impact on the population of a mining Peruvian mountain city. Material and Methods: Retrospective descriptive study that reviewed Regional City Medical Hospital patient’s records seen from 1996 through 2001, searching for environmental related illnesses. We used growth indexes and compared them statistically with environmental indexes by logistic regression using the SPSS/6,1. Results: We found significant correlation (95% confidence index) between industrial growth indexes and health status, such as increase of the number of vehicles and respiratory illnesses (p=0,0001), number of vehicles and dermatological illnesses (p=0,0003), number of vehicles and conjunctivitis (p=0,0001). Significance was less when comparing gold/silver production (p=0,01, 0,003 and 0,0045, respectively) with lead mining production (p=0.03, 0,001, and 0,...

With the beginning of the Industrial Era, specially after the II World War, man lives exposed progressively to more pollutants and has confronted huge environmental disasters like Minamata, Bophal, and Chernovyl. Cadmium is an environmental and industrial toxic pollutant that produces in man effects at the enzymatic, renal, respiratory and digestive levels, aggravated by its very extended mean life. To face this problem, we would have to make a survey of the principal sources of industrial pollution, mainly metallurgic, in order to protect the worker, applying TLVs and BEIs criteria concurrent with the state of the art.

Objective: To determine the number of applicant examinations taken in one year and quantify the number of thoracic X-rays subjected. Design: Prospective descriptive study. Material and methods: In 400 applicants to work by the modality of services in the Peruvian mining the quantity of applicant exams taken in the previous immediate year to the current examination and the number of chest X-rays in a year were determined. It also verifies additional X-ray exposition due to diagnostic exams derived from accidents or diseases and the quantity of natural ionized radiation received from open pit and high altitude work. Results: Forty-five per cent of men examined take one applicant work examination per year, 29% two, 12% three, 13% between four and six and in 5 applicants seven applicant work exams were taken during the year. By calculating the annual weighted equivalent accumulative dose of ...

Arsenic is a metalloid present in ores containing copper and causes a severe occupational disease. The main occupational exposure occurs in copper metallurgy. It enters the human body by the respiratory, digestive and skin tracts. It is transformed into dimethylarsinic and methylarsonic acids that are excreted by urine, feces or skin. Its trivalent compounds are cumulative and might cause cancer in several organs. Arsenic binds with a covalent link to mercapto sulfur groups and it uncouples oxidative phosphorylation, suggesting a non-hydrolytic inhibitory action in mitochondria. Some fish and shellfish contain high amounts of organic arsenic. In subjects unexposed, in agreement to the diet inorganic arsenic is <5 ug/g creatinine. The biologic exposure index in workers is 35 ug/g creatinine measured at the end of a work week. The threshold level value in work environment is 0.01mg/m3. ...

OBJECTIVE: To perform spirometry to a 12-to-17-year-old adolescent population living at Ciudad Nueva, Ilo, a city located near to a copper smelter-refinery and industrial fisheries with environmental pollution problems. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Spirometry was performed in 84 adolescents –34 women and 50 men– with a computerized spirometer. RESULTS: The most frequent spirometric alteration was obstruction (38,1%); restriction was found in 4,8%. The Knudson’s standards FVC, FEV1, PEF and FEF25-75% were significantly related to height, but not to age. There was statistically significant difference between genders, in favor of men, except in FEV1/FVC. FVC and FEV1 values were near to those predicted (98,8% and 93,6%, respectively), but PEF and FEF25-75% were only 80,6% and 79,6%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The most frequent spirometric alteration was airway obstruction. We recommend to ac...

Cyanide, hydrogen cyanide and its salts are called cyanide. They exist in natural form and are obtained as salts in industry. At low doses they are lethal in minimum exposure time. The nervous system is its primary target organ. After ingestion, contact or inhalation, serious neurotoxic effects appear in humans and animals. Occupational exposure can produce headache, vertigo, vomiting, nausea, thyroid gland alterations, and dermatitis. At high doses and in short time, cyanide exposure can end in death. In very low amounts some cyanide compounds are indispensable for life. Cyanide is located in group D “not classifiable as human carcinogen”. In order to apply preventive measures when working with cyanides and in public health, it is necessary to acknowledge cyanide toxic effects on men and animals.

Medical surveillance via occupational medical examinations is the most widely tool used in prevention and control of job-related diseases. Its management by the occupational physician allows recognition of the occupational disease. By developing programs of preventive-promotional health and occupational examinations the Occupational Health Services make possible early recognition of labor health problems. Their goal is to prevent work-related diseases. Companies must establish and maintain labor health services integrated by specialized physicians in occupational medicine as head of a team that includes occupational nurses, industrial hygiene, and other technicians specialized in labor health-related fields.

Knowledge is a conscious, intentional and individual act to learn object's qualities and is firstly referred to who knows but also to the object thing what is known. Its development has been close to human thought evolution. Epistemology, the science that studies knowledge, is based in scientific research that begins with a hypothesis exposition and develops afterwards with mathematical models to have verifiable and valid conclusions. Scientific research is an accepted and validated process for new facts or questions solutions guided to recognize principles and laws that sustain man's life in the world. It owns methods based on hypothesisdeduction/ induction complemented with statistics and calculation probabilities. Scientific researchers should know its theory and evolution because they are indispensable tools in research and its good handling will allow technical and suitable answers ...

Background: Occupational exposure to mercury is associated to mercurialism, a characteristic occupational poisoning. To verify impact of environmental mercury levels improvement would have in gold's refinery workers of a Peruvian auriferous company, we carried out a reengineering program for exposure control. This program included health and hygiene occupational aspects and operation's management active participation. Objective: To study in gold refinery workers variations in indicators of exposure to mercury with environment labor quality improvement. Design: Prospective and descriptive study. Place of study: Occupational Health Service in a Peruvian mining company. Participants: Workers of gold refinery. Interventions: Modification of physician examination methodology, hygienic evaluation and improved conditions of the labor environment. Every six months we quantified the environmental...

In occupational health to control risk magnitude we apply threshold limit values. Man at high altitude has anatomical-physiological variants in his respiratory system; most important are increases in thoracic capacity, pulmonary ventilation, alveolar/capillary diffusion, and arterial oxygen content. Physiological safe work at high altitude consists in the organism not using extra energy to compensate barometric pressure fall. In respiratory occupational toxicology we must initiate correction when ventilatory response to hypobaric hypoxia becomes unsafe and this occurs at 8 000 feet above sea level. Accordingly we should correct exposure limits value applying to work at high altitude. In order to establish safe parameters of toxicological exposition at high altitude it is necessary to investigate these aspects in high altitude workers.

Introduction: Work with lead is a universal industrial problem, especially when done without labor hygiene approach. Lead Peruvian’s mining and metallurgy maintains good quality programs for management of occupational health, but informal Peruvian industry does not. Objectives: To determine the actual heath status of handicraft and informal batteries factories workers using blood lead levels as exposition indicators. Design: Observational and transversal study. Setting: Ilo, Peru’s Occupational Health Service Hospital. Participants: Workers at four handicraft informal batteries factories. Interventions: Information was obtained from 41 workers by direct interview, from August 1999 through January 2000. For blood lead levels determination we used atomic absorption spectrophotometry with graphite oven, and for hemoglobin, microhematocrit. We obtained percentages, averages, ranges, and ...

El mercurio, metal pesado ampliamente utilizado por el hombre, es muy tóxico; produce daño al sistema nervioso central, perturbaciones del comportamiento y lesiones renales. Se acumula en todos los seres vivos y no es esencial para ningún proceso biológico. La toxicidad del mercurio está directamente relacionada con su estado químico. El metilmercurio es la forma más dañina, con efectos neurotóxicos en adultos y en fetos de madres expuestas. El mercurio metálico no es menos tóxico. Las sales de mercurio inorgánico afectan directamente al riñón. Clínicamente, en la exposición ocupacional a mercurio se encuentra la triada clásica: temblor, alteración de la personalidad y estomatitis. En los últimos años se ha demostrado también alteración en la visión cromática. La exposición aguda se evalúa midiendo el mercurio en la sangre, mientras que la exposición crónica y...

Worker’s health is the most important fact in heavy metal exposition surveillance. In extractive metallurgy there is exposition to many elements and chemical compounds. Current laboratory technological advances allow us to develop biologic media’s measurements for use in occupational health assessment. Monitoring is measuring, assessing and interpreting biological media and environment parameters, to prevent and avoid health risks. It implies establishing control measures in labor environment defining exposition levels not causing adverse effects on workers. An exposition’s biological indicator doses blood metal or byproducts biotransformation into biological media in order to quantify body chemistry. In kidney toxicity, we use function and citotoxicity indicators, low molecular weight proteins and urinary enzymes. In neurological toxicity, substitute indicators are being developed...

Introduction: Anthropometry is the essential basis for ergonomics, mainly human body’s measures referred to size and shapes. Peruvian mining is located at high altitudes, habitat of ethnic Andean men showing different anthropometry to the sea level man. Objectives: To characterize anthropometrics of a Peruvian Andean Mountain mining workers, native men population, residing and living at 3 000 masl and more. Design: Descriptive, prospective and observational study. Setting: La Oroya Centromin-Peru Enterprise’s Occupational Health Service and its four mining satellite hospitals. Participants: Three thousand healthy native 21 to 60 year-old male mining workers residing in altitudes above 3 500 masl. Interventions: The sample was generated by conglomerate’s random aleatory polyphase model. The study was done between 1984-1994. For normality hypothesis statistical certainty we applied S...

Lead, a ubiquitous heavy metal, has been found in places as unlikely as Greenland’s fossil ice. Egyptians and Hebrews used it. In Spain, Phoenicians c. 2000 BC worked ores of lead. At the end of the XX century, occupational lead’s poisoning became a public health problem in developed countries. In non-developed countries occupational lead poisoning is still frequent. Diagnosis is directed to recognize lead existence at the labor environment and good clinical and occupational documentation. Differential diagnosis considers neurological and abdominal pain syndromes. Both blood lead and zinc-protoporphyrin levels are trustworthy and crucial analysis. In exposed workers, blood-lead can attain 40 ug/100 mL and even 80 ug/100 mL in unhealthy industries workers and zincprotoporphyrin is above 4 ug/g of hemoglobin. Treatment consists mainly in calcium disodium edetate, d-penicillamid lead’...

Silicosis is a pneumoconiosis caused by repeated inhalation of silica dust, characterized by pulmonary fibrosis and a bronchitis component. It is predisposing factor for lung cancer and cause of temporary or permanent work disability. According to its presentation it may be classical, acute, complicated or accelerated. Peru is a mining country with more than 197 000 direct workers in this activity considered at high risk for developing silicosis. Clinical examination, labor history, lung X-rays and spirometry are basic in diagnosis. There is no treatment for silicosis. Prevention is the only known way to avoid it. In addition to collective and personal protection, main preventive action is education of workers and employers on risk of exposure to silica dust.

La realización de esta investigación tiene el propósito de determinar la relación entre el desempeño laboral docente y el aprendizaje en matemática de los estudiantes del 5to. Año de secundaria de la I.E. Nº 1070 “Melitón Carbajal”, de Lince en el 2011. Esta investigación por su finalidad correspondió al tipo aplicativo, descriptivo de nivel transversal, y se basó en un diseño no experimental, correlacional y aplicativa, en donde se consideró como población de 180 estudiantes, por lo que se seleccionó como muestra de estudio a 123 estudiantes, seleccionados a través de un muestreo de tipo probabilístico, de los cuales se recolectó la información acerca del desempeño laboral docente y el aprendizaje en el área de matemática, para el cual se empeló un cuestionario. El resultado obtenido indica que existe una relación positiva y de grado alto entre las percepcio...

La realización de esta investigación tuvo como objetivo fundamental es determinar la influencia del desempleo y la pobreza en la desnutrición crónica infantil en Lima Metropolitana, periodo 2016. . Es importante considerar que esta investigación por la finalidad que persigue, corresponde al de tipo básica del nivel explicativo y se ha basado en un diseño no experimental correlaciona!, donde se ha considerado como población involucrada en este tipo de problemas, del total de la población de Lima Metropolitana a 240 individuos (familias), extrayéndose una muestra de 148 individuos, seleccionados a través de un muestreo tipo probabilístico, a quienes se les encuesto con un cuestionario exigente por medio de la escala de Likert, obteniéndose información de suma importancia para el caso a cerca del desempleo y la pobreza en Lima Metropolitana y su influencia determinante de esta...

A través de la presente tesis cuyos postulados van a incidir en demostrar que el uso y aplicación de historietas como material auxiliar y/o material educativo mejorará el nivel de enseñanza-aprendizaje de los estudiantes del tercer grado de la institución educativa 2027 “José María Arguedas”, Urbanización Los Jardines- San Martín de Porres. La población objetivo estuvo conformado por 120 alumnos, los cuales se subdividieron en dos grupos (control y experimental). En primera instancia se realizaron encuestas dirigidas a los docentes y alumnos para medir las aptitudes y conocimientos sobre el género de las historietas (antecedentes, características y componentes básicos). Luego se realizó una evaluación de entrada y salida tanto en el grupo de control y experimental. Finalmente se efectuó un examen cualitativo de creatividad y análisis de contenido. De esta manera se l...

OBJECTIVE: To seek determinant factors in the development of depression clinical picture. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Study by Hamilton’s Scale of a copper metallurgical mining company 158 railroad men and gantry-crane men workers. Twenty-five probable cases of depression were referred for psychiatric evaluation. In 13 diagnosis was confirmed and represent the cases group and the remaining 140 men, the control group. Both groups were compared statistically by logistic regression. Confidence intervals were calculated at 95%. RESULTS: Depression prevalence was 8,49%. Feeling of current loss, family severe dysfunction, improper working conditions and occupational performance represented probability reasons with P value highly meaningful (59,3; 11,4; 10,0; 11,2, respectively). Age, civil state, education level, alcohol or tobacco consumption, personal or familiar history of psychiatric disorder,...