VINE IS P , TERRACINI B, C ICCO NE G, CIGNE1TI A, COLOM BO E, DONNA A, MA FFI L, PIS A R, RICCI P , ZANINI E, CO MBA P . Pheno xy herb icides and soft-tissue sa rcomas in female rice weeders: A pop ulat ion-b ased case-referent study. Scand J Work Environ Health 13 (1987) 9 -17. A populat ionbased case-referent study was conducted in a n a rea of northern Italy where rice growing is the predom inant agric ultural activ ity and ph enoxy herb icides have been used since 1950. Manual rice weedin g was for merly performed by a seaso nal female working population; in the early 1950s these women were concurrently exposed to chem ical herb icides. Sixty-eight persons repre sentin g incident and histologically revised cases (31 women ) and 158 popul atio n referents (73 women) were intervie wed . Th e cases were histologica lly conf irmed indepe nde nt ly by two blinded path ologists, and expos ure to pheno xy her bicides was assessed by two blind ed pesticid e resea rchers. An age-adj usted odds ratio 01'0_91 was found fo r the living men (with suspect exposures; no man diagnosed as a case had been exposed with certainty to phenoxy herbicides). Among the living women the relative risk was 2.7 (90 "70 confidence interv al 0.59 -12.37), an d it further increased when att ention was restricted to women exposed in the whole 1950 -1955 period and to younger age groups.

Volume 2(4): [1][2][3][4][5] Myeloproliferative neoplasms, thrombosis and paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria: Is this triad more frequent than we thought? AbstractBackground: Chronic myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN) are clonal disorders characterized by an increased risk of thrombosis and of leukemic evolution. Paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH) is a rare disease whose characteristic traits are intravascular hemolysis and thrombophilia. The PNH clone is classically associated with bone marrow failure syndromes and, accordingly, it is thought to expand because the remaining hematopoiesis is suppressed. Conversely, here we report the detection of a PNH population in 2 MPN patients presenting with thrombosis.