The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has affected all aspects of everyday life worldwide, including the entire working sector. This study aims to evaluate the response capacity of some Italian companies to the emergency about workers' health and safety. Methods. Data were cross-sectional, collected by a specially drafted 19-item checklist sent to 60 enterprises located in the province of L'Aquila, Abruzzo, Italy. Results. Forty-one companies (68%) responded by filling in the checklist; more than 50% have fewer than 50 employees each and most of the companies belong to the food industry and the financial services. Adherence to the containment measures for the COVID-19 emergency was analysed, especially relating to job organization, social distancing, sanitization and specific training. Large enterprises and the banking sector showed ductile work reorganization according to the containment measures compared to small companies and the food sector. Conclusions. Italian companies have shown a good response to the regulatory restrictions resulting from the SARS-CoV-2 emergency. This is a worthy premise for the imminent management of Phase 2, with the progressive reopening of Italian companies.

BackgroundThe development of a vaccine against hepatitis B virus (HBV) has been a major achievement in terms of prevention of HBV infection. For the present study, we analysed the long-term immunogenicity and effectiveness of HBV vaccination among healthcare students with different working seniorities.MethodsA cross-sectional study of undergraduate and postgraduate students attending the Medical School of the Second University of Naples was conducted between September 2012 and December 2014. HBV serum markers were determined and multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to identify factors associated with the level of long-term immunogenicity.ResultsOf the 2,932 subjects evaluated, only 33 (1.1 %) declared no history of vaccination. All vaccinated subjects were HBsAg/anti-HBc negative, 459 of which had an anti-HBs titre <10 IU/L. The latter were younger, more likely to be attending a healthcare profession school (i.e., dental hygienists, nursing, paediatric nursing, radiography and midwifery) than a medical school (at either undergraduate or postgraduate level) and more likely to have been vaccinated in infancy.ConclusionThe results of this study suggest that assessment of HBV serum markers in workers potentially exposed to hospital infections is useful to identify small numbers of unvaccinated subjects or vaccinated subjects with low antibody titre, all of whom should be referred to a booster series of vaccinations.

Results confirmed the association between high Pb blood levels and ALS; on the contrary, Al and Mn did not differ significantly in patients and controls, suggesting that Mn and especially Al may play a less important role in the ALS pathogenesis.