Occupational Exposures and Environmental Health Hazards of Military Personnel

Marta Geretto, Marco Ferrari, Roberta De Angelis, Filippo Crociata, Nicola Sebastiani, Alessandra Pulliero, William Au and Alberto Izzotti
Additional contact information
Marta Geretto: Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Genoa, 16132 Genoa, Italy
Marco Ferrari: Texas Biomedical Research Institute, 8715 W. Military Drive, San Antonio, TX 78227, USA
Roberta De Angelis: Department of Oncology and Molecular Medicine, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, 00161 Rome, Italy
Filippo Crociata: General Inspectorate of Military Health, 00184 Rome, Italy
Nicola Sebastiani: General Inspectorate of Military Health, 00184 Rome, Italy
Alessandra Pulliero: Department of Health Sciences, University of Genoa,16132 Genoa, Italy
William Au: Faculty of Medicine, Pharmacy, Science and Technology University of Medicine, Pharmacy, Science and Technology, 540142 Targu Mures, Romania
Alberto Izzotti: Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Genoa, 16132 Genoa, Italy

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 10, 1-50

Abstract: Background: Military personnel are frequently exposed to environmental pollutants that can cause a variety of diseases. Methods: This review analyzed publications regarding epidemiological and biomonitoring studies on occupationally-exposed military personnel. Results: The exposures include sulfur mustard, organ chlorines, combustion products, fuel vapors, and ionizing and exciting radiations. Important factors to be considered are the lengths and intensities of exposures, its proximity to the sources of environmental pollutants, as well as confounding factors (cigarette smoke, diet, photo-type, healthy warrior effect, etc.). Assessment of environmental and individual exposures to pollutants is crucial, although often omitted, because soldiers have often been evaluated based on reported health problems rather than on excessive exposure to pollutants. Biomarkers of exposures and effects are tools to explore relationships between exposures and diseases in military personnel. Another observation from this review is a major problem from the lack of suitable control groups. Conclusions: This review indicates that only studies which analyzed epidemiological and molecular biomarkers in both exposed and control groups would provide evidence-based conclusions on exposure and disease risk in military personnel.

Keywords: molecular epidemiology; biomarkers; soldiers; environmental pollution; occupational exposures (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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