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Main Forums => Living With HIV => Topic started by: blondbeauty on May 16, 2007, 10:26:08 am

Title: Buildings that cause lipoatrophy
Post by: blondbeauty on May 16, 2007, 10:26:08 am
Lipoatrophy is not only a side effect of antiretrovirals. The building of "Natural Gas" in Barcelona (Spain) has cause lipoatrophy to hundreds of employees.

http://www.elmundo.es/elmundosalud/2007/03/01/medicina/1172766681.html?a=9226ef1866a7f79b7121e16dc29be1b4&t=1172779674

Translation (a bad one):
150 AFFECTED Natural Gas the consellera of Work of the Generalitat of Catalonia evacuates its central seat by a rare disease in the skin of the workers sends to a "message of tranquillity" the company says that the evacuation is for installing humidificadores and earth takings the disease, an alteration of the fat, is reversible if the cause is avoided The new Natural Gas seat in the Barceloneta (Photo: EFE | Andreu Dalmau) Updated Thursday 17:34 (01/03/2007 CET) MARIA SAINZ | ANGELS LOPEZ (elmundo.es) MADRID. - A new, modern building, with the last technologies but that attack the fatty weave of their employees. 150 workers of the central Natural Gas seat in Barcelona present/display a series of cracks in their thighs that, according to sources of the company, could be due to the static electricity that is believed in the work tables, among other factors. According to the company one is lipoatrofia semicircular, an alteration of the subcutaneous fat. This upheaval is frequent in the people with VIH due to an indirect effect of a type of antirretrovirales. "It is a rare disease. In the consultation only we see it in the seropositivos patients and people who undergo repeated microtraumatismos that they do not have why to be strong. Also it is very rare that one occurs at the same time in so many workers ", explains to elmundo.es Manuel Fernandez Lorente, dermatologist of the Clinic the Light of Madrid. According to this specialist, when the cause is the microtraumatismos, the solution is in avoiding them and as of that moment the fat regenerates to a large extent, although not totally. "It is as if you pressed the thigh with the finger but when clearing it it did not disappear that crack". Thus they describe from the company which presents/displays in the legs a 15% of their workers. He would be something similar to the signal that leaves the socks in the skin but that, in this case, it remains of constant form. The symptoms are semicircular cracks in the thigh However, no of the dermatologists consulted by elmundo.es indicates to know a relation between the static electricity and this upheaval. But some references in medical Literature exist that associate this disease with the labor surroundings. The first report of this disease dates from 1974 in which doctors German described three patients with circular depressions as a band in the subcutaneous weave. As of that date, some studies speculated that these and other cases could be consequence of a bad circulation due to the structure of the chairs or to even wear fit jeans. The main ones affected in the power station of the Barceloneta are women, of different ages and that work in different plants from the building. According to it explains Natural Gas, this greater incidence in the workers must to that they have a greater fatty weave and, for that reason, they are more susceptible to suffer this class of atrophy. One thinks that "the incidence varies based on how the person in her table interacts, if she is with the crossed legs or not...", explains the company. A similar case in Brussels the last week, some Natural Gas members traveled to Belgium to visit a company in which east type of upheaval was detected does about 15 years. According to it explains the Spanish company to elmundo.es, the situation of the Belgian building era very similar to the one of the seat of Barcelona. One was a new building, to which they finished changing itself and that had stops technology levels. The cause is not known this disease. Most of the studies they indicate to the microtraumatismos or the bad circulation like the possible people in charge The case of Brussels, in which 900 workers underwent lipoatrofia semicircular, was gathered by doctor Curves Bart of the Flamenco Institute of Technological Investigation (Belgium). On her report, this specialist insisted on which the appearance of the cases began months after the company changed of building. In that occasion, lipoatrofia also appeared in the anterolateral part of the thigh, to about 72 centimeters of the ground, as in the case of Barcelona, "to the height of the table if you put yourself of foot". The injuries had between one and five millimeters of depth, but the skin stayed intact. After months from labor absence or change to another site of the building, the injuries sent in most of the cases (95%), nevertheless, the atrophy returned when the affected one returned to its place of work with the same atmosphere. "one knows that it influences the one that is a new office (the Natural Gas employees had changed themselves at the end of 2006), loaded of technology and with great fields of induced electricity and, mainly, statics", indicates from the Spanish company. No of the affected workers has requested the loss since, like they have explained from Natural Gas, is a reversible upheaval, that does not hurt and that many of the people only detected when it inquired to them into which some cases had occurred. Implanted measures Besides to communicate it to the Ministry of Work and the Generalitat, the company decided, like first measurement, to reinforce the land takings of the tables of the 1,000 employees of the company, "that is where the static electricity unloads". Also, a work group was created, formed by members of the Generalitat, union representatives of the workers and a group of Belgian experts, to investigate the agents who can cause this type of cracks. It has been decided, since it made at his moment the Belgian company, to install a series of humidificadores in the company to prevent that the atmosphere was dry, that was another one of the factors that seem could cause lipoatrofia. In order to make these works of adjustment, the building has been closed from today and to the next Monday. In the last years it has been related the humidity and the electromagnetic fields of the office like origin of the disease At the moment, more factors have not been identified than they can cause this upheaval but its existence does not discard. In this sense, the work group continues shuffling the possibility of implanting new measures to try to solve the problem. On the other hand, the consellera of Work of the Generalitat of Catalonia, Sea Serna, today sent a "message of tranquillity". According to Serna, the tests that have become in the offices and the evaluations of the electromagnetic fields "have given negative", reason why are presumed that the problem could be due to the humidity levels. For doctor Bart, the explanations on microtraumatismos or the bad circulation were too simple and they were not adapted to the happened thing in the Belgian company. According to the investigation that was carried out then, other factors like the electromagnetic quality of the air or fields were considered. "Small ESD in the zone of the legs can be a possible biological explanation. The activation of the macrophages [ produces citoquinas a type of proteins ] that are able to damage and to modify the structure of the fatty weave ", explains in their report. "Although this disease is catalogued like very rare, now is happening very frequently in some places of work. Probably the cause and also the solution is multifactorial. Although the cause is still not known, we thought that the electromagnetic fields play an important role in this phenomenon ", concludes Bart. Teófila Vicente, person in charge of the medical service of Post office in the Valencian Community and member of the board of directors of the Medicine Association of the Work of this community, explains to elmundo.es that "the reality is that at the present moment we move in the land of the hypotheses and that still is continued looking for a scientific explanation and with it a solution to the problem". Natural gas clarifies that his "it is not a strange building, was constructed fulfilling the norms of labor health. The tables of the normal employees also are [... ] We are a little lost with which it is happening and for that reason we are investigating. In any case, although he is unusual, one knows that it is not the only case that has occurred ".