
Michele CarugnoUniversity of Milan | UNIMI · Department of Clinical Sciences and Community Health
Michele Carugno
MD, Occupational Health Physician
About
146
Publications
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Introduction
Additional affiliations
January 2014 - January 2016
June 2009 - June 2014
September 2007 - present
Publications
Publications (146)
Background
The rapid growth of the digital economy has transformed various labor markets, including the food sector. The transient nature and the peculiar work environments of food delivery workers raise concerns about occupational safety and health (OSH). This study aims to better understand these issues by conducting a comprehensive exploratory s...
Background
Major depressive disorder (MDD) is one of the most prevalent medical conditions worldwide. Different factors were found to play a role in its etiology, including environmental ones (e.g., air pollution). The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between air pollution exposure and MDD severity.
Methods
Four hundred sixteen MD...
Background
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), in 2011, developed the “Total Worker Health®” (TWH) as a holistic approach to protect and promote the workers’ safety, health, and well-being. After over ten years from the TWH development, the aim of the present systematic review is to provide a comprehensive overview of...
Introduction
NIOSH defines a Total Worker Health® (TWH) approach as “policies, programs, and practices that integrate protection from work-related safety and health hazards with promotion of injury and illness-prevention efforts to advance worker well-being”, thus confirming work as a fundamental determinant of human health.
Methods
The Italian Mi...
Introduction
A recent study (doi:10.1016/j.envint.2021.106871) examined markers of biological aging among subjects occupationally exposed to benzene and found increased age acceleration and reduced telomere length (TL), especially in workers exposed to levels >10 ppm. We verified the same hypothesis on a larger study population characterized by a b...
Introduction
Working as a rider for digital food delivery companies has become a widespread opportunity nowadays. According to the main Italian platforms, there are around 60.000 riders in Italy, of which 8.000 in Milan only. This exploratory survey aims at examining health and safety issues of riders operating in the Milan area.
Methods
The surve...
Background
Some epidemiological studies suggest that long-term exposure to environmental air pollutants, such as particulate matter (PM), could have a role in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) incidence and pathogenesis. However, less is known about the potential effect of short-term air pollution exposure. The aim of this study is to investigate wh...
The "exposome" covers all disease determinants across a lifetime. Many exposome factors could induce epigenetic changes, especially in DNA methylation. Yet, the role of these modifications in disease development remains partly understood.
Although the possible relationship among the exposome factors, epigenetic modifications, and health/disease has...
Several studies have examined the possible relationship between air pollutants and the risk of COVID-19 but most returned controversial findings. We tried to assess the association between (short- and long-term) exposure to particulate and gaseous pollutants, SARS-CoV-2 infections, and immune response in a population of healthcare workers (HCWs) wi...
Objectives: We explored temporal variations in disease burden of ambient particulate matter 2.5 μm or less in diameter (PM 2.5 ) and ozone in Italy using estimates from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019.
Methods: We compared temporal changes and percent variations (95% Uncertainty Intervals [95% UI]) in rates of disability adjusted life years...
To reflect on the present and the future of the "millennial" epidemiologists in Italy, the starting question is who are we? The online survey "I giovani ricercatori non più giovani: chi siamo? #GIOVANIDENTRO" was launched in 2022 and advertised at conferences of the Italian association of epidemiology to gather voices from all over Italy. Informati...
The General data protection regulation (Gdpr) of 2016, implemented since 2018, has become a crucial issue in the field of epidemiology. The Gdpr concerns the protection of personal data, which includes all information that identifies or can identify a natural person, providing information about their habits, health status, and lifestyle, and regula...
The "millennial" epidemiologists, born between the beginning of the 80s and the end of the 90s, are the generation that most of all, today, lives between the present and the future of this discipline. This issue of Recenti Progressi in Medicina aims to talk about what young (and no longer young) epidemiologists and public health researchers are dea...
Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a serious and disabling condition, whose etiological mechanisms are not fully understood. The aim of the DeprAir study is to verify the hypothesis that air pollution exposure may exacerbate neuroinflammation with consequent alterations in DNA methylation of genes involved in circadian rhythms and hormonal dysregul...
Introduction
Early evidence following COVID-19 pandemic onset showed substantial impact on Healthcare Workers’ (HCWs) mental health. Most research relies on cross-sectional data collected during the pandemic early stages and longitudinal studies are mainly focused on its first year; more recent mental health data on HCWs are not yet available. The...
Background and aim
Shift work, especially including night shifts, has been found associated with several diseases, including obesity, diabetes, cancers, and cardiovascular, mental, gastrointestinal and sleep disorders. Metabolomics (an omics-based methodology) may shed light on early biological alterations underlying these associations. We thus aim...
Introduction
Night shift (NS) work has been associated with an increased risk of different conditions characterized by altered inflammatory and immune responses, such as cardio-metabolic and infectious diseases, cancer, and obesity. Epigenetic modifications, such as DNA methylation, might mirror alterations in biological processes that are influenc...
Background
A few studies suggest that particulate matter (PM) exposure might play a role in bronchiolitis. However, available data are mostly focused on the risk of hospitalization and come from retrospective studies that provided conflicting results. This prospective study investigated the association between PM (PM2.5 and PM10) exposure and the s...
This document is a response of the Office to the proposals of the 2009 Meeting of Experts and part of its efforts to promote the application of the new list. A core group of internationally recognized experts was called upon to help in collecting information on national diagnostic criteria and in formulating guidance notes on the diagnosis and prev...
The guidance notes provide information and criteria to be considered in the diagnosis and prevention of the diseases included in the ILO List of Occupational Diseases (revised 2010). It is intended for the use of competent authorities, social security institutions, workers’ compensation funds, occupational safety and health professionals, physician...
Background:
In Italy, healthcare workers (HCWs) were among the first to receive COVID-19 vaccination. Aim of the present study is to evaluate frequency and severity of adverse events (AEs) following the second dose of BNT162b2 vaccine among HCWs of a large university hospital in Milan, Italy.
Methods:
One month after having received the second d...
Disruption of age-related processes seems to play a relevant role in health effects related to night shift (NS) work. We aim to verify whether NS work can influence biological age (BA), estimated through Zbieć-Piekarska’s epigenetic signature, based on methylation of five CpG sites in ELOVL2, C1orf132/MIR29B2C, TRIM59, KLF14, and FHL2. Forty-six fe...
Introduction
Randomized controlled trials showed efficacy of vaccines against coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19). There is the need to quantify vaccine effectiveness in real-word contexts, including people at high risk of infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), such as health care workers (HCWs).
Objectives
To e...
Introduction
Disruption of age-related processes seems to play a relevant role in health effects related to night shift (NS) work. We had observed a decrease between telomere length (a marker of aging) and number of years in NS in subjects employed in NS ≥12 years.
Objectives
We now investigate the association between NS work and biological age (B...
We provide a comprehensive and updated systematic review and meta-analysis of the association between air pollution exposure and depression, searching PubMed, Embase, and Web of Sciences for relevant articles published up to May 2021, and eventually including 39 studies. Meta-analyses were performed separately according to pollutant type [particula...
Reduced telomere length (TL) has been associated with increased risk of age-related diseases, most likely through oxidative stress and inflammation, which have also been claimed as mechanisms underlying health effects of air pollution exposure. We aimed to verify whether exposure to particulate matter with diameter ≤10 µm (PM10) affects TL. We recr...
During the last month of 2019, a new Coronavirus from China started to spread all around the world causing a pandemic emergency still ongoing. The outbreak made imperative the need for diagnostic and screening tests that could identify the current and past infection state of an individual. Occupational medicine is facing a very demanding challenge,...
Objectives
To assess the seroprevalence of anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG among health careworkers (HCWs) in our university hospital and verify the risk of acquiring the infection according to work area.
Design
Cross-sectional study.
Setting
Monocentric, Italian, third-level university hospital.
Participants
All the employees of the hospital on a voluntary...
Bipolar Disorder (BD) alternates depressive, manic or hypomanic phases. A manic episode (ME) is the main psychopathological condition of BD and it often requires hospitalization. Air pollution is thought to play a role in onset and exacerbation of several psychiatric disorders. We aimed to verify the association between exposure to particulate matt...
SARS-CoV-2 symptoms are non-specific and can range from asymptomatic presentation to severe pneumonia. Asymptomatic subjects carrying SARS-CoV-2 often remain undiagnosed and it is still debated whether they develop immunoglobulins (Ig) and how long they persist. The aim of this study was to investigate the development and persistence of antibodies...
Objectives
The management of healthcare workers (HCWs) exposed to confirmed cases of COVID-19 is still a matter of debate. We aimed to assess in this group the attack rate of asymptomatic carriers and the symptoms most frequently associated with the infection.
Methods
Occupational and clinical characteristics of HCWs who performed a nasopharyngeal...
Background The management of healthcare workers (HCWs) exposed to confirmed cases of COVID-19 is still a matter of debate. It is unclear whether these subjects should be tested in the absence of symptoms and if those can guide diagnosis.
Methods Occupational and clinical characteristics of all the consecutive HCWs who performed a nasopharyngeal swa...
Background:
The shape of the exposure-response curve describing the effects of air pollution on population health has crucial regulatory implications, and it is important in assessing causal impacts of hypothetical policies of air pollution reduction.
Methods:
After having reformulated the problem of assessing the short-term impact of air pollut...
Malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) is a rare and aggressive cancer, which originates from the mesothelial cells of the pleura and is associated with asbestos exposure. In light of its aggressive nature, late diagnosis and dismal prognosis, there is an urgent need for identification of biomarkers in easily accessible samples (such as blood) for ea...
Exposure to airborne particulate matter (PM) has been associated with detrimental health effects. DNA methylation represents the most well-studied epigenetic factor among the possible mechanisms underlying this association. Interestingly, changes of DNA methylation in response to environmental stimuli are being considered for their role in the path...
Increased breast cancer risk has been reported in some night shift (NS) workers but underlying biological mechanisms are still unclear. We assessed the association between NS work and DNA methylation of tumor suppressor (TP53, CDKN2A, BRCA1, BRCA2) and estrogen receptor (ESR1, ESR2) genes, methylation of repetitive elements (LINE-1, Alu), and telom...
Introduction
Studies on female nurses have reported a higher breast cancer risk among night shift (NS) workers, without a clear understanding of the underlying biological mechanisms.
Aim
To assess the association between night shiftwork and molecular alterations potentially related to a higher carcinogenic risk, in details: DNA methylation of estr...
Background:
Oil refinery workers are exposed to several well-established carcinogens and working in this type of industry has been classified by IARC as probable carcinogen to humans (Group 2A).
Objectives:
To examine the mortality experience of workers employed in four Italian oil refineries.
Methods:
The cohort included 5112 male workers eve...
Objective
Cohort studies in Europe, but not in North-America, showed an association between exposure to outdoor particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter ≤10 μm (PM10) and lung cancer risk. Only a case-control study on lung cancer and PM10 in South Korea has so far been performed. For the first time in Europe we analyzed quantitatively this asso...
Distribution of subjects across area and categories of average PM10 in year 2000, the EAGLE study, Lombardy, Italy, 2002–2005.
(DOCX)
Lung cancer risk according to average PM10 exposure in year 2000 by histological type, the EAGLE study, Lombardy, Italy, 2002–2005.
(DOCX)
Association between lung cancer risk and average PM10 concentration levels (four categories) in year 2000, the EAGLE Study, Lombardy, Italy, 2002–2005.
(TIF)
Lung cancer risk according to average PM10 exposure (four categories) in year 2000, the EAGLE study, Lombardy, Italy, 2002–2005.
(DOCX)
Minimal anonymized dataset.
(XLSX)
Lung cancer risk according to average PM10 exposure in year 2000 by selected variables, the EAGLE study, Lombardy, Italy, 2002–2005.
(DOCX)
Legend for the minimal anonymized dataset (S1 File).
(DOCX)
Background:
Aircraft noise may cause several non-auditory health effects, including annoyance, sleep disorders, hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, and impaired cognitive skills in children.
Objectives:
To perform a cross-sectional study among adult residents near the Orio al Serio International Airport (BGY), Italy to investigate the associa...
Epigenetic mechanisms might be involved in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Genetic polymorphisms in several genes, including APOE (Apolipoprotein E), PSEN1 (Presenilin 1), CR1 (Complement receptor 1), and PICALM (Phosphatidylinositol binding clathrin assembly protein), have been associated to an increased AD risk. However, data regarding methylation of t...
Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is the primary cause of acute lower respiratory infections in children, bronchiolitis in particular. Airborne particulate matter (PM) may influence the children's immune system and foster the spread of RSV infection. We aimed to verify whether PM10 exposure is associated with hospitalization due to RSV bronchioliti...
BACKGROUND:
Extracellular vesicle (EV) production is a powerful and not yet fully understood biological mechanism, probably involved in systemic responses to particulate matter (PM) exposure. As PM enters the human body through inhalation, and locally modifies the composition of the nasal microbiota (NMB), it is possible to hypothesize that NMB mod...
Introduction
In Italy about 45% of people aged ≥18 years are overweight/obese and might thus be more susceptible to the adverse health effects of air pollution exposure. Particulate matter ≤10 µm (PM10) represents a common pollutant of living and working environments and has been associated with increased risk of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and h...
Introduction
IARC defined shift work as probably carcinogenic to humans (Group 2A), after investigations highlighted an increased breast cancer risk in night-shift female workers. The biological mechanisms underlying this association are still unclear. Hence, we evaluated the relationship between night-shift work and molecular alterations potential...
Introduction
Arsenic is an environmental carcinogen that undergoes methylation while metabolised. Subsequent intracellular methyl groups depletion can decrease global DNA methylation, facilitating carcinogenesis. On the other hand, hypermethylation in promoter regions of tumour suppressor genes related to arsenic exposure has been observed in-vivo....
Introduction
The association of gene expressions with exposure to ambient particulate matter (PM) concentrations is still mainly explorative. We took advantage of a study designed to evaluate the short-term association between PM exposure in working environment and biological molecular targets to assess the correlation between PM10 exposure and gen...
Background
Exposure to particulate matter (PM) is associated with increased incidence of cardiovascular disease and increased coagulation, but the molecular mechanisms underlying these associations remain unknown. Obesity may increase susceptibility to the adverse effects of PM exposure, exacerbating the effects on cardiovascular diseases. Extracel...