De geschiedenis van de registratie en frequentiebewaking van aangeboren afwijkingen in Nederland [The history of registration and monitoring of congenital anomalies in the Netherlands]

In the early sixties worldwide thousands of infants were born with serious limb reduction defects caused by maternal use of thalidomide (Softenon1) during pregnancy. After this epidemic many countries started birth defect registries to make monitoring possible. In the Northern Netherlands in 1981 a Dutch center of the European Registration of...

Noise exposure and public health

Exposure to noise constitutes a health risk. There is sufficient scientific evidence that noise exposure can induce hearing impairment, hypertension and ischemic heart disease, annoyance, sleep disturbance, and decreased school performance. For other effects such as changes in the immune system and birth defects, the evidence is limited. Most...