Children’s Environmental Health

The first 1000 days of life: traffic-related air pollution and development of wheezing and asthma in childhood. A systematic review of birth cohort studies

The first 1000 days of life -including pregnancy and the first 2 years after birth- represent a critical window for health interventions.

Authors: Alessandra Bettiol, Elena Gelain, Erika Milanesio, Federica Asta and Franca Rusconi

Airborne Benzo[a]Pyrene may contribute to divergent Pheno-Endotypes in children

Asthma represents a syndrome for which our understanding of the molecular processes underlying discrete sub-diseases (i.e., endotypes), beyond atopic asthma, is limited. The public health needs to characterize et...

Authors: Hyunok Choi, Miroslav Dostal, Anna Pastorkova, Pavel Rossner Jr and Radim J. Sram

Ambient air pollutants are associated with morning serum cortisol in overweight and obese Latino youth in Los Angeles

Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA)-axis dysfunction has been associated with a variety of mental health and cardio-metabolic disorders. While causal models of HPA-axis dysregulation have been largely focused...

Authors: C. M. Toledo-Corral, T. L. Alderete, M. M. Herting, R. Habre, A. K. Peterson, F. Lurmann, M. I. Goran, M. J. Weigensberg and F. D. Gilliland

The interplay between environmental exposures and COVID-19 risks in the health of children

An unusual feature of SARS-Cov-2 infection and the COVID-19 pandemic is that children are less severely affected than adults. This is especially paradoxical given the epidemiological links between poor air qua...

Authors: Peter D. Sly, Brittany A. Trottier, Catherine M. Bulka, Stephania A. Cormier, Julius Fobil, Rebecca C. Fry, Kyoung-Woong Kim, Steven Kleeberger, Pushpam Kumar, Philip J. Landrigan, Karin C. Lodrop Carlsen, Antonio Pascale, Fernando Polack, Mathuros Ruchirawat, Heather J. Zar and William A. Suk

Dampness and student-reported social climate: two multilevel mediation models

Little previous research has analysed the relationship between schools’ indoor air problems and schools’ social climate. In this study, we analysed a) whether observed mould and dampness in a school building r...

Authors: Eerika Finell, Asko Tolvanen, Juha Pekkanen, Timo Ståhl and Pauliina Luopa

Exposure to traffic-related air pollution and changes in exhaled nitric oxide and DNA methylation in arginase and nitric oxide synthase in children with asthma

Traffic-related air pollution (TRAP) has been associated with increased risk of airway inflammation in children with asthma. While epigenetic changes could potentially modulate TRAP-induced inflammatory respon...

Authors: N. Ji, M. Fang, A. Baptista, C. Cepeda, M. Greenberg, I. Colon Mincey, P. Ohman-Strickland, F. Haynes, N. Fiedler, H. M. Kipen and R. J. Laumbach

Prenatal metal mixtures and child blood pressure in the Rhea mother-child cohort in Greece

Child blood pressure (BP) is predictive of future cardiovascular risk. Prenatal exposure to metals has been associated with higher BP in childhood, but most studies have evaluated elements individually and mea...

Authors: Caitlin G. Howe, Katerina Margetaki, Marina Vafeiadi, Theano Roumeliotaki, Marianna Karachaliou, Manolis Kogevinas, Rob McConnell, Sandrah P. Eckel, David V. Conti, Maria Kippler, Shohreh F. Farzan and Leda Chatzi

DNA methylation of insulin-like growth factor 2 and H19 cluster in cord blood and prenatal air pollution exposure to fine particulate matter

The IGF2 (insulin-like growth factor 2) and H19 gene cluster plays an important role during pregnancy as it promotes both foetal and placental growth. We investigated the association between cord blood DNA methyl...

Authors: Congrong Wang, Michelle Plusquin, Akram Ghantous, Zdenko Herceg, Rossella Alfano, Bianca Cox and Tim S. Nawrot

Prenatal exposure to perfluoroalkyl substances and thyroid hormone concentrations in cord plasma in a Chinese birth cohort

Evidence of associations between prenatal exposure to perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) and fetal thyroid hormones (THs) is controversial, and few studies have estimated the associations, while addressing the ...

Authors: Hong Liang, Ziliang Wang, Maohua Miao, Youping Tian, Yan Zhou, Sheng Wen, Yao Chen, Xiaowei Sun and Wei Yuan

Response to the “Letter to the Editor” by Alfred Körblein, “Short term increase in low birthweight babies after Fukushima”

Authors: Hagen Scherb and Keiji Hayashi

In utero and peripubertal metals exposure in relation to reproductive hormones and sexual maturation and progression among boys in Mexico City

Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) such as metals have been reported to alter circulating reproductive hormone concentrations and pubertal development in animals. However, the relationship has rarely been i...

Authors: Pahriya Ashrap, John D. Meeker, Brisa N. Sánchez, Niladri Basu, Marcela Tamayo-Ortiz, Maritsa Solano-González, Adriana Mercado-García, Martha M. Téllez-Rojo, Karen E. Peterson and Deborah J. Watkins

Response to the “letter to the editor” by Sani Rachman Soleman et al., “spatiotemporal association of low birth weight with Cs-137 deposition at the prefecture level in Japan after the Fukushima nuclear power plant accidents”

We thank Sani Rachman Soleman et al. for three specific points of criticism concerning our investigation of the ecological association between low birth weight (LBW) and radioactive contamination in Japan afte...

Authors: Hagen Scherb and Keiji Hayashi

Update on human exposure to glyphosate, with a complete review of exposure in children

Glyphosate, a commonly used pesticide, has been the topic of much debate. The effects of exposure to glyphosate remains a contentious topic. This paper provides an update to the existing literature regarding l...

Authors: Christina Gillezeau, Wil Lieberman-Cribbin and Emanuela Taioli

Immune biomarkers link air pollution exposure to blood pressure in adolescents

Childhood exposure to air pollution contributes to cardiovascular disease in adulthood. Immune and oxidative stress disturbances might mediate the effects of air pollution on the cardiovascular system, but the...

Authors: Mary Prunicki, Nicholas Cauwenberghs, Jennifer Arthur Ataam, Hesam Movassagh, Juyong Brian Kim, Tatiana Kuznetsova, Joseph C. Wu, Holden Maecker, Francois Haddad and Kari Nadeau

Biomarkers of environmental manganese exposure and associations with childhood neurodevelopment: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Although prior studies showed a correlation between environmental manganese (Mn) exposure and neurodevelopmental disorders in children, the results have been inconclusive. There has yet been no consistent biom...

Authors: Weiwei Liu, Yongjuan Xin, Qianwen Li, Yanna Shang, Zhiguang Ping, Junxia Min, Catherine M. Cahill, Jack T. Rogers and Fudi Wang

Using three statistical methods to analyze the association between exposure to 9 compounds and obesity in children and adolescents: NHANES 2005-2010

Various risk factors influence obesity differently, and environmental endocrine disruption may increase the occurrence of obesity. However, most of the previous studies have considered only a unitary exposure ...

Authors: Bangsheng Wu, Yi Jiang, Xiaoqing Jin and Li He

Perinatal oral exposure to low doses of bisphenol A, S or F impairs immune functions at intestinal and systemic levels in female offspring mice

Bisphenol A (BPA), one of the highest-volume chemicals produced worldwide, has been identified as an endocrine disruptor. Many peer-reviewing studies have reported adverse effects of low dose BPA exposure, par...

Authors: Yann Malaisé, Corinne Lencina, Christel Cartier, Maïwenn Olier, Sandrine Ménard and Laurence Guzylack-Piriou

Dibutyl phthalate promotes juvenile Sertoli cell proliferation by decreasing the levels of the E3 ubiquitin ligase Pellino 2

A previous study showed that dibutyl phthalate (DBP) exposure disrupted the growth of testicular Sertoli cells (SCs). In the present study, we aimed to investigate the potential mechanism by which DBP promotes...

Authors: Tan Ma, Jiwei Hou, Yuan Zhou, Yusheng Chen, Jiayin Qiu, Jiang Wu, Jie Ding, Xiaodong Han and Dongmei Li

Spatiotemporal association of low birth weight with Cs-137 deposition at the prefecture level in Japan after the Fukushima nuclear power plant accidents: an analytical-ecologic epidemiological study

Perinatal mortality increased in contaminated prefectures after the Fukushima Daichi Nuclear Power Plant (FDNPP) accidents in Japan in 2011. Elevated counts of surgeries for cryptorchidism and congenital heart...

Authors: Hagen Scherb and Keiji Hayashi

The association between the seasonality of pediatric pandemic influenza virus outbreak and ambient meteorological factors in Shanghai

The number of pediatric patients diagnosed with influenza types A and B is increasing annually, especially in temperate regions such as Shanghai (China). The onset of pandemic influenza viruses might be attrib...

Authors: Yanbo Li, Xiaofang Ye, Ji Zhou, Feng Zhai and Jie Chen

Bisphenol A shapes children’s brain and behavior: towards an integrated neurotoxicity assessment including human data

Concerns about the effects of bisphenol A (BPA) on human brain and behavior are not novel; however, Grohs and colleagues have contributed groundbreaking data on this topic in a recent issue of Environmental Healt...

Authors: Vicente Mustieles and Mariana F. Fernández

Prenatal exposure to pesticides and risk for holoprosencephaly: a case-control study

Pesticide exposure during susceptible windows and at certain doses are linked to numerous birth defects. Early experimental evidence suggests an association between active ingredients in pesticides and holopro...

Authors: Yonit A. Addissie, Paul Kruszka, Angela Troia, Zoë C. Wong, Joshua L. Everson, Beth A. Kozel, Robert J. Lipinski, Kristen M. C. Malecki and Maximilian Muenke

Predictors and reproducibility of urinary organophosphate ester metabolite concentrations during pregnancy and associations with birth outcomes in an urban population

Organophosphate esters (OPEs) are synthetic chemicals used as flame retardants and plasticizers in a variety of goods. Despite ubiquitous human exposures and laboratory evidence that prenatal OPE exposures may...

Authors: Jordan R. Kuiper, Heather M. Stapleton, Marsha Wills-Karp, Xiaobin Wang, Irina Burd and Jessie P. Buckley

Estimated postnatal p,p’-DDT and p,p’-DDE levels and body mass index at 42 months of age in a longitudinal study of Japanese children

Children are exposed to p,p’-dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (p,p’-DDT) and p,p’-dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene (p,p’-DDE) through placental and lactational transfer. Some studies have suggested that early-life...

Authors: Laurence Plouffe, Delphine Bosson-Rieutort, Lina Madaniyazi, Miyuki Iwai-Shimada, Kunihiko Nakai, Nozomi Tatsuta, Shoji F. Nakayama and Marc-André Verner

Evaluating the effects between metal mixtures and serum vaccine antibody concentrations in children: a prospective birth cohort study

Many populations are exposed to arsenic, lead, and manganese. These metals influence immune function. We evaluated the association between exposure to single and multiple metals, including arsenic, lead, and m...

Authors: Barrett M. Welch, Adam Branscum, G. John Geldhof, Sharia M. Ahmed, Perry Hystad, Ellen Smit, Sakila Afroz, Meghan Megowan, Mostofa Golam, Omar Sharif, Mahmuder Rahman, Quazi Quamruzzaman, David C. Christiani and Molly L. Kile

Maternal and fetal exposures to fluoride during mid-gestation among pregnant women in northern California

Previous studies have shown a correlation between fluoride concentrations in urine and community water fluoride concentrations. However, there are no studies of the relationship between community water fluorid...

Authors: Dawud Abduweli Uyghurturk, Dana E. Goin, Esperanza Angeles Martinez-Mier, Tracey J. Woodruff and Pamela K. DenBesten

Learning from Sisyphus: time to rethink our current, ineffective strategy on neurodevelopmental environmental toxicants

The overwhelming number of potentially toxic chemicals in consumer products and in our daily environment makes it unrealistic to carry out in-depth analyses of each product with the objective of banning and el...

Authors: Larissa Takser and Darel John Hunting

Assessment of developmental neurotoxicity induced by chemical mixtures using an adverse outcome pathway concept

In light of the vulnerability of the developing brain, mixture risk assessment (MRA) for the evaluation of developmental neurotoxicity (DNT) should be implemented, since infants and children are co-exposed to ...

Authors: Francesca Pistollato, Emilio Mendoza de Gyves, Donatella Carpi, Stephanie K. Bopp, Carolina Nunes, Andrew Worth and Anna Bal-Price

Application of the Food Quality Protection Act children’s health safety factor in the U.S. EPA pesticide risk assessments

The Food Quality Protection Act of 1996, or FQPA, required the Environmental Protection Agency to set allowable levels for pesticides in a way that would “ensure that there is a reasonable certainty that no ha...

Authors: Olga V. Naidenko

Prenatal exposure to legacy contaminants and visual acuity in Canadian infants: a maternal-infant research on environmental chemicals study (MIREC-ID)

Prenatal exposure to environmental contaminants can have deleterious effects on child development. While psychomotor, cognitive and behavioural outcomes have been investigated in relation to chronic exposure, ...

Authors: C. Polevoy, T. E. Arbuckle, Y. Oulhote, B. P. Lanphear, K. A. Cockell, G. Muckle and D. Saint-Amour

Child health, household environment, temperature and rainfall anomalies in Honduras: a socio-climate data linked analysis

As climate research continues to highlight the global shifts in temperature and precipitation, more research is needed to understand how climate anomalies impact human health outcomes. In this paper, we analyz...

Authors: Cristina Bradatan, Jeffrey A. Dennis, Nadia Flores-Yeffal and Sharmistha Swain

Association of PM_2.5 concentration with health center outpatient visits for respiratory diseases of children under 5 years old in Lima, Peru

Lima is one of the more polluted cities in Latin America. High levels of PM_2.5 have been shown to increase health center outpatient visits of respiratory diseases.

Authors: Jennifer Estefanía Davila Cordova, Vilma Tapia Aguirre, Vanessa Vasquez Apestegui, Luis Ordoñez Ibarguen, Bryan N. Vu, Kyle Steenland and Gustavo F. Gonzales

Associations between indoor environmental quality in schools and symptom reporting in pupil-administered questionnaires

The associations between indoor environmental quality (IEQ) in homes and symptom reporting of children have been extensively studied, but only few large-scale studies have been done in schools. We examined ass...

Authors: Kateryna Savelieva, Tero Marttila, Jussi Lampi, Sari Ung-Lanki, Marko Elovainio and Juha Pekkanen

Intelligence gain and social cost savings attributable to environmental lead exposure reduction strategies since the year 2000 in Flanders, Belgium

Recent lead (Pb) exposure reduction strategies enabled to lower children’s blood lead levels (B-Pb) worldwide. This study reports the estimated intelligence gain and social cost savings attributable to recent ...

Authors: Sylvie Remy, Ramona Hambach, Marc Van Sprundel, Caroline Teughels, Tim S. Nawrot, Jurgen Buekers, Christa Cornelis, Liesbeth Bruckers and Greet Schoeters

Developmental fluoride neurotoxicity: an updated review

After the discovery of fluoride as a caries-preventing agent in the mid-twentieth century, fluoridation of community water has become a widespread intervention, sometimes hailed as a mainstay of modern public ...

Authors: Philippe Grandjean

Transcriptome-wide analysis of changes in the fetal placenta associated with prenatal arsenic exposure in the New Hampshire Birth Cohort Study

Increasing evidence suggests that prenatal exposure to arsenic, even at common environmental levels, adversely affects child health. These adverse effects include impaired fetal growth, which can carry serious...

Authors: Emily F. Winterbottom, Yuguang Ban, Xiaodian Sun, Anthony J. Capobianco, Carmen J. Marsit, Xi Chen, Lily Wang, Margaret R. Karagas and David J. Robbins

Time-varying associations between prenatal metal mixtures and rapid visual processing in children

Humans are exposed to mixtures of chemicals across their lifetimes, a concept sometimes called the “exposome.” Mixtures likely have temporal “critical windows” of susceptibility like single agents and measurin...

Authors: Yuri Levin-Schwartz, Chris Gennings, Lourdes Schnaas, María del Carmen Hernández Chávez, David C. Bellinger, Martha Maria Téllez-Rojo, Andrea A. Baccarelli and Robert O. Wright

Association of low-level blood lead with serum uric acid in U.S. adolescents: a cross-sectional study

Uncertainty remains regarding the association between blood lead levels (BLL) and serum uric acid (SUA) with relatively low BLL exposure because of limited data in the adolescent population. We examined the as...

Authors: Guiping Hu, Guang Jia, Shichuan Tang, Pai Zheng and Lihua Hu

Prenatal maternal and childhood bisphenol a exposure and brain structure and behavior of young children

Bisphenol A (BPA) is commonly used in the manufacture of plastics and epoxy resins. In North America, over 90% of the population has detectable levels of urinary BPA. Human epidemiological studies have reporte...

Authors: Melody N. Grohs, Jess E. Reynolds, Jiaying Liu, Jonathan W. Martin, Tyler Pollock, Catherine Lebel and Deborah Dewey

Ambient air pollution is associated with pediatric pneumonia: a time-stratified case–crossover study in an urban area

Pneumonia, the leading reason underlying childhood deaths, may be triggered or exacerbated by air pollution. To date, only a few studies have examined the association of air pollution with emergency department...

Authors: Chi-Yung Cheng, Shih-Yu Cheng, Chien-Chih Chen, Hsiu-Yung Pan, Kuan-Han Wu and Fu-Jen Cheng

Neurocognitive impact of metal exposure and social stressors among schoolchildren in Taranto, Italy

Metal exposure is a public health hazard due to neurocognitive effects starting in early life. Poor socio-economic status, adverse home and family environment can enhance the neurodevelopmental toxicity due to...

Authors: Roberto G. Lucchini, Stefano Guazzetti, Stefano Renzetti, Michele Conversano, Giuseppa Cagna, Chiara Fedrighi, Augusto Giorgino, Marco Peli, Donatella Placidi, Silvia Zoni, Giovanni Forte, Costanza Majorani, Anna Pino, Oreste Senofonte, Francesco Petrucci and Alessandro Alimonti

Prenatal plasma concentrations of Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances and neuropsychological development in children at four years of age

Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) are persistent pollutants and have endocrine disruptive and neurotoxic effects. The association between maternal PFAS concentrations and neuropsychological...

Authors: Jinbo Niu, Hong Liang, Youping Tian, Wei Yuan, Hong Xiao, Hui Hu, Xiaowei Sun, Xiuxia Song, Sheng Wen, Li Yang, Yanfeng Ren and Maohua Miao

Exposure to arsenic in utero is associated with various types of DNA damage and micronuclei in newborns: a birth cohort study

Growing evidence indicates that in utero arsenic exposures in humans may increase the risk of adverse health effects and development of diseases later in life. This study aimed to evaluate potential health ris...

Authors: Panida Navasumrit, Krittinee Chaisatra, Jeerawan Promvijit, Varabhorn Parnlob, Somchamai Waraprasit, Chalida Chompoobut, Ta Thi Binh, Doan Ngoc Hai, Nguyen Duy Bao, Nguyen Khac Hai, Kyoung-Woong Kim, Leona D. Samson, Joseph H. Graziano, Chulabhorn Mahidol and Mathuros Ruchirawat

Relations between air pollution and vascular development in 5-year old children: a cross-sectional study in the Netherlands

Air pollution has been shown to promote cardiovascular disease in adults. Possible mechanisms include air pollution induced changes in arterial wall function and structure. Atherosclerotic vascular disease is ...

Authors: Anna-Maria Ntarladima, Ilonca Vaartjes, Diederick E. Grobbee, Martin Dijst, Oliver Schmitz, Cuno Uiterwaal, Geertje Dalmeijer, Cornelis van der Ent, Gerard Hoek and Derek Karssenberg

Maternal exposure to ambient fine particulate matter and fetal growth in Shanghai, China

Fetal growth restriction (FGR) is not only a major determinant of perinatal morbidity and mortality but also leads to adverse health effects in later life. Over the past decade, numerous studies have indicated...

Authors: Zhijuan Cao, Lulu Meng, Yan Zhao, Chao Liu, Yingying Yang, Xiujuan Su, Qingyan Fu, Dongfang Wang and Jing Hua

Letter to the editor re: the CDC blood lead reference value for children

Authors: Perry Gottesfeld and Deborah A. Cory-Slechta

Fluoride exposure and pubertal development in children living in Mexico City

Previous animal and ecological studies have provided evidence for an earlier sexual maturation in females in relation to fluoride exposure; however, no epidemiological studies have examined the association bet...

Authors: Yun Liu, Martha Téllez-Rojo, Howard Hu, Brisa N. Sánchez, E. Angeles Martinez-Mier, Niladri Basu, Adriana Mercado-García, Maritsa Solano-González and Karen E. Peterson

Urinary mycoestrogens and age and height at menarche in New Jersey girls

Despite evidence of the endocrine disrupting properties of zearalenone (ZEN) and alpha-zearalanol (zeranol, α-ZAL), they have been minimally studied in human populations. In previous cross-sectional analyses, ...

Authors: Zorimar Rivera-Núñez, Emily S. Barrett, Elizabeth A. Szamreta, Sue A. Shapses, Bo Qin, Yong Lin, Helmut Zarbl, Brian Buckley and Elisa V. Bandera

Exposure to prenatal secondhand smoke and early neurodevelopment: Mothers and Children’s Environmental Health (MOCEH) study

The association between exposure to secondhand smoke (SHS) during pregnancy and a child’s neurodevelopment has not been established yet. We explored the association between prenatal exposure to SHS and neurode...

Authors: Myeongjee Lee, Mina Ha, Yun-Chul Hong, Hyesook Park, Yangho Kim, Eui-Jung Kim, Yeni Kim and Eunhee Ha

Letter to the editor regarding “safety of safety evaluation of pesticides: developmental neurotoxicity of chlorpyrifos and chlorpyrifos-methyl” by Mie et al. (environmental health. 2018. 17:77)

Authors: Daland R. Juberg, Alan M. Hoberman, Sue Marty, Catherine A. Picut and Donald G. Stump