Articles

Para-occupational exposure to pesticides, PON1 polymorphisms and hypothyroxinemia during the first half of pregnancy in women living in a Mexican floricultural area

Adequate maternal thyroxine (T4) concentrations during the first half of pregnancy are fundamental to the embryo’s or fetus’ neural development. Organophosphate pesticides (OP) can act as thyroid disruptors an...

Authors: Luisa Torres-Sánchez, Ricardo Gamboa, Susana Bassol-Mayagoitia, Claudia Huesca-Gómez, Martha Patricia Nava, Jennifer Illian Vázquez-Potisek, Leticia Yáñez-Estrada, Rebeca Mejía-Saucedo and Julia Blanco-Muñoz

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

Authors: Perry Gottesfeld and Deborah A. Cory-Slechta

Methods to account for uncertainties in exposure assessment in studies of environmental exposures

Accurate exposure estimation in environmental epidemiological studies is crucial for health risk assessment. Failure to account for uncertainties in exposure estimation could lead to biased results in exposure...

Authors: You Wu, F. Owen Hoffman, A. Iulian Apostoaei, Deukwoo Kwon, Brian A. Thomas, Racquel Glass and Lydia B. Zablotska

Screening of noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL)-associated SNPs and the assessment of its genetic susceptibility

The aim of this study was to screen for noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL)-associated single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and to construct genetic risk prediction models for NIHL in a Chinese population.

Authors: Xuhui Zhang, Yaqin Ni, Yi Liu, Lei Zhang, Meibian Zhang, Xinyan Fang, Zhangping Yang, Qiang Wang, Hao Li, Yuyong Xia and Yimin Zhu

Response to Juberg et al.

Authors: Axel Mie, Christina Rudén and Philippe Grandjean

A repeated measures study of phenol, paraben and Triclocarban urinary biomarkers and circulating maternal hormones during gestation in the Puerto Rico PROTECT cohort

Prenatal exposure to some phenols and parabens has been associated with adverse birth outcomes. Hormones may play an intermediate role between phenols and adverse outcomes. We examined the associations of phen...

Authors: Amira M. Aker, Kelly K. Ferguson, Zaira Y. Rosario, Bhramar Mukherjee, Akram N. Alshawabkeh, Antonia M. Calafat, José F. Cordero and John D. Meeker

Head and neck cancer and occupational exposure to leather dust: results from the ICARE study, a French case-control study

Leather dust is an established carcinogen of the sinonasal cavities; however, evidence is lacking regarding its association with other head and neck cancers (HNC). To date, few studies have been conducted on t...

Authors: Loredana Radoï, Fatoumata Sylla, Mireille Matrat, Christine Barul, Gwenn Menvielle, Patricia Delafosse, Isabelle Stücker and Danièle Luce

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

Bootstrap approach to validate the performance of models for predicting mortality risk temperature in Portuguese Metropolitan Areas

There has been increasing interest in assessing the impacts of extreme temperatures on mortality due to diseases of the circulatory system. This is further relevant for future climate scenarios where marked ch...

Authors: Mónica Rodrigues, Paula Santana and Alfredo Rocha

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

Bayesian network-based framework for exposure-response study design and interpretation

Conventional environmental-health risk-assessment methods are often limited in their ability to account for uncertainty in contaminant exposure, chemical toxicity and resulting human health risk. Exposure leve...

Authors: Nur H. Orak, Mitchell J. Small and Marek J. Druzdzel

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

Urinary concentrations of phthalate biomarkers and weight change among postmenopausal women: a prospective cohort study

Some phthalates are endocrine disrupting chemicals used as plasticizers in consumer products, and have been associated with obesity in cross-sectional studies, yet prospective evaluations of weight change are ...

Authors: Mary V. Díaz Santana, Susan E. Hankinson, Carol Bigelow, Susan R. Sturgeon, R. Thomas Zoeller, Lesley Tinker, Jo Ann E. Manson, Antonia M. Calafat, Jaymie R. Meliker and Katherine W. Reeves

The Ramazzini Institute 13-week pilot study glyphosate-based herbicides administered at human-equivalent dose to Sprague Dawley rats: effects on development and endocrine system

Glyphosate-based herbicides (GBHs) are broad-spectrum herbicides that act on the shikimate pathway in bacteria, fungi, and plants. The possible effects of GBHs on human health are the subject of an intense pub...

Authors: Fabiana Manservisi, Corina Lesseur, Simona Panzacchi, Daniele Mandrioli, Laura Falcioni, Luciano Bua, Marco Manservigi, Marcella Spinaci, Giovanna Galeati, Alberto Mantovani, Stefano Lorenzetti, Rossella Miglio, Anderson Martino Andrade, David Møbjerg Kristensen, Melissa J. Perry, Shanna H. Swan…

Thyroid cancer risks among medical radiation workers in South Korea, 1996–2015

Thyroid cancer rates, especially among children, are known to be increased by radiation exposure. However, little is known about the impact of chronic low-dose radiation exposure on thyroid cancer risk in adul...

Authors: Won Jin Lee, Dale L. Preston, Eun Shil Cha, Seulki Ko and Hyeyeun Lim

Prenatal arsenic exposure alters the placental expression of multiple epigenetic regulators in a sex-dependent manner

Prenatal exposure to arsenic has been linked to a range of adverse health conditions in later life. Such fetal origins of disease are frequently the result of environmental effects on the epigenome, leading to...

Authors: Emily F. Winterbottom, Yuka Moroishi, Yuliya Halchenko, David A. Armstrong, Paul J. Beach, Quang P. Nguyen, Anthony J. Capobianco, Nagi G. Ayad, Carmen J. Marsit, Zhigang Li, Margaret R. Karagas and David J. Robbins

Polyunsaturated fatty acids and child neurodevelopment among a population exposed to DDT: a cohort study

Child neurodevelopment has been positively linked to maternal intake of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) during pregnancy; however, it is unknown if that relationship persists among populations exposed to e...

Authors: Ángel Mérida-Ortega, Stephen J. Rothenberg, Luisa Torres-Sánchez, Lourdes Schnaas, César Hernández-Alcaraz, Mariano E. Cebrián, Rosa María García-Hernández, Rafael Ogaz-González and Lizbeth López-Carrillo

The CDC blood lead reference value for children: time for a change

The purpose of this article is to consider alternate uses of the blood lead reference value for children. There are two possible approaches. Historically the reference value has been used to guide clinical and...

Authors: Jerome A. Paulson and Mary Jean Brown

A hybrid expert approach for retrospective assessment of occupational exposures in a population-based case-control study of cancer

While the expert-based occupational exposure assessment approach has been considered the reference method for retrospective population-based studies, its implementation in large study samples has become prohib...

Authors: Jean-François Sauvé, Jérôme Lavoué, Louise Nadon, Ramzan Lakhani, Mounia Senhaji Rhazi, Robert Bourbonnais, Hugues Richard and Marie-Élise Parent

Measurement error in a multi-level analysis of air pollution and health: a simulation study

Spatio-temporal models are increasingly being used to predict exposure to ambient outdoor air pollution at high spatial resolution for inclusion in epidemiological analyses of air pollution and health. Measure...

Authors: Barbara K. Butland, Evangelia Samoli, Richard W. Atkinson, Benjamin Barratt and Klea Katsouyanni

Persistent mental and physical health impact of exposure to the September 11, 2001 World Trade Center terrorist attacks

Asthma, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression have each been linked to exposure to the September 11, 2001 World Trade Center (WTC) terrorist attacks (9/11)...

Authors: Hannah T. Jordan, Sukhminder Osahan, Jiehui Li, Cheryl R. Stein, Stephen M. Friedman, Robert M. Brackbill, James E. Cone, Charon Gwynn, Ho Ki Mok and Mark R. Farfel

Tampon use, environmental chemicals and oxidative stress in the BioCycle study

Tampons are used by up to 86% of US women and are a rarely considered potential source of pesticide and metal exposure. Tampons may be of particular concern given the likely higher absorption that occurs in th...

Authors: Jessica Singh, Sunni L. Mumford, Anna Z. Pollack, Enrique F. Schisterman, Marc G. Weisskopf, Ana Navas-Acien and Marianthi-Anna Kioumourtzoglou

Mediating role of arsenic in the relationship between diet and pregnancy outcomes: prospective birth cohort in Bangladesh

Epidemiological evidence suggests that arsenic (As) exposure during pregnancy may reduce infant birth weight. One significant source of As exposure is diet; thus, As may indirectly affect infant growth by medi...

Authors: Pi-I D. Lin, Sabri Bromage, Md. Golam Mostofa, Mohammad Rahman, Joseph Allen, Emily Oken, Molly L. Kile and David C. Christiani

A global perspective on coal-fired power plants and burden of lung cancer

Exposure to ambient particulate matter generated from coal-fired power plants induces long-term health consequences. However, epidemiologic studies have not yet focused on attributing these health burdens spec...

Authors: Cheng-Kuan Lin, Ro-Ting Lin, Tom Chen, Corwin Zigler, Yaguang Wei and David C. Christiani

Development and performance evaluation of a GIS-based metric to assess exposure to airborne pollutant emissions from industrial sources

Dioxins are environmental and persistent organic carcinogens with endocrine disrupting properties. A positive association with several cancers, including risk of breast cancer has been suggested.

Authors: Thomas Coudon, Aurélie Marcelle Nicole Danjou, Elodie Faure, Delphine Praud, Gianluca Severi, Francesca Romana Mancini, Pietro Salizzoni and Béatrice Fervers

Environmental justice and drinking water quality: are there socioeconomic disparities in nitrate levels in U.S. drinking water?

Low-income and minority communities often face disproportionately high pollutant exposures. The lead crisis in Flint, Michigan, has sparked concern about broader socioeconomic disparities in exposures to drink...

Authors: Laurel A. Schaider, Lucien Swetschinski, Christopher Campbell and Ruthann A. Rudel

Trends in neonicotinoid pesticide residues in food and water in the United States, 1999–2015

Neonicotinoids are a class of systemic insecticides widely used on food crops globally. These pesticides may be found in “off-target” food items and persist in the environment. Despite the potential for extens...

Authors: Hillary A. Craddock, Dina Huang, Paul C. Turner, Lesliam Quirós-Alcalá and Devon C. Payne-Sturges

Prenatal exposure to extremely low frequency magnetic field and its impact on fetal growth

Studies on the effect of prenatal exposure to magnetic field (MF) on fetal growth is inconclusive and subject to some methodological limitations, particularly in measurement of MF exposure. The present study a...

Authors: Yanfeng Ren, Jianping Chen, Maohua Miao, De-Kun Li, Hong Liang, Ziliang Wang, Fen Yang, Xiaowei Sun and Wei Yuan

Prenatal exposure to perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances and the risk of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy

Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have been reported to disrupt endocrine system and reproduction. However, epidemiological evidence on the association between PFAS and preeclampsia is incon...

Authors: Rong Huang, Qian Chen, Lin Zhang, Kai Luo, Lin Chen, Shasha Zhao, Liping Feng and Jun Zhang

Very low-level prenatal mercury exposure and behaviors in children: the HOME Study

Mercury is toxic to the developing brain, but the lowest concentration associated with the development of behavior problems is unclear. The purpose of this study was to examine the association between very low...

Authors: Nimesh B. Patel, Yingying Xu, Lawrence C. McCandless, Aimin Chen, Kimberly Yolton, Joseph Braun, Robert L. Jones, Kim N. Dietrich and Bruce P. Lanphear

The evidence of human exposure to glyphosate: a review

Despite the growing and widespread use of glyphosate, a broad-spectrum herbicide and desiccant, very few studies have evaluated the extent and amount of human exposure.

Authors: Christina Gillezeau, Maaike van Gerwen, Rachel M. Shaffer, Iemaan Rana, Luoping Zhang, Lianne Sheppard and Emanuela Taioli

Air pollution in the week prior to delivery and preterm birth in 24 Canadian cities: a time to event analysis

Numerous studies have examined the association between air pollution and preterm birth (< 37 weeks gestation) but findings have been inconsistent. These associations may be more difficult to detect than associ...

Authors: David M. Stieb, Eric Lavigne, Li Chen, Lauren Pinault, Antonio Gasparrini and Michael Tjepkema

Mortality among workers exposed to asbestos at the shipyard of Genoa, Italy: a 55 years follow-up

Exposure to asbestos remains a global issue due to its massive use in the twentieth century and its long environmental persistence. Exposure to asbestos still occurs during dismantling of ships and vessels, bu...

Authors: Domenico Franco Merlo, Marco Bruzzone, Paolo Bruzzi, Elsa Garrone, Riccardo Puntoni, Lucia Maiorana and Marcello Ceppi

Non-uniform radiation-induced biological responses at the tissue level involved in the health risk of environmental radiation: a radiobiological hypothesis

The conventional concept of radiation protection is based on epidemiological studies of radiation that support a positive correlation between dose and response. However, there is a remarkable difference in bio...

Authors: Hisanori Fukunaga and Kevin M. Prise

The global environmental injustice of fast fashion

Fast fashion, inexpensive and widely available of-the-moment garments, has changed the way people buy and dispose of clothing. By selling large quantities of clothing at cheap prices, fast fashion has emerged ...

Authors: Rachel Bick, Erika Halsey and Christine C. Ekenga

Maternal urinary 2-hydroxynaphthalene and birth outcomes in Taiyuan, China

Naphthalene is the simplest polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH). It is easily emitted into the atmosphere, posing a significant risk to human health. However, limited studies have described the impact of nap...

Authors: Jisheng Nie, Jinyu Li, Lin Cheng, Yanning Li, Yunjun Deng, Zhiwei Yan, Lei Duan, Qiao Niu, Frederica Perera and Deliang Tang

Association between mesothelioma and non-occupational asbestos exposure: systematic review and meta-analysis

The risk of mesothelioma has been shown to be associated with exposure to asbestos fibers. Most of the existing literature focuses on occupational exposure; however, non-occupational asbestos exposure has also...

Authors: Rengyi Xu, Frances K. Barg, Edward A. Emmett, Douglas J. Wiebe and Wei-Ting Hwang

Epidemiological association between multiple chemical sensitivity and birth by caesarean section: a nationwide case-control study

Multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS) is characterized by recurrent nonspecific symptoms that are attributed to exposure to trace levels of environmental agents. Although the clinical symptoms of MCS have been d...

Authors: Kentaro Watai, Yuma Fukutomi, Hiroaki Hayashi, Yosuke Kamide, Kiyoshi Sekiya and Masami Taniguchi

Responses of healthy young males to fine-particle exposure are modified by exercise habits: a panel study

Aerobic exercise benefits health but increases inhalation of fine particles (PM_2.5) in ambient air. Acute cardiopulmonary responses to PM_2.5 exposure in individuals with different exercise habits, especially in a...

Authors: Xi Chen, Wu Chen, Yanwen Wang, Yiqun Han and Tong Zhu

The pulmonary and autonomic effects of high-intensity and low-intensity exercise in diesel exhaust

Exposure to air pollution impairs aspects of pulmonary and autonomic function and causes pulmonary inflammation. However, how exercising in air pollution affects these indices is poorly understood. Therefore, ...

Authors: Luisa V. Giles, Christopher Carlsten and Michael S. Koehle

Associations of greenness, greyness and air pollution exposure with children’s health: a cross-sectional study in Southern Italy

Due to the complex interplay among different urban-related exposures, a comprehensive approach is advisable to estimate the health effects. We simultaneously assessed the effect of “green”, “grey” and air poll...

Authors: Giovanna Cilluffo, Giuliana Ferrante, Salvatore Fasola, Laura Montalbano, Velia Malizia, Alessandro Piscini, Vito Romaniello, Malvina Silvestri, Salvatore Stramondo, Massimo Stafoggia, Andrea Ranzi, Giovanni Viegi and Stefania La Grutta

Prenatal exposure to phthalates and autism spectrum disorder in the MARBLES study

Evidence from experimental and observational studies suggests that prenatal phthalate exposures may be associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). We examined whether prenatal phthalate exposures were asso...

Authors: Hyeong-Moo Shin, Rebecca J. Schmidt, Daniel Tancredi, Jacqueline Barkoski, Sally Ozonoff, Deborah H. Bennett and Irva Hertz-Picciotto

Analysing the link between public transport use and airborne transmission: mobility and contagion in the London underground

The transmission of infectious diseases is dependent on the amount and nature of contacts between infectious and healthy individuals. Confined and crowded environments that people visit in their day-to-day lif...

Authors: Lara Goscé and Anders Johansson

Breast cancer risk and serum levels of per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances: a case-control study nested in the California Teachers Study

Per- and poly- fluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) are a large family of synthetic chemicals, some of which are mammary toxicants and endocrine disruptors. Their potential as breast carcinogens is unclear. Our obje...

Authors: Susan Hurley, Debbie Goldberg, Miaomiao Wang, June-Soo Park, Myrto Petreas, Leslie Bernstein, Hoda Anton-Culver, David O. Nelson and Peggy Reynolds

Effects of ambient carbon monoxide on daily hospitalizations for cardiovascular disease: a time-stratified case-crossover study of 460,938 cases in Beijing, China from 2013 to 2017

Evidence focused on exposure to ambient carbon monoxide (CO) and the risk of hospitalizations for cardiovascular diseases (CVD) is lacking in developing countries. This study aimed to examine the effect of CO ...

Authors: Haibin Li, Jingwei Wu, Anxin Wang, Xia Li, Songxi Chen, Tianqi Wang, Endawoke Amsalu, Qi Gao, Yanxia Luo, Xinghua Yang, Wei Wang, Jin Guo, Yuming Guo and Xiuhua Guo

Occupational health: a world of false promises

The response of the World Health Organization (WHO) to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa in 2015 demonstrated that the global health system is unprepared to address what should be its primary mission, control ...

Authors: Joseph LaDou, Leslie London and Andrew Watterson

Changing places to study short-term effects of air pollution on cardiovascular health: a panel study

Short-term exposure to ambient air pollution triggers acute cardiovascular events. Here, we evaluate the association of exposure to ambient air pollution with two intermediate cardiovascular endpoints: blood p...

Authors: Hans Scheers, Tim S. Nawrot, Benoit Nemery and Lidia Casas

Impact of occupational environmental stressors on blood pressure changes and on incident cases of hypertension: a 5-year follow-up from the VISAT study

The role of occupational stressors (OS) on blood pressure (BP) is often suspected, but asserting its impact remains uncertain. Our goal was to evaluate their impact on BP increase and on incident cases of hype...

Authors: Samantha Huo Yung Kai, Jean-Bernard Ruidavets, Camille Carles, Jean-Claude Marquie, Vanina Bongard, Damien Leger, Jean Ferrieres and Yolande Esquirol

Safety of Safety Evaluation of Pesticides: developmental neurotoxicity of chlorpyrifos and chlorpyrifos-methyl

Authorization of pesticides for market release requires toxicity testing on animals, typically performed by test laboratories on contract with the pesticide producer. The latter provides the results and summar...

Authors: Axel Mie, Christina Rudén and Philippe Grandjean