Articles

The short term burden of ambient fine particulate matter on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in Ningbo, China

Numerous studies have found associations between ambient fine particulate matter (PM_2.5) and increased mortality risk. However, little evidence is available on associations between PM_2.5 and years of life lost (Y...

Authors: Guoxing Li, Jing Huang, Guozhang Xu, Xiaochuan Pan, Xujun Qian, Jiaying Xu, Yan Zhao, Tao Zhang, Qichen Liu, Xinbiao Guo and Tianfeng He

Newborn sex-specific transcriptome signatures and gestational exposure to fine particles: findings from the ENVIRONAGE birth cohort

Air pollution exposure during pregnancy has been associated with adverse birth outcomes and health problems later in life. We investigated sex-specific transcriptomic responses to gestational long- and short-t...

Authors: Ellen Winckelmans, Karen Vrijens, Maria Tsamou, Bram G. Janssen, Nelly D. Saenen, Harry A. Roels, Jos Kleinjans, Wouter Lefebvre, Charlotte Vanpoucke, Theo M. de Kok and Tim S. Nawrot

Blood pressure in young adulthood and residential greenness in the early-life environment of twins

Previous research shows that, besides risk factors in adult life, the early-life environment can influence blood pressure and hypertension in adults. However, the effects of residential traffic exposure and re...

Authors: Esmée M Bijnens, Tim S Nawrot, Ruth JF Loos, Marij Gielen, Robert Vlietinck, Catherine Derom and Maurice P Zeegers

Mobile phone use, school electromagnetic field levels and related symptoms: a cross-sectional survey among 2150 high school students in Izmir

Health outcomes of electromagnetic fields (EMF) from mobile phones and their base stations are of concern. Conducting multidisciplinary research, targeting children and exploring dose-response are recommended....

Authors: Raika Durusoy, Hür Hassoy, Ahmet Özkurt and Ali Osman Karababa

Genome-wide DNA methylation at birth in relation to in utero arsenic exposure and the associated health in later life

In utero arsenic exposure may alter fetal developmental programming by altering DNA methylation, which may result in a higher risk of disease in later life. We evaluated the association between in utero arseni...

Authors: Akhilesh Kaushal, Hongmei Zhang, Wilfried J. J. Karmaus, Todd M. Everson, Carmen J. Marsit, Margaret R. Karagas, Shih-Fen Tsai, Hui-Ju Wen and Shu-Li Wang

Pesticide exposures and chronic kidney disease of unknown etiology: an epidemiologic review

The main causes of chronic kidney disease (CKD) globally are diabetes and hypertension but epidemics of chronic kidney disease of unknown etiology (CKDu) occur in Central America, Sri Lanka, India and beyond. ...

Authors: Mathieu Valcke, Marie-Eve Levasseur, Agnes Soares da Silva and Catharina Wesseling

Human biomonitoring from an environmental justice perspective: supporting study participation of women of Turkish and Moroccan descent

Environmental justice research shows how socially disadvantaged groups are more exposed and more vulnerable to environmental pollution. At the same time, these groups are less represented and, thus, less visib...

Authors: Bert Morrens, Elly Den Hond, Greet Schoeters, Dries Coertjens, Ann Colles, Tim S. Nawrot, Willy Baeyens, Stefaan De Henauw, Vera Nelen and Ilse Loots

Prenatal bisphenol a exposure and dysregulation of infant hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis function: findings from the APrON cohort study

Animal models show that prenatal bisphenol A (BPA) exposure leads to sexually dimorphic disruption of the neuroendocrine system in offspring, including the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) neuroendocrine s...

Authors: Gerald F Giesbrecht, Maede Ejaredar, Jiaying Liu, Jenna Thomas, Nicole Letourneau, Tavis Campbell, Jonathan W Martin and Deborah Dewey

Distributions and determinants of urinary biomarkers of organophosphate pesticide exposure in a prospective Spanish birth cohort study

Prenatal exposure to organophosphate pesticides (OPs) has been associated with impaired child development. Pesticide exposure determinants need to be studied in order to identify sources and pathways of pestic...

Authors: Sabrina Llop, Mario Murcia, Carmen Iñiguez, Marta Roca, Llúcia González, Vicent Yusà, Marisa Rebagliato and Ferran Ballester

Monitoring urban beaches with qPCR vs. culture measures of fecal indicator bacteria: Implications for public notification

The United States Environmental Protection Agency has established methods for testing beach water using the rapid quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) method, as well as “beach action values” so that ...

Authors: Samuel Dorevitch, Abhilasha Shrestha, Stephanie DeFlorio-Barker, Cathy Breitenbach and Ira Heimler

A chronology of ratios between black smoke and PM₁₀ and PM_2.5 in the context of comparison of air pollution epidemiology concentration-response functions

For many air pollution epidemiological studies in Europe, ‘black smoke’ (BS) was the only measurement available to quantify ambient particulate matter (PM), particularly for exposures prior to the mid-1990s wh...

Authors: Mathew R. Heal and Iain J. Beverland

Prenatal chlorpyrifos leads to autism-like deficits in C57Bl6/J mice

Children are at daily risk for exposure to organophosphate insecticides, of which the most common is chlorpyrifos (CPF). Exposure of pregnant women to CPF was linked to decreased birth weight, abnormal reflexe...

Authors: Anat Lan, Michal Kalimian, Benjamin Amram and Ora Kofman

Nicotine, aerosol particles, carbonyls and volatile organic compounds in tobacco- and menthol-flavored e-cigarettes

We aimed to assess the content of electronic cigarette (EC) emissions for five groups of potentially toxic compounds that are known to be present in tobacco smoke: nicotine, particles, carbonyls, volatile orga...

Authors: Mi-Sun Lee, Ryan F. LeBouf, Youn-Suk Son, Petros Koutrakis and David C. Christiani

Biological effects of exposure to static electric fields in humans and vertebrates: a systematic review

High-voltage direct current (HVDC) lines are the technology of choice for the transport of large amounts of energy over long distances. The operation of these lines produces static electric fields (EF), but th...

Authors: Anne-Kathrin Petri, Kristina Schmiedchen, Dominik Stunder, Dagmar Dechent, Thomas Kraus, William H. Bailey and Sarah Driessen

Variability and predictors of urinary concentrations of organophosphate flame retardant metabolites among pregnant women in Rhode Island

Organophospate flame retardants (PFRs) are chemicals of emerging concern due to restrictions on polybrominated diphenyl ether flame retardant formulations. We describe the occurrence, variability, and predicto...

Authors: Megan E. Romano, Nicola L. Hawley, Melissa Eliot, Antonia M. Calafat, Nayana K. Jayatilaka, Karl Kelsey, Stephen McGarvey, Maureen G. Phipps, David A. Savitz, Erika F. Werner and Joseph M. Braun

The protracted waste crisis and physical health of workers in Beirut: a comparative cross-sectional study

Since July 2015, Lebanon has been experiencing a waste management crisis. Dumpsites in inhabited areas and waste burning have emerged due to the waste accumulation, further adding to the gravity of the situati...

Authors: Rami Z. Morsi, Rawan Safa, Serge F. Baroud, Cherine N. Fawaz, Jad I. Farha, Fadi El-Jardali and Monique Chaaya

Hospitalizations for heat-stress illness varies between rural and urban areas: an analysis of Illinois data, 1987–2014

The disease burden due to heat-stress illness (HSI), which can result in significant morbidity and mortality, is expected to increase as the climate continues to warm. In the United States (U.S.) much of what ...

Authors: Jyotsna S. Jagai, Elena Grossman, Livia Navon, Apostolis Sambanis and Samuel Dorevitch

Environmental pollutants, a possible etiology for premature ovarian insufficiency: a narrative review of animal and human data

Because only 25% of cases of premature ovarian insufficiency (POI) have a known etiology, the aim of this review was to summarize the associations and mechanisms of the impact of the environment on this pathol...

Authors: Pauline Vabre, Nicolas Gatimel, Jessika Moreau, Véronique Gayrard, Nicole Picard-Hagen, Jean Parinaud and Roger D. Leandri

Ozone and childhood respiratory disease in three US cities: evaluation of effect measure modification by neighborhood socioeconomic status using a Bayesian hierarchical approach

Ground-level ozone is a potent airway irritant and a determinant of respiratory morbidity. Susceptibility to the health effects of ambient ozone may be influenced by both intrinsic and extrinsic factors, such ...

Authors: Cassandra R. O’ Lenick, Howard H. Chang, Michael R. Kramer, Andrea Winquist, James A. Mulholland, Mariel D. Friberg and Stefanie Ebelt Sarnat

Maternal urinary phthalates and sex-specific placental mRNA levels in an urban birth cohort

Prenatal urinary concentrations of phthalates in women participants in an urban birth cohort were associated with outcomes in their children related to neurodevelopment, autoimmune disease risk, and fat mass a...

Authors: Jennifer J. Adibi, Jessie P. Buckley, Myoung Keun Lee, Paige L. Williams, Allan C. Just, Yaqi Zhao, Hari K. Bhat and Robin M. Whyatt

Effects of extreme temperatures on cardiovascular emergency hospitalizations in a Mediterranean region: a self-controlled case series study

Cold spells and heatwaves increase mortality. However little is known about the effect of heatwaves or cold spells on cardiovascular morbidity. This study aims to assess the effect of cold spells and heatwaves...

Authors: Anna Ponjoan, Jordi Blanch, Lia Alves-Cabratosa, Ruth Martí-Lluch, Marc Comas-Cufí, Dídac Parramon, María del Mar Garcia-Gil, Rafel Ramos and Irene Petersen

Lead exposure at firing ranges—a review

Lead (Pb) is a toxic substance with well-known, multiple, long-term, adverse health outcomes. Shooting guns at firing ranges is an occupational necessity for security personnel, police officers, members of the...

Authors: Mark A. S. Laidlaw, Gabriel Filippelli, Howard Mielke, Brian Gulson and Andrew S. Ball

Indoor air pollution and its association with poor lung function, microalbuminuria and variations in blood pressure among kitchen workers in India: a cross-sectional study

The present study is an attempt to explore the association between kitchen indoor air pollutants and physiological profiles in kitchen workers with microalbuminuria (MAU) in north India (Lucknow) and south Ind...

Authors: Amarnath Singh, Chandrasekharan Nair Kesavachandran, Ritul Kamal, Vipin Bihari, Afzal Ansari, Parappurath Abdul Azeez, Prem Narain Saxena, Anil Kumar KS and Altaf Hussain Khan

Parental exposures to occupational asthmagens and risk of autism spectrum disorder in a Danish population-based case-control study

Environmental exposures and immune conditions during pregnancy could influence development of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in offspring. However, few studies have examined immune-triggering exposures in rela...

Authors: Alison B. Singer, Igor Burstyn, Malene Thygesen, Preben Bo Mortensen, M. Daniele Fallin and Diana E. Schendel

Occupational exposures and determinants of ultrafine particle concentrations during laser hair removal procedures

Occupational exposures to ultrafine particles in the plume generated during laser hair removal procedures, the most commonly performed light based cosmetic procedure, have not been thoroughly characterized. Ac...

Authors: Emily J. Eshleman, Mallory LeBlanc, Lisa B. Rokoff, Yinyin Xu, Rui Hu, Kachiu Lee, Gary S. Chuang, Gary Adamkiewicz and Jaime E. Hart

Quantifying the impact of current and future concentrations of air pollutants on respiratory disease risk in England

Estimating the long-term health impact of air pollution in a spatio-temporal ecological study requires representative concentrations of air pollutants to be constructed for each geographical unit and time peri...

Authors: Francesca Pannullo, Duncan Lee, Lucy Neal, Mohit Dalvi, Paul Agnew, Fiona M. O’Connor, Sabyasachi Mukhopadhyay, Sujit Sahu and Christophe Sarran

Erratum to: Transcriptome profile analysis reflects rat liver and kidney damage following chronic ultra-low dose Roundup exposure

Authors: Robin Mesnage, Matthew Arno, Manuela Costanzo, Manuela Malatesta, Gilles-Eric Séralini and Michael N. Antoniou

Association between blood lead and blood pressure: a population-based study in Brazilian adults

Environmental lead exposure among adults may increase blood pressure and elevate the risk of hypertension. The availability of data on blood lead levels (BLL) in adult Brazilian population is scarce and popula...

Authors: Ana Carolina Bertin de Almeida Lopes, Ellen Kovner Silbergeld, Ana Navas-Acien, Rachel Zamoiski, Airton da Cunha Martins Jr., Alissana Ester Iakmiu Camargo, Mariana Ragassi Urbano, Arthur Eumann Mesas and Monica Maria Bastos Paoliello

Exploring associations between prenatal solvent exposures and teenage drug and alcohol use: a retrospective cohort study

Investigating the effects of prenatal and childhood exposures on behavioral health outcomes in adolescence is challenging given the lengthy period between the exposure and outcomes. We conducted a retrospectiv...

Authors: Lisa G. Gallagher, Thomas F. Webster and Ann Aschengrau

Occupational exposure to particles and mitochondrial DNA - relevance for blood pressure

Particle exposure is a risk factor for cardiovascular diseases. Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is a primary target for oxidative stress generated by particle exposure. We aimed to elucidate the effects of occupatio...

Authors: Yiyi Xu, Huiqi Li, Maria Hedmer, Mohammad Bakhtiar Hossain, Håkan Tinnerberg, Karin Broberg and Maria Albin

Cross-sectional study of social behaviors in preschool children and exposure to flame retardants

Children are exposed to flame retardants from the built environment. Brominated diphenyl ethers (BDE) and organophosphate-based flame retardants (OPFRs) are associated with poorer neurocognitive functioning in...

Authors: Shannon T. Lipscomb, Megan M. McClelland, Megan MacDonald, Andres Cardenas, Kim A. Anderson and Molly L. Kile

The mouse mammary gland as a sentinel organ: distinguishing ‘control’ populations with diverse environmental histories

There are numerous examples of laboratory animals that were inadvertently exposed to endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) during the process of conducting experiments. Controlling contaminations in the labora...

Authors: SriDurgaDevi Kolla, Aastha Pokharel and Laura N. Vandenberg

Exposure to phthalates and bisphenol A are associated with atopic dermatitis symptoms in children: a time-series analysis

Despite increasing evidence on the relationship between exposure to phthalates and bisphenol A with allergies and asthma, reports on atopic dermatitis (AD) with these chemicals are few. We assessed the associa...

Authors: Eun-Hye Kim, Byoung-Hak Jeon, Jihyun Kim, Young-Min Kim, Youngshin Han, Kangmo Ahn and Hae-Kwan Cheong

Residential distance to major roadways and cardiac structure in African Americans: cross-sectional results from the Jackson Heart Study

Heart failure (HF) is a significant source of morbidity and mortality among African Americans. Ambient air pollution, including from traffic, is associated with HF, but the mechanisms remain unknown. The objec...

Authors: Anne M. Weaver, Gregory A. Wellenius, Wen-Chih Wu, DeMarc A. Hickson, Masoor Kamalesh and Yi Wang

A path analysis of multiple neurotoxic chemicals and cognitive functioning in older US adults (NHANES 1999–2002)

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and metals (lead and cadmium) are neurotoxic and affect neurobehavioral performance. Yet little is known about the association between exposure to multiple neurotoxic compounds...

Authors: Jennifer Przybyla, E. Andres Houseman, Ellen Smit and Molly L. Kile

Chronic exposure to arsenic, LINE-1 hypomethylation, and blood pressure: a cross-sectional study in Bangladesh

Chronic exposure to arsenic is associated with cancer and hypertension. Growing evidence suggests that altered methylation in long interspersed nuclear element-1 (LINE-1) is involved in many types of disorders...

Authors: Khaled Hossain, Takehiro Suzuki, M. M. Hasibuzzaman, Md. Shofikul Islam, Atiqur Rahman, Sudip Kumar Paul, Tanzina Tanu, Shakhawoat Hossain, Zahangir Alam Saud, Mashiur Rahman, Farjana Nikkon, Hideki Miyataka, Seiichiro Himeno and Keiko Nohara

Reproductive outcomes after non-occupational exposure to hexavalent chromium, Willits California, 1983-2014

From 1963–1995, a factory in Willits, Mendocino County, CA used toxic hexavalent chromium (Cr(VI)) without adequate measures to protect the population. We use longitudinal hospital data to compare reproductive...

Authors: Linda L Remy, Vera Byers and Ted Clay

Blood mercury concentrations are associated with decline in liver function in an elderly population: a panel study

Mercury is a toxic heavy metal and is known to affect many diseases. However, few studies have examined the effects of mercury exposure on liver function in the general population. We examined the association ...

Authors: Mee-Ri Lee, Youn-Hee Lim, Bo-Eun Lee and Yun-Chul Hong

Reported association of air pollution and suicide rate could be confounded

A statistical association between ambient air pollution and suicide mortality has been recently reported in Environmental Health, which seems not to be scientifically supported by their data.

Authors: R. Afshari

Accuracy of two geocoding methods for geographic information system-based exposure assessment in epidemiological studies

Environmental exposure assessment based on Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and study participants’ residential proximity to environmental exposure sources relies on the positional accuracy of subjects’ re...

Authors: Elodie Faure, Aurélie M.N. Danjou, Françoise Clavel-Chapelon, Marie-Christine Boutron-Ruault, Laure Dossus and Béatrice Fervers

Lifetime secondhand smoke exposure and childhood and adolescent asthma: findings from the PIAMA cohort

Secondhand smoke (SHS) exposure is a modifiable risk factor associated with childhood asthma. Associations with adolescent asthma and the relevance of the timing and patterns of exposure are unclear. Knowledge...

Authors: Edith B. Milanzi, Bert Brunekreef, Gerard H. Koppelman, Alet H. Wijga, Lenie van Rossem, Judith M. Vonk, Henriëtte A. Smit and Ulrike Gehring

Estimating deaths attributable to airborne particles: sensitivity of the results to different exposure assessment approaches

Epidemiological evidences support the existence of an effect of airborne particulate on population health. However, few studies evaluated the robustness of the results to different exposure assessment approach...

Authors: Simone Giannini, Michela Baccini, Giorgia Randi, Giovanni Bonafè, Paolo Lauriola and Andrea Ranzi

Erectile dysfunction and exposure to ambient air pollution in a nationally representative cohort of older men

Little is known about the association between air pollution and erectile dysfunction (ED), a disorder occurring in 64% of men over the age of 70, and to date, no studies have been published. To address this si...

Authors: Lindsay A. Tallon, Justin Manjourides, Vivian C. Pun, Murray A. Mittleman, Marianthi-Anna Kioumourtzoglou, Brent Coull and Helen Suh

Regional and temporal trends in blood mercury concentrations and fish consumption in women of child bearing Age in the united states using NHANES data from 1999–2010

The primary route of exposure to methylmercury (MeHg), a known developmental neurotoxicant, is from ingestion of seafood. Since 2004, women of reproductive age in the U.S. have been urged to eat fish and shell...

Authors: Leanne K. Cusack, Ellen Smit, Molly L. Kile and Anna K. Harding

Exome-wide association study identifies genetic polymorphisms of C12orf51, MYL2, and ALDH2 associated with blood lead levels in the general Korean population

Lead (Pb) is a ubiquitous toxic metal present in the environment that poses adverse health effects to humans. Inter-individual variation in blood Pb levels is affected by various factors, including genetic mak...

Authors: Sang-Yong Eom, Myung Sil Hwang, Ji-Ae Lim, Byung-Sun Choi, Ho-Jang Kwon, Jung-Duck Park, Yong-Dae Kim and Heon Kim

Prediagnostic plasma concentrations of organochlorines and risk of B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma in envirogenomarkers: a nested case-control study

Evidence suggests a largely environmental component to non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL). Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) including polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), DDE and HCB have been repeatedly implicated...

Authors: Rachel S. Kelly, Hannu Kiviranta, Ingvar A. Bergdahl, Domenico Palli, Ann-Sofie Johansson, Maria Botsivali, Paolo Vineis, Roel Vermeulen, Soterios A. Kyrtopoulos and Marc Chadeau-Hyam

Increase of urinary malondialdehyde level by bisphenol A exposure: a longitudinal panel study

To verify oxidative stress as a possible mechanism that establishes a relationship between exposure to bisphenol A (BPA) and adverse health outcomes in the elderly Korean population, we evaluated the relation ...

Authors: Jin Hee Kim and Yun-Chul Hong

Assessing the short term impact of air pollution on mortality: a matching approach

The opportunity to assess short term impact of air pollution relies on the causal interpretation of the exposure-response association. However, up to now few studies explicitly faced this issue within a causal...

Authors: Michela Baccini, Alessandra Mattei, Fabrizia Mealli, Pier Alberto Bertazzi and Michele Carugno

Respiratory outcomes of ultrafine particulate matter (UFPM) as a surrogate measure of near-roadway exposures among bicyclists

Studies have shown a consistent association between exposure to traffic-related air pollution and adverse health effects. In particular, exposure can be high for cyclists who travel near roadways. The objectiv...

Authors: Hye-Youn Park, Susan Gilbreath and Edward Barakatt

The impact of high apparent temperature on spontaneous preterm delivery: a case-crossover study

Despite the prediction that temperatures are expected to increase in the future, little is known about the health effects of increasing temperatures on pregnant women. The objective of this study was to invest...

Authors: Lyndsay A. Avalos, Hong Chen, De-Kun Li and Rupa Basu