Articles

Associations between short-term exposure to gaseous pollutants and pulmonary heart disease-related mortality among elderly people in Chengdu, China

Pulmonary heart disease (PHD) has become a global burden, especially in low- and middle-income countries. However, very few studies have assessed the influence of air pollution on PHD. This is the first study ...

Authors: Jianyu Chen, Jie Zeng, Chunli Shi, Ruicong Liu, Rong Lu, Suling Mao and Li Zhang

Urinary trace metals, maternal circulating angiogenic biomarkers, and preeclampsia: a single-contaminant and mixture-based approach

Exposures to toxic metals and deficiencies in essential metals disrupt placentation and may contribute to preeclampsia. However, effects of exposure to combinations of metals remain unknown.

Authors: Paige A. Bommarito, Stephani S. Kim, John D. Meeker, Rebecca C. Fry, David E. Cantonwine, Thomas F. McElrath and Kelly K. Ferguson

The association of early-life exposure to ambient PM_2.5 and later-childhood height-for-age in India: an observational study

Children in India are exposed to high levels of ambient fine particulate matter (PM_2.5). However, population-level evidence of associations with adverse health outcomes from within the country is limited. The aim...

Authors: Dean Spears, Sagnik Dey, Sourangsu Chowdhury, Noah Scovronick, Sangita Vyas and Joshua Apte

Using web data to improve surveillance for heat sensitive health outcomes

Elevated and prolonged exposure to extreme heat is an important cause of excess summertime mortality and morbidity. To protect people from health threats, some governments are currently operating syndromic sur...

Authors: Jihoon Jung, Christopher K. Uejio, Chris Duclos and Melissa Jordan

Population allocation at the housing unit level: estimates around underground natural gas storage wells in PA, OH, NY, WV, MI, and CA

Spatially accurate population data are critical for determining health impacts from many known risk factors. However, the utility of the increasing spatial resolution of disease mapping and environmental expos...

Authors: Drew R. Michanowicz, Samuel R. Williams, Jonathan J. Buonocore, Sebastian T. Rowland, Katherine E. Konschnik, Shaun A. Goho and Aaron S. Bernstein

Assessing the national capacity for disaster research response (DR2) within the NIEHS Environmental Health Sciences Core Centers

Disaster research response (DR2) is necessary to answer scientific questions about the environmental health impacts of disasters and the effectiveness of response and recovery strategies. This research explore...

Authors: Nicole A. Errett, Erin N. Haynes, Nancy Wyland, Ali Everhart, Claire Pendergrast and Edith A. Parker

Biomass fuel as a risk factor for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma: a systematic review and meta-analysis

The link between use of solid biomass fuel (wood, charcoal, coal, dung, and crop residues) for cooking and/or heating and esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is inconclusive.

Authors: Samson Okello, Suzan Joan Akello, Emmanuel Dwomoh, Emmanuel Byaruhanga, Christopher Kenneth Opio, Ruyang Zhang, Kathleen E. Corey, Winnie R. Muyindike, Ponsiano Ocama and David D. Christiani

Exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls and organochlorine pesticides and risk of dementia, Alzheimer’s disease and cognitive decline in an older population: a prospective analysis from the Canadian Study of Health and Aging

Little attention has been paid to neurotoxicants on the risk of dementia. Exposure to known neurotoxicants such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and organochlorine (OC) pesticides is suspected to have adver...

Authors: Thierry Comlan Marc Medehouenou, Pierre Ayotte, Pierre-Hugues Carmichael, Edeltraut Kröger, René Verreault, Joan Lindsay, Éric Dewailly, Suzanne L. Tyas, Alexandre Bureau and Danielle Laurin

Smoking-induced risk of future cardiovascular disease is partly mediated by cadmium in tobacco: Malmö Diet and Cancer Cohort Study

Smoking is a strong risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD) and causes exposure to cadmium, which is a pro-atherosclerotic metal. Cadmium exposure has also been shown to increase the risk of CVD, even aft...

Authors: Huiqi Li, Björn Fagerberg, Gerd Sallsten, Yan Borné, Bo Hedblad, Gunnar Engström, Lars Barregard and Eva M. Andersson

Temperature as a risk factor of emergency department visits for acute kidney injury: a case-crossover study in Seoul, South Korea

Previous studies show that escalations in ambient temperature are among the risk factors for acute kidney injury (AKI). However, it has not been adequately studied in our location, Seoul, South Korea. In this ...

Authors: Satbyul Estella Kim, Hyewon Lee, Jayeun Kim, Young Kyu Lee, Minjin Kang, Yasuaki Hijioka and Ho Kim

Issues with incorrect computing of population attributable fraction (PAF) in a global perspective on coal-fired power plants and burden of lung cancer

All observational studies are liable to confounding and Levin’s formula becomes useless in practice for unbiasedly estimating PAF. With respect to causal interpretation of PAF in public health setting, unbiase...

Authors: Ahmad Khosravi and Mohammad Ali Mansournia

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

Estimation and application of population attributable fraction in ecological studies

Estimation of population attributable fraction (PAF) requires unbiased relative risk (RR) by using either Levin’s or Miettinen’s formula, on which decision depends on the available exposure information in refe...

Authors: Cheng-Kuan Lin and Szu-Ta Chen

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

The USA lags behind other agricultural nations in banning harmful pesticides

The United States of America (USA), European Union (EU), Brazil and China are four of the largest agricultural producers and users of agricultural pesticides in the world. Comparing the inclination and ability...

Authors: Nathan Donley

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

Hospital, health, and community burden after oil refinery fires, Richmond, California 2007 and 2012

Emergency Departments experience a significant census burst after disasters. The aim of this study is to describe patient presentations at Emergency Departments in Contra Costa County, California following che...

Authors: Linda L. Remy, Ted Clay, Vera Byers and Paul E. Rosenfeld

Correction to: 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)

Following publication of the original article

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

Two-step approach for assessing the health effects of environmental chemical mixtures: application to simulated datasets and real data from the Navajo Birth Cohort Study

There is increasing interest in examining the consequences of simultaneous exposures to chemical mixtures. However, a consensus or recommendations on how to appropriately select the statistical approach analyz...

Authors: Li Luo, Laurie G. Hudson, Johnnye Lewis and Ji-Hyun Lee

Assessment of total, ligand-induced peroxisome proliferator activated receptor γ ligand activity in serum

Humans are exposed to a complex mixture of environmental chemicals that impact bone and metabolic health, and traditional exposure assessments struggle to capture these exposure scenarios. Peroxisome prolifera...

Authors: Lariah Edwards, James Watt, Thomas F. Webster and Jennifer J. Schlezinger

Fetal growth in environmental epidemiology: mechanisms, limitations, and a review of associations with biomarkers of non-persistent chemical exposures during pregnancy

Non-persistent chemicals, such as phthalates, environmental phenols, organophosphate pesticides, and others, are challenging to study because of their ubiquity in the environment, diverse exposure routes, and ...

Authors: Elizabeth M. Kamai, Thomas F. McElrath and Kelly K. Ferguson

Historical evidence of glyphosate exposure from a US agricultural cohort

In response to the recent review by Gillezeau et al., The evidence of human exposure to glyphosate: A review, Environmental Health 1/19/19, here we report additional glyphosate biomonitoring data from a repositor...

Authors: Melissa J. Perry, Daniele Mandrioli, Fiorella Belpoggi, Fabiana Manservisi, Simona Panzacchi and Courtney Irwin

Challenging dominant breast cancer research agendas: perspectives on the outcomes of the interagency breast cancer and environment research coordinating committee

As breast cancer rates increase globally, there is growing scientific consensus that greater understanding of the causes of breast cancer is needed to better prevent its occurrence. Genetics accounts for a sma...

Authors: Lauren Richter

Applying a cumulative risk framework to drinking water assessment: a commentary

The health risks of drinking water contaminants and the economic benefits of drinking water standards are typically assessed one chemical at a time, an approach that misses the health impacts of co-occurring c...

Authors: Tasha Stoiber, Alexis Temkin, David Andrews, Chris Campbell and Olga V. Naidenko

Assessing the magnitude and uncertainties of the burden of selected diseases attributable to extreme heat and extreme precipitation under a climate change scenario in Michigan for the period 2041–2070

Extreme heat (EH) and extreme precipitation (EP) events are expected to increase with climate change in many parts of the world. Characterizing the potential future morbidity and mortality burden of EH and EP ...

Authors: Carina J. Gronlund, Lorraine Cameron, Claire Shea and Marie S. O’Neill

Considerations in the use of different spirometers in epidemiological studies

Spirometric lung function measurements have been proven to be excellent objective markers of respiratory morbidity. The use of different types of spirometers in epidemiological and clinical studies may present...

Authors: Edith B. Milanzi, Gerard H. Koppelman, Marieke Oldenwening, Sonja Augustijn, Bernadette Aalders-de Ruijter, Martijn Farenhorst, Judith M. Vonk, Marjan Tewis, Bert Brunekreef and Ulrike Gehring

A tensor product quasi-Poisson model for estimating health effects of multiple ambient pollutants on mortality

People are exposed to mixtures of highly correlated gaseous, liquid and solid pollutants. However, in previous studies, the assessment of air pollution effects was mainly based on single-pollutant models or wa...

Authors: Li-Jun Xu, Shuang-Quan Shen, Li Li, Ting-Ting Chen, Zhi-Ying Zhan and Chun-Quan Ou

Carbon monoxide and risk of outpatient visits due to cause-specific diseases: a time-series study in Yichang, China

Previous studies showed inconsistent results on risk of increased outpatient visits for cause-specific diseases associated with ambient carbon monoxide (CO).

Authors: Yu Wang, Chengye Yao, Chengzhong Xu, Xinying Zeng, Maigeng Zhou, Yun Lin, Pei Zhang and Peng Yin

Estimating policy-relevant health effects of ambient heat exposures using spatially contiguous reanalysis data

Regional National Weather Service (NWS) heat advisory criteria in New York State (NYS) were based on frequency of heat events estimated by sparse monitoring data. These may not accurately reflect temperatures ...

Authors: Temilayo E. Adeyeye, Tabassum Z. Insaf, Mohammad Z. Al-Hamdan, Seema G. Nayak, Neil Stuart, Stephen DiRienzo and William L. Crosson

Particulate air pollution on cardiovascular mortality in the tropics: impact on the elderly

Air pollution has a significant health impact. Most data originate from temperate regions. We aim to study the health impact of air pollution, particularly among the elderly, in a tropical region.

Authors: Jonathan Yap, Yixiang Ng, Khung Keong Yeo, Anders Sahlén, Carolyn Su Ping Lam, Vernon Lee and Stefan Ma

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