Articles

Predictors of Beta-Hexachlorocyclohexane blood levels among people living close to a chemical plant and an illegal dumping site

Hexachlorocyclohexane is a synthetic chemical with several isomers, including β-Hexachlorocyclohexane (β-HCH). In 2005, a large contamination of crude milk from some bovine farms along the Sacco River (Central...

Authors: S. Narduzzi, F. Fantini, F. Blasetti, P. Rantakokko, H. Kiviranta, F. Forastiere, P. Michelozzi and D. Porta

Road proximity, air pollution, noise, green space and neurologic disease incidence: a population-based cohort study

Emerging evidence links road proximity and air pollution with cognitive impairment. Joint effects of noise and greenness have not been evaluated. We investigated associations between road proximity and exposur...

Authors: Weiran Yuchi, Hind Sbihi, Hugh Davies, Lillian Tamburic and Michael Brauer

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 Rengifo

Association between exposure to traffic-related air pollution and pediatric allergic diseases based on modeled air pollution concentrations and traffic measures in Seoul, Korea: a comparative analysis

Pediatric allergic diseases are a major public health concern, and previous studies have suggested that exposure to traffic-related air pollution (TRAP) exposure is a risk factor. These studies have typically ass...

Authors: Kyung-Duk Min, Seon-Ju Yi, Hwan-Cheol Kim, Jong-Han Leem, Ho-Jang Kwon, Soyoung Hong, Kyoo Sang Kim and Sun-Young Kim

Associations of Perfluoroalkyl substances with blood lipids and Apolipoproteins in lipoprotein subspecies: the POUNDS-lost study

The associations of perfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS) exposure with blood lipids and lipoproteins are inconsistent, and existing studies did not account for metabolic heterogeneity of lipoprotein subspecies. Thi...

Authors: Gang Liu, Bo Zhang, Yang Hu, Jennifer Rood, Liming Liang, Lu Qi, George A. Bray, Lilian DeJonge, Brent Coull, Philippe Grandjean, Jeremy D. Furtado and Qi Sun

Mortality associated with wildfire smoke exposure in Washington state, 2006–2017: a case-crossover study

Wildfire events are increasing in prevalence in the western United States. Research has found mixed results on the degree to which exposure to wildfire smoke is associated with an increased risk of mortality.

Authors: Annie Doubleday, Jill Schulte, Lianne Sheppard, Matt Kadlec, Ranil Dhammapala, Julie Fox and Tania Busch Isaksen

Climate factors driven typhus group rickettsiosis incidence dynamics in Xishuangbanna Dai autonomous prefecture of Yunnan province in China, 2005–2017

Typhus group rickettsiosis (TGR), which is a neglected vector-borne infectious disease, including epidemic typhus and endemic typhus. We explored the lag effects and nonlinear association between meteorologica...

Authors: Yuan Gao, Yanlin Niu, Wanwan Sun, Keke Liu, Xiaobo Liu, Ning Zhao, Yujuan Yue, Haixia Wu, Fengxia Meng, Jun Wang, Xueshuang Wang and Qiyong Liu

What is useful research? The good, the bad, and the stable

A scientific journal like Environmental Health strives to publish research that is useful within the field covered by the journal’s scope, in this case, public health. Useful research is more likely to make a dif...

Authors: David M. Ozonoff and Philippe Grandjean

Association between short-term exposure to air pollution and ischemic stroke onset: a time-stratified case-crossover analysis using a distributed lag nonlinear model in Shenzhen, China

Stroke, especially ischemic stroke (IS), has been a severe public health problem around the world. However, the association between air pollution and ischemic stroke remains ambiguous.

Authors: Zhinghui Wang, Ji Peng, Peiyi Liu, Yanran Duan, Suli Huang, Ying Wen, Yi Liao, Hongyan Li, Siyu Yan, Jinquan Cheng and Ping Yin

Atrial fibrillation hospitalization is associated with exposure to fine particulate air pollutants

Although air pollutants have been associated with cardiopulmonary mortality, their effects on the occurrence of atrial fibrillation (Afib) remain unclear. This study examined the association between ambient ai...

Authors: Hsiu Hao Lee, Shih Chun Pan, Bing Yu Chen, Shih Hsiang Lo and Yue Leon Guo

Projected local rain events due to climate change and the impacts on waterborne diseases in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Climate change is increasing the number and intensity of extreme weather events in many parts of the world. Precipitation extremes have been linked to both outbreaks and sporadic cases of waterborne illness. W...

Authors: Bimal K. Chhetri, Eleni Galanis, Stephen Sobie, Jordan Brubacher, Robert Balshaw, Michael Otterstatter, Sunny Mak, Marcus Lem, Mark Lysyshyn, Trevor Murdock, Manon Fleury, Kirsten Zickfeld, Mark Zubel, Len Clarkson and Tim K. Takaro

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

Cumulative solar ultraviolet radiation exposure and basal cell carcinoma of the skin in a nationwide US cohort using satellite and ground-based measures

Basal cell carcinoma of the skin (BCC) is the most common cancer in populations of European ancestry. Although consistently linked with basal cell carcinoma of the skin in case-control studies, few prospective...

Authors: Mark P. Little, Martha S. Linet, Michael G. Kimlin, Terrence Lee, Zaria Tatalovich, Alice J. Sigurdson and Elizabeth K. Cahoon

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

Response to the “Letter to the Editor” by Gabor Mezei et al., Comments on Vimercati et al., 2019, “Asbestos exposure and malignant mesothelioma of the tunica vaginalis testis: a systematic review and the experience of the Apulia (Southern Italy) mesothelioma register”

Authors: Luigi Vimercati, Domenica Cavone, Maria Celeste Delfino, Luigi De Maria, Antonio Caputi, Giovanni Maria Ferri and Gabriella Serio

Comments on Vimercati et al., 2019, “Asbestos exposure and malignant mesothelioma of the tunica vaginalis testis: a systematic review and the experience of the Apulia (southern Italy) mesothelioma register”

Authors: Gabor Mezei, Ellen T. Chang, Fionna S. Mowat and Suresh H. Moolgavkar

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

Short-term association between ambient temperature and homicide in South Africa: a case-crossover study

Criminology research has traditionally investigated sociodemographic predictors of crime, such as sex, race, age, and socioeconomic status. However, evidence suggests that short-term fluctuations in crime ofte...

Authors: Abigail Gates, Mitchel Klein, Fiorella Acquaotta, Rebecca M. Garland and Noah Scovronick

Correction to: Managing pollution from antibiotics manufacturing: charting actors, incentives and disincentives

Following publication of the original article [1], the author explained that there are multiple errors in the original article

Authors: Niels Nijsingh, Christian Munthe and D. G. Joakim Larsson

Longitudinal follow-up of health effects among workers handling engineered nanomaterials: a panel study

Although no human illness to date is confirmed to be attributed to engineered nanoparticles, occupational epidemiological studies are needed to verify the health effects of nanoparticles. This study used a rep...

Authors: Wei-Te Wu, Lih-Ann Li, Tsui-Chun Tsou, Shu-Li Wang, Hui-Ling Lee, Tung-Sheng Shih and Saou-Hsing Liou

Fluoride exposure and sleep patterns among older adolescents in the United States: a cross-sectional study of NHANES 2015–2016

Fluoride from environmental sources accumulates preferentially in the pineal gland which produces melatonin, the hormone that regulates the sleep-wake cycle. However, the effects of fluoride on sleep regulatio...

Authors: Ashley J. Malin, Sonali Bose, Stefanie A. Busgang, Chris Gennings, Michael Thorpy, Robert O. Wright, Rosalind J. Wright and Manish Arora

Use of skincare products and risk of cancer of the breast and endometrium: a prospective cohort study

Concerns have been raised that extensive use of personal care products that contain endocrine disrupting compounds increase the risk of hormone sensitive cancers.

Authors: Charlotta Rylander, Marit B. Veierød, Elisabete Weiderpass, Eiliv Lund and Torkjel M. Sandanger

Low-moderate arsenic exposure and respiratory in American Indian communities in the Strong Heart Study

Arsenic exposure through drinking water is an established lung carcinogen. Evidence on non-malignant lung outcomes is less conclusive and suggests arsenic is associated with lower lung function. Studies examin...

Authors: Martha Powers, Tiffany R. Sanchez, Maria Grau-Perez, Fawn Yeh, Kevin A. Francesconi, Walter Goessler, Christine M. George, Christopher Heaney, Lyle G. Best, Jason G. Umans, Robert H. Brown and Ana Navas-Acien

The effects of daily meteorological perturbation on pregnancy outcome: follow-up of a cohort of young women undergoing IVF treatment

Human reproduction follows a seasonal pattern with respect to spontaneous conception, a phenomenon wherein the effect of meteorological fluctuations might not be unique. However, the effect of seasonal variati...

Authors: Mingpeng Zhao, Haoyang Zhang, Tarah H. B. Waters, Jacqueline Pui Wah Chung, Tin Chiu Li and David Yiu Leung Chan

Saliva cortisol in relation to aircraft noise exposure: pooled-analysis results from seven European countries

Many studies have demonstrated adverse effects of exposure to aircraft noise on health. Possible biological pathways for these effects include hormonal disturbances. Few studies deal with aircraft noise effect...

Authors: Clémence Baudin, Marie Lefèvre, Jenny Selander, Wolfgang Babisch, Ennio Cadum, Marie-Christine Carlier, Patricia Champelovier, Konstantina Dimakopoulou, Danny Huithuijs, Jacques Lambert, Bernard Laumon, Göran Pershagen, Töres Theorell, Venetia Velonaki, Anna Hansell and Anne-Sophie Evrard

Air pollution and mortality in a large, representative U.S. cohort: multiple-pollutant analyses, and spatial and temporal decompositions

Cohort studies have documented associations between fine particulate matter air pollution (PM_2.5) and mortality risk. However, there remains uncertainty regarding the contribution of co-pollutants and the stabili...

Authors: Jacob S. Lefler, Joshua D. Higbee, Richard T. Burnett, Majid Ezzati, Nathan C. Coleman, Dalton D. Mann, Julian D. Marshall, Matthew Bechle, Yuzhou Wang, Allen L. Robinson and C. Arden Pope III

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

Wrangling environmental exposure data: guidance for getting the best information from your laboratory measurements

Environmental health and exposure researchers can improve the quality and interpretation of their chemical measurement data, avoid spurious results, and improve analytical protocols for new chemicals by closel...

Authors: Julia O. Udesky, Robin E. Dodson, Laura J. Perovich and Ruthann A. Rudel

Effect of apparent temperature on daily emergency admissions for mental and behavioral disorders in Yancheng, China: a time-series study

Very few studies have focused on the relationship between ambient apparent temperature (AT) and admission of mental and behaviour disorders (MDs). Therefore, a time-series study was conducted in Yancheng, Chin...

Authors: Min Min, Tingting Shi, Pengpeng Ye, Yuan Wang, Zhenhai Yao, Shun Tian, Yun Zhang, Mingming Liang, Guangbo Qu, Peng Bi, Leilei Duan and Yehuan Sun

Association between prenatal exposure to perfluoroalkyl substances and asthma in 5-year-old children in the Odense Child Cohort

Asthma is the most common non-communicable disease in children. Prenatal exposure to perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs), a group of persistent environmental chemicals with endocrine disrupting abilities, has be...

Authors: Iben Have Beck, Clara Amalie Gade Timmermann, Flemming Nielsen, Greet Schoeters, Camilla Jøhnk, Henriette Boye Kyhl, Arne Høst and Tina Kold Jensen

Maternal exposure to ambient fine particulate matter and risk of premature rupture of membranes in Wuhan, Central China: a cohort study

The associations between maternal exposure to ambient PM_2.5 during pregnancy and the risk of premature rupture of membranes (PROM) and preterm premature rupture of membranes (PPROM) are controversial. And no rele...

Authors: Kun Wang, Yu Tian, Huabo Zheng, Shengshuai Shan, Xiaofang Zhao and Chengyun Liu

Managing pollution from antibiotics manufacturing: charting actors, incentives and disincentives

Emissions of high concentrations of antibiotics from manufacturing sites select for resistant bacteria and may contribute to the emergence of new forms of resistance in pathogens. Many scientists, industry, po...

Authors: Niels Nijsingh, Christian Munthe and D. G. Joakim Larsson

Determinants of arsenic methylation efficiency and urinary arsenic level in pregnant women in Bangladesh

Prenatal inorganic arsenic (iAs) exposure is associated with pregnancy outcomes. Maternal capabilities of arsenic biotransformation and elimination may influence the susceptibility of arsenic toxicity. Therefo...

Authors: Shangzhi Gao, Pi-I Lin, Golam Mostofa, Quazi Quamruzzaman, Mahmudur Rahman, Mohammad Lutfar Rahman, Li Su, Yu-mei Hsueh, Marc Weisskopf, Brent Coull and David Chistopher Christiani

How can the integrity of occupational and environmental health research be maintained in the presence of conflicting interests?

The sciences, and especially the research subspecialties of occupational and environmental health, are being misused. The misuse serves to interfere with the advancement of policies that depend on rational evi...

Authors: Xaver Baur, Colin L. Soskolne and Lisa A. Bero

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

Serum dioxin and DNA methylation in the sperm of operation ranch hand veterans exposed to Agent Orange

Exposure to the herbicide Agent Orange during the Vietnam War was widespread and is associated with numerous adverse health outcomes. A continuing concern of veterans is the possibility that exposure to the di...

Authors: Karl T. Kelsey, Matthew Rytel, Edward Dere, Rondi Butler, Melissa Eliot, Susan M. Huse, E. Andres Houseman, Devin C. Koestler and Kim Boekelheide

Does the oxidative stress play a role in the associations between outdoor air pollution and persistent asthma in adults? Findings from the EGEA study

Evidences that oxidative stress plays a role in the associations between outdoor air pollution and asthma are growing. We aimed to study the role of plasma fluorescent oxidation products levels (FlOPs; an oxid...

Authors: Anaïs Havet, Zhen Li, Farid Zerimech, Margaux Sanchez, Valérie Siroux, Nicole Le Moual, Bert Brunekreef, Nino Künzli, Bénédicte Jacquemin, Raphaëlle Varraso, Régis Matran and Rachel Nadif

Morbidity burden of respiratory diseases attributable to ambient temperature: a case study in a subtropical city in China

There are significant associations between ambient temperature and respiratory disease mortality. However, few studies have assessed the morbidity burdens of various respiratory diseases that are attributable ...

Authors: Yiju Zhao, Zhao Huang, Shengyong Wang, Jianxiong Hu, Jianpeng Xiao, Xing Li, Tao Liu, Weilin Zeng, Lingchuan Guo, Qingfeng Du and Wenjun Ma

Methodological limitations in experimental studies on symptom development in individuals with idiopathic environmental intolerance attributed to electromagnetic fields (IEI-EMF) – a systematic review

Hypersensitivity to electromagnetic fields (EMF) is a controversial condition. While individuals with idiopathic environmental intolerance attributed to electromagnetic fields (IEI-EMF) claim to experience hea...

Authors: Kristina Schmiedchen, Sarah Driessen and Gunnhild Oftedal

Impact of high drinking water nitrate levels on the endogenous formation of apparent N-nitroso compounds in combination with meat intake in healthy volunteers

Nitrate is converted to nitrite in the human body and subsequently can react with amines and amides in the gastrointestinal tract to form N-nitroso compounds (NOCs), which are known to be carcinogenic in animals....

Authors: Simone G. van Breda, Karen Mathijs, Virág Sági-Kiss, Gunter G. Kuhnle, Ben van der Veer, Rena R. Jones, Rashmi Sinha, Mary H. Ward and Theo M. de Kok

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

Low concentrations of fine particle air pollution and mortality in the Canadian Community Health Survey cohort

Approximately 2.9 million deaths are attributed to ambient fine particle air pollution around the world each year (PM_2.5). In general, cohort studies of mortality and outdoor PM_2.5 concentrations have limited inf...

Authors: Tanya Christidis, Anders C. Erickson, Amanda J. Pappin, Daniel L. Crouse, Lauren L. Pinault, Scott A. Weichenthal, Jeffrey R. Brook, Aaron van Donkelaar, Perry Hystad, Randall V. Martin, Michael Tjepkema, Richard T. Burnett and Michael Brauer

Geomagnetic disturbances driven by solar activity enhance total and cardiovascular mortality risk in 263 U.S. cities

Short-term geomagnetic disturbances (GMD) driven by the quasi-periodic 11-year cycle of solar activity have been linked to a broad range of adverse health effects, including cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and t...

Authors: Carolina Leticia Zilli Vieira, Danilo Alvares, Annelise Blomberg, Joel Schwartz, Brent Coull, Shaodan Huang and Petros Koutrakis

Changes in triggering of ST-elevation myocardial infarction by particulate air pollution in Monroe County, New York over time: a case-crossover study

Previous studies have reported that fine particle (PM_2.5) concentrations triggered ST elevation myocardial infarctions (STEMI). In Rochester, NY, multiple air quality policies and economic changes/influences from...

Authors: Meng Wang, Philip K. Hopke, Mauro Masiol, Sally W. Thurston, Scott Cameron, Frederick Ling, Edwin van Wijngaarden, Daniel Croft, Stefania Squizzato, Kelly Thevenet-Morrison, David Chalupa and David Q. Rich

Association between a urinary biomarker for exposure to PAH and blood level of the acute phase protein serum amyloid A in coke oven workers

Coke oven workers are exposed to both free and particle bound PAH. Through this exposure, the workers may be at increased risk of cardiovascular diseases. Systemic levels of acute phase response proteins have ...

Authors: Niels Hadrup, Danuta Mielżyńska-Švach, Agnieszka Kozłowska, Manuela Campisi, Sofia Pavanello and Ulla Vogel

Association of urinary concentrations of early pregnancy phthalate metabolites and bisphenol A with length of gestation

Environmental exposure to phthalates and bisphenol A (BPA) may have endocrine disrupting effects that alter length of gestation. We assessed the association between the urinary concentrations of 11 phthalate m...

Authors: Helen B. Chin, Anne Marie Jukic, Allen J. Wilcox, Clarice R. Weinberg, Kelly K. Ferguson, Antonia M. Calafat, D. Robert McConnaughey and Donna D. Baird

Making the invisible visible: results of a community-led health survey following PFAS contamination of drinking water in Merrimack, New Hampshire

In March 2016, citizens of Merrimack, New Hampshire, learned that their public water supply was contaminated with perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA). A subsequent state-led investigation revealed widespread contami...

Authors: Bindu Panikkar, Benjamin Lemmond, Laurene Allen, Carol DiPirro and Shaina Kasper

Asbestos exposure and malignant mesothelioma of the tunica vaginalis testis: a systematic review and the experience of the Apulia (southern Italy) mesothelioma register

Malignant mesothelioma of the tunica vaginalis testis (MMTVT) is a rare disease with a poor prognosis. The diagnosis and management of these lesions are often difficult for pathologists, surgeons, oncologists ...

Authors: Luigi Vimercati, Domenica Cavone, Maria Celeste Delfino, Luigi De Maria, Antonio Caputi, Giovanni Maria Ferri and Gabriella Serio

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