Environmental Health Perspectives
First food: business of taste
Good Food is First Food. It is not junk food. It is the food that connects nature and nutrition with livelihoods. This food is good for our health; it comes from the rich biodiversity of our regions; it provides employment to people. Most importantly, cooking and eating give us pleasure. …Using residential history and groundwater modeling to examine drinking water exposure and breast cancer
Previous research suggested a possible link between breast cancer and groundwater plumes in upper Cape Cod, Massachusetts. However, the geographic relationship between breast cancer clusters and groundwater plumes alone does not establish exposure. To test the hypothesis that drinking water contaminated by municipal wastewater effluent from a specific source is …Neurobehavioral deficits and increased blood pressure in school-age children prenatally exposed to pesticides
Long-term neurotoxicity risks resulting from prenatal exposures to pesticides are uncertain, but a previous study of Ecuadorian schoolchildren suggested that blood pressure and visuospatial processing may be vulnerable to these exposures. Harari et al. conducted a cross-sectional study of cardiovascular and neurobehavioral functions among 84 Ecuadorian children 6Urinary concentrations of metabolites of Pyrethroid Insecticides in the general U.S. population
Synthetic pyrethroid insecticides are being used with greater frequency in the United States to replace residential and some agricultural organophosphorus (OP) and carbamate insecticides. The pyrethroids are considered to be less toxic to humans than the OPs and carbamates, but like many other classes of insecticides, they are acute neurotoxicants. …Childhood lead exposure after the phaseout of leaded gasoline: ?An ecological study of school-age children in Kampala, Uganda
Although tetraethyl lead was phased out of gasoline in Uganda in 2005, there are still concerns about the exposure of children through other sources. Graber et al. (p. 884) measured blood lead distributions among schoolchildren living near the Kiteezi landfill in Kampala, using a stratified, cross-sectional design to obtain blood …Green washing: Do you know what you're buying?
In a United States where climate change legislation, concerns about foreign oil dependence, and mandatory curbside recycling are becoming theUrban area disadvantage and under-5 mortality in Nigeria: The effect of rapid urbanization
Living in socioeconomically disadvantaged areas is associated with increased childhood mortality. As city living becomes the predominant social context in low- and middle-income countries, the resulting rapid urbanizationComparison of current-use pesticide and other toxicant urinary metabolite levels among pregnant women in the CHAMACOS Cohort
Few studies have investigated maternal exposures during pregnancy to pesticides currently in use. Castorina et al. measured metabolites of current-use pesticides and other precursor compounds in urine samples collected twice during pregnancy from 538 California women enrolled in the Center for the Health Assessment of Mothers and Children of Salinas …Traffic-related air pollution and QT interval: Modification by diabetes, obesity, and oxidative stress gene polymorphisms
Acute exposure to ambient air pollution has been associated with cardiac outcomes, often within hours of exposure. The incidence of effects within the population depends on a number of factors, including genetic differences. Baja et al. examined the associations of air pollutants with heart-rateResidential traffic exposure, pulse pressure, and C-reactive protein: Consistency and contrast among exposure characterization
Studies in humans and animals suggest that both short-term and long-term exposure to elevated traffic levels can adversely affect pulmonary and cardiovascular function. Although several studies have examined associations between blood pressure and air pollution, few have examined pulse pressure or measures of systemic inflammation. Rioux et al. studied residential …Perfluorinated compounds, polychlorinated biphenyls, and organochlorine pesticide contamination in composite food samples
Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are toxic chemicals that resist degradation and bioaccumulate. Despite attempts to limit the use and distribution of these chemicals, they are still widely detected in the environment. Schecter et al. determined the presence of POP contamination of food in the United States by measuring perfluorinated compounds …Commuters exposure to particulate matter air pollution is affected ?by mode of transport, fuel type
Although commuters are exposed to high air pollution concentrations, little quantitative information currently exists on differences in exposure from different modes of transport, routes, and fuel types. Zuurbier et al. (p. 783) measured exposures to particle number counts (PNCs) and particulate matter ? 2.5Chronic social stress and susceptibility to concentrated ambient fine particles in rats
Epidemiologic evidence suggests that chronic stress may alter susceptibility to air pollution, but spatial confounding between these factors limits the utility of epidemiologic methods to disentangle these effects and investigate physiologic mechanisms. Clougherty et al. (p. 769) compared respiratory responses to concentrated ambient particles (CAPs) and examined biological markers of …Pesticide use and cutaneous melanoma in pesticide applicators in the agricultural heath study
The incidence of cutaneous melanoma, the most deadly form of skin cancer, tripled over the last 30 years in the United States. The reasons for this increase are not clear, although sun sensitivity and ultraviolet radiation are known risk factors. Farmers have been found to have an excess risk of …137 cesium exposure and spirometry measures in Ukrainian children affected by the Chernobyl nuclear incident
The short-term effects on the lung and pulmonary system following acute high-dose exposure to radiation are relatively well known. However, there has been comparatively little research on the long-term health effects of radioisotope exposure on the respiratory system. After the Chernobyl accident in 1986, children of the contaminated Narodichesky region …Prenatal exposure to traffic-related air pollution and ultrasound measures of fetal growth in the INMA Sabadell Cohort
Numerous studies have reported that traffic-related air pollution is associated with intrauterine growth restriction, low birth weight, and preterm birth, but studies to determine the most harmful pollutants and the most susceptible periods for exposure have been inconclusive. Aguilera et al. studied exposure to nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and aromatic hydrocarbons …Cholinesterase depression and its association with pesticide exposure across the agricultural season among Latino farmworkers
Farmworkers can be exposed to a wide variety of cholinesterase inhibiting pesticides. Routine screening for cholinesterase inhibition is not required in many states in the United States, or may be required for workers that apply or handle pesticides, but not those doing routine work in the fields. There is also …Arsenic inhibits neurite outgrowth by inhibiting the LKB1AMPK signaling pathway
Water supplies in many regions of the world are contaminated with arsenic, which is known to cause several diseases including cancer and skin lesions. Less is known about effects of arsenic on the nervous system, especially following developmental exposure. Wang et al. used neuro-2a neuroblastoma cells as a model to …Modeling the effects of weather and climate change on malaria transmission
There has been increased interest in the possible impact of climate change on human health, particularly as it relates to the transmission of environmentally sensitive diseases such as malaria. Parham and Michael investigated the role that process-based mathematical models can play in providing strategic insights on the effects of climate …Economic activity and trends in ambient air pollution
One challenge in assessing the health effects of human exposure to air pollution in epidemiologic studies is the lack of widespread historical air pollutant monitoring data to characterize past exposure levels. Davis et al. (p. 614) developed an alternative model of exposure based on the hypothesis that economic activity predicts …Within-neighborhood patterns and sources of particle pollution: ?Mobile monitoring and geographic information system analysis
Urban air pollution is reportedly responsible for nearly 1 million annual deaths worldwide. The burden of disease from air pollutant exposure may be greatest in growing urban populations in the developing world, but risk assessment is often impeded by lack of exposure information at the local level in many urban …
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