Environmental Health最新文献

{"title":"A nationwide analysis of heat and workplace injuries in the United States.","authors":"Barrak Alahmad, William Kessler, Yazan Alwadi, Joel Schwartz, Gregory R Wagner, David Michaels","doi":"10.1186/s12940-025-01231-1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s12940-025-01231-1","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Exposure to heat leads to physiological and cognitive impairments that increase the risk of workplace injuries. This study estimates the number and proportion of work injuries reported to the United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) that can be attributed to heat exposure. These estimates contribute to the calculation of the benefits of standards, policies, and programs that reduce workplace exposure to extreme heat.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We analyzed all 2023 injury cases reported to OSHA's Injury Tracking Application by establishments with 100 or more employees, primarily in high-hazard industries. Each injury was geocoded and matched with high-resolution weather data for the specific injury date. Using a case-crossover design, we compared heat index on each injury day (case) with matched non-injury control days for the same worker. Conditional logistic regression was applied separately for summer-only and year-round periods with a non-linear term for heat index to estimate the odds ratios for injury occurrence. We additionally examined heat-injury patterns by industry sectors and in states with/without workplace heat standards.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The odds of work injury increased non-linearly with a rising heat index: the pooled national estimate showed a clear upward trend starting around 85°F and accelerating above 90°F. Our results were consistent across nearly all industry sectors, including those that are predominantly indoors. Using a heat index of 80°F as reference, odds ratios (OR) of injuries at or above 90°F, 100°F and 110°F were 1.03 (95% confidence intervals [CI]: 1.02, 1.04), 1.10 (1.07, 1.13), and 1.20 (1.13, 1.26), respectively. At a heat index of 110°F or higher, the odds increased by 22% in states without occupational heat rules (OR=1.22; 1.15,1.29) versus 9% in states with rules (OR=1.09; 0.84, 1.41), suggesting a protective effect, although confidence intervals overlapped. Overall, we estimate 1.18% (95% empirical CI: 0.92%, 1.45%) of all injuries were attributable to heat exposure on days exceeding a heat index of 70°F.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>Heat exposure increases the overall risk of work injury, an effect consistent across nearly all major industries.</p>","PeriodicalId":11686,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Health","volume":"24 1","pages":"65"},"PeriodicalIF":5.3,"publicationDate":"2025-10-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145231622","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The WHO-commissioned systematic reviews on health effects of radiofrequency radiation provide no assurance of safety.","authors":"Ronald L Melnick, Joel M Moskowitz, Paul Héroux, Erica Mallery-Blythe, Julie E McCredden, Martha Herbert, Lennart Hardell, Alasdair Philips, Fiorella Belpoggi, John W Frank, Theodora Scarato, Elizabeth Kelley","doi":"10.1186/s12940-025-01220-4","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s12940-025-01220-4","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The World Health Organization (WHO) commissioned 12 systematic reviews (SR) and meta-analyses (MA) on health effects of exposure to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF). The health outcomes selected for those reviews (cancer, electromagnetic hypersensitivity, cognitive impairment, birth outcomes, male fertility, oxidative stress, and heat-related effects) were based on a WHO-conducted international survey. The SR of the studies of cancer in laboratory animal studies was the only one that did not include a MA, because those authors considered it inappropriate due to methodological differences among the available studies, including differences in exposure characteristics (carrier frequency, modulation, polarization), experimental parameters (hours/day of exposure, duration of exposure, exposure systems), and different biological models. MAs in all the other SRs suffered from relatively few primary studies available for each MA (sometimes due to excessive subgrouping), exclusion of relevant studies, weaknesses in many of the included primary studies, lack of a framework for analyzing complex processes such as those involved in cognitive functions, and/or high between-study heterogeneity. Due to serious methodological flaws and weaknesses in the conduct of the reviews and MAs on health effects of RF-EMF exposure, the WHO-commissioned SRs cannot be used as proof of safety of cell phones and other wireless communication devices. However, the animal cancer SR, which was rated as \"high certainty of evidence\" for heart schwannomas and \"moderate certainty of evidence\" for brain gliomas, provided quantitative information that could be used to set exposure limits based on reducing cancer risk. The multiple and significant dose-related adverse effects found in the SRs on male fertility and pregnancy and birth outcome should also serve as the basis for policy decisions to lower exposure limits and reduce human reproductive risks. The report of harmful effects (e.g., cancer, reproductive toxicity, etc.) at doses below the adverse health effect threshold claimed by ICNIRP demonstrates that current exposure limits to RF-EMF, which were established by applying arbitrary uncertainty factors to their putative adverse threshold dose, lack scientific credibility.</p>","PeriodicalId":11686,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Health","volume":"24 1","pages":"70"},"PeriodicalIF":5.3,"publicationDate":"2025-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12490090/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145206017","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Relationship of prenatal methylmercury exposure and language/verbal function: a meta-analysis.","authors":"Leonid Kopylev, Deborah Segal","doi":"10.1186/s12940-025-01228-w","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s12940-025-01228-w","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Developmental neurotoxicity (DNT) is a well-established hazard of methylmercury (MeHg) exposure. Past research on MeHg has highlighted DNT tests of language/verbal function (in particular the Boston naming test (BNT)) as an important aspect of MeHg toxicity.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We conducted a meta-analysis based on a recent systematic review of MeHg neurodevelopmental dose-response cohort studies published 1998-2025 that reported similarly normed tests of language/verbal function. Meta-analyses were based on recent studies using maternal blood biomarkers or cord blood biomarkers converted into maternal blood biomarkers.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>For the BNT with or without cues, analysis (based on 2 studies (3 populations)) results were adverse, but not statistically significant. For the similarly normed language/verbal tests, decrements were statistically significant [-0.0085 95% (-0.0167; -0.0003) per MeHg µg/L maternal blood (based on eight studies)]. Results of a fill and trim sensitivity analysis were similar in the size of the effect to the original results. The two studies with sex-specific results indicated that boys appeared to be more sensitive to MeHg-related language/verbal function decrements when compared with girls.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Although most of the individual study results of language/verbal function were not statistically significant, the meta-estimate showed a statistically significant decrement in language/verbal function in children due to prenatal MeHg exposure.</p>","PeriodicalId":11686,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Health","volume":"24 1","pages":"68"},"PeriodicalIF":5.3,"publicationDate":"2025-09-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12481983/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145191374","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The sugar industry's efforts to manipulate research on fluoride effectiveness and toxicity: a ninety-year history.","authors":"Christopher Neurath","doi":"10.1186/s12940-025-01154-x","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s12940-025-01154-x","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Extensive academic research has documented the tobacco industry's manipulation of science. Recently, scholars have begun examining the sugar industry's use of similar tactics to downplay sugar's role in obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and tooth decay. Archival records show sugar-industry-funded scientists criticized evidence linking sugar to these harms and deflected attention to other risk factors. Sugar's connection to tooth decay has been the most difficult harm for the industry to deny. Evidence is emerging that the industry turned to promoting fluoride as the solution to tooth decay thereby averting calls for reducing sugar consumption. Newly accessible sugar and dental industry documents enable investigation into whether fluoride research was manipulated to deflect from sugar's role in tooth decay, and later to defend fluoride when evidence of fluoride's own harmful effects arose.</p><p><strong>Method: </strong>Internal documents from sugar and dental organizations were examined and compared to the published scientific record. The Industries Documents collection at the University of California San Francisco was the main source of records. Analysis was in the context of the current understanding of how vested interests manipulate science to defend their products.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Records dating back to the 1930s demonstrate the sugar industry, sometimes in cooperation with dental interests, exaggerated fluoride's effectiveness and downplayed safety concerns. The sugar industry's science manipulation campaign preceded the better-known tobacco industry campaign defending cigarettes. Key leaders of the sugar industry's campaign transferred to the tobacco industry, which then adopted many of the sugar industry's tactics and financed research from some of the same sugar-conflicted scientists. Currently, a prominent safety issue with fluoride is developmental neurotoxicity. Evidence indicates that researchers with undisclosed conflicts of interest with sugar and allied industries produced biased reviews downplaying this risk.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>Recently available records reveal a long history of the sugar industry distorting fluoride science. Many of the sugar industry's tactics were later adopted by the tobacco industry and mirrored by industries involved in asbestos, lead, pesticides, climate change denial, and others. Researchers and policymakers should be aware of the distorted scientific record regarding fluoride effectiveness and toxicity.</p>","PeriodicalId":11686,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Health","volume":"24 1","pages":"62"},"PeriodicalIF":5.3,"publicationDate":"2025-09-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12477810/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145184977","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Short-term exposure to air pollution and risk of ischemic stroke requiring intravenous thrombolysis: a population-level analysis in Poland from the EP-PARTICLES study.","authors":"Michał Święczkowski, Gregory Y H Lip, Anna Kurasz, Piotr Jemielita, Małgorzata Duzinkiewicz, Tomasz Januszko, Sławomir Dobrzycki, Łukasz Kuźma","doi":"10.1186/s12940-025-01230-2","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s12940-025-01230-2","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Air pollution is an important non-classical cardiovascular risk factor. Ischemic stroke (IS) is an increasing healthcare challenge, with the ageing population and associated presence of atrial fibrillation worldwide. In patients with IS, intravenous thrombolysis (IVT) is an effective treatment method within 4.5 hours from symptoms onset. Our aim was to assess the association between exposure to air pollution and IVT-treated IS, allowing for high temporal precision in exposure assessment.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We conducted a retrospective population-based cohort study including 5.4 million inhabitants in Eastern Poland in the Years 2011-20. IVT-treated IS patients were enrolled into this study based on ICD-10 and ICD-9 code (I63 with 99.101/99.102/99.103). To ensure high spatial resolution, we used the GEM-AQ model for air quality modeling. Generalized linear mixed model with a Poisson distribution and random intercepts were used to examine municipality-specific associations between short-term exposure to air pollutants and IVT-treated IS.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>We recorded 96,189 IS cases with a dominance of females (52.5%) and patients 65 years old and over (78.8%). 10,486 (10.9%) patients received IVT treatment. In this group there was lower share of women (51.3% vs. 52.7%, p < 0.001), fewer elderly individuals (76% vs. 79.1%, p < 0.001), and lower in-hospital mortality (13.6% vs. 15.5%, p < 0.001). The rate of IVT use increased significantly from 3.2% in 2011 to 18.3% in 2020 (Kendall's τ = 0.956, p < 0.001). Exposure to benzo(a)pyrene was associated with the highest negative effects, causing 10.3% and 13.5% increase in risk of IVT-treated IS on LAG 0 and LAG 0-6 in the overall population, respectively. There was also an association between increased PM2.5 and IVT-treated incidence across all analyzed populations. Exposure to NO₂ significantly increased the risk of IVT-treated IS only in females. Increases in SO₂ and O₃ levels did not influence IVT-treated incidence. There were no age or sex differences in the effects of air pollution exposure.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Exposure to air pollution might serve as a trigger for IVT-treated IS, exerting a comparable effect across different sexes and age groups. The IVT-treated IS group was characterized by improved survival. Public health efforts should focus on reducing air pollution levels and ensuring rapid access to advanced IS treatment in high-risk, highly polluted areas.</p><p><strong>Trial registration: </strong>ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT05198492).</p>","PeriodicalId":11686,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Health","volume":"24 1","pages":"69"},"PeriodicalIF":5.3,"publicationDate":"2025-09-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12482355/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145191354","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Prospective study of oil spill cleanup-related exposure to volatile organic compounds and glycemic dysregulation.","authors":"Hanna V Jardel, Alex P Keil, Chantel L Martin, David B Richardson, Mark R Stenzel, Patricia A Stewart, Kate E Christenbury, Dale P Sandler, Lawrence S Engel","doi":"10.1186/s12940-025-01211-5","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s12940-025-01211-5","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":11686,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Health","volume":"24 1","pages":"67"},"PeriodicalIF":5.3,"publicationDate":"2025-09-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12465997/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145174380","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Impact of prenatal and postnatal household air pollution exposure on respiratory morbidity and lung function in sub-Saharan African children: a systematic review and meta-analysis.","authors":"Serge Mushamuka Zigabe, Jacques L Tamuzi, Jaan Toelen, Peter H M Hoet, Patrick D M C Katoto","doi":"10.1186/s12940-025-01216-0","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s12940-025-01216-0","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Household air pollution (HAP) from biomass fuel combustion is a major contributor to respiratory morbidity and mortality among children in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Despite the growing body of evidence, the effects of prenatal and postnatal HAP exposure on child respiratory outcomes remain incompletely understood.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of studies reporting the impact of prenatal and/or postnatal exposure to HAP on respiratory health in children aged < 18 years in SSA. We searched eight major databases up to March 31, 2025, and assessed risk of bias using ROB2.0 and ROBINS-I tools. Random-effects models were used to estimate pooled relative risks (RR) and mean differences (MD), with heterogeneity assessed by I² statistics.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Eighteen studies met the inclusion criteria, including randomized trials, cross-sectional, and case-control designs from ten SSA countries. Exposure to CO, NO₂, PM₁₀, and PM_2.5 was significantly associated with increased risk of respiratory disease. CO exposure was linked to respiratory symptoms (mean concentration = 0.44 ppm; 95% CI [0.27, 0.62]), NO₂ to pulmonary tuberculosis (mean concentration = 20.16 ppm; 95% CI [14.15, 26.16]), and PM₁₀ and PM_2.5 to acute respiratory infections (mean concentration = 61.25 µg/m³ and 27.36 µg/m³ respectively; p < 0.001). Postnatal and prenatal exposures both increased the risk of pneumonia and impaired lung function, including reduced FVC and FEV1. Improved cookstove interventions reduced general respiratory symptoms (RR = 0.80; 95% CI [0.75, 0.85]) but showed limited effect on severe outcomes such as pneumonia. Overall, our findings yielded moderate evidence.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>Prenatal and postnatal exposure to HAP is associated with increased respiratory morbidity and impaired lung function among children in SSA. While clean cooking interventions may reduce symptoms, substantial pollutant reductions are needed to achieve meaningful health outcomes. Future research should focus on longitudinal designs, refined exposure assessment, and the identification of critical exposure windows to inform targeted interventions.</p>","PeriodicalId":11686,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Health","volume":"24 1","pages":"66"},"PeriodicalIF":5.3,"publicationDate":"2025-09-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12465955/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145174424","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A large language model-based tool for identifying relationships to industry in research on the carcinogenicity of benzene, cobalt, and aspartame.","authors":"Nathan L DeBono, Vanessa Amar, Hardy Hardy, Mary K Schubauer-Berigan, Derek Ruths, Nicholas B King","doi":"10.1186/s12940-025-01223-1","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s12940-025-01223-1","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Industry-funded research poses a threat to the validity of scientific inference on carcinogenic hazards. Scientists require tools to better identify and characterize industry sponsored research across bodies of evidence to reduce the possible influence of industry bias in evidence synthesis reviews. We applied a novel large language model (LLM)-based tool named InfluenceMapper to demonstrate and evaluate its performance in identifying relationships to industry in research on the carcinogenicity of benzene, cobalt, and aspartame.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>All epidemiological, animal cancer, and mechanistic studies included in systematic reviews on the carcinogenicity of the three agents by the IARC Monographs programme. Selected agents were recently evaluated by the Monographs and are of commercial interest by major industries. InfluenceMapper extracted disclosed entities in study publications and classified up to 40 possible disclosed relationship types between each entity and the study and between each entity and author. A human classified entities as 'industry or industry-funded' and assessed relationships with industry for potential conflicts of interest. Positive predictive values described the extent of true positive relationships identified by InfluenceMapper compared to human assessment.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Analyses included 2,046 studies for all three agents. We identified 320 disclosed industry or industry-funded entities from InfluenceMapper output that were involved in 770 distinct study-entity and author-entity relationships. For each agent, between 4 and 8% of studies disclosed funding by industry and 1-4% of studies had at least one author who disclosed receiving industry funding directly. Industry trade associations for all three agents funded 22 studies published in 16 journals over a 37-year span. Aside from funding, the most prevalent disclosed relationships with industry were receiving data, holding employment, paid consulting, and providing expert testimony. Positive predictive values were excellent (≥ 98%) for study-entity relationships but declined for relationships with individual authors.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>LLM-based tools can significantly expedite and bolster the detection of disclosed conflicts of interest from industry sponsored research in cancer prevention. Possible use cases include facilitating the assessment of bias from industry studies in evidence synthesis reviews and alerting scientists to the influence of industry on scientific inference. Persistent challenges in ascertaining conflicts of interest underscore the urgent need for standardized, transparent, and enforceable disclosures in biomedical journals.</p>","PeriodicalId":11686,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Health","volume":"24 1","pages":"64"},"PeriodicalIF":5.3,"publicationDate":"2025-09-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12462328/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145136941","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Impact of short-term exposure to ambient air pollution on cardiovascular disease outpatient visits: a time-series study in Yichang, China.","authors":"Wenhan Wang, Xiaoyan Ming, Lu Chen, Yingdong Chen, Zhongcheng Yang, Chi Hu, Qiuju Zhang","doi":"10.1186/s12940-025-01219-x","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s12940-025-01219-x","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Rapid industrialization has exacerbated ambient air pollution in Yichang, China, posing cardiovascular health risks. This study evaluates the short-term impact of ambient air pollutants on cardiovascular disease (CVD) outpatient visits and assesses the effectiveness of environmental policies implemented post-2018.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We analyzed 510,831 CVD outpatient records alongside daily concentrations of PM_2.5, PM₁₀, SO₂, NO₂, CO, and O₃ from five monitoring stations. Generalized additive Poisson regression with distributed lag non-linear models (DLNM) quantified associations between ambient air pollutant exposure (per interquartile range (IQR) increase) and daily visits, adjusting for meteorological factors, time trends, and COVID-19. Effects pre- and post-2018 policy implementation (targeting riverside chemical industry relocation) were compared.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Short-term exposure to NO₂ (lag05, RR = 1.253, 95% CI: 1.192-1.317), SO₂ (lag0, RR = 1.053, 95% CI: 1.011-1.096), and CO (lag01, RR = 1.063, 95% CI: 1.016-1.111) was significantly associated with increased cardiovascular disease outpatient visits. Concentrations of five major ambient air pollutants (excluding O₃) showed significant reductions after 2018 (P < 0.001). The associations of SO₂, CO, and PM₁₀ with CVD visits were attenuated after 2018. NO₂ effects were stronger in colder seasons and remained robust in two-pollutant models. No statistically significant associations were observed for PM₂.₅, PM₁₀, and O₃.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>Short-term exposure to NO₂, SO₂, and CO demonstrated statistically significant positive associations with cardiovascular disease outpatient visits. Environmental policies reduced ambient air pollutant levels and attenuated health impacts, supporting continued air quality interventions.</p>","PeriodicalId":11686,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Health","volume":"24 1","pages":"63"},"PeriodicalIF":5.3,"publicationDate":"2025-09-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12462030/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145136703","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Impact of prenatal drought exposures on under-5 childhood stunting in 32 low-and-middle-income countries: a global analysis using demographic and health survey.","authors":"Xerxes Seposo, Aden Kay Celis-Seposo, Athicha Uttajug, Muhammad Abdul Basit Ahmad Tajudin, Kayo Ueda","doi":"10.1186/s12940-025-01215-1","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s12940-025-01215-1","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Child stunting affects a substantial number of children globally, with an estimated 149 million worldwide. Environmental factors, including poor nutrition, household environment, inadequate sanitation, and meteorological variables have also significantly contributed to child stunting. Apart from temperature and rainfall, large-scale events such as drought have been found to influence the risk of stunting. While previous studies focused on post-natal drought, this research investigates the impact of pre-natal drought on childhood stunting in low- and middle-income countries.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We used nationally representative survey data of under 5 stunted children collected between 2013 and 2019 from Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) surveys for 32 low-income to middle-income countries in combination with high-resolution weather data from ERA5-Land climate re-analysis in generating the drought index (Standardized Precipitation-Evapotranspiration Index) that was then classified into various pre-natal and post-natal exposure periods. We used a generalized additive mixed-effect multivariable logistic regression modelling approach to assess the association between pre-natal drought and the risk of stunting.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>In examining the association between pre-natal drought exposure and under-5 child stunting, we analyzed a total of 284,702 children with geolocated, anthropometric data, composed of 147,448 (51%) girls and 137,254 (49%) boys. Pre-natal (or pre-natal) drought exposure on a long-term time scale increased the risk of under-5 stunting by 2.07% (95% CI: 0.48%, 3.63%). Pre-natal drought exposure particularly in the second and third trimesters were associated with 1.76% (95% CI: 0.22%, 3.27%) and 1.60% (95% CI: 0.15%, 3.02%) increase in the risk of under-5 childhood stunting, respectively. We found marginally significant association between the first trimester pre-natal drought exposure and the risk of stunting (1.53%; 95% CI: -0.13, 3.16%).</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>Our large-scale population study of 32 LMICs has found that pre-natal drought exposure was significantly associated with under-5 child stunting, with pronounced risks during the second and third trimesters exposures. Drought plays a significant role in exacerbating child stunting, underscoring the necessity for effective drought management strategies and interventions to safeguard child nutrition and development.</p>","PeriodicalId":11686,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Health","volume":"24 1","pages":"61"},"PeriodicalIF":5.3,"publicationDate":"2025-08-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12398054/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144947157","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}