Environmental Epidemiology最新文献

{"title":"Epigenome-wide association of neonatal methylation and trimester-specific prenatal PM_2.5 exposure.","authors":"Milan N Parikh, Cole Brokamp, Erika Rasnick, Lili Ding, Tesfaye B Mersha, Katherine Bowers, Alonzo T Folger","doi":"10.1097/EE9.0000000000000227","DOIUrl":"10.1097/EE9.0000000000000227","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Exposure to particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter smaller than 2.5 microns (PM_2.5) can affect birth outcomes through physiological pathways such as inflammation. One potential way PM_2.5 affects physiology could be through altering DNA methylation (DNAm). Considering that exposures during specific windows of gestation may have unique effects on DNAm, we hypothesized a timing-specific association between PM_2.5 exposure during pregnancy and DNAm in the neonatal epithelial-cell epigenome.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>After collecting salivary samples from a cohort of 91 neonates, DNAm was assessed at over 850,000 cytosine-guanine dinucleotide (CpG) methylation sites on the epigenome using the MethylationEPIC array. Daily ambient PM_2.5 concentrations were estimated based on the mother's address of primary residence during pregnancy. PM_2.5 was averaged over the first two trimesters, separately and combined, and tested for association with DNAm through an epigenome-wide association (EWA) analysis. For each EWA, false discovery rate (FDR)-corrected <i>P</i> < 0.05 constituted a significant finding and every CpG site with uncorrected <i>P</i> < 0.0001 was selected to undergo pathway and network analysis to identify molecular functions enriched by them.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Our analysis showed that cg18705808 was associated with the combined average of PM_2.5. Pathway and network analysis revealed little similarity between the first two trimesters. Previous studies reported that <i>TMEM184A</i>, the gene regulated by cg18705808, has a putative role in inflammatory pathways.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>The differences in pathway and network analyses could potentially indicate trimester-specific effects of PM_2.5 on DNAm. Further analysis with greater temporal resolution would be valuable to fully characterize the effect of PM_2.5 on DNAm and child development.</p>","PeriodicalId":11713,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Epidemiology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2022-10-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9556110/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"33516651","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Joint association between ambient air pollutant mixture and pediatric asthma exacerbations.","authors":"Jagadeesh Puvvula,&nbsp;Jill A Poole,&nbsp;Sandra Gonzalez,&nbsp;Eleanor G Rogan,&nbsp;Yeongjin Gwon,&nbsp;Andrew C Rorie,&nbsp;Linda B Ford,&nbsp;Jesse E Bell","doi":"10.1097/EE9.0000000000000225","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1097/EE9.0000000000000225","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Exposure to air pollutants is known to exacerbate asthma, with prior studies focused on associations between single pollutant exposure and asthma exacerbations. As air pollutants often exist as a complex mixture, there is a gap in understanding the association between complex air pollutant mixtures and asthma exacerbations. We evaluated the association between the air pollutant mixture (52 pollutants) and pediatric asthma exacerbations.</p><p><strong>Method: </strong>This study focused on children (age ≤ 19 years) who lived in Douglas County, Nebraska, during 2016-2019. A seasonal-scale joint association between the outdoor air pollutant mixture adjusting for potential confounders (temperature, precipitation, wind speed, and wind direction) in relation to pediatric asthma exacerbation-related emergency department (ED) visits was evaluated using the generalized weighted quantile sum (qWQS) regression with repeated holdout validation.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>We observed associations between air pollutant mixture and pediatric asthma exacerbations during spring (lagged by 5 days), summer (lag 0-5 days), and fall (lag 1-3 days) seasons. The estimate of the joint outdoor air pollutant mixture effect was higher during the summer season (adjusted-β_WQS = 1.11, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.66, 1.55), followed by spring (adjusted-β_WQS = 0.40, 95% CI: 0.16, 0.62) and fall (adjusted-β_WQS = 0.20, 95% CI: 0.06, 0.33) seasons. Among the air pollutants, PM_2.5, pollen, and mold contributed higher weight to the air pollutant mixture.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>There were associations between outdoor air pollutant mixture and pediatric asthma exacerbations during the spring, summer, and fall seasons. Among the 52 outdoor air pollutant metrics investigated, PM_2.5, pollen (sycamore, grass, cedar), and mold (<i>Helminthosporium</i>, <i>Peronospora</i>, and <i>Erysiphe</i>) contributed the highest weight to the air pollutant mixture.</p>","PeriodicalId":11713,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Epidemiology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2022-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9556053/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"9319147","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Spatial modeling of ambient concentrations of volatile organic compounds in Montreal, Canada.","authors":"Sara Zapata-Marin,&nbsp;Alexandra M Schmidt,&nbsp;Dan Crouse,&nbsp;Vikki Ho,&nbsp;France Labrèche,&nbsp;Eric Lavigne,&nbsp;Marie-Élise Parent,&nbsp;Mark S Goldberg","doi":"10.1097/EE9.0000000000000226","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1097/EE9.0000000000000226","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are components of the complex mixture of air pollutants within cities and can cause various adverse health effects. Therefore, it is necessary to understand their spatial distribution for exposure assessment in epidemiological studies.</p><p><strong>Objectives: </strong>The objective was to model measured concentrations of five VOCs within the city of Montreal, Canada, developing spatial prediction models that can be used in health studies.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We measured concentrations using 3M 3500 Organic Vapor Monitors, over 2-week periods, for three monitoring campaigns between 2005 and 2006 in over 130 locations in the city. Using GC/MSD (Gas Chromatography/Mass Selective Detector), we measured concentrations of benzene, n-decane, ethylbenzene, hexane, and trimethylbenzene. We fitted four different models that combine land-use regression and geostatistical methods to account for the potential spatial structure that remains after accounting for the land-use variables. The fitted models also accounted for possible variations in the concentration of air pollutants across campaigns.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The highest concentrations for all VOCs were found in December with hexane being the most abundant followed by ethylbenzene. We obtained predicted surfaces for the VOCs for the three campaigns and mean surfaces across campaigns. We found higher concentrations of some VOCs along highways and in the Eastern part of Montreal, which is a highly industrialized area.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Each of the fitted models captured the spatial and across-campaigns variability for each VOC, and we found that different VOCs required different model structures.</p>","PeriodicalId":11713,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Epidemiology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2022-09-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ftp.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pub/pmc/oa_pdf/c2/d4/ee9-6-e226.PMC9555929.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"33545198","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Vanadium in groundwater aquifers increases the risk of MAC pulmonary infection in O'ahu, Hawai'i.","authors":"Ettie M Lipner,&nbsp;Joshua P French,&nbsp;Stephen Nelson,&nbsp;Joseph O Falkinham Iii,&nbsp;Rachel A Mercaldo,&nbsp;Rebekah A Blakney,&nbsp;Yihe G Daida,&nbsp;Timothy B Frankland,&nbsp;Kyle P Messier,&nbsp;Jennifer R Honda,&nbsp;Stacey Honda,&nbsp;D Rebecca Prevots","doi":"10.1097/EE9.0000000000000220","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1097/EE9.0000000000000220","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Hawai'i has the highest prevalence of nontuberculous mycobacterial (NTM) pulmonary disease in the United States. Previous studies indicate that certain trace metals in surface water increase the risk of NTM infection.</p><p><strong>Objective: </strong>To identify whether trace metals influence the risk of NTM infection in O'ahu, Hawai'i.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>A population-based ecologic cohort study was conducted using NTM infection incidence data from patients enrolled at Kaiser Permanente Hawai'i during 2005-2019. We obtained sociodemographic, microbiologic, and geocoded residential data for all Kaiser Permanente Hawai'i beneficiaries. To estimate the risk of NTM pulmonary infection from exposure to groundwater constituents, we obtained groundwater data from three data sources: (1) Water Quality Portal; (2) the Hawai'i Department of Health; and (3) Brigham Young University, Department of Geological Science faculty. Data were aggregated by an aquifer and were associated with the corresponding beneficiary aquifer of residence. We used Poisson regression models with backward elimination to generate models for NTM infection risk as a function of groundwater constituents. We modeled two outcomes: <i>Mycobacterium avium</i> complex (MAC) species and <i>Mycobacterium abscessus</i> group species.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>For every 1-unit increase in the log concentration of vanadium in groundwater at the aquifer level, infection risk increased by 22% among MAC patients. We did not observe significant associations between water-quality constituents and infection risk among <i>M. abscessus</i> patients.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Concentrations of vanadium in groundwater were associated with MAC pulmonary infection in O'ahu, Hawai'i. These findings provide evidence that naturally occurring trace metals influence the presence of NTM in water sources that supply municipal water systems.</p>","PeriodicalId":11713,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Epidemiology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2022-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9555944/pdf/ee9-6-e220.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"33516650","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Benefits of future clean air policies in Europe: Proposed analyses of the mortality impacts of PM_2.5 and NO₂.","authors":"Barbara Hoffmann,&nbsp;Bert Brunekreef,&nbsp;Zorana J Andersen,&nbsp;Francesco Forastiere,&nbsp;Hanna Boogaard","doi":"10.1097/EE9.0000000000000221","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1097/EE9.0000000000000221","url":null,"abstract":"Health impact assessments (HIA) and cost-benefit analyses (CBA) play a major role in the ongoing revision of the European Union Ambient Air Quality Directive (EU AAQD). HIAs quantify the public health impacts of the air pollution levels a population is exposed to. CBAs quantify the economic costs of achieving lower air pollution levels and the (monetized) benefits for public health that result from these lower air pollution levels. In this commentary, we consider the recent body of evidence on the effects of long-term exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) on total mortality from natural causes and present the rationale for conducting additional analyses within the framework of the HIA conducted for the revision of the EU AAQD, based on the recently published European “Effects of Low-Level Air Pollution: A Study in Europe” (ELAPSE) study. The air pollution-related burden (presented as impact on mortality from natural causes) for Europe has been estimated since 2014 in the annual “Air Quality in Europe” reports published by the European Environment Agency (EEA). EEA in their HIA has used relative risk estimates from meta-analyses by Hoek and colleagues1 in 2013, based on evidence published before January 2013: 1.06 (1.04, 1.08) for PM2.5 and 1.05 (1.03, 1.08) for NO2, both per 10 μg/m 3. The EEA, in its latest HIA for 2019, assumed no threshold for PM2.5, and a threshold of 20 μg/m3 for NO2, and estimated 307,000 and 40,400 premature deaths in the EU27 associated with PM2.5 and NO2, respectively. 2 In support of the recent development of the 2021 World Health Organization (WHO) Air Quality Guidelines, new systematic reviews of the evidence of effects of air pollutants on mortality were published in 2020.3,4 These reviews include studies conducted in all parts of the world and across a wide range of exposure levels. The linear summary estimates from these global systematic reviews are used in the current HIA and CBA informing the revision of the EU AAQD. The systematic review on PM2.5 and total mortality documented a summary estimate of 1.08 per 10 μg/m3 with a confidence interval of (1.06, 1.09), based on 25 studies.3 The systematic review on NO2 and total mortality reported a summary estimate of 1.02 per 10 μg/m3 with a confidence interval of (1.01, 1.04), based on 24 studies.4 This latter review has also reported an association between longterm, warm season ozone exposure and total mortality with a summary effect estimate of 1.01 (1.00, 1.02) per 10 μg/m3, which is being used to estimate the impacts of long-term warm season ozone concentrations in the revision of the EU AAQD. These systematic reviews were published in 2020 and included studies available until September 2018. They do not include important new European studies that have been published since. We propose that additional analyses should be conducted based on these new studies to ensure that the HIA and CBA to inform the revision of the EU AAQD consider","PeriodicalId":11713,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Epidemiology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2022-08-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ftp.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pub/pmc/oa_pdf/5a/49/ee9-6-e221.PMC9556041.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"33516652","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Association of preconception mixtures of phenol and phthalate metabolites with birthweight among subfertile couples.","authors":"Yu Zhang,&nbsp;Vicente Mustieles,&nbsp;Paige L Williams,&nbsp;Irene Souter,&nbsp;Antonia M Calafat,&nbsp;Melina Demokritou,&nbsp;Alexandria Lee,&nbsp;Stylianos Vagios,&nbsp;Russ Hauser,&nbsp;Carmen Messerlian","doi":"10.1097/EE9.0000000000000222","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1097/EE9.0000000000000222","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Although parental preconception exposure to some phenols and phthalates have been associated with reduced birthweight, few studies have examined these chemicals as complex mixtures.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We included 384 mothers and 211 fathers (203 couples) who gave birth to 384 singletons from a prospective cohort of couples seeking fertility evaluation. Urinary concentrations of bisphenol A (BPA), parabens, and 11 phthalate metabolites including those of di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) were examined. Birthweight was abstracted from delivery records. We used principal component analysis and Bayesian Kernel Machine Regression (BKMR) to examine maternal and paternal preconception mixtures in relation to singleton birthweight. We also fit couple-based BKMR with hierarchical variable selection to assess couples' joint mixtures in relation to birthweight.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>PC scores of maternal and paternal preconception low molecular weight phthalates factor, and paternal preconception DEHP-BPA factor were associated with reduced birthweight. In BKMR models, we found that maternal preconception monoethyl phthalate and BPA concentrations, and paternal preconception mono-n-butyl phthalate concentrations were inversely associated with birthweight when the remaining mixture components were held at their median concentrations. In couple-based BKMR models, paternal preconception biomarkers contributed more to couples' joint effect on birthweight compared with maternal preconception biomarkers. A decreasing trend of birthweight was observed across quantiles of maternal, paternal, and couples' total preconception mixture concentrations, respectively.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Results from this preconception cohort of subfertile couples suggest a complex interplay between paternal and maternal preconception exposure to mixtures of nonpersistent chemicals, with both parental windows of exposure jointly contributing to reduced birthweight.</p>","PeriodicalId":11713,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Epidemiology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2022-08-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9555928/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"33516649","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Prenatal exposure to nitrate from drinking water and the risk of preterm birth: A Danish nationwide cohort study.","authors":"Vanessa R Coffman,&nbsp;Anja Søndergaard Jensen,&nbsp;Betina B Trabjerg,&nbsp;Carsten Bøcker Pedersen,&nbsp;Birgitte Hansen,&nbsp;Torben Sigsgaard,&nbsp;Jørn Olsen,&nbsp;Jörg Schullehner,&nbsp;Marie Pedersen,&nbsp;Leslie T Stayner","doi":"10.1097/EE9.0000000000000223","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1097/EE9.0000000000000223","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Evidence is emerging that preterm birth (PTB, birth before 37 completed weeks of gestation), a risk factor for neonatal mortality and future morbidity, may be induced by maternal nitrate ( <math> <mstyle> <msubsup><mrow><mi>N</mi> <mi>O</mi></mrow> <mrow><mn>3</mn></mrow> <mrow><mo>-</mo></mrow> </msubsup> </mstyle> </math> ) exposure from drinking water. The objective of this study is to assess the association between maternal exposure to nitrate and the risk of PTB in a nationwide study of liveborn singletons.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We estimated maternal nitrate exposure from household tap water for 1,055,584 births in Denmark to Danish-born parents during 1991-2015 by linkage of individual home address(es) with nitrate concentrations from a national monitoring database. Nitrate exposure during pregnancy was modeled using four categories and continuously. Logistic models adjusted for sex, birth year, birth order, urbanicity, and maternal age, smoking, education, income, and employment, with generalized estimating equations were used to account for sibling clusters.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>A total of 1,009,189 births were included, comprising 51,747 PTB. An increase in the risk of PTB was seen across categories of exposure (<i>P</i> < 0.001) with an odds ratio (OR) in the uppermost category (>25 mg/L nitrate) of 1.05 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.00, 1.10). Evidence of an exposure-response relationship was observed in models using continuous nitrate (OR = 1.01 [95% CI = 1.00, 1.03] per 10 mg/L nitrate). In sensitivity analyses, results were robust to the addition of variables for short inter-pregnancy interval (<1 year between births), maternal pre-pregnancy body mass index, paternal socioeconomic status and age, season of birth, and inclusion of post-term births. Results were virtually unchanged when the analysis was restricted to women exposed to less than the current European Union standard of 50 mg/L.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>We observed an increasing risk of PTB with increases in nitrate in household tap water. These findings add to a growing body of evidence of adverse effects from nitrate in drinking water at levels below current regulatory levels.</p>","PeriodicalId":11713,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Epidemiology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2022-08-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ftp.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pub/pmc/oa_pdf/f3/cc/ee9-6-e223.PMC9556052.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"33516648","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Neighborhood conditions and birth outcomes: Understanding the role of perceived and extrinsic measures of neighborhood quality.","authors":"Stephanie M Eick, Lara Cushing, Dana E Goin, Amy M Padula, Aileen Andrade, Erin DeMicco, Tracey J Woodruff, Rachel Morello-Frosch","doi":"10.1097/EE9.0000000000000224","DOIUrl":"10.1097/EE9.0000000000000224","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Living in a disadvantaged neighborhood has been associated with adverse birth outcomes. Most prior studies have conceptualized neighborhoods using census boundaries and few have examined the role of neighborhood perceptions, which may better capture the neighborhood environment. In the present study, we examined associations between extrinsic and perceived neighborhood quality measures and adverse birth outcomes.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Participants resided in the San Francisco Bay Area of California and were enrolled in Chemicals in Our Bodies, a prospective birth cohort (N = 817). The Index of Concentration at the Extremes (ICE) for income, Area Deprivation Index (ADI), and the Urban Displacement Project's measure of gentrification were included as census block group-level extrinsic neighborhood quality measures. Poor perceived neighborhood quality was assessed using an interview questionnaire. Linear regression models were utilized to examine associations between extrinsic and perceived neighborhood quality measures, and gestational age and birthweight for gestational age z-scores. Covariates in adjusted models were chosen via a directed acyclic graph (DAG) and included maternal age, education, and marital status.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>In adjusted models, having poor perceived neighborhood quality was associated with higher birthweight z-scores, relative to those who did not perceive their neighborhood as poor quality (β = 0.21, 95% confidence intervals = 0.01, 0.42). Relative to the least disadvantaged tertile, the upper tertile of the ADI was associated with a modest reduction in gestational age (β = -0.35, 95% confidence intervals = -0.67, -0.02).</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>In the Chemicals in Our Bodies study population, extrinsic and perceived neighborhood quality measures were inconsistently associated with adverse birth outcomes.</p>","PeriodicalId":11713,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Epidemiology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2022-08-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9555921/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"9939548","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Exposure to natural vegetation in relation to mammographic density in a Massachusetts-based clinical cohort.","authors":"Lyndsey K Blair,&nbsp;Erica T Warner,&nbsp;Peter James,&nbsp;Jaime E Hart,&nbsp;Trang VoPham,&nbsp;Mollie E Barnard,&nbsp;Johnnie D Newton,&nbsp;Divya J Murthy,&nbsp;Francine Laden,&nbsp;Rulla M Tamimi,&nbsp;Natalie C DuPre","doi":"10.1097/EE9.0000000000000216","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1097/EE9.0000000000000216","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Inverse associations between natural vegetation exposure (i.e., greenness) and breast cancer risk have been reported; however, it remains unknown whether greenness affects breast tissue development or operates through other mechanisms (e.g., body mass index [BMI] or physical activity). We examined the association between greenness and mammographic density-a strong breast cancer risk factor-to determine whether greenness influences breast tissue composition independent of lifestyle factors.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Women (n = 2,318) without a history of breast cancer underwent mammographic screening at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, from 2006 to 2014. Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) satellite data at 1-km² resolution were used to estimate greenness at participants' residential address 1, 3, and 5 years before mammogram. We used multivariable linear regression to estimate differences in log-transformed volumetric mammographic density measures and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for each 0.1 unit increase in NDVI.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Five-year annual average NDVI was not associated with percent mammographic density in premenopausal (β = -0.01; 95% CI = -0.03, 0.02; <i>P</i> = 0.58) and postmenopausal women (β = -0.02; 95% CI = -0.04, 0.01; <i>P</i> = 0.18). Results were similar for 1-year and 3-year NDVI measures and in models including potential mediators of BMI and physical activity. There were also no associations between greenness and dense volume and nondense volume.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Greenness exposures were not associated with mammographic density.</p><p><strong>Impact: </strong>Prior observations of a protective association between greenness and breast cancer may not be driven by differences in breast tissue composition, as measured by mammographic density, but rather other mechanisms.</p>","PeriodicalId":11713,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Epidemiology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2022-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ftp.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pub/pmc/oa_pdf/34/94/ee9-6-e216.PMC9374192.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"9777960","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Maternal blood metal concentrations are associated with C-reactive protein and cell adhesion molecules among pregnant women in Puerto Rico.","authors":"Christine Kim,&nbsp;Amber L Cathey,&nbsp;Deborah J Watkins,&nbsp;Bhramar Mukherjee,&nbsp;Zaira Y Rosario-Pabón,&nbsp;Carmen M Vélez-Vega,&nbsp;Akram N Alshawabkeh,&nbsp;José F Cordero,&nbsp;John D Meeker","doi":"10.1097/EE9.0000000000000214","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1097/EE9.0000000000000214","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Studies have revealed a link between aberrant levels of maternal C-reactive protein (CRP) and cell adhesion molecules (CAMs) with adverse birth outcomes. Some epidemiologic studies have indicated that long-term metal exposures can modulate the levels of CRP and CAMs, but the associations between prenatal metal exposures and the levels of CRP and CAMs have yet to be studied more extensively. In this study, we assessed associations between maternal blood metal levels and CRP/CAMs among 617 pregnant women in the Puerto Rico PROTECT birth cohort.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Blood samples were collected from participants at 16-20 (visit 1) and 24-28 (visit 3) weeks gestation. We measured concentrations of 11 metals using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). From the blood samples, CRP and CAMs intercellular adhesion molecule (ICAM) and vascular cell adhesion molecule (VCAM) were also quantified using a customized Luminex assay. Linear-mixed effects models (LMEs) were used to regress CRP and CAMs on metals and included random intercepts for study participants to account for correlated repeated outcome measures. Fetal sex and visit effects were estimated using interaction terms between metal exposure variables and fetal sex, as well as visit indicators, respectively.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>We observed significant positive associations between nickel and CRP (Δ: 7.04, 95% CI = 0.75, 13.73) and between lead and VCAM (Δ: 4.57, 95% CI = 1.36, 7.89). The positive associations were mainly driven by mothers carrying male fetuses. We also observed various visit-specific associations. The significant associations between metals and CRP were predominantly driven by visit 3; however, the significant associations between metals and VCAM were mainly driven by visit 1.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>Certain maternal blood metal levels were significantly associated with CRP and CAMs and most of these associations were differentially driven by fetal sex, as well as by timing in pregnancy. Future studies should further explore metal-CRP/CAMs associations for a better understanding of the underlying mechanism of metal-induced adverse birth outcomes.</p>","PeriodicalId":11713,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Epidemiology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2022-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9374188/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"10351725","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}