Environmental Epidemiology最新文献

{"title":"Neighborhood disadvantage and fecundability in a cohort of US Black women.","authors":"Amelia K Wesselink, Mary D Willis, Sharonda M Lovett, Chen Sheng, Wendy Kuohung, Jacqueline Hicks, Junenette L Peters, Shanshan Sheehy, Julie R Palmer, Lauren A Wise, Yvette Cozier","doi":"10.1097/EE9.0000000000000428","DOIUrl":"10.1097/EE9.0000000000000428","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Neighborhood context is a root cause of health disparities, but few epidemiologic studies have measured the effect of neighborhoods on fertility, a reproductive outcome with known racial disparities.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>The Black Women's Health Study is a prospective cohort study of US Black women who enrolled in 1995. Participants completed questionnaires at baseline and every 2 years afterwards. We linked participant addresses to US Census block group data on six variables representing neighborhood disadvantage and used factor analysis to derive a composite neighborhood disadvantage score. In 2011, participants reported how many months it took to conceive each of their planned pregnancies and whether they had ever tried to conceive for 12 or more months without success. We included 2,085 participants who contributed 2,712 pregnancy attempts during 1995-2011. We fit proportional probabilities regression models with generalized estimating equations to estimate fecundability ratios and 95% confidence intervals (CI). We stratified models by individual-level educational attainment.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Relative to the lowest quintile of neighborhood disadvantage, fecundability ratios for participants in quintiles 2, 3, 4, and 5 were 0.89 (95% CI = 0.79, 1.01), 0.94 (95% CI = 0.83, 1.06), 0.84 (95% CI = 0.74, 0.96), and 0.89 (95% CI = 0.79, 1.02), respectively. The association persisted only among participants with a college degree or higher.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>Higher neighborhood disadvantage was associated with reduced fecundability in this cohort of Black women, particularly among those with high educational attainment. These results support the relevance of studying place-based risk factors for subfertility and have important implications for advancing reproductive justice.</p>","PeriodicalId":11713,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Epidemiology","volume":"9 6","pages":"e428"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2025-10-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12551729/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145376567","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":"Ambient air pollution and survival among Black women with epithelial ovarian cancer across diverse geographical regions of the United States.","authors":"Ekaterina Chirikova, Courtney E Johnson, Anke Huels, Pushkar P Inamdar, Elisa V Bandera, Lawrence H Kushi, Jennifer A Doherty, Joellen M Schildkraut, Hari S Iyer, Melissa Bondy, Edward S Peters, Kendra Ratnapradipa, Jeffrey Marks, Christopher Pierson, Theresa Hastert, Kristin Haller, Grace Christensen, Salma Shariff-Marco, Scarlett L Gomez, Andrew Lawson","doi":"10.1097/EE9.0000000000000426","DOIUrl":"10.1097/EE9.0000000000000426","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Ovarian cancer is a leading cause of gynecologic cancer mortality, with Black women experiencing 5-year survival rates of only 41%. Disproportionate air pollution exposure may impact survival. We evaluated associations of fine particulate matter (PM_2.5) and nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) exposure with survival among Black women with epithelial ovarian cancer using data from the California Cancer Registry (CCR, n = 540) and the multi-state African American Cancer Epidemiology Study (AACES, n = 766).</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Annual PM_2.5 and NO₂ levels were estimated at a 1 km resolution using well-validated ensemble-based prediction models derived from the Socioeconomic Data and Application Center and assigned to the participants' residential addresses per their year of diagnosis (2004-2016). Weibull accelerated failure time models with participant-level frailty were used to assess air pollutant exposure associations with overall survival.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Average PM_2.5 and NO₂ exposures were 11.3 μg/m³ and 25.8 ppb in CCR and 9.7 μg/m³ and 17.5 ppb in AACES. There was little evidence of an association between air pollution exposures and survival, with event time ratios (> 1 indicate longer survival) in CCR of 1.08 (95% CI = 0.97, 1.20) per 1 μg/m³ PM_2.5 and 1.07 (95% CI = 0.99, 1.15) per 10 ppb NO₂, and in AACES of 1.00 (95% CI = 0.93, 1.07) per 1 μg/m³ PM_2.5 and 1.04 (95% CI = 0.91, 1.19) per 10 ppb NO₂.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Findings were modest and consistent across both cohorts and sensitivity analyses, supported by the use of advanced exposure modeling. Future research should use time-varying, long-term exposure data and examine interactions with occupation, physical activity, and neighborhood stressors.</p>","PeriodicalId":11713,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Epidemiology","volume":"9 6","pages":"e426"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2025-10-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12537266/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145344321","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":"Increased mortality from a two-year delay in Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) emission-reductions of filterable PM_2.5 at specific coal-fired power plants in the United States.","authors":"Bujin Bekbulat, Kevin R Cromar, Julian D Marshall","doi":"10.1097/EE9.0000000000000422","DOIUrl":"10.1097/EE9.0000000000000422","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>In 2024, the US Environmental Protection Agency tightened the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) for emissions of filterable particulate matter (fPM) from coal-fired power plants to 0.010 lb/MMBtu. In April 2025, a presidential proclamation stated that 47 specific power plant companies received a 2-year exemption from the new requirements. The proclamation provided no estimates of the resulting health impacts.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Our approach applies conventional risk-assessment calculations for mortality from inhalation of filterable PM_2.5 (fPM_2.5) emissions, for \"with\" versus \"without\" the exemption, across four steps: (1) calculate fPM_2.5 emissions, based on government databases; (2) calculate the change in ambient PM_2.5 concentrations, using the Intervention Model for Air Pollution (InMAP) source-receptor matrix (ISRM); (3) calculate mortality impacts from inhalation of PM_2.5, using the Orellano et al., 2024 concentration-response function (CRF; relative risk (RR) per 10 μg/m³: 1.095, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.064, 1.127; in sensitivity analyses, we employ other CRFs); (4) aggregate results (e.g., by US state).</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Most (83%) of the exempted power plant facilities already have sufficient control technology installed that they operate below the new MATS limit, indicating that much of that fleet already adopted cleaner technologies. For the remaining 17% of facilities, the proclamation will increase total fPM_2.5 emissions to ~6,900 tons, from ~4,400 tons. We estimate that the additional ~2,500 tons emitted will lead to 32 (95% CI = 22, 43) deaths. The highest mortality is in St. Louis, Missouri, (population: 2.2 million) with an estimated 14 (95% CI = 10,19) deaths. The increased mortality is, for some states (e.g., Missouri, and Pennsylvania), caused by mostly in-state emissions; for other states (e.g., Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, and Virginia), the cause is out-of-state emissions.</p><p><strong>Discussion: </strong>Results here quantify a portion of the health impacts but leave unquantified nonmortality impacts, impacts from hazardous air pollutant (HAP) exposures, and noninhalation pathways. The reduced computational demands of the air pollution model employed here allows for more timely investigation of government actions than would traditional air dispersion modeling. Sensitivity analyses yielded mortality results that ranged from 47% lower to 169% higher than the core findings.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>We estimate that a 2-year delay in MATS emission reductions of fPM_2.5 at the exempted coal-fired power plants will lead to 32 (95% CI = 22, 43) additional deaths.</p>","PeriodicalId":11713,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Epidemiology","volume":"9 5","pages":"e422"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2025-10-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12506990/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145257702","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":"Cumulative residential greenness and childhood body mass index.","authors":"Jo Davies, Lucy J Griffiths, Theodora Pouliou, Rowena Bailey, Richard Fry, Ronan A Lyons, Gareth Stratton, Amy Mizen","doi":"10.1097/EE9.0000000000000421","DOIUrl":"10.1097/EE9.0000000000000421","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Childhood obesity is a complex and multifaceted public health issue. Several studies have found that children living in greener neighborhoods have a lower body mass index (BMI); however, evidence on longitudinal exposure remains limited. This study examined the relationship between Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), green space, and children's weight status using linked environmental and national health data.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We derived annual EVI values from Landsat 8 satellite imagery (30 m resolution) within 300 m of a child's residence in Wales from 2008 to 2019. Mean EVI exposure was calculated for the 4 years preceding BMI measurement. We utilized 2017 Ordnance Survey Open Greenspace data to identify green spaces within 800 m of a child's residence. BMI obtained from the Child Measurement Programme for Wales (2012/13 to 2018/19) for children aged 4-5 years was used to define healthy versus overweight/obesity. We used logistic regression to evaluate associations between residential greenness, green spaces, and childhood weight status.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The final cohort consisted of 200,237 children. A one-unit increase in EVI was associated with a 20% higher likelihood of being overweight or obese (OR = 1.20, 95% CI = 1.05, 1.37). For every additional green space within 800 m, the likelihood of having an unhealthy weight increased by 0.3%.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Our findings suggest that EVI and access to green spaces should be interpreted with care, as they may not capture how young children interact with nearby green environments. Future work investigating the impact of greenness and greenspace on child weight status should use measures tailored to more accurately represent age-specific behaviors.</p>","PeriodicalId":11713,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Epidemiology","volume":"9 5","pages":"e421"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2025-09-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12466902/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145184967","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":"Temporal changes in the high-temperature-mortality association in the Netherlands and the potential impact of the implementation of the national heat plan.","authors":"Jochem O Klompmaker, Werner I Hagens","doi":"10.1097/EE9.0000000000000424","DOIUrl":"10.1097/EE9.0000000000000424","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>To mitigate the health impact of high temperatures, heat plans (HPs) have become widespread around the world. Our aim was to evaluate the temperature-mortality associations and estimate the temperature-related deaths in the Netherlands in the years before (2000-2009) and after (2010-2019) the first activation of the national HP.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We obtained data about daily all-cause mortality (2000-2019) for the entire Dutch population, and by age, sex, neighborhood socioeconomic status, and urbanization. We linked the daily maximum temperature based on 23 monitoring stations across the Netherlands. Time-series Poisson regression models with a distributed lag nonlinear model, adjusted for long-term and seasonal trends and day of the week, were used to assess relative risks (RRs, 95% confidence intervals [CIs]) in the warm months (May-September). Temperature-attributable mortality fractions for high-temperature exposures and potential HP days were calculated.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>We observed positive associations between daily maximum temperature and mortality in 2000-2009 and in 2010-2019. Associations of high temperatures (28.9 °C-95th percentile) were weaker in 2010-2019 (RR: 1.07, 95% CI: 1.05, 1.09) than in 2000-2009 (RR: 1.17, 95% CI: 1.15, 1.20). The attenuation in temperature-mortality risk was strongest for the elderly, women, and individuals living in low-socioeconomic status neighborhoods. The estimated mortality attributable fractions of high temperatures (≥28.9 °C) were lower in 2010-2019 (0.72, 95% CI: 0.60, 0.84) than in 2000-2009 (1.21%, 95% CI: 1.07, 1.33).</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>The impact of high temperatures on mortality attenuated in the Netherlands. This might be due to the implementation of the national HP, but other factors may have played a role as well.</p>","PeriodicalId":11713,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Epidemiology","volume":"9 5","pages":"e424"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2025-09-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12466905/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145184963","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 environmental risk for adolescent attention, thought, and substance use problems: A mixtures approach to coexposure and psychiatric comorbidities.","authors":"Jaime Benavides, Jacob W Cohen, Lawrence G Chillrud, Gali Cohen, Mariah DeSerisy, Bruce Ramphal, Jeff Goldsmith, Marianthi-Anna Kioumourtzoglou, Amy E Margolis","doi":"10.1097/EE9.0000000000000417","DOIUrl":"10.1097/EE9.0000000000000417","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Prospective studies suggest that prenatal exposure to chemical neurotoxicants and maternal stress increase risk for psychiatric problems. However, most studies have focused on childhood outcomes, leaving adolescence-a critical period for the emergence or worsening of psychiatric symptoms-relatively understudied. The complexity of prenatal coexposures and adolescent psychiatric comorbidities, particularly among structurally marginalized populations with high exposure burdens, remains poorly understood.</p><p><strong>Objectives: </strong>We aimed to investigate correlated features in prenatal chemical and psychosocial exposures and in adolescent behavioral outcomes in a sample of economically disadvantaged urban youth.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Principal Component Pursuit, a pattern recognition technique, coupled with factor analysis identified profiles of prenatal chemical and psychosocial exposures and of adolescent behavioral outcomes. Linear regression tested associations between exposure and behavioral profiles, accounting for potential confounders.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Three prenatal exposure profiles were identified: one combining exposure to air pollutants, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons-DNA adducts, and psychosocial stressors, and two others separating exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals by molecular weight. Three adolescent behavioral profiles reflected two phenotypes: one characterized by attention problems only; two others characterized by attention, thought, substance use, and self-control problems, differentiated by informant (self vs. parent). The prenatal exposure profile involving air pollution and stress was associated with the phenotype of self-reported attention, thought, substance use, and self-control problems (<i>β</i> = 0.21, 95% confidence interval = 0.02, 0.40).</p><p><strong>Discussion: </strong>Principal Component Pursuit identified consistent patterns of multidimensional prenatal exposures and adolescent behavioral symptoms. Results support prior studies linking prenatal exposures associated with economic disadvantage to complex, self-reported transdiagnostic psychiatric problems in adolescence.</p>","PeriodicalId":11713,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Epidemiology","volume":"9 5","pages":"e417"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2025-09-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12417012/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145029246","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 tailpipe-related and nontailpipe-related air pollution exposure with neuroimaging outcomes.","authors":"Ryan M Andrews, Stephanie T Grady, Neelum T Aggarwal, Todd L Beck, Klodian Dhana, Denis Evans, Pauline Maillard, Sarah Rothbard, Elizabeth A Stuart, Adam A Szpiro, Saarika Virkar, Sara D Adar, Charles S DeCarli, Joel D Kaufman, Kumar B Rajan, Jennifer Weuve","doi":"10.1097/EE9.0000000000000413","DOIUrl":"10.1097/EE9.0000000000000413","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Long-term exposure to air pollution may be related to neural atrophy or cerebrovascular pathology. A major source of air pollution is vehicle traffic, which is modifiable. In this study, we estimated associations between four traffic-related air pollutants and five neuroimaging biomarkers.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We analyzed data from a subset (N = 817) of participants in the Chicago Health and Aging Project (1993-2012) who underwent a structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan between 2002 and 2012. Using previously developed air pollution models, we predicted participant-level exposure to the tailpipe pollutants oxides of nitrogen (NO_X) and nitrogen dioxide (NO₂), plus the nontailpipe pollutants copper and zinc found in coarse particulate matter (PM_10-2.5,Cu and PM_10-2.5,Zn, respectively) over the 3 years before each participants' first MRI scan date. Using linear regression, we estimated cross-sectional, covariate-adjusted associations between each pollutant with total cerebral volume, total hippocampal volume, total lateral ventricle volume, total white matter hyperintensity volume, and cortical thickness. These models incorporated inverse probability weights to account for potential selection biases driven by differences between participants who did and did not undergo an MRI scan after being offered one.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Exposure to NO_X and NO₂ was associated with less cortical thickness on average (-0.06 mm, 95% confidence interval [CI] = -0.09, -0.02 per 7.8 ppb NO_X; -0.04 mm, 95% CI = -0.07, -0.01 per 2.7 ppb NO₂). All other associations were consistent with no effect.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>These results are not indicative of large adverse associations between traffic-related air pollution exposures and indicators of neural atrophy or cerebrovascular pathology.</p>","PeriodicalId":11713,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Epidemiology","volume":"9 5","pages":"e413"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2025-08-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12384963/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144947204","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":"The occurrence of appendicitis varies according to latitudes and seasons: A French national retrospective study.","authors":"Jean-François Hamel, Chloé Saint-Dizier, Antoine Lamer, Dune Allard, Tino Bienvenu, Mathieu Levaillant, Aurélien Venara","doi":"10.1097/EE9.0000000000000412","DOIUrl":"10.1097/EE9.0000000000000412","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Recent reports indicate that the occurrence of appendicitis follows a seasonal pattern and that there is an association between increased incidence and warmer weather. It is noteworthy that a reduction in the incidence of appendicitis has been observed in the Northern Hemisphere. The objective of this study is to present the epidemiological profile of appendicitis at the national level in France.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>This retrospective observational study, based on data from the French National Discharge Database, encompasses all hospitalizations for appendicitis diagnosis between 2013 and 2022. The progression of appendicitis over time was assessed through time-series models. The incidence of appendicitis was also compared depending on year, gender, age, and latitude.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>It is noteworthy that the incidence of appendectomy in France exhibited a significant decrease between 2013 and 2022, with an average reduction of 2.1% annually. There was a significant decrease in the number of appendectomies performed on patients ≤20, while there was an increase in those >60. Furthermore, there was a seasonal pattern in the incidence of appendicitis, with a peak during the summer months. The seasonality remained consistent over time. Furthermore, there was a south-north gradient, with a higher number of appendectomies performed in the south.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>Seasonality (summer vs. winter) and latitude (south vs. north) could be considered as a proxy for temperature. However, temperature alone cannot explain the observed variations in appendicitis occurrence, since the latter decreases over time, in parallel with global warming. It is likely that other environmental and ecological parameters may be responsible for these variations.</p>","PeriodicalId":11713,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Epidemiology","volume":"9 4","pages":"e412"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2025-07-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12309809/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144752711","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":"Associations of prenatal per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances with whole blood folate levels in pregnant women in the Health Outcomes and Measures of the Environment (HOME) Study.","authors":"Harin Lee, Amber M Hall, Antonia M Calafat, Aimin Chen, Zia Fazili, Bruce P Lanphear, Christine M Pfeiffer, Kimberly Yolton, Joseph M Braun","doi":"10.1097/EE9.0000000000000406","DOIUrl":"10.1097/EE9.0000000000000406","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Folate plays a critical role during pregnancy, preventing neural tube defects and possibly adverse neurodevelopment. Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are synthetic chemicals that may decrease folate levels. Although some studies have found associations between PFAS and folate, we are unaware of studies conducted in pregnant women. To address this knowledge gap, we evaluated associations between PFAS and whole blood folate (WBF) in pregnant women.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We used data from 288 pregnant women in the Health Outcomes and Measures of the Environment (HOME) Study, a pregnancy and birth cohort in the Cincinnati Ohio area. We measured eight serum PFAS and WBF concentrations at 16 weeks' gestation. We used linear regression to estimate the effect of each PFAS on WBF, and quantile-based g-computation and Bayesian kernel machine regression (BKMR) to investigate the joint effect of PFAS on WBF, adjusting for parity, prenatal vitamin intake, maternal race/ethnicity, household income, maternal age, and second trimester smoking status in all models. In addition, we investigated interactions between PFAS using BKMR.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>We did not observe inverse associations of individual PFAS or their mixture with WBF, nor interactions between PFAS in the BKMR model in pregnant women.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>Future studies could consider WBF measures in late pregnancy to evaluate other periods of susceptibility. Furthermore, as people are exposed to multiple PFAS, future studies should continue to consider joint PFAS exposure.</p>","PeriodicalId":11713,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Epidemiology","volume":"9 4","pages":"e406"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2025-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12212838/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144539598","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":"Examining the association between gestational phenol exposure and infant non-nutritive suck in two Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes cohorts.","authors":"Megan L Woodbury, Andréa Aguiar, Sarah Dee Geiger, Max T Aung, Shukhan Ng, Morgan Hines, Alaina Martens, Deborah J Watkins, Gredia Huerta-Montañez, José F Cordero, John D Meeker, Akram N Alshawabkeh, Susan L Schantz, Emily Zimmerman","doi":"10.1097/EE9.0000000000000399","DOIUrl":"10.1097/EE9.0000000000000399","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Non-nutritive suck (NNS) is a measure of neurofunction sensitive to environmental exposures in utero. This study aimed to evaluate the relationship between gestational phenol exposure and NNS patterning.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Mother-infant pairs from two diverse prospective cohorts were enrolled in the Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes Program. Phenols were measured in prenatal maternal urine samples and adjusted for specific gravity. NNS was sampled in 1-8-week-old infants using a custom pacifier for ~5 minutes. Associations of 11 phenols and triclocarban with 5 NNS outcomes were assessed individually and as a mixture using generalized linear models adjusted for cohort, child sex and assessment age, and maternal age and education.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Altogether, 215 mother-infant pairs were included. Bisphenol-F was related to a lower NNS frequency. Triclosan was associated with a higher NNS frequency. Propylparaben, 2,4-dichlorophenol, and 2,5-dichlorophenol were associated with lower NNS amplitude. Benzophenone-3, 2,4-dichlorophenol, and 2,5-dichlorophenol were related to more NNS bursts/minute. Propylparaben was associated with more NNS cycles/bursts. Seven phenols were included in mixture analyses: 2,4-dichlorophenol, 2,5-dichlorophenol, benzophenone-3, bisphenol-A, bisphenol-S, methylparaben, and propylparaben. Both Bayesian kernel machine regression and quantile g-computation showed that higher concentrations of the mixture were associated with lower amplitude but more bursts/minute and cycles/burst. Propylparaben was important in the overall mixture effect on amplitude, whereas benzophenone-3 was important in the relationship with bursts/minute.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Gestational phenol exposure is linked to altered NNS patterning in neonates. Future work should further investigate phenol mixture effects, potential mechanisms, and the association of altered NNS with neurodevelopment.</p>","PeriodicalId":11713,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Epidemiology","volume":"9 4","pages":"e399"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2025-06-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12169973/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144309747","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}