Environmental Epidemiology最新文献

{"title":"Early-life exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances and infant gut microbial composition.","authors":"Hannah E Laue, Yuka Moroishi, Thomas J Palys, Brock C Christensen, Rachel L Criswell, Lisa A Peterson, Carin A Huset, Emily R Baker, Margaret R Karagas, Juliette C Madan, Megan E Romano","doi":"10.1097/EE9.0000000000000238","DOIUrl":"10.1097/EE9.0000000000000238","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Human milk is rich in essential nutrients and immune-activating compounds but is also a source of toxicants including per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). Evidence suggests that immune-related effects of PFAS may, in part, be due to alterations of the microbiome. We aimed to identify the association between milk PFAS exposure and the infant gut microbiome.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>PFAS [perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoate (PFOA)] were quantified in milk from ~6 weeks postpartum using high-performance liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry. A molar sum (ΣPFAS) was calculated. Caregivers collected infant stool samples at 6 weeks (n = 116) and/or 1 year postpartum (n = 119). Stool DNA underwent metagenomic sequencing. We estimated the association of PFAS with diversity and relative abundances of species with linear regression. Single- and multi-PFAS models adjusted for potential confounders in complete case analyses and with imputed missing covariate data for 6-week and 1-year microbiomes separately. We assessed sensitive populations with stratification.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>PFOS and PFOA were detected in 94% and 83% of milk samples, respectively. PFOS was associated with increased diversity at 6 weeks among infants fed exclusively human milk [β = 0.24 per PFOS doubling, (95% CI = 0.03, 0.45), <i>P</i> = 0.03] and born to primiparous mothers [β = 0.37 (0.06, 0.67), <i>P</i> = 0.02]. Estimates were strongest in multi-PFAS models and among complete cases. ΣPFAS was associated with <i>Bacteroides vulgatus</i> relative abundance at 1 year [(β = -2.34% per doubling (-3.63, -1.05), FDR q = 0.099].</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>PFAS may increase infant gut microbiome diversity and alter the relative abundance of biologically relevant bacteria. Additional analyses may identify related health outcomes.</p>","PeriodicalId":11713,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Epidemiology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2022-12-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ftp.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pub/pmc/oa_pdf/00/cd/ee9-7-e238.PMC9916123.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"9259642","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":"Inherited genetic effects on arsenic metabolism: A comparison of effects on arsenic species measured in urine and in blood.","authors":"Lizeth I Tamayo,&nbsp;Yohhan Kumarasinghe,&nbsp;Lin Tong,&nbsp;Olgica Balac,&nbsp;Habibul Ahsan,&nbsp;Mary Gamble,&nbsp;Brandon L Pierce","doi":"10.1097/EE9.0000000000000230","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1097/EE9.0000000000000230","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Inorganic arsenic (iAs) is a carcinogen, and chronic exposure is associated with adverse health outcomes, including cancer and cardiovascular disease. Consumed iAs can undergo two methylation reactions catalyzed by arsenic methyltransferase (<i>AS3MT</i>), producing monomethylated and dimethylated forms of arsenic (MMA and DMA). Methylation of iAs helps facilitate excretion of arsenic in urine, with DMA composing the majority of arsenic species excreted. Past studies have identified genetic variation in the <i>AS3MT</i> (10q24.32) and <i>FTCD</i> (21q22.3) regions associated with arsenic metabolism efficiency (AME), measured as the proportion of each species present in urine (iAs%, MMA%, and DMA%), but their association with arsenic species present in blood has not been examined. We use data from three studies nested within the Health Effects and Longitudinal Study (HEALS)-the Nutritional Influences on Arsenic Toxicity Study, the Folate and Oxidative Stress study, and the Folic Acid and Creatine Trial-to examine the association of previously identified genetic variants with arsenic species in both urine and blood of 334 individuals. We confirm that the genetic variants in <i>AS3MT</i> and <i>FTCD</i> known to effect arsenic species composition in urine (an excreted byproduct of metabolism) have similar effects on arsenic species in blood (a tissue type that directly interacts with many organs, including those prone to arsenic toxicity). This consistency we observe provides further support for the hypothesis the AME SNPs identified to date impact the efficiency of arsenic metabolism and elimination, thereby influencing internal dose of arsenic and the dose delivered to toxicity-prone organs and tissues.</p>","PeriodicalId":11713,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Epidemiology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2022-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9746746/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"9595118","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":"Sensitivity analysis for live birth bias in the Ulaanbaatar Gestation and Air Pollution Research study.","authors":"Lawrence C McCandless,&nbsp;Enkhjargal Gombojav,&nbsp;Ryan W Allen","doi":"10.1097/EE9.0000000000000229","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1097/EE9.0000000000000229","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The Ulaanbaatar Gestation and Air Pollution Research (UGAAR) study is a randomized controlled trial of the effects of portable high efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter air cleaner use during pregnancy on fetal growth and child health outcomes. A challenge with the study is that the outcome variables cannot be measured in the absence of a live birth. Thus pregnancy loss is a competing event for the outcome variables that can obscure the intervention-outcome relationship. This phenomenon is called \"live birth bias\" in the epidemiological literature, and it is an example of selection bias due to adjustment for variables affected by previous exposure.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>In this investigation, we reanalyzed data from the UGAAR study and examined the impacts of the intervention on three health outcomes: preterm birth (PTB), birth weight, and full-scale IQ (FSIQ) measured with the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence III when children were four years old, while accounting for live birth bias. Specifically, we used a novel multiple imputation approach to simulate scenarios in which pregnancy losses had instead been born alive and experienced a range of health outcomes.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>After accounting for live birth bias, the association between the intervention and PTB diminished. Additionally, the magnitude of intervention effect on birth weight and FSIQ increased. FSIQ was less sensitive to live birth bias than birth weight.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>We introduced a novel analysis approach to examine the role of live birth bias, and the findings will be useful in environmental epidemiology studies of birth cohorts.</p>","PeriodicalId":11713,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Epidemiology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2022-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ftp.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pub/pmc/oa_pdf/1d/f0/ee9-6-e229.PMC9746740.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"10404440","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":"Lagged acute respiratory outcomes among children related to ambient pollutant exposure in a high exposure setting in South Africa.","authors":"Shumani Phaswana,&nbsp;Caradee Y Wright,&nbsp;Rebecca M Garland,&nbsp;Thulie N Khumalo,&nbsp;Rajen N Naidoo","doi":"10.1097/EE9.0000000000000228","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1097/EE9.0000000000000228","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Acute ambient air pollution impacts on the respiratory health of children may be lagged across time. We determined the short-term lagged effects of particulate matter (PM_2.5), sulphur dioxide (SO₂), and oxides of nitrogen (NO_x) on the respiratory health of children living in low-income communities.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>A school-based study was conducted using a repeated measures design, across summer and winter, in four schools in each of four suburbs in the Vaal Triangle, South Africa. Data for PM_2.5, NO_x, and SO₂ were obtained from monitoring stations within close proximity of the schools. Over 10 school days in each phase, grade 4 children completed a symptoms log and lung function tests. Parents completed a child respiratory questionnaire. Generalized estimation equations models adjusted for covariates of interest in relation to lung function outcomes and air pollutants including lag effects of 1-5 days.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Daily PM_2.5, NO_x, and SO₂ median concentration levels were frequently higher than international standards. Among the 280 child participants (mean age 9 years), the prevalence of symptoms based on probable asthma was 9.6%. There was a consistent increased pollutant-related risk for respiratory symptoms, except for NO_x and shortness of breath. Lung function, associated with pollutant fluctuations across the different lags, was most pronounced for peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR) for PM_2.5 and SO₂. A preceding 5-day average SO₂ exposure had the largest loss (7.5 L/minute) in PEFR.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Lagged declines in daily lung function and increased odds of having respiratory symptoms were related to increases in PM_2.5 and SO₂ among a school-based sample of children.</p>","PeriodicalId":11713,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Epidemiology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2022-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9746739/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"10400202","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 exposures to selected volatile organic compounds and the risk of prostate cancer in Montreal.","authors":"Mark S Goldberg, Sara Zapata-Marin, France Labrèche, Vikki Ho, Eric Lavigne, Marie-France Valois, Marie-Elise Parent","doi":"10.1097/EE9.0000000000000231","DOIUrl":"10.1097/EE9.0000000000000231","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Little is known about environmental factors that may increase the risk of prostate cancer. We estimated associations between incident prostate cancer and environmental concentrations of five ambient volatile organic compounds (VOCs): benzene; n-decane; ethylbenzene; hexane; and 1,2,4-trimethylbenzene.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>This study is based on a population-based case-control study of incident prostate cancer (PROtEuS) in men ≤ 75 years of age living in Montreal, Canada, in 2005 to 2012. We included 1172 cases and 1177 population controls. We had personal information, lifetime residential addresses, occupational exposures, and a variety of area-wide covariables. We inferred concentrations of the five VOCs using Bayesian geostatistical models using data from a dense environmental survey conducted in Montreal in 2005 to 2006. We used different sets of adjustments to estimate odds ratios (OR) and confidence intervals.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>We found nonlinear associations such that the ORs increased monotonically and then either flattened or fell off with increased exposures. The model that contained other environmental variables and contextual variables led to lower ORs and results were similar when we restricted analyses to controls recently screened or tested for prostate cancer or cases with low- or high-grade tumors. A change from the 5th to 25th percentile in mean environmental benzene levels led to an adjusted OR of 2.00 (95% confidence interval = 1.47, 2.71).</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>We found positive associations between prostate cancer and concentrations of benzene and ethylbenzene, independently of previous testing for prostate cancer or tumor grade, suggesting that exposure to certain ambient VOCs may increase incidence.</p>","PeriodicalId":11713,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Epidemiology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2022-11-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ftp.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pub/pmc/oa_pdf/59/82/ee9-6-e231.PMC9746733.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"10404439","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":"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}