Environment International最新文献

{"title":"Increased stillbirth risk associated with heatwave exposure in late pregnancy: evidence from a 3.8 million mother-infant birth cohort","authors":"Jiaying Fang, Yidan Liu, Qingguo Jiang, Guangzhao Li, Xuan Long, Fatemeh Mayvaneh, Yunquan Zhang","doi":"10.1016/j.envint.2026.110592","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2026.110592","url":null,"abstract":"Despite growing evidence linking extreme temperature to adverse birth outcomes, the nexus between heatwaves and stillbirth remains unstudied in low- and middle-income settings. Therefore, this study aimed to examine the effects of different heatwave types on stillbirth risk in an Iranian birth cohort.","PeriodicalId":308,"journal":{"name":"Environment International","volume":"23 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":11.8,"publicationDate":"2026-11-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149358929","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"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":"Metabolomic signatures and pathways linking maternal PFAS concentrations to gestational age at birth: a meet-in-the-middle and high dimensional mediation analysis","authors":"Susan S. Hoffman, Anne Lang Dunlop, Dana Boyd Barr, Blake Rushing, Audrey J. Gaskins, Todd Everson, Ashley Naimi, Stephanie M. Eick, Shudi Pan, Youran Tan, Paula-Dene C. Nesbeth, Kaitlin Rene Taibl, Susan L. McRitchie, Susan Sumner, Kurunthachalam Kannan, Michele Marcus, Dean P. Jones, Donghai Liang","doi":"10.1016/j.envint.2026.110590","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2026.110590","url":null,"abstract":"Preterm birth disproportionately affects Black and African American populations. Greater exposure to environmental toxicants driven by environmental racism may contribute to these disparities. We aimed to identify metabolic intermediates linking maternal per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) exposure to gestational age at birth (GA).","PeriodicalId":308,"journal":{"name":"Environment International","volume":"22 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":11.8,"publicationDate":"2026-11-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149358930","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"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":"Dose- and duration-dependent hepatotoxicity of PFO4DA: Divergent PPARα responses and conserved glucocorticoid receptor suppression","authors":"Lei Liu,&nbsp;Yue Zhang,&nbsp;Qingrong Guo,&nbsp;Danyang Wang,&nbsp;Xiaoling Zhong,&nbsp;Chunfeng Wang,&nbsp;Mengxue Zhi,&nbsp;Jianshe Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.envint.2026.110582","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envint.2026.110582","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) alternatives, such as per- and polyfluoroalkyl ether carboxylic acids (PFECA), have been widely detected in environmental and biological samples; however, their hepatic toxicity mechanisms remain poorly understood. This study focused on a representative PFECA compound, perfluoro-3,5,7,9-tetraoxadecanoic acid (PFO4DA), and investigated its hepatotoxic effects and underlying molecular mechanisms by integrating multi-omics analyses with <em>in vitro</em> assays. The results demonstrated that PFO4DA is a weak peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor α (PPARα) agonist and exhibits dose-dependent regulation of PPARα signaling <em>in vivo</em>. Specifically, subacute high-dose exposure (0.4, 2, and 10 mg/kg/day for 28 days) activated PPARα signaling, whereas chronic low-dose environmentally relevant exposure (2 and 10 μg/kg/day for 140 days) indirectly suppressed PPARα activity, likely due to reduced availability of endogenous ligands. Metabolomic and lipidomic analyses revealed that chronic low-dose PFO4DA exposure induced broad depletion of multiple lipid species, particularly free fatty acids (FFAs) and their derivatives, thereby substantially reshaping hepatic metabolic homeostasis. Regardless of exposure scenario, glucocorticoid receptor (GR) signaling was consistently suppressed, suggesting that GR inhibition is a conserved toxicological feature of PFECA exposure. Moreover, amino acid profiles were broadly disturbed, accompanied by dysregulation of nutrient-sensing regulators, including ATF4 and FGF21. These findings extend the current understanding of PFECA-induced hepatotoxicity beyond classical nuclear receptor pathways and highlight the critical involvement of nutrient-sensing and metabolic regulatory networks. Collectively, this work identifies exposure-dependent divergence in PPARα signaling but conserved GR suppression as central features of PFO4DA hepatotoxicity, providing mechanistic insight essential for environmental health risk assessment of emerging PFAS alternatives.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":308,"journal":{"name":"Environment International","volume":"217 ","pages":"Article 110582"},"PeriodicalIF":10.2,"publicationDate":"2026-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149293607","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"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":"An AOP-anchored framework integrating omics-derived potency and PBK simulations to support mechanistic chemical risk assessment","authors":"Angela Serra,&nbsp;Periklis Tsiros,&nbsp;Alexandra Schaffert,&nbsp;Veer Singh Marwah,&nbsp;Zeyad Al-Abdulraheem,&nbsp;Cristina Accardi,&nbsp;Vasileios Minadakis,&nbsp;Marcella Torres Maia,&nbsp;Nicoletta D’Alessandro,&nbsp;Luca Mannino,&nbsp;Emanuele Di Lieto,&nbsp;Lorenzo Campini,&nbsp;Jack Morikka,&nbsp;Haralambos Sarimveis,&nbsp;Dario Greco","doi":"10.1016/j.envint.2026.110589","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envint.2026.110589","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Despite the increasing use of omics data in toxicology, quantitatively linking <em>in vitro</em> molecular responses to human‑relevant exposure remains a key challenge for the regulatory assessment of per‑ and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). In this work, an AOP‑anchored framework is proposed to integrate transcriptomic dose–response modelling with ensemble physiologically based kinetic (PBK) simulations to translate <em>in vitro</em> molecular perturbations into exposure‑relevant, mechanistically interpretable metrics. By linking gene‑ and key event (KE)‑level responses to PBK‑predicted internal concentrations, our framework enables both forward contextualization of early molecular changes and reverse dosimetry‑based estimation of human‑equivalent doses within structured KE networks. This integration enables estimation of the probability that PBK-predicted internal concentrations exceed transcriptomics-derived KE-level points of departure (PODs) while accounting for uncertainty in both transcriptomic modelling and PBK simulations. Application to PFOS and PFOA liver spheroid data suggests distinct mechanistic profiles: PFOA showed a focused lipid‑centric response consistent with steatosis-related events, whereas PFOS induced a broader response involving lipid metabolism, xenobiotic receptor signaling, and stress pathways. KE‑level reverse dosimetry yielded human‑equivalent doses consistent with <em>in vivo</em> reference points, while free‑concentration analyses highlighted the role of bioavailability. Together, this exposure‑integrating workflow supports the translation of <em>in vitro</em> omics data into mechanistically interpretable, regulatory‑relevant evidence and the identification of biologically plausible mechanistic hypotheses within the AOP framework, providing a scalable foundation for mechanistic risk assessment as additional data and models become available.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":308,"journal":{"name":"Environment International","volume":"217 ","pages":"Article 110589"},"PeriodicalIF":10.2,"publicationDate":"2026-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149350540","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"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":"Equivalence testing in pesticide risk assessment: evaluation and practical guidance for design, analysis and interpretation","authors":"Dimitry Wintermantel,&nbsp;Julia Osterman,&nbsp;Magdalena M. Mair,&nbsp;Florian Hartig","doi":"10.1016/j.envint.2026.110576","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envint.2026.110576","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Harmful pesticide effects exceeding specific protection goals (SPG) may go undetected in underpowered studies. Regulatory honeybee field studies have consistently failed to reach the statistical power required under European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) guidance, which may have contributed to the approval of high-risk substances. Therefore, EFSA advised a shift from testing the null hypothesis of ‘no effect’ (difference testing) to equivalence testing. Under this new approach, a pesticide is classified as ‘low risk’ if the null hypothesis that its effect exceeds the SPG can be rejected. For honeybees, the recommended SPG is a colony size reduction below 10%. Critics have argued that this framework requires excessive experimental effort to demonstrate pesticide safety and proposed an alternative equivalence test defining treatment effects relative to the lower bound of the 90%-control-group confidence interval. Using simulations mimicking a regulatory honeybee field study, we show that although the two equivalence tests share the same trade-off between false ‘low-risk’ and false ‘high-risk’ classifications, only EFSA’s equivalence test reliably identifies pesticides with effects &gt; SPG at <em>α</em> = 0.2. Our results show that increasing sample sizes beyond current practice is often necessary for reliable regulatory assessment. However, for pesticides with effect sizes ≤ 5%, sample size requirements remain lower than those implied by the power requirement of EFSA’s former difference-test-based guidance. Moreover, covariate adjustment – through a model term or balanced colony allocation using anticlustering randomisation – can reduce sample size requirements without losing power and thus save costs. Finally, we provide practical guidance for anticlustering randomisation, equivalence testing and their implementation in R.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":308,"journal":{"name":"Environment International","volume":"217 ","pages":"Article 110576"},"PeriodicalIF":10.2,"publicationDate":"2026-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149232893","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"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":"Zearalenone acts as a molecular glue to promote K33-linked ubiquitination and degradation of PPARγ and Its effects on glucose metabolism are mitigated by C3G","authors":"Bingxin Huangfu,&nbsp;Teng Wang,&nbsp;Yanan Chen,&nbsp;Jie Li,&nbsp;Zhihong Liang,&nbsp;Kunlun Huang,&nbsp;Xiaoyun He","doi":"10.1016/j.envint.2026.110585","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envint.2026.110585","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Zearalenone (ZEA) is a prevalent food-borne mycotoxin associated with metabolic disorders, yet its direct protein targets and the underlying mechanisms of its glucotoxic effects remain largely elusive. Here, we identify peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ (PPARγ) as a molecular target of ZEA and demonstrate that ZEA exposure induces a mismatch between PPARγ transcription and protein abundance by promoting its ubiquitination, revealing a novel mechanism underlying ZEA-induced disruption of glucose homeostasis. In vivo, mice exposed to low-dose ZEA (0.5 mg/kg·bw, 5 days) or chronic ZEA combined with a high-fat diet exhibited significant glucose metabolic impairment, which was effectively ameliorated by co-administration of cyanidin-3-O-glucoside. Mechanistically, using HepG2 cells and HEK293T cells co-transfected with hPPARγ and HA-tagged ubiquitin mutants, combined with co-immunoprecipitation, cellular thermal shift assay, drug affinity responsive target stability, microscale thermophoresis, glucose uptake assays, and immunofluorescence, we demonstrate that ZEA functions as a molecular glue, facilitating K33-linked polyubiquitination and proteasomal degradation of PPARγ, thereby suppressing its transcriptional activity and downstream glycolytic gene expression. Notably, C3G competitively binds to PPARγ, preventing ZEA-induced ubiquitination and stabilizing PPARγ protein levels, which restores glucose metabolic function. Furthermore, ZEA-mediated PPARγ depletion partially blunts the therapeutic efficacy of rosiglitazone, a PPARγ agonist, whereas C3G supplementation rescues this effect. Collectively, our findings uncover an unprecedented molecular-glue mechanism for mycotoxin-induced metabolic toxicity and highlight C3G as a potential dietary antagonist that safeguards PPARγ stability and glucose homeostasis against ZEA insults.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":308,"journal":{"name":"Environment International","volume":"217 ","pages":"Article 110585"},"PeriodicalIF":10.2,"publicationDate":"2026-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149292022","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"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":"Characterization of metal exposure from electronic cigarette use in Maryland, USA, via urine biomarkers","authors":"Xiaoyi Peng,&nbsp;Kenneth A. Feder,&nbsp;Rui Chen,&nbsp;Andrew Schultze,&nbsp;Pablo Olmedo,&nbsp;Mina Tehrani,&nbsp;Donia Moustafa,&nbsp;Joyce J.Y. Lin,&nbsp;Anna Tillery,&nbsp;Jana Mihalic,&nbsp;Stephanie Jarmul,&nbsp;Atul Aravindakshan,&nbsp;Walter Goessler,&nbsp;Ana Navas-Acien,&nbsp;Ana M. Rule,&nbsp;Angela Aherrera","doi":"10.1016/j.envint.2026.110572","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envint.2026.110572","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) use has grown rapidly, although exposure from metals remains unclear. We investigated how e-cigarette use is<!--> <!-->associated with urinary metals. Study participants recruited from 2015 to 2020 (n = 209) were adults from Maryland who exclusively used e-cigarettes (n = 135) or used no tobacco products (n = 74). We measured concentrations<!--> <!-->of 6 toxic metals (via ICP-MS) and the nicotine metabolite cotinine (via ELISA) in participants’ urine samples. We also measured metals in aerosol from participants’ e-cigarettes.<!--> <!-->We compared urinary metal concentrations between use groups (e-cigarette use vs. non-use) using geometric mean regression. Within the e-cigarette use group, we also compared metal concentrations across tertiles of (i) urinary<!--> <!-->cotinine and (ii) corresponding aerosol metal<!--> <!-->concentrations. E-cigarette use was associated with 84 % higher urinary chromium and 61 % higher urinary lead.<!--> <!-->E-cigarette use in the highest cotinine tertile was associated with 93 % higher urine cadmium and 91 % higher urine chromium compared to the lowest tertile. The highest aerosol nickel tertile was associated with 66 % higher urinary nickel than the lowest tertile. Our<!--> <!-->findings suggest e-cigarette use and frequency may be associated with increased<!--> <!-->exposure to toxic metals. These findings support the need for regulation to consider implementing limits to metal content and subsequent exposure.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":308,"journal":{"name":"Environment International","volume":"217 ","pages":"Article 110572"},"PeriodicalIF":10.2,"publicationDate":"2026-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149316665","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"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":"Tiered human health risk assessment of colorants of emerging regulatory concern in household products","authors":"Hogeon Lee,&nbsp;Tae Yong Kim,&nbsp;Ye Ji Koo,&nbsp;Kyung Youn Lee,&nbsp;Jungmin Lee,&nbsp;Hee-jin Jeong,&nbsp;Eun Chul Pack,&nbsp;Dae Yong Jang,&nbsp;Ji-hyun Jung,&nbsp;Seung Ha Lee,&nbsp;Dal Woong Choi","doi":"10.1016/j.envint.2026.110579","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envint.2026.110579","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Colorants in household products may contribute to direct human exposure, yet occurrence, migration, and health-risk data remain limited. We investigated 205 visibly colored products, including kitchen cleaning products, disposable wiping products, and disposable food-contact articles, for 40 target colorants using LC–MS/MS and applied a tiered assessment to characterize human health risks and identify chemical–product combinations of potential concern. Ten colorants were detected. Paper napkins showed the greatest diversity, with at least one target detected in 10 of 23 samples. Basic Violet 10 was detected in 8 of 23 napkins at a median of 2.45 mg/kg (range, 0.154–1,147 mg/kg). In food-contact articles, Basic Violet 10 and Solvent Yellow 114 migrated at 8.55 and 793 μg/L, respectively. Tier 1 screening identified potential concern for Basic Violet 10 (cancer MOE, 475) and Basic Violet 3 (non-cancer MOE, 3,069). Tier 2 refined these compounds and additionally evaluated Solvent Yellow 14 and Pigment Red 53, which were prioritized based on carcinogenicity- or genotoxicity-related hazard evidence despite no Tier 1 screening concern. Follow-up napkin migration testing detected measurable migration only for Basic Violet 10. Its P95 non-cancer and cancer MOEs were 5.78 × 10³–1.15 × 10⁴ and 1.97 × 10⁴–3.91 × 104, respectively, above their target MOEs, although the cancer margins were comparatively narrow. For paper straws, the combined beverage-migration and lip-contact scenario yielded P95 non-cancer and cancer MOEs of 1.55 × 10⁵–1.65 × 10⁶ and 5.26 × 10⁵–5.60 × 10⁶, respectively. Sensitivity analysis identified pathway-specific exposure drivers, with napkin exposure dominated by use frequency and migration level and straw exposure driven by beverage intake for migration-related ingestion and use frequency for lip-contact transfer. Overall, appreciable health concern was not identified under the evaluated scenarios, although the comparatively narrow cancer MOE for Basic Violet 10 in paper napkins warrants cautious interpretation and may merit continued monitoring.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":308,"journal":{"name":"Environment International","volume":"217 ","pages":"Article 110579"},"PeriodicalIF":10.2,"publicationDate":"2026-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149316666","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"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":"Passerine birds as bio-indicators of pesticide levels in farmlands and gardens: mitigation by organic farming and distance from treated fields","authors":"Audrey Bailly,&nbsp;Karine Monceau,&nbsp;Maurice Millet,&nbsp;Etienne Debenest,&nbsp;Sabrina Gaba,&nbsp;Vincent Bretagnolle,&nbsp;Jérôme Moreau","doi":"10.1016/j.envint.2026.110574","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envint.2026.110574","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Both farmworkers and residents living near agricultural areas face adverse health outcomes prevailingly attributed to pesticides. Proximity to intensive agricultural areas may increase exposure, although this association remains debated, partly because collecting human biological samples is difficult. Therefore, identifying relevant bioindicators of environmental pesticide exposure could provide an alternative approach, and passerine birds are promising candidates given their close coexistence with humans. Here, we compared pesticide levels and profiles in passerines from farmland hedgerows and residents’ gardens within the same rural area, and explored the effects of two mitigating components, assuming lower pesticide pressure with a higher percentage of organic farming (%OF) around hedgerows and with greater distance from the nearest treated crop for gardens. Blood samples were collected from 217 individuals across 11 species, and 111 pesticide residues were analysed. Contamination levels and profiles did not differ between farmlands and gardens, suggesting pervasive pesticide occurrence driven by environmental persistence and broad-scale dispersal. In farmland, model-estimated pesticide concentrations declined by 61.3 % (95 % CI: 32.5–77.8 %) as %OF increased from 0 to 100 %. In gardens, the model-estimated number of compounds and pesticide concentrations decreased with distance to the nearest conventional plot by 30.1 % (95 % CI: 6.8–47.6) and 70.1 % (95 % CI: 49.2–82.4), respectively. These effects were species-dependent, suggesting that certain species, such as the European robin, are more relevant indicators of local pesticide levels, likely due to their smaller home ranges. By showing that bird contamination reflects local agricultural practices and proximity, this study supports using passerines as effective sentinels of local environmental pesticide pressure, offering a valuable proxy for assessing ecological exposure in environments shared with human populations.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":308,"journal":{"name":"Environment International","volume":"217 ","pages":"Article 110574"},"PeriodicalIF":10.2,"publicationDate":"2026-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149231448","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"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":"Air pollution and bone fractures in a high-risk population: differences by age and sex","authors":"Cecilie Dahl,&nbsp;Christian Madsen,&nbsp;Tone K. Omsland,&nbsp;Lise Marie Frohn,&nbsp;Camilla Geels,&nbsp;Kristin Holvik,&nbsp;Haakon E. Meyer","doi":"10.1016/j.envint.2026.110570","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envint.2026.110570","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Purpose</h3><div>Fracture incidence is high in Norway compared to other European countries. We examined whether ambient air pollution levels are associated with forearm and hip fracture incidence, and whether these associations differed by sex and age.</div></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><div>Register data on 127,799 forearm fractures (age ≥40 years) and 103,754 hip fractures (age ≥50 years) were linked to population data from Statistics Norway (2008–2018). Annual levels of particulate matter &lt;2.5 µm (PM_2.5) and nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) were modelled in the NordicWelfAir project using the Urban Background Model and combined via ArcGIS. Fracture Incidence Rate Ratios (IRRs) with 95% Confidence Intervals (CIs) by pollutant levels were estimated using Poisson regression, adjusting for education level, marital status, and immigrant background, urban/rural and inland location, health region, and climate, and examining interactions by sex and age (multiplicative and additive).</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>PM_2.5 ranged from 0.90–66.1  µg/m³ (mean: 5.5) and NO₂ from 0.20–72.2  µg/m³ (mean: 8.1). In the highest PM_2.5 tertile compared to the lowest, age- and year-adjusted forearm fracture risk was IRR = 1.22 (95% CI: 1.18, 1.25) in men and IRR = 1.24 (95% CI: 1.22, 1.26) in women. They were partly attenuated after adjusting for annual temperature and geographic variables. Associations with NO₂ and with hip fractures were similar, though weaker. Interactions by sex and age were present for both fracture types, most notably a stronger NO₂– hip fracture association in individuals aged ≥80 years.</div></div><div><h3>Conclusion</h3><div>Ambient air pollution is associated with fracture risk, even at low exposure levels. The most consistent finding was a stronger association among individuals aged 80 years and above.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":308,"journal":{"name":"Environment International","volume":"217 ","pages":"Article 110570"},"PeriodicalIF":10.2,"publicationDate":"2026-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149260117","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"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}