Environment International最新文献

{"title":"Droughts and PM2.5 air pollution in California: the roles of wildfires","authors":"Hyung Joo Lee ,&nbsp;Min Young Shin ,&nbsp;Na Rae Kim","doi":"10.1016/j.envint.2025.109678","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envint.2025.109678","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Although individual relationships between droughts, wildfires, and ambient PM_2.5 air pollution have been reported, the role of wildfires in the pathways from droughts to PM_2.5 remains uncertain. This study investigated the association between droughts, defined by the Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI), and PM_2.5 concentrations in California, U.S., from 2006 to 2020. A generalized linear mixed model showed that PM_2.5 concentrations increased by 1.47 μg/m³ (SE = 0.10; p &lt; 0.0001), on average, as drought conditions intensified by 1 unit of SPEI (lower SPEI values indicating drier conditions and greater drought severity). In stratified analysis, drought-related PM_2.5 increases were larger during wildfire days [3.29 μg/m³ (SE = 0.36)] compared to non-wildfire days [0.97 μg/m³ (SE = 0.08)] per unit decrease in SPEI. The likelihood of wildfire-impacted days increased by 89.9 % [odds ratio (OR) = 1.899] per unit decrease in SPEI, rising with the severity of droughts. On wildfire days, wildfire-induced PM_2.5 increased by 3.11 μg/m³ (SE = 0.33) per unit decrease in SPEI, on average. Wildfires were a crucial contributor to the drought-related PM_2.5 increases, as supported by the decline in the association per unit decrease in SPEI from 3.29 μg/m³ (p &lt; 0.0001) to −0.10 μg/m³ (p = 0.1307) after adjusting for wildfire-induced PM_2.5 during wildfire days. PM_2.5 increases due to droughts and wildfires pose substantial challenges for air quality management because the likelihood of PM_2.5 exceedance days was elevated by wildfires during droughts (OR = 2.978 per unit decrease in SPEI). Understanding the role of wildfires informs air quality management in preparation for future droughts and wildfires.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":308,"journal":{"name":"Environment International","volume":"202 ","pages":"Article 109678"},"PeriodicalIF":10.3,"publicationDate":"2025-07-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144587012","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":"PFAS in first-time mothers from Sweden: temporal trends and the impact from fish/seafood consumption and drinking water exposure","authors":"Irina Gyllenhammar ,&nbsp;Jonathan P. Benskin ,&nbsp;Merle Plassmann ,&nbsp;Martin Kruså ,&nbsp;Philip McCleaf ,&nbsp;Pernilla Hedvall Kallerman ,&nbsp;Erik Lampa ,&nbsp;Anders Glynn","doi":"10.1016/j.envint.2025.109671","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envint.2025.109671","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS)-contaminated drinking water has been a significant source of human exposure to PFAS in Uppsala, Sweden. Herein, we investigated temporal trends of PFAS in serum samples collected three weeks after delivery from first-time mothers in Uppsala (1996–2022; n = 869), to determine whether efforts to remediate drinking water contamination have reduced maternal PFAS exposure. In addition, the impact of fish/seafood consumption as an exposure source was evaluated. PFAS were analysed by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) and temporal trends were evaluated using adjusted cubic spline models.</div><div>Linear (lin) and branched (br) perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluoroctanoate (PFOA) showed declining temporal trends, likely due to international regulation and phase-out initiatives. Later initiatives to restrict use and emissions of perfluorononanoate (PFNA), perfluorodecanoate (PFDA) and perfluoroundecanoate (PFUnDA) likely explained the initial increased concentrations by 3–7% per year, up to 2007 or 2010, followed by decreasing trends, on average 2–3% per year. Drinking water contamination was likely responsible for the increase in serum br and lin perfluorohexanesulfonate (PFHxS) concentrations early in the study period, followed by a decline over the last decade associated with remediation of the drinking water contamination around 2012. However, even after remediation, drinking water appeared to contribute to perfluoropentanesulfonate (PFPeS) and PFHxS. Fish/seafood consumption was significantly associated with serum levels of lin PFOS, PFNA, PFDA, and PFUnDA.</div><div>Overall, PFAS exposure among first-time mothers in Uppsala has declined, resulting in a marked reduction in the proportion of mothers exceeding the serum reference value established by the European Food Safety Authority. Nevertheless, 54% of the mothers sampled from 2018 to 2022 still exceeded this level, showing that efforts to reduce PFAS exposure must continue for many years to come.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":308,"journal":{"name":"Environment International","volume":"202 ","pages":"Article 109671"},"PeriodicalIF":10.3,"publicationDate":"2025-07-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144578446","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":"Unveiling the gut’s plastic predicament: How micro- and nano-plastics drive distinct toxicological pathways in Enchytraeus crypticus","authors":"Xing Li ,&nbsp;Hao Qiu ,&nbsp;Wenxing Li ,&nbsp;Cornelis A.M. Van Gestel ,&nbsp;Chao Jin ,&nbsp;Erkai He","doi":"10.1016/j.envint.2025.109670","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envint.2025.109670","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The gut microenvironment is crucial for maintaining health of its host. However, there is currently limited mechanistic understanding of how stress from microplastics (MPs) and nanoplastics (NPs) alter this environment and its resulting biotoxicity. Here, we systematically investigated the biological responses — from physiology to pathology and from molecular interactions to phenotypic changes — of the soil invertebrate <em>Enchytraeus crypticus</em> exposed to environmentally relevant concentrations of polystyrene MPs (50 μm) and NPs (100 nm). Exposure in a simulated soil matrix spiked with MPs and NPs differently reshaped the gut microenvironment of the worms due to their distinct gastrointestinal fate, thereby inducing different adverse effects via distinct molecular signaling pathways. The high bioaccumulation potential and prolonged retention of NPs in the gut facilitated their interaction with the gut interface, leading to gut acidification and an overaccumulation of H₂O₂ in gut. As a signal molecule, excessive H₂O₂ activated the TNF signaling pathway, which subsequently perturbed membrane-associated lipid metabolism and compromised gut barrier integrity through apoptosis. Unlike NPs, MP accumulation in the gut stimulated mucus secretion as a protective mechanism against physical damage, but disrupted fat digestion and absorption pathways, ultimately inducing cell aging through cardiolipin-mediated mitochondrial dysfunction alongside abnormal lipid droplet accumulation. Collectively, our findings provide mechanistic insights into the different biological and molecular responses to MPs and NPs within the context of an altered enchytraeid gut microenvironment.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":308,"journal":{"name":"Environment International","volume":"202 ","pages":"Article 109670"},"PeriodicalIF":10.3,"publicationDate":"2025-07-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144578447","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":"Quantitative reconstruction of long-term spatiotemporal patterns of high-resolution ground-level NO2 concentrations in mainland China using fusion techniques and a machine learning framework","authors":"Zhen Li ,&nbsp;Heng Dong ,&nbsp;Sicong He ,&nbsp;Huan Huang","doi":"10.1016/j.envint.2025.109672","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envint.2025.109672","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Nitrogen dioxide (NO₂), as a critical trace gas, plays multiple roles in the atmosphere and poses potential threats to human health. However, existing satellite monitoring methods face challenges, including limited satellite mission durations, poor data quality, and low spatial resolution, which hinder the ability to provide long-term, high-precision NO₂ information. To address these issues, this study uses the TROPOMI tropospheric NO₂ column concentration product as a baseline and employs partition and cumulative distribution function (CDF) techniques to generate a satellite fusion dataset with both long time spans and high consistency. Based on this dataset, a high-performance, high-spatial-resolution long-term surface NO₂ estimation model was developed using machine learning algorithms combined with multi-source geographic data. The model successfully estimates daily average near-surface NO₂ concentrations (1 km² resolution) for mainland China from 2014 to 2020. The results show that the proposed fusion method effectively integrates OMI and TROPOMI data, improves the spatial correlation between satellite products by 16.2 % (R = 0.74 → 0.86), significantly enhances the spatial coverage, and thus more accurately characterizes the spatial distribution characteristics of NO₂. The surface-level NO₂ estimates based on the LGBM model achieved an R² of 0.85 in ten-fold cross-validation, with corresponding root mean square error (RMSE) and mean absolute error (MAE) of 7.51 µg/m³ and 5.22 µg/m³, respectively, demonstrating good extrapolation ability for temporal variations. The long-time series results accurately reflect the temporal and spatial evolution of NO₂ in mainland China, while the high-precision estimates provide detailed pollution exposure information, revealing urban-scale pollution differences and seasonal variations.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":308,"journal":{"name":"Environment International","volume":"202 ","pages":"Article 109672"},"PeriodicalIF":10.3,"publicationDate":"2025-07-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144578080","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":"Disentangling the Fe species-dependent electron donating capacity and abiotic reduction capacity towards nitrobenzene of the sediment cores","authors":"Huixiang Zhang ,&nbsp;Xin Li ,&nbsp;Shanshan Yang ,&nbsp;Jiangtao He ,&nbsp;Anhuai Lu ,&nbsp;Fei Liu","doi":"10.1016/j.envint.2025.109674","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envint.2025.109674","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Iron is a redox-sensitive element and plays a critical role in governing the abiotic natural reduction of organic contaminants in aquifers. However, proper quantification and prediction of contaminant attenuation processes mediated by Fe species remain inadequately characterized, particularly under field conditions. Herein, 43 aquifer sediment cores were collected from four locations at two sites, and nitrobenzene (NB) was used as a representative organic contaminant to evaluate the Fe species–dependent reduction capacity. A systematic investigation was conducted to establish the relationships among Fe species distribution, electron donating capacity (EDC), and abiotic reduction capacity toward NB of sediments. Results revealed a strong positive correlation between carbonate-bound iron (Fe_carb) concentration (0.06–3.11 mg·g^-1) and sediment EDC (R² = 0.89, p &lt; 0.05, n = 10) when silicate-bonded iron (Fe_Si) content was low (&lt;4.0 mg·g^-1). For the reduction of NB, due to thermodynamic constraints imposed on certain electron donors, the correlation between EDC and NB reduction rate was weak. However, Fe_carb content exhibited a strong quantitative linear correlation with the reduction rate of NB (R² = 0.89; p &lt; 0.05; n = 19). The derived quantitative relationship indicates a dose-dependent increase in the NB reduction rate of 0.12 d⁻¹ for every 1 mg·g^-1 increase in Fe_carb content. The 95 % prediction interval can be used to effectively predict the NB reduction kinetics of sediments. These findings provide a new perspective for predicting the abiotic natural reduction capacity of sediments and groundwater organic contaminant remediation.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":308,"journal":{"name":"Environment International","volume":"202 ","pages":"Article 109674"},"PeriodicalIF":10.3,"publicationDate":"2025-07-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144587014","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":"Interaction effects in microbiota-filter media-pharmaceutical in biofilm-based reactors: a case study of anoxic biofilters","authors":"Rui Ma ,&nbsp;Han Zhao ,&nbsp;Ying Zhao,&nbsp;Lili Jin,&nbsp;Hui Huang,&nbsp;Hongqiang Ren","doi":"10.1016/j.envint.2025.109669","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envint.2025.109669","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The removal of micropollutants, particularly pharmaceuticals, from wastewater remains a significant challenge due to their persistence and complex degradation mechanisms. Biofilm-based systems offer a promising solution due to their high microbial diversity and metabolic versatility. However, interactions between the microbiota and pharmaceuticals in these reactors remain inadequately explored. This study represented a pioneering investigation into the interactions among microbiota, filter media and pharmaceuticals in anoxic biofilters under the stress of mixed-pharmaceuticals. Under autotrophic conditions, microbial community exhibited improved adaptability to pharmaceutical stress with minimal differentiation. Introduction of pharmaceuticals increased the complexity of microbial co-occurrence networks, with autotrophic biofilters showing a higher proportion of positive correlations. Community assembly was primarily driven by drift, nevertheless, pharmaceuticals shifted community towards increased deterministic assembly, especially enhancing homogeneous selection (HoS) in autotrophic bio-ceramic filters (34.59 %), HoS drove community succession, with deterministic processes shaping taxonomic shifts. Thiobacillus was identified as a keystone taxon in autotrophic filters, demonstrating high abundance, strong competitive ability, and emerged as a pivotal genus contributing to biofilm homogenization and stability. Positive correlations were identified between pharmaceutical molecular weight, hydrogen bond donors/acceptors and removal rates (<em>p</em> ≤ 0.05), resulting in preferred adsorption of pharmaceuticals with high molecular weight by filter media. Therefore, this study proposed the interaction mechanism of “pharmaceuticals preferred adsorption − biofilm homogenization − carbon and nitrogen co-metabolism”, which underscored its significance in optimizing biofilm-based processes for precise design and regulation of the microbiota in biofilm reactors.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":308,"journal":{"name":"Environment International","volume":"202 ","pages":"Article 109669"},"PeriodicalIF":10.3,"publicationDate":"2025-07-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144568961","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":"Preconception, prenatal and early childhood exposure to green space and risk of neurodevelopmental delays: a national cohort study among Medicaid enrollees","authors":"Hayon Michelle Choi ,&nbsp;Krista F. Huybrechts ,&nbsp;Sonia Hernandez-Diaz ,&nbsp;Xinye Qiu ,&nbsp;Michael Leung ,&nbsp;Peter James ,&nbsp;Matthew Shupler ,&nbsp;Wanyu Huang ,&nbsp;Yaguang Wei ,&nbsp;Antonella Zanobetti ,&nbsp;Christopher J McDougle ,&nbsp;Joel Schwartz ,&nbsp;Brent Coull ,&nbsp;Marc Weisskopf ,&nbsp;Stefania Papatheodorou","doi":"10.1016/j.envint.2025.109666","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envint.2025.109666","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><div>Exposure to green space is associated with children’s mental health, but its impact on neurodevelopment has been underexplored, especially in socioeconomically disadvantaged populations. This study examined the link between exposure to green space before, during, and after pregnancy and neurodevelopmental delays in children enrolled in Medicaid.</div></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><div>This cohort study of 1,841,915 mother–child pairs used data from the Medicaid Analytic Extract (MAX) from 2001 to 2014, with up to 14 years of follow-up. The population of pregnant women enrolled in Medicaid is characterized by younger age, racial and ethnic diversity, lower income levels, and includes individuals with disabilities. Green space exposure was measured using the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) at the maternal residential zip code level. We examined exposure to green space during the preconception, prenatal, and postnatal periods to capture critical developmental windows both separately and with mutual adjustment. Neurodevelopmental outcomes were identified using validated algorithms and included autism spectrum disorder (ASD), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), learning disabilities, speech and language disorders, coordination disorders, intellectual disabilities, and behavioral disorders. We applied a stratified Cox model accounting for individual and area-level confounders and examined effect measure modification by urbanicity, child’s race/ethnicity, and sex.</div></div><div><h3>Findings</h3><div>The study found protective associations between green space exposure and most neurodevelopmental disorders. The strongest associations were seen for preconception exposure and intellectual disability (HR 0.66 [95 % CI: 0.48–0.95]), pregnancy exposure and ASD (HR 0.83 [95 % CI: 0.73–0.95]), and postnatal exposure for learning difficulties (HR 0.81 [95 % CI: 0.68–0.97]) per interquartile range (IQR = 0.12) increase in NDVI. The protective effects were stronger for Black/Hispanic children and for those living in urban areas.</div></div><div><h3>Interpretation</h3><div>Green space exposure could benefit the children’s neurodevelopment, with more significant benefits for the Black and Hispanic populations.</div></div><div><h3>Funding</h3><div>National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences R01-ES034038.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":308,"journal":{"name":"Environment International","volume":"202 ","pages":"Article 109666"},"PeriodicalIF":10.3,"publicationDate":"2025-07-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144566221","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":"Early-life exposome and health-related immune signatures in childhood","authors":"Ines Amine ,&nbsp;Augusto Anguita-Ruiz ,&nbsp;Alicia Guillien ,&nbsp;Xavier Basagaña ,&nbsp;Mariona Bustamante ,&nbsp;Eva Borràs ,&nbsp;Marta Cirach ,&nbsp;Audrius Dedele ,&nbsp;Carlota Dobaño ,&nbsp;Judith Garcia-Aymerich ,&nbsp;Berit Granum ,&nbsp;Regina Grazuleviciene ,&nbsp;Juan Ramón González ,&nbsp;Jordi Julvez ,&nbsp;Hector Keun ,&nbsp;Mónica López-Vicente ,&nbsp;Rosemary McEachan ,&nbsp;Gemma Moncunill ,&nbsp;Mark Nieuwenhuijsen ,&nbsp;Eduard Sabidó ,&nbsp;Léa Maitre","doi":"10.1016/j.envint.2025.109668","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envint.2025.109668","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><div>Early-life environmental exposures are suspected to modify important immune processes related to child health. Yet, no study has investigated immunotoxicity in relation to the exposome and multiple health domains simultaneously.</div></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><div>Among 845 children (median age 8) from six European birth cohorts included in the Human Early-Life Exposome (HELIX) project, we identified immune signatures of a health score covering cardiometabolic, respiratory/allergic and neurodevelopmental health in children. Those signatures were identified from blood samples in three biological layers (white blood cell (WBC) composition, plasma proteins concentrations, DNA methylation of WBCs) using an advanced factorial analysis supervised on the child health score. Second, we estimated the association between the identified signatures and 91 pre- and postnatal environmental exposures.</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>Three key immune signatures were associated with a better health score in children: a first protein signature characterizing a low inflammatory profile (R² = 17 %), a second protein signature characterizing a low inflammatory profile with balanced antiviral Th response (R² = 2 %), and a WBC signature characterizing an immuno-regulatory and naïve profile (R² = 2 %). In childhood, less exposure to indoor air pollutants, proximity to blue spaces and public transport, healthy dietary habits and higher social capital were associated with the three immune signatures related to a better health score (regression p-values &lt; 0.05). One signature was identified from DNA methylation, but was not significantly associated with the health score nor with the exposome.</div></div><div><h3>Conclusions</h3><div>These findings highlight the influence of early-life environmental exposures on key inflammatory processes associated with the cardiometabolic, respiratory and neurodevelopmental health of children.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":308,"journal":{"name":"Environment International","volume":"202 ","pages":"Article 109668"},"PeriodicalIF":10.3,"publicationDate":"2025-07-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144566165","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":"The effects of residential air conditioning and social vulnerability on heat-related hospitalizations in California","authors":"Yasmin Romitti ,&nbsp;Ian Sue Wing ,&nbsp;Keith R. Spangler ,&nbsp;Gregory A. Wellenius","doi":"10.1016/j.envint.2025.109659","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envint.2025.109659","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Lack of access to cool spaces is considered to be a key determinant of heat vulnerability. However, assessments of the moderating effect of access to cooling on heat health outcomes have typically used spatially coarse estimates of residential air conditioning (AC) prevalence. Here we estimate patterns of inter- and intra-urban AC ownership across 1,582 zip code tabulation areas (ZCTAs) in 27 California cities, use the results to assess the covariation between AC and social vulnerability, and examine how AC prevalence and social vulnerability modify the association between extreme heat and morbidity. Our approach combines Census records, the CDC Social Vulnerability Index (SVI), meteorological variables, and hospital admissions across the 2012–2019 warm season from the California Department of Health Care Access and Information. We first construct individual- and ZCTA-level estimates of residential AC prevalence, which we then compare with SVI between and within metro areas, and separately assess their effect modification on all-cause and cause-specific morbidity using a space–time-stratified case-crossover design with conditional Poisson regression models. We found that AC prevalence is weakly positively correlated with social vulnerability (r = 0.15) across the state and weakly negatively correlated within cities (r = −0.25). We found evidence of effect modification from AC prevalence on associations between extreme heat and all-cause (RR 1.04 (1.03, 1.05) for low AC versus RR 1.01 (1.00, 1.02) for high AC) as well as some cause-specific hospitalizations (e.g., heat-related illness: RR 1.42 (1.32, 1.52) for low AC versus 1.21 (1.11, 1.32) for high AC). Importantly, we find that residential AC reduces – but does not eliminate – the risks of adverse heat health outcomes.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":308,"journal":{"name":"Environment International","volume":"202 ","pages":"Article 109659"},"PeriodicalIF":10.3,"publicationDate":"2025-07-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144566431","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":"Addressing climate change concerns in pediatric health care settings: exploring parental and physician perspectives","authors":"Eena Lin ,&nbsp;Mohammed Jawaad Hussain ,&nbsp;Krystal Hunter ,&nbsp;Elizabeth Cerceo","doi":"10.1016/j.envint.2025.109661","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envint.2025.109661","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Introduction</h3><div>In 2015, the American Academy of Pediatrics released a policy statement on pediatricians’ role in battling the damaging effects of the climate crisis on children, a particularly vulnerable population. However, pediatric healthcare providers report difficulties integrating these discussions into their clinical practices. We designed a survey to evaluate the perceptions of parents and pediatricians regarding the health impacts of climate change, with the goal of identifying key opportunities for education and engagement.</div></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><div>In this cross-sectional study, anonymous surveys were distributed to parents at 5 pediatric outpatient clinics in Southern New Jersey. A second anonymous survey was digitally distributed to physicians at the same outpatient clinics. We measured responses using a 4-point Likert scale and conducted a descriptive analysis, including frequencies, percentages, and 95 % confidence intervals.</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>We collected 111 parent surveys and 37 physician surveys. Many parents and physicians reported feeling worried (somewhat or very much) about the impact of climate change on their child’s and patient’s physical (57.4 % for parents, 83.8 % for physicians) and mental (30.0 % for parents, 64.8 % for physicians) health. The top three areas of climate health concern among parents were air pollution, vector-carried diseases, and allergens and pollen. The top three concerns for physicians were air pollution, allergens and pollen, and food security.</div><div>Pediatricians reported that a lack of time (89.2 %) and knowledge (70.3 %) reduced their willingness (somewhat or very much) to discuss climate change during visits. When asked about solutions, they responded that patient education materials (75.6 %), communication training (70.2 %), and continuing professional education (78.3 %) would facilitate climate counseling (somewhat or very much).</div></div><div><h3>Conclusions</h3><div>Our results suggest that parents and pediatricians alike are concerned about the impact of climate change on child health. Additionally, pediatricians feel ill-equipped to integrate climate change education into their daily practices. Future efforts to provide additional resources to pediatricians can help both parents and patients face a worsening ecological climate.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":308,"journal":{"name":"Environment International","volume":"202 ","pages":"Article 109661"},"PeriodicalIF":10.3,"publicationDate":"2025-07-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144566524","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}