Environment International最新文献

{"title":"Two typical residual surfactants facilitate the dissemination of antibiotic resistance genes: mechanisms of conjugation and community-level implications","authors":"Yifan Sun,&nbsp;Zixuan Zhao,&nbsp;Jin Lv,&nbsp;Lu An,&nbsp;Wenjing Yan,&nbsp;Jia Wang,&nbsp;Qiao Li,&nbsp;Xun Qian,&nbsp;James M. Tiedje,&nbsp;Jie Gu,&nbsp;Xiaojuan Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.envint.2026.110484","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envint.2026.110484","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the reinforcement of personal hygiene practices has led to a significant increase in surfactant residues in municipal wastewater. As a reservoir of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs), municipal wastewater has been reported to facilitate the conjugative transfer of ARGs by surfactants. However, the intrinsic mechanisms driving this process and the broader impact of surfactants on ARGs fate in real wastewater systems remain poorly understood. Here, we demonstrate that residual cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) and sodium dodecylbenzenesulfonate (SDBS) promote ARGs transfer both between <em>Escherichia coli</em> (<em>E. coli</em>) strains and from <em>E. coli</em> to municipal wastewater indigenous microbiota. Exploration of the underlying mechanisms revealed that CTAB exerts its effects primarily by increasing cell membrane permeability, inducing oxidative stress, and activating the SOS response. Further investigation showed that CTAB increases membrane permeability through direct binding to membrane proteins. SDBS primarily acted by enhancing bacterial motility and reducing barriers to cell contact. Additionally, modulation of glutamate and aspartate metabolism supported the conjugative transfer process by providing supplementary energy. Furthermore, we found that harboring multidrug-resistant plasmids conferred a survival advantage to bacterial hosts in municipal wastewater environments, thereby promoting the enrichment of ARGs. These findings elucidate novel mechanisms underlying surfactant-facilitated dissemination of ARGs, revealing a significant but overlooked environmental risk associated with residual surfactants in wastewater.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":308,"journal":{"name":"Environment International","volume":"215 ","pages":"Article 110484"},"PeriodicalIF":10.2,"publicationDate":"2026-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148872465","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 fragrance profiles in air fresheners and health risk assessment from their inhalation exposure","authors":"Han-Seul Lee,&nbsp;So Yeon Park,&nbsp;Ki-Tae Kim","doi":"10.1016/j.envint.2026.110474","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envint.2026.110474","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Fragranced products release various fragrance substances into indoor air, posing potential health risks. In this study, we aimed to quantify the concentration of 58 fragrance substances in air fresheners marketed in South Korea (n = 50) and Europe (n = 41) using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry, analyze fragrance combination patterns using association rule mining (ARM), and assess inhalation exposure risks using a two-tiered risk assessment. Linalool, limonene, and geraniol were predominant in South Korean products with detection frequencies of 80 %, 60 %, and 60 %, respectively, whereas linalool, limonene, and α-pinene were predominant in European products at 95 %, 90 %, and 90 %, respectively. All of these predominant substances are monoterpenoids, and linalool contributed the most to the total fragrance concentration in both regions, at 32 % (19–1.3 × 10⁵ mg kg⁻¹) in South Korea and 27 % (61–1.9 × 10⁵ mg kg⁻¹) in Europe. Detection frequencies of the top 20 % contributors between regions were strongly correlated (<em>r</em> = 0.87), whereas concentration levels showed moderate correlation (<em>r</em> = 0.59). ARM analysis revealed regional differences in fragrance combinations, with South Korean products favoring musky-floral (lift = 1.36) and European products favoring floral-floral (lift = 1.31). In the Tier 1 assessment, camphor, linalyl acetate, α-hexylcinnamaldehyde, and lilial exceeded the safety threshold, with hazard quotients (HQs) greater than 1; however, in the Tier 2 realistic exposure scenarios, their HQs were found to be below 1. In summary, this study provides the first comprehensive cross-regional characterization of fragrance substances in air fresheners and highlights the need for greater public awareness of their risks from inhalation exposure.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":308,"journal":{"name":"Environment International","volume":"215 ","pages":"Article 110474"},"PeriodicalIF":10.2,"publicationDate":"2026-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148817006","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":"Chronic exposure to environmentally relevant benzophenones induces male reproductive dysfunction via ER-mediated disulfidptosis: therapeutic potential of zeaxanthin dipalmitate","authors":"Hong-Mei Li,&nbsp;Ju-Qin Kou,&nbsp;Ya-Jia Pu,&nbsp;Qian Wang,&nbsp;Yu-Xin Sheng,&nbsp;Jun-Ze Wang,&nbsp;Ya-Nan Tian,&nbsp;Yan-Rong Gao,&nbsp;Jia-He Sun,&nbsp;Xiao-Qi Zeng,&nbsp;Hai-Ming Xu","doi":"10.1016/j.envint.2026.110477","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envint.2026.110477","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><div>Benzophenones (BPs), widely used UV filters and endocrine disruptors globally known for their estrogenic effects, are raising growing concerns about chronic reproductive toxicity in males due to their increasing environmental concentrations. This study aims to reveal the effects and mechanisms of male reproductive injury induced by environmentally relevant concentrations of BPs exposure.</div></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><div>The study employed NHANES analysis, animal experiments, cell experiments, network toxicology, and molecular docking, and used transcriptome sequencing along with various biochemical and molecular experimental methods to measure downstream indicators.</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>Analysis of the NHANES database indicates that BP-3 exposure showed dose-dependent associations with reduced total testosterone (TT)/estradiol (E2)/sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG) and elevated testosterone deficiency (TD) risk. Effects attenuated but held direction after multi-pollutant adjustment. The results of animal experiments indicate that chronic exposure to BPs (PND1-PND240) impaired fertility and offspring development, reduced body weight, anogenital distance, and testis coefficient, and altered histopathology, sperm quantity, and quality. Differentially expressed genes were predominantly enriched in energy metabolism and integrity of actin cytoskeleton, and disulfidptosis-related metabolic/redox indicators were dysregulated in the testis. Notably, even short-term exposure to BP-3 disturbs the levels of disulfidptosis-associated metabolic drivers (PND1-PND56). In GC-2 cells, BP-3 reduced cell viability and antioxidant capacity, induced morphological alterations, elevated ROS level, and upregulated disulfidptosis markers. The involvement of disulfidptosis was confirmed by the addition of the antagonist TCEP and agonist KL-11743. Notably, estrogen receptor (ER) directly regulates disulfidptosis. Zeaxanthin dipalmitate (ZD) alleviates BPs-induced male reproductive injury by modulating disulfidptosis. Co-culture assays further confirmed BP-3 disrupts testicular metabolic coupling and triggers disulfidptosis.</div></div><div><h3>Conclusion</h3><div>BPs exposure induces male reproductive dysfunction via ER-mediated disulfidptosis. ZD can alleviate this dysfunction.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":308,"journal":{"name":"Environment International","volume":"215 ","pages":"Article 110477"},"PeriodicalIF":10.2,"publicationDate":"2026-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148849619","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":"Long-term changes in Aitken-mode particle number concentration in Brisbane: roles of meteorology, traffic, and biomass burning","authors":"Parwapath Phunthirawuthi,&nbsp;Congrong He,&nbsp;Rohan Jayaratne,&nbsp;Helen Thompson,&nbsp;Lidia Morawska","doi":"10.1016/j.envint.2026.110514","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envint.2026.110514","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Particle number concentration (PNC) is a critical component of urban air pollution with important implications for human health. This study investigates decadal-scale changes in Aitken-mode PNC (25–100 nm) in Brisbane, Australia, using intermittent monitoring across four periods between 1998 and 2025. Phase-based non-parametric statistical analyses were applied to monthly median PNC to evaluate temporal differences across overall, seasonal, and diurnal subsets. Long-term datasets of meteorology, traffic activity, and biomass burning episodes were analysed to support the interpretation of observed changes.</div><div>Median concentrations decreased by 46% from 3,700 cm⁻3 in 1998–2000 to 2,000 cm⁻3 in 2021–2023. Reductions were most pronounced in autumn and winter and during morning hours, with significant differences observed across all diurnal periods. However, the discontinuous monitoring record does not demonstrate a continuous decline. Concentrations measured during 2025 were higher than those in 2021–2023, indicating variability among recent years. Meteorological analyses showed no consistent long-term improvement in dispersion-related conditions. Traffic activity declined markedly during the COVID-19 period and subsequently recovered, suggesting that changes in commuting, mobility, and urban activity may have contributed to the low PNC observed in 2021–2023. However, traffic and PNC patterns were not consistently aligned, while meteorological and biomass-burning records did not clearly explain the observed differences, indicating that multiple factors likely contributed.</div><div>This study provides rare long-term evidence from a subtropical Southern Hemisphere city and highlights the need for continuous PNC monitoring together with vehicle fleet composition, emissions, and meteorological data.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":308,"journal":{"name":"Environment International","volume":"215 ","pages":"Article 110514"},"PeriodicalIF":10.2,"publicationDate":"2026-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148928475","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":"Enniatin B attenuates deoxynivalenol-induced toxicity in liver cells and modulates lipid metabolism-related pathways","authors":"Denis Habauzit,&nbsp;Sylvie Huet,&nbsp;Emeline Nicolas,&nbsp;Patrick Balaguer,&nbsp;Thibaut Léger","doi":"10.1016/j.envint.2026.110498","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envint.2026.110498","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Mycotoxin contamination of food and feed is an increasing global health concern, particularly due to Fusarium toxins such as the regulated deoxynivalenol (DON) and the emerging enniatin B (ENNB). However, the combined mechanisms of action of these toxins remain poorly understood. This study aimed to assess their toxic effects, alone and in combination, using the HepaRG liver cell model. Toxicity, individually and in combination at concentrations equivalent to those used in single exposures (5:1 DON to ENNB ratio), was assessed in HepaRG cells. Several endpoints were investigated, including viability (cell number), γH2AX formation and apoptosis (active caspase-3) by High Content Analysis (HCA) as well as the pro-inflammatory response (IL-8 sretion) by ELISA. DON induced a concentration-dependent decrease in cell number and increased the levels of active caspase-3, γH2AX and IL-8. In contrast, ENNB only slightly reduced cell viability. Interestingly, the combination limited DON-induced cell death, DNA damage and apoptosis. To further investigate which pathways are involved in toxicity, proteomics and metabolomics analyses were performed. DON increased long-chain saturated dicarboxylic acids, suggesting impaired fatty acid oxidation (FAO), histones and proteins related to mitochondrial respiration while reducing FAO-related proteins. These effects were mitigated by ENNB, suggesting opposite effects of the toxins. This mitigation appeared to be consistent<!--> <!-->with the involvement of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha (PPARα) signaling, though without direct receptor activation by either substance. We present insights into DON and ENNB toxicity and highlight the importance of considering combined effects in risk assessment.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":308,"journal":{"name":"Environment International","volume":"215 ","pages":"Article 110498"},"PeriodicalIF":10.2,"publicationDate":"2026-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148895551","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":"A national-scale assessment of hospital contributions to chemical loads in wastewater and the implications for wastewater-based epidemiology","authors":"Neil Andrew Byrnes,&nbsp;Reshma Silvester,&nbsp;Gareth Cross,&nbsp;Andrew J. Weightman,&nbsp;Davey L. Jones,&nbsp;Barbara Kasprzyk-Hordern","doi":"10.1016/j.envint.2026.110476","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envint.2026.110476","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) is an established approach for assessing population health through the quantification of pharmaceuticals and lifestyle chemicals in wastewater. As hospitals are a potential point source for these chemical indicators (CIs), assessment of population health within hospitals may be possible via WBE while hospitals’ chemical contributions have the potential to impact community wide WBE assessments. Untreated hospital wastewater and corresponding community influent wastewater were collected from six sites across Wales through a national sampling campaign capturing 18 % of the Welsh population and 23 % of hospital in-patients nationally in summer 2023. Using liquid chromatography and targeted mass spectrometry, the mass loads of over 50 CIs were quantified. An exploratory analysis of sewer catchment parameters and hospital parameters identified possible trends. From these insights, further examination of data from published literature demonstrated a statistically significant inverse relationship between catchment population and hospitals’ average contribution to influent wastewater flow. This suggests that hospitals located in smaller wastewater catchments may have more influence on the total CI load in influent wastewater. Across all CIs assessed, antimicrobials were the only chemical class to have a substantial influence on influent wastewater composition. The median percent contribution of sulfamethoxazole, trimethoprim, and fluconazole across studied sites ranged from 5 to 50 %, 6–66 %, and 2–33 %, respectively. Hospital contributions of antimicrobials can meaningfully impact the conclusions from WBE assessments of community antimicrobial use. These findings may help identify priority sites for future interventions to reduce antimicrobial loads in wastewater environments and their potential contribution to antimicrobial resistance.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":308,"journal":{"name":"Environment International","volume":"215 ","pages":"Article 110476"},"PeriodicalIF":10.2,"publicationDate":"2026-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148838735","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":"Corrigendum to “Effects of ambient fine particulates, nitrogen dioxide, and ozone on maturation of functional brain networks across early adolescence” [Environ. Int. 177 (2023) 108001]","authors":"Devyn L. Cotter,&nbsp;Claire E. Campbell,&nbsp;Kirthana Sukumaran,&nbsp;Rob McConnell,&nbsp;Kiros Berhane,&nbsp;Joel Schwartz,&nbsp;Daniel A. Hackman,&nbsp;Hedyeh Ahmadi,&nbsp;Jiu-Chiuan Chen,&nbsp;Megan M. Herting","doi":"10.1016/j.envint.2026.110417","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envint.2026.110417","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":308,"journal":{"name":"Environment International","volume":"215 ","pages":"Article 110417"},"PeriodicalIF":10.2,"publicationDate":"2026-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148629183","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":"Severe winter PM2.5 pollution in remote Canadian mountain communities: Insights into the role of condensable particulate matter under subzero conditions","authors":"Qinchu Fan,&nbsp;Xiaohong Yao,&nbsp;Leiming Zhang","doi":"10.1016/j.envint.2026.110472","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envint.2026.110472","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Fine particulate matter (PM_2.5) remains a major air-quality and public-health concern despite increasingly stringent emission regulations. While PM_2.5 pollution has been extensively studied in urban and industrial regions, severe episodes in remote communities remain poorly characterized. Using observations from the Canadian National Air Pollution Surveillance (NAPS) network, we identified severe PM_2.5 pollution episodes in two remote mountain communities in British Columbia, Canada. These episodes were associated primarily with residential space-heating emissions during winter and episodic wildfire smoke impacts during summer. Wintertime daily PM_2.5 exceedance frequencies varied substantially among years, reaching seasonal maxima of approximately 30%. Winter exceedances exhibited recurrent nocturnal episodes of rapid PM_2.5 accumulation under low wind speeds, occurring at consistent times of day but with highly variable hourly growth rates. This behavior is consistent with a dominant contribution from primary emissions, particularly condensable particulate matter (CPM) formed during the early evolution of residential-combustion plumes under subzero conditions. Regression analyses suggested that CPM contributions may increase by as much as ∼100 μg m⁻³ as ambient temperature decreased from 0 °C to −30 °C. Paired PM_2.5 and PM₁₀ measurements further revealed substantial evaporation of semi-volatile CPM during plume transport, implying that wintertime PM_2.5 variability was governed largely by the accumulation and partial evaporation of primary particulate matter. In the absence of concurrent PM_2.5 chemical composition measurements at the two study sites, chemical composition data from other NAPS sites were used to provide supplementary evidence for the analysis. The findings obtained from this study highlight the importance of improving CPM quantification under subzero conditions for effective air-quality management in cold-climate communities.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":308,"journal":{"name":"Environment International","volume":"215 ","pages":"Article 110472"},"PeriodicalIF":10.2,"publicationDate":"2026-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148853314","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":"Repeated oral exposure to polyethylene microplastics induces thyroid toxicity in rats: Evidence from in vivo toxicokinetics and multi-omics analyses","authors":"Tingting Sun,&nbsp;Xinyu Yang,&nbsp;Zhixiong Zhong,&nbsp;Shicong Yang,&nbsp;Zhibiao Huang,&nbsp;Guoqun He,&nbsp;Jieling Wang,&nbsp;Yayi Huang,&nbsp;Yuenan Wang,&nbsp;Yujia Jiang,&nbsp;Xianglin Chen,&nbsp;Jiaming Du,&nbsp;Jianbin Tan,&nbsp;Wenjuan Zhang,&nbsp;Min Zhao","doi":"10.1016/j.envint.2026.110499","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envint.2026.110499","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The widespread use and non-biodegradable nature of polyethylene microplastics (PE-MPs) have prompted significant public concern about their safety. However, the mechanisms underlying their adverse effects on human health remain largely elusive. Male rats were orally administered 34-μm PE-MPs via daily gavage for 28 consecutive days, with three dose groups set at 0.6, 6.0, and 60.0 mg/kg body weight (bw), respectively. The results showed that exposure to PE-MPs induced a decrease in serum triiodothyronine (T3) levels, accompanied by an increased incidence of thyroid follicular dilation, both of which displayed a distinct dose–response relationship. The 28-day oral toxicity study in male rats identified a no-observed-adverse-effect level (NOAEL) of 0.6 mg/kg bw and a lowest-observed-adverse-effect level (LOAEL) of 6.0 mg/kg bw for PE-MPs, corresponding to approximately 10 and 100 times the estimated daily human intake of microplastics, respectively. Toxicokinetics revealed that PE-MPs were absorbed and markedly accumulated in major organs, and the organ burdens correlated strongly with the severity of thyroid toxicity. Integrative multi-omics analysis implied that PE-MPs exposure altered the expression of thyroid toxicity-related genes <em>Ddit3</em>, <em>Zbtb16</em> and the levels of associated metabolites. This study provides exploratory experimental evidence identifying the thyroid as a target organ for PE-MPs-induced toxicity. It should be noted that conclusions drawn from multi-omics and toxicokinetic analyses are limited by the relatively small sample size in the present work. Further validation with larger sample sizes is required in future studies. These findings contribute valuable<!--> <!-->data to human health risk assessment and regulatory oversight of PE-MPs.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":308,"journal":{"name":"Environment International","volume":"215 ","pages":"Article 110499"},"PeriodicalIF":10.2,"publicationDate":"2026-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148878607","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":"Cross-sectional and longitudinal relationships between exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls and predicted 10-year atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease risk: Integrated epidemiological and bioinformatics analysis","authors":"Yuxin Yao,&nbsp;Bingdong Chen,&nbsp;Jianghong Dai,&nbsp;Ruyi Liang,&nbsp;Jiake Zhang,&nbsp;Mengyi Wang,&nbsp;Qiyou Tan,&nbsp;Xuejie Ding,&nbsp;Yanjun Guo,&nbsp;Dongming Wang,&nbsp;Bin Wang,&nbsp;Haoyu Yin,&nbsp;Bingxin Shang,&nbsp;Xiaojie You,&nbsp;Jixuan Ma,&nbsp;Min Zhou,&nbsp;Weihong Chen","doi":"10.1016/j.envint.2026.110493","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.envint.2026.110493","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are persistent organic pollutants of global concern, yet their associations with predicted cardiovascular risk remain unclear. In this prospective Wuhan-Zhuhai cohort study, concentrations of seven serum PCBs (PCB-28, 52, 101, 118, 138, 153, and 180) were measured using GC–MS/MS. The validated China-PAR equation was used to calculate predicted 10-year atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) risk, and urinary 8-<em>iso</em>-prostaglandin F2α (8-<em>iso</em>-PGF_2α) served as a marker of oxidative stress. Multivariable linear and logistic regression models were fitted to evaluate PCB-related differences in continuous predicted risk and predicted high-risk status. Cross-sectionally, each one-unit increase in ln-transformed PCB-118, PCB-138, PCB-153, and ΣPCB was associated with 1.249-, 1.253-, 1.457-, and 1.829-percentage-point higher predicted 10-year ASCVD risk, respectively (all <em>P</em> &lt; 0.05). The associations for PCB-118, PCB-138, and PCB-153 remained significant after FDR correction. Longitudinally, persistent high PCB-118 exposure was associated with a 0.510 percentage-point greater increase in predicted 10-year ASCVD risk (95 % confidence interval [CI]: 0.023–0.996, <em>P</em> &lt; 0.05) and a higher risk of transitioning to predicted high-risk status (RR = 1.432, 95 % CI: 1.012–2.027, <em>P</em> &lt; 0.05) compared with persistent low exposure, although neither association remained significant after FDR correction. Exploratory mediation analysis suggested that urinary 8-<em>iso</em>-PGF_2α was statistically consistent with partial indirect pathways for the associations, with estimated indirect proportions ranging from 3.29 % to 11.62 %. Database-derived bioinformatics analyses highlighted <em>TNF</em>/<em>NF-κB/IL-17</em> pathways and identified <em>IL-6</em>, <em>TNF</em>, <em>IL-1β</em>, and <em>ICAM1</em> as candidate hub genes. Overall, several PCB measures were cross-sectionally associated with higher predicted ASCVD risk, whereas longitudinal evidence was limited and was strongest for persistent high PCB-118 exposure. Exploratory mediation and bioinformatics findings highlighted possible oxidative-stress and inflammation-related pathways that require further validation.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":308,"journal":{"name":"Environment International","volume":"215 ","pages":"Article 110493"},"PeriodicalIF":10.2,"publicationDate":"2026-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148883850","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}