1
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Lai Y, Koelmel JP, Walker DI, Price EJ, Papazian S, Manz KE, Castilla-Fernández D, Bowden JA, Nikiforov V, David A, Bessonneau V, Amer B, Seethapathy S, Hu X, Lin EZ, Jbebli A, McNeil BR, Barupal D, Cerasa M, Xie H, Kalia V, Nandakumar R, Singh R, Tian Z, Gao P, Zhao Y, Froment J, Rostkowski P, Dubey S, Coufalíková K, Seličová H, Hecht H, Liu S, Udhani HH, Restituito S, Tchou-Wong KM, Lu K, Martin JW, Warth B, Godri Pollitt KJ, Klánová J, Fiehn O, Metz TO, Pennell KD, Jones DP, Miller GW. High-Resolution Mass Spectrometry for Human Exposomics: Expanding Chemical Space Coverage. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 2024; 58:12784-12822. [PMID: 38984754 PMCID: PMC11271014 DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.4c01156] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/01/2024] [Revised: 06/11/2024] [Accepted: 06/12/2024] [Indexed: 07/11/2024]
Abstract
In the modern "omics" era, measurement of the human exposome is a critical missing link between genetic drivers and disease outcomes. High-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS), routinely used in proteomics and metabolomics, has emerged as a leading technology to broadly profile chemical exposure agents and related biomolecules for accurate mass measurement, high sensitivity, rapid data acquisition, and increased resolution of chemical space. Non-targeted approaches are increasingly accessible, supporting a shift from conventional hypothesis-driven, quantitation-centric targeted analyses toward data-driven, hypothesis-generating chemical exposome-wide profiling. However, HRMS-based exposomics encounters unique challenges. New analytical and computational infrastructures are needed to expand the analysis coverage through streamlined, scalable, and harmonized workflows and data pipelines that permit longitudinal chemical exposome tracking, retrospective validation, and multi-omics integration for meaningful health-oriented inferences. In this article, we survey the literature on state-of-the-art HRMS-based technologies, review current analytical workflows and informatic pipelines, and provide an up-to-date reference on exposomic approaches for chemists, toxicologists, epidemiologists, care providers, and stakeholders in health sciences and medicine. We propose efforts to benchmark fit-for-purpose platforms for expanding coverage of chemical space, including gas/liquid chromatography-HRMS (GC-HRMS and LC-HRMS), and discuss opportunities, challenges, and strategies to advance the burgeoning field of the exposome.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yunjia Lai
- Department
of Environmental Health Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, New York 10032, United States
| | - Jeremy P. Koelmel
- Department
of Environmental Health Sciences, Yale School
of Public Health, New Haven, Connecticut 06520, United States
| | - Douglas I. Walker
- Gangarosa
Department of Environmental Health, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia 30322, United States
| | - Elliott J. Price
- RECETOX,
Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Kotlářská 2, 611 37 Brno, Czech Republic
| | - Stefano Papazian
- Department
of Environmental Science, Science for Life Laboratory, Stockholm University, SE-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden
- National
Facility for Exposomics, Metabolomics Platform, Science for Life Laboratory, Stockholm University, Solna 171 65, Sweden
| | - Katherine E. Manz
- Department
of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, United States
| | - Delia Castilla-Fernández
- Department
of Food Chemistry and Toxicology, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Vienna, 1010 Vienna, Austria
| | - John A. Bowden
- Center for
Environmental and Human Toxicology, Department of Physiological Sciences,
College of Veterinary Medicine, University
of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611, United States
| | | | - Arthur David
- Univ Rennes,
Inserm, EHESP, Irset (Institut de recherche en santé, environnement
et travail) − UMR_S, 1085 Rennes, France
| | - Vincent Bessonneau
- Univ Rennes,
Inserm, EHESP, Irset (Institut de recherche en santé, environnement
et travail) − UMR_S, 1085 Rennes, France
| | - Bashar Amer
- Thermo
Fisher Scientific, San Jose, California 95134, United States
| | | | - Xin Hu
- Gangarosa
Department of Environmental Health, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia 30322, United States
| | - Elizabeth Z. Lin
- Department
of Environmental Health Sciences, Yale School
of Public Health, New Haven, Connecticut 06520, United States
| | - Akrem Jbebli
- RECETOX,
Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Kotlářská 2, 611 37 Brno, Czech Republic
| | - Brooklynn R. McNeil
- Biomarkers
Core Laboratory, Irving Institute for Clinical and Translational Research, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, New York 10032, United States
| | - Dinesh Barupal
- Department
of Environmental Medicine and Public Health, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York 10029, United States
| | - Marina Cerasa
- Institute
of Atmospheric Pollution Research, Italian National Research Council, 00015 Monterotondo, Rome, Italy
| | - Hongyu Xie
- Department
of Environmental Science, Science for Life Laboratory, Stockholm University, SE-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Vrinda Kalia
- Department
of Environmental Health Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, New York 10032, United States
| | - Renu Nandakumar
- Biomarkers
Core Laboratory, Irving Institute for Clinical and Translational Research, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, New York 10032, United States
| | - Randolph Singh
- Department
of Environmental Health Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, New York 10032, United States
| | - Zhenyu Tian
- Department
of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Northeastern
University, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, United States
| | - Peng Gao
- Department
of Environmental and Occupational Health, and Department of Civil
and Environmental Engineering, University
of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15261, United States
- UPMC Hillman
Cancer Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15232, United States
| | - Yujia Zhao
- Institute
for Risk Assessment Sciences, Utrecht University, Utrecht 3584CM, The Netherlands
| | | | | | - Saurabh Dubey
- Biomarkers
Core Laboratory, Irving Institute for Clinical and Translational Research, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, New York 10032, United States
| | - Kateřina Coufalíková
- RECETOX,
Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Kotlářská 2, 611 37 Brno, Czech Republic
| | - Hana Seličová
- RECETOX,
Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Kotlářská 2, 611 37 Brno, Czech Republic
| | - Helge Hecht
- RECETOX,
Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Kotlářská 2, 611 37 Brno, Czech Republic
| | - Sheng Liu
- Department
of Environmental Health Sciences, Yale School
of Public Health, New Haven, Connecticut 06520, United States
| | - Hanisha H. Udhani
- Biomarkers
Core Laboratory, Irving Institute for Clinical and Translational Research, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, New York 10032, United States
| | - Sophie Restituito
- Department
of Environmental Health Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, New York 10032, United States
| | - Kam-Meng Tchou-Wong
- Department
of Environmental Health Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, New York 10032, United States
| | - Kun Lu
- Department
of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Gillings School of Global
Public Health, The University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599, United States
| | - Jonathan W. Martin
- Department
of Environmental Science, Science for Life Laboratory, Stockholm University, SE-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden
- National
Facility for Exposomics, Metabolomics Platform, Science for Life Laboratory, Stockholm University, Solna 171 65, Sweden
| | - Benedikt Warth
- Department
of Food Chemistry and Toxicology, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Vienna, 1010 Vienna, Austria
| | - Krystal J. Godri Pollitt
- Department
of Environmental Health Sciences, Yale School
of Public Health, New Haven, Connecticut 06520, United States
| | - Jana Klánová
- RECETOX,
Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Kotlářská 2, 611 37 Brno, Czech Republic
| | - Oliver Fiehn
- West Coast
Metabolomics Center, University of California−Davis, Davis, California 95616, United States
| | - Thomas O. Metz
- Biological
Sciences Division, Pacific Northwest National
Laboratory, Richland, Washington 99354, United States
| | - Kurt D. Pennell
- School
of Engineering, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island 02912, United States
| | - Dean P. Jones
- Department
of Medicine, School of Medicine, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia 30322, United States
| | - Gary W. Miller
- Department
of Environmental Health Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, New York 10032, United States
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2
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Carlin DJ, Rider CV. Combined Exposures and Mixtures Research: An Enduring NIEHS Priority. ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH PERSPECTIVES 2024; 132:75001. [PMID: 38968090 PMCID: PMC11225971 DOI: 10.1289/ehp14340] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/21/2023] [Revised: 04/25/2024] [Accepted: 06/12/2024] [Indexed: 07/07/2024]
Abstract
BACKGROUND The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) continues to prioritize research to better understand the health effects resulting from exposure to mixtures of chemical and nonchemical stressors. Mixtures research activities over the last decade were informed by expert input during the development and deliberations of the 2011 NIEHS Workshop "Advancing Research on Mixtures: New Perspectives and Approaches for Predicting Adverse Human Health Effects." NIEHS mixtures research efforts since then have focused on key themes including a) prioritizing mixtures for study, b) translating mixtures data from in vitro and in vivo studies, c) developing cross-disciplinary collaborations, d) informing component-based and whole-mixture assessment approaches, e) developing sufficient similarity methods to compare across complex mixtures, f) using systems-based approaches to evaluate mixtures, and g) focusing on management and integration of mixtures-related data. OBJECTIVES We aimed to describe NIEHS driven research on mixtures and combined exposures over the last decade and present areas for future attention. RESULTS Intramural and extramural mixtures research projects have incorporated a diverse array of chemicals (e.g., polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, botanicals, personal care products, wildfire emissions) and nonchemical stressors (e.g., socioeconomic factors, social adversity) and have focused on many diseases (e.g., breast cancer, atherosclerosis, immune disruption). We have made significant progress in certain areas, such as developing statistical methods for evaluating multiple chemical associations in epidemiology and building translational mixtures projects that include both in vitro and in vivo models. DISCUSSION Moving forward, additional work is needed to improve mixtures data integration, elucidate interactions between chemical and nonchemical stressors, and resolve the geospatial and temporal nature of mixture exposures. Continued mixtures research will be critical to informing cumulative impact assessments and addressing complex challenges, such as environmental justice and climate change. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP14340.
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Affiliation(s)
- Danielle J. Carlin
- Division of Extramural Research and Training, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, USA
| | - Cynthia V. Rider
- Division of Translational Toxicology, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, USA
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3
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Amadou A, Giampiccolo C, Bibi Ngaleu F, Praud D, Coudon T, Grassot L, Faure E, Couvidat F, Frenoy P, Severi G, Romana Mancini F, Roy P, Fervers B. Multiple xenoestrogen air pollutants and breast cancer risk: Statistical approaches to investigate combined exposures effect. ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION (BARKING, ESSEX : 1987) 2024; 351:124043. [PMID: 38679129 DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2024.124043] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/07/2023] [Revised: 02/10/2024] [Accepted: 04/23/2024] [Indexed: 05/01/2024]
Abstract
Studies suggested that exposure to air pollutants, with endocrine disrupting (ED) properties, have a key role in breast cancer (BC) development. Although the population is exposed simultaneously to a mixture of multiple pollutants and ED pollutants may act via common biological mechanisms leading to synergic effects, epidemiological studies generally evaluate the effect of each pollutant separately. We aimed to assess the complex effect of exposure to a mixture of four xenoestrogen air pollutants (benzo-[a]-pyrene (BaP), cadmium, dioxin (2,3,7,8-Tétrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin TCDD)), and polychlorinated biphenyl 153 (PCB153)) on the risk of BC, using three recent statistical methods, namely weighted quantile sum (WQS), quantile g-computation (QGC) and Bayesian kernel machine regression (BKMR). The study was conducted on 5222 cases and 5222 matched controls nested within the French prospective E3N cohort initiated in 1990. Annual average exposure estimates to the pollutants were assessed using a chemistry transport model, at the participants' residence address between 1990 and 2011. We found a positive association between the WQS index of the joint effect and the risk of overall BC (adjusted odds ratio (OR) = 1.10, 95% confidence intervals (CI): 1.03-1.19). Similar results were found for QGC (OR = 1.11, 95%CI: 1.03-1.19). Despite the association did not reach statistical significance in the BKMR model, we observed an increasing trend between the joint effect of the four pollutants and the risk of BC, when fixing other chemicals at their median concentrations. BaP, cadmium and PCB153 also showed positive trends in the multi-pollutant mixture, while dioxin showed a modest inverse trend. Despite we found a clear evidence of a positive association between the joint exposure to pollutants and BC risk only from WQS and QGC regression, we observed a similar suggestive trend using BKMR. This study makes a major contribution to the understanding of the joint effects of air pollution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Amina Amadou
- Department of Prevention Cancer Environment, Centre Léon Bérard, Lyon, France; Inserm U1296 Radiations: Défense, Santé, Environnement, Lyon, France.
| | - Camille Giampiccolo
- Department of Prevention Cancer Environment, Centre Léon Bérard, Lyon, France; Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Lyon, France; Service de Biostatistique-Bioinformatique, Pole Sante Publique, Hospices Civils de Lyon, Lyon, France; Laboratoire de Biometrie Et Biologie Evolutive, CNRS UMR 5558, Villeurbanne, France
| | - Fabiola Bibi Ngaleu
- Department of Prevention Cancer Environment, Centre Léon Bérard, Lyon, France; Inserm U1296 Radiations: Défense, Santé, Environnement, Lyon, France; Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Lyon, France
| | - Delphine Praud
- Department of Prevention Cancer Environment, Centre Léon Bérard, Lyon, France; Inserm U1296 Radiations: Défense, Santé, Environnement, Lyon, France
| | - Thomas Coudon
- Department of Prevention Cancer Environment, Centre Léon Bérard, Lyon, France; Inserm U1296 Radiations: Défense, Santé, Environnement, Lyon, France
| | - Lény Grassot
- Department of Prevention Cancer Environment, Centre Léon Bérard, Lyon, France; Inserm U1296 Radiations: Défense, Santé, Environnement, Lyon, France
| | - Elodie Faure
- Centre de Recherche en Epidémiologie et Santé des Populations (CESP, Inserm U1018), Facultés de Médecine, Université Paris-Saclay, UPS UVSQ, Gustave Roussy, Villejuif, France
| | - Florian Couvidat
- National Institute for industrial Environment and Risks (INERIS), Verneuil-en-Halatte, France
| | - Pauline Frenoy
- Centre de Recherche en Epidémiologie et Santé des Populations (CESP, Inserm U1018), Facultés de Médecine, Université Paris-Saclay, UPS UVSQ, Gustave Roussy, Villejuif, France
| | - Gianluca Severi
- Centre de Recherche en Epidémiologie et Santé des Populations (CESP, Inserm U1018), Facultés de Médecine, Université Paris-Saclay, UPS UVSQ, Gustave Roussy, Villejuif, France; Department of Statistics, Computer Science and Applications (DISIA), University of Florence, Italy
| | - Francesca Romana Mancini
- Centre de Recherche en Epidémiologie et Santé des Populations (CESP, Inserm U1018), Facultés de Médecine, Université Paris-Saclay, UPS UVSQ, Gustave Roussy, Villejuif, France.
| | - Pascal Roy
- Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Lyon, France; Service de Biostatistique-Bioinformatique, Pole Sante Publique, Hospices Civils de Lyon, Lyon, France; Laboratoire de Biometrie Et Biologie Evolutive, CNRS UMR 5558, Villeurbanne, France
| | - Béatrice Fervers
- Department of Prevention Cancer Environment, Centre Léon Bérard, Lyon, France; Inserm U1296 Radiations: Défense, Santé, Environnement, Lyon, France.
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4
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Zhu G, Wen Y, Cao K, He S, Wang T. A review of common statistical methods for dealing with multiple pollutant mixtures and multiple exposures. Front Public Health 2024; 12:1377685. [PMID: 38784575 PMCID: PMC11113012 DOI: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1377685] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/28/2024] [Accepted: 04/15/2024] [Indexed: 05/25/2024] Open
Abstract
Traditional environmental epidemiology has consistently focused on studying the impact of single exposures on specific health outcomes, considering concurrent exposures as variables to be controlled. However, with the continuous changes in environment, humans are increasingly facing more complex exposures to multi-pollutant mixtures. In this context, accurately assessing the impact of multi-pollutant mixtures on health has become a central concern in current environmental research. Simultaneously, the continuous development and optimization of statistical methods offer robust support for handling large datasets, strengthening the capability to conduct in-depth research on the effects of multiple exposures on health. In order to examine complicated exposure mixtures, we introduce commonly used statistical methods and their developments, such as weighted quantile sum, bayesian kernel machine regression, toxic equivalency analysis, and others. Delineating their applications, advantages, weaknesses, and interpretability of results. It also provides guidance for researchers involved in studying multi-pollutant mixtures, aiding them in selecting appropriate statistical methods and utilizing R software for more accurate and comprehensive assessments of the impact of multi-pollutant mixtures on human health.
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Affiliation(s)
- Guiming Zhu
- Department of Health Statistics, School of Public Health, Shanxi Medical University, Taiyuan, China
- Key Laboratory of Coal Environmental Pathogenicity and Prevention (Shanxi Medical University), Ministry of Education, Taiyuan, China
| | - Yanchao Wen
- Department of Health Statistics, School of Public Health, Shanxi Medical University, Taiyuan, China
- Key Laboratory of Coal Environmental Pathogenicity and Prevention (Shanxi Medical University), Ministry of Education, Taiyuan, China
| | - Kexin Cao
- Department of Health Statistics, School of Public Health, Shanxi Medical University, Taiyuan, China
- Key Laboratory of Coal Environmental Pathogenicity and Prevention (Shanxi Medical University), Ministry of Education, Taiyuan, China
| | - Simin He
- Department of Health Statistics, School of Public Health, Shanxi Medical University, Taiyuan, China
- Key Laboratory of Coal Environmental Pathogenicity and Prevention (Shanxi Medical University), Ministry of Education, Taiyuan, China
| | - Tong Wang
- Department of Health Statistics, School of Public Health, Shanxi Medical University, Taiyuan, China
- Key Laboratory of Coal Environmental Pathogenicity and Prevention (Shanxi Medical University), Ministry of Education, Taiyuan, China
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5
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Denic-Roberts H, McAdam J, Sjodin A, Davis M, Jones R, Ward MH, Hoang TD, Ma S, Zhang Y, Rusiecki JA. Endocrine disrupting chemical mixture exposure and risk of papillary thyroid cancer in U.S. military personnel: A nested case-control study. THE SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 2024; 922:171342. [PMID: 38428594 PMCID: PMC11034764 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.171342] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/18/2023] [Revised: 02/26/2024] [Accepted: 02/27/2024] [Indexed: 03/03/2024]
Abstract
Single-pollutant methods to evaluate associations between endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) and thyroid cancer risk may not reflect realistic human exposures. Therefore, we evaluated associations between exposure to a mixture of 18 EDCs, including polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), brominated flame retardants, and organochlorine pesticides, and risk of papillary thyroid cancer (PTC), the most common thyroid cancer histological subtype. We conducted a nested case-control study among U.S. military servicemembers of 652 histologically-confirmed PTC cases diagnosed between 2000 and 2013 and 652 controls, matched on birth year, sex, race/ethnicity, military component (active duty/reserve), and serum sample timing. We estimated mixture odds ratios (OR), 95% confidence intervals (95% CI), and standard errors (SE) for associations between pre-diagnostic serum EDC mixture concentrations, overall PTC risk, and risk of histological subtypes of PTC (classical, follicular), adjusted for body mass index and military branch, using quantile g-computation. Additionally, we identified relative contributions of individual mixture components to PTC risk, represented by positive and negative weights (w). A one-quartile increase in the serum mixture concentration was associated with a non-statistically significant increase in overall PTC risk (OR = 1.19; 95% CI = 0.91, 1.56; SE = 0.14). Stratified by histological subtype and race (White, Black), a one-quartile increase in the mixture was associated with increased classical PTC risk among those of White race (OR = 1.59; 95% CI = 1.06, 2.40; SE = 0.21), but not of Black race (OR = 0.95; 95% CI = 0.34, 2.68; SE = 0.53). PCBs 180, 199, and 118 had the greatest positive weights driving this association among those of White race (w = 0.312, 0.255, and 0.119, respectively). Findings suggest that exposure to an EDC mixture may be associated with increased classical PTC risk. These findings warrant further investigation in other study populations to better understand PTC risk by histological subtype and race.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hristina Denic-Roberts
- Department of Preventive Medicine and Biostatistics, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, MD, USA; Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE), MD, USA
| | - Jordan McAdam
- Department of Preventive Medicine and Biostatistics, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, MD, USA; Murtha Cancer Center Research Program, 4494 North Palmer Road, Bethesda, MD, USA; Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine, 1401 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD, USA
| | - Andreas Sjodin
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Center for Environmental Health (NCEH), Division of Laboratory Sciences (DLS), Organic Analytical Toxicology Branch, 4770 Buford Hwy NE, Atlanta, GA 30341, USA
| | - Mark Davis
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Center for Environmental Health (NCEH), Division of Laboratory Sciences (DLS), Organic Analytical Toxicology Branch, 4770 Buford Hwy NE, Atlanta, GA 30341, USA
| | - Richard Jones
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Center for Environmental Health (NCEH), Division of Laboratory Sciences (DLS), Organic Analytical Toxicology Branch, 4770 Buford Hwy NE, Atlanta, GA 30341, USA
| | - Mary H Ward
- Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, Rockville, MD, USA
| | - Thanh D Hoang
- Division of Endocrinology, Department of Medicine, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Shuangge Ma
- Department of Biostatistics, Yale School of Public Health, New Haven, CT, USA
| | - Yawei Zhang
- Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Yale School of Public Health, New Haven, CT, USA; Department of Cancer Prevention and Control, National Cancer Center/National Clinical Research Center for Cancer/Cancer Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China
| | - Jennifer A Rusiecki
- Department of Preventive Medicine and Biostatistics, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, MD, USA.
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6
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Colvin VC, Bramer LM, Rivera BN, Pennington JM, Waters KM, Tilton SC. Modeling PAH Mixture Interactions in a Human In Vitro Organotypic Respiratory Model. Int J Mol Sci 2024; 25:4326. [PMID: 38673911 PMCID: PMC11050152 DOI: 10.3390/ijms25084326] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/17/2024] [Revised: 04/06/2024] [Accepted: 04/11/2024] [Indexed: 04/28/2024] Open
Abstract
One of the most significant challenges in human health risk assessment is to evaluate hazards from exposure to environmental chemical mixtures. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are a class of ubiquitous contaminants typically found as mixtures in gaseous and particulate phases in ambient air pollution associated with petrochemicals from Superfund sites and the burning of fossil fuels. However, little is understood about how PAHs in mixtures contribute to toxicity in lung cells. To investigate mixture interactions and component additivity from environmentally relevant PAHs, two synthetic mixtures were created from PAHs identified in passive air samplers at a legacy creosote site impacted by wildfires. The primary human bronchial epithelial cells differentiated at the air-liquid interface were treated with PAH mixtures at environmentally relevant proportions and evaluated for the differential expression of transcriptional biomarkers related to xenobiotic metabolism, oxidative stress response, barrier integrity, and DNA damage response. Component additivity was evaluated across all endpoints using two independent action (IA) models with and without the scaling of components by toxic equivalence factors. Both IA models exhibited trends that were unlike the observed mixture response and generally underestimated the toxicity across dose suggesting the potential for non-additive interactions of components. Overall, this study provides an example of the usefulness of mixture toxicity assessment with the currently available methods while demonstrating the need for more complex yet interpretable mixture response evaluation methods for environmental samples.
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Affiliation(s)
- Victoria C. Colvin
- Department of Environmental and Molecular Toxicology, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA
- OSU/PNNL Superfund Research Program, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA
| | - Lisa M. Bramer
- OSU/PNNL Superfund Research Program, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA
- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA 99352, USA
| | - Brianna N. Rivera
- Department of Environmental and Molecular Toxicology, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA
- OSU/PNNL Superfund Research Program, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA
| | - Jamie M. Pennington
- Department of Environmental and Molecular Toxicology, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA
| | - Katrina M. Waters
- OSU/PNNL Superfund Research Program, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA
- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA 99352, USA
| | - Susan C. Tilton
- Department of Environmental and Molecular Toxicology, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA
- OSU/PNNL Superfund Research Program, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA
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7
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Dennis NM, Braun AJ, Gan J. A high-throughput analytical method for complex contaminant mixtures in biosolids. ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION (BARKING, ESSEX : 1987) 2024; 345:123517. [PMID: 38346636 DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2024.123517] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/12/2023] [Revised: 02/04/2024] [Accepted: 02/05/2024] [Indexed: 02/17/2024]
Abstract
Biosolids are rich in organic matter and other nutrients that contribute to environmental and agricultural sustainability by improving soil textural and biological properties and enhancing plant growth when applied to agricultural crops. Land application of biosolids encourages resource recovery and circumvents drawbacks associated with landfilling or incineration. However, biosolids contain numerous chemicals at trace levels, and quantitative analysis of such mixtures in this complex matrix is crucial for understanding and managing application risks. There are currently few analytical methods available that are capable of extracting and quantifying a large range of the emerging contaminants found in biosolids. In this study, a simplified, rapid, and robust method of analysis was developed and validated for a high-priority organic contaminant mixture of 44 endocrine disrupting compounds known to occur in biosolids. Analytes consisted of chemicals from many classes with a wide range of physiochemical properties (e.g., log Kow values from -1.4 to 8.9). The biosolids extraction and cleanup protocol was validated for 42 of the targeted compounds. The UPLC-MS2 parameters were validated for all 44 organic contaminants targeted for study. From the two batches of biosolids tested using this analytical method, most of the targeted contaminants (86%) were detected with 100% frequency at concentrations ranging from 0.036 to 10,226 μg/kg dw. Performance results highlighted that internal standards alone could not negate biosolids matrix effects; thus, internal standards and the standard addition method were used for residue quantification. This was the first study to detect and quantify 6PPD-q in biosolids, and the first to quantify lidocaine and 11 other chemicals in biosolids using a single analytical method. This method may be expanded for analysis of additional chemicals in biosolids and comparable matrices.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicole M Dennis
- Department of Environmental Sciences, University of California - Riverside, 2460B Geology Building, Riverside, CA, 92521, USA.
| | - Audrey J Braun
- Department of Environmental Sciences, University of California - Riverside, 2460B Geology Building, Riverside, CA, 92521, USA
| | - Jay Gan
- Department of Environmental Sciences, University of California - Riverside, 2460B Geology Building, Riverside, CA, 92521, USA
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Hyland C, McConnell K, DeYoung E, Curl CL. Evaluating the accuracy of satellite-based methods to estimate residential proximity to agricultural crops. JOURNAL OF EXPOSURE SCIENCE & ENVIRONMENTAL EPIDEMIOLOGY 2024; 34:294-307. [PMID: 36002734 PMCID: PMC9950293 DOI: 10.1038/s41370-022-00467-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/19/2022] [Revised: 08/08/2022] [Accepted: 08/09/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Epidemiologic investigations increasingly employ remote sensing data to estimate residential proximity to agriculture as a means of approximating individual-level pesticide exposure. Few studies have examined the accuracy of these methods and the implications for exposure misclassification. OBJECTIVES Compare metrics of residential proximity to agricultural land between a groundtruth approach and commonly-used satellite-based estimates. METHODS We inspected 349 fields and identified crops in current production within a 0.5 km radius of 40 residences in Idaho. We calculated the distance from each home to the nearest agricultural field and the total acreage of agricultural fields within a 0.5 km buffer. We compared these groundtruth estimates to satellite-derived estimates from three widely used datasets: CropScape, the National Land Cover Database (NLCD), and Landsat imagery (using Normalized Difference Vegetation Index thresholds). RESULTS We found poor to moderate agreement between the classification of individuals living within 0.5 km of an agricultural field between the groundtruth method and the comparison datasets (53.1-77.6%). All satellite-derived estimates overestimated the acreage of agricultural land within 0.5 km of each home (average = 82.8-148.9%). Using two satellite-derived datasets in conjunction resulted in substantial improvements; specifically, combining CropScape or NLCD with Landsat imagery had the highest percent agreement with the groundtruth data (92.8-93.8% agreement). SIGNIFICANCE Residential proximity to agriculture is frequently used as a proxy for pesticide exposure in epidemiologic investigations, and remote sensing-derived datasets are often the only practical means of identifying cultivated land. We found that estimates of agricultural proximity obtained from commonly-used satellite-based datasets are likely to result in exposure misclassification. We propose a novel approach that capitalizes on the complementary strengths of different sources of satellite imagery, and suggest the combined use of one dataset with high temporal resolution (e.g., Landsat imagery) in conjunction with a second dataset that delineates agricultural land use (e.g., CropScape or NLCD).
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Affiliation(s)
- Carly Hyland
- School of Public and Population Health, Boise State University, Boise, ID, USA.
| | | | - Edwin DeYoung
- Department of Geosciences, Boise State University, Boise, ID, USA
| | - Cynthia L Curl
- School of Public and Population Health, Boise State University, Boise, ID, USA
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9
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Issah I, Duah MS, Arko-Mensah J, Bawua SA, Agyekum TP, Fobil JN. Exposure to metal mixtures and adverse pregnancy and birth outcomes: A systematic review. THE SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 2024; 908:168380. [PMID: 37963536 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.168380] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/30/2023] [Revised: 11/04/2023] [Accepted: 11/04/2023] [Indexed: 11/16/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Prenatal exposure to metal mixtures is associated with adverse pregnancy and birth outcomes like low birth weight, preterm birth, and small for gestational age. However, prior studies have used individual metal analysis, lacking real-life exposure scenarios. OBJECTIVES This systematic review aims to evaluate the strength and consistency of the association between metal mixtures and pregnancy and birth outcomes, identify research gaps, and inform future studies and policies in this area. METHODS The review adhered to the updated Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-analysis (PRISMA) checklist, along with the guidelines for conducting systematic reviews and meta-analyses of observational studies of etiology (COSMOS-E). Our data collection involved searching the PubMed, MEDLINE, and SCOPUS databases. We utilized inclusion criteria to identify relevant studies. These chosen studies underwent thorough screening and data extraction procedures. Methodological quality evaluations were conducted using the NOS framework for cohort and case-control studies, and the AXIS tool for cross-sectional studies. RESULTS The review included 34 epidemiological studies, half of which focused on birth weight, and the others investigated neonate size, preterm birth, small for gestational age, miscarriage, and placental characteristics. The findings revealed significant associations between metal mixtures (including mercury (Hg), nickel (Ni), arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), manganese (Mn), cobalt (Co), lead (Pb), zinc (Zn), barium (Ba), cesium (Cs), copper (Cu), selenium (Se), and chromium (Cr)) and adverse pregnancy and birth outcomes, demonstrating diverse effects and potential interactions. CONCLUSION In conclusion, this review consistently establishes connections between metal exposure during pregnancy and adverse consequences for birth weight, gestational age, and other vital birth-related metrics. This review further demonstrates the need to apply mixture methods with caution but also shows that they can be superior to traditional approaches. Further research is warranted to deeper understand the underlying mechanisms and to develop effective strategies for mitigating the potential risks associated with metal mixture exposure during pregnancy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ibrahim Issah
- West Africa Center for Global Environmental & Occupational Health, College of Health Sciences, University of Ghana, Legon, Accra, Ghana; Department of Surgery, Tamale Teaching Hospital, Tamale, Ghana.
| | - Mabel S Duah
- West Africa Center for Global Environmental & Occupational Health, College of Health Sciences, University of Ghana, Legon, Accra, Ghana; Department of Biological, Environmental and Occupational Health, School of Public Health, College of Health Sciences, University of Ghana, Legon, Accra, Ghana; West African Center for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens, College of Basic and Applied Sciences, University of Ghana, Legon, Accra, Ghana
| | - John Arko-Mensah
- West Africa Center for Global Environmental & Occupational Health, College of Health Sciences, University of Ghana, Legon, Accra, Ghana; Department of Biological, Environmental and Occupational Health, School of Public Health, College of Health Sciences, University of Ghana, Legon, Accra, Ghana
| | - Serwaa A Bawua
- West Africa Center for Global Environmental & Occupational Health, College of Health Sciences, University of Ghana, Legon, Accra, Ghana; Department of Biological, Environmental and Occupational Health, School of Public Health, College of Health Sciences, University of Ghana, Legon, Accra, Ghana
| | - Thomas P Agyekum
- Department of Occupational and Environmental Health and Safety, School of Public Health, College of Health Sciences, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi 00233, Ghana
| | - Julius N Fobil
- West Africa Center for Global Environmental & Occupational Health, College of Health Sciences, University of Ghana, Legon, Accra, Ghana; Department of Biological, Environmental and Occupational Health, School of Public Health, College of Health Sciences, University of Ghana, Legon, Accra, Ghana
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10
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Bravo MA, Zephyr D, Fiffer MR, Miranda ML. Weekly prenatal PM 2.5 and NO 2 exposures in preterm, early term, and full term infants: Decrements in birth weight and critical windows of susceptibility. ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH 2024; 240:117509. [PMID: 37890819 PMCID: PMC10842146 DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2023.117509] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/31/2023] [Revised: 10/13/2023] [Accepted: 10/24/2023] [Indexed: 10/29/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Previous studies have observed associations between birth weight and prenatal air pollution exposure, but there is not consensus on timing of critical windows of susceptibility. OBJECTIVE We estimated the difference in birth weight among preterm, early term and full term births associated with weekly exposure to PM2.5 and NO2 throughout gestation. METHODS We included all singleton live births in the Lower Peninsula of Michigan (United States) between 2007 and 2012 occurring at or after 32 weeks gestational age (n = 497,897). Weekly ambient PM2.5 and NO2 concentrations were estimated at maternal residences using 1-km gridded data from ensemble-based models. We utilized a distributed lag nonlinear model to estimate the difference in birth weight associated with weekly exposures from the last menstrual period (week 0) through 31 weeks gestation for preterm births; through 36 weeks gestation for early term births; and through 38 weeks gestation for full term births. RESULTS In single-pollutant models, a 5 μg/m3 increase in PM2.5 exposure was associated with a reduction in birth weight among preterm births (-37.1 g [95% confidence interval [CI]: 60.8 g, -13.5 g]); early term births (-13.5 g [95% CI: 26.2 g, -0.67 g]); and full term births (-8.23 g [95% CI: 15.8 g, -0.68 g])]. In single-pollutant models, a 10 ppb increase in NO2 exposure was associated with a -11.7 g (95% CI: 14.46 g, -8.92 g) decrement in birth weight among full term births only. In models co-adjusted for PM2.5 and NO2, PM2.5 exposure was associated with reduced birth weight among preterm births (-36.9 g [95% CI: 61.9 g, -11.8 g]) and NO2 exposure was associated with reduced birth weight among full term births (-11.8 g [95% CI: 14.7 g, -8.94 g]). The largest decrements in birth weight were associated with PM2.5 exposure between approximately 10 and 26 weeks of pregnancy; for NO2 exposure, the largest decrements in birth weight in full term births were associated with exposure between weeks 6-18. CONCLUSION We observed the largest and most persistent adverse associations between PM2.5 exposure and birth weight in preterm infants, and between NO2 exposure and birth weight in full term infants. Exposure during the first half of pregnancy had a greater impact on birthweight.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mercedes A Bravo
- Global Health Institute, School of Medicine, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA; Children's Environmental Health Initiative, University of Illinois Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.
| | - Dominique Zephyr
- Children's Environmental Health Initiative, University of Illinois Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
| | - Melissa R Fiffer
- Children's Environmental Health Initiative, University of Illinois Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
| | - Marie Lynn Miranda
- Children's Environmental Health Initiative, University of Illinois Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA; Department of Pediatrics, University of Illinois Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
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11
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Jackson-Browne MS, Patti MA, Henderson NB, Hauptman M, Phipatanakul W. Asthma and Environmental Exposures to Phenols, Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons, and Phthalates in Children. Curr Environ Health Rep 2023; 10:469-477. [PMID: 37973722 PMCID: PMC10877704 DOI: 10.1007/s40572-023-00417-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 10/24/2023] [Indexed: 11/19/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Medina S Jackson-Browne
- Division of General Pediatrics, Boston Children's Hospital, Member of the Faculty, Harvard Medical School, 300 Longwood Avenue, LM 7605.1, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.
- Harvard Medical School, Harvard University, Boston, MA, USA.
| | - Marisa A Patti
- AJ Drexel Autism Institute, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Noelle B Henderson
- Department of Environmental Health, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Marissa Hauptman
- Division of General Pediatrics, Boston Children's Hospital, Member of the Faculty, Harvard Medical School, 300 Longwood Avenue, LM 7605.1, Boston, MA, 02115, USA
- Harvard Medical School, Harvard University, Boston, MA, USA
- New England Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Wanda Phipatanakul
- Harvard Medical School, Harvard University, Boston, MA, USA
- Division of Allergy and Immunology, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
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12
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Martinez-Morata I, Sobel M, Tellez-Plaza M, Navas-Acien A, Howe CG, Sanchez TR. A State-of-the-Science Review on Metal Biomarkers. Curr Environ Health Rep 2023; 10:215-249. [PMID: 37337116 PMCID: PMC10822714 DOI: 10.1007/s40572-023-00402-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 33] [Impact Index Per Article: 33.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 05/26/2023] [Indexed: 06/21/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE OF REVIEW Biomarkers are commonly used in epidemiological studies to assess metals and metalloid exposure and estimate internal dose, as they integrate multiple sources and routes of exposure. Researchers are increasingly using multi-metal panels and innovative statistical methods to understand how exposure to real-world metal mixtures affects human health. Metals have both common and unique sources and routes of exposure, as well as biotransformation and elimination pathways. The development of multi-element analytical technology allows researchers to examine a broad spectrum of metals in their studies; however, their interpretation is complex as they can reflect different windows of exposure and several biomarkers have critical limitations. This review elaborates on more than 500 scientific publications to discuss major sources of exposure, biotransformation and elimination, and biomarkers of exposure and internal dose for 12 metals/metalloids, including 8 non-essential elements (arsenic, barium, cadmium, lead, mercury, nickel, tin, uranium) and 4 essential elements (manganese, molybdenum, selenium, and zinc) commonly used in multi-element analyses. RECENT FINDINGS We conclude that not all metal biomarkers are adequate measures of exposure and that understanding the metabolic biotransformation and elimination of metals is key to metal biomarker interpretation. For example, whole blood is a good biomarker of exposure to arsenic, cadmium, lead, mercury, and tin, but it is not a good indicator for barium, nickel, and uranium. For some essential metals, the interpretation of whole blood biomarkers is unclear. Urine is the most commonly used biomarker of exposure across metals but it should not be used to assess lead exposure. Essential metals such as zinc and manganese are tightly regulated by homeostatic processes; thus, elevated levels in urine may reflect body loss and metabolic processes rather than excess exposure. Total urinary arsenic may reflect exposure to both organic and inorganic arsenic, thus, arsenic speciation and adjustment for arsebonetaine are needed in populations with dietary seafood consumption. Hair and nails primarily reflect exposure to organic mercury, except in populations exposed to high levels of inorganic mercury such as in occupational and environmental settings. When selecting biomarkers, it is also critical to consider the exposure window of interest. Most populations are chronically exposed to metals in the low-to-moderate range, yet many biomarkers reflect recent exposures. Toenails are emerging biomarkers in this regard. They are reliable biomarkers of long-term exposure for arsenic, mercury, manganese, and selenium. However, more research is needed to understand the role of nails as a biomarker of exposure to other metals. Similarly, teeth are increasingly used to assess lifelong exposures to several essential and non-essential metals such as lead, including during the prenatal window. As metals epidemiology moves towards embracing a multi-metal/mixtures approach and expanding metal panels to include less commonly studied metals, it is important for researchers to have a strong knowledge base about the metal biomarkers included in their research. This review aims to aid metals researchers in their analysis planning, facilitate sound analytical decision-making, as well as appropriate understanding and interpretation of results.
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Affiliation(s)
- Irene Martinez-Morata
- Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, 722 West 168th Street, 1107, New York, NY, 10032, USA.
| | - Marisa Sobel
- Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, 722 West 168th Street, 1107, New York, NY, 10032, USA
| | - Maria Tellez-Plaza
- Centro Nacional de Epidemiología, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain
| | - Ana Navas-Acien
- Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, 722 West 168th Street, 1107, New York, NY, 10032, USA
| | - Caitlin G Howe
- Department of Epidemiology, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Lebanon, NH, USA
| | - Tiffany R Sanchez
- Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, 722 West 168th Street, 1107, New York, NY, 10032, USA
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Weyde KVF, Winterton A, Surén P, Andersen GL, Vik T, Biele G, Knutsen HK, Thomsen C, Meltzer HM, Skogheim TS, Engel SM, Aase H, Villanger GD. Association between gestational levels of toxic metals and essential elements and cerebral palsy in children. Front Neurol 2023; 14:1124943. [PMID: 37662050 PMCID: PMC10470125 DOI: 10.3389/fneur.2023.1124943] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/16/2022] [Accepted: 07/11/2023] [Indexed: 09/05/2023] Open
Abstract
Introduction Cerebral palsy (CP) is the most common motor disability in childhood, but its causes are only partly known. Early-life exposure to toxic metals and inadequate or excess amounts of essential elements can adversely affect brain and nervous system development. However, little is still known about these as perinatal risk factors for CP. This study aims to investigate the associations between second trimester maternal blood levels of toxic metals, essential elements, and mixtures thereof, with CP diagnoses in children. Methods In a large, population-based prospective birth cohort (The Norwegian Mother, Father, and Child Cohort Study), children with CP diagnoses were identified through The Norwegian Patient Registry and Cerebral Palsy Registry of Norway. One hundred forty-four children with CP and 1,082 controls were included. The relationship between maternal blood concentrations of five toxic metals and six essential elements and CP diagnoses were investigated using mixture approaches: elastic net with stability selection to identify important metals/elements in the mixture in relation to CP; then logistic regressions of the selected metals/elements to estimate odds ratio (OR) of CP and two-way interactions among metals/elements and with child sex and maternal education. Finally, the joint effects of the mixtures on CP diagnoses were estimated using quantile-based g-computation analyses. Results The essential elements manganese and copper, as well as the toxic metal Hg, were the most important in relation to CP. Elevated maternal levels of copper (OR = 1.40) and manganese (OR = 1.20) were associated with increased risk of CP, while Hg levels were, counterintuitively, inversely related to CP. Metal/element interactions that were associated with CP were observed, and that sex and maternal education influenced the relationships between metals/elements and CP. In the joint mixture approach no significant association between the mixture of metals/elements and CP (OR = 1.00, 95% CI = [0.67, 1.50]) was identified. Conclusion Using mixture approaches, elevated levels of copper and manganese measured in maternal blood during the second trimester could be related to increased risk of CP in children. The inverse associations between maternal Hg and CP could reflect Hg as a marker of maternal fish intake and thus nutrients beneficial for foetal brain development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kjell Vegard F. Weyde
- Division of Mental and Physical Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway
| | - Adriano Winterton
- Division of Mental and Physical Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway
| | - Pål Surén
- Division of Mental and Physical Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway
| | - Guro L. Andersen
- Department of Clinical and Molecular Medicine, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway
| | - Torstein Vik
- Department of Clinical and Molecular Medicine, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway
| | - Guido Biele
- Division of Mental and Physical Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway
| | - Helle K. Knutsen
- Division of Infection Control and Environmental Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway
| | - Cathrine Thomsen
- Division of Infection Control and Environmental Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway
| | - Helle M. Meltzer
- Division of Infection Control and Environmental Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway
| | - Thea S. Skogheim
- Division of Mental and Physical Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway
| | - Stephanie M. Engel
- Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, United States
| | - Heidi Aase
- Division of Mental and Physical Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway
| | - Gro D. Villanger
- Division of Mental and Physical Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway
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14
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Pavuk M, Rosenbaum PF, Lewin MD, Serio TC, Rago P, Cave MC, Birnbaum LS. Polychlorinated biphenyls, polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins, polychlorinated dibenzofurans, pesticides, and diabetes in the Anniston Community Health Survey follow-up (ACHS II): single exposure and mixture analysis approaches. THE SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 2023; 877:162920. [PMID: 36934946 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.162920] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/07/2022] [Revised: 02/24/2023] [Accepted: 03/13/2023] [Indexed: 05/06/2023]
Abstract
Dioxins and dioxin-like compounds measurements were added to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and organochlorine pesticides to expand the exposure profile in a follow-up to the Anniston Community Health Survey (ACHS II, 2014) and to study diabetes associations. Participants of ACHS I (2005-2007) still living within the study area were eligible to participate in ACHS II. Diabetes status (type-2) was determined by a doctor's diagnosis, fasting glucose ≥125 mg/dL, or being on any glycemic control medication. Incident diabetes cases were identified in ACHS II among those who did not have diabetes in ACHS I, using the same criteria. Thirty-five ortho-substituted PCBs, 6 pesticides, 7 polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDD), 10 furans (PCDF), and 3 non-ortho PCBs were measured in 338 ACHS II participants. Dioxin toxic equivalents (TEQs) were calculated for all dioxin-like compounds. Main analyses used logistic regression models to calculate odds ratios (OR) and 95 % confidence intervals (CI). In models adjusted for age, race, sex, BMI, total lipids, family history of diabetes, and taking lipid lowering medication, the highest ORs for diabetes were observed for PCDD TEQ: 3.61 (95 % CI: 1.04, 12.46), dichloro-diphenyl dichloroethylene (p,p'-DDE): 2.07 (95 % CI 1.08, 3.97), and trans-Nonachlor: 2.55 (95 % CI 0.93, 7.02). The OR for sum 35 PCBs was 1.22 (95 % CI: 0.58-2.57). To complement the main analyses, we used BKMR and g-computation models to evaluate 12 mixture components including 4 TEQs, 2 PCB subsets and 6 pesticides; suggestive positive associations for the joint effect of the mixture analyses resulted in ORs of 1.40 (95% CI: -1.13, 3.93) for BKMR and 1.32 (95% CI: -1.12, 3.76) for g-computation. The mixture analyses provide further support to previously observed associations of trans-Nonachlor, p,p'- DDE, PCDD TEQ and some PCB groups with diabetes.
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Affiliation(s)
- M Pavuk
- Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Atlanta, GA, United States of America
| | - P F Rosenbaum
- SUNY Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, NY, United States of America.
| | - M D Lewin
- Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Atlanta, GA, United States of America
| | - T C Serio
- Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Atlanta, GA, United States of America; ATSDR/CDC, Atlanta, GA, United States of America
| | - P Rago
- ATSDR/CDC, Atlanta, GA, United States of America
| | - M C Cave
- University of Louisville, Louisville, KY, United States of America
| | - L S Birnbaum
- NIEHS, Research Triangle Park, NC, United States of America
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Hwang J, Chong NS, Zhang M, Agnew RJ, Xu C, Li Z, Xu X. Face-to-face with scorching wildfire: potential toxicant exposure and the health risks of smoke for wildland firefighters at the wildland-urban interface. LANCET REGIONAL HEALTH. AMERICAS 2023; 21:100482. [PMID: 37008196 PMCID: PMC10060103 DOI: 10.1016/j.lana.2023.100482] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/31/2022] [Revised: 03/04/2023] [Accepted: 03/15/2023] [Indexed: 03/29/2023]
Abstract
As wildfire risks have elevated due to climate change, the health risks that toxicants from fire smoke pose to wildland firefighters have been exacerbated. Recently, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has reclassified wildland firefighters' occupational exposure as carcinogenic to humans (Group 1). Wildfire smoke contributes to an increased risk of cancer and cardiovascular disease, yet wildland firefighters have inadequate respiratory protection. The economic cost of wildland fires has risen concurrently, as illustrated by the appropriation of $45 billion for wildfire management over FYs 2011-2020 by the U.S. Congress. Occupational epidemiological studies of wildland firefighters are crucial for minimizing health risks; however, they must account for the mixture of exposures in wildfire smoke. This review focuses on four aspects of wildland firefighters' health risks at the wildland-urban interface: 1) economic costs and health impact, 2) respiratory protection, 3) multipollutant mixtures, and 4) proactive management of wildfires.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jooyeon Hwang
- Department of Occupational and Environmental Health, Hudson College of Public Health, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, OK 73104, USA
- Department of Epidemiology, Human Genetics, and Environmental Sciences, School of Public Health, University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston, TX 77030, USA
| | - Ngee-Sing Chong
- Department of Chemistry, Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, TN 37132, USA
| | - Mengliang Zhang
- Department of Chemistry, Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, TN 37132, USA
| | - Robert J. Agnew
- Fire Protection & Safety Engineering Technology Program, College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK 74078, USA
| | - Chao Xu
- Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Hudson College of Public Health, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, OK 73104, USA
| | - Zhuangjie Li
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, California State University at Fullerton, Fullerton, CA 92831, USA
| | - Xin Xu
- Shanghai Anti-doping Laboratory, Shanghai University of Sport, Shanghai 200438, China
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16
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McGee G, Wilson A, Webster TF, Coull BA. Bayesian multiple index models for environmental mixtures. Biometrics 2023; 79:462-474. [PMID: 34562016 PMCID: PMC11022158 DOI: 10.1111/biom.13569] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/13/2021] [Accepted: 09/03/2021] [Indexed: 02/06/2023]
Abstract
An important goal of environmental health research is to assess the risk posed by mixtures of environmental exposures. Two popular classes of models for mixtures analyses are response-surface methods and exposure-index methods. Response-surface methods estimate high-dimensional surfaces and are thus highly flexible but difficult to interpret. In contrast, exposure-index methods decompose coefficients from a linear model into an overall mixture effect and individual index weights; these models yield easily interpretable effect estimates and efficient inferences when model assumptions hold, but, like most parsimonious models, incur bias when these assumptions do not hold. In this paper, we propose a Bayesian multiple index model framework that combines the strengths of each, allowing for non-linear and non-additive relationships between exposure indices and a health outcome, while reducing the dimensionality of the exposure vector and estimating index weights with variable selection. This framework contains response-surface and exposure-index models as special cases, thereby unifying the two analysis strategies. This unification increases the range of models possible for analysing environmental mixtures and health, allowing one to select an appropriate analysis from a spectrum of models varying in flexibility and interpretability. In an analysis of the association between telomere length and 18 organic pollutants in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), the proposed approach fits the data as well as more complex response-surface methods and yields more interpretable results.
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Affiliation(s)
- Glen McGee
- Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada
| | - Ander Wilson
- Department of Statistics, Colorado State University, CO, U.S.A
| | - Thomas F. Webster
- Department of Environmental Health, Boston University, Boston, MA, U.S.A
| | - Brent A. Coull
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, U.S.A
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17
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Huang Y, Wang Y, Zhang T, Wang P, Huang L, Guo Y. Exploring Health Effects under Specific Causes of Mortality Based on 90 Definitions of PM 2.5 and Cold Spell Combined Exposure in Shanghai, China. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 2023; 57:2423-2434. [PMID: 36724352 DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.2c06461] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/18/2023]
Abstract
In this study, a total of 90 definitions were set up based on six air pollution definitions, five cold spell definitions, and three combined exposure scenarios. The relative risks (RRs) on all-cause, circulatory, and respiratory mortality were explored by a model combining a distributed linear lag model with quasi-Poisson regression. The definition in which daily PM2.5 increases more than 75 μg/m3 for at least 2 days and the average temperature falls below the 10th percentile for at least 2 days produced the best model fit performance in all-cause mortality. The high peaks of the health effect were generally observed around the lag days 6-9. The cumulative relative risks (CRRs) were more significant in the simultaneous-exposure scenario and higher in respiratory mortality, where the highest CRR (12.15, 3.69-40.03) was observed in definition P1T5, in which daily PM2.5 increases more than 75 μg/m3, and the average temperature falls below the 2.5th percentile for at least two days. For relative risk due to interaction (RERI), we found positive additive interactions (RERI > 0) between PM2.5 pollution and cold spell, especially in respiratory mortality. Clarifying the definition of combined events can help policymakers to capture health risks and construct more effective risk warning systems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yujia Huang
- State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, School of the Environment, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China
| | - Yiyi Wang
- State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, School of the Environment, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China
| | - Ting Zhang
- State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, School of the Environment, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China
| | - Peng Wang
- State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, School of the Environment, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China
- Faculty of Civil Engineering and Mechanics, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, China
| | - Lei Huang
- State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, School of the Environment, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China
| | - Yuming Guo
- Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, School of Public and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne 3004, VIC, Australia
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Pollack AZ, Marroquin JM. Invited Perspective: Metals and Menarche. ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH PERSPECTIVES 2023; 131:21301. [PMID: 36729393 PMCID: PMC9894152 DOI: 10.1289/ehp12555] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/07/2022] [Revised: 01/03/2023] [Accepted: 01/04/2023] [Indexed: 06/18/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Anna Z. Pollack
- Department of Global and Community Health, College of Public Health, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, USA
| | - Joanna M. Marroquin
- Department of Global and Community Health, College of Public Health, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, USA
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Grau-Perez M, Domingo-Relloso A, Garcia-Barrera T, Gomez-Ariza JL, Leon-Latre M, Casasnovas JA, Moreno-Franco B, Laclaustra M, Guallar E, Navas-Acien A, Pastor-Barriuso R, Redon J, Tellez-Plaza M. Association of single and joint metals with albuminuria and estimated glomerular filtration longitudinal change in middle-aged adults from Spain: The Aragon workers health study. ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION (BARKING, ESSEX : 1987) 2023; 318:120851. [PMID: 36509352 DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2022.120851] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/23/2022] [Revised: 12/06/2022] [Accepted: 12/08/2022] [Indexed: 06/17/2023]
Abstract
The nephrotoxicity of low-chronic metal exposures is unclear, especially considering several metals simultaneously. We assessed the individual and joint association of metals with longitudinal change in renal endpoints in Aragon Workers Health Study participants with available measures of essential (cobalt [Co], copper [Cu], molybdenum [Mo] and zinc [Zn]) and non-essential (As, barium [Ba], Cd, chromium [Cr], antimony [Sb], titanium [Ti], uranium [U], vanadium [V] and tungsten [W]) urine metals and albumin-to-creatinine ratio (ACR) (N = 707) and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) (N = 1493) change. Median levels were 0.24, 7.0, 18.6, 295, 3.1, 1.9, 0.28, 1.16, 9.7, 0.66, 0.22 μg/g for Co, Cu, Mo, Zn, As, Ba, Cd, Cr, Sb, Ti, V and W, respectively, and 52.5 and 27.2 ng/g for Sb and U, respectively. In single metal analysis, higher As, Cr and W concentrations were associated with increasing ACR annual change. Higher Zn, As and Cr concentrations were associated with decreasing eGFR annual change. The shape of the longitudinal dose-responses, however, was compatible with a nephrotoxic role for all metals, both in ACR and eGFR models. In joint metal analysis, both higher mixtures of Cu-Zn-As-Ba-Ti-U-V-W and Co-Cd-Cr-Sb-V-W showed associations with increasing ACR and decreasing eGFR annual change. As and Cr were main drivers of the ACR change joint metal association. For the eGFR change joint metal association, while Zn and Cr were main drivers, other metals also contributed substantially. We identified potential interactions for As, Zn and W by other metals with ACR change, but not with eGFR change. Our findings support that Zn, As, Cr and W and suggestively other metals, are nephrotoxic at relatively low exposure levels. Metal exposure reduction and mitigation interventions may improve prevention and decrease the burden of renal disease in the population.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maria Grau-Perez
- Cardiometabolic and Renal Risk Unit, Biomedical Research Institute INCLIVA, Valencia, Spain; Department of Preventive Medicine and Microbiology, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain; Department of Statistics and Operations Research, University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain.
| | - Arce Domingo-Relloso
- Department of Statistics and Operations Research, University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain; Department of Chronic Diseases Epidemiology, National Center for Epidemiology, Carlos III Health Institutes, Madrid, Spain; Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
| | - Tamara Garcia-Barrera
- Research Center for Natural Resources, Health and the Environment (RENSMA), University of Huelva, Spain
| | - Jose L Gomez-Ariza
- Research Center for Natural Resources, Health and the Environment (RENSMA), University of Huelva, Spain
| | - Montserrat Leon-Latre
- Universidad de Zaragoza, Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria Aragón e Instituto Aragonés de Ciencias de la Salud, Zaragoza, Spain
| | - J Antonio Casasnovas
- Universidad de Zaragoza, Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria Aragón e Instituto Aragonés de Ciencias de la Salud, Zaragoza, Spain
| | - Belen Moreno-Franco
- Universidad de Zaragoza, Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria Aragón e Instituto Aragonés de Ciencias de la Salud, Zaragoza, Spain
| | - Martin Laclaustra
- Universidad de Zaragoza, Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria Aragón e Instituto Aragonés de Ciencias de la Salud, Zaragoza, Spain
| | - Eliseo Guallar
- Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA
| | - Ana Navas-Acien
- Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
| | - Roberto Pastor-Barriuso
- Department of Chronic Diseases Epidemiology, National Center for Epidemiology, Carlos III Health Institutes, Madrid, Spain
| | - Josep Redon
- Cardiometabolic and Renal Risk Unit, Biomedical Research Institute INCLIVA, Valencia, Spain; CIBERObn, Carlos III Health Institutes, Madrid, Spain
| | - Maria Tellez-Plaza
- Department of Preventive Medicine and Microbiology, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain; Department of Chronic Diseases Epidemiology, National Center for Epidemiology, Carlos III Health Institutes, Madrid, Spain
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20
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Eaves LA, Bulka CM, Rager JE, Gardner AJ, Galusha AL, Parsons PJ, O'Shea TM, Fry RC. Metal mixtures modeling identifies birth weight-associated gene networks in the placentas of children born extremely preterm. CHEMOSPHERE 2023; 313:137469. [PMID: 36493891 PMCID: PMC10476282 DOI: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2022.137469] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/14/2022] [Revised: 11/30/2022] [Accepted: 12/03/2022] [Indexed: 06/17/2023]
Abstract
Prenatal exposure to toxic metals is linked to numerous adverse birth and later-in-life outcomes. These outcomes are tied to disrupted biological processes in fetal-derived tissues including the placenta and umbilical cord yet the precise pathways are understudied in these target tissues. We set out to examine the relationship between metal concentrations in umbilical cord and altered gene expression networks in placental tissue. These novel relationships were investigated in a subset of the Extremely Low Gestational Age Newborn (ELGAN) cohort (n = 226). Prenatal exposure to 11 metals/metalloids was measured using inductively coupled plasma tandem-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS/MS) in cord tissue, ensuring passage through the placental barrier. RNA-sequencing was used to quantify >37,000 mRNA transcripts. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified with respect to each metal. Weighted gene co-expression analysis identified gene networks modulated by metals. Two innovative mixtures modeling techniques, namely principal components analysis and quantile-based g-computation, were employed to identify genes/gene networks associated with multi-metal exposure. Individually, lead was associated with the strongest genomic response of 191 DEGs. Joint lead and cadmium exposure was related to 657 DEGs, including DNA Methyl Transferase 1 (DNMT1). These genes were enriched for the Eukaryotic Initiation Factor 2 (EIF2) pathway. Four gene networks, each containing genes within a Nuclear Factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of Activated B Cells (NF-kB)-mediated network, were significantly increased in average expression level in relation to increases in all metal concentrations. All four of these metal mixture-associated gene networks were negatively correlated with important predictors of neonatal health including birth weight, placenta weight, and fetal growth. Bringing together novel methodologies from epidemiological mixtures analyses and toxicogenomics, applied to a unique cohort of extremely preterm children, the present study highlighted critical genes and pathways in the placenta dysregulated by prenatal metal mixtures. These represent potential mechanisms underlying the developmental origins of metal-induced disease.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lauren A Eaves
- Department of Environmental Sciences & Engineering, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA; Institute for Environmental Health Solutions, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
| | - Catherine M Bulka
- Department of Environmental Sciences & Engineering, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
| | - Julia E Rager
- Department of Environmental Sciences & Engineering, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA; Institute for Environmental Health Solutions, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA; Curriculum in Toxicology and Environmental Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
| | - Amaree J Gardner
- Department of Environmental Sciences & Engineering, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
| | - Aubrey L Galusha
- Laboratory of Inorganic and Nuclear Chemistry, Wadsworth Center, New York State Department of Health, Empire State Plaza, Albany, NY, USA; Department of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University at Albany, Rensselaer, NY, USA
| | - Patrick J Parsons
- Laboratory of Inorganic and Nuclear Chemistry, Wadsworth Center, New York State Department of Health, Empire State Plaza, Albany, NY, USA; Department of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University at Albany, Rensselaer, NY, USA
| | - T Michael O'Shea
- Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
| | - Rebecca C Fry
- Department of Environmental Sciences & Engineering, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA; Institute for Environmental Health Solutions, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA; Curriculum in Toxicology and Environmental Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA; Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
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21
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Wang C, Qi Y, Chen Z. Explainable Gated Recurrent Unit to explore the effect of co-exposure to multiple air pollutants and meteorological conditions on mental health outcomes. ENVIRONMENT INTERNATIONAL 2023; 171:107689. [PMID: 36508748 DOI: 10.1016/j.envint.2022.107689] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/21/2022] [Revised: 11/03/2022] [Accepted: 12/08/2022] [Indexed: 06/17/2023]
Abstract
Mental health conditions have the potential to be worsened by air pollution or other climate-sensitive factors. Few studies have empirically examined those associations when we faced to co-exposures, as well as interaction effects. There would be an urgent need to use deep learning to handle complex co-exposures that might interact in multiple ways, and the model performance reinforced by SHapely Additive exPlanations (SHAP) enabled our predictions interpretable and hence actionable. Here, to evaluate the mixed effect of short-term co-exposure, we conducted a time-series analysis using approximately 1.47 million hospital outpatient visits of mental disorders (i.e., depressive disorder-DD, Schizophrenia-SP, Anxiety Disorder-AD, Bipolar Disorder-BD, Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder-ADHD, Autism Spectrum Disorder-ASD), with matched meteorological observations from 2015 through 2019 in Nanjing, China. The global insights of gated recurrent unit model revealed that most of input features with similar effect size caused the illness risk of SP and ASD increase, and most markedly, 73% of relative humidity, 44.6 µg/m3 of NO2, and 14.1 µg/m3 of SO2 at 5-year average level associated with 2.27, 1.14, and 1.29 visits increase for DD, SP, and AD, respectively. Both synergic and antagonistic effect among informative paired-features were distinguished from local feature dependence. Interestingly, variation tendencies of excessive visits of bipolar disorder when atmospheric pressure, PM2.5, and O3 interacted with one another were inconsistent. Our results provided added qualitative and quantitative support for the conclusion that short-term co-exposure to ambient air pollutants and meteorological conditions posed threats to human mental health.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ce Wang
- School of Energy and Environment, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, PR China; State Key Laboratory of Environmental Medicine Engineering, Ministry of Education, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, PR China.
| | - Yi Qi
- School of Architecture and Urban Planning, Nanjing University, No. 22 Hankoulu Road, Nanjing 210093, PR China
| | - Zhenhua Chen
- Department of Information, Affiliated Nanjing Brain Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, No. 264 Guangzhou Road, Nanjing 210029, RP China.
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22
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Perinatal Metal and Metalloid Exposures and Offspring Cardiovascular Health Risk. Curr Environ Health Rep 2022; 9:714-734. [PMID: 35980568 DOI: 10.1007/s40572-022-00377-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 08/04/2022] [Indexed: 01/31/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE OF REVIEW Toxic metal exposures have been associated with cardiovascular disease in adults and growing evidence suggests metal exposures also adversely affect cardiovascular phenotypes in childhood and adolescence. However, to our knowledge, the influence of perinatal metals exposure, particularly metal mixtures, in relation to cardiovascular-related outcomes have not been comprehensively reviewed. RECENT FINDINGS We summarized 17 contemporary studies (2017-2021) that investigated the impact of perinatal metal exposures on measures of cardiovascular health in children. Accumulating evidence supports a potential adverse impact of perinatal Pb exposure on BP in children. Fewer recent studies have focused on perinatal As, Hg, and Cd; thus, the cardiovascular impacts of these metals are less clear. Studies of metal mixtures demonstrate that interactions between metals may be complex and have identified numerous understudied elements and essential metals, including Mo, Co, Ni, Se, Zn, and Mn, which may influence cardiovascular risk. A key question that remains is whether perinatal metals exposure influences cardiovascular health into adulthood. Comparisons across studies remain challenging due to several factors, including differences in the timing of exposure/outcome assessments and exposure biomarkers, as well as variability in exposure levels and mixture compositions across populations. Future studies longitudinally investigating trajectories of cardiovascular outcomes could help determine the influence of perinatal metals exposure on long-term effects of clinical relevance in later life and whether interventions, which reduce metals exposures during this key developmental window, could alter disease development.
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23
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Feng S, Meng Q, Guo B, Guo Y, Chen G, Pan Y, Zhou J, Xu J, Zeng Q, Wei J, Xu H, Chen L, Zeng C, Zhao X. Joint exposure to air pollution, ambient temperature and residential greenness and their association with metabolic syndrome (MetS): A large population-based study among Chinese adults. ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH 2022; 214:113699. [PMID: 35714687 DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2022.113699] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/29/2022] [Revised: 06/08/2022] [Accepted: 06/12/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
Previous studies assessing adverse health have traditionally focused on a single environmental exposure, failing to reflect the reality of various exposures present simultaneously. Air pollution, ambient temperature and greenness have been proposed as critical environmental factors associated with metabolic syndrome (MetS). However, evidence exploring their joint relationships with MetS is needed for identifying interactive factors and developing more targeted public health interventions. The baseline data was obtained from China Multi-Ethnic Cohort (CMEC). Environmental data of air pollutants (PM2.5, O3) and NDVI for greenness was calculated from satellites data. Ambient temperature data were obtained from European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF). MetS was classified based on National Cholesterol Education Program Adult Treatment Panel III (NCEP ATP III) using anthropometric measures and biomarkers. Logistic regression models were utilized to examine the combined relationship of MetS with three-year exposure to air pollutants, temperature and NDVI. Relative excess risk due to interaction (RERI) was calculated to evaluate interaction on an additive scale. We found associations between prevalent MetS and interquartile range (IQR) increases in PM2.5 (OR: 1.38; 95% confidence interval [95% CI]: 1.23, 1.55) and O3 (OR: 1.15; 95% CI: 1.09, 1.22). Additive and multiplicative interactions were observed between air pollutants and temperature exposure. Compared to low-temperature level, the relationship between PM2.5 and MetS attenuated (RERI: 0.22, 95% CI: 0.44, -0.04) at high-temperature level, while the relationship between O3 and MetS enhanced (RERI: 0.05, 95% CI: 0.02, 0.11). At low NDVI 250 m, the association between PM2.5 and MetS was stronger (RERI: 0.13, 95% CI: 0.05, 0.19) with high NDVI 250 m as the reference group. Our findings showed that ambient temperature and residential greenness could affect the relationship between air pollutants and MetS.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shiyu Feng
- West China School of Public Health and West China Fourth Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China
| | - Qiong Meng
- Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, School of Public Health, Kunming Medical University, China
| | - Bing Guo
- West China School of Public Health and West China Fourth Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China
| | - Yuming Guo
- Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, 3004, Australia
| | - Gongbo Chen
- Guangdong Provincial Engineering Technology Research Center of Environmental and Health Risk Assessment, Department of Occupational and Environmental Health, School of Public Health, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
| | | | - Jing Zhou
- Chenghua District Center for Disease Control and Prevention, China
| | - Jingru Xu
- Chongqing Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention, China
| | - Qibing Zeng
- School of Public Health, The Key Laboratory of Environmental Pollution Monitoring and Disease Control, Ministry of Education, Guizhou Medical University, Guiyang, China
| | - Jing Wei
- Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science, Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA
| | - Huan Xu
- West China School of Public Health and West China Fourth Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China
| | - Lin Chen
- West China School of Public Health and West China Fourth Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China
| | - Chunmei Zeng
- West China School of Public Health and West China Fourth Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China
| | - Xing Zhao
- West China School of Public Health and West China Fourth Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China.
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Gibson EA, Zhang J, Yan J, Chillrud L, Benavides J, Nunez Y, Herbstman JB, Goldsmith J, Wright J, Kioumourtzoglou MA. Principal Component Pursuit for Pattern Identification in Environmental Mixtures. ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH PERSPECTIVES 2022; 130:117008. [PMID: 36416734 PMCID: PMC9683097 DOI: 10.1289/ehp10479] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/11/2021] [Revised: 08/24/2022] [Accepted: 09/15/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Environmental health researchers often aim to identify sources or behaviors that give rise to potentially harmful environmental exposures. OBJECTIVE We adapted principal component pursuit (PCP)-a robust and well-established technique for dimensionality reduction in computer vision and signal processing-to identify patterns in environmental mixtures. PCP decomposes the exposure mixture into a low-rank matrix containing consistent patterns of exposure across pollutants and a sparse matrix isolating unique or extreme exposure events. METHODS We adapted PCP to accommodate nonnegative data, missing data, and values below a given limit of detection (LOD). We simulated data to represent environmental mixtures of two sizes with increasing proportions < LOD and three noise structures. We applied PCP-LOD to evaluate its performance in comparison with principal component analysis (PCA). We next applied principal component pursuit with limit of detection (PCP-LOD) to an exposure mixture of 21 persistent organic pollutants (POPs) measured in 1,000 U.S. adults from the 2001-2002 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). We applied singular value decomposition to the estimated low-rank matrix to characterize the patterns. RESULTS PCP-LOD recovered the true number of patterns through cross-validation for all simulations; based on an a priori specified criterion, PCA recovered the true number of patterns in 32% of simulations. PCP-LOD achieved lower relative predictive error than PCA for all simulated data sets with up to 50% of the data < LOD . When 75% of values were < LOD , PCP-LOD outperformed PCA only when noise was low. In the POP mixture, PCP-LOD identified a rank-three underlying structure and separated 6% of values as extreme events. One pattern represented comprehensive exposure to all POPs. The other patterns grouped chemicals based on known structure and toxicity. DISCUSSION PCP-LOD serves as a useful tool to express multidimensional exposures as consistent patterns that, if found to be related to adverse health, are amenable to targeted public health messaging. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP10479.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elizabeth A. Gibson
- Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, New York, New York, USA
| | - Junhui Zhang
- Department of Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics, Columbia University, New York, New York, USA
| | - Jingkai Yan
- Department of Electrical Engineering, Columbia University Data Science Institute, New York, New York, USA
| | - Lawrence Chillrud
- Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, New York, New York, USA
| | - Jaime Benavides
- Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, New York, New York, USA
| | - Yanelli Nunez
- Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, New York, New York, USA
| | - Julie B. Herbstman
- Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, New York, New York, USA
| | - Jeff Goldsmith
- Department of Biostatistics, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, New York, New York, USA
| | - John Wright
- Department of Electrical Engineering, Columbia University Data Science Institute, New York, New York, USA
| | - Marianthi-Anna Kioumourtzoglou
- Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, New York, New York, USA
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25
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Rivera BN, Ghetu CC, Chang Y, Truong L, Tanguay RL, Anderson KA, Tilton SC. Leveraging Multiple Data Streams for Prioritization of Mixtures for Hazard Characterization. TOXICS 2022; 10:651. [PMID: 36355943 PMCID: PMC9699527 DOI: 10.3390/toxics10110651] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/09/2022] [Revised: 10/19/2022] [Accepted: 10/24/2022] [Indexed: 06/16/2023]
Abstract
There is a growing need to establish alternative approaches for mixture safety assessment of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Due to limitations with current component-based approaches, and the lack of established methods for using whole mixtures, a promising alternative is to use sufficiently similar mixtures; although, an established framework is lacking. In this study, several approaches are explored to form sufficiently similar mixtures. Multiple data streams including environmental concentrations and empirically and predicted toxicity data for cancer and non-cancer endpoints were used to prioritize chemical components for mixture formations. Air samplers were analyzed for unsubstituted and alkylated PAHs. A synthetic mixture of identified PAHs was created (Creosote-Fire Mix). Existing toxicity values and chemical concentrations were incorporated to identify hazardous components in the Creosote-Fire Mix. Sufficiently similar mixtures of the Creosote-Fire Mix were formed based on (1) relative abundance; (2) toxicity values; and (3) a combination approach incorporating toxicity and abundance. Hazard characterization of these mixtures was performed using high-throughput screening in primary normal human bronchial epithelium (NHBE) and zebrafish. Differences in chemical composition and potency were observed between mixture formation approaches. The toxicity-based approach (Tox Mix) was the most potent mixture in both models. The combination approach (Weighted-Tox Mix) was determined to be the ideal approach due its ability to prioritize chemicals with high exposure and hazard potential.
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26
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Comfort N, Wu H, De Hoff P, Vuppala A, Vokonas PS, Spiro A, Weisskopf M, Coull BA, Laurent LC, Baccarelli AA, Schwartz J. Extracellular microRNA and cognitive function in a prospective cohort of older men: The Veterans Affairs Normative Aging Study. Aging (Albany NY) 2022; 14:6859-6886. [PMID: 36069796 PMCID: PMC9512498 DOI: 10.18632/aging.204268] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/29/2022] [Accepted: 08/17/2022] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Aging-related cognitive decline is an early symptom of Alzheimer's disease and other dementias, and on its own can have substantial consequences on an individual's ability to perform important everyday functions. Despite increasing interest in the potential roles of extracellular microRNAs (miRNAs) in central nervous system (CNS) pathologies, there has been little research on extracellular miRNAs in early stages of cognitive decline. We leverage the longitudinal Normative Aging Study (NAS) cohort to investigate associations between plasma miRNAs and cognitive function among cognitively normal men. METHODS This study includes data from up to 530 NAS participants (median age: 71.0 years) collected from 1996 to 2013, with a total of 1,331 person-visits (equal to 2,471 years of follow up). Global cognitive function was assessed using the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE). Plasma miRNAs were profiled using small RNA sequencing. Associations of expression of 381 miRNAs with current cognitive function and rate of change in cognitive function were assessed using linear regression (N = 457) and linear mixed models (N = 530), respectively. RESULTS In adjusted models, levels of 2 plasma miRNAs were associated with higher MMSE scores (p < 0.05). Expression of 33 plasma miRNAs was associated with rate of change in MMSE scores over time (p < 0.05). Enriched KEGG pathways for miRNAs associated with concurrent MMSE and MMSE trajectory included Hippo signaling and extracellular matrix-receptor interactions. Gene targets of miRNAs associated with MMSE trajectory were additionally associated with prion diseases and fatty acid biosynthesis. CONCLUSIONS Circulating miRNAs were associated with both cross-sectional cognitive function and rate of change in cognitive function among cognitively normal men. Further research is needed to elucidate the potential functions of these miRNAs in the CNS and investigate relationships with other neurological outcomes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicole Comfort
- Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, New York, NY 10032, USA
| | - Haotian Wu
- Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, New York, NY 10032, USA
| | - Peter De Hoff
- Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA
| | - Aishwarya Vuppala
- Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA
| | - Pantel S. Vokonas
- VA Normative Aging Study, VA Boston Healthcare System, Boston, MA 02130, USA
- Department of Medicine, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA 02118, USA
| | - Avron Spiro
- Massachusetts Veterans Epidemiology and Research Information Center, VA Boston Healthcare System, Boston, MA 02130, USA
- Department of Epidemiology, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02118, USA
- Department of Psychiatry, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA 02118, USA
| | - Marc Weisskopf
- Department of Environmental Health, Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, USA
| | - Brent A. Coull
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, USA
| | - Louise C. Laurent
- Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA
| | - Andrea A. Baccarelli
- Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, New York, NY 10032, USA
| | - Joel Schwartz
- Department of Environmental Health, Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, USA
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Joint association between ambient air pollutant mixture and pediatric asthma exacerbations. Environ Epidemiol 2022; 6:e225. [PMID: 36249268 PMCID: PMC9556053 DOI: 10.1097/ee9.0000000000000225] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/26/2022] [Accepted: 07/07/2022] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
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. Method 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. Results 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-βWQS = 1.11, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.66, 1.55), followed by spring (adjusted-βWQS = 0.40, 95% CI: 0.16, 0.62) and fall (adjusted-βWQS = 0.20, 95% CI: 0.06, 0.33) seasons. Among the air pollutants, PM2.5, pollen, and mold contributed higher weight to the air pollutant mixture. Conclusion 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, PM2.5, pollen (sycamore, grass, cedar), and mold (Helminthosporium, Peronospora, and Erysiphe) contributed the highest weight to the air pollutant mixture.
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Yim G, Minatoya M, Kioumourtzoglou MA, Bellavia A, Weisskopf M, Ikeda-Araki A, Miyashita C, Kishi R. The associations of prenatal exposure to dioxins and polychlorinated biphenyls with neurodevelopment at 6 Months of age: Multi-pollutant approaches. ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH 2022; 209:112757. [PMID: 35065939 DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2022.112757] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/30/2021] [Revised: 01/14/2022] [Accepted: 01/15/2022] [Indexed: 05/07/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Prenatal exposure to persistent organic pollutants, including polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs), polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDFs), dioxin-like polychlorinated biphenyls (DL-PCBs), and nondioxin-like PCBs (NDL-PCBs), has been hypothesized to have a detrimental impact on neurodevelopment. However, the association of prenatal exposure to a dioxin and PCB mixture with neurodevelopment remains largely inconclusive partly because these chemical levels are correlated. OBJECTIVES We aimed to elucidate the association of in utero exposure to a mixture of dioxins and PCBs with neurodevelopment measured at 6 months of age by applying multipollutant methods. METHODS A total of 514 pregnant women were recruited between July 2002 and October 2005 in the Sapporo cohort, Hokkaido Study on Environment and Children's Health. The concentrations of individual dioxin and PCB isomers were assessed in maternal peripheral blood during pregnancy. The mental and psychomotor development of the study participants' infants was evaluated using the Bayley Scales of Infant Development-2nd Edition (n = 259). To determine both the joint and individual associations of prenatal exposure to a dioxin and PCB mixture with infant neurodevelopment, Bayesian kernel machine regression (BKMR) and quantile-based g-computation were employed. RESULTS Suggestive inverse associations were observed between in utero exposure to a dioxin and PCB mixture and infant psychomotor development in both the BKMR and quantile g-computation models. In contrast, we found no association of a dioxin and PCB mixture with mental development. When group-specific posterior inclusion probabilities were estimated, BKMR suggested prenatal exposure to mono-ortho PCBs as the more important contributing factors to early psychomotor development compared with the other dioxin or PCB groups. No evidence of nonlinear exposure-outcome relationships or interactions among the chemical mixtures was detected. CONCLUSIONS Applying the two complementary statistical methods for chemical mixture analysis, we demonstrated limited evidence of inverse associations of prenatal exposure to dioxins and PCBs with infant psychomotor development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gyeyoon Yim
- Department of Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Machiko Minatoya
- Hokkaido University Center for Environmental and Health Sciences, Kita 12, Nishi 7, Kita-ku, Sapporo, 060-0812, Japan
| | | | - Andrea Bellavia
- Department of Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Marc Weisskopf
- Department of Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA; Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Atsuko Ikeda-Araki
- Hokkaido University Center for Environmental and Health Sciences, Kita 12, Nishi 7, Kita-ku, Sapporo, 060-0812, Japan; Hokkaido University Faculty of Health Sciences, Kita 12, Nishi 5, Kita-ku, Sapporo, 060-0812, Japan
| | - Chihiro Miyashita
- Hokkaido University Center for Environmental and Health Sciences, Kita 12, Nishi 7, Kita-ku, Sapporo, 060-0812, Japan
| | - Reiko Kishi
- Hokkaido University Center for Environmental and Health Sciences, Kita 12, Nishi 7, Kita-ku, Sapporo, 060-0812, Japan.
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De Troeyer K, De Man J, Vandebroek E, Vanoirbeek JA, Hoet PH, Nemery B, Vanroelen C, Casas L, Ronsmans S. Identifying cleaning products associated with short-term work-related respiratory symptoms: A workforce-based study in domestic cleaners. ENVIRONMENT INTERNATIONAL 2022; 162:107170. [PMID: 35272140 DOI: 10.1016/j.envint.2022.107170] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/18/2021] [Revised: 02/25/2022] [Accepted: 02/28/2022] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
Domestic cleaners have an increased risk of asthma-like and other respiratory symptoms and conditions. Uncertainty exists about which products are most hazardous. We aimed to investigate, among professional domestic cleaners, the associations of ocular/respiratory outcomes with using specific types of products at work and with the ability to choose their own products. Among domestic cleaners employed by "service vouchers" companies in Belgium, we administered an online questionnaire on ocular/respiratory symptoms (frequency and time relation to workdays), frequency of use of 40 types of products, and ability to choose one's own products. Work-relatedness was defined as symptoms improving/disappearing on days off-work. We studied associations between frequency of product-use with work-related outcomes (eye irritation, rhinitis symptoms, sore throat, laryngeal symptoms, asthma symptoms, cough) and with chronic bronchitis, using multivariable logistic and elastic net regression. Adjusted odds ratios (OR) with 95%-confidence intervals were obtained per time a product was used per week. Among 1,586 domestic cleaners (99% women), the number of times sprays were used (median 13/week) was significantly associated with all outcomes (ORs between 1.012 and 1.024 per time sprays were used per week). Bleach/disinfectant-containing liquid products were associated with all outcomes, except for laryngeal symptoms (ORs 1.086 to 1.150); ammonia with work-related upper airway symptoms and chronic bronchitis. Cleaners able to choose their own products had fewer work-related eye symptoms (OR 0.728;0.556-0.954), rhinitis (OR 0.735;0.571-0.946) and cough (OR 0.671;0.520-0.865). Using elastic net regression, work-related rhinitis was most strongly associated with mould removal spray (OR 1.108;1.006-1.248), carpet/seat/curtain spray (OR 1.099;1.001-1.304) and ammonia (OR 1.081;1.002-1.372); work-related asthma with carpet/seat/curtain spray (OR 1.103;1.017-1.322), mould removal spray (OR 1.029;0.995-1.199) and drain cleaner (OR 1.023;0.979-1.302). In a large group of domestic cleaners, we documented that cleaning products have a range of adverse respiratory effects. Empowering cleaners to choose their products may reduce the burden of symptoms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Katrien De Troeyer
- Centre for Environment and Health, Department of Public Health and Primary Care, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium; Epidemiology and Health Policy, Department of Family Medicine and Population Health, University of Antwerp, Wilrijk, Belgium
| | - Jeroen De Man
- Department of Family Medicine and Population Health, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium
| | - Eline Vandebroek
- Clinic for Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Department of Respiratory Diseases, University Hospitals Leuven, Leuven, Belgium; Premed, External Service for Prevention and Protection at Work, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Jeroen A Vanoirbeek
- Centre for Environment and Health, Department of Public Health and Primary Care, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Peter Hm Hoet
- Centre for Environment and Health, Department of Public Health and Primary Care, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Benoit Nemery
- Centre for Environment and Health, Department of Public Health and Primary Care, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium; Clinic for Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Department of Respiratory Diseases, University Hospitals Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Christophe Vanroelen
- Interface Demography, Sociology Department, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Lidia Casas
- Epidemiology and Health Policy, Department of Family Medicine and Population Health, University of Antwerp, Wilrijk, Belgium
| | - Steven Ronsmans
- Centre for Environment and Health, Department of Public Health and Primary Care, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium; Clinic for Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Department of Respiratory Diseases, University Hospitals Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
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Rosato I, Zare Jeddi M, Ledda C, Gallo E, Fletcher T, Pitter G, Batzella E, Canova C. How to investigate human health effects related to exposure to mixtures of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances: A systematic review of statistical methods. ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH 2022; 205:112565. [PMID: 34915031 DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2021.112565] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/04/2021] [Revised: 12/10/2021] [Accepted: 12/11/2021] [Indexed: 05/23/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Humans are exposed to several per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) daily; however, most previous studies have focused on individual PFAS. Although attention to effects of exposure to mixtures of PFAS has grown in recent years, there is no consensus on the appropriate statistical methods that can be used to assess their combined effect on human health. OBJECTIVES We aim to perform a comprehensive review of the statistical methods used in the existing studies which evaluate the association between exposure to mixtures of PFAS and any adverse human health effect. METHODS The online databases PubMed, Embase and Scopus were searched for eligible studies, published during the last ten years (last search performed on April 08, 2021). Covidence software was used by two different reviewers to perform a title/abstract screening, followed by a full text revision of the selected papers. RESULTS A total of 3640 papers were identified, and after the screening process, 53 papers were included in the current review. Most of the studies were published between 2019 and 2021 and were conducted mainly in North America and Europe; more than half of the studies (28 out of 53) were conducted on mother and child pairs. WQS (Weighted Quantile Sum) Regression and BKMR (Bayesian Kernel Machine Regression) were used in 36 out of 53 papers to model mixtures' effects. Health outcomes included in the studies are immunotoxicity (n = 8), fetal development (n = 7), neurodevelopment (n = 9), reproductive hormones (n = 6), thyroid hormones (n = 7), outcomes related to metabolic pathways (n = 16). CONCLUSION Studies on human exposure to PFAS as complex mixtures and health consequences have substantially increased in the last few years. Based on our findings, we propose that addressing risk from PFAS mixtures will likely require combinations of approaches and implementation of constantly evolving statistical methods. Specific guidelines and tools for quality assessment and publication of mixture observational studies are warranted.
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Affiliation(s)
- Isabella Rosato
- Unit of Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Public Health, Department of Cardio-Thoraco-Vascular Sciences and Public Health, University of Padua, Padova, Italy
| | - Maryam Zare Jeddi
- RIVM-National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, Bilthoven, the Netherlands
| | - Caterina Ledda
- Unit of Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Public Health, Department of Cardio-Thoraco-Vascular Sciences and Public Health, University of Padua, Padova, Italy; Occupational Medicine, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
| | - Elisa Gallo
- Unit of Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Public Health, Department of Cardio-Thoraco-Vascular Sciences and Public Health, University of Padua, Padova, Italy
| | - Tony Fletcher
- Screening and Health Impact Assessment Unit, Azienda Zero-Veneto Region, Padova, Italy
| | - Gisella Pitter
- London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, United Kingdom
| | - Erich Batzella
- Unit of Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Public Health, Department of Cardio-Thoraco-Vascular Sciences and Public Health, University of Padua, Padova, Italy
| | - Cristina Canova
- Unit of Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Public Health, Department of Cardio-Thoraco-Vascular Sciences and Public Health, University of Padua, Padova, Italy.
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Amoroso N, Cilli R, Maggipinto T, Monaco A, Tangaro S, Bellotti R. Satellite data and machine learning reveal a significant correlation between NO 2 and COVID-19 mortality. ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH 2022; 204:111970. [PMID: 34474031 PMCID: PMC8403556 DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2021.111970] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/31/2021] [Revised: 07/30/2021] [Accepted: 08/21/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
The Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has officially spread all over the world since the beginning of 2020. Although huge efforts are addressed by scientists to shed light over the several questions raised by the novel SARS-CoV-2 virus, many aspects need to be clarified, yet. In particular, several studies have pointed out significant variations between countries in per-capita mortality. In this work, we investigated the association between COVID-19 mortality with climate variables and air pollution throughout European countries using the satellite remote sensing images provided by the Sentinel-5p mission. We analyzed data collected for two years of observations and extracted the concentrations of several pollutants; we used these measurements to feed a Random Forest regression. We performed a cross-validation analysis to assess the robustness of the model and compared several regression strategies. Our findings reveal a significant statistical association between air pollution (NO2) and COVID-19 mortality and a significant role played by the socio-demographic features, like the number of nurses or the hospital beds and the gross domestic product per capita.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicola Amoroso
- Dipartimento di Farmacia - Scienze del Farmaco, Università di Bari, Bari, Italy; Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Bari, Bari, Italy
| | - Roberto Cilli
- Dipartimento Interateneo di Fisica, Università di Bari, Bari, Italy
| | - Tommaso Maggipinto
- Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Bari, Bari, Italy; Dipartimento Interateneo di Fisica, Università di Bari, Bari, Italy
| | - Alfonso Monaco
- Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Bari, Bari, Italy.
| | - Sabina Tangaro
- Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Bari, Bari, Italy; Dipartimento di Scienze del Suolo, della Pianta e degli Alimenti, Università di Bari, Bari, Italy
| | - Roberto Bellotti
- Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Bari, Bari, Italy; Dipartimento Interateneo di Fisica, Università di Bari, Bari, Italy
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Yim G, Wang Y, Howe CG, Romano ME. Exposure to Metal Mixtures in Association with Cardiovascular Risk Factors and Outcomes: A Scoping Review. TOXICS 2022; 10:toxics10030116. [PMID: 35324741 PMCID: PMC8955637 DOI: 10.3390/toxics10030116] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/17/2022] [Revised: 02/24/2022] [Accepted: 02/26/2022] [Indexed: 12/18/2022]
Abstract
Since the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) declared conducting combined exposure research as a priority area, literature on chemical mixtures has grown dramatically. However, a systematic evaluation of the current literature investigating the impacts of metal mixtures on cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors and outcomes has thus far not been performed. This scoping review aims to summarize published epidemiology literature on the cardiotoxicity of exposure to multiple metals. We performed systematic searches of MEDLINE (PubMed), Scopus, and Web of Science to identify peer-reviewed studies employing statistical mixture analysis methods to evaluate the impact of metal mixtures on CVD risk factors and outcomes among nonoccupationally exposed populations. The search was limited to papers published on or after 1998, when the first dedicated funding for mixtures research was granted by NIEHS, through 1 October 2021. Twenty-nine original research studies were identified for review. A notable increase in relevant mixtures publications was observed starting in 2019. The majority of eligible studies were conducted in the United States (n = 10) and China (n = 9). Sample sizes ranged from 127 to 10,818. Many of the included studies were cross-sectional in design. Four primary focus areas included: (i) blood pressure and/or diagnosis of hypertension (n = 15), (ii) risk of preeclampsia (n = 3), (iii) dyslipidemia and/or serum lipid markers (n = 5), and (iv) CVD outcomes, including stroke incidence or coronary heart disease (n = 8). The most frequently investigated metals included cadmium, lead, arsenic, and cobalt, which were typically measured in blood (n = 15). The most commonly utilized multipollutant analysis approaches were Bayesian kernel machine regression (BKMR), weighted quantile sum regression (WQSR), and principal component analysis (PCA). To our knowledge, this is the first scoping review to assess exposure to metal mixtures in relation to CVD risk factors and outcomes. Recommendations for future studies evaluating the associations of exposure to metal mixtures with risk of CVDs and related risk factors include extending environmental mixtures epidemiologic studies to populations with wider metals exposure ranges, including other CVD risk factors or outcomes outside hypertension or dyslipidemia, using repeated measurement of metals to detect windows of susceptibility, and further examining the impacts of potential effect modifiers and confounding factors, such as fish and seafood intake.
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Abstract
PURPOSE OF REVIEW Tropical cyclones impact human health, sometimes catastrophically. Epidemiological research characterizes these health impacts and uncovers pathways between storm hazards and health, helping to mitigate the health impacts of future storms. These studies, however, require researchers to identify people and areas exposed to tropical cyclones, which is often challenging. Here we review approaches, tools, and data products that can be useful in this exposure assessment. RECENT FINDINGS Epidemiological studies have used various operational measures to characterize exposure to tropical cyclones, including measures of physical hazards (e.g., wind, rain, flooding), measures related to human impacts (e.g., damage, stressors from the storm), and proxy measures of distance from the storm's central track. The choice of metric depends on the research question asked by the study, but there are numerous resources available that can help in capturing any of these metrics of exposure. Each has strengths and weaknesses that may influence their utility for a specific study. Here we have highlighted key tools and data products that can be useful for exposure assessment for tropical cyclone epidemiology. These results can guide epidemiologists as they design studies to explore how tropical cyclones influence human health.
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Kane N. Revealing the racial and spatial disparity in pediatric asthma: A Kansas City case study. Soc Sci Med 2021; 292:114543. [PMID: 34802780 DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.114543] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/17/2020] [Revised: 07/22/2021] [Accepted: 11/04/2021] [Indexed: 12/24/2022]
Abstract
Black and other socially disadvantaged children are disproportionately burdened by high rates of pediatric asthma. Intraurban variation in environmental risk factors and limited access to high-resolution health data make it difficult to identify vulnerable patients, communities, or the immediate exposures that may contribute to pediatric asthma exacerbation. This article presents a novel, interdisciplinary health disparities research and intervention strategy applied to the problem of pediatric asthma in Kansas City. First, address-level electronic health records from a major children's hospital in the Kansas City region are used to map the distribution of asthma encounters in 2012 at a high spatial resolution. Census tract Environmental Justice Screening Method (EJSM) indicators are then developed to scan for patterns in both the population health risks and vulnerabilities that may contribute to the burden of asthma in different communities. A Bayesian Profile Regression cluster analysis is used to systematically explore the complex relationships between census tract EJSM indicators and pediatric asthma incidence rates, helping to identify population characteristics and risk factors associated with both high and low rates of pediatric asthma throughout the region. The EJSM scanning exercise and BPR analysis demonstrate that each community faces a distinct set of risks and vulnerabilities that can contribute to the rate of acute pediatric asthma acute care encounters, providing targets for research and intervention. It is clear, however, that different forms of social disadvantage are driving high rates of pediatric asthma, which is closely tied to uneven development patterns and racial residential segregation. The results provide a starting point for designing place-based health disparities research and intervention strategies catered to the unique needs of vulnerable patients and communities; disparities-focused research and intervention strategies that leverage local knowledge and resources through community-based practices.
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Affiliation(s)
- Natalie Kane
- Children's Mercy Hospital, Kansas City, MO, USA.
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Balalian AA, Liu X, Herbstman JB, Daniel S, Whyatt R, Rauh V, Calafat AM, Wapner R, Factor-Litvak P. Prenatal exposure to organophosphate and pyrethroid insecticides and the herbicide 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid and size at birth in urban pregnant women. ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH 2021; 201:111539. [PMID: 34174256 PMCID: PMC8478820 DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2021.111539] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/28/2020] [Revised: 06/10/2021] [Accepted: 06/13/2021] [Indexed: 05/26/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Organophosphate insecticides and the herbicide, 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) are used to protect crops or control weeds. Pyrethroids are used to manage pests both in agriculture and in residences, and to reduce the transmission of insect-borne diseases. Several studies have reported inverse associations between exposure to organophosphates (as a larger class) and birth outcomes but these associations have not been conclusive for pyrethroids or 2,4-D, specifically. We aimed to investigate the association between birth outcomes and urinary biomarkers of pyrethroids, organophosphates and 2,4-D among healthy pregnant women living in New York City. METHODS We quantified urinary biomarkers of 2,4-D and of organophosphate and pyrethroid insecticides from 269 women from two cohorts: a) Thyroid Disruption And Infant Development (TDID) and b) Sibling/Hermanos cohort (S/H). We used weighted quantile sum regression and multivariable linear regression models to evaluate the associations between a mixture of urinary creatinine-adjusted biomarker concentrations and birth outcomes of length, birthweight and head circumference, controlling for covariates. We also used linear regression models and further classified biomarkers concentrations into three categories (i: non-detectable; ii: between the limit of detection and median; and iii: above the median) to investigate single pesticides' association with these birth outcomes. Covariates considered were delivery mode, ethnicity, marital status, education, income, employment status, gestational age, maternal age and pre-pregnancy BMI. Analyses were conducted separately for each cohort and stratified by child sex within each cohort. RESULTS In TDID cohort, we found a significant inverse association between weighted quantile sum of mixture of pesticides and head circumference among boys. We found that the urinary biomarkers of organophosphate chlorpyrifos, TCPy, and 2,4-D had the largest contribution to the overall mixture effect in the TDID cohort among boys (b = -0.57, 95%CI: -0.92, -0.22) (weights = 0.81 and 0.16 respectively) but not among girls. In the multivariable linear regression models, we found that among boys, for each log unit increase in 3,5,6-trichloro-2-pyridinol (TCPy, metabolite of organophosphate chlorpyrifos) in maternal urine, there was a -0.56 cm decrease in head circumference (95%CI: -0.92, -0.19). Among boys in the TDID cohort, 2,4-D was associated with smaller head circumference in the second (b = -1.57; 95%CI: -2.74, -0.39) and third (b = -1.74, 95%CI: -2.98, -0.49) concentration categories compared to the first. No associations between pyrethroid and organophosphate biomarkers and birth outcomes were observed in girls analyzed in WQS regression or individually in linear regression models in TDID cohort. In the S/H cohort, head circumference increased with higher concentrations of 3-phenoxybenzoic acid (3-PBA, a biomarker of several pyrethroids) (b = 0.53, 95%CI: 0.03, 1.04) among boys and head circumference was lower among girls in the high compared to low category of 2,4-D (b = -2.27, 95%CI: - 3.98, -0.56). Birth length was also positively associated with the highest concentration of 2,4-D compared to the lowest among boys (b = 4.01, 95%CI: 0.02,8.00). CONCLUSIONS Weighted quantile sum of pesticides was negatively associated with head circumference among boys in one cohort. Nonetheless, due to directional homogeneity assumption in WQS no positive associations were detected. In linear regression models with individual pesticides, concentrations of TCPy were inversely associated with head circumference in boys and higher concentrations of 2,4-D was inversely associated with head circumference among girls; 2,4-D concentrations were also associated with higher birth length among boys. Concentrations of 3-PBA was positively associated with head circumference among boys.
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Affiliation(s)
- Arin A Balalian
- Department of Epidemiology, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
| | - Xinhua Liu
- Department of Biostatistics, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
| | - Julie B Herbstman
- Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health, Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
| | - Sharon Daniel
- Department of Public Health, Israel; Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Health Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel; Soroka University Medical Center, Beer-Sheva, Israel; Clalit Health Services, Southern District, Beer-Sheva, Israel
| | - Robin Whyatt
- Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health, Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
| | - Virginia Rauh
- Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health, Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA; Heilbrunn Department of Population and Family Health, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
| | - Antonia M Calafat
- Division of Laboratory Sciences, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, USA
| | - Ronald Wapner
- Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
| | - Pam Factor-Litvak
- Department of Epidemiology, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.
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Weyde KVF, Olsen AK, Duale N, Kamstra JH, Skogheim TS, Caspersen IH, Engel SM, Biele G, Xia Y, Meltzer HM, Aase H, Villanger GD. Gestational blood levels of toxic metal and essential element mixtures and associations with global DNA methylation in pregnant women and their infants. THE SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 2021; 787:147621. [PMID: 34000534 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.147621] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/07/2021] [Revised: 03/24/2021] [Accepted: 05/03/2021] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Pregnant women and their fetuses are exposed to multiple toxic metals that together with variations in essential element levels may alter epigenetic regulation, such as DNA methylation. OBJECTIVES The aim of the study was to investigate the associations between gestational levels of toxic metals and essential elements and mixtures thereof, with global DNA methylation levels in pregnant women and their newborn children. METHODS Using 631 mother-child pairs from a prospective birth cohort (The Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study), we measured maternal blood concentration (gestation week ~18) of five toxic metals and seven essential elements. We investigated associations as individual exposures and two-way interactions, using elastic net regression, and total mixture, using quantile g-computation, with blood levels of 5-methylcytocine (5mC) and 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC) in mothers during pregnancy and their newborn children (cord blood). Multiple testing was adjusted for using the Benjamini and Hochberg false discovery rate (FDR) approach. RESULTS The most sensitive marker of DNA methylation appeared to be 5mC levels. In pregnant mothers, elastic net regression indicated associations between 5mC and selenium and lead (non-linear), while in newborns results indicated relationships between maternal selenium, cobalt (non-linear) and mercury and 5mC, as well as copper (non-linear) and 5hmC levels. Several possible two-way interactions were identified (e.g. arsenic and mercury, and selenium and maternal smoking in newborns). None of these findings met the FDR threshold for multiple testing. No net effect was observed in the joint (mixture) exposure-approach using quantile g-computation. CONCLUSION We identified few associations between gestational levels of several toxic metals and essential elements and global DNA methylation in pregnant mothers and their newborn children. As DNA methylation dysregulation might be a key mechanism in disease development and thus of high importance for public health, our results should be considered as important candidates to investigate in future studies.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Nur Duale
- Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway
| | - Jorke H Kamstra
- Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences, Department of Population Health Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University, the Netherlands
| | | | | | - Stephanie M Engel
- Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, USA
| | - Guido Biele
- Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway; Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | - Yankai Xia
- State Key Laboratory of Reproductive Medicine, Center for Global Health, School of Public Health, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China; Key Laboratory of Modern Toxicology of Ministry of Education, School of Public Health, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China
| | | | - Heidi Aase
- Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway
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Lefebvre T, Fréour T, Ploteau S, Le Bizec B, Antignac JP, Cano-Sancho G. Associations between human internal chemical exposure to Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) and In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) outcomes: Systematic review and evidence map of human epidemiological evidence. Reprod Toxicol 2021; 105:184-197. [PMID: 34517099 DOI: 10.1016/j.reprotox.2021.09.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/08/2021] [Revised: 07/29/2021] [Accepted: 09/08/2021] [Indexed: 12/23/2022]
Abstract
The impact of environmental chemicals like persistent organic pollutants (POPs) on reproductive health is still poorly understood, despite the high societal and economical costs. The aim of the present study was to systematically review and evaluate the human evidence on the associations between internal levels of POPs and in vitro Fertilization (IVF) outcomes among women. We applied a protocol based on the National Toxicology Program Office of Health Assessment and Translation's guidelines for the study search, selection and quality assessment. Fifteen studies were finally retained in the present work. The results showed that main families of POPs are still pervasive in follicular fluid and serum of women undergoing IVF treatments. Globally, we found inconsistent findings across studies for specific exposure-outcome dyads, suggesting that adverse effects of POPs on IVF outcomes cannot be ruled out. Specifically, there is evidence that POPs, notably some polychlorinated biphenyls and organochlorine pesticides, may impair embryo quality and pregnancy rates. Most studies have been performed in small cohorts (n<50) and focused on PCBs and OCPs, whereas major research gaps remain for emerging compounds (e.g. perfluoroalkylated substances) and the most clinically relevant outcome, live birth rate. The overall evidence presented 'serious' or 'very serious' risk of bias, mainly due to the lack of consideration of relevant confounding variables, low sample size or underreporting of methods. Globally, we judged the level of evidence being "low". Given the high economical and societal costs associated to infertility and IVF, further well-designed research is urged to fill the highlighted gaps.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tiphaine Lefebvre
- LABERCA, Oniris, INRAE, 44307, Nantes, France; Department of Biology and Reproductive Medicine, University Hospital of Nantes, Nantes, France; Faculty of Medicine, University of Nantes, Nantes, France
| | - Thomas Fréour
- Department of Biology and Reproductive Medicine, University Hospital of Nantes, Nantes, France; Faculty of Medicine, University of Nantes, Nantes, France; Center for Research in Transplantation and Immunology UMR 1064, INSERM, University of Nantes, Nantes, France
| | - Stéphane Ploteau
- Faculty of Medicine, University of Nantes, Nantes, France; Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, University Hospital of Nantes, Nantes, France
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Choi G, Keil AP, Richardson DB, Daniels JL, Hoffman K, Villanger GD, Sakhi AK, Thomsen C, Reichborn-Kjennerud T, Aase H, Engel SM. Pregnancy exposure to organophosphate esters and the risk of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder in the Norwegian mother, father and child cohort study. ENVIRONMENT INTERNATIONAL 2021; 154:106549. [PMID: 33910116 PMCID: PMC8217330 DOI: 10.1016/j.envint.2021.106549] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/14/2020] [Revised: 03/26/2021] [Accepted: 03/29/2021] [Indexed: 05/31/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Organophosphate esters (OPEs) are a class of flame retardants in common use. OPEs can easily leach from materials, resulting in human exposure. Increasing concentrations have been reported in human populations over the past decade. Recent studies have linked prenatal OPE exposure to hyperactivity and attention problems in children. Such behaviors are often found among children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), however, no study has investigated OPEs in relation to clinically assessed ADHD. OBJECTIVE To evaluate prenatal exposure to OPEs as risk factors for clinically assessed ADHD using a case-cohort study nested within the Norwegian Mother, Father, and Child Cohort Study (MoBa). METHODS We included in the case group 295 ADHD cases obtained via linkage with the Norwegian Patient Registry, and the sub-cohort group 555 children sampled at baseline, irrespective of their ADHD case status. Prenatal concentrations of OPE metabolites were measured in maternal urine collected at 17 weeks of gestation, and included diphenyl phosphate (DPHP), di-n-butyl phosphate (DNBP), bis(2-butoxyethyl) hydrogen phosphate (BBOEP), and bis(1,3-dichloro-2-propyl) phosphate (BDCIPP). We estimated risk ratios and the corresponding 95% confidence intervals [95% CI] using logistic regression, adjusting for season of urine collection, child sex, birth year, and maternal depression, education, and sum of urinary di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate metabolites (∑DEHP) concentration during pregnancy. To assess the overall impact of simultaneously decreasing exposure to all chemical constituents of an OPE-phthalate mixture, quantile based g-computation was implemented. The mixture constituents included OPE and phthalate metabolites commonly detected in our study. In all models, we considered effect measure modification by child sex and polymorphisms in genes encoding paraoxonase 1 (PON1) and cytochrome P450 (P450) enzymes. Mediation analysis was conducted using thyroid function biomarkers estimated from maternal blood collected at 17 weeks of gestation. RESULTS DPHP was detected in nearly all samples (97.2%), with a higher geometric mean among the case group (0.70 µg/L) as compared to the sub-cohort (0.52 µg/L). DNBP was commonly detected as well (93.8%), while BBOEP (52.9%) and BDCIPP (22.9%) were detected less frequently. A higher risk of ADHD was observed in children with greater than median exposure to DPHP during pregnancy (risk ratio: 1.38 [95% CI: 0.96, 1.99]), which was slightly higher among girls (2.04 [1.03, 4.02]) and children of mothers with PON1 Q192R genotype QR (1.69 [0.89, 3.19]) or PON1 Q192R genotype RR (4.59 [1.38, 15.29]). The relationship between DPHP and ADHD (total risk ratio: 1.34 [0.90, 2.02]) was partially mediated through total triiodothyronine to total thyroxine ratio (natural direct effect: 1.29 [0.87, 1.94]; natural indirect effect: 1.04 [1.00, 1.10]; 12.48% mediated). We also observed an elevated risk of ADHD in relation to BDCIPP detection during pregnancy (1.50 [0.98, 2.28]). We did not observe notable differences in ADHD by DNBP (0.88 [0.62, 1.26]) or BBOEP (1.03 [0.73, 1.46]) during pregnancy. Simultaneously decreasing all constituents of common-detect OPE-phthalate mixture, specifically DPHP, DNBP, and 6 phthalate metabolites, by a quartile resulted in an ADHD risk ratio of 0.68 [0.64, 0.72]. CONCLUSION Prenatal exposure to DPHP and BDCIPP may increase the risk of ADHD. For DPHP, we observed potential modification by child sex and maternal PON1 Q192R genotype and partial mediation through maternal thyroid hormone imbalance at 17 weeks gestation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Giehae Choi
- Department of Epidemiology, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
| | - Alexander P Keil
- Department of Epidemiology, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
| | - David B Richardson
- Department of Epidemiology, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
| | - Julie L Daniels
- Department of Epidemiology, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
| | - Kate Hoffman
- Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
| | | | | | | | - Ted Reichborn-Kjennerud
- Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway; Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | - Heidi Aase
- Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway
| | - Stephanie M Engel
- Department of Epidemiology, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
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Air pollution and lung function in children. J Allergy Clin Immunol 2021; 148:1-14. [PMID: 34238501 DOI: 10.1016/j.jaci.2021.05.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 40] [Impact Index Per Article: 13.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/26/2021] [Revised: 03/30/2021] [Accepted: 05/06/2021] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
In this narrative review, we summarize the literature and provide updates on recent studies of air pollution exposures and child lung function and lung function growth. We include exposures to outdoor air pollutants that are monitored and regulated through air quality standards, and air pollutants that are not routinely monitored or directly regulated, including wildfires, indoor biomass and coal burning, gas and wood stove use, and volatile organic compounds. Included is a more systematic review of the recent literature on long-term air pollution and child lung function because this is an indicator of future adult respiratory health and exposure assessment tools have improved dramatically in recent years. We present "summary observations" and "knowledge gaps." We end by discussing what is known about what can be done at the individual/household, local/regional, and national levels to overcome structural impediments, reduce air pollution exposures, and improve child lung function. We found a large literature on adverse air pollution effects on children's lung function level and growth; however, many questions remain. Important areas needing further research include whether early-life effects are fixed or reversible; and what are windows of increased susceptibility, long-term effects of repeated wildfire events, and effects of air quality interventions.
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Stingone JA, Triantafillou S, Larsen A, Kitt JP, Shaw GM, Marsillach J. Interdisciplinary data science to advance environmental health research and improve birth outcomes. ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH 2021; 197:111019. [PMID: 33737076 PMCID: PMC8187296 DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2021.111019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/09/2020] [Revised: 02/08/2021] [Accepted: 03/10/2021] [Indexed: 05/30/2023]
Abstract
Rates of preterm birth and low birthweight continue to rise in the United States and pose a significant public health problem. Although a variety of environmental exposures are known to contribute to these and other adverse birth outcomes, there has been a limited success in developing policies to prevent these outcomes. A better characterization of the complexities between multiple exposures and their biological responses can provide the evidence needed to inform public health policy and strengthen preventative population-level interventions. In order to achieve this, we encourage the establishment of an interdisciplinary data science framework that integrates epidemiology, toxicology and bioinformatics with biomarker-based research to better define how population-level exposures contribute to these adverse birth outcomes. The proposed interdisciplinary research framework would 1) facilitate data-driven analyses using existing data from health registries and environmental monitoring programs; 2) develop novel algorithms with the ability to predict which exposures are driving, in this case, adverse birth outcomes in the context of simultaneous exposures; and 3) refine biomarker-based research, ultimately leading to new policies and interventions to reduce the incidence of adverse birth outcomes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jeanette A Stingone
- Department of Epidemiology, Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, 722 West 168th St, Room 1608, New York, NY, 10032, USA.
| | - Sofia Triantafillou
- Department of Biomedical Informatics, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
| | - Alexandra Larsen
- Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
| | - Jay P Kitt
- Departments of Chemistry and Biomedical Informatics, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
| | - Gary M Shaw
- Department of Pediatrics, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Judit Marsillach
- Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
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Van Horne YO, Farzan SF, Johnston JE. Metal-mixtures in toenails of children living near an active industrial facility in Los Angeles County, California. JOURNAL OF EXPOSURE SCIENCE & ENVIRONMENTAL EPIDEMIOLOGY 2021; 31:427-441. [PMID: 33935287 PMCID: PMC8893014 DOI: 10.1038/s41370-021-00330-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/01/2020] [Revised: 04/01/2021] [Accepted: 04/08/2021] [Indexed: 05/15/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Children residing in communities near metalworking industries are vulnerable to multiple toxic metal exposures. Understanding biomarkers of exposure to multiple toxic metals is important to characterize cumulative burden and to distinguish potential exposure sources in such environmental justice neighborhoods impacted by industrial operations. Exposure to metal mixtures has not been well-characterized among children residing in the United States, and is understudied in communities of color. METHODS In this study we used toenail clippings, a noninvasive biomarker, to assess exposure to arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), mercury (Hg), manganese (Mn), lead (Pb), antimony (Sb), selenium (Se), and vanadium (V). We used nonnegative matrix factorization (NMF) to identify "source" signatures and patterns of exposure among predominantly working class Latinx children residing near an industrial corridor in Southeast Los Angeles County. Additionally, we investigated the association between participant demographic, spatial, and dietary characteristics with identified metal signatures. RESULTS Through NMF, we identified three groupings (source factors) for the metal concentrations in children's toenails. A grouping composed of Sb, Pb, As, and Cd, was identified as a potential industrial source factor, reflective of known airborne elemental emissions in the industrial corridor. We further identified a manganese source factor primarily composed of Mn, and a potential dietary source factor driven by Se and Hg. We observed differences in the industrial source factor by age of participants, while the dietary source factor varied by neighborhood. CONCLUSION Utilizing an unsupervised dimension reduction technique (NMF), we identified a "source signature" of contamination in toenail samples from children living near metalworking industry. Investigating patterns and sources of exposures in cumulatively burdened communities is necessary to identify appropriate public health interventions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yoshira Ornelas Van Horne
- Department of Preventive Medicine, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Shohreh F Farzan
- Department of Preventive Medicine, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Jill E Johnston
- Department of Preventive Medicine, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
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Oskar S, Wolff MS, Teitelbaum SL, Stingone JA. Identifying environmental exposure profiles associated with timing of menarche: A two-step machine learning approach to examine multiple environmental exposures. ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH 2021; 195:110524. [PMID: 33249040 PMCID: PMC8673778 DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2020.110524] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/22/2020] [Revised: 11/19/2020] [Accepted: 11/20/2020] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Variation in the timing of menarche has been linked with adverse health outcomes in later life. There is evidence that exposure to hormonally active agents (or endocrine disrupting chemicals; EDCs) during childhood may play a role in accelerating or delaying menarche. The goal of this study was to generate hypotheses on the relationship between exposure to multiple EDCs and timing of menarche by applying a two-stage machine learning approach. METHODS We used data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) for years 2005-2008. Data were analyzed for 229 female participants 12-16 years of age who had blood and urine biomarker measures of 41 environmental exposures, all with >70% above limit of detection, in seven classes of chemicals. We modeled risk for earlier menarche (<12 years of age vs older) with exposure biomarkers. We applied a two-stage approach consisting of a random forest (RF) to identify important exposure combinations associated with timing of menarche followed by multivariable modified Poisson regression to quantify associations between exposure profiles ("combinations") and timing of menarche. RESULTS RF identified urinary concentrations of monoethylhexyl phthalate (MEHP) as the most important feature in partitioning girls into homogenous subgroups followed by bisphenol A (BPA) and 2,4-dichlorophenol (2,4-DCP). In this first stage, we identified 11 distinct exposure biomarker profiles, containing five different classes of EDCs associated with earlier menarche. MEHP appeared in all 11 exposure biomarker profiles and phenols appeared in five. Using these profiles in the second-stage of analysis, we found a relationship between lower MEHP and earlier menarche (MEHP ≤ 2.36 ng/mL vs >2.36 ng/mL: adjusted PR = 1.36, 95% CI: 1.02, 1.80). Combinations of lower MEHP with benzophenone-3, 2,4-DCP, and BPA had similar associations with earlier menarche, though slightly weaker in those smaller subgroups. For girls not having lower MEHP, exposure profiles included other biomarkers (BPA, enterodiol, monobenzyl phthalate, triclosan, and 1-hydroxypyrene); these showed largely null associations in the second-stage analysis. Adjustment for covariates did not materially change the estimates or CIs of these models. We observed weak or null effect estimates for some exposure biomarker profiles and relevant profiles consisted of no more than two EDCs, possibly due to small sample sizes in subgroups. CONCLUSION A two-stage approach incorporating machine learning was able to identify interpretable combinations of biomarkers in relation to timing of menarche; these should be further explored in prospective studies. Machine learning methods can serve as a valuable tool to identify patterns within data and generate hypotheses that can be investigated within future, targeted analyses.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sabine Oskar
- Environmental Medicine and Public Health, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA; Department of Epidemiology, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, New York, NY, USA.
| | - Mary S Wolff
- Environmental Medicine and Public Health, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
| | - Susan L Teitelbaum
- Environmental Medicine and Public Health, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
| | - Jeanette A Stingone
- Department of Epidemiology, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, New York, NY, USA
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Model choice for estimating the association between exposure to chemical mixtures and health outcomes: A simulation study. PLoS One 2021; 16:e0249236. [PMID: 33765068 PMCID: PMC7993848 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0249236] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/08/2020] [Accepted: 03/13/2021] [Indexed: 11/26/2022] Open
Abstract
Challenges arise in researching health effects associated with chemical mixtures. Several methods have recently been proposed for estimating the association between health outcomes and exposure to chemical mixtures, but a formal simulation study comparing broad-ranging methods is lacking. We select five recently developed methods and evaluate their performance in estimating the exposure-response function, identifying active mixture components, and identifying interactions in a simulation study. Bayesian kernel machine regression (BKMR) and nonparametric Bayes shrinkage (NPB) were top-performing methods in our simulation study. BKMR and NPB outperformed other contemporary methods and traditional linear models in estimating the exposure-response function and identifying active mixture components. BKMR and NPB produced similar results in a data analysis of the effects of multipollutant exposure on lung function in children with asthma.
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Bayesian Weighted Sums: A Flexible Approach to Estimate Summed Mixture Effects. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH AND PUBLIC HEALTH 2021; 18:ijerph18041373. [PMID: 33546139 PMCID: PMC7913173 DOI: 10.3390/ijerph18041373] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/10/2020] [Revised: 01/25/2021] [Accepted: 01/27/2021] [Indexed: 12/24/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVES Methods exist to study exposure mixtures, but each is distinct in the research question it aims to address. We propose a new approach focused on estimating both the summed effect and individual weights of one or multiple exposure mixtures: Bayesian Weighted Sums (BWS). METHODS We applied BWS to simulated and real datasets with correlated exposures. The analytic context in our real-world example is an estimation of the association between polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) congeners (28, 47, 99, 100, and 153) and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) diagnosis and Social Responsiveness Scores (SRS). RESULTS Simulations demonstrate that BWS performs reliably. In adjusted models using Early Autism Risk Longitudinal Investigation (EARLI) data, the odds of ASD for a 1-unit increase in the weighted sum of PBDEs were 1.41 (95% highest posterior density 0.82, 2.50) times the odds of ASD for the unexposed and the change in z-score standardized SRS per 1 unit increase in the weighted sum of PBDEs is 0.15 (95% highest posterior density -0.08, 0.38). CONCLUSIONS BWS provides a means of estimating the summed effect and weights for individual components of a mixture. This approach is distinct from other exposure mixture tools. BWS may be more flexible than existing approaches and can be specified to allow multiple exposure groups based on a priori knowledge from epidemiology or toxicology.
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Lowe SR, Wang C, Ma Y, Chen K. Particulate matter pollution and risk of outpatient visits for psychological diseases in Nanjing, China. ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH 2021; 193:110601. [PMID: 33307087 DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2020.110601] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/18/2020] [Revised: 11/18/2020] [Accepted: 12/04/2020] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
Exposure to air pollution has been associated with increased risk for a range of adverse mental health conditions. Less is known about whether air pollution is also associated with increases in the utilization of mental health services, especially outpatient mental health service utilization. This study aimed to examine the association between the number of daily outpatient visits at the psychological disease departments of two major hospitals (PSYC) and daily average concentrations of PM2.5 and PM10 in a heavily polluted city in China, Nanjing, from 2013/7/1 to 2019/2/28, using generalized additive models with a quasi-Poisson regression. Results showed that each 10 μg/m3 increase in PM2.5 concentration on lag0 day was associated with a 0.40% increase (95% CI: 0.07-0.72) in PSYC visits, and each 10 μg/m3 increase in PM10 concentration on the same day a 0.31% increase (95% CI: 0.09-0.54) in PSYC visits. Exposure-response curves suggested linear relationships between PM concentration and daily PSYC outpatient visits, without evidence of a threshold. Associations remained positive, but were non-significant, with adjustment for co-pollutants, SO2, NO2 and CO. Significantly larger effects were found for older and male participants, vs. their counterparts. These findings add to the growing literature linking air pollution to mental health service utilization, demonstrating the critical need for both air pollution mitigation measures and increased capacity of the mental health system in China.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sarah R Lowe
- Department of Social & Behavioral Sciences, Yale School of Public Health, New Haven, CT, 06520-8034, USA
| | - Ce Wang
- School of Energy and Environment, Southeast University, Nanjing, 210096, China; Key Laboratory of Environmental Medicine Engineering, Ministry of Education, Southeast University, Nanjing, 210096, PR China.
| | - Yiqun Ma
- Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Yale School of Public Health, New Haven, CT, 06520-8034, USA; Yale Center on Climate Change and Health, Yale School of Public Health, New Haven, CT, 06520-8034, USA
| | - Kai Chen
- Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Yale School of Public Health, New Haven, CT, 06520-8034, USA; Yale Center on Climate Change and Health, Yale School of Public Health, New Haven, CT, 06520-8034, USA.
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Oskar S, Stingone JA. Machine Learning Within Studies of Early-Life Environmental Exposures and Child Health: Review of the Current Literature and Discussion of Next Steps. Curr Environ Health Rep 2021; 7:170-184. [PMID: 32578067 DOI: 10.1007/s40572-020-00282-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
Abstract
PURPOSE OF REVIEW The goal of this article is to review the use of machine learning (ML) within studies of environmental exposures and children's health, identify common themes across studies, and provide recommendations to advance their use in research and practice. RECENT FINDINGS We identified 42 articles reporting upon the use of ML within studies of environmental exposures and children's health between 2017 and 2019. The common themes among the articles were analysis of mixture data, exposure prediction, disease prediction and forecasting, analysis of complex data, and causal inference. With the increasing complexity of environmental health data, we anticipate greater use of ML to address the challenges that cannot be handled by traditional analytics. In order for these methods to beneficially impact public health, the ML techniques we use need to be appropriate for our study questions, rigorously evaluated and reported in a way that can be critically assessed by the scientific community.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sabine Oskar
- Department of Epidemiology, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, 722 West 168th St, Room 1608, New York, NY, 10032, USA
| | - Jeanette A Stingone
- Department of Epidemiology, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, 722 West 168th St, Room 1608, New York, NY, 10032, USA.
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Kupsco A, Wu H, Calafat AM, Kioumourtzoglou MA, Tamayo-Ortiz M, Pantic I, Cantoral A, Tolentino M, Oken E, Braun JM, Deierlein AL, Wright RO, Téllez-Rojo MM, Baccarelli AA, Just AC. Prenatal maternal phthalate exposures and child lipid and adipokine levels at age six: A study from the PROGRESS cohort of Mexico City. ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH 2021; 192:110341. [PMID: 33068586 PMCID: PMC7736226 DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2020.110341] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/09/2020] [Revised: 09/30/2020] [Accepted: 10/11/2020] [Indexed: 05/13/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Prenatal phthalate exposures may affect processes that underlie offspring cardiometabolic health, but findings from studies examining these associations are conflicting. We examined associations between biomarkers of phthalate exposures during pregnancy with child lipid and adipokine levels. METHODS Data were from 463 mother-child pairs in the PROGRESS cohort of Mexico City. We quantified 15 phthalate metabolites in 2nd and 3rd trimester maternal urine samples and created an average pregnancy measure using the geometric mean. We evaluated the 15 metabolites as nine biomarkers, including four metabolite molar sums. We measured fasting serum triglycerides, non-HDL cholesterol, leptin, and adiponectin in children at the six-year follow-up visit (mean = 6.8 years). We estimated associations using linear regression, Bayesian kernel machine regression (BKMR), and weighted quantile sum (WQS) and assessed effect modification by sex. RESULTS In BKMR and WQS models, higher concentrations of the total mixture of phthalate biomarkers were associated with lower triglycerides (β = -3.7% [-6.5, -0.78] per 1 unit increase in WQS biomarker index) and non-HDL cholesterol (β = -2.0 [-3.7, -0.25] ng/ml per increase in WQS biomarker index). Associations between individual biomarkers and child outcomes were largely null. We observed some evidence of effect modification by child sex for mono-3-carboxypropyl phthalate (β = 19.4% [1.26, 40.7] per doubling of phthalate) and monobenzyl phthalate (β = -7.6% [-14.4, -0.23]) in girls for adiponectin. CONCLUSIONS Individual prenatal phthalate biomarkers were not associated with child lipid or adipokine levels. Contrary to our hypothesis, the total phthalate mixture was associated with lower child triglycerides and non-HDL cholesterol.
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Affiliation(s)
- Allison Kupsco
- Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY, USA.
| | - Haotian Wu
- Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY, USA
| | - Antonia M Calafat
- National Center for Environmental Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, USA
| | - Marianthi-Anna Kioumourtzoglou
- Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY, USA
| | - Marcela Tamayo-Ortiz
- Center for Research on Nutrition and Health, National Institute of Public Health, Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico; National Council of Science and Technology, Mexico
| | - Ivan Pantic
- National Institute of Perinatology, Mexico City, Mexico
| | - Alejandra Cantoral
- Center for Research on Nutrition and Health, National Institute of Public Health, Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico
| | | | - Emily Oken
- Division of Chronic Disease Research Across the Lifecourse, Department of Population Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Joseph M Braun
- Department of Epidemiology, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA
| | - Andrea L Deierlein
- Department of Epidemiology, School of Global Public Health, New York University, New York, NY, USA
| | - Robert O Wright
- Department of Environmental Medicine and Public Health, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
| | - Martha M Téllez-Rojo
- Center for Research on Nutrition and Health, National Institute of Public Health, Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico
| | - Andrea A Baccarelli
- Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY, USA
| | - Allan C Just
- Department of Environmental Medicine and Public Health, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
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48
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Shi W, Li T, Zhang Y, Sun Q, Chen C, Wang J, Fang J, Zhao F, Du P, Shi X. Depression and Anxiety Associated with Exposure to Fine Particulate Matter Constituents: A Cross-Sectional Study in North China. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 2020; 54:16006-16016. [PMID: 33275420 DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.0c05331] [Citation(s) in RCA: 31] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
The association between fine particulate matter (PM2.5) exposure and mental disorders is attracting increasing attention, but the roles of specific PM2.5 chemical constituents have yet to be explored. We conducted a multicenter cross-sectional study in nine cities located in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region in China to assess the effects of PM2.5 and chemical constituents on depression and anxiety. The Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) and Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7) scale were used to quantify the depression and anxiety status, atmospheric monitoring data from fixed stations was used to calculate exposure concentrations. We performed multiple logistic regression models to assess the associations of PM2.5 chemical constituents exposure over the preceding 2 weeks with depression and anxiety. Overall, anxiety and depression were significantly associated with organic carbon (OC), elemental carbon (EC), copper (Cu), cadmium (Cd), nickel (Ni), and zinc (Zn). Subgroup analysis showed a stronger effect of PM2.5 constituents on depression during the heating period. This study provide evidence for the possible link between PM2.5 constituents and mental disorders among middle-aged and elderly Chinese adults, which requires further validation of the causal correlation. Our findings support the need for a stricter regulation on emissions of certain specific constituents, in addition to targeting control of total PM2.5 emission concentration.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wanying Shi
- China CDC Key Laboratory of Environment and Population Health, National Institute of Environmental Health, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing 100021, China
| | - Tiantian Li
- China CDC Key Laboratory of Environment and Population Health, National Institute of Environmental Health, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing 100021, China
- Center for Global Health, School of Public Health, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210029, China
| | - Yi Zhang
- China CDC Key Laboratory of Environment and Population Health, National Institute of Environmental Health, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing 100021, China
| | - Qinghua Sun
- China CDC Key Laboratory of Environment and Population Health, National Institute of Environmental Health, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing 100021, China
| | - Chen Chen
- China CDC Key Laboratory of Environment and Population Health, National Institute of Environmental Health, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing 100021, China
| | - Jiaonan Wang
- China CDC Key Laboratory of Environment and Population Health, National Institute of Environmental Health, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing 100021, China
- Center for Global Health, School of Public Health, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210029, China
| | - Jianlong Fang
- China CDC Key Laboratory of Environment and Population Health, National Institute of Environmental Health, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing 100021, China
| | - Feng Zhao
- China CDC Key Laboratory of Environment and Population Health, National Institute of Environmental Health, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing 100021, China
| | - Peng Du
- China CDC Key Laboratory of Environment and Population Health, National Institute of Environmental Health, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing 100021, China
| | - Xiaoming Shi
- China CDC Key Laboratory of Environment and Population Health, National Institute of Environmental Health, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing 100021, China
- Center for Global Health, School of Public Health, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210029, China
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49
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Upson K. Environmental risk factors for endometriosis: A critical evaluation of studies and recommendations from the epidemiologic perspective. CURR EPIDEMIOL REP 2020; 7:149-170. [PMID: 33042729 PMCID: PMC7543974 DOI: 10.1007/s40471-020-00236-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/21/2022]
Abstract
PURPOSE OF REVIEW Recent studies of environmental chemicals and endometriosis were critically evaluated from the epidemiologic perspective to identify aspects of study design and analyses that may contribute to discrepant results across studies. RECENT FINDINGS Of the 29 studies reviewed, 12 studies used new approaches to population-based sampling. The remaining studies were conducted primarily among patients undergoing pelvic surgery; controls may not represent the exposure experience of the underlying study base, resulting in biased estimates of associations. Most studies used biologic specimens collected near diagnosis and varied in analytic approaches to minimize bias. Few studies investigated ovarian, deep-infiltrating, and peritoneal endometriosis presentations separately. SUMMARY Recommendations to move the field forward include: (1) control selection from a defined study base, (2) exposure characterization during the etiologically-relevant window, (3) employment of best practices to minimize bias in analyses, and (4) separate consideration of endometriosis presentations that may be etiologically-distinct entities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kristen Upson
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, College of Human Medicine, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, USA
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50
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Newman AB, Kritchevsky SB, Guralnik JM, Cummings SR, Salive M, Kuchel GA, Schrack J, Morris MC, Weir D, Baccarelli A, Murabito JM, Ben-Shlomo Y, Espeland MA, Kirkland J, Melzer D, Ferrucci L. Accelerating the Search for Interventions Aimed at Expanding the Health Span in Humans: The Role of Epidemiology. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci 2020; 75:77-86. [PMID: 31722007 DOI: 10.1093/gerona/glz230] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/17/2019] [Indexed: 12/20/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Extensive work in basic and clinical science suggests that biological mechanisms of aging are causally related to the development of disease and disability in late life. Modulation of the biological mechanisms of aging can extend both life span and health span in animal models, but translation to humans has been slow. METHODS Summary of workshop proceedings from the 2018-2019 Epidemiology of Aging Workshop hosted by the Intramural Research Program at the National Institute on Aging. RESULTS Epidemiologic studies play a vital role to progress in this field, particularly in evaluating new risk factors and measures of biologic aging that may influence health span, as well as developing relevant outcome measures that are robust and relevant for older individuals. CONCLUSIONS Appropriately designed epidemiological studies are needed to identify targets for intervention and to inform study design and sample size estimates for future clinical trials designed to promote health span.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anne B Newman
- Department of Epidemiology, Graduate School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.,Department of Geriatric Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
| | - Stephen B Kritchevsky
- Sticht Center for Health Aging and Alzheimer's Prevention, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina
| | - Jack M Guralnik
- Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, School of Medicine, University of Maryland, Baltimore, Maryland
| | - Steven R Cummings
- San Francisco Coordinating Center, California Pacific Medical Center Research Institute San Fransisco, California, Bethesda, Maryland
| | - Marcel Salive
- National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland
| | - George A Kuchel
- University of Connecticut Center on Aging, University of Connecticut Health, Farmington, CT, Baltimore, Maryland
| | - Jennifer Schrack
- Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland
| | - Martha Clare Morris
- Department of Internal Medicine, Rush Medical College, Rush University, Chicago, Illinois
| | - David Weir
- Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, New York, New York
| | - Andrea Baccarelli
- Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Laboratory of Precision Environmental Biosciences, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, New York, New York
| | - Joanne M Murabito
- Department of Medicine, Section of General Internal Medicine, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts
| | - Yoav Ben-Shlomo
- Population Health Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.,National Institute for Health Research Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care West (NIHR CLAHRC West), University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust, Bristol, UK
| | - Mark A Espeland
- Department of Biostatistics and Data Sciences, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina
| | - James Kirkland
- Robert and Arlene Kogod Center on Aging, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota
| | - David Melzer
- College of Medicine and Health, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK.,Center on Aging, School of Medicine, University of Connecticut, Farmington, Connecticut
| | - Luigi Ferrucci
- Longitudinal Studies Section, Translational Gerontology Branch, National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health, Baltimore, Maryland
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