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de Almeida Piai K, Nogueira T, Kaneshiro Olympio KP, Nardocci AC. Assessment of human health risks associated with airborne arsenic, nickel and lead exposure in particulate matter from vehicular sources in Sao Paulo city. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH RESEARCH 2024; 34:1926-1943. [PMID: 36745741 DOI: 10.1080/09603123.2023.2173153] [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: 03/08/2022] [Accepted: 01/23/2023] [Indexed: 06/18/2023]
Abstract
Air pollution is a critical public health concern. The present study assessed the risk to human health of airborne Potentially Toxic Elements (PTE) arsenic, nickel and lead exposure in particulate matter (PM10-2.5) in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Statistical analysis was performed using R Software and the risk assessment for human health was carried out according to the methods of the United States Environmental Protection Agency. The results for mean annual concentration of PTE (ng m-3) were within the limits stipulated for air-quality by international agencies (arsenic <6, nickel <20 and lead <150). Airborne arsenic and lead showed higher mean concentrations during the winter than the other seasons (p < 0.05). However, the results showed a greater health risk for the adult population and during the winter season. These findings highlight the importance of air pollution as a risk factor for population health.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kamila de Almeida Piai
- Departamento de Saúde Ambiental - Faculdade de Saúde Pública, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brasil
| | - Thiago Nogueira
- Departamento de Saúde Ambiental - Faculdade de Saúde Pública, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brasil
| | | | - Adelaide Cassia Nardocci
- Departamento de Saúde Ambiental - Faculdade de Saúde Pública, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brasil
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Stowell JD, Sun Y, Gause EL, Spangler KR, Schwartz J, Bernstein A, Wellenius GA, Nori-Sarma A. Warm season ambient ozone and children's health in the USA. Int J Epidemiol 2024; 53:dyae035. [PMID: 38553030 PMCID: PMC10980558 DOI: 10.1093/ije/dyae035] [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: 06/22/2023] [Accepted: 02/15/2024] [Indexed: 04/02/2024] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Over 120 million people in the USA live in areas with unsafe ozone (O3) levels. Studies among adults have linked exposure to worse lung function and higher risk of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). However, few studies have examined the effects of O3 in children, and existing studies are limited in terms of their geographic scope or outcomes considered. METHODS We leveraged a dataset of encounters at 42 US children's hospitals from 2004-2015. We used a one-stage case-crossover design to quantify the association between daily maximum 8-hour O3 in the county in which the hospital is located and risk of emergency department (ED) visits for any cause and for respiratory disorders, asthma, respiratory infections, allergies and ear disorders. RESULTS Approximately 28 million visits were available during this period. Per 10 ppb increase, warm-season (May through September) O3 levels over the past three days were associated with higher risk of ED visits for all causes (risk ratio [RR]: 0.3% [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.2%, 0.4%]), allergies (4.1% [2.5%, 5.7%]), ear disorders (0.8% [0.3%, 1.3%]) and asthma (1.3% [0.8%, 1.9%]). When restricting to levels below the current regulatory standard (70 ppb), O3 was still associated with risk of ED visits for all-cause, allergies, ear disorders and asthma. Stratified analyses suggest that the risk of O3-related all-cause ED visits may be higher in older children. CONCLUSIONS Results from this national study extend prior research on the impacts of daily O3 on children's health and reinforce the presence of important adverse health impacts even at levels below the current regulatory standard in the USA.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jennifer D Stowell
- Department of Environmental Health, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Yuantong Sun
- Department of Environmental Health, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Emma L Gause
- Department of Environmental Health, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Keith R Spangler
- Department of Environmental Health, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Joel Schwartz
- Department of Environmental Health, Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health Boston, MA, USA
| | - Aaron Bernstein
- Division of General Pediatrics, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Gregory A Wellenius
- Department of Environmental Health, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Amruta Nori-Sarma
- Department of Environmental Health, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA
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Johnson M, Mazur L, Fisher M, Fraser WD, Sun L, Hystad P, Gandhi CK. Prenatal Exposure to Air Pollution and Respiratory Distress in Term Newborns: Results from the MIREC Prospective Pregnancy Cohort. ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH PERSPECTIVES 2024; 132:17007. [PMID: 38271058 PMCID: PMC10810300 DOI: 10.1289/ehp12880] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/10/2023] [Revised: 11/03/2023] [Accepted: 12/11/2023] [Indexed: 01/27/2024]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Respiratory distress is the leading cause of neonatal morbidity and mortality worldwide, and prenatal exposure to air pollution is associated with adverse long-term respiratory outcomes; however, the impact of prenatal air pollution exposure on neonatal respiratory distress has not been well studied. OBJECTIVES We examined associations between prenatal exposures to fine particular matter (PM 2.5 ) and nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ) with respiratory distress and related neonatal outcomes. METHODS We used data from the Maternal-Infant Research on Environmental Chemicals (MIREC) Study, a prospective pregnancy cohort (n = 2,001 ) recruited in the first trimester from 10 Canadian cities. Prenatal exposures to PM 2.5 (n = 1,321 ) and NO 2 (n = 1,064 ) were estimated using land-use regression and satellite-derived models coupled with ground-level monitoring and linked to participants based on residential location at birth. We calculated odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for associations between air pollution and physician-diagnosed respiratory distress in term neonates in hierarchical logistic regression models adjusting for detailed maternal and infant covariates. RESULTS Approximately 7 % of newborns experienced respiratory distress. Neonates received clinical interventions including oxygen therapy (6%), assisted ventilation (2%), and systemic antibiotics (3%). Two percent received multiple interventions and 4% were admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Median PM 2.5 and NO 2 concentrations during pregnancy were 8.81 μ g / m 3 and 18.02 ppb , respectively. Prenatal exposures to air pollution were not associated with physician-diagnosed respiratory distress, oxygen therapy, or NICU admissions. However, PM 2.5 exposures were strongly associated with assisted ventilation (OR per 1 - μ g / m 3 increase in PM 2.5 = 1.17 ; 95% CI: 1.02, 1.35), multiple clinical interventions (OR per 1 - μ g / m 3 increase in PM 2.5 = 1.16 ; 95% CI: 1.07, 1.26), and systemic antibiotics, (OR per 1 - μ g / m 3 increase in PM 2.5 = 1.12 ; 95% CI: 1.04, 1.21). These associations were consistent across exposure periods-that is, during prepregnancy, individual trimesters, and total pregnancy-and robust to model specification. NO 2 exposure was associated with administration of systemic antibiotics (OR per 1-ppb increase in NO 2 = 1.03 ; 95% CI: 1.00, 1.06). DISCUSSION Prenatal exposures to PM 2.5 increased the risk of severe respiratory distress among term newborns. These findings support the development and prioritization of public health and prenatal care strategies to increase awareness and minimize prenatal exposures to air pollution. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP12880.
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Affiliation(s)
- Markey Johnson
- Water and Air Quality Bureau, Health Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
| | - Lauren Mazur
- Department of Pediatrics, Penn State College of Medicine, Pennsylvania State University, Hershey, Pennsylvania, USA
| | - Mandy Fisher
- Environmental Health Sciences and Research Bureau, Health Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
| | - William D. Fraser
- Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Centre de Recherche du CHUS, University of Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Québec, Canada
| | - Liu Sun
- Water and Air Quality Bureau, Health Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
| | - Perry Hystad
- School of Biological and Population Health Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon, USA
| | - Chintan K. Gandhi
- Department of Pediatrics, Penn State College of Medicine, Pennsylvania State University, Hershey, Pennsylvania, USA
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Henneman L, Choirat C, Dedoussi I, Dominici F, Roberts J, Zigler C. Mortality risk from United States coal electricity generation. Science 2023; 382:941-946. [PMID: 37995235 PMCID: PMC10870829 DOI: 10.1126/science.adf4915] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/28/2022] [Accepted: 10/02/2023] [Indexed: 11/25/2023]
Abstract
Policy-makers seeking to limit the impact of coal electricity-generating units (EGUs, also known as power plants) on air quality and climate justify regulations by quantifying the health burden attributable to exposure from these sources. We defined "coal PM2.5" as fine particulate matter associated with coal EGU sulfur dioxide emissions and estimated annual exposure to coal PM2.5 from 480 EGUs in the US. We estimated the number of deaths attributable to coal PM2.5 from 1999 to 2020 using individual-level Medicare death records representing 650 million person-years. Exposure to coal PM2.5 was associated with 2.1 times greater mortality risk than exposure to PM2.5 from all sources. A total of 460,000 deaths were attributable to coal PM2.5, representing 25% of all PM2.5-related Medicare deaths before 2009 and 7% after 2012. Here, we quantify and visualize the contribution of individual EGUs to mortality.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lucas Henneman
- Department of Civil, Environmental, and Infrastructure Engineering, George Mason University Volgenau School of Engineering, Fairfax, VA, USA
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard Data Science Initiative, Harvard University, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Christine Choirat
- Institute of Global Health, Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Irene Dedoussi
- Section Aircraft Noise and Climate Effects, Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Delft, Netherlands
| | - Francesca Dominici
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard Data Science Initiative, Harvard University, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Jessica Roberts
- School of Interactive Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA
| | - Corwin Zigler
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard Data Science Initiative, Harvard University, Boston, MA, USA
- Department of Statistics and Data Sciences, University of Texas, Austin, TX, USA
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Dearborn LC, Hazlehurst MF, Loftus CT, Szpiro AA, Carroll KN, Moore PE, Adgent MA, Barrett ES, Nguyen RHN, Sathyanarayana S, LeWinn KZ, Bush NR, Kaufman JD, Karr CJ. Role of Air Pollution in the Development of Asthma Among Children with a History of Bronchiolitis in Infancy. Epidemiology 2023; 34:554-564. [PMID: 37042935 PMCID: PMC10563986 DOI: 10.1097/ede.0000000000001613] [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: 01/13/2022] [Accepted: 03/12/2023] [Indexed: 04/13/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Infants experiencing bronchiolitis are at increased risk for asthma, but few studies have identified modifiable risk factors. We assessed whether early life air pollution influenced child asthma and wheeze at age 4-6 years among children with a history of bronchiolitis in the first postnatal year. METHODS Children with caregiver-reported physician-diagnosed bronchiolitis were drawn from ECHO-PATHWAYS, a pooled longitudinal cohort from six US cities. We estimated their air pollution exposure from age 1 to 3 years from validated spatiotemporal models of fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 ), nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ), and ozone (O 3 ). Caregivers reported children's current wheeze and asthma at age 4-6 years. We used modified Poisson regression to estimate relative risks (RR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI), adjusting for child, maternal, and home environmental factors. We assessed effect modification by child sex and maternal history of asthma with interaction models. RESULTS A total of 224 children had caregiver-reported bronchiolitis. Median (interquartile range) 2-year pollutant concentrations were 9.3 (7.8-9.9) µg/m 3 PM 2.5 , 8.5 (6.4-9.9) ppb NO 2 , and 26.6 (25.6-27.7) ppb O 3 . RRs (CI) for current wheeze per 2-ppb higher O 3 were 1.3 (1.0-1.7) and 1.4 (1.1-1.8) for asthma. NO 2 was inversely associated with wheeze and asthma whereas associations with PM 2.5 were null. We observed interactions between NO 2 and PM 2.5 and maternal history of asthma, with lower risks observed among children with a maternal history of asthma. CONCLUSION Our results are consistent with the hypothesis that exposure to modest postnatal O 3 concentrations increases the risk of asthma and wheeze among the vulnerable subpopulation of infants experiencing bronchiolitis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Logan C Dearborn
- From the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
| | - Marnie F Hazlehurst
- From the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
| | - Christine T Loftus
- From the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
| | - Adam A Szpiro
- Department of Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
| | - Kecia N Carroll
- Department of Pediatrics, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY
- Department of Environmental Medicine and Public Health, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, NY
| | - Paul E Moore
- Division of Allergy, Immunology, and Pulmonology, Department of Pediatrics, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN
| | - Margaret A Adgent
- Department of Health Policy, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN
| | - Emily S Barrett
- Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute, Rutgers School of Public Health, Piscataway, NJ
- Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Rochester, NY
| | - Ruby HN Nguyen
- Division of Epidemiology and Community Health, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN
| | - Sheela Sathyanarayana
- From the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
- Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
- Seattle Children’s Research Institute, Seattle, WA
| | - Kaja Z LeWinn
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA
| | - Nicole R Bush
- Department of Psychiatry and Pediatrics, School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA
| | - Joel D Kaufman
- From the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
- Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
- Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Washington; Seattle, WA
| | - Catherine J Karr
- From the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
- Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
- Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
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To T, Terebessy E, Zhu J, Zhang K, Lakey PS, Shiraiwa M, Hatzopoulou M, Minet L, Weichenthal S, Dell S, Stieb D. Does early life exposure to exogenous sources of reactive oxygen species (ROS) increase the risk of respiratory and allergic diseases in children? A longitudinal cohort study. Environ Health 2022; 21:90. [PMID: 36184638 PMCID: PMC9528154 DOI: 10.1186/s12940-022-00902-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/03/2022] [Accepted: 09/12/2022] [Indexed: 06/01/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Excess reactive oxygen species (ROS) can cause oxidative stress damaging cells and tissues, leading to adverse health effects in the respiratory tract. Yet, few human epidemiological studies have quantified the adverse effect of early life exposure to ROS on child health. Thus, this study aimed to examine the association of levels of ROS exposure at birth and the subsequent risk of developing common respiratory and allergic diseases in children. METHODS 1,284 Toronto Child Health Evaluation Questionnaire (T-CHEQ) participants were followed from birth (born between 1996 and 2000) until outcome, March 31, 2016 or loss-to-follow-up. Using ROS data from air monitoring campaigns and land use data in Toronto, ROS concentrations generated in the human respiratory tract in response to inhaled pollutants were estimated using a kinetic multi-layer model. These ROS values were assigned to participants' postal codes at birth. Cox proportional hazards regression models, adjusted for confounders, were then used to estimate hazard ratios (HR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) per unit increase in interquartile range (IQR). RESULTS After adjusting for confounders, iron (Fe) and copper (Cu) were not significantly associated with the risk of asthma, allergic rhinitis, nor eczema. However, ROS, a measure of the combined impacts of Fe and Cu in PM2.5, was associated with an increased risk of asthma (HR = 1.11, 95% CI: 1.02-1.21, p < 0.02) per IQR. There were no statistically significant associations of ROS with allergic rhinitis (HR = 0.96, 95% CI: 0.88-1.04, p = 0.35) and eczema (HR = 1.03, 95% CI: 0.98-1.09, p = 0.24). CONCLUSION These findings showed that ROS exposure in early life significantly increased the childhood risk of asthma, but not allergic rhinitis and eczema.
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Affiliation(s)
- Teresa To
- Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.
- Child Health Evaluative Sciences, Research Institute, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada.
- ICES, Ontario, Canada.
| | - Emilie Terebessy
- Child Health Evaluative Sciences, Research Institute, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada
| | - Jingqin Zhu
- Child Health Evaluative Sciences, Research Institute, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada
- ICES, Ontario, Canada
| | - Kimball Zhang
- Child Health Evaluative Sciences, Research Institute, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada
- ICES, Ontario, Canada
| | - Pascale Sj Lakey
- Department of Chemistry, University of California Irvine, Irvine, USA
| | - Manabu Shiraiwa
- Department of Chemistry, University of California Irvine, Irvine, USA
| | - Marianne Hatzopoulou
- Department of Civil and Mineral Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
| | - Laura Minet
- Department of Civil Engineering, University of Victoria, Victoria, Canada
| | - Scott Weichenthal
- Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Occupational Health, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
- Water and Air Quality Bureau, Health Canada, Ottawa, Canada
| | - Sharon Dell
- Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
- Pediatric Respiratory Medicine, Provincial Health Services Authority, BC Children's Hospital, Vancouver, Canada
| | - Dave Stieb
- Environmental Health Science and Research Bureau, Health Canada, Ottawa, Canada
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Sloan Morgan OV, Thomas K, McNab-Coombs L. Envisioning healthy futures: Youth perceptions of justice-oriented environments and communities in Northern British Columbia Canada. Health Place 2022; 76:102817. [PMID: 35636074 DOI: 10.1016/j.healthplace.2022.102817] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/26/2021] [Revised: 01/14/2022] [Accepted: 05/01/2022] [Indexed: 11/04/2022]
Abstract
Through an anti-colonial and critical race theoretical framework as well as arts-based methods (photovoice) that engage Indigenous and non-Indigenous youth, we explore the question: what do youth perceive as healthy and just environments and communities? Youth identified two overarching, strength-based messages: Firstly, youth demonstrate the need for a structural-level analysis of the conditions that influence individual-level outcomes of environmental health. Secondly, youth perspectives on healthy and justice-oriented environments and communities challenge environmental health scholars to consider youth as powerful actors. Youth perspectives of healthy and justice-oriented communities present a necessarily structural perspective to consider not only the impacts of environmental decision-making on health, but the conditions that have allowed for harmful impacts. In doing so, youth demonstrate the need for intersectional and complex understandings of health and wellbeing when discussing the environment. And, as we argue here, challenge us as scholars of environmental health to do the same.
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Affiliation(s)
- Onyx Vanessa Sloan Morgan
- Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of British Columbia, Okanagan, 3333 University Way, Kelowna, BC, V1V 1V7, Canada.
| | - Kimberley Thomas
- Faculty of Medicine, Northern Medical Program, University of British Columbia, 3333 University Way, Prince George, BC, V2N 4Z9, Canada.
| | - Laura McNab-Coombs
- Faculty of Human and Health Sciences & Health Arts Research Centre, University of Northern British Columbia, 3333 University Way, Prince George, BC, V2N 4Z9, Canada.
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