Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology

BACKGROUND: Since there are known adverse health impacts of traffic-related air pollution, while at the same time there are potential health benefits from greenness, it is important to examine more closely the impacts of these factors on indoor air quality in urban schools. OBJECTIVE: This study investigates the association of road proximity and urban greenness to indoor traffic-related fine particulate matter (PM2.5 ), nitrogen dioxide (NO2 ), and black carbon (BC) in inner-city schools...

BACKGROUND: Exposure to air pollution can exacerbate asthma with immediate and long-term health consequences. Behaviour changes can reduce exposure to air pollution, yet its 'invisible' nature often leaves individuals unaware of their exposure, complicating the identification of appropriate behaviour modifications. Moreover, making health behaviour changes can be challenging, necessitating additional support from healthcare professionals. OBJECTIVE: This pilot study used personal exposure monitoring, data feedback, and co-developed behaviour change interventions with individuals with asthma, with the goal of reducing personal exposure to PM2...

BACKGROUND: Statistical models of air pollution enable intra-urban characterization of pollutant concentrations, benefiting exposure assessment for environmental epidemiology. The new generation of low-cost sensors facilitate the deployment of dense monitoring networks and can potentially be used to improve intra-urban models of air pollution. OBJECTIVE: Develop and evaluate a spatiotemporal model for nitrogen dioxide (NO2 ) in the Puget Sound region of WA, USA for the Adult Changes in Thought Air Pollution (ACT-AP) study and assess the contribution of low-cost sensor data to the model's performance through cross-validation...

BACKGROUND: Lead is a persistent, ubiquitous pollutant whose historical sources have been largely addressed through regulation and voluntary actions. The United States (U.S.) has achieved significant decreases in children's blood lead levels (BLL) over the past 40 years; however, there is no known safe level of Pb exposure. Some communities continue to be disproportionately impacted by exposure to Pb, including Black children and families living in older homes. OBJECTIVE: To identify Ohio (OH) census tracts with children exposed to Pb and evaluate potential exposure determinants...

BACKGROUND: The pathophysiology of tinnitus is not yet fully understood. Although there is a large amount of evidence associating traffic noise exposure with non-auditory health outcomes, there is no evidence regarding the impact of noise annoyance on auditory disorders such as tinnitus. OBJECTIVE: Thus, we aimed to investigate the association between noise annoyance due to different sources and tinnitus presence and distress in the general population. METHODS: Data of 6813 participants from a large German population-based cohort were used (Gutenberg Health Study)...

BACKGROUND: Although PM2.5 (fine particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter less than 2.5 µm) is an air pollutant of great concern in Texas, limited regulatory monitors pose a significant challenge for decision-making and environmental studies. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to predict PM2.5 concentrations at a fine spatial scale on a daily basis by using novel machine learning approaches and incorporating satellite-derived Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) and a variety of weather and land use variables...

BACKGROUND: Time-activity pattern (TAP) is an important parameter for determining personal exposure to environmental pollutants. Changes in TAPs could have significant implications for the alterations in outcomes of exposure assessments. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to evaluate the Seoul population's long-term change in TAPs, along with variations by sociodemographic group. METHODS: In 2004, 2009, 2014, and 2019, the Time Use Survey of Statistics Korea collected the TAP information of 4036, 2610, 3337, and 2793 Seoul residents, respectively...

BACKGROUND: Lead (Pb) in house dust contributes significantly to blood lead levels (BLLs) in children which may result in dire health consequences. Assessment of house dust Pb in the United States, relationships with Pb in soil and paint, and residential factors influencing Pb concentrations are essential to probing drivers of house dust Pb exposure. OBJECTIVE: Pb concentrations in vacuum-collected house dust are characterized across 346 homes participating in the American Health Homes Survey II (AHHS II), a US survey (2018-2019) evaluating residential Pb hazards...

BACKGROUND: Prenatal fine particulate matter (PM2.5 ) constituents exposure and reduced fetal growth may be risk factors for accelerated growth in early childhood, an important indicator for lifelong health. OBJECTIVE: The study investigated whether the joint effects are present between PM2.5 constituents and reduced fetal growth. METHODS: The study was embedded in a birth cohort in China, including 5424 mother-child pairs. Prenatal PM2.5 and its constituents' [organic carbon (OC), elementary carbon (EC), ammonium (NH4 + ), nitrate (NO3 - ), and sulfate (SO4 2- )] concentrations were estimated based on maternal residential addresses...

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Environmental epidemiologic studies using geospatial data often estimate exposure at a participant's residence upon enrollment, but mobility during the exposure period can lead to misclassification. We aimed to mitigate this issue by constructing residential histories for participants in the California Teachers Study through follow-up (1995-2018). Address records have been collected from the US Postal Service, LexisNexis, Experian, and California Cancer Registry. We identified records of the same address based on geo-coordinate distance (≤250 m) and street name similarity...

Self-reported distances to industrial sources have been used in epidemiology as proxies for exposure to environmental hazards and indicators of awareness and perception of sources. Unconventional oil and gas development (UOG) emits pollutants and has been associated with adverse health outcomes. We compared self-reported distance to the nearest UOG well to the geographic information system-calculated distance for 303 Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia residents using Cohen's Weighted Kappa. Agreement was low (Kappa = 0...

BACKGROUND: Household air pollution (HAP) is a major risk factor of non-communicable diseases, causing millions of premature deaths each year in developing nations. Populations living at high altitudes are particularly vulnerable to HAP and associated health outcomes. OBJECTIVES: This study aims to explore the relationships between activity patterns, HAP, and an HAP biomarker among 100 Himalayan nomadic households during both cooking and heating-only periods. METHODS: Household CO was monitored in 100 rural homes in Qinghai, China, at 3500 m on the Himalayan Plateau among Himalayan nomads...

BACKGROUND: Children may be exposed to harmful chemicals from their products. Accurate exposure factors are critical for exposure assessment of children's products. Product usage pattern parameters are relatively limited compared with the chemical concentration, children's physiological and behavioral parameters. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to determine nationally representative Korean exposure factors for the usage patterns of children's products by sex, age, and season...

BACKGROUND: Exposure to green space can protect against poor health through a variety of mechanisms. However, there is heterogeneity in methodological approaches to exposure assessments which makes creating effective policy recommendations challenging. OBJECTIVE: Critically evaluate the use of a satellite-derived exposure metric, the Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), for assessing access to different types of green space in epidemiological studies. METHODS: We used Landsat 5-8 (30 m resolution) to calculate average EVI for a 300 m radius surrounding 1...

BACKGROUND: Experimental studies suggest ultrafine particles (UFPs), the smallest size fraction of particulate matter, may be more toxic than larger particles, however personal sampling studies in children are lacking. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this analysis was to examine individual, housing, and neighborhood characteristics associated with personal UFP concentrations as well as the differences in exposures that occur within varying microenvironments. METHODS: We measured weekly personal UFP concentrations and GPS coordinates in 117 adolescents ages 13-17 to describe exposures across multiple microenvironments...

BACKGROUND: Research demonstrates that chronic exposure to fine particulates (PM2.5 ) increases risks of neurodevelopmental conditions, such as intellectual disability (ID). Few studies have examined neurodevelopmental health impacts of pollution spikes exceeding 24-h (24-h) PM2.5 guidelines, despite relevance to the regulatory landscape. The current potential for regulatory changes to 24-h PM2.5 standards in the United States makes research on exceedances relevant. OBJECTIVE: To examine associations between 24-h PM2...

BACKGROUND: Short-term studies of health effects from ambient air pollution usually rely on fixed site monitoring data or spatio-temporal models for exposure characterization, but the relation to personal exposure is often not known. OBJECTIVE: We aimed to explore this relation for black carbon (BC) in central Stockholm. METHODS: Families (n = 46) with an infant, one parent working and one parent on parental leave, carried battery-operated BC instruments for 7 days...

BACKGROUND: Antibiotic use in food-producing animals can select for antibiotic resistance in bacteria that can be transmitted to people through contamination of food products during meat processing. Contamination resulting in foodborne illness contributes to adverse health outcomes. Some livestock producers have implemented antibiotic use reduction strategies marketed to consumers on regulated retail meat packaging labels ("label claims"). OBJECTIVE: We investigated whether retail meat label claims were associated with isolation of multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs, resistant to ≥3 classes of antibiotics) from U...

BACKGROUND: While the Safe Drinking Water Act allows states and localities to adopt stronger protections for drinking water, state and local requirements concerning private drinking water wells vary dramatically and often do not provide necessary protections for residents who rely on well water. OBJECTIVE: This paper inventories ten types of policies including laws, regulations, programs, and activities that states have adopted or partaken in to encourage safe drinking water for residential well owners...