TY  - JOUR
AB  - There is limited epidemiological evidence regarding the health effects of ultrafine particles (UFP; particles with an aerodynamic diameter of 10-100 nm). This study investigated whether long-term exposure to total particle number concentration (PNC), used as a surrogate for UFP, is associated with cardiometabolic diseases, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and cardiometabolic biomarkers. Our cross-sectional study included 27,390 participants of the NAKO study centers in Augsburg and Regensburg in Southern Germany. Health outcomes included self-reported, physician-diagnosed diseases such as hypertension, myocardial infarction, or COPD, alongside blood biomarkers such as glucose. Annual PNC averages for 2014 were estimated using supervised land use regression models and linked to participants' home addresses. We also obtained annual averages of further pollutants (e.g., particulate matter ≤ 2.5 µm (PM2.5)) for 2010. We applied covariate-adjusted logistic and linear regression models to examine associations between PNC and health outcomes. Additionally, we assessed interdependencies between pollutants using two-pollutant models. Long-term exposure to PNC was associated with increased odds of hypertension and myocardial infarction, and COPD, as well as elevated glucose and leukocyte levels. For example, the odds ratio for hypertension was 1.03 (95% confidence interval: 1.01;1.05) for each increase in PNC by 1000 particles/cm3. Two-pollutant models did not substantially change the results for PNC but led to slightly wider confidence intervals. In conclusion, our study suggests that long-term exposure to PNC, as a surrogate for UFP, contributes to the risk of hypertension, myocardial infarction, COPD, and elevated blood glucose and leukocyte levels in adults. These results highlight the role of UFP within the broader mixture of ambient air pollution and underscore the need for strategies to reduce UFP exposure to prevent adverse cardiometabolic and pulmonary health effects.
AU  - Breitner-Busch, S.
AU  - Wolf, K.
AU  - Cyrys, J.
AU  - Schneider, A.E.
AU  - Pickford, R.
AU  - Dallavalle, M.
AU  - Sues, S.
AU  - Fischer, B.*
AU  - Leitzmann, M.*
AU  - Soentgen, J.*
AU  - Peters, A.
C1  - 75631
C2  - 57939
CY  - The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford Ox5 1gb, England
TI  - Long-term exposure to ultrafine particles and its association with cardiometabolic diseases, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and cardiometabolic biomarkers: A cross-sectional analysis of the German National cohort (NAKO).
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 204
PB  - Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd
PY  - 2025
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Understanding airborne particle mass deposition in the lungs is crucial for assessing health effects, particularly in regions with severe air pollution. While several studies have modelled lung deposition, there is limited information on lung tissue deposition that incorporates factors like hygroscopicity and density in polluted environments or source-specific exposures. This study examines the impact of atmospheric aerosol properties, including particle number size distribution, effective density, and hygroscopic growth, on lung tissue deposition using data from a measurement campaign in Delhi, India. Using the Hygroscopic Particle Lung Deposition (HPLD) model, the number (TDn) and mass (TDm) of tissue-deposited particles were calculated for various episodes: biomass burning (BB), chloride (Cl), hydrocarbon-like organic aerosol (HOA), and relatively clean (RC) periods. Chloride episodes, linked to industrial and waste burning activities, showed the highest tissue deposition mass (28 pg cm-2h-1), followed by BB (22 pg cm-2h-1), HOA (17 pg cm-2h-1), and RC (14 pg cm-2h-1) on total inner lung surface area. In addition, incorporating hygroscopicity and density increased deposition estimates by 1.8-2.8 times. This study underscores the importance of quantifying tissue deposition doses for improving exposure assessments, particularly in highly polluted regions where elevated particulate levels exacerbate lung inflammation, respiratory issues, and cancer risk.
AU  - Das, A.
AU  - Karg, E.*
AU  - Ferron, G.A.*
AU  - Schnelle-Kreis, J.
AU  - Mandariya, A.K.*
AU  - Habib, G.*
AU  - Wiedensohler, A.*
AU  - Pöhlker, M.L.*
AU  - Zimmermann, R.
AU  - Ahlawat, A.*
C1  - 74883
C2  - 57650
CY  - The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford Ox5 1gb, England
TI  - Increased particle mass deposition on lung tissue due to industrial and waste-burning activities.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 201
PB  - Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd
PY  - 2025
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - BACKGROUND: Heatwaves pose significant risks to human health. Implementing heat health warning systems (HHWS) has been widely adopted as a preventive measure. However, the effectiveness of the German HHWS in reducing mortality during heat episodes across different cities has scarcely been researched. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to assess the effect of HHWS on mortality during heat episodes in 15 major cities in Germany and explore city-specific factors influencing the effectiveness of heat alerts. METHODS: Daily all-cause mortality data during the warm-season months (May to September) from 1993 to 2020 were linked with heat alert data and meteorological information. A difference-in-differences approach was employed to estimate the city-specific effects of heat alerts on mortality. In the second stage, meta-regression models were used to pool the city-specific estimates and examine the heterogeneity across cities. RESULTS: Substantial variation in the city-specific associations was observed, with some cities exhibiting significant reductions in mortality during heat episodes after the HHWS implementation while others showed no significant effect. The pooled relative risk (RR) from the second-stage analysis, based on the meta-variables averaged across all cities studied, suggested no overall significant protective effect of heat alerts on mortality (RR = 1.00, 95 %CI:0.98 to 1.01). However, when controlling for the meta-variables recreational area per person, total population, and population density, we found a significant but small protective effect of heat alerts across all cities studied (RR = 0.85, 95 %CI:0.75 to0.97). CONCLUSION: According to our results, the effectiveness of heat alerts varied considerably across the cities, suggesting the importance of considering city-specific factors, such as population size, population density, and the presence of blue and green urban infrastructure. Understanding these factors can help improve the effectiveness of HHWS and tailor interventions to address the specific characteristics of different urban areas within heat-health action plans.
AU  - Feldbusch, H.
AU  - Schneider, A.E.
AU  - Matthies-Wiesler, E.F.
AU  - Matzarakis, A.*
AU  - Peters, A.
AU  - Breitner-Busch, S.
AU  - Huber, V.
C1  - 75433
C2  - 58006
CY  - The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford Ox5 1gb, England
TI  - Assessing the effectiveness of the heat health warning system in preventing mortality in 15 German cities: A difference-in-differences approach.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 203
PB  - Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd
PY  - 2025
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - BACKGROUND: Recent climate changes have resulted in a rising frequency of extreme cold events that take place during the warm season. Few studies have investigated the impact of these warm-season cold spells on cardiovascular health. Here, we aimed to investigate the potential relationship between exposure to relatively low temperature exposure during the warm season and stroke risk. METHODS: We conducted a time-stratified case-crossover study using a validated, complete, and detailed registration of all stroke cases in the city of Augsburg, Germany, from 2006 to 2020 to assess the association between the occurrence of stroke and exposure to cold spell events during the warm season (May-October). Six cold spell definitions were created using different relative temperature thresholds (1st, 2.5th, and 5th percentiles) and durations (more than 1-2 consecutive days). Conditional logistic regression with distributed lag models was then applied to assess the accumulated effects of these warm-season cold spells on stroke risk over a lag period of 0-6 days, with adjustments for daily mean temperature. RESULTS: Results confirmed that warm-season cold spells were significantly linked to an elevated risk of stroke with effects that could persist three days after exposure. The cumulative odds ratio (OR) estimates for the cold spells using the 2.5th percentile as air temperature threshold reached 1.29 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.09-1.53) and 1.23 (95%CI: 1.05-1.44) for durations more than one and two days, respectively. Warm-season cold spells also had significant associations with both transient ischemic attacks and ischemic strokes. The stratified analysis showed that the elderly population (aged ≥ 65 years), females, and stroke cases characterized by minor symptoms demonstrated a significantly increased stroke risk of the effects of warm season cold spells. CONCLUSIONS: This study presents strong evidence for an overlooked association between warm-season cold spells and an increased risk of stroke occurrence. These findings further highlight the multifaceted ways in which climate change can affect human health.
AU  - He, C.
AU  - Breitner-Busch, S.
AU  - Zhang, S.*
AU  - Naumann, M.*
AU  - Traidl-Hoffmann, C.
AU  - Hammel, G.*
AU  - Peters, A.
AU  - Ertl, M.*
AU  - Schneider, A.E.
C1  - 74337
C2  - 57480
CY  - The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford Ox5 1gb, England
TI  - Stroke risk associated with cold spells occurring during the warm season.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 199
PB  - Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd
PY  - 2025
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Sugarcane (Saccharum spp. hybrid) is a key crop for bioenergy production due to its high productivity in tropical and subtropical climates. Despite this economic importance, there is currently no information available on the emission of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) during the growth phase of this crop. This is despite the fact that the sustainability of sugarcane cultivation has been questioned due to the associated land-use changes and possible atmospheric pollution by VOCs. The present study investigated the VOC emissions from sugarcane and their dependence on ontogenetic, diurnal, seasonal and environmental factors. By GC-MS and PTR-MS analysis, the emission of 40 different VOCs from sugarcane leaves was recorded based on their molecular weight that were divided into seven chemical groups (i.e., alkanes, alkenes, aromatics, aldehydes, alcohols, ketones and terpenoids). In addition, complementary PTR-MS analysis showed strong emission of methanol, acetaldehyde and ethanol and minor release of monoterpenes, fatty acid derivatives (i.e., LOX products) and a compound with m/z 69 (which was not validated as isoprene). Compared to other bioenergy crops, e.g., maize, Salix, Miscanthus and poplar/aspen, terpenoid emissions play a quantitatively smaller role, indicating that sugarcane is a low impact species in terms of air chemistry. The VOC emissions from sugarcane leaves vary with plant developmental stages, during the day and between the seasons and are dependent on light intensity and temperature. Thus, our results could provide a valuable basis for future modelling efforts to upscale VOC emissions from sugarcane cultivation in different climatic zones.
AU  - Hu, B.*
AU  - Jarosch, A.M.*
AU  - Grote, R.*
AU  - Yannick Ngaba, M.J.*
AU  - Schnitzler, J.-P.
AU  - Kreuzwieser, J.*
AU  - Rennenberg, H.*
C1  - 74306
C2  - 57430
CY  - The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford Ox5 1gb, England
TI  - Ontogenetic, diurnal, and environmental impacts on VOC emission from sugarcane.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 199
PB  - Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd
PY  - 2025
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - BACKGROUND: The independent and interrelated long-term effects of the exposome such as air pollution, greenness, and ambient temperature on lung function are not well understood, yet relevant in the light of climate change. METHODS: Pre-bronchodilation FEV1 from five mature birth cohorts (N = 4724) and three adult cohorts (N = 6052) from five European countries were used to assess cross-sectional associations with air pollution, greenness, and ambient temperature, assigned to their residential address. All two-way interactions and square terms were a priori included in building the final elastic net regression model. Elastic net regression results were put into the context of different environmental scenarios such as improvement of air quality, improvement of greenness, climate change, or their combinations. RESULTS: Elastic net regression of FEV1 z-scores identified non-zero coefficients for many interaction terms, indicating the importance of joint effects of exposure to air pollution, greenness, and temperature. The non-zero coefficients were bigger and more stable in adults than in children. Upon exploring lung function benefits for different environmental scenarios, an improvement of FEV1 was expected in the scenario of improving air quality or greenness. In contrast, negative changes in FEV1 z-scores were expected in the scenario of climate change, characterized by daily temperature increase in summer and decrease in winter. The beneficial FEV1 effects of improving air pollution or greenness were attenuated in the presence of climate change. CONCLUSION: Complex exposome profiles of long-term exposure to air pollution, greenness, and temperature showed associations with FEV1 in European adults, and to less extent in children and adolescents. Climate change seems to have a negative impact on lung function and modifies the association of air pollution and greenspace with lung function.
AU  - Jeong, A.*
AU  - Lovison, G.*
AU  - Bussalleu, A.*
AU  - Cirach, M.*
AU  - Dadvand, P.*
AU  - de Hoogh, K.*
AU  - Flexeder, C.
AU  - Hoek, G.*
AU  - Imboden, M.*
AU  - Karrasch, S.
AU  - Koppelman, G.H.*
AU  - Kress, S.*
AU  - Ljungman, P.*
AU  - Majewska, R.*
AU  - Pershagen, G.*
AU  - Pickford, R.
AU  - Shen, Y.*
AU  - Vermeulen, R.C.H.*
AU  - Vlaanderen, J.J.*
AU  - Vogli, M.
AU  - Wolf, K.
AU  - Yu, Z.*
AU  - Melén, E.*
AU  - Pac, A.*
AU  - Peters, A.
AU  - Schikowski, T.*
AU  - Standl, M.
AU  - Gehring, U.*
AU  - Probst-Hensch, N.*
C1  - 73180
C2  - 56856
CY  - The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford Ox5 1gb, England
TI  - Lung function-associated exposome profile in the era of climate change: Pooled analysis of 8 population-based European cohorts within the EXPANSE project.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 196
PB  - Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd
PY  - 2025
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Ship emissions significantly impact both the environment and human health. To address these concerns, the International Maritime Organization has imposed restrictions on the sulfur content in marine fuels. Specifically, the fuel sulfur content (FSC) must be below 0.5% m/m globally and below 0.1% m/m in designated sulfur emission control areas. These regulations apply to a range of fuels including distillate diesel-like fuels and low-sulfur heavy fuel oils (HFOs). As a result, there has been a reduction in emissions, particularly sulfur oxides and particulate matter (PM). However, the relationship between FSC and the toxicity of ship emissions remains unclear. This study aimed to investigate how the physical and chemical properties of PM from a marine engine operating on five marine fuels with varying FSCs, influence toxicological outcomes. For this scope, the study assessed cytotoxic, genotoxic, mutagenic, and pro-inflammatory effects of the emitted particles using lung cell models. The involvement of intracellular reactive oxygen species and xenobiotic metabolism was also exanimated. The results showed that PM from the combustion of different fuels reduced cell viability and clonogenicity at the highest concentration. However, other toxicological outcomes, such as genotoxic potential, were more strongly associated with the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon content of the PM than with FSC. Notably, an aromatic-rich HFO with intermediate FSC induced a significant increase in gene mutation frequency and alterations of cellular processes. In conclusion, while reducing FSC is an important step in mitigating ship emissions, this study underscores the need for a comprehensive evaluation of fuel properties.
AU  - Jeong, S.
AU  - Pantzke, J.
AU  - Offer, S.
AU  - Käfer, U.
AU  - Bendl, J.*
AU  - Saraji-Bozorgzad, M.R.*
AU  - Huber, A.
AU  - Michalke, B.
AU  - Etzien, U.*
AU  - Jakobi, G.
AU  - Orasche, J.
AU  - Czech, H.
AU  - Rüger, C.P.*
AU  - Schnelle-Kreis, J.
AU  - Streibel, T.
AU  - Buchholz, B.*
AU  - Adam, T.
AU  - Sklorz, M.
AU  - Di Bucchianico, S.
AU  - Zimmermann, R.
C1  - 74071
C2  - 57323
CY  - The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford Ox5 1gb, England
TI  - In vitro genotoxic and mutagenic potentials of combustion particles from marine fuels with different sulfur contents.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 198
PB  - Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd
PY  - 2025
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Plastic materials are ubiquitous, leading to constant human exposure to plastic additives such as plasticizers. There is growing evidence that plasticizers may contribute to obesity due to their disruptive effects on metabolism. Alternatives like diisononylcyclohexane-1,2-dicarboxylate (DINCH) are replacing traditional phthalates such as di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP), which are now banned due to their proven harmful health effects. While DINCH is considered a safer alternative to DEHP and no adipogenic effects have been demonstrated in in vivo studies, recent research suggests that the primary metabolite, monoisononylcyclohexane-1,2-dicarboxylic acid ester (MINCH), promotes adipocyte differentiation and dysfunction in vitro. However, metabolic and molecular effects are not fully understood in vivo. Here, we performed a comprehensive in vivo analysis using C57BL/6N mice to investigate the effects of DINCH on adipose tissue physiology and function. Mice were exposed to two doses of DINCH for 16 weeks, followed by a 10-week recovery period. Tissue analysis confirmed the presence of DINCH and MINCH in liver and adipose tissue after treatment and recovery. After the recovery period, elevated DINCH concentrations in adipose tissue depots indicated possible bioaccumulation. Although no changes were observed in body composition and energy expenditure, sex-specific metabolic effects were identified. Female mice exhibited impaired whole-body insulin sensitivity and higher triglyceride levels, while male mice showed an altered insulin/C-peptide ratio and elevated cholesterol, HDL, and LDL levels. Proteomic profiling of serum, adipose and liver tissues revealed changes in pathways related to central energy metabolism and immune response, highlighting the systemic impact of DINCH, potentially on inflammatory processes. Most effects of DINCH, such as changes in insulin response and serum lipid levels, were diminished after the recovery period. Despite many findings consistent with the existing literature suggesting DINCH as a safer DEHP substitute, the observed sex-specific effects on insulin sensitivity, lipid metabolism and inflammatory processes, as well as potential bioaccumulation and long-term metabolic effects of DINCH exposure warrant careful consideration in further risk assessment.
AU  - Krupka, S.
AU  - Aldehoff, A.S.*
AU  - Goerdeler, C.*
AU  - Engelmann, B.*
AU  - Rolle-Kampczyk, U.*
AU  - Schubert, K.*
AU  - Klöting, N.
AU  - von Bergen, M.*
AU  - Blüher, M.
C1  - 73241
C2  - 56962
CY  - The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford Ox5 1gb, England
TI  - Metabolic and molecular Characterization, following dietary exposure to DINCH, Reveals new Implications for its role as a Metabolism-Disrupting chemical.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 196
PB  - Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd
PY  - 2025
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - BACKGROUND: The effects of different ultrafine particle (UFP) metrics on strokes are unclear. This case-crossover study investigated the association between short-term exposure to four size-segregated UFP metrics and stroke occurrence. METHODS: From 2006 to 2020, we included 19,518 stroke cases from the University Hospital Augsburg, Germany, a less polluted area. Meanwhile, daily averages of four UFP metrics, including particle number (PNC), mass (PMC), length (PLC), and surface area (PSC) concentrations, were collected from fixed monitoring sites in Augsburg. Conditional logistic regression was employed to assess the association between UFP metrics and stroke risk. Potential individual vulnerability and effect modification were examined using the stratified and interaction analyses. RESULTS: Elevated risk of stroke events was largely similar across all four UFP metrics. The odds ratios (95 % confidence intervals) of strokes for each interquartile range increase in lag 0-6 days of UFPs were 4.76 % (1.06; 8.60) for PNC, 3.99 % (0.93; 7.13) for PMC, 4.52 % (1.11; 8.05) for PLC, and 4.14 % (1.00; 7.38) for PSC. Stable associations with strokes were mainly found for the size fractions of 10-100 nm and 30-100 nm. The cumulative effects of UFP were more pronounced for ischemic strokes and minor strokes with a lower severity. Cold spells might exaggerate the effects of UFPs. CONCLUSION: UFP metrics like particle length and surface area concentration, aside from particle number, may provide valuable insights into particle properties relevant to stroke risk. Expanding real-time, size-segregated monitoring of UFPs represents an effective strategy to mitigate the health impacts of traffic-related air pollution.
AU  - Liao, M.
AU  - Zhang, S.
AU  - Schwarz, M.
AU  - He, C.
AU  - Breitner-Busch, S.
AU  - Cyrys, J.
AU  - Naumann, M.*
AU  - Braadt, L.*
AU  - Traidl-Hoffmann, C.
AU  - Hammel, G.*
AU  - Peters, A.
AU  - Ertl, M.*
AU  - Schneider, A.E.
C1  - 75695
C2  - 57934
CY  - The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford Ox5 1gb, England
TI  - Short-term effects of ultrafine particles on stroke events: An assessment using four different exposure metrics.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 204
PB  - Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd
PY  - 2025
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Little is known about the relation between traffic noise exposure, an established environmental risk factor for cardiovascular disease, and early obesity-related risk markers such as adipose tissue (AT) and hepatic fat. Therefore, we aimed to assess associations of long-term road traffic noise exposure with AT depots measures from whole-body magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). We analyzed cross-sectional data from 11,343 participants from the population-based German National Cohort (NAKO) who underwent MRI examination between 2014 and 2016, considering visceral (VAT), subcutaneous abdominal (SCAAT), subcutaneous thoracic AT (SCTAT) and hepatic fat content as outcomes. Annual road traffic noise (Lden) data from the year 2017 (source: central EIONET data repository) was used to calculate weighted mean noise levels on a continuous scale within 10 and 100-meter buffers of participants' residencies. Among 11,101 participants with complete outcome data, 48.7 % were women, and the mean age was 51.9 years. Higher annual Lden was associated with increased AT depots and hepatic fat content in men (e.g., VAT: 1.72 %-change [95 % confidence interval: [0.14 %; 3.30 %]; SCAAT: 2.18 %-change [0.43 %; 3.93 %], hepatic fat content: 3.57 %-change [1.41 %; 5.78 %] per 10 dB(A) increase in Lden (10 m)) and women (e.g., VAT: 3.13 %-change [1.09 %; 5.18 %]; SCAAT: 2.38 %-change [0.55 %; 4.20 %], hepatic fat content: 3.08 %-change [1.00 %; 5.21 %] per 10 dB(A) increase in Lden (10 m)). Associations were robust with all outcomes after adjusting for air pollutants and surrounding greenness, and effect modification by obesity and hypertension was observed for SCAAT, SCTAT and hepatic fat content. Our findings indicate that annual exposure to road traffic noise is associated with increased adipose tissue depots and hepatic fat content, and thus present novel evidence for the cross-sectional association between noise and early MRI-derived metabolic health markers.
AU  - Niedermayer, F.
AU  - Rospleszcz, S.
AU  - Matthiessen, C.*
AU  - Hoffmann, B.*
AU  - Stoecklein, S.*
AU  - Haueise, T.
AU  - Norajitra, T.*
AU  - Schlett, C.L.*
AU  - Nattenmüller, J.*
AU  - Bamberg, F.*
AU  - Machann, J.
AU  - Günther, M.*
AU  - Hirsch, J.*
AU  - Nagrani, R.*
AU  - Völzke, H.*
AU  - Meinke-Franze, C.*
AU  - Hosten, N.*
AU  - Nonnenmacher, T.*
AU  - Budai, B.K.*
AU  - Palm, V.*
AU  - Katzke, V.*
AU  - Greiser, K.H.*
AU  - Schulz-Menger, J.*
AU  - Niendorf, T.*
AU  - Endemann, B.*
AU  - Pischon, T.*
AU  - Staab, J.*
AU  - Dallavalle, M.
AU  - Schneider, A.E.
AU  - Wolf, K.
AU  - Peters, A.
C1  - 74860
C2  - 57636
CY  - The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford Ox5 1gb, England
TI  - Associations of road traffic noise with adipose tissue depots and hepatic fat content - Results from the German National Cohort (NAKO).
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 201
PB  - Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd
PY  - 2025
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Ambient air pollution has been linked to neurodegenerative diseases. Nevertheless, the literature on the effects of air pollution on the olfactory system and early cognitive impairment is scarce. In this study, we investigated the association between long-term air pollution exposure and odor identification, which can serve as an early indicator of various neurodegenerative conditions. We used data collected in Augsburg, Germany in 2018-2019 for the population-based KORA FIT study of 3,059 participants born between 1945-1964. The Sniffin' Sticks 12-Item Test was used to assess each participant's odor identification. Air pollution concentrations at residential addresses were estimated using land use regression modeling. We dichotomized the odor identification score to normosmia (score ≥ 10) versus hyposmia (score < 7) or anosmia (score < 10) and applied logistic regression. The models were adjusted for age, sex, socioeconomic characteristics (education, income, socioeconomic status), lifestyle factors (physical activity, smoking, body mass index, alcohol consumption) and disease history (e.g., allergies). We observed increased odds of hyposmia or anosmia compared to normosmia per interquartile range increase in the concentrations of PNC, PM2.5, PM2.5abs, PMcoarse, PM10, NO2 and NOx [OR (95 % CI): 1.12 (1.02, 1.24), 1.10 (0.98, 1.25), 1.14 (1.00, 1.30), 1.20 (1.06, 1.35), 1.20 (1.06, 1.36), 1.20 (1.06, 1.37) and 1.13 (1.01, 1.27); respectively]. For O3, no clear effects were detected. Females and physically active people appeared to be more susceptible. No further significant indications of effect modification were found. The results were consistent across sensitivity analyses. This study provides robust evidence for an association between long-term exposure to traffic-related air pollution and poor odor identification, even in a region with relatively low air pollution levels. These findings suggest a potential link between prolonged air pollution exposure and early changes in the olfactory system and could be indicative of early signs of detrimental effects on the brain.
AU  - Nikolaou, N.
AU  - Wolf, K.
AU  - Breitner-Busch, S.
AU  - Pickford, R.
AU  - Schikowski, T.*
AU  - Peters, A.
AU  - Schneider, A.E.
C1  - 74591
C2  - 57541
CY  - The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford Ox5 1gb, England
TI  - Long-term exposure to traffic-related air pollution is associated with impaired odor identification: Results from the population-based KORA FIT study in Augsburg, Germany.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 200
PB  - Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd
PY  - 2025
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - BACKGROUND: The rise in hot nights over recent decades and projections of further increases due to climate change underscores the critical need to understand their impact. This knowledge is essential for shaping public health strategies and guiding adaptation efforts. Despite their significance, research on the implications of hot nights remains limited. OBJECTIVE: This study estimated the association between hot-night excess (the sum of excess heat during the nighttime above a threshold) and duration (the percent of nighttime with a positive excess) based on hourly ambient temperatures and daily mortality in the warm season over multiple locations worldwide. METHODS: We fitted time series regression models to mortality in 178 locations across 44 countries using a distributed lag non-linear model over lags of 0-3 days, controlling for daily maximum temperature and daily mean absolute humidity. Next, we used a multivariate meta-regression model to pool results and estimated attributable burdens. RESULTS: We found a positive, increasing mortality risk with hot-night excess and duration. Assuming 0 as a reference, the pooled relative risks of death associated with extreme excess and duration, defined as the 90th percentile in each index, were both similar at 1.026 (95 % CI, 1.017; 1.036) and 1.026 (95 % CI, 1.013; 1.040). The overall estimated attributable fractions were also observed to be closely similar at 0.60 % (95 % CI, 0.09; 1.10 %) and 0.62 % (95 % CI, 0.00; 1.23 %), respectively. DISCUSSION: This study provides new evidence that hot nights have a specific contribution to heat-related mortality risk. Modeling thermal characteristics' sub-hourly impact on mortality during the night could improve decision-making for long-term adaptions and preventive public health strategies.
AU  - Royé, D.*
AU  - Sera, F.*
AU  - Tobias, A.*
AU  - Hashizume, M.*
AU  - Honda, Y.*
AU  - Kim, H.*
AU  - Vicedo-Cabrera, A.M.*
AU  - Tong, S.*
AU  - Lavigne, E.*
AU  - Kyselý, J.*
AU  - Pascal, M.*
AU  - de'Donato, F.*
AU  - das Neves Pereira da Silva, S.*
AU  - Madureira, J.*
AU  - Huber, V.
AU  - Urban, A.*
AU  - Schwartz, J.*
AU  - Bell, M.L.*
AU  - Armstrong, B.*
AU  - Iñiguez, C.*
C1  - 75434
C2  - 58007
CY  - The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford Ox5 1gb, England
TI  - Short-term association between hot nights and mortality: A multicountry analysis in 178 locations considering hourly ambient temperature.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 203
PB  - Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd
PY  - 2025
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Exposure to ambient Ozone (O3) air pollution directly causes by its oxidative properties, respiratory epithelial cell injury, and cell death, which promote inflammation and hyperreactivity, posing a significant public health concern. Recent clinical and experimental studies have made strides in elucidating the mechanisms underlying O3-induced epithelial cell injury, inflammation, and airway hyperreactivity, which are discussed herein. The current data suggest that O3-induced oxidative stress is a central event-inducing oxeiptotic cell death pathway. O3-induced epithelial barrier damage and cell death, triggering the release of alarmins and damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs), with subsequent endogenous activation of Toll-like receptors (TLRs), DNA sensing pathways, and inflammasomes, activating interleukin-1-Myd88 inflammatory pathway with the production of a range of chemokines and cytokines. This cascade orchestrates lung tissue-resident cell activation in response to O3 in leukocyte and non-leukocyte populations, driving sterile innate immune response. Chronic inflammatory response to O3, by repeated exposures, supports a mixed phenotype combining asthma and emphysema, in which their exacerbation by other particulate pollutants potentially culminates in respiratory failure. We use data from lung single-cell transcriptomics to map genes of O3-damage sensing and signaling pathways to lung cells and thereby highlight potential hotspots of O3 responses. Deeper insights into these pathological pathways might be helpful for the identification of novel therapeutic targets and strategies.
AU  - Russo, R.C.*
AU  - Togbe, D.*
AU  - Couillin, I.*
AU  - Segueni, N.*
AU  - Han, L.
AU  - Quesniaux, V.F.J.*
AU  - Stöger, T.
AU  - Ryffel, B.*
C1  - 73735
C2  - 57202
CY  - The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford Ox5 1gb, England
TI  - Ozone-induced lung injury and inflammation: Pathways and therapeutic targets for pulmonary diseases caused by air pollutants.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 198
PB  - Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd
PY  - 2025
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Whether greenspace affects lung function is unclear. We explored associations between the level of greenness or presence of urban green space near the home with lung function measures taken repeatedly during childhood and adolescence in five European birth cohorts. Lung function was measured by spirometry between six and 22 years (2-3 times), and 9,206 participants from BAMSE (Sweden), GINI/LISA South and GINI/LISA North (Germany), PIAMA (The Netherlands) and INMA (Spain) contributed at least one lung function measurement. The mean Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) in a 300 m buffer and presence of urban green space within a 300 m buffer (yes/no) were estimated at the home address at the time of each spirometry measurement. Cohort-specific associations were assessed using adjusted linear mixed models and combined in a random-effects meta-analysis. Residential greenness was not associated with forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1), forced vital capacity (FVC) or FEV1/FVC in the meta-analysis (2.3 ml [-3.2, 7.9], 6.2 ml [-3.4, 15.7] and -0.1 [-0.3, 0.1] per 0.1 increase in NDVI, respectively), nor was having a nearby urban green space (-8.6 ml [-22.3, 5.0], -7.6 ml [-24.7, 9.4] and 0.0 [-0.4, 0.3], respectively). Heterogeneity was low to moderate (I2 = 0 -39 %). Asthma, atopy, air pollution, sex, socioeconomic status and urbanization did not modify the null associations. Using repeated data from five large independent European birth cohorts, we did not find associations between vegetation levels around the home or the presence of an urban green space and lung function levels during childhood and adolescence.
AU  - Valencia-Hernández, C.A.*
AU  - Yu, Z.*
AU  - Gehring, U.*
AU  - Koppelman, G.H.*
AU  - Standl, M.
AU  - Flexeder, C.
AU  - Schikowski, T.*
AU  - Kress, S.*
AU  - Melén, E.*
AU  - Gruzieva, O.*
AU  - Lõhmus, M.*
AU  - Faner, R.*
AU  - Agusti, A.*
AU  - Wedzicha, J.A.*
AU  - Garcia-Aymerich, J.*
AU  - Koch, S.*
AU  - Nieuwenhuijsen, M.*
AU  - Lertxundi, A.*
AU  - Esplugues, A.*
AU  - Ballester, F.*
AU  - Arregi, A.*
AU  - Markevych, I.*
AU  - Bloom, C.I.*
AU  - Fuertes, E.*
C1  - 74307
C2  - 57431
CY  - The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford Ox5 1gb, England
TI  - Residential greenspace and lung function throughout childhood and adolescence in five European birth cohorts. A CADSET initiative.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 199
PB  - Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd
PY  - 2025
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Studies revealed airports as a prominent source of ultrafine particles (UFP), which can disperse downwind to residential areas, raising health concerns. To expand our understanding of how air traffic-related emissions influence total particle number concentration (PNC) in the airport's surrounding areas, we conduct long-term assessment of airborne particulate exposure before and after relocation of air traffic from "Otto Lilienthal" Airport (TXL) to Berlin Brandenburg Airport "Willy Brandt" (BER) in Berlin, Germany. Here, we provide insights into the spatial-temporal variability of PNC measured in 16 schools recruited for Berlin-Brandenburg Air Study (BEAR). The results show that the average PNC in Berlin was 7900 ± 7000 cm-3, consistent with other European cities. The highest median PNC was recorded in spring (6700 cm-3) and the lowest in winter (5100 cm-3). PNC showed a bi-modal increase during morning and evening hours at most measurement sites due to road-traffic emissions. A comparison between measurements at the schools and fixed monitoring sites revealed good agreement at distances up to 5 km. A noticeable decline in this agreement occurred as the distance between measurement sites increased. After TXL was closed, PNC in surrounding areas decreased by 30 %. The opposite trend was not seen after BER was re-opened after the COVID-lock-down, as the air traffic has not reached the full capacity yet. The analysis of particle number size distribution data showed that UFP number fraction exhibit seasonal variations, with higher values in spring and autumn. This can be explained by nucleation events, which notably affected PNC. The presented findings will play a pivotal role in forthcoming source attribution and epidemiological investigations, offering a holistic understanding of airports' impact on airborne pollutant levels and their health implications. The study calls for further investigations of air-traffic-related physical-chemical pollutant properties in areas found further away (> 10 km) from airports.
AU  - Kecorius, S.
AU  - Sues, S.
AU  - Madueno, L.*
AU  - Wiedensohler, A.*
AU  - Winkler, U.*
AU  - Held, A.*
AU  - Lüchtrath, S.*
AU  - Beddows, D.C.*
AU  - Harrison, R.M.*
AU  - Lovrić, M.*
AU  - Soppa, V.*
AU  - Hoffmann, B.*
AU  - Wiese-Posselt, M.*
AU  - Kerschbaumer, A.*
AU  - Cyrys, J.
C1  - 72157
C2  - 56467
CY  - The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford Ox5 1gb, England
TI  - Aerosol particle number concentration, ultrafine particle number fraction, and new particle formation measurements near the international airports in Berlin, Germany - First results from the BEAR study.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 193
PB  - Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd
PY  - 2024
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - COVID-19 lockdowns reduced nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) emissions in many countries. We aim to quantify the changes in these pollutants and to assess the attributable changes in mortality in Jiangsu, China; California, U.S.; Central-southern Italy; and Germany during COVID-19 lockdowns in early 2020. Accounting for meteorological impacts and air pollution time trends, we use a machine learning-based meteorological normalization technique and the difference-in-differences approach to quantify the changes in NO2 and PM2.5 concentrations due to lockdowns. Using region-specific estimates of the association between air pollution and mortality derived from a causal modeling approach using data from 2015 to 2019, we assess the changes in mortality attributable to the air pollution changes caused by the lockdowns in early 2020. During the lockdowns, NO2 reductions avoided 1.41 (95% empirical confidence interval [eCI]: 0.94, 1.88), 0.44 (95% eCI: 0.17, 0.71), and 4.66 (95% eCI: 2.03, 7.44) deaths per 100,000 people in Jiangsu, China; California, U.S.; and Central-southern Italy, respectively. Mortality benefits attributable to PM2.5 reductions were also significant, albeit of a smaller magnitude. For Germany, the mortality benefits attributable to NO2 changes were not significant (0.11; 95% eCI: −0.03, 0.25), and an increase in PM2.5 concentrations was associated with an increase in mortality of 0.35 (95% eCI: 0.22, 0.48) deaths per 100,000 people during the lockdown. COVID-19 lockdowns overall improved air quality and brought attributable health benefits, especially associated with NO2 improvements, with notable heterogeneity across regions. This study underscores the importance of accounting for local characteristics when policymakers adapt successful emission control strategies from other regions.
AU  - Ma, Y.*
AU  - Nobile, F.*
AU  - Marb, A.
AU  - Dubrow, R.*
AU  - Kinney, P.L.*
AU  - Peters, A.
AU  - Stafoggia, M.*
AU  - Breitner-Busch, S.
AU  - Chen, K.*
C1  - 70525
C2  - 55392
CY  - The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford Ox5 1gb, England
TI  - Air pollution changes due to COVID-19 lockdowns and attributable mortality changes in four countries.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 187
PB  - Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd
PY  - 2024
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Pinewood, increasingly used in construction and interior fittings, emits high amounts of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which tend to accumulate in indoor air. Whether indoor VOCs affect the development of atopic dermatitis (AD) is a matter of debate. We aimed to evaluate the effects of pinewood VOCs on the development of AD-like inflammatory phenotype and linked microbiome alterations, both hallmarks of AD. An oxazolone-induced mouse model of AD was exposed to three different VOC concentrations emitted by pinewood plates throughout the experiment. The disease course and associated immunological and microbiological changes were evaluated. To validate and translate our results to humans, human keratinocytes were exposed to a synthetic pinewood VOCs mixture in an AD environment. Pinewood emitted mainly terpenes, which at a total concentration of 5 mg/m3 significantly improved oxazolone-induced key AD parameters, such as serum total IgE, transepidermal water loss, barrier gene alteration, inflammation, and dysbiosis. Notably, exposure to pinewood VOCs restored the loss of microbial richness and inhibit Staphylococci expansion characteristic of the oxazolone-induced mouse AD model. Most beneficial effects of pinewood VOCs were dose-dependent. In fact, lower (<3 mg/m3) or higher (>10 mg/m3) pinewood VOC levels maintained only limited beneficial effects, such as preserving the microbiome richness or impeding Staphylococci expansion, respectively. In the human in-vitro model, exposure of keratinocytes grown in an AD environment to a pinewood VOCs mixture reduced the release of inflammatory markers. In conclusion, our results indicate that airborne phytochemicals emitted from pinewood have beneficial effects on an AD-like phenotype and associated dysbiosis. These investigations highlight the effects of terpenes as environmental compounds in the prevention and/or control of atopic skin disease.
AU  - Schneider, E.
AU  - Amar, Y.*
AU  - Butter, K.*
AU  - Steiger, K.*
AU  - Musiol, S.
AU  - Garcia-Käufer, M.*
AU  - Hölge, I.M.*
AU  - Schnautz, B.
AU  - Gschwendtner, S.
AU  - Ghirardo, A.
AU  - Gminski, R.*
AU  - Eberlein, B.*
AU  - Esser-von Bieren, J.
AU  - Biedermann, T.*
AU  - Haak, S.
AU  - Ohlmeyer, M.*
AU  - Schmidt-Weber, C.B.
AU  - Eyerich, S.
AU  - Alessandrini, F.
C1  - 71875
C2  - 56457
CY  - The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford Ox5 1gb, England
TI  - Pinewood VOC emissions protect from oxazolone-induced inflammation and dysbiosis in a mouse model of atopic dermatitis.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 192
PB  - Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd
PY  - 2024
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - BACKGROUND: Temperature variability (TV) is associated with increased mortality risk. However, it is still unknown whether intra-day or inter-day TV has different effects. OBJECTIVES: We aimed to assess the association of intra-day TV and inter-day TV with all-cause, cardiovascular, and respiratory mortality. METHODS: We collected data on total, cardiovascular, and respiratory mortality and meteorology from 758 locations in 47 countries or regions from 1972 to 2020. We defined inter-day TV as the standard deviation (SD) of daily mean temperatures across the lag interval, and intra-day TV as the average SD of minimum and maximum temperatures on each day. In the first stage, inter-day and intra-day TVs were modelled simultaneously in the quasi-Poisson time-series model for each location. In the second stage, a multi-level analysis was used to pool the location-specific estimates. RESULTS: Overall, the mortality risk due to each interquartile range [IQR] increase was higher for intra-day TV than for inter-day TV. The risk increased by 0.59% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.53, 0.65) for all-cause mortality, 0.64% (95% CI: 0.56, 0.73) for cardiovascular mortality, and 0.65% (95% CI: 0.49, 0.80) for respiratory mortality per IQR increase in intra-day TV0-7 (0.9 °C). An IQR increase in inter-day TV0-7 (1.6 °C) was associated with 0.22% (95% CI: 0.18, 0.26) increase in all-cause mortality, 0.44% (95% CI: 0.37, 0.50) increase in cardiovascular mortality, and 0.31% (95% CI: 0.21, 0.41) increase in respiratory mortality. The proportion of all-cause deaths attributable to intra-day TV0-7 and inter-day TV0-7 was 1.45% and 0.35%, respectively. The mortality risks varied by lag interval, climate area, season, and climate type. CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicated that intra-day TV may explain the main part of the mortality risk related to TV and suggested that comprehensive evaluations should be proposed in more countries to help protect human health.
AU  - Wen, B.*
AU  - Wu, Y.*
AU  - Guo, Y.*
AU  - Gasparrini, A.*
AU  - Tong, S.*
AU  - Overcenco, A.*
AU  - Urban, A.*
AU  - Schneider, A.E.
AU  - Entezari, A.*
AU  - Vicedo-Cabrera, A.M.*
AU  - Zanobetti, A.*
AU  - Analitis, A.*
AU  - Zeka, A.*
AU  - Tobias, A.*
AU  - Nunes, B.*
AU  - Alahmad, B.*
AU  - Armstrong, B.*
AU  - Forsberg, B.*
AU  - Pan, S.C.*
AU  - Iñiguez, C.*
AU  - Ameling, C.*
AU  - Valencia, C.C.*
AU  - Åström, C.*
AU  - Houthuijs, D.*
AU  - Van Dung, D.*
AU  - Royé, D.*
AU  - Indermitte, E.*
AU  - Lavigne, E.*
AU  - Mayvaneh, F.*
AU  - Acquaotta, F.*
AU  - de'Donato, F.*
AU  - Rao, S.*
AU  - Sera, F.*
AU  - Carrasco-Escobar, G.*
AU  - Kan, H.*
AU  - Orru, H.*
AU  - Kim, H.*
AU  - Holobaca, I.H.*
AU  - Kyselý, J.*
AU  - Madureira, J.*
AU  - Schwartz, J.*
AU  - Jaakkola, J.J.K.*
AU  - Katsouyanni, K.*
AU  - Diaz, M.H.*
AU  - Ragettli, M.S.*
AU  - Hashizume, M.*
AU  - Pascal, M.*
AU  - Coelho, M.S.Z.S.*
AU  - Ortega, N.V.*
AU  - Ryti, N.*
AU  - Scovronick, N.*
AU  - Michelozzi, P.*
AU  - Matus Correa, P.*
AU  - Goodman, P.*
AU  - Saldiva, P.H.N.*
AU  - Raz, R.*
AU  - Abrutzky, R.*
AU  - Osorio, S.*
AU  - Dang, T.N.*
AU  - Colistro, V.*
AU  - Huber, V.*
AU  - Lee, W.*
AU  - Seposo, X.*
AU  - Honda, Y.*
AU  - Kim, Y.*
AU  - Guo, Y.L.*
AU  - Bell, M.L.*
AU  - Li, S.*
C1  - 70618
C2  - 55502
CY  - The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford Ox5 1gb, England
TI  - Comparison for the effects of different components of temperature variability on mortality: A multi-country time-series study.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 187
PB  - Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd
PY  - 2024
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - BACKGROUND: Potential effect of greenspace exposure on human microbiota have been explored by a number of observational and interventional studies, but the results remained mixed. We comprehensively synthesized these studies by performing a systematic review following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. METHODS: Comprehensive literature searches in three international databases (PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science) and three Chinese databases (China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Wanfang, and China Biology Medicine disc) were conducted from inception to November 1, 2023. Observational and interventional studies that evaluated associations between greenspace exposure and human microbiota at different anatomical sites were included. Studies were assessed using the National Toxicology Program's office of Health Assessment and Translation risk of bias tool and certainty of evidence was assessed using the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluation framework. Two authors independently performed study selection, data extraction, and risk of bias assessment, and evidence grading. Study results were synthesized descriptively. RESULTS: Twenty studies, including 11 observational studies and 9 interventional studies, were finally included into the systematic review. The microbiota of the included studies was from gut (n = 13), skin (n = 10), oral cavity (n = 5), nasal cavity (n = 5) and eyes (n = 1). The majority of studies reported the associations of greenspace exposure with increased diversity (e.g., richness and Shannon index) and/or altered overall composition of human gut (n = 12) and skin microbiota (n = 8), with increases in the relative abundance of probiotics (e.g., Ruminococcaceae) and decreases in the relative abundance of pathogens (e.g., Streptococcus and Escherichia/Shigella). Due to limited number of studies, evidence concerning greenspace and oral, nasal, and ocular microbiota were still inconclusive. CONCLUSION: The current evidence suggests that greenspace exposure may diversify gut and skin microbiota and alter their composition to healthier profiles. These findings would be helpful in uncovering the potential mechanisms underlying greenspace and human health and in promoting a healthier profile of human microbiota.
AU  - Zhang, Y.D.*
AU  - Zhou, G.L.*
AU  - Wang, L.*
AU  - Browning, M.H.E.M.*
AU  - Markevych, I.*
AU  - Heinrich, J.*
AU  - Knibbs, L.D.*
AU  - Zhao, T.
AU  - Ding, Y.*
AU  - Chen, S.*
AU  - Liu, K.K.*
AU  - Dadvand, P.*
AU  - Dong, G.H.*
AU  - Yang, B.Y.*
C1  - 70571
C2  - 55693
CY  - The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford Ox5 1gb, England
TI  - Greenspace and human microbiota: A systematic review.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 187
PB  - Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd
PY  - 2024
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - BACKGROUND: The link between exposure to ambient air pollution and mortality from cardiorespiratory diseases is well established, while evidence on neurodegenerative disorders including Parkinson's Disease (PD) remains limited. OBJECTIVE: We examined the association between long-term exposure to ambient air pollution and PD mortality in seven European cohorts. METHODS: Within the project 'Effects of Low-Level Air Pollution: A Study in Europe' (ELAPSE), we pooled data from seven cohorts among six European countries. Annual mean residential concentrations of fine particulate matter (PM2.5), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), black carbon (BC), and ozone (O3), as well as 8 PM2.5 components (copper, iron, potassium, nickel, sulphur, silicon, vanadium, zinc), for 2010 were estimated using Europe-wide hybrid land use regression models. PD mortality was defined as underlying cause of death being either PD, secondary Parkinsonism, or dementia in PD. We applied Cox proportional hazard models to investigate the associations between air pollution and PD mortality, adjusting for potential confounders. RESULTS: Of 271,720 cohort participants, 381 died from PD during 19.7 years of follow-up. In single-pollutant analyses, we observed positive associations between PD mortality and PM2.5 (hazard ratio per 5 µg/m3: 1.25; 95% confidence interval: 1.01-1.55), NO2 (1.13; 0.95-1.34 per 10 µg/m3), and BC (1.12; 0.94-1.34 per 0.5 × 10-5m-1), and a negative association with O3 (0.74; 0.58-0.94 per 10 µg/m3). Associations of PM2.5, NO2, and BC with PD mortality were linear without apparent lower thresholds. In two-pollutant models, associations with PM2.5 remained robust when adjusted for NO2 (1.24; 0.95-1.62) or BC (1.28; 0.96-1.71), whereas associations with NO2 or BC attenuated to null. O3 associations remained negative, but no longer statistically significant in models with PM2.5. We detected suggestive positive associations with the potassium component of PM2.5. CONCLUSION: Long-term exposure to PM2.5, at levels well below current EU air pollution limit values, may contribute to PD mortality.
AU  - Cole-Hunter, T.*
AU  - Zhang, J.*
AU  - So, R.*
AU  - Samoli, E.*
AU  - Liu, S.*
AU  - Chen, J.*
AU  - Strak, M.*
AU  - Wolf, K.
AU  - Weinmayr, G.*
AU  - Rodopolou, S.*
AU  - Remfry, E.*
AU  - de Hoogh, K.*
AU  - Bellander, T.*
AU  - Brandt, J.*
AU  - Concin, H.*
AU  - Zitt, E.*
AU  - Fecht, D.*
AU  - Forastiere, F.*
AU  - Gulliver, J.*
AU  - Hoffmann, B.*
AU  - Hvidtfeldt, U.A.*
AU  - Jöckel, K.H.*
AU  - Mortensen, L.H.*
AU  - Ketzel, M.*
AU  - Yacamán Méndez, D.*
AU  - Leander, K.*
AU  - Ljungman, P.*
AU  - Faure, E.*
AU  - Lee, P.C.*
AU  - Elbaz, A.*
AU  - Magnusson, P.K.E.*
AU  - Nagel, G.*
AU  - Pershagen, G.*
AU  - Peters, A.
AU  - Rizzuto, D.*
AU  - Vermeulen, R.C.H.*
AU  - Schramm, S.*
AU  - Stafoggia, M.*
AU  - Katsouyanni, K.*
AU  - Brunekreef, B.*
AU  - Hoek, G.*
AU  - Lim, Y.H.*
AU  - Andersen, Z.J.*
C1  - 66986
C2  - 53386
CY  - The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford Ox5 1gb, England
TI  - Long-term air pollution exposure and Parkinson's disease mortality in a large pooled European cohort: An ELAPSE study.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 171
PB  - Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd
PY  - 2023
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AU  - Cole-Hunter, T.*
AU  - Zhang, J.*
AU  - Lim, Y.H.*
AU  - Samoli, E.*
AU  - Chen, J.*
AU  - Strak, M.*
AU  - Wolf, K.
AU  - Weinmayr, G.*
AU  - Zitt, E.*
AU  - Hoffmann, B.*
AU  - Jöckel, K.H.*
AU  - Mortensen, L.H.*
AU  - Ketzel, M.*
AU  - Méndez, D.Y.*
AU  - Ljungman, P.*
AU  - Nagel, G.*
AU  - Pershagen, G.*
AU  - Rizzuto, D.*
AU  - Schramm, S.*
AU  - Brunekreef, B.*
AU  - Hoek, G.*
AU  - Andersen, Z.J.*
C1  - 67713
C2  - 54021
CY  - The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford Ox5 1gb, England
TI  - Reply to Rumrich and colleagues (What does "Parkinson's disease mortality" mean?).
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 173
PB  - Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd
PY  - 2023
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - INTRODUCTION: The complex interplay of multiple environmental factors and cardiovascular has scarcely been studied. Within the EXPANSE project, we evaluated the association between long-term exposure to multiple environmental indices and stroke incidence across Europe. METHODS: Participants from three traditional adult cohorts (Germany, Netherlands and Sweden) and four administrative cohorts (Catalonia [region Spain], Rome [city-wide], Greece and Sweden [nationwide]) were followed until incident stroke, death, migration, loss of follow-up or study end. We estimated exposures at residential addresses from different exposure domains: air pollution (nitrogen dioxide (NO2), particulate matter < 2.5 μm (PM2.5), black carbon (BC), ozone), built environment (green/blue spaces, impervious surfaces) and meteorology (seasonal mean and standard deviation of temperatures). Associations between environmental exposures and stroke were estimated in single and multiple-exposure Cox proportional hazard models, and Principal Component (PC) Analyses derived prototypes for specific exposures domains. We carried out random effects meta-analyses by cohort type. RESULTS: In over 15 million participants, increased levels of NO2 and BC were associated with increased higher stroke incidence in both cohort types. Increased Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) was associated with a lower stroke incidence in both cohort types, whereas an increase in impervious surface was associated with an increase in stroke incidence. The first PC of the air pollution domain (PM2.5, NO2 and BC) was associated with an increase in stroke incidence. For the built environment, higher levels of NDVI and lower levels of impervious surfaces were associated with a protective effect [%change in HR per 1 unit = -2.0 (95 %CI, -5.9;2.0) and -1.1(95 %CI, -2.0; -0.3) for traditional adult and administrative cohorts, respectively]. No clear patterns were observed for distance to blue spaces or temperature parameters. CONCLUSIONS: We observed increased HRs for stroke with exposure to PM2.5, NO2 and BC, lower levels of greenness and higher impervious surface in single and combined exposure models.
AU  - de Bont, J.*
AU  - Pickford, R.
AU  - Åström, C.*
AU  - Colomar, F.*
AU  - Dimakopoulou, K.*
AU  - de Hoogh, K.*
AU  - Ibi, D.*
AU  - Katsouyanni, K.*
AU  - Melén, E.*
AU  - Nobile, F.*
AU  - Pershagen, G.*
AU  - Persson, *
AU  - Samoli, E.*
AU  - Stafoggia, M.*
AU  - Tonne, C.*
AU  - Vlaanderen, J.*
AU  - Wolf, K.
AU  - Vermeulen, R.*
AU  - Peters, A.
AU  - Ljungman, P.*
C1  - 67985
C2  - 54463
CY  - The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford Ox5 1gb, England
TI  - Mixtures of long-term exposure to ambient air pollution, built environment and temperature and stroke incidence across Europe.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 179
PB  - Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd
PY  - 2023
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Epidemiological studies identified air pollution as one of the prime causes for human morbidity and mortality, due to harmful effects mainly on the cardiovascular and respiratory systems. Damage to the lung leads to several severe diseases such as fibrosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and cancer. Noxious environmental aerosols are comprised of a gas and particulate phase representing highly complex chemical mixtures composed of myriads of compounds. Although some critical pollutants, foremost particulate matter (PM), could be linked to adverse health effects, a comprehensive understanding of relevant biological mechanisms and detrimental aerosol constituents is still lacking. Here, we employed a systems toxicology approach focusing on wood combustion, an important source for air pollution, and demonstrate a key role of the gas phase, specifically carbonyls, in driving adverse effects. Transcriptional profiling and biochemical analysis of human lung cells exposed at the air–liquid-interface determined DNA damage and stress response, as well as perturbation of cellular metabolism, as major key events. Connectivity mapping revealed a high similarity of gene expression signatures induced by wood smoke and agents prompting DNA-protein crosslinks (DPCs). Indeed, various gaseous aldehydes were detected in wood smoke, which promote DPCs, initiate similar genomic responses and are responsible for DNA damage provoked by wood smoke. Hence, systems toxicology enables the discovery of critical constituents of complex mixtures i.e. aerosols and highlights the role of carbonyls on top of particulate matter as an important health hazard.
AU  - Dilger, M.*
AU  - Armant, O.*
AU  - Ramme, L.*
AU  - Mülhopt, S.*
AU  - Sapcariu, S.C.*
AU  - Schlager, C.*
AU  - Dilger, E.*
AU  - Reda, A.
AU  - Orasche, J.
AU  - Schnelle-Kreis, J.
AU  - Conlon, T.M.
AU  - Yildirim, A.Ö.
AU  - Hartwig, A.*
AU  - Zimmermann, R.
AU  - Hiller, K.*
AU  - Diabaté, S.*
AU  - Paur, H.R.*
AU  - Weiss, C.*
C1  - 68255
C2  - 53621
CY  - The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford Ox5 1gb, England
TI  - Systems toxicology of complex wood combustion aerosol reveals gaseous carbonyl compounds as critical constituents.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 179
PB  - Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd
PY  - 2023
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Background: Future warming is projected to increase the heat-related mortality burden, especially for vulnerable populations. However, most previous studies focused on non-accidental morbidity or mortality, with far less research on heat-related accidental events. Methods: We collected individual accidental death records among all residents in Chinese mainland from June to August during 2013–2019. Accidental deaths were further divided into several subtypes by different causes. We used an individual-level, time-stratified, case-crossover study design to estimate the association between daily mean temperature and accidental deaths, and estimate its variation in seven geo-climatic zones, age (5–64, 65–74, ≥75), and sex (male, female). We then estimated the temperature-related excess accidental deaths under global warming scenarios of 1.5, 2, and 3℃. Findings: A total of 711,929 accidental death records were included in our study. We found that higher temperatures were associated with increased risks of deaths from the total accidental events and four main subtypes, including traffic, falls, drowning, and unintentional injuries. We also found that younger individuals (ages 5–64) and males faced a higher risk of heat-related mortality due to total accidents, traffic incidents, and drowning. For future climate scenarios, even under the 1.5℃ climate change scenario, 6,939 (95% eCI (empirical Confidence Interval): 6,818–7,067) excess accidental deaths per year are attributed to higher summertime daily temperature over mainland China, and the number of accidental deaths would increase by 16.71% and 33.59% under the 2℃ and 3℃ climate change scenarios, respectively. For residents living in southern coastal and northwest inland regions, the projected increase in accidental death is higher. Conclusions: This nationwide study confirms that higher summer temperatures are linked to an increased risk of accidental deaths. Younger age groups and males face a higher risk. This indicates that current estimates of the health effects of climate change might be underestimated, particularly for younger populations.
AU  - He, C.
AU  - Yin, P.*
AU  - Chen, R.*
AU  - Gao, Y.*
AU  - Liu, W.*
AU  - Schneider, A.E.
AU  - Bell, M.L.*
AU  - Kan, H.*
AU  - Zhou, M.*
C1  - 68173
C2  - 54820
CY  - The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford Ox5 1gb, England
TI  - Cause-specific accidental deaths and burdens related to ambient heat in a warming climate: A nationwide study of China.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 180
PB  - Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd
PY  - 2023
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Background: Future climate change is likely to alter cold spell-related disease burden. Few projection studies have considered the potential impact of the aging population with changing population size on cold spell-related disease burdens. Methods: We derived the association between cold spells and daily mortality for 272 main cities in mainland China. We combined these associations with modeled daily temperatures from three different climate models under two climate change scenarios and three population scenarios to project excess deaths related to cold spells. Furthermore, we used the factor separation method to calculate the independent contribution of future population size, age structure, and climate change on projected deaths attributable to cold spells. Findings: Compared to the baseline period, future excess deaths related to cold spells are expected to increase over most of the decades under RCP 2.6 (81.5% in 2050 s and 37% in 2090 s) and RCP 4.5 (55.5% in 2050 s and −19% in 2090 s). The factor analysis indicated that the rise of the aged population (≥65) substantially would amplify the excess deaths related to cold spells (increase by 101.1% in the 2050 s and 146.2% in the 2090 s). For the near future (2021–2040), population aging could fully offset the influence of decreased cold-spell days. In the middle of this century (2051–2070), the total excess deaths will exhibit significant variation across three scenarios. By the end of 21 century (2081–2100), the population shrinking would reduce the total excess deaths. Interpretation: Excess deaths related to cold spells may still increase in a warming climate and future demographic shifts would produce considerable influences in this increase for different periods.
AU  - He, C.
AU  - Yin, P.*
AU  - Liu, Z.*
AU  - Huang, J.*
AU  - Chen, Y.*
AU  - Gao, X.*
AU  - Xu, Y.*
AU  - Wang, C.*
AU  - Cai, W.*
AU  - Gong, P.*
AU  - Luo, Y.*
AU  - Ji, J.S.*
AU  - Kan, H.*
AU  - Chen, R.*
AU  - Zhou, M.*
C1  - 68498
C2  - 54669
TI  - Projections of excess deaths related to cold spells under climate and population change scenarios: A nationwide time series modeling study.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 178
PY  - 2023
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Background: The few studies that have examined associations between greenspace and lung function in adulthood have yielded conflicting results and none have examined whether the rate of lung function decline is affected. Objective: We explored the association between residential greenspace and change in lung function over 20 years in 5559 adults from 22 centers in 11 countries participating in the population-based, international European Community Respiratory Health Survey. Methods: Forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1) and forced vital capacity (FVC) were measured by spirometry when participants were approximately 35 (1990–1994), 44 (1999–2003), and 55 (2010–2014) years old. Greenness was assessed as the mean Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) in 500 m, 300 m, and 100 m circular buffers around the residential addresses at the time of lung function measurement. Green spaces were defined as the presence of agricultural, natural, or urban green spaces in a circular 300 m buffer. Associations of these greenspace parameters with the rate of lung function change were assessed using adjusted linear mixed effects regression models with random intercepts for subjects nested within centers. Sensitivity analyses considered air pollution exposures. Results: A 0.2-increase (average interquartile range) in NDVI in the 500 m buffer was consistently associated with a faster decline in FVC (−1.25 mL/year [95% confidence interval: −2.18 to −0.33]). These associations were especially pronounced in females and those living in areas with low PM10 levels. We found no consistent associations with FEV1 and the FEV1/FVC ratio. Residing near forests or urban green spaces was associated with a faster decline in FEV1, while agricultural land and forests were related to a greater decline in FVC. Conclusions: More residential greenspace was not associated with better lung function in middle-aged European adults. Instead, we observed slight but consistent declines in lung function parameters. The potentially detrimental association requires verification in future studies.
AU  - Markevych, I.
AU  - Zhao, T.
AU  - Fuertes, E.*
AU  - Marcon, A.*
AU  - Dadvand, P.*
AU  - Vienneau, D.*
AU  - Garcia Aymerich, J.*
AU  - Nowak, D.*
AU  - de Hoogh, K.*
AU  - Jarvis, D.*
AU  - Abramson, M.J.*
AU  - Accordini, S.*
AU  - Amaral, A.F.*
AU  - Bentouhami, H.*
AU  - Jacobsen Bertelsen, R.*
AU  - Boudier, A.*
AU  - Bono, R.*
AU  - Bowatte, G.*
AU  - Casas, L.*
AU  - Dharmage, S.C.*
AU  - Forsberg, B.*
AU  - Gislason, T.*
AU  - Gnesi, M.*
AU  - Holm, M.*
AU  - Jacquemin, B.*
AU  - Janson, C.*
AU  - Jõgi, R.*
AU  - Johannessen, A.*
AU  - Keidel, D.*
AU  - Leynaert, B.*
AU  - Maldonado Perez, J.A.*
AU  - Marchetti, P.*
AU  - Migliore, E.*
AU  - Martinez-Moratalla, J.*
AU  - Orru, H.*
AU  - Pin, I.*
AU  - Potts, J.*
AU  - Probst-Hensch, N.*
AU  - Ranzi, A.*
AU  - Sánchez-Ramos, J.L.*
AU  - Siroux, V.*
AU  - Soussan, D.*
AU  - Sunyer, J.*
AU  - Urrutia Landa, I.*
AU  - Villani, S.*
AU  - Heinrich, J.*
C1  - 68507
C2  - 54677
CY  - The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford Ox5 1gb, England
TI  - Residential greenspace and lung function decline over 20 years in a prospective cohort: The ECRHS study.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 178
PB  - Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd
PY  - 2023
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Climate change poses a serious threat to human health worldwide, while aging populations increase. However, no study has ever investigated the effects of air temperature on epigenetic age acceleration. This study involved 1,725 and 1,877 participants from the population-based KORA F4 (2006-2008) and follow-up FF4 (2013-2014) studies, respectively, conducted in Augsburg, Germany. The difference between epigenetic age and chronological age was referred to as epigenetic age acceleration and reflected by Horvath's epigenetic age acceleration (HorvathAA), Hannum's epigenetic age acceleration (HannumAA), PhenoAge acceleration (PhenoAA), GrimAge acceleration (GrimAA), and Epigenetic Skin and Blood Age acceleration (SkinBloodAA). Daily air temperature was estimated using hybrid spatiotemporal regression-based models. To explore the medium- and long-term effects of air temperature modeled in time and space on epigenetic age acceleration, we applied generalized estimating equations (GEE) with distributed lag non-linear models, and GEE, respectively. We found that high temperature exposure based on the 8-week moving average air temperature (97.5th percentile of temperature compared to median temperature) was associated with increased HorvathAA, HannumAA, GrimAA, and SkinBloodAA: 1.83 (95% CI: 0.29-3.37), 11.71 (95% CI: 8.91-14.50), 2.26 (95% CI: 1.03-3.50), and 5.02 (95% CI: 3.42-6.63) years, respectively. Additionally, we found consistent results with high temperature exposure based on the 4-week moving average air temperature was associated with increased HannumAA, GrimAA, and SkinBloodAA: 9.18 (95% CI: 6.60-11.76), 1.78 (95% CI: 0.66-2.90), and 4.07 (95% CI: 2.56-5.57) years, respectively. For the spatial variation in annual average temperature, a 1 °C increase was associated with an increase in all five measures of epigenetic age acceleration (HorvathAA: 0.41 [95% CI: 0.24-0.57], HannumAA: 2.24 [95% CI: 1.95-2.53], PhenoAA: 0.32 [95% CI: 0.05-0.60], GrimAA: 0.24 [95%: 0.11-0.37], and SkinBloodAA: 1.17 [95% CI: 1.00-1.35] years). In conclusion, our results provide first evidence that medium- and long-term exposures to high air temperature affect increases in epigenetic age acceleration.
AU  - Ni, W.
AU  - Nikolaou, N.
AU  - Ward-Caviness, C.*
AU  - Breitner-Busch, S.
AU  - Wolf, K.
AU  - Zhang, S.
AU  - Wilson, R.
AU  - Waldenberger, M.
AU  - Peters, A.
AU  - Schneider, A.E.
C1  - 68049
C2  - 54527
CY  - The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford Ox5 1gb, England
TI  - Associations between medium- and long-term exposure to air temperature and epigenetic age acceleration.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 178
PB  - Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd
PY  - 2023
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - BACKGROUND: Evidence on the potential interactive effects of heat and ambient air pollution on cause-specific mortality is inconclusive and limited to selected locations. OBJECTIVES: We investigated the effects of heat on cardiovascular and respiratory mortality and its modification by air pollution during summer months (six consecutive hottest months) in 482 locations across 24 countries. METHODS: Location-specific daily death counts and exposure data (e.g., particulate matter with diameters ≤ 2.5 µm [PM2.5]) were obtained from 2000 to 2018. We used location-specific confounder-adjusted Quasi-Poisson regression with a tensor product between air temperature and the air pollutant. We extracted heat effects at low, medium, and high levels of pollutants, defined as the 5th, 50th, and 95th percentile of the location-specific pollutant concentrations. Country-specific and overall estimates were derived using a random-effects multilevel meta-analytical model. RESULTS: Heat was associated with increased cardiorespiratory mortality. Moreover, the heat effects were modified by elevated levels of all air pollutants in most locations, with stronger effects for respiratory than cardiovascular mortality. For example, the percent increase in respiratory mortality per increase in the 2-day average summer temperature from the 75th to the 99th percentile was 7.7% (95% Confidence Interval [CI] 7.6-7.7), 11.3% (95%CI 11.2-11.3), and 14.3% (95% CI 14.1-14.5) at low, medium, and high levels of PM2.5, respectively. Similarly, cardiovascular mortality increased by 1.6 (95%CI 1.5-1.6), 5.1 (95%CI 5.1-5.2), and 8.7 (95%CI 8.7-8.8) at low, medium, and high levels of O3, respectively. DISCUSSION: We observed considerable modification of the heat effects on cardiovascular and respiratory mortality by elevated levels of air pollutants. Therefore, mitigation measures following the new WHO Air Quality Guidelines are crucial to enhance better health and promote sustainable development.
AU  - Rai, M.
AU  - Stafoggia, M.*
AU  - de'Donato, F.*
AU  - Scortichini, M.*
AU  - Zafeiratou, S.*
AU  - Vazquez Fernandez, L.*
AU  - Zhang, S.
AU  - Katsouyanni, K.*
AU  - Samoli, E.*
AU  - Rao, S.*
AU  - Lavigne, E.*
AU  - Guo, Y.*
AU  - Kan, H.*
AU  - Osorio, S.*
AU  - Kyselý, J.*
AU  - Urban, A.*
AU  - Orru, H.*
AU  - Maasikmets, M.*
AU  - Jaakkola, J.J.K.*
AU  - Ryti, N.*
AU  - Pascal, M.*
AU  - Hashizume, M.*
AU  - Fook Sheng Ng, C.*
AU  - Alahmad, B.*
AU  - Hurtado Diaz, M.*
AU  - De la Cruz Valencia, C.*
AU  - Nunes, B.*
AU  - Madureira, J.*
AU  - Scovronick, N.*
AU  - Garland, R.M.*
AU  - Kim, H.*
AU  - Lee, W.*
AU  - Tobias, A.*
AU  - Iñiguez, C.*
AU  - Forsberg, B.*
AU  - Åström, C.*
AU  - Maria Vicedo-Cabrera, A.*
AU  - Ragettli, M.S.*
AU  - Leon Guo, Y.L.*
AU  - Pan, S.C.*
AU  - Li, S.*
AU  - Gasparrini, A.*
AU  - Sera, F.*
AU  - Masselot, P.*
AU  - Schwartz, J.*
AU  - Zanobetti, A.*
AU  - Bell, M.L.*
AU  - Schneider, A.E.
AU  - Breitner-Busch, S.
C1  - 67711
C2  - 54019
CY  - The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford Ox5 1gb, England
TI  - Heat-related cardiorespiratory mortality: Effect modification by air pollution across 482 cities from 24 countries.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 174
PB  - Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd
PY  - 2023
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Introduction: Numerous studies have shown associations between daily concentrations of fine particles (e.g., particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter ≤2.5 µm; PM2.5) and morbidity. However, evidence for ultrafine particles (UFP; particles with an aerodynamic diameter of 10–100 nm) remains conflicting. Therefore, we aimed to examine the short-term associations of UFP with five cause-specific hospital admission endpoints for Leipzig, Dresden, and Augsburg, Germany. Material and methods: We obtained daily counts of (cause-specific) cardiorespiratory hospital admissions between 2010 and 2017. Daily average concentrations of UFP, total particle number (PNC; 10–800 nm), and black carbon (BC) were measured at six sites; PM2.5 and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) were obtained from monitoring networks. We assessed immediate (lag 0–1), delayed (lag 2–4, lag 5–7), and cumulative (lag 0–7) effects by applying station-specific confounder-adjusted Poisson regression models. We then used a novel multi-level meta-analytical method to obtain pooled risk estimates. Finally, we performed two-pollutant models to investigate interdependencies between pollutants and examined possible effect modification by age, sex, and season. Results: UFP showed a delayed (lag 2–4) increase in respiratory hospital admissions of 0.69% [95% confidence interval (CI): −0.28%; 1.67%]. For other hospital admission endpoints, we found only suggestive results. Larger particle size fractions, such as accumulation mode particles (particles with an aerodynamic diameter of 100–800 nm), generally showed stronger effects (respiratory hospital admissions & lag 2–4: 1.55% [95% CI: 0.86%; 2.25%]). PM2.5 showed the most consistent associations for (cardio-)respiratory hospital admissions, whereas NO2 did not show any associations. Two-pollutant models showed independent effects of PM2.5 and BC. Moreover, higher risks have been observed for children. Conclusions: We observed clear associations with PM2.5 but UFP or PNC did not show a clear association across different exposure windows and cause-specific hospital admissions. Further multi-center studies are needed using harmonized UFP measurements to draw definite conclusions on the health effects of UFP.
AU  - Schwarz, M.
AU  - Schneider, A.E.
AU  - Cyrys, J.
AU  - Bastian, S.*
AU  - Breitner-Busch, S.
AU  - Peters, A.
C1  - 68470
C2  - 54664
CY  - The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford Ox5 1gb, England
TI  - Impact of ultrafine particles and total particle number concentration on five cause-specific hospital admission endpoints in three German cities.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 178
PB  - Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd
PY  - 2023
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - BACKGROUND: Few comparisons between causal inference and traditional approaches have been performed. We applied "causal" and "traditional" methods to investigate the association between long-term air pollution exposure (PM2.5 and NO2) and mortality. METHODS: We analyzed pooled data from eight well-characterized cohorts and one administrative cohort. We defined the generalized propensity score (GPS) as the conditional likelihood of exposure given confounders, and derived corresponding inverse-probability weights (IPW). We applied Cox-proportional hazard models weighted by IPW, adjusted for GPS, and directly adjusting for all confounders. RESULTS: In IPW models, PM2.5 5 µg/m3 increases were associated with hazard ratios (HR) = 1.141 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.107, 1.176) and 1.050 (1.014, 1.088) in the pooled and administrative cohorts. Corresponding estimates for traditional Cox models were 1.132 (1.107, 1.158) and 1.057 (1.025, 1.089). Almost identical results were found for all approaches and both pollutants, when unbalanced covariates were adjusted for in causal models. CONCLUSIONS: Traditional and causal approaches provided consistent associations between long-term exposure to air pollution and mortality.
AU  - Stafoggia, M.*
AU  - Analitis, A.*
AU  - Chen, J.*
AU  - Rodopoulou, S.*
AU  - Brunekreef, B.*
AU  - Hoek, G.*
AU  - Wolf, K.
AU  - Samoli, E.*
C1  - 67710
C2  - 54018
CY  - The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford Ox5 1gb, England
TI  - Comparing "causal" and "traditional" approaches in the association of long-term exposure to ambient air pollution on mortality: How sensitive are the results?
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 174
PB  - Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd
PY  - 2023
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - BACKGROUND: The epidemiological evidence on the interaction between heat and ambient air pollution on mortality is still inconsistent. OBJECTIVES: To investigate the interaction between heat and ambient air pollution on daily mortality in a large dataset of 620 cities from 36 countries. METHODS: We used daily data on all-cause mortality, air temperature, particulate matter ≤ 10 μm (PM10), PM ≤ 2.5 μm (PM2.5), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), and ozone (O3) from 620 cities in 36 countries in the period 1995-2020. We restricted the analysis to the six consecutive warmest months in each city. City-specific data were analysed with over-dispersed Poisson regression models, followed by a multilevel random-effects meta-analysis. The joint association between air temperature and air pollutants was modelled with product terms between non-linear functions for air temperature and linear functions for air pollutants. RESULTS: We analyzed 22,630,598 deaths. An increase in mean temperature from the 75th to the 99th percentile of city-specific distributions was associated with an average 8.9 % (95 % confidence interval: 7.1 %, 10.7 %) mortality increment, ranging between 5.3 % (3.8 %, 6.9 %) and 12.8 % (8.7 %, 17.0 %), when daily PM10 was equal to 10 or 90 μg/m3, respectively. Corresponding estimates when daily O3 concentrations were 40 or 160 μg/m3 were 2.9 % (1.1 %, 4.7 %) and 12.5 % (6.9 %, 18.5 %), respectively. Similarly, a 10 μg/m3 increment in PM10 was associated with a 0.54 % (0.10 %, 0.98 %) and 1.21 % (0.69 %, 1.72 %) increase in mortality when daily air temperature was set to the 1st and 99th city-specific percentiles, respectively. Corresponding mortality estimate for O3 across these temperature percentiles were 0.00 % (-0.44 %, 0.44 %) and 0.53 % (0.38 %, 0.68 %). Similar effect modification results, although slightly weaker, were found for PM2.5 and NO2. CONCLUSIONS: Suggestive evidence of effect modification between air temperature and air pollutants on mortality during the warm period was found in a global dataset of 620 cities.
AU  - Stafoggia, M.*
AU  - Michelozzi, P.*
AU  - Schneider, A.E.
AU  - Armstrong, B.*
AU  - Scortichini, M.*
AU  - Rai, M.
AU  - Achilleos, S.*
AU  - Alahmad, B.*
AU  - Analitis, A.*
AU  - Åström, C.*
AU  - Bell, M.L.*
AU  - Calleja, N.*
AU  - Krage Carlsen, H.*
AU  - Carrasco, G.*
AU  - Paul Cauchi, J.*
AU  - Dszs Coelho, M.*
AU  - Correa, P.M.*
AU  - Diaz, M.H.*
AU  - Entezari, A.*
AU  - Forsberg, B.*
AU  - Garland, R.M.*
AU  - Leon Guo, Y.*
AU  - Guo, Y.*
AU  - Hashizume, M.*
AU  - Holobaca, I.H.*
AU  - Iñiguez, C.*
AU  - Jaakkola, J.J.K.*
AU  - Kan, H.*
AU  - Katsouyanni, K.*
AU  - Kim, H.*
AU  - Kyselý, J.*
AU  - Lavigne, E.*
AU  - Lee, W.*
AU  - Li, S.*
AU  - Maasikmets, M.*
AU  - Madureira, J.*
AU  - Mayvaneh, F.*
AU  - Fook Sheng Ng, C.*
AU  - Nunes, B.*
AU  - Orru, H.*
AU  - V Ortega, N.*
AU  - Osorio, S.*
AU  - Palomares, A.D.L.*
AU  - Pan, S.C.*
AU  - Pascal, M.*
AU  - Ragettli, M.S.*
AU  - Rao, S.*
AU  - Raz, R.*
AU  - Royé, D.*
AU  - Ryti, N.*
AU  - Hn Saldiva, P.*
AU  - Samoli, E.*
AU  - Schwartz, J.*
AU  - Scovronick, N.*
AU  - Sera, F.*
AU  - Tobias, A.*
AU  - Tong, S.*
AU  - Dlc Valencia, C.*
AU  - Maria Vicedo-Cabrera, A.*
AU  - Urban, A.*
AU  - Gasparrini, A.*
AU  - Breitner, S.*
AU  - De' Donato, F.K.*
C1  - 68652
C2  - 54856
CY  - The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford Ox5 1gb, England
TI  - Joint effect of heat and air pollution on mortality in 620 cities of 36 countries.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 181
PB  - Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd
PY  - 2023
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - BACKGROUND: Short-term associations between heat and cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality have been examined mostly in large cities. However, different vulnerability and exposure levels may contribute to spatial heterogeneity. This study assessed heat effects on CVD mortality and potential vulnerability factors using data from three European countries, including urban and rural settings. METHODS: We collected daily counts of CVD deaths aggregated at the small-area level in Norway (small-area level: municipality), England and Wales (lower super output areas), and Germany (district) during the warm season (May-September) from 1996 to 2018. Daily mean air temperatures estimated by spatial-temporal models were assigned to each small area. Within each country, we applied area-specific Quasi-Poisson regression using distributed lag nonlinear models to examine the heat effects at lag 0-1 days. The area-specific estimates were pooled by random-effects meta-analysis to derive country-specific and overall heat effects. We examined individual- and area-level heat vulnerability factors by subgroup analyses and meta-regression, respectively. RESULTS: We included 2.84 million CVD deaths in analyses. For an increase in temperature from the 75th to the 99th percentile, the pooled relative risk (RR) for CVD mortality was 1.14 (95% CI: 1.03, 1.26), with the country-specific RRs ranging from 1.04 (1.00, 1.09) in Norway to 1.24 (1.23, 1.26) in Germany. Heat effects were stronger among women [RRs (95% CIs) for women and men: 1.18 (1.08, 1.28) vs. 1.12 (1.00, 1.24)]. Greater heat vulnerability was observed in areas with high population density, high degree of urbanization, low green coverage, and high levels of fine particulate matter. CONCLUSION: This study provides evidence for the heat effects on CVD mortality in European countries using high-resolution data from both urban and rural areas. Besides, we identified individual- and area-level heat vulnerability factors. Our findings may facilitate the development of heat-health action plans to increase resilience to climate change.
AU  - Zhang, S.
AU  - Breitner-Busch, S.
AU  - Rai, M.
AU  - Nikolaou, N.
AU  - Stafoggia, M.*
AU  - De' Donato, F.*
AU  - Samoli, E.*
AU  - Zafeiratou, S.*
AU  - Katsouyanni, K.*
AU  - Rao, S.*
AU  - Palomares, A.D.*
AU  - Gasparrini, A.*
AU  - Masselot, P.*
AU  - Aunan, K.*
AU  - Peters, A.
AU  - Schneider, A.E.
C1  - 67976
C2  - 54454
CY  - The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford Ox5 1gb, England
TI  - Assessment of short-term heat effects on cardiovascular mortality and vulnerability factors using small area data in Europe.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 179
PB  - Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd
PY  - 2023
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Ambient air pollution is an established risk factor for premature mortality from chronic cardiovascular, respiratory and metabolic diseases, while evidence on neurodegenerative diseases and psychiatric disorders remains limited. We examined the association between long-term exposure to air pollution and mortality from dementia, psychiatric disorders, and suicide in seven European cohorts. Within the multicenter project ‘Effects of Low-Level Air Pollution: A Study in Europe’ (ELAPSE), we pooled data from seven European cohorts from six countries. Based on the residential addresses, annual mean levels of fine particulate matter (PM2.5), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), black carbon (BC), ozone (O3), and 8 PM2.5 components were estimated using Europe-wide hybrid land-use regression models. We applied stratified Cox proportional hazard models to investigate the associations between air pollution and mortality from dementia, psychiatric disorders, and suicide. Of 271,720 participants, 900 died from dementia, 241 from psychiatric disorders, and 164 from suicide, during a mean follow-up of 19.7 years. In fully adjusted models, we observed positive associations of NO2 (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.38; 95 % confidence interval [CI]: 1.13, 1.70 per 10 µg/m3), PM2.5 (HR = 1.29; 95 % CI: 0.98, 1.71 per 5 µg/m3), and BC (HR = 1.37; 95 % CI: 1.11, 1.69 per 0.5 × 10−5/m) with psychiatric disorders mortality, as well as with suicide (NO2: HR = 1.13 [95 % CI: 0.92, 1.38]; PM2.5: HR = 1.19 [95 % CI: 0.76, 1.87]; BC: HR = 1.08 [95 % CI: 0.87, 1.35]), and no association with dementia mortality. We did not detect any positive associations of O3 and 8 PM2.5 components with any of the three mortality outcomes. Long-term exposure to NO2, PM2.5, and BC may lead to premature mortality from psychiatric disorders and suicide.
AU  - Andersen, Z.J.*
AU  - Zhang, J.*
AU  - Jørgensen, J.T.*
AU  - Samoli, E.*
AU  - Liu, S.*
AU  - Chen, J.*
AU  - Strak, M.*
AU  - Wolf, K.
AU  - Weinmayr, G.*
AU  - Rodopolou, S.*
AU  - Remfry, E.*
AU  - de Hoogh, K.*
AU  - Bellander, T.*
AU  - Brandt, J.*
AU  - Concin, H.*
AU  - Zitt, E.*
AU  - Fecht, D.*
AU  - Forastiere, F.*
AU  - Gulliver, J.*
AU  - Hoffmann, B.*
AU  - Hvidtfeldt, U.A.*
AU  - Monique Verschuren, W.M.*
AU  - Jöckel, K.H.*
AU  - So, R.*
AU  - Cole-Hunter, T.*
AU  - Mehta, A.J.*
AU  - Mortensen, L.H.*
AU  - Ketzel, M.*
AU  - Lager, A.*
AU  - Leander, K.*
AU  - Ljungman, P.*
AU  - Severi, G.*
AU  - Boutron-Ruault, M.C.*
AU  - Magnusson, P.K.E.*
AU  - Nagel, G.*
AU  - Pershagen, G.*
AU  - Peters, A.
AU  - Rizzuto, D.*
AU  - van der Schouw, Y.T.*
AU  - Schramm, S.*
AU  - Stafoggia, M.*
AU  - Katsouyanni, K.*
AU  - Brunekreef, B.*
AU  - Hoek, G.*
AU  - Lim, Y.H.*
C1  - 66459
C2  - 52834
TI  - Long-term exposure to air pollution and mortality from dementia, psychiatric disorders, and suicide in a large pooled European cohort: ELAPSE study.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 170
PY  - 2022
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - BACKGROUND: The majority of studies have shown higher greenness exposure associated with reduced mortality risks, but few controlled for spatially correlated air pollution and traffic noise exposures. We aim to address this research gap in the ELAPSE pooled cohort. METHODS: Mean Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) in a 300-m grid cell and 1-km radius were assigned to participants' baseline home addresses as a measure of surrounding greenness exposure. We used Cox proportional hazards models to estimate the association of NDVI exposure with natural-cause and cause-specific mortality, adjusting for a number of potential confounders including socioeconomic status and lifestyle factors at individual and area-levels. We further assessed the associations between greenness exposure and mortality after adjusting for fine particulate matter (PM2.5), nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and road traffic noise. RESULTS: The pooled study population comprised 327,388 individuals who experienced 47,179 natural-cause deaths during 6,374,370 person-years of follow-up. The mean NDVI in the pooled cohort was 0.33 (SD 0.1) and 0.34 (SD 0.1) in the 300-m grid and 1-km buffer. In the main fully adjusted model, 0.1 unit increment of NDVI inside 300-m grid was associated with 5% lower risk of natural-cause mortality (Hazard Ratio (HR) 0.95 (95% CI: 0.94, 0.96)). The associations attenuated after adjustment for air pollution [HR (95% CI): 0.97 (0.96, 0.98) adjusted for PM2.5; 0.98 (0.96, 0.99) adjusted for NO2]. Additional adjustment for traffic noise hardly affected the associations. Consistent results were observed for NDVI within 1-km buffer. After adjustment for air pollution, NDVI was inversely associated with diabetes, respiratory and lung cancer mortality, yet with wider 95% confidence intervals. No association with cardiovascular mortality was found. CONCLUSIONS: We found a significant inverse association between surrounding greenness and natural-cause mortality, which remained after adjusting for spatially correlated air pollution and traffic noise.
AU  - Bereziartua, A.*
AU  - Chen, J.*
AU  - de Hoogh, K.*
AU  - Rodopoulou, S.*
AU  - Andersen, Z.J.*
AU  - Bellander, T.*
AU  - Brandt, J.*
AU  - Fecht, D.*
AU  - Forastiere, F.*
AU  - Gulliver, J.*
AU  - Hertel, O.*
AU  - Hoffmann, B.*
AU  - Arthur Hvidtfeldt, U.*
AU  - Verschuren, W.M.M.*
AU  - Jöckel, K.H.*
AU  - Jørgensen, J.T.*
AU  - Katsouyanni, K.*
AU  - Ketzel, M.*
AU  - Hjertager Krog, N.*
AU  - Brynedal, B.*
AU  - Leander, K.*
AU  - Liu, S.*
AU  - Ljungman, P.*
AU  - Faure, E.*
AU  - Magnusson, P.K.E.*
AU  - Nagel, G.*
AU  - Pershagen, G.*
AU  - Peters, A.
AU  - Raaschou-Nielsen, O.*
AU  - Renzi, M.*
AU  - Rizzuto, D.*
AU  - Samoli, E.*
AU  - van der Schouw, Y.T.*
AU  - Schramm, S.*
AU  - Severi, G.*
AU  - Stafoggia, M.*
AU  - Strak, M.*
AU  - Sørensen, M.*
AU  - Tjønneland, A.*
AU  - Weinmayr, G.*
AU  - Wolf, K.
AU  - Zitt, E.*
AU  - Brunekreef, B.*
AU  - Hoek, G.*
C1  - 65553
C2  - 52325
TI  - Exposure to surrounding greenness and natural-cause and cause-specific mortality in the ELAPSE pooled cohort.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 166
PY  - 2022
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - The implementation of One Health/EcoHealth/Planetary Health approaches has been identified as key (i) to address the strong interconnections between risk for pandemics, climate change and biodiversity loss and (ii) to develop and implement solutions to these interlinked crises. As a response to the multiple calls from scientists on that subject, we have here proposed seven long-term research questions regarding COVID-19 and emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) that are based on effective integration of environmental, ecological, evolutionary, and social sciences to better anticipate and mitigate EIDs. Research needs cover the social ecology of infectious disease agents, their evolution, the determinants of susceptibility of humans and animals to infections, and the human and ecological factors accelerating infectious disease emergence. For comprehensive investigation, they include the development of nature-based solutions to interlinked global planetary crises, addressing ethical and philosophical questions regarding the relationship of humans to nature and regarding transformative changes to safeguard the environment and human health. In support of this research, we propose the implementation of innovative multidisciplinary facilities embedded in social ecosystems locally: ecological health observatories and living laboratories. This work was carried out in the frame of the European Community project HERA (www.HERAresearchEU.eu), which aims to set priorities for an environment, climate and health research agenda in the European Union by adopting a systemic approach in the face of global environmental change.
AU  - Destoumieux-Garzon, D.*
AU  - Matthies-Wiesler, E.F.
AU  - Bierne, N.*
AU  - Binot, A.*
AU  - Boissier, J.*
AU  - Devouge, A.*
AU  - Garric, J.*
AU  - Gruetzmacher, K.*
AU  - Grunau, C.*
AU  - Guégan, J.F.*
AU  - Hurtrez-Boussès, S.*
AU  - Huss, A.*
AU  - Morand, S.*
AU  - Palmer, C.*
AU  - Sarigiannis, D.*
AU  - Vermeulen, R.*
AU  - Barouki, R.*
C1  - 63259
C2  - 51259
CY  - The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford Ox5 1gb, England
TI  - Getting out of crises: Environmental, social-ecological and evolutionary research is needed to avoid future risks of pandemics.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 158
PB  - Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd
PY  - 2022
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Background: The aim of the EU-funded HERA (health and environment research agenda) project is to set priorities for the future European research agenda in the environment, climate and health nexus. We report results from a European researcher's perspective and identify research areas that have been inadequately investigated to date. Methods: An online survey was completed by European researchers to assess, evaluate and visualise research gaps. These research gaps were identified for 21 predefined areas within 3 main categories: i) classical environment and health paradigm; ii) problem or sector-based research areas and approaches and iii) holistic research areas and concepts. All research gaps were then evaluated by expert groups with the pre-defined criteria and systematically summarized. For areas identified within the survey as under-reported, additional input was sought from a range of key selected experts. The EU project database Cordis was utilized to verify that these areas were under-researched. Results: Between May and July 2019, 318 respondents from 38 countries reported 624 research gaps. The main areas for attention identified were: urban environments; chemicals; and climate change, (combined n = 313 gaps). Biodiversity loss and health; transport, mobility, sustainable solutions and health; energy transition and health; waste and the circular economy and health; ethics and philosophy and health were areas that were acknowledged as under-researched (combined n = 27 gaps). These under-researched areas were identified as having certain commonalities, they: i) mostly fell in the category “problem or sector based approaches“; ii) they are essential for developing and implementing solutions; and iii) require trans-disciplinary and cross-sectoral collaboration. Conclusions: Currently attention is given to topical and highly researched areas in environmental health. In contrast, this paper identifies key topics and approaches that are under-researched, yet, are critical for the implementation of the EU Green Deal, related strategies and action plans, and require further investigation and investment. The findings reveal the imperative to foster solutions-oriented, trans-disciplinary and participatory research and its implementation through changes in research funding and research structures.
AU  - Huss, A.*
AU  - Peters, A.
AU  - Zhao, T.
AU  - Barouki, R.*
AU  - Kogevinas, M.*
AU  - Vermeulen, R.*
AU  - Matthies-Wiesler, E.F.
C1  - 64705
C2  - 51972
TI  - Setting the European environment and health research agenda –under-researched areas and solution-oriented research.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 163
PY  - 2022
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - The health effects of exposure to secondary organic aerosols (SOAs) are still limited. Here, we investigated and compared the toxicities of soot particles (SP) coated with β-pinene SOA (SOAβPin-SP) and SP coated with naphthalene SOA (SOANap-SP) in a human bronchial epithelial cell line (BEAS-2B) residing at the air-liquid interface. SOAβPin-SP mostly contained oxygenated aliphatic compounds from β-pinene photooxidation, whereas SOANap-SP contained a significant fraction of oxygenated aromatic products under similar conditions. Following exposure, genome-wide transcriptome responses showed an Nrf2 oxidative stress response, particularly for SOANap-SP. Other signaling pathways, such as redox signaling, inflammatory signaling, and the involvement of matrix metalloproteinase, were identified to have a stronger impact following exposure to SOANap-SP. SOANap-SP also induced a stronger genotoxicity response than that of SOAβPin-SP. This study elucidated the mechanisms that govern SOA toxicity and showed that, compared to SOAs derived from a typical biogenic precursor, SOAs from a typical anthropogenic precursor have higher toxicological potency, which was accompanied with the activation of varied cellular mechanisms, such as aryl hydrocarbon receptor. This can be attributed to the difference in chemical composition; specifically, the aromatic compounds in the naphthalene-derived SOA had higher cytotoxic potential than that of the β-pinene-derived SOA.
AU  - Pardo, M.*
AU  - Offer, S.
AU  - Hartner, E.
AU  - Di Bucchianico, S.
AU  - Bisig, B.
AU  - Bauer, S.
AU  - Pantzke, J.
AU  - Zimmermann, E.
AU  - Cao, X.
AU  - Binder, S.
AU  - Kuhn, E.
AU  - Huber, A.
AU  - Jeong, S.
AU  - Käfer, U.
AU  - Schneider, E.*
AU  - Mesceriakovas, A.*
AU  - Bendl, J.
AU  - Brejcha, R.
AU  - Buchholz, A.*
AU  - Gat, D.*
AU  - Hohaus, T.*
AU  - Rastak, N.
AU  - Karg, E.W.
AU  - Jakobi, G.
AU  - Kalberer, M.*
AU  - Kanashova, T.*
AU  - Hu, Y.
AU  - Ogris, C.
AU  - Marsico, A.
AU  - Theis, F.J.
AU  - Shalit, T.*
AU  - Gröger, T.M.
AU  - Rüger, C.P.*
AU  - Oeder, S.
AU  - Orasche, J.
AU  - Paul, A.*
AU  - Ziehm, T.*
AU  - Zhang, Z.H.*
AU  - Adam, T.
AU  - Sippula, O.*
AU  - Sklorz, M.
AU  - Schnelle-Kreis, J.
AU  - Czech, H.
AU  - Kiendler-Scharr, A.*
AU  - Zimmermann, R.
AU  - Rudich, Y.*
C1  - 65512
C2  - 52323
TI  - Exposure to naphthalene and β-pinene-derived secondary organic aerosol induced divergent changes in transcript levels of BEAS-2B cells.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 166
PY  - 2022
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - The obesity pandemic is presumed to be accelerated by endocrine 
      disruptors such as phthalate-plasticizers, which interfere with adipose 
      tissue function. With the restriction of the plasticizer 
      di-(2-ethylhexyl)-phthalate (DEHP), the search for safe substitutes 
      gained importance. Focusing on the master regulator of adipogenesis and 
      adipose tissue functionality, the peroxisome proliferator-activated 
      receptor gamma (PPARγ), we evaluated 20 alternative plasticizers as well
       as their metabolites for binding to and activation of PPARγ and 
      assessed effects on adipocyte lipid accumulation. Among several 
      compounds that showed interaction with PPARγ, the metabolites MINCH, 
      MHINP, and OH-MPHP of the plasticizers DINCH, DINP, and DPHP exerted the
       highest adipogenic potential in human adipocytes. These metabolites and
       their parent plasticizers were further analyzed in human preadipocytes 
      and mature adipocytes using cellular assays and global proteomics. In 
      preadipocytes, the plasticizer metabolites significantly increased lipid
       accumulation, enhanced leptin and adipsin secretion, and upregulated 
      adipogenesis-associated markers and pathways, in a similar pattern to 
      the PPARγ agonist rosiglitazone. Proteomics of mature adipocytes 
      revealed that both, the plasticizers and their metabolites, induced 
      oxidative stress, disturbed lipid storage, impaired metabolic 
      homeostasis, and led to proinflammatory and insulin resistance promoting
       adipokine secretion. In conclusion, the plasticizer metabolites 
      enhanced preadipocyte differentiation, at least partly mediated by PPARγ
       activation and, together with their parent plasticizers, affected the 
      functionality of mature adipocytes similar to reported effects of a 
      high-fat diet. This highlights the need to further investigate the 
      currently used plasticizer alternatives for potential associations with 
      obesity and the metabolic syndrome.
AU  - Schaffert, A.*
AU  - Karkossa, I.*
AU  - Ueberham, E.*
AU  - Schlichting, R.*
AU  - Walter, K.*
AU  - Arnold, J.*
AU  - Blüher, M.
AU  - Heiker, J.T.
AU  - Lehmann, J.*
AU  - Wabitsch, M.*
AU  - Escher, B.I.*
AU  - von Bergen, M.*
AU  - Schubert, K.*
C1  - 65497
C2  - 52281
TI  - Di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate substitutes accelerate human adipogenesis through PPARγ  activation and cause oxidative stress and impaired metabolic homeostasis in mature adipocytes.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 164
PY  - 2022
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Background: Long-term exposure to air pollution has been associated with cardiopulmonary diseases, while the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Objectives: To investigate changes in serum metabolites associated with long-term exposure to air pollution and explore the susceptibility characteristics. Methods: We used data from the German population-based Cooperative Health Research in the Region of Augsburg (KORA) S4 survey (1999–2001) and two follow-up examinations (F4: 2006–08 and FF4: 2013–14). Mass-spectrometry-based targeted metabolomics was used to quantify metabolites among serum samples. Only participants with repeated metabolites measurements were included in the current analysis. Land-use regression (LUR) models were used to estimate annual average concentrations of ultrafine particles, particulate matter (PM) with an aerodynamic diameter less than 10 μm (PM10), coarse particles (PMcoarse), fine particles, PM2.5 absorbance (a proxy of elemental carbon related to traffic exhaust, PM2.5abs), nitrogen oxides (NO2, NOx), and ozone at individuals’ residences. We applied confounder-adjusted mixed-effects regression models to examine the associations between long-term exposure to air pollution and metabolites. Results: Among 9,620 observations from 4,261 KORA participants, we included 5,772 (60.0%) observations from 2,583 (60.6%) participants in this analysis. Out of 108 metabolites that passed stringent quality control across three study points in time, we identified nine significant negative associations between phosphatidylcholines (PCs) and ambient pollutants at a Benjamini-Hochberg false discovery rate (FDR) corrected p-value < 0.05. The strongest association was seen for an increase of 0.27 μg/m3 (interquartile range) in PM2.5abs and decreased phosphatidylcholine acyl-alkyl C36:3 (PC ae C36:3) concentrations [percent change in the geometric mean: −2.5% (95% confidence interval: −3.6%, −1.5%)]. Conclusions: Our study suggested that long-term exposure to air pollution is associated with metabolic alterations, particularly in PCs with unsaturated long-chain fatty acids. These findings might provide new insights into potential mechanisms for air pollution-related adverse outcomes.
AU  - Yao,Y.
AU  - Schneider, A.E.
AU  - Wolf, K.
AU  - Zhang, S.
AU  - Wang-Sattler, R.
AU  - Peters, A.
AU  - Breitner-Busch, S.
C1  - 66733
C2  - 53199
CY  - The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford Ox5 1gb, England
TI  - Longitudinal associations between metabolites and long-term exposure to ambient air pollution: Results from the KORA cohort study.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 170
PB  - Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd
PY  - 2022
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - In 2011, the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) recommended reducing the occupational equivalent dose limit for the lens of the eye from 150 mSv/year to 20 mSv/year, averaged over five years, with no single year exceeding 50 mSv. With this recommendation, several important assumptions were made, such as lack of dose rate effect, classification of cataracts as a tissue reaction with a dose threshold at 0.5 Gy, and progression of minor opacities into vision-impairing cataracts. However, although new dose thresholds and occupational dose limits have been set for radiation-induced cataract, ICRP clearly states that the recommendations are chiefly based on epidemiological evidence because there are a very small number of studies that provide explicit biological and mechanistic evidence at doses under 2 Gy. Since the release of the 2011 ICRP statement, the Multidisciplinary European Low Dose Initiative (MELODI) supported in April 2019 a scientific workshop that aimed to review epidemiological, clinical and biological evidence for radiation-induced cataracts. The purpose of this article is to present and discuss recent related epidemiological and clinical studies, ophthalmic examination techniques, biological and mechanistic knowledge, and to identify research gaps, towards the implementation of a research strategy for future studies on radiation-induced lens opacities. The authors recommend particularly to study the effect of ionizing radiation on the lens in the context of the wider, systemic effects, including in the retina, brain and other organs, and as such cataract is recommended to be studied as part of larger scale programs focused on multiple radiation health effects.
AU  - Ainsbury, E.A.*
AU  - Dalke, C.
AU  - Hamada, N.*
AU  - Benadjaoud, M.A.*
AU  - Chumak, V.*
AU  - Ginjaume, M.*
AU  - Kok, J.L.*
AU  - Mancuso, M.*
AU  - Sabatier, L.*
AU  - Struelens, L.*
AU  - Thariat, J.*
AU  - Jourdain, J.R.*
C1  - 60725
C2  - 49553
CY  - The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford Ox5 1gb, England
TI  - Radiation-induced lens opacities: Epidemiological, clinical and experimental evidence, methodological issues, research gaps and strategy.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 146
PB  - Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd
PY  - 2021
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - The outbreak of COVID-19 raised numerous questions on the interactions between the occurrence of new infections, the environment, climate and health. The European Union requested the H2020 HERA project which aims at setting priorities in research on environment, climate and health, to identify relevant research needs regarding Covid-19. The emergence and spread of SARS-CoV-2 appears to be related to urbanization, habitat destruction, live animal trade, intensive livestock farming and global travel. The contribution of climate and air pollution requires additional studies. Importantly, the severity of COVID-19 depends on the interactions between the viral infection, ageing and chronic diseases such as metabolic, respiratory and cardiovascular diseases and obesity which are themselves influenced by environmental stressors. The mechanisms of these interactions deserve additional scrutiny. Both the pandemic and the social response to the disease have elicited an array of behavioural and societal changes that may remain long after the pandemic and that may have long term health effects including on mental health. Recovery plans are currently being discussed or implemented and the environmental and health impacts of those plans are not clearly foreseen. Clearly, COVID-19 will have a long-lasting impact on the environmental health field and will open new research perspectives and policy needs.
AU  - Barouki, R.*
AU  - Kogevinas, M.*
AU  - Audouze, K.*
AU  - Belesova, K.*
AU  - Bergman, A.*
AU  - Birnbaum, L.*
AU  - Boekhold, S.*
AU  - Denys, S.*
AU  - Desseille, C.*
AU  - Drakvik, E.*
AU  - Frumkin, H.*
AU  - Garric, J.*
AU  - Destoumieux-Garzon, D.*
AU  - Haines, A.*
AU  - Huss, A.*
AU  - Jensen, G.*
AU  - Karakitsios, S.*
AU  - Klanova, J.*
AU  - Koskela, I.M.*
AU  - Laden, F.*
AU  - Marano, F.*
AU  - Matthies-Wiesler, E.F.
AU  - Morris, G.*
AU  - Nowacki, J.*
AU  - Paloniemi, R.*
AU  - Pearce, N.*
AU  - Peters, A.
AU  - Rekola, A.*
AU  - Sarigiannis, D.*
AU  - Šebková, K.*
AU  - Slama, R.*
AU  - Staatsen, B.*
AU  - Tonne, C.*
AU  - Vermeulen, R.*
AU  - Vineis, P.*
C1  - 60994
C2  - 49625
CY  - The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford Ox5 1gb, England
TI  - The COVID-19 pandemic and global environmental change: Emerging research needs.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 146
PB  - Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd
PY  - 2021
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Biomass burning (BB) is an important source of primary organic aerosols (POA). These POA contain a significant fraction of semivolatile organic compounds, and can release them into the gas phase during the dilution process in transport. Such evaporated compounds were termed “secondarily evaporated BB organic gases (SBB-OGs)” to distinguish them from the more studied primary emissions. SBB-OGs contribute to the formation of secondary organic aerosols (SOA) through reactions with atmospheric oxidants, and thus may influence human health and the Earth's radiation budget. In this study, tar materials collected from wood pyrolysis were taken as proxies for POA from smoldering-phase BB and were used to release SBB-OGs constantly in the lab. OH-initiated oxidation of the SBB-OGs in the absence of NOx was investigated using an oxidation flow reactor, and the chemical, optical, and toxicological properties of SOA were comprehensively characterized. Carbonyl compounds were the most abundant species in identified SOA species. Human lung epithelial cells exposed to an environmentally relevant dose of the most aged SOA did not exhibit detectable cell mortality. The oxidative potential of SOA was characterized with the dithiothreitol (DTT) assay, and its DTT consumption rate was 15.5 ± 0.5 pmol min−1 μg−1. The SOA present comparable light scattering to BB-POA, but have lower light absorption with imaginary refractive index less than 0.01 within the wavelength range of 360–600 nm. Calculations based on Mie theory show that pure airborne SOA with atmospherically relevant sizes of 50–400 nm have a cooling effect; when acting as the coating materials, these SOA can counteract the warming effect brought by airborne black carbon aerosol.
AU  - Fang, Z.*
AU  - Li, C.*
AU  - He, Q.*
AU  - Czech, H.
AU  - Gröger, T.M.
AU  - Zeng, J.*
AU  - Fang, H.*
AU  - Xiao, S.*
AU  - Pardo, M.*
AU  - Hartner, E.
AU  - Meidan, D.*
AU  - Wang, X.*
AU  - Zimmermann, R.
AU  - Laskin, A.*
AU  - Rudich, Y.*
C1  - 62733
C2  - 51029
CY  - The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford Ox5 1gb, England
TI  - Secondary organic aerosols produced from photochemical oxidation of secondarily evaporated biomass burning organic gases: Chemical composition, toxicity, optical properties, and climate effect.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 157
PB  - Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd
PY  - 2021
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Background/aim: Ambient air pollution has been associated with lung cancer, but the shape of the exposure-response function - especially at low exposure levels - is not well described. The aim of this study was to address the relationship between long-term low-level air pollution exposure and lung cancer incidence. Methods: The “Effects of Low-level Air Pollution: a Study in Europe” (ELAPSE) collaboration pools seven cohorts from across Europe. We developed hybrid models combining air pollution monitoring, land use data, satellite observations, and dispersion model estimates for nitrogen dioxide (NO2), fine particulate matter (PM2.5), black carbon (BC), and ozone (O3) to assign exposure to cohort participants’ residential addresses in 100 m by 100 m grids. We applied stratified Cox proportional hazards models, adjusting for potential confounders (age, sex, calendar year, marital status, smoking, body mass index, employment status, and neighborhood-level socio-economic status). We fitted linear models, linear models in subsets, Shape-Constrained Health Impact Functions (SCHIF), and natural cubic spline models to assess the shape of the association between air pollution and lung cancer at concentrations below existing standards and guidelines. Results: The analyses included 307,550 cohort participants. During a mean follow-up of 18.1 years, 3956 incident lung cancer cases occurred. Median (Q1, Q3) annual (2010) exposure levels of NO2, PM2.5, BC and O3 (warm season) were 24.2 µg/m3 (19.5, 29.7), 15.4 µg/m3 (12.8, 17.3), 1.6 10−5m−1 (1.3, 1.8), and 86.6 µg/m3 (78.5, 92.9), respectively. We observed a higher risk for lung cancer with higher exposure to PM2.5 (HR: 1.13, 95% CI: 1.05, 1.23 per 5 µg/m3). This association was robust to adjustment for other pollutants. The SCHIF, spline and subset analyses suggested a linear or supra-linear association with no evidence of a threshold. In subset analyses, risk estimates were clearly elevated for the subset of subjects with exposure below the EU limit value of 25 µg/m3. We did not observe associations between NO2, BC or O3 and lung cancer incidence. Conclusions: Long-term ambient PM2.5 exposure is associated with lung cancer incidence even at concentrations below current EU limit values and possibly WHO Air Quality Guidelines.
AU  - Hvidtfeldt, U.A.*
AU  - Severi, G.*
AU  - Andersen, Z.J.*
AU  - Atkinson, R.*
AU  - Bauwelinck, M.*
AU  - Bellander, T.*
AU  - Boutron-Ruault, M.C.*
AU  - Brandt, J.*
AU  - Brunekreef, B.*
AU  - Cesaroni, G.*
AU  - Chen, J.*
AU  - Concin, H.*
AU  - Forastiere, F.*
AU  - van Gils, C.H.*
AU  - Gulliver, J.*
AU  - Hertel, O.*
AU  - Hoek, G.*
AU  - Hoffmann, B.*
AU  - de Hoogh, K.*
AU  - Janssen, N.*
AU  - Jöckel, K.H.*
AU  - Jørgensen, J.T.*
AU  - Katsouyanni, K.*
AU  - Ketzel, M.*
AU  - Klompmaker, J.O.*
AU  - Krog, N.H.*
AU  - Lang, A.*
AU  - Leander, K.*
AU  - Liu, S.*
AU  - Ljungman, P.L.S.*
AU  - Magnusson, P.K.E.*
AU  - Mehta, A.J.*
AU  - Nagel, G.*
AU  - Oftedal, B.*
AU  - Pershagen, G.*
AU  - Peter, R.S.*
AU  - Peters, A.
AU  - Renzi, M.*
AU  - Rizzuto, D.*
AU  - Rodopoulou, S.*
AU  - Samoli, E.*
AU  - Schwarze, P.E.*
AU  - Sigsgaard, T.*
AU  - Simonsen, M.K.*
AU  - Stafoggia, M.*
AU  - Strak, M.*
AU  - Vienneau, D.*
AU  - Weinmayr, G.*
AU  - Wolf, K.
AU  - Raaschou-Nielsen, O.*
AU  - Fecht, D.*
C1  - 60549
C2  - 49367
CY  - The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford Ox5 1gb, England
TI  - Long-term low-level ambient air pollution exposure and risk of lung cancer – a pooled analysis of 7 European cohorts.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 146
PB  - Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd
PY  - 2021
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Objectives: To investigate if air pollution and greenness exposure from birth till adulthood affects adult asthma, rhinitis and lung function.Methods: We analysed data from 3428 participants (mean age 28) in the RHINESSA study in Norway and Sweden. Individual mean annual residential exposures to nitrogen dioxide (NO2), particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5), black carbon (BC), ozone (O-3) and greenness (normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI)) were averaged across susceptibility windows (0-10 years, 10-18 years, lifetime, adulthood (year before study participation)) and analysed in relation to physician diagnosed asthma (ever/allergic/non-allergic), asthma attack last 12 months, current rhinitis and low lung function (lower limit of normal (LLN), z-scores of forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1), forced vital capacity (FVC) and FEV1/FVC below 1.64). We performed logistic regression for asthma attack, rhinitis and LLN lung function (clustered with family and study centre), and conditional logistic regression with a matched case-control design for ever/allergic/non-allergicasthma. Multivariable models were adjusted for parental asthma and education.Results: Childhood, adolescence and adult exposure to NO2, PM10 and O-3 were associated with an increased risk of asthma attacks (ORs between 1.29 and 2.25), but not with physician diagnosed asthma. For rhinitis, adulthood exposures seemed to be most important. Childhood and adolescence exposures to PM2.5 and O-3 were associated with lower lung function, in particular FEV1 (range ORs 2.65 to 4.21). No associations between NDVI and asthma or rhinitis were revealed, but increased NDVI was associated with lower FEV1 and FVC in all susceptibility windows (range ORs 1.39 to 1.74).Conclusions: Air pollution exposures in childhood, adolescence and adulthood were associated with increased risk of asthma attacks, rhinitis and low lung function in adulthood. Greenness was not associated with asthma or rhinitis, but was a risk factor for low lung function.
AU  - Kuiper, I.N.*
AU  - Svanes, C.*
AU  - Markevych, I.
AU  - Accordini, S.*
AU  - Bertelsen, R.J.*
AU  - Bråbäck, L.*
AU  - Christensen, J.H.*
AU  - Forsberg, B.*
AU  - Halvorsen, T.*
AU  - Heinrich, J.*
AU  - Hertel, O.*
AU  - Hoek, G.*
AU  - Holm, M.*
AU  - de Hoogh, K.*
AU  - Janson, C.*
AU  - Malinovschi, A.*
AU  - Marcon, A.*
AU  - Nilsen, R.M.*
AU  - Sigsgaard, T.*
AU  - Johannessen, A.*
C1  - 60999
C2  - 49637
CY  - The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford Ox5 1gb, England
TI  - Lifelong exposure to air pollution and greenness in relation to asthma, rhinitis and lung function in adulthood.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 146
PB  - Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd
PY  - 2021
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - BACKGROUND: Long-term exposure to ambient air pollution has been linked to childhood-onset asthma, while evidence is still insufficient. Within the multicentre project "Effects of Low-Level Air Pollution: A Study in Europe" (ELAPSE), we examined the associations of long-term exposures to particulate matter with diameter<2.5 µm (PM2.5), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), and black carbon (BC) with asthma incidence in adults. METHODS: We pooled data from three cohorts in Denmark and Sweden with information on asthma hospital diagnoses. The average concentrations of air pollutants in 2010 were modelled by hybrid land use regression models at participants' baseline residential addresses. Associations of air pollution exposures with asthma incidence were explored with Cox proportional hazard models, adjusting for potential confounders. RESULTS: Of 98 326 participants, 1965 developed asthma during a 16.6 years mean follow-up. We observed associations in fully adjusted models with hazard ratios and 95% confidence intervals of 1.22 (1.04-1.43) per 5 μg·m-3 for PM2.5, 1.17 (1.10-1.25) per 10 µg·m-3 for NO2, and 1.15 (1.08-1.23) per 0.5 10-5 m-1 for BC. Hazard ratios were larger in cohort subsets with exposure levels below the EU and US limit values and possibly WHO guidelines for PM2.5 and NO2. NO2 and BC estimates remained unchanged in two-pollutant models with PM2.5, whereas PM2.5 estimates were attenuated to unity. The concentration response curves showed no evidence of a threshold. CONCLUSIONS: Long-term exposure to air pollution, especially from fossil fuel combustion sources such as motorised traffic, was associated with adult-onset asthma, even at levels below the current limit values.
AU  - Liu, S.*
AU  - Jørgensen, J.T.*
AU  - Ljungman, P.*
AU  - Pershagen, G.*
AU  - Bellander, T.*
AU  - Leander, K.*
AU  - Magnusson, P.K.E.*
AU  - Rizzuto, D.*
AU  - Hvidtfeldt, U.A.*
AU  - Raaschou-Nielsen, O.*
AU  - Wolf, K.
AU  - Hoffmann, B.*
AU  - Brunekreef, B.*
AU  - Strak, M.*
AU  - Chen, J.*
AU  - Mehta, A.*
AU  - Atkinson, R.W.*
AU  - Bauwelinck, M.*
AU  - Varraso, R.*
AU  - Boutron-Ruault, M.C.*
AU  - Brandt, J.*
AU  - Cesaroni, G.*
AU  - Forastiere, F.*
AU  - Fecht, D.*
AU  - Gulliver, J.*
AU  - Hertel, O.*
AU  - de Hoogh, K.*
AU  - Janssen, N.A.H.*
AU  - Katsouyanni, K.*
AU  - Ketzel, M.*
AU  - Klompmaker, J.O.*
AU  - Nagel, G.*
AU  - Oftedal, B.*
AU  - Peters, A.
AU  - Tjønneland, A.*
AU  - Rodopoulou, S.P.*
AU  - Samoli, E.*
AU  - Kristoffersen, D.T.*
AU  - Sigsgaard, T.*
AU  - Stafoggia, M.*
AU  - Vienneau, D.*
AU  - Weinmayr, G.*
AU  - Hoek, G.*
AU  - Andersen, Z.J.*
C1  - 60763
C2  - 49535
CY  - The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford Ox5 1gb, England
TI  - Long-term exposure to low-level air pollution and incidence of asthma: The ELAPSE project.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 146
PB  - Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd
PY  - 2021
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Biodiversity is a cornerstone of human health and well-being. However, while evidence of the contributions of nature to human health is rapidly building, research into how biodiversity relates to human health remains limited in important respects. In particular, a better mechanistic understanding of the range of pathways through which biodiversity can influence human health is needed. These pathways relate to both psychological and social processes as well as biophysical processes. Building on evidence from across the natural, social and health sciences, we present a conceptual framework organizing the pathways linking biodiversity to human health. Four domains of pathways-both beneficial as well as harmful-link biodiversity with human health: (i) reducing harm (e.g. provision of medicines, decreasing exposure to air and noise pollution); (ii) restoring capacities (e.g. attention restoration, stress reduction); (iii) building capacities (e.g. promoting physical activity, transcendent experiences); and (iv) causing harm (e.g. dangerous wildlife, zoonotic diseases, allergens). We discuss how to test components of the biodiversity-health framework with available analytical approaches and existing datasets. In a world with accelerating declines in biodiversity, profound land-use change, and an increase in non-communicable and zoonotic diseases globally, greater understanding of these pathways can reinforce biodiversity conservation as a strategy for the promotion of health for both people and nature. We conclude by identifying research avenues and recommendations for policy and practice to foster biodiversity-focused public health actions.
AU  - Marselle, M.R.*
AU  - Hartig, T.*
AU  - Cox, D.T.C.*
AU  - de Bell, S.*
AU  - Knapp, S.*
AU  - Lindley, S.*
AU  - Triguero-Mas, M.*
AU  - Böhning-Gaese, K.*
AU  - Braubach, M.*
AU  - Cook, P.A.*
AU  - de Vries, S.J.*
AU  - Heintz-Buschart, A.*
AU  - Hofmann, M.*
AU  - Irvine, K.N.*
AU  - Kabisch, N.*
AU  - Kolek, F.
AU  - Kraemer, R.*
AU  - Markevych, I.*
AU  - Martens, D.*
AU  - Müller, R.*
AU  - Nieuwenhuijsen, M.*
AU  - Potts, J.M.*
AU  - Stadler, J.*
AU  - Walton, S.*
AU  - Warber, S.L.*
AU  - Bonn, A.*
C1  - 61329
C2  - 50156
CY  - The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford Ox5 1gb, England
TI  - Pathways linking biodiversity to human health: A conceptual framework.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 150
PB  - Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd
PY  - 2021
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Air pollution has been associated with adverse health effects across the life-course. Although underlying mechanisms are unclear, several studies suggested pollutant-induced changes in transcriptomic profiles. In this meta-analysis of transcriptome-wide association studies of 656 children and adolescents from three European cohorts participating in the MeDALL Consortium, we found two differentially expressed transcript clusters (FDR p < 0.05) associated with exposure to particulate matter < 2.5 µm in diameter (PM2.5) at birth, one of them mapping to the MIR1296 gene. Further, by integrating gene expression with DNA methylation using Functional Epigenetic Modules algorithms, we identified 9 and 6 modules in relation to PM2.5 exposure at birth and at current address, respectively (including NR1I2, MAPK6, TAF8 and SCARA3). In conclusion, PM2.5 exposure at birth was linked to differential gene expression in children and adolescents. Importantly, we identified several significant interactome hotspots of gene modules of relevance for complex diseases in relation to PM2.5 exposure.
AU  - Merid, S.K.*
AU  - Bustamante, M.*
AU  - Standl, M.
AU  - Sunyer, J.*
AU  - Heinrich, J.*
AU  - Lemonnier, N.*
AU  - Aguilar, D.*
AU  - Antó, J.M.*
AU  - Bousquet, J.*
AU  - Santa-Marina, L.*
AU  - Lertxundi, A.*
AU  - Bergström, A.*
AU  - Kull, I.*
AU  - Wheelock, Å.M.*
AU  - Koppelman, G.H.*
AU  - Melén, E.*
AU  - Gruzieva, O.*
C1  - 60579
C2  - 49410
CY  - The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford Ox5 1gb, England
TI  - Integration of gene expression and DNA methylation identifies epigenetically controlled modules related to PM2.5 exposure.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 146
PB  - Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd
PY  - 2021
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Background: We evaluated methods for the analysis of multi-level survival data using a pooled dataset of 14 cohorts participating in the ELAPSE project investigating associations between residential exposure to low levels of air pollution (PM2.5 and NO2) and health (natural-cause mortality and cerebrovascular, coronary and lung cancer incidence). Methods: We applied five approaches in a multivariable Cox model to account for the first level of clustering corresponding to cohort specification: (1) not accounting for the cohort or using (2) indicator variables, (3) strata, (4) a frailty term in frailty Cox models, (5) a random intercept under a mixed Cox, for cohort identification. We accounted for the second level of clustering due to common characteristics in the residential area by (1) a random intercept per small area or (2) applying variance correction. We assessed the stratified, frailty and mixed Cox approach through simulations under different scenarios for heterogeneity in the underlying hazards and the air pollution effects. Results: Effect estimates were stable under approaches used to adjust for cohort but substantially differed when no adjustment was applied. Further adjustment for the small area grouping increased the effect estimates’ standard errors. Simulations confirmed identical results between the stratified and frailty models. In ELAPSE we selected a stratified multivariable Cox model to account for between-cohort heterogeneity without adjustment for small area level, due to the small number of subjects and events in the latter. Conclusions: Our study supports the need to account for between-cohort heterogeneity in multi-center collaborations using pooled individual level data.
AU  - Samoli, E.*
AU  - Rodopoulou, S.*
AU  - Hvidtfeldt, U.A.*
AU  - Wolf, K.
AU  - Stafoggia, M.*
AU  - Brunekreef, B.*
AU  - Strak, M.*
AU  - Chen, J.*
AU  - Andersen, Z.J.*
AU  - Atkinson, R.*
AU  - Bauwelinck, M.*
AU  - Bellander, T.*
AU  - Brandt, J.*
AU  - Cesaroni, G.*
AU  - Forastiere, F.*
AU  - Fecht, D.*
AU  - Gulliver, J.*
AU  - Hertel, O.*
AU  - Hoffmann, B.*
AU  - de Hoogh, K.*
AU  - Janssen, N.A.H.*
AU  - Ketzel, M.*
AU  - Klompmaker, J.O.*
AU  - Liu, S.*
AU  - Ljungman, P.*
AU  - Nagel, G.*
AU  - Oftedal, B.*
AU  - Pershagen, G.*
AU  - Peters, A.
AU  - Raaschou-Nielsen, O.*
AU  - Renzi, M.*
AU  - Kristoffersen, D.T.*
AU  - Severi, G.*
AU  - Sigsgaard, T.*
AU  - Vienneau, D.*
AU  - Weinmayr, G.*
AU  - Hoek, G.*
AU  - Katsouyanni, K.*
C1  - 60984
C2  - 49812
CY  - The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford Ox5 1gb, England
TI  - Modeling multi-level survival data in multi-center epidemiological cohort studies: Applications from the ELAPSE project.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 147
PB  - Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd
PY  - 2021
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Bisphenol A (BPA), which is used in a variety of consumer-related plastic products, was reported to cause adverse effects, including disruption of adipocyte differentiation, interference with obesity mechanisms, and impairment of insulin- and glucose homeostasis. Substitute compounds are increasingly emerging but are not sufficiently investigated.We aimed to investigate the mode of action of BPA and four of its substitutes during the differentiation of human preadipocytes to adipocytes and their molecular interaction with peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ (PPARγ), a pivotal regulator of adipogenesis.Binding and effective biological activation of PPARγ were investigated by surface plasmon resonance and reporter gene assay, respectively. Human preadipocytes were continuously exposed to BPA, BPS, BPB, BPF, BPAF, and the PPARγ-antagonist GW9662. After 12 days of differentiation, lipid production was quantified via Oil Red O staining, and global protein profiles were assessed using LC-MS/MS-based proteomics. All tested bisphenols bound to human PPARγ with similar efficacy as the natural ligand 15d-PGJ2in vitroand provoked an antagonistic effect on PPARγ in the reporter gene assay at non-cytotoxic concentrations. During the differentiation of human preadipocytes, all bisphenols decreased lipid production. Global proteomics displayed a down-regulation of adipogenesis and metabolic pathways, similar to GW9662. Interestingly, pro-inflammatory pathways were up-regulated, MCP1 release was increased, and adiponectin decreased. pAKT/AKT ratios revealed significantly reduced insulin sensitivity by BPA, BPB, and BPS upon insulin stimulation.Thus, our results show that not only BPA but also its substitutes disrupt crucial metabolic functions and insulin signaling in adipocytes under low, environmentally relevant concentrations. This effect, mediated through inhibition of PPARγ, may promote hypertrophy of adipose tissue and increase the risk of developing metabolic syndrome, including insulin resistance.
AU  - Schaffert, A.*
AU  - Krieg, L.*
AU  - Weiner, J.
AU  - Schlichting, R.*
AU  - Ueberham, E.*
AU  - Karkossa, I.*
AU  - Bauer, M.*
AU  - Landgraf, K.*
AU  - Junge, K.M.*
AU  - Wabitsch, M.*
AU  - Lehmann, J.*
AU  - Escher, B.I.*
AU  - Zenclussen, A.C.*
AU  - Körner, A.*
AU  - Blüher, M.
AU  - Heiker, J.T.
AU  - von Bergen, M.*
AU  - Schubert, K.*
C1  - 62533
C2  - 50938
CY  - The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford Ox5 1gb, England
TI  - Alternatives for the worse: Molecular insights into adverse effects of bisphenol a and substitutes during human adipocyte differentiation.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 156
PB  - Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd
PY  - 2021
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - This global study, which has been coordinated by the World Meteorological Organization Global Atmospheric Watch (WMO/GAW) programme, aims to understand the behaviour of key air pollutant species during the COVID-19 pandemic period of exceptionally low emissions across the globe. We investigated the effects of the differences in both emissions and regional and local meteorology in 2020 compared with the period 2015-2019. By adopting a globally consistent approach, this comprehensive observational analysis focuses on changes in air quality in and around cities across the globe for the following air pollutants PM2.5, PM10, PMC (coarse fraction of PM), NO2, SO2, NOx, CO, O3 and the total gaseous oxidant (OX = NO2 + O3) during the pre-lockdown, partial lockdown, full lockdown and two relaxation periods spanning from January to September 2020. The analysis is based on in situ ground-based air quality observations at over 540 traffic, background and rural stations, from 63 cities and covering 25 countries over seven geographical regions of the world. Anomalies in the air pollutant concentrations (increases or decreases during 2020 periods compared to equivalent 2015-2019 periods) were calculated and the possible effects of meteorological conditions were analysed by computing anomalies from ERA5 reanalyses and local observations for these periods. We observed a positive correlation between the reductions in NO2 and NOx concentrations and peoples' mobility for most cities. A correlation between PMC and mobility changes was also seen for some Asian and South American cities. A clear signal was not observed for other pollutants, suggesting that sources besides vehicular emissions also substantially contributed to the change in air quality. As a global and regional overview of the changes in ambient concentrations of key air quality species, we observed decreases of up to about 70% in mean NO2 and between 30% and 40% in mean PM2.5 concentrations over 2020 full lockdown compared to the same period in 2015-2019. However, PM2.5 exhibited complex signals, even within the same region, with increases in some Spanish cities, attributed mainly to the long-range transport of African dust and/or biomass burning (corroborated with the analysis of NO2/CO ratio). Some Chinese cities showed similar increases in PM2.5 during the lockdown periods, but in this case, it was likely due to secondary PM formation. Changes in O3 concentrations were highly heterogeneous, with no overall change or small increases (as in the case of Europe), and positive anomalies of 25% and 30% in East Asia and South America, respectively, with Colombia showing the largest positive anomaly of ~70%. The SO2 anomalies were negative for 2020 compared to 2015-2019 (between ~25 to 60%) for all regions. For CO, negative anomalies were observed for all regions with the largest decrease for South America of up to ~40%. The NO2/CO ratio indicated that specific sites (such as those in Spanish cities) were affected by biomass burning plumes, which outweighed the NO2 decrease due to the general reduction in mobility (ratio of ~60%). Analysis of the total oxidant (OX = NO2 + O3) showed that primary NO2 emissions at urban locations were greater than the O3 production, whereas at background sites, OX was mostly driven by the regional contributions rather than local NO2 and O3 concentrations. The present study clearly highlights the importance of meteorology and episodic contributions (e.g., from dust, domestic, agricultural biomass burning and crop fertilizing) when analysing air quality in and around cities even during large emissions reductions. There is still the need to better understand how the chemical responses of secondary pollutants to emission change under complex meteorological conditions, along with climate change and socio-economic drivers may affect future air quality. The implications for regional and global policies are also significant, as our study clearly indicates that PM2.5 concentrations would not likely meet the World Health Organization guidelines in many parts of the world, despite the drastic reductions in mobility. Consequently, revisions of air quality regulation (e.g., the Gothenburg Protocol) with more ambitious targets that are specific to the different regions of the world may well be required.
AU  - Sokhi, R.S.*
AU  - Singh, V.K.*
AU  - Querol, X.*
AU  - Finardi, S.*
AU  - Targino, A.C.*
AU  - Andrade, M.F.*
AU  - Pavlovic, R.*
AU  - Garland, R.M.*
AU  - Massagué, J.*
AU  - Kong, S.*
AU  - Baklanov, A.*
AU  - Ren, L.*
AU  - Tarasova, O.*
AU  - Carmichael, G.*
AU  - Peuch, V.H.*
AU  - Anand, V.*
AU  - Arbilla, G.*
AU  - Badali, K.*
AU  - Beig, G.*
AU  - Belalcazar, L.C.*
AU  - Bolignano, A.*
AU  - Brimblecombe, P.*
AU  - Camacho, P.*
AU  - Casallas, A.*
AU  - Charland, J.P.*
AU  - Choi, J.*
AU  - Chourdakis, E.*
AU  - Coll, I.*
AU  - Collins, M.*
AU  - Cyrys, J.
AU  - da Silva, C.M.*
AU  - Di Giosa, A.D.*
AU  - Di Leo, A.*
AU  - Ferro, C.*
AU  - Gavidia-Calderon, M.*
AU  - Gayen, A.*
AU  - Ginzburg, A.*
AU  - Godefroy, F.*
AU  - Gonzalez, Y.A.*
AU  - Guevara-Luna, M.*
AU  - Haque, S.M.*
AU  - Havenga, H.*
AU  - Herod, D.*
AU  - Hõrrak, U.*
AU  - Hussein, T.*
AU  - Ibarra, S.*
AU  - Jaimes, M.*
AU  - Kaasik, M.*
AU  - Khaiwal, R.*
AU  - Kim, J.*
AU  - Kousa, A.*
AU  - Kukkonen, J.*
AU  - Kulmala, M.*
AU  - Kuula, J.*
AU  - La Violette, N.*
AU  - Lanzani, G.*
AU  - Liu, X.*
AU  - MacDougall, S.*
AU  - Manseau, P.M.*
AU  - Marchegiani, G.*
AU  - McDonald, B.*
AU  - Mishra, S.V.*
AU  - Molina, L.T.*
AU  - Mooibroek, D.*
AU  - Mor, S.*
AU  - Moussiopoulos, N.*
AU  - Murena, F.*
AU  - Niemi, J.V.*
AU  - Noe, S.*
AU  - Nogueira, T.*
AU  - Norman, M.*
AU  - Pérez-Camaño, J.L.*
AU  - Petäjä, T.*
AU  - Piketh, S.*
AU  - Rathod, A.*
AU  - Reid, K.*
AU  - Retama, A.*
AU  - Rivera, O.*
AU  - Rojas, N.Y.*
AU  - Rojas-Quincho, J.P.*
AU  - San José, R.*
AU  - Sánchez, O.*
AU  - Seguel, R.J.*
AU  - Sillanpää, S.*
AU  - Su, Y.*
AU  - Tapper, N.*
AU  - Terrazas, A.*
AU  - Timonen, H.*
AU  - Toscano, D.*
AU  - Tsegas, G.*
AU  - Velders, G.J.M.*
AU  - Vlachokostas, C.*
AU  - von Schneidemesser, E.*
AU  - Vpm, R.*
AU  - Yadav, R.*
AU  - Zalakeviciute, R.*
AU  - Zavala, M.*
C1  - 62885
C2  - 51099
CY  - The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford Ox5 1gb, England
TI  - A global observational analysis to understand changes in air quality during exceptionally low anthropogenic emission conditions.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 157
PB  - Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd
PY  - 2021
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Risks to health are the prime consideration in all human situations of ionizing radiation exposure and therefore of relevance to radiation protection in all occupational, medical, and public exposure situations. Over the past few decades, advances in therapeutic strategies have led to significant improvements in cancer survival rates. However, a wide range of long-term complications have been reported in cancer survivors, in particular circulatory diseases and their major risk factors, metabolic diseases. However, at lower levels of exposure, the evidence is less clear. Under real-life exposure scenarios, including radiotherapy, radiation effects in the whole organism will be determined mainly by the response of normal tissues receiving relatively low doses, and will be mediated and moderated by systemic effects. Therefore, there is an urgent need for further research on the impact of low-dose radiation. In this article, we review radiation-associated risks of circulatory and metabolic diseases in clinical, occupational or environmental exposure situations, addressing epidemiological, biological, risk modelling, and systems biology aspects, highlight the gaps in knowledge and discuss future directions to address these gaps.
AU  - Tapio, S.
AU  - Little, M.P.*
AU  - Kaiser, J.C.
AU  - Impens, N.*
AU  - Hamada, N.*
AU  - Georgakilas, A.G.*
AU  - Simar, D.*
AU  - Salomaa, S.*
C1  - 60484
C2  - 49477
CY  - The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford Ox5 1gb, England
TI  - Ionizing radiation-induced circulatory and metabolic diseases.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 146
PB  - Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd
PY  - 2021
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Background: A growing number of epidemiological studies show associations between environmental factors and impaired cardiometabolic health. However, evidence is scarce concerning these risk factors and their impact on metabolic syndrome (MetS). This analysis aims to investigate associations between long-term exposure to air pollution, road traffic noise, residential greenness, and MetS. Methods: We used data of the first (F4, 2006–2008) and second (FF4, 2013–2014) follow-up of the population-based KORA S4 survey in the region of Augsburg, Germany, to investigate associations between exposures and MetS prevalence at F4 (N = 2883) and MetS incidence at FF4 (N = 1192; average follow-up: 6.5 years). Residential long-term exposures to air pollution – including particulate matter (PM) with a diameter < 10 µm (PM10), PM < 2.5 µm (PM2.5), PM between 2.5 and 10 µm (PMcoarse), absorbance of PM2.5 (PM2.5abs), particle number concentration (PNC), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), ozone (O3) – and road traffic noise were modeled by land-use regression models and noise maps. For greenness, the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) was obtained. We estimated Odds Ratios (OR) for single and multi-exposure models using logistic regression and generalized estimating equations adjusted for confounders. Joint Odds Ratios were calculated based on the Cumulative Risk Index. Effect modifiers were examined with interaction terms. Results: We found positive associations between prevalent MetS and interquartile range (IQR) increases in PM10 (OR: 1.15; 95% confidence interval [95% CI]: 1.02, 1.29), PM2.5 (OR: 1.14; 95% CI: 1.02, 1.28), PMcoarse (OR: 1.14; 95% CI: 1.02, 1.27), and PM2.5abs (OR: 1.17; 95% CI: 1.03, 1.32). Results further showed negative, but non-significant associations between exposure to greenness and prevalent and incident MetS. No effects were seen for exposure to road traffic noise. Joint Odds Ratios from multi-exposure models were higher than ORs from models with only one exposure.
AU  - Voss, S.
AU  - Schneider, A.E.
AU  - Huth, C.
AU  - Wolf, K.
AU  - Markevych, I.
AU  - Schwettmann, L.
AU  - Rathmann, W.*
AU  - Peters, A.
AU  - Breitner-Busch, S.
C1  - 60982
C2  - 49811
CY  - The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford Ox5 1gb, England
TI  - Long-term exposure to air pollution, road traffic noise, residential greenness, and prevalent and incident metabolic syndrome: Results from the population-based KORA F4/FF4 cohort in Augsburg, Germany.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 147
PB  - Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd
PY  - 2021
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Background: Limited evidence exists on how air pollution exposure during infancy, i.e. the first year of life, may affect lung function development into adolescence. Objectives: To investigate the association between exposure to air pollution during the first-year of life and lung function development up to the age of 15 in Germany. Methods: We investigated 915 children from the GINIplus and LISA birth cohorts from Munich (n = 181) and Wesel (n = 734), who had at least two spirometric measurements at ages 6, 10 and 15. Z-scores of forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) and forced vital capacity (FVC) were calculated. Annual average concentrations of nitrogen dioxide, particulate matter with diameters <2.5, <10 and 2.5–10 µm (PM2.5/10/coarse), and PM2.5 absorbance at home addresses during the first-year of life, were estimated by land-use regression models. Associations between infancy exposure and lung function changes were fitted using multivariable linear mixed models with adjustment for potential confounders. Results: For per interquartile range increase in air pollutants during the first-year life, FEV1 z-scores declined annually by −0.012 (95% confidence interval (CI): −0.014, −0.009) for PM2.5 to −0.023 (95%CI: −0.028, −0.018) for PMcoarse. The declines in FVC were lower than FEV1 [−0.006 (95%CI: −0.008, −0.003) to −0.011 (95%CI: −0.019, −0.003)]. In Munich, the attenuations were only significant for FEV1. Effect estimates of infancy exposure for certain air pollutants were higher for groups with asthma, older maternal age, and breastfeeding <12 weeks than their counterparts. Discussion: Infancy exposure to higher air pollution may reduce lung function development up to adolescence, with airway size more affected than lung volume restriction. The potential modifying effects of maternal age, asthmatic status of children and breastfeeding warrant further exploration.
AU  - Zhao, Q.*
AU  - Kress, S.*
AU  - Markevych, I.*
AU  - Berdel, D.*
AU  - von Berg, A.*
AU  - Gappa, M.*
AU  - Koletzko, S.*
AU  - Bauer, C.P.*
AU  - Schulz, H.
AU  - Standl, M.
AU  - Heinrich, J.*
AU  - Schikowski, T.*
C1  - 60382
C2  - 49242
CY  - The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford Ox5 1gb, England
TI  - Air pollution during infancy and lung function development into adolescence: The GINIplus/LISA birth cohorts study.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 146
PB  - Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd
PY  - 2021
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - BACKGROUND: Air pollution is hypothesized to affect pubertal development. However, the few studies on this topic yielded overall mixed results. These studies did not consider important pollutants like ozone, and none of them involved pubertal development assessed by estradiol and testosterone measurements. We aimed to analyze associations between long-term exposure to four pollutants and pubertal development based on sex hormone concentrations among 10-year-old children. METHODS: These cross-sectional analyses were based on the 10-year follow-up medical examinations of 1945 children from the Munich and Wesel centers of the GINIplus and LISA German birth cohorts. Female and male pubertal development was assessed by dichotomizing the concentration of hormones in serum at 18.4 pmol/L and 0.087 nmol/L using the lower limits of quantification for estradiol and testosterone, respectively. Land-use regression models derived annual average concentrations of particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter < 2.5 and 10 µm (PM2.5 and PM10), as well as spatial models assessed yearly average concentrations of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and ozone, were calculated at the 10-year residential addresses. To evaluate associations, we utilized logistic regressions adjusted for potential covariates. The analyses were stratified by area and sex. RESULTS: Around 73% of the 943 females and 25% of the 1002 males had a high level of hormones and had already started puberty at the age of 10. Overall, we found no statistically significant associations between exposure to particles (PM2.5 or PM10) and pubertal development. Results on NO2 and ozone were not significant as well; for instance, per 10 µg/m3 increase in ozone concentration, odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals were 0.900 (0.605, 1.339) and 0.830 (0.573, 1.203) for females and males, respectively. Stratified by area, the aforementioned results did not reveal any associations either. CONCLUSIONS: Our study did not observe the associations between ambient air pollutants and pubertal development determined by estradiol and testosterone levels in children. However, due to the current limited number of studies on this topic, our results should be cautiously interpreted. Future longitudinal studies are needed to assess the association.
AU  - Zhao, T.
AU  - Triebner, K.*
AU  - Markevych, I.
AU  - Standl, M.
AU  - Altug, H.*
AU  - de Hoogh, K.*
AU  - Schikowski, T.*
AU  - Berdel, D.*
AU  - Koletzko, S.*
AU  - Bauer, C.P.*
AU  - von Berg, A.*
AU  - Nowak, D.*
AU  - Heinrich, J.
C1  - 61541
C2  - 50164
CY  - The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford Ox5 1gb, England
TI  - Outdoor air pollution and hormone-assessed pubertal development in children: Results from the GINIplus and LISA birth cohorts.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 152
PB  - Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd
PY  - 2021
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Background: Residing in greener areas is increasingly linked to beneficial health outcomes, but little is known about its effect on respiratory health.Objective: We examined associations between residential greenness and nearby green spaces with lung function up to 24 years in the UK Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) birth cohort.Methods: Lung function was measured by spirometry at eight, 15 and 24 years of age. Greenness levels within circular buffers (100-1000 m) around the birth, eight-, 15- and 24-year home addresses were calculated using the satellite-derived Normalized Difference Vegetation Index and averaged (lifetime greenness). The presence and proportion of green spaces (urban green spaces, forests and agricultural land) within a 300 m buffer was determined. First, associations between repeated greenness and green space variables and repeated lung function parameters were assessed using generalized estimation equations (N = 7094, 47.9% male). Second, associations between lifetime average greenness and lifetime average proportion of green spaces with lung function at 24-years were assessed using linear regression models (N = 1763, 39.6% male). All models were adjusted for individual and environmental covariates.Results: Using repeated greenspace and lung function data at eight, 15 and 24 years, greenness in a 100 m buffer was associated with higher FEV1 and FVC (11.4 ml [2.6, 20.3] and 12.2 ml [1.8, 22.7], respectively, per interquartile range increase), as was the presence of urban green spaces in a 300 m buffer (20.3 ml [-0.1, 40.7] and 23.1 ml [-0.3, 46.5] for FEV1 and FVC, respectively). These associations were independent of air pollution, urbanicity and socio-economic status. Lifetime average greenness within a 100 m buffer and proportion of agricultural land within a 300 m buffer were associated with better lung function at 24 years but adjusting for asthma attenuated these associations.Discussion: This study provides suggestive evidence that children whose homes are in more vegetated places or are in close proximity of green spaces have better lung function up to 24 years of age.
AU  - Fuertes, E.*
AU  - Markevych, I.
AU  - Thomas, R.*
AU  - Boyd, A.*
AU  - Granell, R.*
AU  - Mahmoud, O.*
AU  - Heinrich, J.
AU  - Garcia-Aymerich, J.*
AU  - Roda, C.*
AU  - Henderson, J.*
AU  - Jarvis, D.*
C1  - 59054
C2  - 48666
CY  - The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford Ox5 1gb, England
TI  - Residential greenspace and lung function up to 24 years of age: The ALSPAC birth cohort.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 140
PB  - Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd
PY  - 2020
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Background: Residing in greener areas has several health benefits, but no study to date has examined the effects of greenness on metabolic syndrome (MetS). We aimed to assess associations between residential greenness and MetS prevalence in China, and to explore whether air pollution and physical activity mediated any observed associations.Methods: We analyzed data from 15,477 adults who participated in the 33 Communities Chinese Health Study during 2009. We defined MetS according to standard guidelines for Chinese populations. Residential greenness was estimated using the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), the Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index (SAVI), and the Vegetation Continuous Field (VCF). We used generalized linear mixed models to assess the associations between greenness and MetS, and mediation analyses to explore potential mechanisms underlying the associations.Results: Higher greenness levels were associated with lower odds of MetS [e.g., for every interquartile range increase of NDVI500-m, SAVI(500-m), and VCF500-m the adjusted odds ratio of MetS was 0.81 (95% confidence interval: 0.70-0.93), 0.80 (95% confidence interval: 0.69-0.93), and 0.91 (95% confidence interval: 0.83-1.00), respectively]. The direction and the magnitude of the associations persisted in several sensitivity analyses. Stratified analyses showed that age and household income modified the associations, with greater effect estimates observed in participants younger than 65 years old or those with higher household income. Particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter <= 10 mu m nitrogen dioxide, and ozone mediated 2.1-20.3% of the associations between greenness and MetS; no evidence of mediation was observed for physical activity.Conclusions: Our findings suggest a beneficial association for residential greenness and MetS in Chinese urban dwellers, especially for participants younger than 65 years old and those with higher household income. Particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter <= 10 mu m nitrogen dioxide and ozone, but not physical activity, may only partially mediate the association.
AU  - Yang, B.-Y.*
AU  - Liu, K.-K.*
AU  - Markevych, I.
AU  - Knibbs, L.D.*
AU  - Bloom, M.S.*
AU  - Dharmage, S.C.*
AU  - Lin, S.*
AU  - Morawska, L.*
AU  - Heinrich, J.*
AU  - Jalaludin, B.*
AU  - Gao, M.*
AU  - Guo, Y.*
AU  - Zhou, Y.*
AU  - Huang, W.-Z.*
AU  - Yu, H.-Y.*
AU  - Zeng, X.-W.*
AU  - Hu, L.-W.*
AU  - Hu, Q.*
AU  - Dong, G.-H.*
C1  - 57651
C2  - 47985
CY  - The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford Ox5 1gb, England
TI  - Association between residential greenness and metabolic syndrome in Chinese adults.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 135
PB  - Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd
PY  - 2020
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Background: There is increasing interest in the effect of residential greenness on respiratory health in children with inconsistent results. However, there are no studies investigating the association between greenness around schools, a representative environment for children and childhood asthma. Objectives: To investigate the association between greenness surrounding schools and asthma in schoolchildren. Methods: We recruited 59,754 schoolchildren from 94 schools in 2012–2013 from the Seven Northeast Cities Study, China. Greenness surrounding schools was measured using the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and soil adjusted vegetation index (SAVI) at buffers from 30 to 1000 m. Asthma symptoms were collected from validated self-reported questionnaires. Logistic mixed-effects regression models were used to estimate the associations between greenness surrounding school and childhood asthma after adjustment for covariates. Results: We found that greenness surrounding schools in all buffered sizes was negatively associated with the prevalence of asthmatic symptoms in schoolchildren. A 0.1-unit increase in NDVI1000m was associated with lower odds of current asthma (odds ratio: 0.81, 95% confidential interval: 0.75, 0.86) and current wheeze (OR: 0.89, 95% CI: 0.84, 0.94) in children after covariate adjustments. Higher greenness was associated with less asthma symptoms in a dose-response pattern (P for trend < 0.05). The estimated associations appeared to be stronger in children exposure to higher air pollution level. The observed associations varied across seven cities. Conclusion: Our findings suggest beneficial associations of greenness surrounding schools with childhood asthma. Further studies are needed to confirm our results.
AU  - Zeng, X.W.*
AU  - Lowe, A.J.*
AU  - Lodge, C.J.*
AU  - Heinrich, J.
AU  - Roponen, M.*
AU  - Jalava, P.*
AU  - Guo, Y.*
AU  - Hu, L.W.*
AU  - Yang, B.Y.*
AU  - Dharmage, S.C.*
AU  - Dong, G.H.*
C1  - 59753
C2  - 48957
CY  - The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford Ox5 1gb, England
TI  - Greenness surrounding schools is associated with lower risk of asthma in schoolchildren.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 143
PB  - Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd
PY  - 2020
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Empirical spatial air pollution models have been applied extensively to assess exposure in epidemiological studies with increasingly sophisticated and complex statistical algorithms beyond ordinary linear regression. However, different algorithms have rarely been compared in terms of their predictive ability.This study compared 16 algorithms to predict annual average fine particle (PM2.5) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) concentrations across Europe. The evaluated algorithms included linear stepwise regression, regularization techniques and machine learning methods. Air pollution models were developed based on the 2010 routine monitoring data from the AIRBASE dataset maintained by the European Environmental Agency (543 sites for PM2.5 and 2399 sites for NO2), using satellite observations, dispersion model estimates and land use variables as predictors. We compared the models by performing five-fold cross-validation (CV) and by external validation (EV) using annual average concentrations measured at 416 (PM2.5) and 1396 sites (NO2) from the ESCAPE study. We further assessed the correlations between predictions by each pair of algorithms at the ESCAPE sites.For PM2.5, the models performed similarly across algorithms with a mean CV R-2 of 0.59 and a mean EV R-2 of 0.53. Generalized boosted machine, random forest and bagging performed best (CV R-2 similar to 0.63; EV R-2 0.58-0.61), while backward stepwise linear regression, support vector regression and artificial neural network performed less well (CV R-2 0.48-0.57; EV R-2 0.39-0.46). Most of the PM2.5 model predictions at ESCAPE sites were highly correlated (R-2 > 0.85, with the exception of predictions from the artificial neural network). For NO2, the models performed even more similarly across different algorithms, with CV R-2 s ranging from 0.57 to 0.62, and EV R (2) s ranging from 0.49 to 0.51. The predicted concentrations from all algorithms at ESCAPE sites were highly correlated (R-2 > 0.9). For both pollutants, biases were low for all models except the artificial neural network. Dispersion model estimates and satellite observations were two of the most important predictors for PM2.5 models whilst dispersion model estimates and traffic variables were most important for NO2 models in all algorithms that allow assessment of the importance of variables.Different statistical algorithms performed similarly when modelling spatial variation in annual average air pollution concentrations using a large number of training sites.
AU  - Chen, J.*
AU  - de Hoogh, K.*
AU  - Gulliver, J.*
AU  - Hoffmann, B.*
AU  - Hertel, O.*
AU  - Ketzel, M.*
AU  - Bauwelinck, M.*
AU  - van Donkelaar, A.*
AU  - Hvidtfeldt, U.A.*
AU  - Katsouyanni, K.*
AU  - Janssen, N.A.H.*
AU  - Martin, R.V.*
AU  - Samoli, E.*
AU  - Schwartz, P.E.*
AU  - Stafoggia, M.*
AU  - Bellander, T.*
AU  - Strak, M.*
AU  - Wolf, K.
AU  - Vienneau, D.*
AU  - Vermeulen, R.*
AU  - Brunekreef, B.*
AU  - Hoek, G.*
C1  - 56391
C2  - 47054
CY  - The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford Ox5 1gb, England
TI  - A comparison of linear regression, regularization, and machine learning algorithms to develop Europe-wide spatial models of fine particles and nitrogen dioxide.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 130
PB  - Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd
PY  - 2019
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Can mitigating only particle mass, as the existing air quality measures do, ultimately lead to reduction in ultrafine particles (UFP)? The aim of this study was to provide a broader urban perspective on the relationship between UFP, measured in terms of particle number concentration (PNC) and PM2.5 (mass concentration of particles with aerodynamic diameter < 2.5 mu m) and factors that influence their concentrations. Hourly average PNC and PM2.5 were acquired from 10 cities located in North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia over a 12-month period. A pairwise comparison of the mean difference and the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test with the application of bootstrapping were performed for each city. Diurnal and seasonal trends were obtained using a generalized additive model (GAM). The particle number to mass concentration ratios and the Pearson's correlation coefficient were calculated to elucidate the nature of the relationship between these two metrics.Results show that the annual mean concentrations ranged from 8.0 x 10 3 to 19.5 x 10(3) particles.cm(-3) and from 7.0 to 65.8 mu g.m(-3) for PNC and PM2.5, respectively, with the data distributions generally skewed to the right, and with a wider spread for PNC. PNC showed a more distinct diurnal trend compared with PM2.5, attributed to the high contributions of UFP from vehicular emissions to PNC. The variation in both PNC and PM2.5 due to seasonality is linked to the cities' geographical location and features. Clustering the cities based on annual median concentrations of both PNC and PM2.5 demonstrated that a high PNC level does not lead to a high PM2.5, and vice versa. The particle number-to-mass ratio (in units of 10(9) particles.mu g(-1)) ranged from 0.14 to 2.2, > 1 for roadside sites and < 1 for urban background sites with lower values for more polluted cities. The Pearson's r ranged from 0.09 to 0.64 for the log-transformed data, indicating generally poor linear correlation between PNC and PM2.5. Therefore, PNC and PM2.5 measurements are not representative of each other; and regulating PM2.5 does little to reduce PNC. This highlights the need to establish regulatory approaches and control measures to address the impacts of elevated UFP concentrations, especially in urban areas, considering their potential health risks.
AU  - de Jesus, A.L.*
AU  - Rahman, M.M.*
AU  - Mazaheri, M.*
AU  - Thompson, H.*
AU  - Knibbs, L.D.*
AU  - Jeong, C.*
AU  - Evans, G.*
AU  - Nei, W.*
AU  - Ding, A.*
AU  - Qiao, L.*
AU  - Li, L.*
AU  - Portin, H.*
AU  - Niemi, J.V.*
AU  - Timonen, H.*
AU  - Luoma, K.*
AU  - Petäjä, T.*
AU  - Kulmala, M.*
AU  - Kowalski, M.
AU  - Peters, A.
AU  - Cyrys, J.
AU  - Ferrero, L.*
AU  - Manigrasso, M.*
AU  - Avino, P.*
AU  - Buonano, G.*
AU  - Reche, C.*
AU  - Querol, X.*
AU  - Beddows, D.*
AU  - Harrison, R.M.*
AU  - Sowlat, M.H.*
AU  - Sioutas, C.*
AU  - Morawska, L.*
C1  - 56152
C2  - 46854
CY  - The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford Ox5 1gb, England
SP  - 118-135
TI  - Ultrafine particles and PM2.5 in the air of cities around the world: Are they representative of each other?
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 129
PB  - Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd
PY  - 2019
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Phthalates are a group of widely used chemicals and humans are exposed to them in their daily life. Some phthalates may affect the hormonal balance in both children and adults. The aim of this study was to assess the phthalate exposure and its determinants among children at age of 7 years from the Polish Mother and Child Cohort Study (REPRO_PL). 250 urine samples collected in 2014-2015 were analysed for 21 metabolites of 11 parent phthalates using on-line high performance liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS). This represents the most extensive set of phthalate metabolites ever determined for Poland. Ten metabolites were quantifiable in 100% of the samples, another eight in > 90%. The highest median concentrations were found for the primary monoester metabolites of di-iso-butyl (MiBP, 72.4 mu g/l), di-n-butyl (MnBP, 56.3 mu g/l) and diethyl (MEP, 42.0 mu g/l) phthalate, followed by the sum of di-2-ethylhexyl (Sigma DEHP, 89.3 mu g/l) and di-iso-nonyl (Sigma DiNP, 21.9 mu g/l) phthalate metabolites. Metabolite concentrations were higher in children at 7 years than in the same children at age 2 or in their mothers during pregnancy. Generally, phthalate exposures in this study were much higher than exposures reported in other European populations. Multivariate regression models showed that body mass index, place of residence, breastfeeding duration, socio-economic status and parental education were associated with the metabolite levels in the 7-year old children. Daily intake and hazard index calculations revealed that a small percentage of children (around 3-10%) exceeded the tolerable daily intakes established by international institutions such as EFSA and U.S. EPA indicating that these children might be at risk of anti-androgenic effects from the individual and cumulative exposure to phthalates. Thus, further monitoring of this population, by educational programs and follow-up interventions, is required.
AU  - Garí, M.
AU  - Koch, H.M.*
AU  - Pälmke, C.*
AU  - Jankowska, A.*
AU  - Wesołowska, E.*
AU  - Hanke, W.*
AU  - Nowak, D.*
AU  - Bose-O'Reilly, S.*
AU  - Polańska, K.*
C1  - 55887
C2  - 46637
CY  - The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford Ox5 1gb, England
SP  - 742-753
TI  - Determinants of phthalate exposure and risk assessment in children from Poland.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 127
PB  - Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd
PY  - 2019
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Background: Breastfed children absorb persistent and toxic chemicals such as organohalogen compounds (OHCs) during the entire lactation period. Nursing is a main contributor to the burden of these pollutants in the first years of life, hence further assessments on the OHC load processes are needed. Objectives: To identify the determinants of OHC increase in children at four years of age, considering concentration gains, maternal venous concentrations and breastfeeding time. Methods: Concentrations of 19 organochlorine compounds (OCs) and 14 polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) were analyzed in maternal venous (n = 466), cord blood (n = 326) and children venous serum at four years of age (n = 272) in the Asturias INMA cohort representing the Spanish general population. Data were evaluated considering the socio-demographic and individual information collected at recruitment and follow up surveys, as well as the OHC physical-chemical constants. Results: The four years-old children concentration gains of the most abundant OHCs showed strong correlations (R2 = 0.65–0.93) with the maternal concentrations during pregnancy and lactation period. The child gain/maternal transfer rates of most correlated pollutants were similar. Discussion: Between 65 and 93% of the variance of OCs in four years-old children was explained by the maternal concentrations during pregnancy and the lactation period. The compounds with log(Kow) > 3.7 (hydrophobic) showed analogous child gain/maternal transfer rates indicating similar processes of membrane lipid dissolution and passive diffusion from the epithelial cells into the milk. Molecular weight of these pollutants did not influence on these rates. Compounds with low log(Koa) such as hexachlorobenzene are more volatile and less retained, involving lower child gain/maternal transfer rates. These results may be useful to anticipate the increase of the concentrations of OCs in children using the maternal concentration of these compounds during pregnancy and the planned lactation period and to implement prophylactic measures in mothers with high venous pollutant concentrations.
AU  - Garí, M.
AU  - Grimalt, J.O.*
AU  - Vizcaino, E.*
AU  - Tardón, A.*
AU  - Fernández-Somoano, A.*
C1  - 57200
C2  - 47604
TI  - Mother-child transfer rates of organohalogen compounds up to four years of age.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 133
PY  - 2019
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Background: DNA methylation (DNAm) may contribute to processes that underlie associations between air pollution and poor health. Therefore, our objective was to evaluate associations between DNAm and ambient concentrations of particulate matter (PM) <= 2.5, <= 10, and 2.5-10 mu m in diameter (PM2.5; PM10; PM2.5-10).Methods: We conducted a methylome-wide association study among twelve cohort- and race/ethnicity-stratified subpopulations from the Women's Health Initiative and the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities study (n = 8397; mean age: 61.5 years; 83% female; 45% African American; 9% Hispanic/Latino American). We averaged geocoded address-specific estimates of daily and monthly mean PM concentrations over 2, 7, 28, and 365 days and 1 and 12 months before exams at which we measured leukocyte DNAm in whole blood. We estimated subpopulation-specific, DNAm-PM associations at approximately 485,000 Cytosine-phosphate-Guanine (CpG) sites in multi-level, linear, mixed-effects models. We combined subpopulation- and site-specific estimates in fixed-effects, inverse variance-weighted meta-analyses, then for associations that exceeded methylome-wide significance and were not heterogeneous across subpopulations (P < 1.0 x 10(-7); P-Cochran's (Q) > 0.10), we characterized associations using publicly accessible genomic databases and attempted replication in the Cooperative Health Research in the Region of Augsburg (KORA) study.Results: Analyses identified significant DNAm-PM associations at three CpG sites. Twenty-eight-day mean PM10 was positively associated with DNAm at cg19004594 (chromosome 20; MATN4; P = 3.33 x 10(-8)). One-month mean PM10 and PM2.5-10 were positively associated with DNAm at cg24102420 (chromosome 10; ARPP21; P = 5.84 x 10(-8)) and inversely associated with DNAm at cg12124767 (chromosome 7; CFTR; P = 9.86 x 10(-8)). The PM-sensitive CpG sites mapped to neurological, pulmonary, endocrine, and cardiovascular disease-related genes, but DNAm at those sites was not associated with gene expression in blood cells and did not replicate in KORA.Conclusions: Ambient PM concentrations were associated with DNAm at genomic regions potentially related to poor health among racially, ethnically and environmentally diverse populations of U.S. women and men. Further investigation is warranted to uncover mechanisms through which PM-induced epigenomic changes may cause disease.
AU  - Gondalia, R.*
AU  - Baldassari, A.*
AU  - Holliday, K.M.*
AU  - Justice, A.E.*
AU  - Méndez-Giráldez, R.*
AU  - Stewart, J.D.*
AU  - Liao, D.*
AU  - Yanosky, J.D.*
AU  - Brennan, K.J.M.*
AU  - Engel, S.M.*
AU  - Jordahl, K.M.*
AU  - Kennedy, E.*
AU  - Ward-Caviness, C.K.*
AU  - Wolf, K.
AU  - Waldenberger, M.
AU  - Cyrys, J.
AU  - Bhatti, P.*
AU  - Horvath, S.*
AU  - Assimes, T.L.*
AU  - Pankow, J.S.*
AU  - Demerath, E.W.*
AU  - Guan, W.*
AU  - Fornage, M.*
AU  - Bressler, J.*
AU  - North, K.E.*
AU  - Conneely, K.N.*
AU  - Li, Y.*
AU  - Hou, L.*
AU  - Baccarelli, A.A.*
AU  - Whitsel, E.A.*
C1  - 56347
C2  - 47017
CY  - The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford Ox5 1gb, England
TI  - Methylome-wide association study provides evidence of particulate matter air pollution-associated DNA methylation.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 132
PB  - Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd
PY  - 2019
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Background: The association between air pollution exposure and emotional and behavioural problems in children is unclear. We aimed to assess prenatal and postnatal exposure to several air pollutants and child's depressive and anxiety symptoms, and aggressive symptoms in children of 7-11 years.Methods: We analysed data of 13182 children from 8 European population-based birth cohorts. Concentrations of nitrogen dioxide (NO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx), particulate matter (PM) with diameters of <= 10 mu m (PM10), <= 2.5 mu m (PM2.5), and between 10 and 2.5 mu m (PMcoarse), the absorbance of PM2.5 filters (PM(2.5)abs), and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were estimated at residential addresses of each participant. Depressive and anxiety symptoms and aggressive symptoms were assessed at 7-11 years of age using parent reported tests. Children were classified in borderline/clinical range or clinical range using validated cut offs. Region specific models were adjusted for various socio-economic and lifestyle characteristics and then combined using random effect meta-analysis. Multiple imputation and inverse probability weighting methods were applied to correct for potential attrition bias.Results: A total of 1896 (14.4%) children were classified as having depressive and anxiety symptoms in the borderline/clinical range, and 1778 (13.4%) as having aggressive symptoms in the borderline/clinical range. Overall, 1108 (8.4%) and 870 (6.6%) children were classified as having depressive and anxiety symptoms, and aggressive symptoms in the clinical range, respectively. Prenatal exposure to air pollution was not associated with depressive and anxiety symptoms in the borderline/clinical range (e.g. OR 1.02 [95%CI 0.95 to 1.10] per 10 mu g/m(3) higher NO2) nor with aggressive symptoms in the borderline/clinical range (e.g. OR 1.04 [95%CI 0.96 to 1.12] per 10 mu g/m(3) higher NO2). Similar results were observed for the symptoms in the clinical range, and for postnatal exposures to air pollution.Conclusions: Overall, our results suggest that prenatal and postnatal exposure to air pollution is not associated with depressive and anxiety symptoms or aggressive symptoms in children of 7 to 11 years old.
AU  - Jorcano, A.*
AU  - Lubczyńska, M.J.*
AU  - Pierotti, L.*
AU  - Altug, H.*
AU  - Ballester, F.*
AU  - Cesaroni, G.*
AU  - El Marroun, H.*
AU  - Fernández-Somoano, A.*
AU  - Freire, C.*
AU  - Hanke, W.*
AU  - Hoek, G.*
AU  - Ibarluzea, J.*
AU  - Iñiguez, C.*
AU  - Jansen, P.W.*
AU  - Lepeule, J.*
AU  - Markevych, I.
AU  - Polańska, K.*
AU  - Porta, D.*
AU  - Schikowski, T.*
AU  - Slama, R.*
AU  - Standl, M.
AU  - Tardón, A.*
AU  - Vrijkotte, T.G.M.*
AU  - von Berg, A.*
AU  - Tiemeier, H.*
AU  - Sunyer, J.*
AU  - Guxens, M.*
C1  - 56604
C2  - 47171
CY  - The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford Ox5 1gb, England
TI  - Prenatal and postnatal exposure to air pollution and emotional and aggressive symptoms in children from 8 European birth cohorts.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 131
PB  - Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd
PY  - 2019
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Background: Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) exposure is associated with increased morbidity and mortality, particularly for cardiovascular disease. The association between long-term exposure to PM2.5 and measures of lipoprotein subfractions remains unclear. Therefore, we examined associations between long-term PM2.5 exposure and traditional and novel lipoprotein measures in a cardiac catheterization cohort in North Carolina.Methods: This cross-sectional study included 6587 patients who had visited Duke University for a cardiac catheterization between 2001 and 2010 and resided in North Carolina. We used estimates of daily PM2.5 concentrations on a 1 km-grid based on satellite measurements. PM2.5 predictions were matched to the address of each patient and averaged for the year prior to catheterization date. Serum lipids included HDL, LDL, and triglyceride-rich particle, and apolipoprotein B concentrations (HDL-P, LDL-P, TRL-P, and apoB, respectively). Linear and quantile regression models were used to estimate change in lipoprotein levels with each mu g/m(3) increase in annual average PM2.5. Models were adjusted for age, sex, race/ethnicity, history of smoking, area-level education, urban/rural status, body mass index, and diabetes.Results: For a 1-mu g/m(3) increment in PM2.5 exposure, we observed increases in total and small LDL-P, LDL-C, TRLP, apoB, total cholesterol, and triglycerides. The percent change from the mean outcome level was 2.00% (95% CI: 1.38%, 2.64%) for total LDL-P and 2.25% (95% CI: 1.43%, 3.06%) for small LDL-P.Conclusion: Among this sample of cardiac catheterization patients residing in North Carolina, long-term PM2.5 exposure was associated with increases in several lipoprotein concentrations. This abstract does not necessarily reflect U.S. EPA policy.
AU  - McGuinn, L.A.*
AU  - Schneider, A.E.
AU  - McGarrah, R.W.*
AU  - Ward-Caviness, C.*
AU  - Neas, L.M.*
AU  - Di, Q.*
AU  - Schwartz, J.*
AU  - Hauser, E.R.*
AU  - Kraus, W.E.*
AU  - Cascio, W.E.*
AU  - Diaz-Sanchez, D.*
AU  - Devlin, R.B.*
C1  - 54762
C2  - 45816
CY  - The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford Ox5 1gb, England
SP  - 193-200
TI  - Association of long-term PM2.5 exposure with traditional and novel lipid measures related to cardiovascular disease risk.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 122
PB  - Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd
PY  - 2019
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Effluents from antibiotic manufacturing may contain high concentrations of antibiotics, which are the main driving force behind the selection and spread of antibiotic resistance genes in the environment. However, our knowledge about the impact of such effluent discharges on the antibiotic resistome and bacterial communities is still limited. To gain insight into this impact, we collected effluents from an azithromycin-manufacturing industry discharge site as well as upstream and downstream sediments from the receiving Sava river during both winter and summer season. Chemical analyses of sediment and effluent samples indicated that the effluent discharge significantly increased the amount of macrolide antibiotics, heavy metals and nutrients in the receiving river sediments. Quantitative PCR revealed a significant increase of relative abundances of macrolide-resistance genes and class 1 integrons in effluent-impacted sediments. Amplicon sequencing of 16S rRNA genes showed spatial and seasonal bacterial community shifts in the receiving sediments. Redundancy analysis and Mantel test indicated that macrolides and copper together with nutrients significantly correlated with community shift close to the effluent discharge site. The number of taxa that were significantly increased in relative abundance at the discharge site decreased rapidly at the downstream sites, showing the resilience of the indigenous sediment bacterial community. Seasonal changes in the chemical properties of the sediment along with changes in effluent community composition could be responsible for sediment community shifts between winter and summer. Altogether, this study showed that the discharge of pharmaceutical effluents altered physicochemical characteristics and bacterial community of receiving river sediments, which contributed to the enrichment of macrolide-resistance genes and integrons.
AU  - Milaković, M.*
AU  - Vestergaard, G.
AU  - González-Plaza, J.J.*
AU  - Petrić, I.*
AU  - Šimatović, A.*
AU  - Senta, I.*
AU  - Kublik, S.
AU  - Schloter, M.
AU  - Smalla, K.*
AU  - Udiković-Kolić, N.*
C1  - 55075
C2  - 46287
CY  - The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford Ox5 1gb, England
SP  - 501-511
TI  - Pollution from azithromycin-manufacturing promotes macrolide-resistance gene propagation and induces spatial and seasonal bacterial community shifts in receiving river sediments.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 123
PB  - Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd
PY  - 2019
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Background: Menopause is associated with a number of adverse health effects and its timing has been reported to be influenced by several lifestyle factors. Whether greenspace exposure is associated with age at menopause has not yet been investigated.Objective: To investigate whether residential surrounding greenspace is associated with age at menopause and thus reproductive aging.Methods: This longitudinal study was based on the 20-year follow-up of 1955 aging women from a large, population-based European cohort (ECRHS). Residential surrounding greenspace was abstracted as the average of satellite-based Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) across a circular buffer of 300m around the residential addresses of each participant during the course of the study. We applied mixed effects Cox models with centre as random effect, menopause as the survival object, age as time indicator and residential surrounding greenspace as time-varying predictor. All models were adjusted for smoking habit, body mass index, parity, age at menarche, ever-use of contraception and age at completed full-time education as socio-economic proxy. Results: An increase of one interquartile range of residential surrounding greenspace was associated with a 13% lower risk of being menopausal (Hazard Ratio: 0.87, 95% Confidence Interval: 0.79-0.95). Correspondingly the predicted median age at menopause was 1.4 years older in the highest compared to the lowest NDVI quartile. Results remained stable after additional adjustment for air pollution and traffic related noise amongst others.Conclusions: Living in greener neighbourhoods is associated with older age at menopause and might slow reproductive aging. These are novel findings with broad implications. Further studies are needed to see whether our findings can be replicated in different populations and to explore the potential mechanisms underlying this association.
AU  - Triebner, K.*
AU  - Markevych, I.
AU  - Hustad, S.*
AU  - Benediktsdóttir, B.*
AU  - Forsberg, B.*
AU  - Franklin, K.A.*
AU  - Gullón Blanco, J.A.*
AU  - Holm, M.*
AU  - Jaquemin, B.*
AU  - Jarvis, D.*
AU  - Jõgi, R.*
AU  - Leynaert, B.*
AU  - Lindberg, E.*
AU  - Martínez-Moratalla, J.*
AU  - Muniozguren Agirre, N.*
AU  - Pin, I.*
AU  - Sánchez-Ramos, J.L.*
AU  - Heinrich, J.*
AU  - Gómez Real, F.*
AU  - Dadvand, P.*
C1  - 56795
C2  - 47393
CY  - The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford Ox5 1gb, England
TI  - Residential surrounding greenspace and age at menopause: A 20-year European study (ECRHS).
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 132
PB  - Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd
PY  - 2019
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Background: Associations between several persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and type 2 diabetes have been found in humans, but the relationship has rarely been investigated in the general population. The current nested case-control study examined internal exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) and pesticides and the incidence of type 2 diabetes among participants of two population-based German cohort studies.Methods: We retrospectively selected 132 incident cases of type 2 diabetes and 264 age- and sex-matched controls from the CARdiovascular Living and Aging in Halle (CARLA) study (2002-2006, East Germany) and the Cooperative Health Research in the Region of Augsburg (KORA) study (1999-2001, South Germany) based on diabetes status at follow-up examinations in 2007-2010 and 2006-08, respectively (60% male, mean age 63 and 54 years). We assessed the association between baseline POP concentrations and incident diabetes by conditional logistic regression adjusted for cohort, BMI, cholesterol, alcohol, smoking, physical activity, and parental diabetes. Additionally, we examined effect modification by sex, obesity, parental diabetes and cohort.Results: In both cohorts, diabetes cases showed a higher BMI, a higher frequency of parental diabetes, and higher levels of POPs. We observed an increased chance for incident diabetes for PCB-138 and PCB-153 with an odds ratio (OR) of 1.50 (95%CI: 1.07-2.11) and 1.53 (1.15-2.04) per interquartile range increase in the respective POP. In addition, explorative results suggested higher OR for women and non-obese participants.Conclusions: Our results add to the evidence on diabetogenic effects of POPs in the general population, and warrant both policies to prevent human exposure to POPs and additional research on the adverse effects of more complex chemical mixtures.
AU  - Wolf, K.
AU  - Bongaerts, B.W.C.*
AU  - Schneider, A.E.
AU  - Huth, C.
AU  - Meisinger, C.*
AU  - Peters, A.
AU  - Schneider, A.
AU  - Wittsiepe, J.*
AU  - Schramm, K.-W.
AU  - Greiser, K.H.*
AU  - Hartwig, S.*
AU  - Kluttig, A.*
AU  - Rathmann, W.*
C1  - 56159
C2  - 46866
CY  - The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford Ox5 1gb, England
SP  - 221-228
TI  - Persistent organic pollutants and the incidence of type 2 diabetes in the CARLA and KORA cohort studies.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 129
PB  - Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd
PY  - 2019
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Backgrounds: Evidence on the association between long-term exposure to particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter <= 2.5 mu m (PM2.5) and cardiovascular disease (CVD) is scarce in developing countries. Moreover, few studies assessed the role of the PM1 (<= 1.0 mu m) size fraction and CVD. We investigated the associations between PM1 and PM2.5 and CVD prevalence in Chinese adults.Methods: In 2009, we randomly recruited 24,845 adults at the age of 18-74 years from 33 communities in Northeastern China. CVD status was determined by self-report of doctor-diagnosed CVD. Three-year (2006-08) average concentrations of PM1 and PM2.5 were assigned using a satellite-based exposure. We used spatial Generalized Linear Mixed Models to evaluate the associations between air pollutants and CVD prevalence, adjusting for multiple covariates. Stratified and interaction analyses and sensitivity analyses were also performed.Results: A 10 mu g/m(3) increase in long-term exposure to ambient PM1 levels was associated a 12% higher odds for having CVD (OR = 1.12; 95% CI = 1.05-1.20). Compared to PM1, association between PM2.5 and CVD was lower (OR = 1.06; 95% CI = 1.01-1.11). No significant association was observed for PM1-2.5 (1-2.5 mu m) size fraction (OR = 0.98; 95% CI = 0.85-1.13). Stratified analyses showed greater effect estimates in men and the elder.Conclusions: Long-term PM1 exposure was positively related to CVD, especially in men and the elder. In addition, PM1 may play a greater role than PM2.5 in associations with CVD. Further longitudinal studies are warranted to confirm our findings.
AU  - Yang, B.-Y.*
AU  - Guo, Y.*
AU  - Morawska, L.*
AU  - Bloom, M.S.
AU  - Markevych, I.
AU  - Heinrich, J.*
AU  - Dharmage, S.C.*
AU  - Knibbs, L.D.*
AU  - Lin, S.*
AU  - Yim, S.H.L.*
AU  - Chen, G.*
AU  - Li, S.*
AU  - Zeng, X.W.*
AU  - Liu, K.K.*
AU  - Hu, L.W.*
AU  - Dong, G.H.*
C1  - 54984
C2  - 46012
CY  - The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford Ox5 1gb, England
SP  - 310-317
TI  - Ambient PM1 air pollution and cardiovascular disease prevalence: Insights from the 33 Communities Chinese Health Study.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 123
PB  - Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd
PY  - 2019
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Background: Living in greener areas has many health benefits, but evidence concerning the effects on blood pressure remains mixed. We sought to assess associations between community greenness and both blood pressure and hypertension in Chinese urban dwellers, and whether the associations were mediated by air pollution, body mass index, and physical activity.Methods: We analyzed data from 24,845 adults participating in the 33 Communities Chinese Health Study, which was conducted in Northeastern China during 2009. We measured each participant's blood pressure according to a standardized protocol. We assessed community greenness using two satellite-derived vegetation indexes - the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and the Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index (SAVI). Particulate matter <= 2.5 mu m and nitrogen dioxide were used as proxies of ambient air pollution. We applied generalized linear mixed models to investigate the association between greenness and blood pressure. We also performed mediation analyses.Results: Living in greener areas was associated with lower blood pressure and hypertension prevalence; an interquartile range increase in both NDVI500-m and SAVI(500-m) were significantly associated with reductions in systolic blood pressure of 0.82mm Hg (95% CI: -1.13, -0.51) and 0.89mm Hg (95% CI: -1.21, -0.57), respectively. The same increases in greenness were also significantly associated with a 5% (95% CI: 1%, 8%) and 5% (95% CI: 1%, 9%) lower odds of having hypertension, respectively. These associations remained consistent in sensitivity analyses. The associations were stronger among women than men. Air pollutants and body mass index partly mediated the associations, but there was no evidence of mediation effects for physical activity.Conclusions: Our findings indicate beneficial associations between community greenness and blood pressure in Chinese adults, especially for women. Air pollution and body mass index only partly mediated the associations.
AU  - Yang, B.-Y.*
AU  - Markevych, I.
AU  - Bloom, M.S.*
AU  - Heinrich, J.*
AU  - Guo, Y.*
AU  - Morawska, L.*
AU  - Dharmage, S.C.*
AU  - Knibbs, L.D.*
AU  - Jalaludin, B.*
AU  - Jalava, P.*
AU  - Zeng, X.W.*
AU  - Hu, L.W.*
AU  - Liu, K.K.*
AU  - Dong, G.H.*
C1  - 55699
C2  - 46526
CY  - The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford Ox5 1gb, England
SP  - 727-734
TI  - Community greenness, blood pressure, and hypertension in urban dwellers: The 33 Communities Chinese Health Study.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 126
PB  - Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd
PY  - 2019
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - A variety of experimental and epidemiological studies lend support to the Developmental Origin of Health and Disease (DOHaD) concept. Yet, the actual mechanisms accounting for mid- and long-term effects of early-life exposures remain unclear. Epigenetic alterations such as changes in DNA methylation, histone modifications and the expression of certain RNAs have been suggested as possible mediators of long-term health effects of environmental stressors. This report captures discussions and conclusions debated during the last Prenatal Programming and Toxicity meeting held in Japan. Its first aim is to propose a number of criteria that are critical to support the primary contribution of epigenetics in DOHaD and intergenerational transmission of environmental stressors effects. The main criteria are the full characterization of the stressors, the actual window of exposure, the target tissue and function, the specificity of the epigenetic changes and the biological plausibility of the linkage between those changes and health outcomes. The second aim is to discuss long-term effects of a number of stressors such as smoking, air pollution and endocrine disruptors in order to identify the arguments supporting the involvement of an epigenetic mechanism. Based on the developed criteria, missing evidence and suggestions for future research will be identified. The third aim is to critically analyze the evidence supporting the involvement of epigenetic mechanisms in intergenerational and transgenerational effects of environmental exposure and to particularly discuss the role of placenta and sperm. While the article is not a systematic review and is not meant to be exhaustive, it critically assesses the contribution of epigenetics in the long-term effects of environmental exposures as well as provides insight for future research.
AU  - Barouki, R.*
AU  - Melén, E.*
AU  - Herceg, Z.*
AU  - Beckers, J.
AU  - Chen, J.*
AU  - Karagas, M.*
AU  - Puga, A.*
AU  - Xia, Y.*
AU  - Chadwick, L.*
AU  - Yan, W.*
AU  - Audouze, K.*
AU  - Slama, R.*
AU  - Heindel, J.*
AU  - Grandjean, P.*
AU  - Kawamoto, T.*
AU  - Nohara, K.*
C1  - 53081
C2  - 44341
SP  - 77-86
TI  - Epigenetics as a mechanism linking developmental exposures to long-term toxicity.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 114
PY  - 2018
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - A higher body mass index (BMI) has been positively associated with the rate of excretion of di-2-ethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP) metabolites in urine in data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), suggesting an association between DEHP exposure and BMI. The association, however, may be due to the association between body mass maintenance and higher energy intake, with higher energy intake being accompanied by a higher intake of DEHP. To examine this hypothesis, we ran a Monte Carlo simulation with a DEHP physiologically-based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) model for adult humans. A realistic exposure sub-model was used, which included the relation of body weight to energy intake and of energy intake to DEHP intake. The model simulation output, when compared with urinary metabolite data from NHANES, supported good model validity. The distribution of BMI in the simulated population closely resembled that in the NHANES population. This indicated that the simulated subjects and DEHP exposure model were closely aligned with the NHANES population of interest. In the simulated population, the ordinary least squares regression coefficient for log(BMI) as a function of log(DEHP nmol/min) was 0.048 (SE 0.001), as compared with the reported value of 0.019 (SE 0.005). In other words, given our model structure, the higher energy intake in the overweight and obese, and the concomitant higher DEHP exposure, describes the reported relationship between BMI and DEHP.
AU  - Campbell, J.L.*
AU  - Yoon, M.*
AU  - Ward, P.L.*
AU  - Fromme, H.*
AU  - Kessler, W.
AU  - Phillips, M.B.*
AU  - Anderson, W.A.*
AU  - Clewell, H.J.*
AU  - Longnecker, M.P.*
C1  - 52930
C2  - 44624
CY  - Oxford
SP  - 91-99
TI  - Excretion of di-2-ethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP) metabolites in urine is related to body mass index because of higher energy intake in the overweight and obese.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 113
PB  - Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd
PY  - 2018
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Background: Although epidemiological studies have reported associations between mortality and both ambient air pollution and air temperature, it remains uncertain whether the mortality effects of air pollution are modified by temperature and vice versa. Moreover, little is known on the interactions between ultrafine particles (diameter ≤ 100 nm, UFP) and temperature. Objective: We investigated whether the short-term associations of particle number concentration (PNC in the ultrafine range (≤100 nm) or total PNC ≤ 3000 nm, as a proxy for UFP), particulate matter ≤ 2.5 μm (PM2.5) and ≤ 10 μm (PM10), and ozone with daily total natural and cardiovascular mortality were modified by air temperature and whether air pollution levels affected the temperature-mortality associations in eight European urban areas during 1999–2013. Methods: We first analyzed air temperature-stratified associations between air pollution and total natural (nonaccidental) and cardiovascular mortality as well as air pollution-stratified temperature-mortality associations using city-specific over-dispersed Poisson additive models with a distributed lag nonlinear temperature term in each city. All models were adjusted for long-term and seasonal trend, day of the week, influenza epidemics, and population dynamics due to summer vacation and holidays. City-specific effect estimates were then pooled using random-effects meta-analysis. Results: Pooled associations between air pollutants and total and cardiovascular mortality were overall positive and generally stronger at high relatively compared to low air temperatures. For example, on days with high air temperatures (>75th percentile), an increase of 10,000 particles/cm3in PNC corresponded to a 2.51% (95% CI: 0.39%, 4.67%) increase in cardiovascular mortality, which was significantly higher than that on days with low air temperatures (<25th percentile) [−0.18% (95% CI: −0.97%, 0.62%)]. On days with high air pollution (>50th percentile), both heat- and cold-related mortality risks increased. Conclusion: Our findings showed that high temperature could modify the effects of air pollution on daily mortality and high air pollution might enhance the air temperature effects.
AU  - Chen, K.
AU  - Wolf, K.
AU  - Breitner-Busch, S.
AU  - Gasparrini, A.*
AU  - Stafoggia, M.*
AU  - Samoli, E.*
AU  - Andersen, Z.J.*
AU  - Bero-Bedada, G.*
AU  - Bellander, T.*
AU  - Hennig, F.*
AU  - Jacquemin, B.*
AU  - Pekkanen, J.*
AU  - Hampel, R.
AU  - Cyrys, J.
AU  - Peters, A.
AU  - Schneider, A.E.
C1  - 53445
C2  - 44560
SP  - 186-196
TI  - Two-way effect modifications of air pollution and air temperature on total natural and cardiovascular mortality in eight European urban areas.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 116
PY  - 2018
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Background: In order to investigate associations between air pollution and adverse health effects consistent fine spatial air pollution surfaces are needed across large areas to provide cohorts with comparable exposures. The aim of this paper is to develop and evaluate fine spatial scale land use regression models for four major health relevant air pollutants (PM2.5, NO2, BC, O-3) across Europe.Methods: We developed West-European land use regression models (LUR) for 2010 estimating annual mean PM2.5, NO2, BC and O-3 concentrations (including cold and warm season estimates for O-3). The models were based on AirBase routine monitoring data (PM2.5, NO2 and O-3) and ESCAPE monitoring data (BC), and incorporated satellite observations, dispersion model estimates, land use and traffic data. Kriging was performed on the residual spatial variation from the LUR models and added to the exposure estimates. One model was developed using all sites (100%). Robustness of the models was evaluated by performing a five-fold hold-out validation and for PM2.5 and NO2 additionally with independent comparison at ESCAPE measurements. To evaluate the stability of each model's spatial structure over time, separate models were developed for different years (NO2 and O-3: 2000 and 2005; PM2.5: 2013).Results: The PM2.5, BC, NO2, O-3 annual, O-3 warm season and O-3 cold season models explained respectively 72%, 54%, 59%, 65%, 69% and 83% of spatial variation in the measured concentrations. Kriging proved an efficient technique to explain a part of residual spatial variation for the pollutants with a strong regional component explaining respectively 10%, 24% and 16% of the R-2 in the PM2.5, O-3 warm and O-3 cold models. Explained variance at fully independent sites vs the internal hold-out validation was slightly lower for PM2.5 (65% vs 66%) and lower for NO2 (49% vs 57%). Predictions from the 2010 model correlated highly with models developed in other years at the overall European scale.Conclusions: We developed robust PM2.5, NO2, O-3 and BC hybrid LUR models. At the West-European scale models were robust in time, becoming less robust at smaller spatial scales. Models were applied to 100 x 100 m surfaces across Western Europe to allow for exposure assignment for 35 million participants from 18 European cohorts participating in the ELAPSE study.
AU  - de Hoogh, K.*
AU  - Chen, J.*
AU  - Gulliver, J.*
AU  - Hoffmann, B.*
AU  - Hertel, O.*
AU  - Ketzel, M.*
AU  - Bauwelinck, M.*
AU  - van Donkelaar, A.*
AU  - Hvidtfeldt, U.A.*
AU  - Katsouyanni, K.*
AU  - Klompmaker, J.*
AU  - Martin, R.V.*
AU  - Samoli, E.*
AU  - Schwartz, P.E.*
AU  - Stafoggia, M.*
AU  - Bellander, T.*
AU  - Strak, M.*
AU  - Wolf, K.
AU  - Vienneau, D.*
AU  - Brunekreef, B.*
AU  - Hoek, G.*
C1  - 54082
C2  - 45343
CY  - The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford Ox5 1gb, England
SP  - 81-92
TI  - Spatial PM2.5, NO2, O-3 and BC models for Western Europe - Evaluation of spatiotemporal stability.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 120
PB  - Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd
PY  - 2018
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Background: There is some data suggesting that residential greenspace may protect against high blood pressure in urbanized areas, but there is no evidence of effects on hypotension, in less urbanized areas, and in idiosyncratic geographic contexts such as mountain valleys.Objectives: The current study aimed to investigate the associations between residential greenspace and blood pressure in an alpine valley in Austria.Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional survey of a representative sample of 555 adults living in the Lower Inn Valley, Austria. Several definitions of blood pressure were employed: continuously-measured systolic (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP), doctor-diagnosed hyper-and hypotension, and high-and low blood pressure medication use. Greenspace metrics considered were: Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index (SAVI), and tree cover as measures of surrounding greenness in circular buffers of 100 m, 300 m, 500 m, and 1000 m around the home; distance to different types of structured green space; and having a domestic garden and a balcony. Relationships were examined across different definitions of blood pressure and greenspace and evaluated for potential effect modification by demographic factors, presence of a domestic garden/balcony, adiposity, and traffic sensitivity.Results: Higher overall greenness was associated with 30-40% lower odds of hyper/hypotension and 2-3 mm Hg lower SBP. Similar pattern was revealed for tree cover, however, associations with hypertension were less consistent across buffers, and SBP and DBP were lower only in association with greenness in the 100-m buffer. Having a domestic garden also seemed protective of high DBP. Residing near to forests, agricultural land, or urban green spaces was not related to blood pressure. Higher NDVI500-m was stronger associated with lower SBP in those having a domestic garden, while the effect on DBP was stronger in overweight/obese participants.Conclusion: These findings support the idea that greenspace should be considered as protective of both high and low blood pressure, however, underlying mechanisms remain insufficiently understood.
AU  - Dzhambov, A.M.*
AU  - Markevych, I.
AU  - Lercher, P.*
C1  - 54439
C2  - 45584
CY  - The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford Ox5 1gb, England
SP  - 443-452
TI  - Greenspace seems protective of both high and low blood pressure among residents of an Alpine valley.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 121
PB  - Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd
PY  - 2018
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Background: Very few studies have examined whether a long-term beneficial effect of physical activity on lung function can be influenced by living in polluted urban areas.Objective: We assessed whether annual average residential concentrations of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and particulate matter with aerodynamic diameters < 2.5 mu m (PM2.5) and < 10 mu m (PM10) modify the effect of physical activity on lung function among never- (N = 2801) and current (N = 1719) smokers in the multi-center European Community Respiratory Health Survey.Methods: Associations between repeated assessments (at 27-57 and 39-67 years) of being physically active (physical activity: >= 2 times and >= 1 h per week) and forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1) and forced vital capacity (FVC) were evaluated using adjusted mixed linear regression models. Models were conducted separately for never-and current smokers and stratified by residential long-term NO2, PM2.5 mass and PM10 mass concentrations (<= 75th percentile (low/medium) versus > 75th percentile (high)).Results: Among current smokers, physical activity and lung function were positively associated regardless of air pollution levels. Among never-smokers, physical activity was associated with lung function in areas with low/medium NO2, PM2.5 mass and PM10 mass concentrations (e.g. mean difference in FVC between active and non-active subjects was 43.0 mL (13.6, 72.5), 49.5 mL (20.1, 78.8) and 49.7 mL (18.6, 80.7), respectively), but these associations were attenuated in high air pollution areas. Only the interaction term of physical activity and PM10 mass for FEV1 among never-smokers was significant (p-value = 0.03).Conclusions: Physical activity has beneficial effects on adult lung function in current smokers, irrespective of residential air pollution levels in Western Europe. Trends among never-smokers living in high air pollution areas are less clear.
AU  - Fuertes, E.*
AU  - Markevych, I.
AU  - Jarvis, D.*
AU  - Vienneau, D.*
AU  - de Hoogh, K.*
AU  - Antò, J.M.*
AU  - Bowatte, G.*
AU  - Bono, R.*
AU  - Corsico, A.G.*
AU  - Emtner, M.*
AU  - Gislason, T.*
AU  - Gullón, J.A.*
AU  - Heinrich, J.*
AU  - Henderson, J.*
AU  - Holm, M.*
AU  - Johannessen, A.*
AU  - Leynaert, B.*
AU  - Marcon, A.*
AU  - Marchetti, P.*
AU  - Moratalla, J.M.*
AU  - Pascual, S.*
AU  - Probst-Hensch, N.*
AU  - Sánchez-Ramos, J.L.*
AU  - Siroux, V.*
AU  - Sommar, J.N.*
AU  - Weyler, J.*
AU  - Kuenzli, N.*
AU  - Jacquemin, B.*
AU  - Garcia-Aymerich, J.*
C1  - 54155
C2  - 45366
CY  - The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford Ox5 1gb, England
SP  - 364-372
TI  - Residential air pollution does not modify the positive association between physical activity and lung function in current smokers in the ECRHS study.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 120
PB  - Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd
PY  - 2018
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - BACKGROUND: Early life factors are associated with allergic respiratory diseases, but the role of high grass pollen concentrations during pregnancy and shortly after birth is not known. OBJECTIVE: To assess outdoor levels of grass pollen during the intrauterine period and at birth during peak pollen season on cord blood IgE in birth cohorts. METHODS: Three birth cohorts were included: MACS (n = 429), Australia; COPSAC (n = 200), Denmark; and LISA (n = 1968), Germany. Cord blood IgE was categorized (<0.5 kU/L, 0.5-1 kU/L, >1 kU/L) and dichotomized (high IgE ≥ 0.5 kU/L). Birth during the grass pollen season months and cumulative exposure to outdoor grass pollen counts during pregnancy with cord blood IgE were analysed using multinomial regression and analysed in meta-analysis using binomial regression adjusted for potential confounders. RESULTS: Birth during the grass pollen season had higher pooled odds of cord blood IgE >0.5 kU/L 1.37 (95% CI 1.06, 1.77) in a meta-analysis with little heterogeneity between the three cohorts. Cumulative exposure to outdoor grass pollen counts during the entire pregnancy was associated with slightly lower pooled odds but significant (OR = 0.98, 95% CI: 0.96 to 0.99). CONCLUSIONS: Birth during grass pollen seasons were associated with increased risk of high cord blood IgE in cities from both hemispheres, but high pollen loads in the environment during the entire pregnancy appeared protective. As IgE responses develop during the first months of life, our study findings provide new insights into the mechanisms of grass pollen exposure at birth and shortly after on possible allergic respiratory diseases.
AU  - Susanto, N.H.*
AU  - Schoos, A.M.*
AU  - Standl, M.
AU  - Lowe, A.J.*
AU  - Dharmage, S.C.*
AU  - Svanes, C.*
AU  - Salim, A.*
AU  - von Berg, A.*
AU  - Lehmann, I.*
AU  - Rasmussen, M.A.*
AU  - Werchan, M.*
AU  - Bergmann, K.C.*
AU  - Lodge, C.J.*
AU  - Abramson, M.J.*
AU  - Heinrich, J.
AU  - Bisgaard, H.*
AU  - Erbas, B.*
C1  - 53916
C2  - 45049
SP  - 295-301
TI  - Environmental grass pollen levels in utero and at birth and cord blood IgE: Analysis of three birth cohorts.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 119
PY  - 2018
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - BACKGROUND: Little information exists on the lipidemic effects of air pollution, particularly in developing countries. We aimed to investigate the associations of long-term exposure to ambient air pollutants with lipid levels and dyslipidemias in China. METHODS: In 2009, a total of 15,477 participants aged 18-74 years were recruited from the 33 Communities Chinese Health Study conducted in three Northeastern China cities. Total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) were measured in participants' blood specimens. Three year (2006-08) average air pollution concentrations were assessed using data from 33 communities (particles with diameters ≤1.0 μm (PM) and ≤2.5 μm (PM) were predicted using a spatial statistical model) or 11 air monitoring stations (particles with diameters ≤10 μm (PM), sulfur dioxide (SO), nitrogen dioxide (NO), and ozone (O)). Associations were evaluated by two-level logistic and generalized linear regression models. RESULTS: We detected many significant associations between exposure to air pollutants (especially for PM and PM) and blood lipid levels. Most of the associations suggested deleterious effects on blood lipid markers (e.g., a 10 μg/m increase in PM was associated with 1.6% (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.1, 2.0), 2.9% (95% CI: -3.3, 9.3), and 3.2% (95% CI: 2.6, 3.9) higher levels of TC, TG, and LDL-C, respectively, but 1.4% (95% CI: -1.8, -0.9) lower HDL-C levels), although beneficial associations were found for O. In analysis with dyslipidemias, all the observed associations suggested deleterious lipidemic effects of air pollutants, and no significant beneficial association was observed for O. Stratified analyses showed that the associations were stronger in overweight or obese participants; sex and age modified the associations, but the pattern of effects was mixed. CONCLUSIONS: Long-term ambient air pollution was associated with both altered lipid profiles and dyslipidemias, especially among overweight or obese participants.
AU  - Yang, B.-Y.*
AU  - Bloom, M.S.*
AU  - Markevych, I.
AU  - Qian, Z.*
AU  - Vaughn, M.G.*
AU  - Cummings-Vaughn, L.A.*
AU  - Li, S.*
AU  - Chen, G.*
AU  - Bowatte, G.*
AU  - Perret, J.L.*
AU  - Dharmage, S.C.*
AU  - Heinrich, J.*
AU  - Yim, S.H.L.*
AU  - Lin, S.*
AU  - Tian, L.*
AU  - Yang, M.*
AU  - Liu, K.K.*
AU  - Zeng, X.W.*
AU  - Hu, L.W.*
AU  - Guo, Y.*
AU  - Dong, G.H.*
C1  - 54014
C2  - 45201
SP  - 485-492
TI  - Exposure to ambient air pollution and blood lipids in adults: The 33 Communities Chinese Health Study.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 119
PY  - 2018
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Background: Ankle-brachial index (ABI) has been linked to the risk of cardiovascular events. However, the association between long-term exposure to air pollution and abnormal ABI has not been fully investigated.Methods: This cross-sectional study involved 4544 participants from the KORA Study (2004-2008) in the region of Augsburg, Germany. Participants' residential annual mean concentrations of particulate matter (PM) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) were predicted with land-use regression models, and the traffic information was collected from geographic information systems. We applied multinomial logistic regression models to assess the effects of air pollution on the prevalence of low and high ABI, and quantile regression models to explore the non-monotonic relationship between air pollution and ABI. We also examined effect modification by individual characteristics.Results: Long-term exposure to PM with an aerodynamic diameter <= 10 mu m (PM10) and <= 2.5 mu m (PM2.5) was significantly associated with a higher prevalence of low ABI, with the respective odds ratios (ORs) of 1.82 (95% CI: 1.11-2.97) and 1.59 (95% CI: 1.01-2.51) for a 5th to 95th percentile increment in pollutants. Positive associations with the prevalence of high ABI were observed for PM (e.g., PM10: OR = 1.63, 95% CI: 1.07-2.50) and NO2 (OR = 1.84, 95% CI: 1.15-2.94). Quantile regression analyses revealed similar non-monotonic results. The effects of air pollution on having abnormal ABI were stronger in physically inactive, hypertensive, or nondiabetic participants.Conclusions: Long-term exposure to PM and NO2 was associated with a higher prevalence of both low and high ABI, indicating the adverse effects of air pollution on atherosclerosis and arterial stiffness in the lower extremities.
AU  - Zhang, S.
AU  - Wolf, K.
AU  - Breitner-Busch, S.
AU  - Kronenberg, F.*
AU  - Stafoggia, M.*
AU  - Peters, A.
AU  - Schneider, A.E.
C1  - 53560
C2  - 44904
CY  - The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford Ox5 1gb, England
SP  - 17-25
TI  - Long-term effects of air pollution on ankle-brachial index.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 118
PB  - Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd
PY  - 2018
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Given the ubiquitous nature of both noise pollution and mental disorders, their alleged association has not escaped the spotlight of public health research. The effect of traffic noise on mental health is probably mediated by other factors, which have not been elucidated sufficiently. Herein, we aimed to disentangle the pathways linking road traffic noise to general mental health in Bulgarian youth, with a focus on several candidate mediators - noise annoyance, perceived restorative quality of the living environment, physical activity, and neighborhood social cohesion. A cross-sectional sample was collected in October - December 2016 in the city of Plovdiv, Bulgaria. It consisted of 399 students aged 15-25years, recruited from two high schools and three universities. Road traffic noise exposure (Lden) was derived from the strategic noise map of Plovdiv. Mental health was measured with the 12-item form of the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12). Noise annoyance, perceived restorative quality of the living environment, commuting and leisure time physical activity, and neighborhood social cohesion were assessed using validated questionnaires. Analyses were based on linear regression mediation models and a structural equation modeling (SEM) to account for the hypothesized interdependencies between candidate mediators. Results showed that higher noise exposure was associated with worse mental health only indirectly. More specifically, tests of the single and parallel mediation models indicated independent indirect paths through noise annoyance, social cohesion, and physical activity. In addition, the SEM revealed that more noise annoyance was associated with less social cohesion, and in turn with worse mental health; noise annoyance was also associated with lower neighborhood restorative quality, thereby with less social cohesion and physical activity, and in turn with worse mental health. However, causality could not be established. Further research is warranted to expand our still limited understanding of these person-environment interactions.
AU  - Dzhambov, A.M.*
AU  - Tilov, B.*
AU  - Markevych, I.
AU  - Dimitrova, D.*
C1  - 51900
C2  - 43546
CY  - Oxford
SP  - 1-9
TI  - Residential road traffic noise and general mental health in youth: The role of noise annoyance, neighborhood restorative quality, physical activity, and social cohesion as potential mediators.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 109
PB  - Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd
PY  - 2017
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Long-term exposure to air pollution has been associated with several adverse health effects including cardiovascular, respiratory diseases and cancers. However, underlying molecular alterations remain to be further investigated. The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of long-term exposure to air pollutants on (a) average DNA methylation at functional regions and, (b) individual differentially methylated CpG sites. An assumption is that omic measurements, including the methylome, are more sensitive to low doses than hard health outcomes. This study included blood-derived DNA methylation (Illumina-HM450 methylation) for 454 Italian and 159 Dutch participants from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC). Long-term air pollution exposure levels, including NO2, NOx, PM2.5, PMcoarse, PM10, PM2.5 absorbance (soot) were estimated using models developed within the ESCAPE project, and back-extrapolated to the time of sampling when possible. We meta-analysed the associations between the air pollutants and global DNA methylation, methylation in functional regions and epigenome-wide methylation. CpG sites found differentially methylated with air pollution were further investigated for functional interpretation in an independent population (EnviroGenoMarkers project), where (N=613) participants had both methylation and gene expression data available. Exposure to NO2 was associated with a significant global somatic hypomethylation (p-value=0.014). Hypomethylation of CpG island's shores and shelves and gene bodies was significantly associated with higher exposures to NO2 and NOx. Meta-analysing the epigenome-wide findings of the 2 cohorts did not show genome-wide significant associations at single CpG site level. However, several significant CpG were found if the analyses were separated by countries. By regressing gene expression levels against methylation levels of the exposure-related CpG sites, we identified several significant CpG-transcript pairs and highlighted 5 enriched pathways for NO2 and 9 for NOx mainly related to the immune system and its regulation. Our findings support results on global hypomethylation associated with air pollution, and suggest that the shores and shelves of CpG islands and gene bodies are mostly affected by higher exposure to NO2 and NOx. Functional differences in the immune system were suggested by transcriptome analyses.
AU  - Plusquin, M.*
AU  - Guida, F.*
AU  - Polidoro, S.*
AU  - Vermeulen, R.*
AU  - Raaschou-Nielsen, O.*
AU  - Campanella, G.*
AU  - Hoek, G.*
AU  - Kyrtopoulos, S.A.*
AU  - Georgiadis, P.*
AU  - Naccarati, A.*
AU  - Sacerdote, C.*
AU  - Krogh, V.*
AU  - Bas Bueno-de-Mesquita, H.*
AU  - Monique Verschuren, W.M.*
AU  - Sayols-Baixeras, S.*
AU  - Panni, T.
AU  - Peters, A.
AU  - Hebels, D.G.A.J.*
AU  - Kleinjans, J.C.*
AU  - Vineis, P.*
AU  - Chadeau-Hyam, M.*
C1  - 51757
C2  - 43420
CY  - Oxford
SP  - 127-136
TI  - DNA methylation and exposure to ambient air pollution in two prospective cohorts.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 108
PB  - Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd
PY  - 2017
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Background: Inconsistent associations between socioeconomic position (SEP) and outdoor air pollution have been reported in Europe, but methodological differences prevent any direct between-study comparison. Objectives: Assess and compare the association between SEP and outdoor nitrogen dioxide (NO2) exposure as a marker of traffic exhaust, in 16 cities from eight Western European countries. Methods: Three SEP indicators, two defined at individual-level (education and occupation) and one at neighborhood-level (unemployment rate) were assessed in three European multicenter cohorts. NO2 annual concentration exposure was estimated at participants' addresses with land use regression models developed within the European Study of Cohorts for Air Pollution Effects (ESCAPE; http://www.escapeproject.eu/). Pooled and city-specific linear regressions were used to analyze associations between each SEP indicator and NO2. Heterogeneity across cities was assessed using the Higgins' I-squared test (I2). Results: The study population included 5692 participants. Pooled analysis showed that participants with lower individual-SEP were less exposed to NO2. Conversely, participants living in neighborhoods with higher unemployment rate were more exposed. City-specific results exhibited strong heterogeneity (I2 >76% for the three SEP indicators) resulting in variation of the individual- and neighborhood-SEP patterns of NO2 exposure across cities. The coefficients from a model that included both individual- and neighborhood-SEP indicators were similar to the unadjusted coefficients, suggesting independent associations. Conclusions: Our study showed for the first time using homogenized measures of outcome and exposure across 16 cities the important heterogeneity regarding the association between SEP and NO2 in Western Europe. Importantly, our results showed that individual- and neighborhood-SEP indicators capture different aspects of the association between SEP and exposure to air pollution, stressing the importance of considering both in air pollution health effects studies.
AU  - Temam, S.*
AU  - Burte, E.*
AU  - Adam, M.*
AU  - Antò, J.M.*
AU  - Basagana, X.*
AU  - Bousquet, J.*
AU  - Carsin, A.E.*
AU  - Galobardes, B.*
AU  - Keidel, D.*
AU  - Künzli, N.*
AU  - Le Moual, N.*
AU  - Sanchez, M.*
AU  - Sunyer, J.*
AU  - Bono, R.*
AU  - Brunekreef, B.*
AU  - Heinrich, J.
AU  - de Hoogh, K.*
AU  - Jarvis, D.*
AU  - Marcon, A.*
AU  - Modig, L.*
AU  - Nadif, R.*
AU  - Nieuwenhuijsen, M.*
AU  - Pin, I.*
AU  - Siroux, V.*
AU  - Stempfelet, M.*
AU  - Tsai, M.Y.*
AU  - Probst-Hensch, N.*
AU  - Jacquemin, B.*
C1  - 50482
C2  - 42494
SP  - 117-124
TI  - Socioeconomic position and outdoor nitrogen dioxide (NO2) exposure in Western Europe: A multi-city analysis.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 101
PY  - 2017
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - RATIONALE: Exposure to ambient particulate matter (PM) and ozone has been associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD). However, the mechanisms linking PM and ozone exposure to CVD remain poorly understood. OBJECTIVE: This study explored associations between short-term exposures to PM with a diameter <2.5μm (PM2.5) and ozone with plasma metabolite concentrations. METHODS AND RESULTS: We used cross-sectional data from a cardiac catheterization cohort at Duke University, North Carolina (NC), USA, accumulated between 2001 and 2007. Amino acids, acylcarnitines, ketones and total non-esterified fatty acid plasma concentrations were determined in fasting samples. Daily concentrations of PM2.5 and ozone were obtained from a Bayesian space-time hierarchical model, matched to each patient's residential address. Ten metabolites were selected for the analysis based on quality criteria and cluster analysis. Associations between metabolites and PM2.5 or ozone were analyzed using linear regression models adjusting for long-term trend and seasonality, calendar effects, meteorological parameters, and participant characteristics. We found delayed associations between PM2.5 or ozone and changes in metabolite levels of the glycine-ornithine-arginine metabolic axis and incomplete fatty acid oxidation associated with mitochondrial dysfunction. The strongest association was seen for an increase of 8.1μg/m(3) in PM2.5 with a lag of one day and decreased mean glycine concentrations (-2.5% [95% confidence interval: -3.8%; -1.2%]). CONCLUSIONS: Short-term exposures to ambient PM2.5 and ozone is associated with changes in plasma concentrations of metabolites in a cohort of cardiac catheterization patients. Our findings might help to understand the link between air pollution and cardiovascular disease.
AU  - Breitner-Busch, S.
AU  - Schneider, A.E.
AU  - Devlin, R.B.*
AU  - Ward-Caviness, C.K.
AU  - Diaz-Sanchez, D.*
AU  - Neas, L.M.*
AU  - Cascio, W.E.*
AU  - Peters, A.
AU  - Hauser, E.R.*
AU  - Shah, S.H.*
AU  - Kraus, W.E.*
C1  - 49846
C2  - 40977
CY  - Oxford
SP  - 76-84
TI  - Associations among plasma metabolite levels and short-term exposure to PM2.5 and ozone in a cardiac catheterization cohort.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 97
PB  - Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd
PY  - 2016
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Background Few studies have examined the link between air pollution exposure and behavioural problems and learning disorders during late childhood and adolescence. Objectives To determine whether traffic-related air pollution exposure is associated with hyperactivity/inattention, dyslexia and dyscalculia up to age 15 years using the German GINIplus and LISAplus birth cohorts (recruitment 1995–1999). Methods Hyperactivity/inattention was assessed using the German parent-completed (10 years) and self-completed (15 years) Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. Responses were categorized into normal versus borderline/abnormal. Parent-reported dyslexia and dyscalculia (yes/no) at age 10 and 15 years were defined using parent-completed questionnaires. Individual-level annual average estimates of nitrogen dioxide (NO2), particulate matter (PM)10 mass, PM2.5 mass and PM2.5 absorbance concentrations were assigned to each participant's birth, 10 year and 15 year home address. Longitudinal associations between the air pollutants and the neurodevelopmental outcomes were assessed using generalized estimation equations, separately for both study areas, and combined in a random-effects meta-analysis. Odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals are given per interquartile range increase in pollutant concentration. Results The prevalence of abnormal/borderline hyperactivity/inattention scores and parental-reported dyslexia and dyscalculia at 15 years of age was 12.9%, 10.5% and 3.4%, respectively, in the combined population (N = 4745). In the meta- analysis, hyperactivity/inattention was associated with PM2.5 mass estimated to the 10 and 15 year addresses (1.12 [1.01, 1.23] and 1.11 [1.01, 1.22]) and PM2.5 absorbance estimated to the 10 and 15 year addresses (1.14 [1.05, 1.25] and 1.13 [1.04, 1.23], respectively). Conclusions We report associations suggesting a potential link between air pollution exposure and hyperactivity/inattention scores, although these findings require replication.
AU  - Fuertes, E.*
AU  - Standl, M.
AU  - Forns, J.*
AU  - Berdel, D*
AU  - Garcia-Aymerich, J.*
AU  - Markevych, I.
AU  - Schulte-Körne, G.*
AU  - Sugiri, D.*
AU  - Schikowski, T.*
AU  - Tiesler, C.M.
AU  - Heinrich, J.
C1  - 50010
C2  - 41966
CY  - Oxford
SP  - 85-92
TI  - Traffic-related air pollution and hyperactivity/inattention, dyslexia and dyscalculia in adolescents of the German GINIplus and LISAplus birth cohorts.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 97
PB  - Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd
PY  - 2016
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Open biomass burning from wildfires and the prescribed burning of forests and farmland is a frequent occurrence in South-East Queensland (SEQ), Australia. This work reports on data collected from 10 to 30 September 2011, which covers the days before (10-14 September), during (15-20 September) and after (21-30 September) a period of biomass burning in SEQ. The aim of this project was to comprehensively quantify the impact of the biomass burning on air quality in Brisbane, the capital city of Queensland. A multi-parameter field measurement campaign was conducted and ambient air quality data from 13 monitoring stations across SEQ were analysed. During the burning period, the average concentrations of all measured pollutants increased (from 20% to 430%) compared to the non-burning period (both before and after burning), except for total xylenes. The average concentration of O3, NO2, SO2, benzene, formaldehyde, PM10, PM2.5 and visibility-reducing particles reached their highest levels for the year, which were up to 10 times higher than annual average levels, while PM10, PM2.5 and SO2 concentrations exceeded the WHO 24-hour guidelines and O3 concentration exceeded the WHO maximum 8-hour average threshold during the burning period. Overall spatial variations showed that all measured pollutants, with the exception of O3, were closer to spatial homogeneity during the burning compared to the non-burning period. In addition to the above, elevated concentrations of three biomass burning organic tracers (levoglucosan, mannosan and galactosan), together with the amount of non-refractory organic particles (PM1) and the average value of f60 (attributed to levoglucosan), reinforce that elevated pollutant concentration levels were due to emissions from open biomass burning events, 70% of which were prescribed burning events. This study, which is the first and most comprehensive of its kind in Australia, provides quantitative evidence of the significant impact of open biomass burning events, especially prescribed burning, on urban air quality. The current results provide a solid platform for more detailed health and modelling investigations in the future.
AU  - He, C.*
AU  - Miljevic, B.*
AU  - Crilley, L.R.*
AU  - Surawski, N.C.*
AU  - Bartsch, J.*
AU  - Salimi, F.*
AU  - Uhde, E.*
AU  - Schnelle-Kreis, J.
AU  - Orasche, J.
AU  - Ristovski, Z.*
AU  - Ayoko, G.A.*
AU  - Zimmermann, R.
AU  - Morawska, L.*
C1  - 48152
C2  - 39950
CY  - Oxford
SP  - 230-242
TI  - Characterisation of the impact of open biomass burning on urban air quality in Brisbane, Australia.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 91
PB  - Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd
PY  - 2016
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - BACKGROUND: Evidence on health effects of ultrafine particles (UFP) is still limited as they are usually not monitored routinely. The few epidemiological studies on UFP and (cause-specific) mortality so far have reported inconsistent results. OBJECTIVES: The main objective of the UFIREG project was to investigate the short-term associations between UFP and fine particulate matter (PM)<2.5μm (PM2.5) and daily (cause-specific) mortality in five European Cities. We also examined the effects of PM<10μm (PM10) and coarse particles (PM2.5-10). METHODS: UFP (20-100nm), PM and meteorological data were measured in Dresden and Augsburg (Germany), Prague (Czech Republic), Ljubljana (Slovenia) and Chernivtsi (Ukraine). Daily counts of natural and cardio-respiratory mortality were collected for all five cities. Depending on data availability, the following study periods were chosen: Augsburg and Dresden 2011-2012, Ljubljana and Prague 2012-2013, Chernivtsi 2013-March 2014. The associations between air pollutants and health outcomes were assessed using confounder-adjusted Poisson regression models examining single (lag 0-lag 5) and cumulative lags (lag 0-1, lag 2-5, and lag 0-5). City-specific estimates were pooled using meta-analyses methods. RESULTS: Results indicated a delayed and prolonged association between UFP and respiratory mortality (9.9% [95%-confidence interval: -6.3%; 28.8%] increase in association with a 6-day average increase of 2750particles/cm(3) (average interquartile range across all cities)). Cardiovascular mortality increased by 3.0% [-2.7%; 9.1%] and 4.1% [0.4%; 8.0%] in association with a 12.4μg/m(3) and 4.7μg/m(3) increase in the PM2.5- and PM2.5-10-averages of lag 2-5. CONCLUSIONS: We observed positive but not statistically significant associations between prolonged exposures to UFP and respiratory mortality, which were independent of particle mass exposures. Further multi-centre studies are needed investigating several years to produce more precise estimates on health effects of UFP.
AU  - Lanzinger, S.
AU  - Schneider, A.E.
AU  - Breitner-Busch, S.
AU  - Stafoggia, M.*
AU  - Erzen, I.*
AU  - Dostal, M.*
AU  - Pastorkova, A.*
AU  - Bastian, S.*
AU  - Cyrys, J.
AU  - Zscheppang, A.*
AU  - Kolodnitska, T.*
AU  - Peters, A.
C1  - 47600
C2  - 39411
CY  - Oxford
SP  - 44-52
TI  - Associations between ultrafine and fine particles and mortality in five central European cities - results from the UFIREG study.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 88
PB  - Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd
PY  - 2016
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - BACKGROUND: Epidemiological studies have associated long-term exposure to ambient particulate matter with increased mortality from cardiovascular and respiratory disorders. Systemic inflammation is a plausible biological mechanism behind this association. However, it is unclear how the chemical composition of PM affects inflammatory responses. OBJECTIVES: To investigate the association between long-term exposure to elemental components of PM and the inflammatory blood markers high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) and fibrinogen as part of the European ESCAPE and TRANSPHORM multi-center projects. METHODS: In total, 21,558 hsCRP measurements and 17,428 fibrinogen measurements from cross-sections of five and four cohort studies were available, respectively. Residential long-term concentrations of particulate matter <10μm (PM10) and <2.5μm (PM2.5) in diameter and selected elemental components (copper, iron, potassium, nickel, sulfur, silicon, vanadium, zinc) were estimated based on land-use regression models. Associations between components and inflammatory markers were estimated using linear regression models for each cohort separately. Cohort-specific results were combined using random effects meta-analysis. As a sensitivity analysis the models were additionally adjusted for PM mass. RESULTS: A 5ng/m(3) increase in PM2.5 copper and a 500ng/m(3) increase in PM10 iron were associated with a 6.3% [0.7; 12.3%] and 3.6% [0.3; 7.1%] increase in hsCRP, respectively. These associations between components and fibrinogen were slightly weaker. A 10ng/m(3) increase in PM2.5 zinc was associated with a 1.2% [0.1; 2.4%] increase in fibrinogen; confidence intervals widened when additionally adjusting for PM2.5. CONCLUSIONS: Long-term exposure to transition metals within ambient particulate matter, originating from traffic and industry, may be related to chronic systemic inflammation providing a link to long-term health effects of particulate matter.
AU  - Hampel, R.
AU  - Peters, A.
AU  - Beelen, R.*
AU  - Brunekreef, B.*
AU  - Cyrys, J.
AU  - de Faire, U.*
AU  - de Hoogh, K.*
AU  - Fuks, K.*
AU  - Hoffmann, B.*
AU  - Hüls, A.*
AU  - Imboden, M.*
AU  - Jedynska, A.*
AU  - Kooter, I.M.*
AU  - Koenig, W.*
AU  - Künzli, N.*
AU  - Leander, K.*
AU  - Magnusson, P.*
AU  - Männistö, S.*
AU  - Penell, J.*
AU  - Pershagen, G.*
AU  - Phuleria, H.*
AU  - Probst-Hensch, N.*
AU  - Pundt, N.*
AU  - Schaffner, E.*
AU  - Schikowski, T.*
AU  - Sugiri, D.*
AU  - Tiittanen, P.*
AU  - Tsai, M.Y.*
AU  - Wang, M.*
AU  - Wolf, K.
AU  - Lanki, T.*
C1  - 45132
C2  - 37244
CY  - Oxford
SP  - 76-84
TI  - Long-term effects of elemental composition of particulate matter on inflammatory blood markers in European cohorts.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 82
PB  - Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd
PY  - 2015
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AU  - Markevych, I.
AU  - Tiesler, C.M.
AU  - Fuertes, E.
AU  - Romanos, M.*
AU  - Dadvand, P.*
AU  - Nieuwenhuijsen, M.J.*
AU  - Berdel, D.*
AU  - Koletzko, S.*
AU  - Heinrich, J.
C1  - 45067
C2  - 37280
CY  - Oxford
SP  - 115
TI  - Corrigendum to "Access to urban green spaces and behavioural problems in children: Results from the GINIplus and LISAplus studies" [Environment International 71C (2014) 29-35].
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 82
PB  - Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd
PY  - 2015
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - An increasing number of epidemiological studies suggest that adverse health effects of air pollution may be related to particulate matter (PM) composition, particularly trace metals. However, we lack comprehensive data on the spatial distribution of these elements. We measured PM2.5 and PM10 in twenty study areas across Europe in three seasonal two-week periods over a year using Harvard impactors and standardized protocols. In each area, we selected street (ST), urban (UB) and regional background (RB) sites (totaling 20) to characterize local spatial variability. Elemental composition was determined by energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence analysis of all PM2.5 and PM10 filters. We selected a priori eight (Cu, Fe, K, Ni, S, Si, V, Zn) well-detected elements of health interest, which also roughly represented different sources including traffic, industry, ports, and wood burning. PM elemental composition varied greatly across Europe, indicating different regional influences. Average street to urban background ratios ranged from 0.90 (V) to 1.60 (Cu) for PM2.5 and from 0.93 (V) to 2.28 (Cu) for PM10. Our selected PM elements were variably correlated with the main pollutants (PM2.5, PM10, PM2.5 absorbance, NO2 and NOx) across Europe: in general, Cu and Fe in all size fractions were highly correlated (Pearson correlations above 0.75); Si and Zn in the coarse fractions were modestly correlated (between 0.5 and 0.75); and the remaining elements in the various size fractions had lower correlations (around 0.5 or below). This variability in correlation demonstrated the distinctly different spatial distributions of most of the elements. Variability of PM10_Cu and Fe was mostly due to within-study area differences (67% and 64% of overall variance, respectively) versus between-study area and exceeded that of most other traffic-related pollutants, including NO2 and soot, signaling the importance of non-tailpipe (e.g., brake wear) emissions in PM.
AU  - Tsai, M.Y.*
AU  - Hoek, G.*
AU  - Eeftens, M.*
AU  - de Hoogh, K.*
AU  - Beelen, R.*
AU  - Beregszaszi, T.*
AU  - Cesaroni, G.*
AU  - Cirach, M.*
AU  - Cyrys, J.
AU  - de Nazelle, A.*
AU  - de Vocht, F.*
AU  - Ducret-Stich, R.*
AU  - Eriksen, K.*
AU  - Galassi, C.*
AU  - Grazuleviciene, R.*
AU  - Gražulevicius, T.*
AU  - Grivas, G.*
AU  - Gryparis, A.*
AU  - Heinrich, J.
AU  - Hoffmann, B.*
AU  - Iakovides, M.*
AU  - Keuken, M.*
AU  - Krämer, U.*
AU  - Künzli, N.*
AU  - Lanki, T.*
AU  - Madsen, C.*
AU  - Meliefste, K.*
AU  - Merritt, A.S.*
AU  - Mölter, A.*
AU  - Mosler, G.*
AU  - Nieuwenhuijsen, M.J.*
AU  - Pershagen, G.*
AU  - Phuleria, H.*
AU  - Quass, U.*
AU  - Ranzi, A.*
AU  - Schaffner, E.*
AU  - Sokhi, R.S.*
AU  - Stempfelet, M.*
AU  - Stephanou, E.*
AU  - Sugiri, D.*
AU  - Taimisto, P.*
AU  - Tewis, M.*
AU  - Udvardy, O.*
AU  - Wang, M.*
AU  - Brunekreef, B.*
C1  - 46740
C2  - 37789
SP  - 181-192
TI  - Spatial variation of PM elemental composition between and within 20 European study areas - results of the ESCAPE project.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 84
PY  - 2015
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - BACKGROUND: Land-use regression (LUR) and dispersion models (DM) are commonly used for estimating individual air pollution exposure in population studies. Few comparisons have however been made of the performance of these methods. OBJECTIVES: Within the European Study of Cohorts for Air Pollution Effects (ESCAPE) we explored the differences between LUR and DM estimates for NO2, PM10 and PM2.5. METHODS: The ESCAPE study developed LUR models for outdoor air pollution levels based on a harmonised monitoring campaign. In thirteen ESCAPE study areas we further applied dispersion models. We compared LUR and DM estimates at the residential addresses of participants in 13 cohorts for NO2; 7 for PM10 and 4 for PM2.5. Additionally, we compared the DM estimates with measured concentrations at the 20-40 ESCAPE monitoring sites in each area. RESULTS: The median Pearson R (range) correlation coefficients between LUR and DM estimates for the annual average concentrations of NO2, PM10 and PM2.5 were 0.75 (0.19-0.89), 0.39 (0.23-0.66) and 0.29 (0.22-0.81) for 112,971 (13 study areas), 69,591 (7) and 28,519 (4) addresses respectively. The median Pearson R correlation coefficients (range) between DM estimates and ESCAPE measurements were of 0.74 (0.09-0.86) for NO2; 0.58 (0.36-0.88) for PM10 and 0.58 (0.39-0.66) for PM2.5. CONCLUSIONS: LUR and dispersion model estimates correlated on average well for NO2 but only moderately for PM10 and PM2.5, with large variability across areas. DM predicted a moderate to large proportion of the measured variation for NO2 but less for PM10 and PM2.5.
AU  - de Hoogh, K.*
AU  - Korek, M.*
AU  - Vienneau, D.*
AU  - Keuken, M.*
AU  - Kukkonen, J.V.K.*
AU  - Nieuwenhuijsen, M.J.*
AU  - Badaloni, C.*
AU  - Beelen, R.*
AU  - Bolignano, A.*
AU  - Cesaroni, G.*
AU  - Pradas, M.C.*
AU  - Cyrys, J.
AU  - Douros, J.*
AU  - Eeftens, M.*
AU  - Forastiere, F.*
AU  - Forsberg, B.*
AU  - Fuks, K.*
AU  - Gehring, U.*
AU  - Gryparis, A.*
AU  - Gulliver, J.*
AU  - Hansell, A.L.*
AU  - Hoffmann, B.*
AU  - Johansson, C.*
AU  - Jonkers, S.*
AU  - Kangas, L.*
AU  - Katsouyanni, K.*
AU  - Künzli, N.*
AU  - Lanki, T.*
AU  - Memmesheimer, M.*
AU  - Moussiopoulos, N.*
AU  - Modig, L.*
AU  - Pershagen, G.*
AU  - Probst-Hensch, N.*
AU  - Schindler, C.*
AU  - Schikowski, T.*
AU  - Sugiri, D.*
AU  - Teixidó, O.*
AU  - Tsai, M.Y.*
AU  - Yli-Tuomi, T.*
AU  - Brunekreef, B.*
AU  - Hoek, G.*
AU  - Bellander, T.*
C1  - 32263
C2  - 34993
SP  - 382-392
TI  - Comparing land use regression and dispersion modelling to assess residential exposure to ambient air pollution for epidemiological studies.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 73
PY  - 2014
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - AIM: We investigated whether objectively measured access to urban green spaces is associated with behavioural problems in 10-year old children living in Munich and its surrounding areas. METHODS: Behavioural problems were assessed in the GINIplus and LISAplus 10-year follow-up between 2006 and 2009 using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. Access to green spaces was defined using the distance from a child's residence to the nearest urban green space. Associations between access to urban green spaces and behavioural problems were assessed using proportional odds and logistic regression models in 1932 children with complete exposure, outcome and covariate data. RESULTS: The distance between a child's residence and the nearest urban green space was positively associated with the odds of hyperactivity/inattention, especially among children with abnormal values compared to children with borderline or normal values (odds ratio (OR)=1.20 (95% confidence interval (CI)=1.01-1.42) per 500m increase in distance). When stratified by sex, this association was only statistically significant among males. Children living further than 500m away from urban green spaces had more overall behavioural problems than those living within 500m of urban green spaces (proportional OR=1.41 (95% CI=1.06-1.87)). Behavioural problems were not associated with the distance to forests or with residential surrounding greenness. CONCLUSION: Poor access to urban green spaces was associated with behavioural problems in 10-year old children. Results were most consistent with hyperactivity/inattention problems.
AU  - Markevych, I.
AU  - Tiesler, C.M.
AU  - Fuertes, E.
AU  - Romanos, M.*
AU  - Dadvand, P.*
AU  - Nieuwenhuijsen, M.J.*
AU  - Berdel, D.*
AU  - Koletzko, S.*
AU  - Heinrich, J.
C1  - 31664
C2  - 34673
CY  - Oxford
SP  - 29-35
TI  - Access to urban green spaces and behavioural problems in children: Results from the GINIplus and LISAplus studies.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 71
PB  - Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd
PY  - 2014
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - The pathophysiological pathways linking particulate air pollution to cardiovascular disease are still not fully understood. We examined the association between ambient air pollutants and blood markers of inflammation and coagulation/fibrinolysis in three potentially susceptible populations. Three panels of non-smoking individuals were examined between 3/2007 and 12/2008: 1) with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D, n=83), 2) with impaired glucose tolerance (IGT, n=104), and 3) with a potential genetic predisposition which could affect detoxifying and inflammatory pathways (n=87) defined by the null polymorphism for glutathione S-transferase M1 (GSTM1) in combination with a certain single nucleotide polymorphism on the C-reactive protein (CRP) or the fibrinogen gene. Study participants had blood drawn up to seven times every four to six weeks. In total, 1765 blood samples were analysed for CRP, interleukin (IL)-6, soluble CD40 ligand (sCD40L), fibrinogen, myeloperoxidase (MPO), and plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1). Hourly mean values of particulate air pollutants, particle number concentrations in different size ranges and gaseous pollutants were collected at fixed monitoring sites and individual 24hour averages calculated. Associations between air pollutants and blood markers were analysed for each panel separately and taking the T2D panel and the IGT panel together, using additive mixed models adjusted for long-term time trend and meteorology. For the panel with potential genetic susceptibility, CRP and MPO increased for most lags, especially with the 5-day average exposure (% change of geometric mean and 95% confidence interval: 22.9% [12.0;34.7] for CRP and 5.0% [0.3;9.9] for MPO per interquartile range of PM2.5). Small positive associations were seen for fibrinogen while sCD40L, PAI-1 and IL-6 mostly decreased in association with air pollution concentrations. Except for positive associations for fibrinogen we did not see significant results with the two other panels. Participants with potential genetic susceptibility showed a clear association between inflammatory blood biomarkers and ambient air pollutants. Our results support the hypothesis that air pollution increases systemic inflammation especially in susceptible populations which may aggravate atherosclerotic diseases and induce multi-organ damage.
AU  - Rückerl, R.
AU  - Hampel, R.
AU  - Breitner-Busch, S.
AU  - Cyrys, J.
AU  - Kraus, U.
AU  - Carter, J.*
AU  - Dailey, L.*
AU  - Devlin, R.B.*
AU  - Diaz-Sanchez, D.*
AU  - Koenig, W.*
AU  - Phipps, R.*
AU  - Silbajoris, R.*
AU  - Soentgen, J.*
AU  - Soukup, J.*
AU  - Peters, A.
AU  - Schneider, A.E.
C1  - 31562
C2  - 34570
CY  - Oxford
SP  - 32-49
TI  - Associations between ambient air pollution and blood markers of inflammation and coagulation/fibrinolysis in susceptible populations.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 70
PB  - Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd
PY  - 2014
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - BACKGROUND: Associations between long-term exposure to ambient particulate matter (PM) and cardiovascular (CVD) mortality have been widely recognized. However, health effects of long-term exposure to constituents of PM on total CVD mortality have been explored in a single study only. AIMS: The aim of this study was to examine the association of PM composition with cardiovascular mortality. METHODS: We used data from 19 European ongoing cohorts within the framework of the ESCAPE (European Study of Cohorts for Air Pollution Effects) and TRANSPHORM (Transport related Air Pollution and Health impacts - Integrated Methodologies for Assessing Particulate Matter) projects. Residential annual average exposure to elemental constituents within particle matter smaller than 2.5 and 10μm (PM2.5 and PM10) was estimated using Land Use Regression models. Eight elements representing major sources were selected a priori (copper, iron, potassium, nickel, sulfur, silicon, vanadium and zinc). Cohort-specific analyses were conducted using Cox proportional hazards models with a standardized protocol. Random-effects meta-analysis was used to calculate combined effect estimates. RESULTS: The total population consisted of 322,291 participants, with 9545 CVD deaths. We found no statistically significant associations between any of the elemental constituents in PM2.5 or PM10 and CVD mortality in the pooled analysis. Most of the hazard ratios (HRs) were close to unity, e.g. for PM10 Fe the combined HR was 0.96 (0.84-1.09). Elevated combined HRs were found for PM2.5 Si (1.17, 95% CI: 0.93-1.47), and S in PM2.5 (1.08, 95% CI: 0.95-1.22) and PM10 (1.09, 95% CI: 0.90-1.32). CONCLUSION: In a joint analysis of 19 European cohorts, we found no statistically significant association between long-term exposure to 8 elemental constituents of particles and total cardiovascular mortality.
AU  - Wang, M.*
AU  - Beelen, R.*
AU  - Stafoggia, M.*
AU  - Raaschou-Nielsen, O.*
AU  - Andersen, Z.J.*
AU  - Hoffmann, B.*
AU  - Fischer, P.*
AU  - Houthuijs, D.*
AU  - Nieuwenhuijsen, M.*
AU  - Weinmayr, G.*
AU  - Vineis, P.*
AU  - Xun, W.W.*
AU  - Dimakopoulou, K.*
AU  - Samoli, E.*
AU  - Laatikainen, T.*
AU  - Lanki, T.*
AU  - Turunen, A.W.*
AU  - Oftedal, B.*
AU  - Schwarze, P.*
AU  - Aamodt, G.*
AU  - Penell, J.*
AU  - de Faire, U.*
AU  - Korek, M.*
AU  - Leander, K.*
AU  - Pershagen, G.*
AU  - Pedersen, N.L.*
AU  - Ostenson, C.G.*
AU  - Fratiglioni, L.*
AU  - Eriksen, K.T.*
AU  - Sørensen, M.*
AU  - Tjønneland, A.*
AU  - Bueno-de-Mesquita, H.B.*
AU  - Eeftens, M.*
AU  - Bots, M.L.*
AU  - Meliefste, K.*
AU  - Krämer, U.*
AU  - Heinrich, J.
AU  - Sugiri, D.*
AU  - Key, T.*
AU  - de Hoogh, K.*
AU  - Wolf, K.
AU  - Peters, A.
AU  - Cyrys, J.
AU  - Jaensch, A.*
AU  - Concin, H.*
AU  - Nagel, G.*
AU  - Tsai, M.Y.*
AU  - Phuleria, H.*
AU  - Ineichen, A.*
AU  - Künzli, N.*
AU  - Probst-Hensch, N.*
AU  - Schaffner, E.*
AU  - Vilier, A.*
AU  - Clavel-Chapelon, F.*
AU  - Declerq, C.*
AU  - Ricceri, F.*
AU  - Sacerdote, C.*
AU  - Marcon, A.*
AU  - Galassi, C.*
AU  - Migliore, E.*
AU  - Ranzi, A.*
AU  - Cesaroni, G.*
AU  - Badaloni, C.*
AU  - Forastiere, F.*
AU  - Katsoulis, M.*
AU  - Trichopoulou, A.*
AU  - Keuken, M.*
AU  - Jedynska, A.*
AU  - Kooter, I.M.*
AU  - Kukkonen, J.V.K.*
AU  - Sokhi, R.S.*
AU  - Brunekreef, B.*
AU  - Katsouyanni, K.*
AU  - Hoek, G.*
C1  - 30647
C2  - 33768
CY  - Oxford
SP  - 97-106
TI  - Long-term exposure to elemental constituents of particulate matter and cardiovascular mortality in 19 European cohorts: Results from the ESCAPE and TRANSPHORM projects.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 66
PB  - Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd
PY  - 2014
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Triolein-containing semipermeable membrane devices (SPMDs) and butyl rubber (BR) based sorbents were employed as passive samplers in 14 coastal stations of Turkey including shipyards and marinas to characterize time-integrated levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) and their relationship to potential pollution sources. Passive samplers of SPMDs and BR sorbents were deployed for 30days in the spring of 2012. The maximum concentrations of total PAH and PCB compounds sequestered by SPMDs were 3338ngg(-1) SPMD and 4247pgg(-1) SPMD. (END)-I and DDT-related compounds were dominant OCP compounds for most of the sites in passive samplers. Total PAH concentrations in SPMDs were found 1.2 to 8 times higher than the concentrations in BRs. However, BR sorbents were able to sample some PAHs which could not be sampled by SPMDs. The concentrations of PCBs and OCPs in BRs were similar or higher than SPMDs. SPMD-data were used to estimate the average ambient water concentrations of the contaminants. Two existing theoretical approaches have been used to derive the concentrations of hydrophobic pollutants in the ambient waters. The results were found very similar and range from 7318 to 183864pgL(-1) for PAHs, from 2 to 186pgL(-1) for PCBs, and from 98 to 848pgL(-1) for OCPs. Furthermore, a simple numerical model was designed to estimate the boat-related water concentrations in marinas by using the seawater data supplied by SPMDs. The model was mainly built on the water concentration and the capacities of a particular marina and then applied to two sites in the second marina. A good correlation was found between the model outputs and SPMD-water data.
AU  - Yilmaz, A.*
AU  - Karacik, B.*
AU  - Henkelmann, B.
AU  - Pfister, G.
AU  - Schramm, K.-W.
AU  - Yakan, S.D.*
AU  - Barlas, B.*
AU  - Okay, O.S.*
C1  - 31914
C2  - 34866
SP  - 85-93
TI  - Use of passive samplers in pollution monitoring: A numerical approach for marinas.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 73
PY  - 2014
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Assessment of human exposure to environmental persistent organic pollutants such as organochlorine pesticides (OCPs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins/furans (PCDD/Fs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) based on the levels in human breast milk provides a reasonable tool not only to assess the contaminant burden in mothers but also to assess potential exposure of breast-fed neonates. There are limited data on levels of PCBs and OCPs in humans but no previous reports from Turkey on chemically determined levels PAHs in human milk. The aim of this study was to report the levels and accumulation profiles of OCPs, PCBs and PAHs in 47 breast milk samples obtained from a Mediterranean city, Mersin. High resolution analyses were performed by a gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometer (GC-MS). Dichlorodiphenyldichloroethane (4.4'-DDE) was the dominant pollutant. Beta-hexachlorocyclohexane (ß-HCH), dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (4.4'-DDT), dieldrin, hexachlorobenzene, oxy-chlordane, cis-heptachlorepoxide were the other main OCPs detected. Mean levels of ΣPCB congeners and WHO(PCB)-TEQ were 9.94 and 0.001 ng/g lipid, respectively. PCB 153 showed the highest concentration (3.37 ng/g lipid), followed by PCB 138 and 180. For the dioxin-like PCBs, PCB 118 was the dominant (0.97 ng/g lipid). Naphthalene, phenanthrene, pyrene and fluoranthene were the major PAHs among the 16 PAHs detected. The estimated daily intakes of DDTs, PCBs, HCHs and HCB were not exceeded the tolerable daily intake (TDI) proposed by the Health Canada Guideline. These results indicate that the neonates of Mersin city are exposed to persistent organic pollutants analyzed in this study. However, neonates born in Mersin province are less exposed than the ones born in other regions, considering OCP and PCB levels in breast milk.
AU  - Cok, I.*
AU  - Mazmanci, B.*
AU  - Mazmanci, M.A.*
AU  - Turgut, C.*
AU  - Henkelmann, B.
AU  - Schramm, K.-W.
C1  - 7301
C2  - 29662
SP  - 63-69
TI  - Analysis of human milk to assess exposure to PAHs, PCBs and organochlorine pesticides in the vicinity Mediterranean city Mersin, Turkey.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 40
PB  - Elsevier
PY  - 2012
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - In the aftermath of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident, a research group of the Italian National Institute of Health (Istituto Superiore di Sanità) carried out two research programmes on maternal milk. One concerned the transfer of caesium radionuclides from the diet to breast milk. In the other, the activity concentrations of (137)Cs were also determined in urine and placenta. The first study estimated the mothers' average (137)Cs dietary intake, in the second study the intake was evaluated individually for each subject. In 2004, the International Commission on Radiological Protection published modified systemic biokinetic models which also account for transfer to breast milk. The model for caesium radionuclides was implemented and tested by the authors with the experimental data described above. A good agreement was obtained between measured data and model simulations of (137)Cs activity concentration in human milk. The model, however, tends to systematically overestimate (137)Cs activity concentration in urine, in which case the agreement is to be considered satisfactory in terms of order of magnitude.
AU  - Giussani, A.
AU  - Risica, S.*
C1  - 7151
C2  - 29491
SP  - 122-127
TI  - Validation of the ICRP model for caesium intake by lactating mothers with Italian data after the Chernobyl fallout.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 39
IS  - 1
PB  - Elsevier
PY  - 2012
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Pigs accidentally given feed contaminated by dioxin-like pollutants are a serious public health issue. We have examined whether pigs with limited exposure during early periods of fattening would be categorized as non-compliant with the EU limit at slaughtering when growth-dilution, excretion and metabolism effects are considered. Sixteen female and sixteen castrated male weaned pigs were divided into four groups (e.g. DG0, DG1, DG2 and DG3) in week 2 after birth. From weeks 3 to 13, groups DG1, DG2, and DG3 pigs were fed with a polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxin/dibenzofuran (PCDD/F) and polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) mixture at dosages of 1, 10 and 100ng-toxic equivalent (TEQ) per kg dry mass feed in capsules, respectively. From weeks 13 to 23, the animals were nourished with clear feed. Control group DG0 was always fed with clear feed. Subcutaneous fat samples were collected at weeks 13, 18 and 23 by biopsies. The pollutant residues were analyzed by high resolution gas chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry and quantified by a (13)C-isotope dilution method. The results showed the following: (1) when slaughtered at week 23, the TEQ for DG1 pigs (0.66±0.21pg/g fat) was under the EU limit of 1pg PCDD/F-TEQ/g fat; (2) PCDD/F congener-specific first-order elimination rates were linearly correlated with their toxicity equivalency factors (TEFs), and the rates were significantly dose-dependent for the more toxic congeners (TEF≥0.1). Therefore, the pigs' exposure above the EU limit during the early fattening stage did not necessarily lead to their categorization as non-compliant pork; and the residual TEQ for pork can be predicted from early exposure concentrations based on the models established here.
AU  - Shen, H.*
AU  - John, J.*
AU  - Henkelmann, B.
AU  - Rambeck, W.A.*
AU  - Mayer, R.*
AU  - Wehr, U.*
AU  - Schramm, K.-W.
C1  - 7122
C2  - 29460
SP  - 73-78
TI  - The predictive power of the elimination of dioxin-like pollutants from pigs: An in vivo study.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 38
IS  - 1
PB  - Elsevier
PY  - 2012
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - This paper presents a study evaluating the suitability of recombinant yeast-based estrogenicity assays as a pre-screening tool for monitoring of the chemical status of water bodies in support of the Water Framework Directive (WFD). Three different recombinant yeast-based assays were evaluated; the Yeast Estrogen Screen (YES), the Recombinant Yeast Assay (RYA) and the Rikilt Estrogen bioAssay (REA), of which the YES assay was employed by two different laboratories. No significant difference between the performance of neither the different laboratories, nor the different yeast-assays was observed. Six batches of eleven samples each were analysed one week apart by the four participating laboratories and the robustness, repeatability and reproducibility of the participating yeast-based assays were evaluated. The setup included a correlation between bioassay results and results from chemical target analysis, which gave valuable information in the evaluation of the assays' performance. A good agreement was found between chemical and bioassay results, showing that the yeast-based assays can give valuable information in WFD work. However, the low sensitivity of the assays towards alkylphenols needs to be significantly improved if they are to be used for monitoring of these compounds. The study further led to suggestions on ways to improve traceability and quality assurance of the yeast-based assays.
AU  - Brix, R.*
AU  - Noguerol, T.N.*
AU  - Pina, B.*
AU  - Balaam, J.*
AU  - Nilsen, A.J.*
AU  - Tollefsen, K.E.*
AU  - Levy, W.
AU  - Schramm, K.-W.
AU  - Barcelo, D.*
C1  - 5640
C2  - 27417
SP  - 361-367
TI  - Evaluation of the suitability of recombinant yeast-based estrogenicity assays as a pre-screening tool in environmental samples.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 36
IS  - 4
PB  - Elsevier
PY  - 2010
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Surficial sediments and mussels (Mytilus galloprovincialis) from the Istanbul Strait and Marmara Sea were analysed for sixteen parent polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) contents by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (CC-MS) employing isotope dilution technique. Microalgae toxicity testing was applied to sediment elutriates and biological responses in terms of filtration rate and lysosomal stability were measured in mussels. Total PAH concentrations ranged from 2.1 to 3152 ng g(-1) dry wt in sediments and from 43-601 ng g(-1) wet weight in mussels. Molecular indices of phenanthrene/anthracene, fluoranthene/pyrene and benzo (a)a nth race ne/chrysene were used to differentiate between pyrolytic and petroleum origin. Results showed that most of the contamination originates from high temperature pyrolytic inputs with some slight contribution of petrogenic PAH. PAH in sediments were frequently lower than the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)-ERM (Effects Range Medium) index. Results of sediment elutriate toxicity testing and biomarkers indicate that the cause of negative effects in sediments may result from different classes of pollutants and does not only relate with PAH contamination. Mussels from most of the stations showed both reduced lysosomal membrane stability and filtration rate indicating disturbed health although the two biomarker results did not always complement each other. The effect studies showed that the pollutants in the strait ecosystem have more pronounced effects in the middle parts than those at the Black Sea entrance.
AU  - Karacik, B.*
AU  - Okay, O.S.*
AU  - Henkelmann, B.
AU  - Bernhöft, S.
AU  - Schramm, K.-W.
C1  - 246
C2  - 26234
SP  - 599-606
TI  - Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and effects on marine organisms in the Istanbul Strait.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 35
IS  - 3
PB  - Pergamon-Elsevier Science Ltd
PY  - 2009
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Mold growth is believed to be one causative factor underlying the association between dampness in buildings and increased respiratory morbidity. Measurements of ß(1- 3)-glucans and fungal extracellular polysaccharides (EPS) are used as markers of mold exposure in field studies. Little is known about their levels and determinants in homes. Objective To study levels and determinants of ß(1 - 3)-glucan and EPS levels in mattress and living room floor dust in three European countries. Methods Mattress and living room floor dust was collected in the homes of 1065 German, Dutch, and Swedish (pre-)school children. All samples were analyzed for ß(1 - 3)-glucans and EPS in one central laboratory. Determinants were assessed by questionnaire. Results Amounts of dust, EPS and ß(1- 3)-glucan levels differed between countries. Amounts of dust, ß(1- 3)-glucan and EPS levels for mattresses were only weakly correlated with those for living room floors. Floor dust ß(1 - 3)-glucan loads, EPS loads and EPS concentrations were strongly correlated with the amount of dust sampled, which is largely determined by the type of floor that was sampled (carpeted floors had 5–20 higher amounts of dust). None of the other determinants was consistently and statistically significantly associated with amounts of dust, ß(1 - 3)-glucan and EPS concentrations on floors and mattresses. Conclusion Mattress dust and floor dust are two different measures of exposure to the investigated mold components. Living room floor ß(1- 3)-glucan and EPS loads and EPS concentrations are largely determined by the type of floor sampled. Differences between countries can only partly be explained by the determinants studied.
AU  - Giovannangelo, M.E.C.A.*
AU  - Gehring, U.
AU  - Nordling, E.*
AU  - Oldenwening, M.*
AU  - van Rijswijk, K.*
AU  - de Wind, S.*
AU  - Hoek, G.*
AU  - Heinrich, J.
AU  - Bellander, T.*
AU  - Brunkreef, B.*
C1  - 4879
C2  - 24386
SP  - 9-16
TI  - Levels and determinants of ß(1 - 3)-glucans and fungal extracellular polysaccharides in house dust of (pre-)schoolchildren in three European countries.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 33
IS  - 1
PB  - Elsevier
PY  - 2007
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AU  - Tolun, L.*
AU  - Martens, D.
AU  - Okay, O.S.*
AU  - Schramm, K.-W.
C1  - 4875
C2  - 23857
SP  - 758-765
TI  - Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon contamination in coastal sediments of the Izmit Bay (Marmara Sea) : Case studies before and after the Izmit Earthquake.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 32
PY  - 2006
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Single-species tests allow the assessment of chronical effects of endocrine disruptors on organisms under laboratory conditions. In the current study, three-generation tests with Ceriodaphnia reticulata and Sida crystallina were carried out to examine the influence of the synthetic hormone 17α-ethinylestradiol (EE) on the reproduction of these cladoceran species. For each species, six different concentrations (10–500 μg/l EE) and two controls were tested with eight replicates for a duration of 4 weeks. The test was initiated by transferring one neonate individual into a test vessel which was incubated under standardized conditions. Every 2 days, the medium was renewed and life history parameters such as survivorship of the adults and juveniles, clutch size, first appearance and number of produced offspring were investigated. Acute toxicity tests showed that C. reticulata (EC50 (24 h) 1814 μg/l) was more sensitive towards the substance compared to S. crystallina (EC50 (24 h) >4100 μg/l). The juvenile phase of S. crystallina was significantly shorter at concentrations above 100 μg/l EE. For C. reticulata, 17α-ethinylestradiol caused a higher mortality of the newly hatched juveniles at EE concentrations above 200 μg/l. No effects were found for mortality of adult animals, birth rate, number of juveniles per female and net reproduction rate of S. crystallina and C. reticulata. Thus, sublethal effects on parental generation exposed to EE lead to disturbances in reproduction and to affection of their offspring. Negative consequences for the population dynamic cannot be excluded, e.g. the decrease of a population.
AU  - Jaser, W.
AU  - Severin, G.F.
AU  - Jütting, U.
AU  - Jüttner, I.
AU  - Schramm, K.-W.
AU  - Kettrup, A.
C1  - 10215
C2  - 20801
SP  - 633-638
TI  - Effects of 17alpha-ethinylestradiol on the reproduction of the cladoceran species Ceriodaphnia reticulata and Siida crystallina.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 28
IS  - 7
PY  - 2003
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - The concentrations of polychlorinayed dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/F) in surface sediment, soil, human hair, acid fish muscle from Ya-Er Lake area, China, were analyzed. The results showed that there were very high concentrations of PCDD/F existing in these samples. The results also indicated that Ya-Er Lake, which received a large amount of waste water from a nearby chloroalkali plant, was heavily polluted by PCDD:F. The present study demonstrated that those congeners, which possess at least three chlorine atoms in the lateral position with a fourth chlorine atom in the neighborhood bond of the third single chlorine atom, such as 1,2,7,8-TCDF and 2,3.6,7-TCDF, were very resistant to biodegradation due to the neighbor effect" of every two chlorine atoms. The present study suggested that human hair may be a suitable alternative bioindicator for detecting PCDD/F exposure."
AU  - Wu, W.Z.*
AU  - Xu, Y.*
AU  - Schramm, K.-W.
AU  - Kettrup, A.
C1  - 10214
C2  - 19818
SP  - 323-326
TI  - Persistence of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/F) in Ya-Er Lake area, China.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 26 
IS  - 5-6
PB  - Elsevier Science Ltd.
PY  - 2001
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - During and briefly after World War II, 224Ra was used in a German hospital in combination with platinum and eosin (Peteosthor) for the treatment of tuberculosis and ankylosing spondylitis. The patients, primarily children and juveniles, received repeated intravenous injections of up to 2 MBq 224Ra per injection twice a week for months, sometimes even for years. Injected amounts totalled up to 140 MBq. Following this therapy, an enormous increase in the incidence of bone tumors (56 cases among 900 patients), as well as other lesions was observed. The surviving patients are still under follow-up. Treatment of ankylosing spondylitis with drastically reduced doses of 224Ra, however, was continued up to the recent present and over 1500 patients were so treated in West-German hospitals. This second cohort, exclusively adults, received much lower amounts applied in most cases as one series of 10 weekly injections of about 1 MBq of 224Ra each. This would result in a cumulative alpha-dose of about 0.56 Gy to the marrow-free skeleton of a 70 kg man. These patients have been followed for several years, together with a control group of ankylosing spondylitis patients not treated with radioactive drugs or x-rays. By August 1991, three cases of malignant bone tumors have been observed among the exposed (0.7 - 2.4 cases expected) vs. one case among the controls. Diseases of hematopoietic tissue included leukemias (9 in the exposure group vs. 6 in the control group) and bone marrow failure (12 cases vs. 9). The increase of total leukemias among the exposed, compared to a standard population, is highly significant (9 cases observed vs. 2.8 expected, p < 0.003). Chronic myeloid leukemia, specifically, was elevated in the exposed group (3 cases observed vs. 0.8 expected, p = 0.047) but not in the control group.
AU  - Wick, R.R.
AU  - Gössner, W.
C1  - 40337
C2  - 40084
SP  - 467-473
TI  - History and current uses of 224Ra in ankylosing spondylitis and other diseases.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 19
IS  - 5
PY  - 1993
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - The present paper describes the analysis of isotopes of uranium, neptunium, plutonium, americium and curium, in air and deposition samples taken at our laboratory site 10 km north of Munich, subsequent to the Chernobyl accident. Uranium-234, 237U, 238U, 239Np, 238Pu, 239+240Pu and 242Cm have been identified and upper limits of detection have been established for 241Am and 244Cm. Deposition and air concentration values are discussed.
AU  - Rosner, G.
AU  - Hötzl, H.
AU  - Winkler, R.A.
C1  - 42564
C2  - 36593
SP  - 331-333
TI  - Actinide nuclides in environmental air and precipitation samples after the Chernobyl accident.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 14
IS  - 4
PY  - 1988
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - The variability of the sorption properties (characterized by the distribution coefficient K(d)) of a forest soil for Cs, Zn, Sr, Co, Cd, Ce, Ru, Tc, and I were determined along a transect of 150 m in regular intervals of 3 m. Radioactive tracers were used to ensure trace concentrations of these elements. For comparison, for each soil sample the loss on ignition, as a measure of the soil organic matter content, and the pH were also determined. On average, the K(d) values increase in the sequence Tc < I < Ru ~ Co ~ Zn ~ Sr < Cd < Ce < Cs; the spatial variability in the sequence I < Zn ~ Sr ~ Co ~ Cd ~ Ru ~ Tc < Cs, and I ~ Ce < Tc. Correlation analysis revealed that, when moving along the transect, the K(d) values for some elements changed in a similar, and for others in a dissimilar pattern. In a few cases a correlation between the pH or the loss on ignition and the K(d) values was also present. The spatial structure of the data was examined by semivariograms. For the elements Co, Cd, Zn, and Sr, the K(d) values showed an almost periodic behaviour along the transect, which is probably due to periodic changes of some soil properties in a forest with regularly spaced trees. | The variability of the sorption properties (characterized by the distribution coefficient Kd) of a forest soil for Cs, Zn, Sr, Co, Cd, Ce, Ru, Tc, and I were determined along a transect of 150 m in regular intervals of 3 m. Radioactive tracers were used to ensure trace concentrations of these elements. For comparison, for each soil sample the loss on ignition, as a measure of the total organic matter content, and the pH were also determined. Correlation analysis revealed that, when moving along the transect, the Kd values for some elements changed in a similar, and for others in a dissimilar pattern. In a few cases a correlation between the pH or the loss on ignition and the K d values was also present. The spatial structure of the data was examined by semivariograms.
AU  - Schimmack, W.
AU  - Bunzl, K.W.
AU  - Bachhuber, H.
C1  - 41953
C2  - 36229
SP  - 427-436
TI  - Variability of the sorption of Cs, Zn, Sr, Co, Cd, Ce, Ru, Tc and I at trace concentrations by a forest soil along a transect.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 13
IS  - 6
PY  - 1987
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Based on a feasibility study, we have recently proposed a multivariate regression model for the impact of air pollution on the mortality of a long-term exposed population. This article proceeds by providing some experimental results, since this model has been fitted to data on a cross sectional basis for 41 census tracts in the Munich metropolitan area. The results obtained so far could be supportive to more detailed epidemiological studies of air pollution which have been conducted in many industrial countries; unfortunately, only relatively few have been conducted in West Germany. | Based on a feasibility study, a multivariate regression model has been proposed for the impact of air pollution on the mortality of a long-term exposed population. This article proceeds by providing some experimental results, since this model has been fitted to data on a cross sectional basis for 41 census tracts in the Munich metropolitan area. The results obtained so far could be supportive to more detailed epidemiological studies of air pollution which have been conducted in many industrial countries. Refs.
AU  - Göttinger, H.W.
C1  - 41299
C2  - 38324
SP  - 207-220
TI  - Air pollution health effects in the Munich metropolitan area: Preliminary results based on a statistical model.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 9
IS  - 3
PY  - 1983
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Work on environmental transuranium nuclides at the Institute for Radiation Protection of the Gesellschaft für Strahlen- und Umweltforschung mbH, Munich, is briefly described and standard needs are discussed. Fallout plutonium measurements in air dust and precipitation samples started in 1970/1971. The procedure is outlined and results are presented as annual mean and sum values, respectively. Since 1973, transuranium nuclides in primary coolant, stack effluent air and waste-water samples from nuclear power stations are measured. Nuclides detected are 239/240Pu, 238Pu and/or 241Am, 242Cm and 244Cm. Examples of alpha particle spectra are given. Needs for standards in environmental transuranium analysis are discussed.
AU  - Rosner, G.
AU  - Hoetzl, H.
AU  - Winkler, R.A.
C1  - 33180
C2  - 35589
SP  - 85-88
TI  - Measurements of transuranium nuclides in the environment at the Institute for Radiation Protection of the Gesellschaft fur Strahlen- und Umweltforschung mbH, Munich.
JO  - Environ. Int.
VL  - 1
IS  - 1-2
PY  - 1978
SN  - 0160-4120
ER  -