Search

BACKGROUND: Few European studies have investigated the effects of long-term exposure to both fine particulate matter ([less than or equal to] 2.5 [micro]m; P[M.sub.2.5]) and nitrogen dioxide (N[O.sub.2]) on mortality. [...]

BACKGROUND: Prenatal exposure to air pollutants has been suggested as a possible etiologic factor for the occurrence of autism spectrum disorder. OBJECTIVES: We aimed to assess whether prenatal air pollution exposure is associated with childhood autistic traits in the general population. METHODS: Ours was a collaborative study of four European population-based birth/child cohorts--CATSS (Sweden), Generation R (the Netherlands), GASPII (Italy), and INMA (Spain). Nitrogen oxides ([NO.sub.2], [NO.sub.x]) and particulate matter (PM) with diameters of < 2.5 [micro]m ([PM.sub.2.5]), [less than or equal to] 10 [micro]m ([PM.sub.10]), and between 2.5 and 10 [micro]m (PMcoarse), and [PM.sub.2.5] absorbance were estimated for birth addresses by land-use regression models based on monitoring campaigns performed between 2008 and 2011. Levels were extrapolated back in time to exact pregnancy periods. We quantitatively assessed autistic traits when the child was between 4 and 10 years of age. Children were classified with autistic traits within the borderline/clinical range and within the clinical range using validated cut-offs. Adjusted cohort-specific effect estimates were combined using random-effects meta-analysis. RESULTS: A total of 8,079 children were included. Prenatal air pollution exposure was not associated with autistic traits within the borderline/clinical range (odds ratio = 0.94; 95% CI: 0.81, 1.10 per each 10-[micro]g/[m.sup.3] increase in [NO.sub.2] pregnancy levels). Similar results were observed in the different cohorts, for the other pollutants, and in assessments of children with autistic traits within the clinical range or children with autistic traits as a quantitative score. CONCLUSIONS: Prenatal exposure to [NO.sub.2] and PM was not associated with autistic traits in children from 4 to 10 years of age in four European population-based birth/child cohort studies. http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/ehp.1408483, Introduction Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are lifelong developmental disabilities characterized by social interaction impairment, communication deficits, and repetitive behaviors (van Engeland and Buitelaar 2008). The prevalence of ASD has increased [...]

Background: Living in areas with higher levels of surrounding greenness and access to urban green areas have been associated with beneficial health outcomes. Some studies suggested a beneficial influence on mortality, but the evidence is still controversial. Objectives: We used longitudinal data from a large cohort to estimate associations of two measures of residential greenness exposure with cause-specific mortality and stroke incidence. Methods: We studied a population-based cohort of 1,263,721 residents in Rome aged [greater than or equal to]30 y, followed from 2001 to 2013. As greenness exposure, we utilized the leaf area index (LAI), which expresses the tree canopy as the leaf area per unit ground surface area, and the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) within 300- and 1,000-m buffers around home addresses. We estimated the association between the two measures of residential greenness and the outcomes using Cox models, after controlling for relevant individual covariates and contextual characteristics, and explored potential mediation by air pollution [fine particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter [less than or equal to]2.5 pm (P[M.sub.2.5]) and N[O.sub.2]] and road traffic noise. Results: We observed 198,704 deaths from nonaccidental causes, 81,269 from cardiovascular diseases [CVDs; 29,654 from ischemic heart disease (IHD)], 18,090 from cerebrovascular diseases, and 29,033 incident cases of stroke. Residential greenness, expressed as interquartile range (IQR) increase in LAI within 300m, was inversely associated with stroke incidence {hazard ratio (HR) 0.977 [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.961, 0.994]} and mortality for nonaccidental [HR 0.988 (95% CI: 0.981, 0.994)], cardiovascular [HR 0.984 (95% CI: 0.974, 0.994)] and cerebrovascular diseases [HR 0.964 (95% CI: 0.943, 0.985)]. Similar results were obtained using NDVI with 300- or 1,000-m buffers. Conclusions: Living in greener areas was associated with better health outcomes in our study, which could be partly due to reduced exposure to environmental hazards. Further research is required to understand the underlying mechanisms. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP2854, Introduction Urban settings are often characterized by artificial environments and buildings, high levels of stress, traffic, noise, air pollution, and heat, and the opportunities to have contact with nature are [...]

BACKGROUND: Inconsistent associations between long-term exposure to particles with an aerodynamic diameter =2.5 μm [fine particulate matter (PM2.5)] components and mortality have been reported, partly related to challenges in exposure assessment. OBJECTIVES: We investigated the associations between long-term exposure to PM2.5) elemental components and mortality in a large pooled European cohort; to compare health effects of PM2.5) components estimated with two exposure modeling approaches, namely, supervised linear regression (SLR) and random forest (RF) algorithms. METHODS: We pooled data from eight European cohorts with 323,782 participants, average age 49 y at baseline (1985–2005). Residential exposure to 2010 annual average concentration of eight PM2.5 components [copper (Cu), iron (Fe), potassium (K), nickel (Ni), sulfur (S), silicon (Si), vanadium (V), and zinc (Zn)] was estimated with Europe-wide SLR and RF models at a 100 × 100m scale. We applied Cox proportional hazards models to investigate the associations between components and natural and cause-specific mortality. In addition, two-pollutant analyses were conducted by adjusting each component for PM2.5 mass and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) separately. RESULTS: We observed 46,640 natural-cause deaths with 6,317,235 person-years and an average follow-up of 19.5 y. All SLR-modeled components were statistically significantly associated with natural-cause mortality in single-pollutant models with hazard ratios (HRs) from 1.05 to 1.27. Similar HRs were observed for RF-modeled Cu, Fe, K, S, V, and Zn with wider confidence intervals (CIs). HRs for SLR-modeled Ni, S, Si, V, and Zn remained above unity and (almost) significant after adjustment for both PM2.5 and NO2. HRs only remained (almost) significant for RF-modeled K and V in two-pollutant models. The HRs for V were 1.03 (95% CI: 1.02, 1.05) and 1.06 (95% CI: 1.02, 1.10) for SLR- and RF-modeled exposures, respectively, per 2 ng/m³, adjusting for PM2.5 mass. Associations with cause-specific mortality were less consistent in two-pollutant models. CONCLUSION: Long-term exposure to V in PM2.5 was most consistently associated with increased mortality. Associations for the other components were weaker for exposure modeled with RF than SLR in two-pollutant models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

OBJECTIVES: The association between short-term air pollution exposure and daily mortality has been widely investigated, but little is known about the temporal variability of the effect estimates. We examined the temporal relationship between exposure to particulate matter (PM) ([PM.sub.10], [PM.sub.2.5]) and gases (N[O.sub.2], S[O.sub.2], and CO) with mortality in a large metropolitan area over the last 17 y. METHODS: Our analysis included 359,447 nonaccidental deaths among [greater than or equal to] 35-y-old individuals in Rome, Italy, over the study period 1998-2014. We related daily concentrations to mortality counts with a time-series Poisson regression analysis adjusted for long-term trends, meteorology, and population dynamics. RESULTS: Annual average concentrations decreased over the study period for all pollutants (e.g., from 42.9to26.6 [micro]g/[m.sup.3] for [PM.sub.10]). Each pollutant was positively associated with mortality, with estimated percentage increases over the entire study period ranging from 0.19% (95% CI: 0.13, 0.26) for a 1-Mg/[m.sup.3] increase in CO (0-1 d lag) to 3.03% (95% CI: 2.44, 3.63) for a 10-[micro]g/[m.sup.3] increase in N[O.sub.2] (0-5 d lag). We did not observe clear temporal patterns in year- or period-specific effect estimates for any pollutant. For example, we estimated that a 10-[micro]g/[m.sup.3] increase in [PM.sub.10] was associated with 1.16% (95% CI: 0.53, 1.79), 0.99% (95% CI: 0.23, 1.77), and 1.87% (95% CI: 1.00, 2.74) increases in mortality for the periods 2001-2005, 2006-2010, and 2011-2014, respectively, and corresponding estimates for a 10-[micro]g/[m.sup.3] increase in N[O.sub.2] were 4.20% (95% CI: 3.15, 5.25), 1.78% (95% CI: 0.73, 2.85), and 3.32% (95% CI: 2.03, 4.63). CONCLUSIONS: Mean concentrations of air pollutants have decreased over the last two decades in Rome, but effect estimates for a fixed increment in each exposure were generally consistent. These findings suggest that there has been little or no change in the overall toxicity of the air pollution mixture over time. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP19., Introduction The association between air pollution and daily mortality has been widely examined over the past three decades (Analitis et al. 2006; Brunekreef and Holgate 2002; Zanobetti et al. 2003). [...]