Archive for year: 2019
October 15 | 2019
Disproportionately higher exposure to urban heat in lower-income neighborhoods: a multi-city perspective.
T Chakraborty, A Hsu, D Manya and G Sheriff.
Environmental Research Letters, Volume 14, Number 10
Focus on Sustainable Cities: Urban Solutions Towards Desired Outcomes Published 30 September 2019 • © 2019 The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing Ltd
DOI https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab3b99
Abstract
A growing literature documents the effects of heat stress on premature mortality and other adverse health outcomes. Urban heat islands (UHI) can exacerbate these adverse impacts in cities by amplifying heat exposure during the day and inhibiting the body’s ability to recover at night. Since the UHI intensity varies not only across, but also within cities, intra-city variation may lead to differential impact of urban heat stress on different demographic groups. To examine these differential impacts, we combine satellite observations with census data to evaluate the relationship between distributions of both UHI and income at the neighborhood scale for 25 cities around the world. We find that in most (72%) cases, poorer neighborhoods experience elevated heat exposure, an incidental consequence of the intra-city distribution of income in cities. This finding suggests that policymakers should consider designing city-specific UHI reduction strategies to mitigate its impacts on the most socioeconomically vulnerable populations who may be less equipped to adapt to environmental stressors. Since the strongest contributor of intra-urban UHI variability among the physical characteristics considered in this study is a neighborhood’s vegetation density, increasing green space in lower income neighborhoods is one strategy urban policymakers can adopt to ameliorate some of UHI’s inequitable burden on economically disadvantaged residents.
October 7 | 2019
Residential surrounding green, air pollution, traffic noise and self-perceived general health.
Klompmaker JO, Janssen NAH, Bloemsma LD, Gehring U, Wijga AH, van den Brink C, Lebret E, Brunekreef B, Hoek G.
Environ Res. 2019 Sep 17;179(Pt A):108751.[Epub ahead of print] DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2019.108751
Abstract
Self-perceived general health (SGH) is one of the most inclusive and widely used measures of health status and a powerful predictor of mortality. However, only a limited number of studies evaluated associations of combined environmental exposures on SGH. Our aim was to evaluate associations of combined residential exposure to surrounding green, air pollution and traffic noise with poor SGH in the Netherlands. We linked data on long-term residential exposure to surrounding green based on the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and a land-use database (TOP10NL), air pollutant concentrations (including particulate matter (PM10, PM2.5), and nitrogen dioxide (NO2)) and road- and rail-traffic noise with a Dutch national health survey, resulting in a study population of 354,827 adults. We analyzed associations of single and combined exposures with poor SGH. In single-exposure models, NDVI within 300 m was inversely associated with poor SGH [odds ratio (OR) = 0.91, 95% CI: 0.89, 0.94 per IQR increase], while NO2 was positively associated with poor SGH (OR = 1.07, 95% CI: 1.04, 1.11 per IQR increase). In multi-exposure models, associations with surrounding green and air pollution generally remained, but attenuated. Joint odds ratios (JOR) of combined exposure to air pollution, rail-traffic noise and decreased surrounding green were higher than the odds ratios of single-exposure models. Studies including only one of these correlated exposures may overestimate the risk of poor SGH attributed to the studied exposure, while underestimating the risk of combined exposures.
September 30 | 2019
Ambient black carbon particles reach the fetal side of human placenta.
Hannelore Bové, Eva Bongaerts, Eli Slenders, Esmée M. Bijnens, Nelly D. Saenen, Wilfried Gyselaers, Peter Van Eyken, Michelle Plusquin, Maarten B. J. Roeffaers, Marcel Ameloot & Tim S. Nawrot.
Nature Communications volume 10, Article number: 3866 (2019) | Published: 17 September 2019 DOI doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-11654-3
Abstract
Particle transfer across the placenta has been suggested but to date, no direct evidence in real-life, human context exists. Here we report the presence of black carbon (BC) particles as part of combustion-derived particulate matter in human placentae using white-light generation under femtosecond pulsed illumination. BC is identified in all screened placentae, with an average (SD) particle count of 0.95 × 104 (0.66 × 104) and 2.09 × 104 (0.9 × 104) particles per mm3 for low and high exposed mothers, respectively. Furthermore, the placental BC load is positively associated with mothers’ residential BC exposure during pregnancy (0.63–2.42 µg per m3). Our finding that BC particles accumulate on the fetal side of the placenta suggests that ambient particulates could be transported towards the fetus and represents a potential mechanism explaining the detrimental health effects of pollution from early life onwards.
September 23 | 2019
Assessing the micro-scale environment using Google Street View: the Virtual Systematic Tool for Evaluating Pedestrian Streetscapes (Virtual-STEPS).
Steinmetz-Wood M, Velauthapillai K, O’Brien G, Ross NA.
BMC Public Health. 2019 Sep 10;19(1):1246. doi: 10.1186/s12889-019-7460-3
Abstract
BACKGROUND:
Altering micro-scale features of neighborhood walkability (e.g., benches, sidewalks, and cues of social disorganization or crime) could be a relatively cost-effective method of creating environments that are conducive to active living. Traditionally, measuring the micro-scale environment has required researchers to perform observational audits. Technological advances have led to the development of virtual audits as alternatives to observational field audits with the enviable properties of cost-efficiency from elimination of travel time and increased safety for auditors. This study examined the reliability of the Virtual Systematic Tool for Evaluating Pedestrian Streetscapes (Virtual-STEPS), a Google Street View-based auditing tool specifically designed to remotely assess micro-scale characteristics of the built environment.
METHODS:
We created Virtual-STEPS, a tool with 40 items categorized into 6 domains (pedestrian infrastructure, traffic calming and streets, building characteristics, bicycling infrastructure, transit, and aesthetics). Items were selected based on their past abilities to predict active living and on their feasibility for a virtual auditing tool. Two raters performed virtual and field audits of street segments in Montreal neighborhoods stratified by the Walkscore that was used to determine the ‘walking-friendliness’ of a neighborhood. The reliability between virtual and field audits (n = 40), as well as inter-rater reliability (n = 60) were assessed using percent agreement, Cohen’s Kappa statistic, and the Intra-class Correlation Coefficient.
RESULTS:
Virtual audits and field audits (excluding travel time) took similar amounts of time to perform (9.8 versus 8.2 min). Percentage agreement between virtual and field audits, and for inter-rater agreement was 80% or more for the majority of items included in the Virtual-STEPS tool. There was high reliability between virtual and field audits with Kappa and ICC statistics indicating that 20 out of 40 (50.0%) items had almost perfect agreement and 13 (32.5%) items had substantial agreement. Inter-rater reliability was also high with 17 items (42.5%) with almost perfect agreement and 11 (27.5%) items with substantial agreement.
CONCLUSIONS:
Virtual-STEPS is a reliable tool. Tools that measure the micro-scale environment are important because changing this environment could be a relatively cost-effective method of creating environments that are conducive to active living.
September 9 | 2019
Prenatal exposure to traffic-related air pollution, the gestational epigenetic clock and risk of early-life allergic sensitization.
Sbihi H, Jones MJ, MacIsaac JL, Brauer M, Allen RW, Sears MR, Subbarao P, Mandhane PJ, Moraes TJ, Azad MB, Becker AB, Brook JR, Kobor MS, Turvey SE.
J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2019 Aug 27. pii: S0091-6749(19)31101-7. [Epub ahead of print] DOI: 10.1016/j.jaci.2019.07.047
Abstract
Prenatal exposure to traffic-related air pollution is associated with an increased risk of allergic sensitization by modifying in utero development and altering the gestational epigenetic clock.
September 3 | 2019
Ambient Air Pollution and the Risk of Atrial Fibrillation and Stroke: A Population-Based Cohort Study.
Shin S, Burnett RT, Kwong JC, Hystad P, van Donkelaar A, Brook JR, Goldberg MS, Tu K, Copes R, Martin RV, Liu Y, Kopp A, Chen H.
Environ Health Perspect. 2019 Aug;127(8):87009. Epub 2019 Aug 26. DOI:10.1289/EHP4883
Abstract
BACKGROUND:
Although growing evidence links air pollution to stroke incidence, less is known about the effect of air pollution on atrial fibrillation (AF), an important risk factor for stroke.
OBJECTIVES:
We assessed the associations between air pollution and incidence of AF and stroke. We also sought to characterize the shape of pollutant-disease relationships.
METHODS:
The population-based cohort comprised 5,071,956 Ontario residents, age 35-85 y and without the diagnoses of both outcomes on 1 April 2001 and was followed up until 31 March 2015. AF and stroke cases were ascertained using health administrative databases with validated algorithms. Based on annual residential postal codes, we assigned 5-y running average concentrations of fine particulate matter ([Formula: see text]), nitrogen dioxide ([Formula: see text]), and ozone ([Formula: see text]) from satellite-derived data, a land-use regression model, and a fusion-based method, respectively, as well as redox-weighted averages of [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] ([Formula: see text]) for each year. Using Cox proportional hazards models, we estimated the hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) of AF and stroke with each of these pollutants, adjusting for individual- and neighborhood-level variables. We used newly developed nonlinear risk models to characterize the shape of pollutant-disease relationships.
RESULTS:
Between 2001 and 2015, we identified 313,157 incident cases of AF and 122,545 cases of stroke. Interquartile range increments of [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], and [Formula: see text] were associated with increases in the incidence of AF [HRs (95% CIs): 1.03 (1.01, 1.04), 1.02 (1.01, 1.03), 1.01 (1.00, 1.02), and 1.01 (1.01, 1.02), respectively] and the incidence of stroke [HRs (95% CIs): 1.05 (1.03, 1.07), 1.04 (1.01, 1.06), 1.05 (1.03, 1.06), and 1.05 (1.04, 1.06), respectively]. Associations of similar magnitude were found in various sensitivity analyses. Furthermore, we found a near-linear association for stroke with [Formula: see text], whereas [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text]-, and [Formula: see text] relationships exhibited sublinear shapes.
CONCLUSIONS:
Air pollution was associated with stroke and AF onset, even at very low concentrations.
August 12 | 2019
Evaluation of a method to indirectly adjust for unmeasured covariates in the association between fine particulate matter and mortality.
Erickson AC, Brauer M, Christidis T, Pinault L, Crouse DL, van Donkelaar A, Weichenthal S, Pappin A, Tjepkema M, Martin RV, Brook JR, Hystad P, Burnett RT.
Environ Res. 2019 Aug;175:108-116. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2019.05.010 Epub 2019 May 11.
Abstract
BACKGROUND:
Indirect adjustment via partitioned regression is a promising technique to control for unmeasured confounding in large epidemiological studies. The method uses a representative ancillary dataset to estimate the association between variables missing in a primary dataset with the complete set of variables of the ancillary dataset to produce an adjusted risk estimate for the variable in question. The objective of this paper is threefold: 1) evaluate the method for non-linear survival models, 2) formalize an empirical process to evaluate the suitability of the required ancillary matching dataset, and 3) test modifications to the method to incorporate time-varying exposure data, and proportional weighting of datasets.
METHODS:
We used the association between fine particle air pollution (PM2.5) with mortality in the 2001 Canadian Census Health and Environment Cohort (CanCHEC, N = 2.4 million, 10-years follow-up) as our primary dataset, and the 2001 cycle of the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS, N = 80,630) as the ancillary matching dataset that contained confounding risk factor information not available in CanCHEC (e.g., smoking). The main evaluation process used a gold-standard approach wherein two variables (education and income) available in both datasets were excluded, indirectly adjusted for, and compared to true models with education and income included to assess the amount of bias correction. An internal validation for objective 1 used only CanCHEC data, whereas an external validation for objective 2 replaced CanCHEC with the CCHS. The two proposed modifications were applied as part of the validation tests, as well as in a final indirect adjustment of four missing risk factor variables (smoking, alcohol use, diet, and exercise) in which adjustment direction and magnitude was compared to models using an equivalent longitudinal cohort with direct adjustment for the same variables.
RESULTS:
At baseline (2001) both cohorts had very similar PM2.5 distributions across population characteristics, although levels for CCHS participants were consistently 1.8-2.0 μg/m3 lower. Applying sample-weighting largely corrected for this discrepancy. The internal validation tests showed minimal downward bias in PM2.5 mortality hazard ratios of 0.4-0.6% using a static exposure, and 1.7-3% when a time-varying exposure was used. The external validation of the CCHS as the ancillary dataset showed slight upward bias of -0.7 to -1.1% and downward bias of 1.3-2.3% using the static and time-varying approaches respectively.
CONCLUSIONS:
The CCHS was found to be fairly well representative of CanCHEC and its use in Canada for indirect adjustment is warranted. Indirect adjustment methods can be used with survival models to correct hazard ratio point estimates and standard errors in models missing key covariates when a representative matching dataset is available. The results of this formal evaluation should encourage other cohorts to assess the suitability of ancillary datasets for the application of the indirect adjustment methodology to address potential residual confounding.
August 6 | 2019
Acute Blood Pressure and Cardiovascular Effects of Near-Roadway Exposures with and without N95-Respirators.
Morishita M, Wang L, Speth K, Zhou N, Bard RL, Li F, Brook JR, Rajagopalan S, Brook RD.
Am J Hypertens. 2019 Jul 27. pii: hpz113. [Epub ahead of print] DOI: 10.1093/ajh/hpz113
Abstract
BACKGROUND:
The risk for cardiovascular events increases within hours of near-roadway exposures. We aimed to determine the traffic-related air pollutants (TRAP) and biological mechanisms involved and if reducing particulate matter<2.5 µm (PM2.5) inhalation is protective.
METHODS:
Fifty healthy-adults underwent multiple 2-hour near-roadway exposures (Tuesdays-Fridays) in Ann Arbor during 2 separate weeks (randomized to wear an N95-respirator during one week). Monday both weeks, participants rested 2-hours in an exam room (once wearing an N95-respirator). Brachial blood pressure, aortic hemodynamics and heart rate variability were repeatedly-measured during exposures. Endothelial function (reactive hyperemia index [RHI]) was measured post-exposures (Thursdays). Black carbon (BC), total particle count (PC), PM2.5, noise and temperature were measured throughout exposures.
RESULTS:
PM2.5 (9.3±7.7 µg/m3), BC (1.3±0.6 µg/m3), PC (8375±4930 particles/cm3) and noise (69.2±4.2 dB) were higher (p-values<0.01) and aortic hemodynamic parameters trended worse while near-roadway (p-values<0.15 versus exam room). Other outcomes were unchanged. Aortic hemodynamics trended towards improvements with N95-respirator usage while near-roadway (p-values<0.15 versus no-use), whereas other outcomes remained unaffected. Higher near-roadway PC and BC exposures were associated with increases in aortic augmentation pressures (p-values<0.05) and trends toward lower RHI (p-values<0.2). N95-respirator usage did not mitigate these adverse responses (non-significant pollutant-respirator interactions). Near-roadway outdoor-temperature and noise were also associated with cardiovascular changes.
CONCLUSIONS:
Exposure to real-world combustion-derived particulates in TRAP, even at relatively-low concentrations, acutely worsened aortic hemodynamics. Our mixed findings regarding the health benefits of wearing N95-respirators support that further studies are needed to validate if they adequately-protect against TRAP given their growing worldwide usage.
July 29 | 2019
Particulate matter air pollution and national and county life expectancy loss in the USA: A spatiotemporal analysis.
James E. Bennett , Helen Tamura-Wicks , Robbie M. Parks, Richard T. Burnett, C. Arden Pope III, Matthew J. Bechle, Julian D. Marshall, Goodarz Danaei, Majid Ezzati.
PLOS | Medicine Published: July 23, 2019 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002856
Abstract
Background
Exposure to fine particulate matter pollution (PM2.5) is hazardous to health. Our aim was to directly estimate the health and longevity impacts of current PM2.5 concentrations and the benefits of reductions from 1999 to 2015, nationally and at county level, for the entire contemporary population of the contiguous United States.
Methods and findings
We used vital registration and population data with information on sex, age, cause of death, and county of residence. We used four Bayesian spatiotemporal models, with different adjustments for other determinants of mortality, to directly estimate mortality and life expectancy loss due to current PM2.5 pollution and the benefits of reductions since 1999, nationally and by county. The covariates included in the adjusted models were per capita income; percentage of population whose family income is below the poverty threshold, who are of Black or African American race, who have graduated from high school, who live in urban areas, and who are unemployed; cumulative smoking; and mean temperature and relative humidity. In the main model, which adjusted for these covariates and for unobserved county characteristics through the use of county-specific random intercepts, PM2.5 pollution in excess of the lowest observed concentration (2.8 μg/m3) was responsible for an estimated 15,612 deaths (95% credible interval 13,248–17,945) in females and 14,757 deaths (12,617–16,919) in males. These deaths would lower national life expectancy by an estimated 0.15 years (0.13–0.17) for women and 0.13 years (0.11–0.15) for men. The life expectancy loss due to PM2.5was largest around Los Angeles and in some southern states such as Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Alabama. At any PM2.5 concentration, life expectancy loss was, on average, larger in counties with lower income and higher poverty rate than in wealthier counties. Reductions in PM2.5 since 1999 have lowered mortality in all but 14 counties where PM2.5 increased slightly. The main limitation of our study, similar to other observational studies, is that it is not guaranteed for the observed associations to be causal. We did not have annual county-level data on other important determinants of mortality, such as healthcare access and quality and diet, but these factors were adjusted for with use of county-specific random intercepts.
Conclusions
According to our estimates, recent reductions in particulate matter pollution in the USA have resulted in public health benefits. Nonetheless, we estimate that current concentrations are associated with mortality impacts and loss of life expectancy, with larger impacts in counties with lower income and higher poverty rate.