Environmental Health and Toxicology最新文献

It is widely accepted that a relatively small proportion of chronic disease can be explained by genetic factors alone. Although information about environmental exposure is important to comprehensively evaluate chronic diseases, this information is not sufficiently or accurately assessed by comparison with genomic factors. To emphasize the importance of more complete evaluation of environmental exposure, the concept of the exposome, which indicates the entirety of environmental exposure from conception onwards, was introduced in 2005. Since the 2010s several epidemiological studies, such as the Human Early-Life Exposome project, have applied the exposome concept. The exposome consists of three overlapping domains: the general external, the specific external, and the internal environments. General external factors include the broader socioeconomic environment, and specific external factors include lifestyles, occupations, and pollutant exposures. Internal factors include biological effects and responses. Because the exposome covers exposures from conception to death, the birth cohort is an important part of the exposome study. Although there is not yet an established consensus in selecting what, when, and where to measure concerning the exposome, the use of omics analyses, especially analysis of the metabolome, should be considered in order to implement the exposome concept in the birth cohort. The exposome needs to be measured repeatedly in certain important phases of life, such as during pregnancy and infancy. To perform exposome-informed epidemiological studies, untargeted data-driven approaches in conjunction with dimension reduction techniques need to be developed and refined. The exposome concept has the potential to make a breakthrough in overcoming some of the limitations of conventional epidemiology. Concerted national and international efforts are required for future exposome studies.

Zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) and titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiO₂ NPs) are well known as photoreactive nanoparticles (NPs). Various phototoxicities of ZnO NPs and TiO₂ NPs were reported on several organisms. It was still necessary to evaluate the toxicity of photoreactive ZnO NPs and TiO₂ NPs due to species-specific effects under various irradiation conditions. We compared the acute toxicity of Moina macrocopa under visible, ultraviolet (UV) A, and B irradiations, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development guidelines for the testing of chemicals (Test No. 202). The sensitivity of ZnO NPs for M. macrocopa was UVB>UVA>visible light irradiation. There were no significant lethal and immobile effects of TiO₂ NPs on juveniles under all irradiations and in the tested concentrations of TiO₂ NPs. Photoreactive NPs have a potential and accelerated toxicity on organisms in the ambient environments.

This study was conducted to evaluate the ability of plants to purify indoor air by observing the effective reduction rate among pollutant types of particulate matter (PM) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). PM and four types of VOCs were measured in a new building that is less than three years old and under three different conditions: before applying the plant, after applying the plant, and a room without a plant. The removal rate of each pollutant type due to the plant was also compared and analyzed. In the case of indoor PM, the removal effect was negligible because of outdoor influence. However, 9% of benzene, 75% of ethylbenzene, 72% of xylene, 75% of styrene, 50% of formaldehyde, 36% of acetaldehyde, 35% of acrolein with acetone, and 85% of toluene were reduced. The purification of indoor air by natural ventilation is meaningless because the ambient PM concentration has recently been high. However, contamination by gaseous materials such as VOCs can effectively be removed through the application of plants.

Recently, epidemiologic studies have shown that the lack of serum vitamin D levels may be associated with high asthma prevalence, but its effect is still controversial, depending on season, area, and food consumption. We aimed to examine the association of serum vitamin D levels with the prevalence of pediatric asthma in Korea. A total of 80 children (50 asthmatic children and 30 healthy controls) aged 6-14 years were participated in this study. Serum vitamin D levels were measured and compared between the two groups. Moreover, the relationship of serum vitamin D levels with results of pulmonary function test and environmental factors (lifestyle habits and residential factors) collected by a questionnaire survey were examined in asthmatic patients. Serum vitamin D levels in asthmatic children (16.63±4.20 ng/mL) were significantly lower than that in healthy controls (24.24±6.76 ng/mL) (p<0.05). Also, we found that the prevalence of asthma increase to 0.79-fold (odds ratio, 0.79; 95% confidence interval, 0.71 to 0.88; p<0.001) as serum vitamin D level is 1 ng/mL decreases. The increased time spent in outdoor could affect the increases of serum vitamin D levels significantly. However, no associations of serum vitamin D with pulmonary function and residential environmental factors (i.e., housing type, living floor, and indoor activity time) were observed. Our findings suggest that serum vitamin D levels were also associated with pediatric asthma in Korea. Moreover, management of serum vitamin D level in asthmatic children would be a promising approach for preventing exaggeration of their severity.