International journal of epidemiology最新文献

Background: Italy, among the leading asbestos producers and users until the national ban in 1992, continues to register a high burden of asbestos-related diseases, mainly due to their long latency and delays in remediation. This study investigates the spatio-temporal evolution of pleural mesothelioma (PM) mortality over the past 40 years.

Materials and methods: Malignant pleural tumours and PM deaths (1980-2020) were extracted from the national death registry, adjusted for misclassification of pleural tumours, and analysed by region and birth cohort (1905-1984). The analyses by calendar period and cohort, stratified by sex assigned at birth, were followed by a space-cohort Bayesian Hierarchical Model with structured random effects for time (cohorts up to 1960-1969) and space (administrative regions).

Results: In Italy, from 1980 to 2020, 35 134 people died from PM (24 380 males and 10 754 females). A mortality decrease was observed in males after 2010-14 and in females after 2000-4. Mortality steadily declined in both males and females across cohorts after 1935-44. The space-time analysis enabled the clear identification of the Italian regions most affected by PM.

Conclusion: Italy's trend mirrors those of other Western countries that have banned asbestos, with the highest risks for birth cohorts in working age before the ban. The results reveal distinct spatio-temporal patterns, with the northern regions exhibiting the highest rates. The Italian experience with asbestos-related diseases detection could help other countries to assess the impact of asbestos, raise awareness, and promote a global ban on asbestos.

Background: The association between wildfire smoke (WFS) exposure and pregnancy loss has been understudied. Here, we examined the association between prenatal wildfire-specific particulate matter ≤2.5 µm (PM2.5) exposure and pregnancy loss in Colorado, USA.

Methods: We retrieved all birth records from the 17 'Front Range' counties (just east of the Rocky Mountains) of Colorado from 2007 to 2018 (n = 614 321). We considered two PM2.5 exposures-wildfire-specific PM2.5 from a novel machine learning model and non-wildfire PM2.5 constructed using the Community Multiscale Air Quality model. We fitted quasi-Poisson distributed lag models to estimate the associations between the two weekly-resolved PM2.5 exposures during pregnancy and live birth-identified conceptions (LBICs) in each county. That is, we used the predicted change in the LBICs to directly infer the change in the number of pregnancy losses due to the exposure.

Results: Average weekly non-wildfire PM2.5 was 6.2 µg/m3 (SD 2.3). In weeks with non-zero WFS (27% of all county-weeks), the average wildfire-specific PM2.5 was 0.92 µg/m3 (SD: 1.55). Wildfire-specific PM2.5 appeared important in gestational weeks 6-13-a 1-µg/m3 higher exposure sustained in these gestational weeks was associated with 20 [95% confidence interval (CI): 4-34] losses/year. In contrast, the cumulative association with non-wildfire PM2.5 was stronger-a 1-µg/m3 higher exposure sustained in every week of pregnancy was associated with 84 (95% CI: 46-129) losses/year.

Conclusion: Our findings suggest that both wildfire-specific and non-wildfire PM2.5 exposures were associated with more pregnancy loss and add to the growing literature on the harmful effects of wildfires and, more broadly, air pollution.

Background: Childhood exposure to air pollution has long-term effects on adult bronchitic symptoms, but the age windows of susceptibility are understudied.

Methods: We included 1444 participants from the Southern California Children's Health Study, who were recruited at ages ∼9-10 years in 1992-1993 or 1995-1996 or ages ∼5-7 years in 2002-2003, followed until high-school graduation, and re-contacted again in adulthood (mean age = 33 years) to collect self-reported bronchitic symptoms. Yearly average nitrogen dioxide (NO2), 8-h maximum ground-level ozone (O3), and particulate matter of ≤10 µm in diameter (PM10) were estimated by using inverse-distance squared spatial interpolation to participants' residential history from conception to age 16 years. Log Poisson Distributed Lag Models were fitted to identify susceptible windows of childhood exposure to air pollution on adult bronchitic symptoms adjusted for childhood and adult confounders. We explored sex-specific susceptible windows.

Results: We identified ages 1-2 years as a susceptible window in which NO2 exposure was associated with a higher risk of adult bronchitic symptoms, with the largest associations observed at age 1 year (risk ratio per 10 ppb = 1.12; 95% confidence interval: 1.01, 1.25). We observed both positive (ages 12-15 years) and inverse (ages 8-11 years) associations with O3 exposure. Suggestive evidence of increased risk at ages 3-4 years was observed for PM10. There was no evidence of sex differences.

Conclusion: Early childhood might be a particularly susceptible window of exposure to NO2 (ages 1-2 years) and possibly for PM10 (ages 3-4 years) for increased risk of adult bronchitic symptoms, while early adolescence (ages 12-15 years) might be a susceptible window for O3 exposure.