Reviews on Environmental Health最新文献

Prenatal exposure to mercury (Hg) and selenium (Se) has significant implications for children growth and development, especially in populations with high seafood consumption. Organic mercury (methylmercury) is particularly hazardous to neurodevelopment, while selenium serves as a critical micronutrient with antioxidant properties that might protect against mercury-related disruptions. Genetic variations in glutathione-related genes, such as those encoding glutathione peroxidase (GPX) and glutathione S-transferase (GST), influence the body's ability to metabolize mercury and utilize selenium. These polymorphisms can modulate mercury detoxification and selenium bioavailability, impacting mercury bioaccumulation and the oxidative balance essential for fetal growth and development. This narrative review explores the complex interactions between prenatal mercury and selenium exposure and glutathione gene polymorphisms, elaborating on their effects on children's growth and developmental outcomes.

House dust mite (HDM) allergens are one of the most important causes of allergenic diseases in the indoor environment. The World Health Organization (WHO) has defined risk thresholds for Group I HDM allergens as a concentration of 2 and 10 μg/mL in dust for producing asthma risk and polar asthma attacks, respectively. Continuing exposure to high concentrations of HDM allergens greatly increases the risk of developing allergic diseases. Therefore, it's necessary to determine the exposure levels of HDM allergens to estimate the risk. So, various approaches have been developed to directly or indirectly detect HDM allergens in the environment. This paper overviews the developmental progress of HDM allergen detection and introduces the principle of HDM allergen detection methods, including semi-quantitative radioallergosorbent test (RAST), ACAREX test, dot immunobinding assay (DIBA), radioimmunoassay (RIA) which combines the high sensitivity and accuracy, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) with high accuracy, fluorescent multiple arrays which can simultaneously detect multiple HDM allergens, polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and liquid chromatograph-mass spectrometer (LC-MS) with high sensitivity and accuracy. The paper provides an overall understanding of the development of HDM allergen detection methods and guidance for choosing an appropriate method to detect HDM allergens.

Introduction: The developing brain, especially vulnerable during neuroplastic phases, is influenced by environmental and genetic factors. Understanding the impacts of air pollution on children's and young adults' mental health is an emerging research field.

Content: This review systematically examines the adverse associations of ambient air pollutants on mental health. A database search using Scopus, EMBASE, Global Health, and PsycINFO included articles from 2013 onwards, following PRISMA guidelines. Of the 787 identified articles, 62 met the inclusion criteria. Quality was assessed using the EPHPP tool, and Best Evidence Synthesis (BES) evaluated the findings.

Summary: The review found 36 associations between ambient air pollutants and adverse mental health outcomes across seven life-course exposure periods. Strong evidence linked early-life PM_2.5 and NO₂ exposures to Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and childhood exposures to Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Significant, though inconsistent, associations were found between air pollutants and cognitive impairments, anxiety, depression, self-harm, and other behavioral problems. The heterogeneity of exposure limits and lack of experimental studies hinder causal assessment.

Outlook: Compelling evidence links early-life and childhood exposure to PM_2.5 and NO₂ with ASD and ADHD. These findings highlight the need for public health policy changes and further research to explore these associations comprehensively.

Communities living in proximity to coal-fired power plants (CFPPs) may be at greater risk of negative health impacts from exposure to air pollution than communities living further away. The aim of this scoping review was to provide an update on the evidence of the health risks of air pollution exposure associated with living in proximity to CFPPs and to evaluate the relationship between residential proximity and the extent of the health burden. We followed the PRISMA-ScR guidelines and searched Google Scholar, PubMed, ScienceDirect, Scopus and Web of Science for relevant studies from inception up to 31 January 2024. Fifty-six studies were included with most articles published from 2016 to 2023 (n=33, 59 %) and 35 were in high income countries (63 %). Living close to CFPPs was frequently associated with increased odds or likelihood of respiratory disorders, adverse birth outcomes and child developmental issues. Interventions such as emission control systems or total shutdown of CFPPs led to improved health among communities living near CFPPs. The review highlights the health impacts from air pollution associated with living in proximity to CFPPs and the need for policy measures to reduce air pollution by installing emission control technologies or transitioning to cleaner energy sources.

Phthalate esters (PAEs) represent a class of widely utilized plasticizers, resulting in their pervasive presence in soil and agricultural crops, which poses significant risks to human health. This review examines the current state of PAE pollution, the microbial resources available for PAE degradation, and the associated degradation pathways. It highlights the advantages of endophytic bacteria over environmental microorganisms, including the prolonged survival of inoculated strains, in vivo biodegradation of PAEs, and multifunctional capabilities. Furthermore, the mechanisms by which endophytic bacteria mitigate PAE accumulation across the three defense lines (soil, crops, and the human body) are elucidated. The integrated approach of employing both plants and microbial agents for the remediation of PAEs demonstrates considerable potential for ensuring the safety of agricultural products and safeguarding human health. This work offers new insights into addressing the challenges posed by organic pollutant contamination and reducing PAE accumulation in the human body.

The school built environment is closely related to children's health, and research on this topic is increasing. However, bibliometric analyses seeking to provide a comprehensive understanding of the research landscape and key themes in the field are lacking. This study comprehensively explored the global trends and research hotspots on the associations between school built environment and children's health. We used a scientometric analysis to review the research progress. The temporal distribution of publications, scientific collaborations, research hotspots, research frontiers, and co-citations over the past 30 years were analyzed. The results show that the number of publications in this field rose significantly between 1987 and 2025, with research hotspots focusing on physical activity, performance, behavior, perception, thermal comfort, and indoor air quality. Environmental themes related to children's health fall into four main groups: the built environment related to children's activities, intelligent learning environments, indoor environments and interiors, and natural environments. Health outcomes and measures that reflect physiological, psychological, cognitive, behavioral, and physical factors are discussed. This study provides a broad understanding of research issues and trends related to the school built environment and children's health.

Introduction: The goal is to provide light on the contentious relationship between screen exposure and childhood autism spectrum disorder (ASD). By conducting two meta-analyses that showed a potential association, including screen exposure effect by ASD and ASD risk by screen exposure, we aimed to clarify the potential causality between screen exposure and childhood ASD.

Content: The literature published up to December 2023 were systematically collected, and the combined effect values of weighted mean difference (WMD) and 95 % confidence interval (CI) and odds ratio (OR) and 95 % CI were calculated using two meta-analyses using the STATA 12.0. A total of 197,357 children, including 4,599 childhood ASD, were finally included in 10 studies. The results showed that children with ASD had higher levels of screen time exposure than healthy controls (combined effect value WMD=0.27, 95 % CI: 0.12-0.41, p<0.001). An increased risk of ASD was also found in children with high screen exposure compared to the low screen exposure group (OR=1.5395 % CI: 1.14-2.06).

Summary and outlook: The development of childhood ASD may be associated with screen exposure. Future prospective studies are needed to verify the relationship between screen exposure and ASD in children.

Toxicology and epidemiology are the two traditional public health scientific disciplines which can contribute to investigate harmful health effects of exposure to toxic substances. Several frameworks for integrating different lines of evidence were proposed since 2011, evolving based of the emergence of new methodologies and approaches. Through the comparison of various theoretical frameworks for evidence integration, we examined similarities, differences, strengths, and weaknesses to provide insights into potential directions for future research. We identified several key challenges of the integration approach to be applied to risk assessment. More specifically, collaboration within a multidisciplinary team of scientists, toxicologists, epidemiologists, and risk assessors, is strongly recommended to be aligned with key regulatory objectives and promote a harmonized approach. Moreover, literature search transparency and systematicity have to be ensured by following validated guidelines, developing parallel protocols for collecting epidemiological and toxicological evidence from various sources, including human, animal, and new approach methodologies (NAMs). Also, the adoption of tailored quality assessment tools is essential to grade the certainty in evidence. Lastly, we recommend the use of the Adverse Outcome Pathway framework to provide a structured understanding of toxicity mechanisms and allow the integration of human, animal, and NAMs data within a single framework.

The question of whether dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) exposure is related to breast cancer (BC) remains unanswered, possibly due to methodological constraints in the studies that have been performed. We aimed to update and synthesize the available epidemiological evidence on the relationship of p,p'-DDT, o,p'-DDT and p,p'-dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene (p,p'- DDE) biological concentrations with female BC, focusing in methodological characteristics not addressed in previous reviews. We conducted an overview of reviews and a systematic review and meta-analysis. We used six databases and one search engine to identify meta-analyses based on systematic reviews, pooled analyses, and individual studies published from January 2000 to December 2021. For the overview of reviews, we assessed meta-analyses' risk of bias and carried out a narrative synthesis. For the meta-analysis, we estimated summary association measures with fixed or random effects models for each compound stratifying for characteristics of interest. We estimated a positive summary association between p,p'- DDT biological concentrations and BC in prospective studies (nested case control) with >10 years of follow-up (sOR=1.41; 95 %CI: 1.06-1.88). Among retrospective studies (hospital or population-based case-control), BC was positively related with p,p'-DDE biological concentrations (sOR=1.15; 95 %CI: 1.02-1.30), and with p,p'-DDT in women with mean serum concentrations>100 ng/g (sOR=1.33; 95 %CI: 1.25-1.41). Moreover, we detected a positive association between o,p'-DDT and BC (sOR=2.24; 95 %CI: 2.15-2.34). Our results support a positive relationship between DDT exposure and BC, and are useful to reinforce its worldwide prohibition, since this pesticide is still used in some countries, has long persistence in the human body and disseminates to other geographic areas.

In several industrialized countries, there has been a report of a decrease in the proportion of male births. The current study is designed to perform a systematic review and present a comprehensive summary of current epidemiological evidence of an association between exposure to the mentioned pollutants and sex ratio. The present systematic review was executed according to the PRISMA protocol. A comprehensive online search was performed in PubMed Medline, Scopus, Web of Science, Embase databases, Google Scholar, and the World Health Organization databases from 2000 to September 2023. After searching all databases, 20 articles were included in this systematic review. Regarding the studied pollutants found that exposure to increased PM₁₀, PM_2.5, and Nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) levels was significantly associated with the sex ratio. Both maternal Benzophenone (BP)-2 and paternal BP-2 were significantly associated with an excess of female births. Finally, it must be said that the effect of some environmental pollutants on the sex ratio is undeniable. However, the sex ratio is the result of multiple factors that interact simultaneously during pregnancy. Additional research is required to examine the mechanisms responsible for the change in sex ratio.