Reviews on Environmental Health最新文献

Object: Arsenic as a chemical is found in rock, soil, air and used in various industries and their products, such as colors, hairs, and fertilizers. Humans may be exposed to arsenic mainly through food and drinking water. Due to its adverse health effects, its presence in drinking water has become a public health concern.

Methods: In this systematic review, we investigated the relationship between arsenic concentration in drinking water and the risk of kidney cancer in humans. For this reason, various electronic databases were searched from 1992 February to November 2021. In this review, three ecological studies, two case-control studies, and four cohort studies were investigated.

Results: High levels of arsenic (100 μg/L) have been reported in many countries such as southwest Taiwan, Niigata, Argentine, and northern Chile. A significant relationship was observed between kidney cancer incidence and its mortality rate with high arsenic levels in drinking water.

Conclusions: Despite the limitations in some previous studies, reviewing and comparing the data of different regions indicates a scientific relationship between kidney cancer incidence and high concentrations of arsenic in drinking water.

While Dieudonné has praised thoroughness of Leszczynski's review of EHS studies, he was critical of the final conclusions. Leszczynski strongly disagrees with argumentation of Dieudonné that EHS issue is settled and that biomarker research is unnecessary because it is expensive and might produce false positives. Leszczynski's opinion is that his review has demonstrated how very poor scientifically and inadequate statistically is the to-date executed research on EHS. Dieudonné's approach of using such poor science to justify claim that EHS issue is settled and there is no causality link between EHS and EMF exposures, is completely unjustified and simply false.

This study addresses a systematic review of the scientific literature to evaluate the most common advanced oxidation processes (AOP) for the removal of phthalate esters (PE) in aqueous matrices. Six AOP were reviewed for PE degradation such as processes based on photolysis, Fenton, ozonation and sulfate radicals ( ${\text{SO}}_4^{•-}$ ), combined AOP and other processes. The PE degradation efficiencies by AOP processes ranged from 40.3 to 100%. In the reviewed literature, an initial PE concentration within 0.04-250 mg/L was applied. The H₂O₂ concentrations used in the UV/H₂O₂ process and O₃ concentrations in ozonation-based processes ranged between 0.85-1,360.6 mg/L and 2-4,971 mg/L, respectively. Based on the reported results, the PE oxidation data fit well to the pseudo-first order kinetic model. A review of the studies revealed that many oxidant species are produced in the AOP, including hydroxyl radicals (^•OH), ${\text{SO}}_4^{•-}$ , superoxide radical anions ( ${\text{O}}_2^{-•}$ ), hydroperoxyl radicals (HO₂ ^•), hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂), and singlet oxygen (O₂). Among these oxidants, ^•OH play a key role in the degradation of PE. However, ${\text{SO}}_4^{•-}$ are more effective and efficient than ^•OH since ${\text{SO}}_4^{•-}$ has a higher oxidation power (E = 2.5-3.1 V) compared to ^•OH radicals (E = 1.8-2.7 V). In different AOP processes, the aromatic rings of PE are destroyed by ^•OH and produce intermediates such as phthalic acid (C₆H₄(CO₂H)₂), benzoic acid ethyl ester (C₉H₁₀O₂), 2, 5-dihydroxybenzoic acid (C₇H₆O₄), formic acid (CH₂O₂), acetic acid (CH₃COOH), and oxalic acid (C₂H₂O₄), among some others. Until now, limited data have been reported on PE toxicity assessment. The reviewed literature has shown that AOP can be used effectively to degrade PE from aqueous matrices. However, this systematic study suggests focusing more on the evaluation of the toxicity of the effluent resulting from AOP for the decomposition of PE in future studies.

Food additives contain synthetic and natural chemical compounds and are one of the causes of food allergies. In this regard, it is necessary to recognize the food additives that are of special interest for children. In this survey, the relation between food additives and allergic reactions and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorders in children was studied. The research studies with keywords "allergic reactions", "hypersensitivity", "food additives" and "children" were searched in PubMed, Scopus, Science Direct, Web of Science, and SID databases, from 1984 to 2020. Three hundred twenty-seven studies were obtained and only seven articles were finally selected according to exclusion and inclusion criteria. In the final review, seven articles were selected to investigate the relationship between food additives and hypersensitivity reactions. Some clinical factors such as urticaria, eczema, rhinitis and gastrointestinal symptoms and the prevalence of laboratory evidence in atopic children are due to increased exposure to food additives including artificial colors and sweeteners, preservatives, and monosodium glutamate. Clinical signs and laboratory evidence prove a significant association between some food additives and allergenic adverse reactions. It was also found that food additives such as artificial colors and sweeteners, preservatives, and monosodium glutamate are responsible for most cases of hypersensitivity in children, and the prevalence of hypersensitivity to food additives was estimated to be about 1.2% based on data extracted from studies.

Foods are contaminated with natural and man-made radionuclides. The aim of this systematic review was to determine the amount and type of radionuclides in eggs, as well as the biomarker capability of eggs. The research studies with keywords radionuclide, radioisotopes, contamination and egg were searched in PubMed, Scopus, and Science Direct databases, regardless of publication time. A number of 70 studies were obtained and only 13 articles were finally selected according to exclusion, inclusion criteria and quality assessment results. Studies which detected radionuclide in the hen eggs were selected. The highest frequency of radionuclides belonged to Ra-226 and Cs-137. The index of natural radionuclides is Ra-226 and the index of synthetic radionuclides is Cs-137. The local eggs, in addition to determining food contamination, can also be a good biomarker for identifying environmental contamination.

A scoping review was performed to answer: what environmental health concerns have been associated with adverse health outcomes in the Navajo Nation? The review focused on occupational and ambient environmental exposures associated with human industrial activities. The search strategy was implemented in PubMed, and two investigators screened the retrieved literature. Thirteen studies were included for review. Data were extracted using the matrix method. Six studies described associations between work in uranium mining and cancer. Six studies focused on environmental exposures to uranium mine waste and other metals, with outcomes that included biological markers, kidney disease, diabetes and hypertension, and adverse birth outcomes. One study explored occupational exposure to Sin Nombre Virus and infection. Most research has focused on the health effects of uranium, where occupational exposures occurred among miners and environmental exposures are a legacy of uranium mining and milling. Gaps exist with respect to health outcomes associated with current occupations and the psychosocial impact of environmental hazards. Other environmental exposures and hazards are known to exist on the Navajo Nation, which may warrant epidemiologic research.

Exposure to hazardous air pollutants is identified as most obvious premature mortality factors in the world. Numerous epidemiological studies have estimated exposure to air pollutants may cause pulmonary toxicity and the incidence of respiratory diseases including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), chronic bronchitis and asthma. The currently research was performed to evaluation the association between gaseous pollutants and lung function in healthy adults. Articles related to this study were selected from researches of Scopus, PubMed, and Web of Science databases. A total of 2,644 articles were retrieved and 39 records were reviewed after removing duplicates and excluding irrelevant studies. The result of this systematic review indicated that there is some evidence on decreasing lung function with exposure to gaseous air pollutants (NO₂, SO₂, and O₃) which can have negative effects on human health. Although according to the evidence changes in lung function are mostly linked to the exposure to environmental pollutants including CO, O₃, NO₂ and SO₂, the results should be interpreted with caution considering some following issues discussed in this review. Therefore, further studies are required considering well-designed studies in large scales to strengthen the evidence.

Objectives: Health care workers (HCWs) are exposed to needle needles daily. Despite individual studies, there is no statistics on the prevalence of unreported needle stick injuries (NSIs) have been reported. This study was performed to determine the prevalence and causes of unreported NSIs among HCWs.

Content: In present systematic review and meta-analysis study, three international databases (Web of Science, Scopus, PubMed) were searched from January 1, 2000 to December 31, 2018. The random model was used to determine the prevalence of unreported needle stick among HCWs.

Summary and outlook: Forty-one studies performed on 19,635 health care workers entered the final stage. Based-on random effect model, pooled prevalence of unreported needle stick injuries was 59.9% (95% CI: 52.0, 67.7; I2=98.9%). The most common cause of unreported NSIs was: They were not worried about NSIs (n=12). The high prevalence of unreported needle sticks injuries indicates the urgency and necessity of paying attention to strategies to improve reporting among health workers.