Reviews on Environmental Health最新文献

Objectives: Environmental risk factors contribute to 24% of the global burden of disease from all causes in disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), and to 23% of all global deaths. Malaysia being an advanced developing country, there is a need to prioritise environmental health issues to enable environmental health practitioners to focus on the most significant and urgent environmental health concerns.

Content: This project was undertaken by a Thematic Working Group on Environmental Health Experts (TWG 10) under the Malaysian National Environmental Health Action Plan. Sixteen pre-selected environmental health issues were presented to a two focus group discussions among 20 environmental health and related professionals who then scored each issue on its magnitude and severity scale.

Summary: The total of these scores generated a list of priority environmental health issues for Malaysia. Children environmental health came out as the environmental health issue of the highest priority.

Outlook: We hope that this list of priority environmental health issues will be used for prioritising academic and professional manpower training, research funding allocation and planning for intervention programmes by various stakeholders.

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.

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.

The gastrointestinal (GI) system has rapidly proliferating and differentiating cells, which make it one of the most radiosensitive organs in the body. Exposure to high dose of ionising radiation (IR) during radiotherapy may generate a variety of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and reactive nitrogen species (RNS) including radicals, cause some side effects such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, pain, ulceration, mal-absorption etc. Irradiation disrupts GI system by damaging proliferating stem cells of the crypts that alters the histology and physiology of intestine. Radiation damage reflects the qualitative and quantitative changes in intestinal epithelial stem cells like enterocytes, enteroendocrine cells, goblet cells and Paneth cells. The damaging effects of radiation to bio-molecules and cellular structures can alter gene signalling cascades and grounds genomic instability, protein modifications, cell senescence and cell death. The signalling pathways of GI tract includes Wnt, BMP, Hedgehog, PTEN/PI3K and Notch plays an important role in self-renewal of intestinal stem cells (ISCs) and maintaining the balance between self-renewal and differentiation of ISCs. Various radiation countermeasures including radioprotectors and mitigators are under development phase globally but still not approved for clinical applications during any radiation emergencies. In view of above, present review highlights cellular and molecular interruptions of GI system due to acute and chronic GI radiation injury, role of radioprotectors in signalling cascade modulations in GI epithelium and involvement of ISC markers in radioprotection.

Over the past few decades, phthalate esters (PAEs) used as additives to improve the persistence and flexibility of polymeric materials. They are also used in cosmetics, insect repellents, and propellants, and their continuous input into drinking waters has constituted a serious risk to human health and the environment. DBPs are compounds classified as hazardous substances and have teratogenic properties. Due to the high bioaccumulation of DBP, they have toxic properties in different organisms, making it very important to remove PAEs before discharging them into environments. In this study a systematic review was designed to evaluate Advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) studies which have successfully treated contaminated water with PAEs. Among AOPs, particularly photocatalytic, UV/H₂O₂ photolysis, sonolysis, and ozone-based processes were more tried to degrade PAEs in aqueous solutions. Additionally, a more detail of each AOPs was explained. Findings showed that all advanced oxidation processes, especially combined AOPs have good results in the degradation of PAEs in water.

Research suggests that exposure to natural environments can be beneficial for health, such as reducing physical illness and improving mood and cognitive ability. The potential benefits of nature have come into focus at a time when mental health issues are growing globally. Here, we have selected 24 studies from four databases for meta-analysis to explore the effects of exposure to the natural environment on the anxiety of the human body and summarize the influencing factors on the anxiety relief effect. A random-effect meta-analysis of anxiety state changes before and after exposure to natural environment shows that natural exposure effectively alleviated human anxiety (SMD -1.28, 95% CI: -1.65 to -0.92). The overall quality of the included papers, assessed using the PEDro scale, is considered to vary considerably, but most of the papers are rated between 4 and 7 which is considered fair or good. In addition, we have also investigated the potential moderators of anxiety-relieving effects of the nature. Our results shows that the age and exposure time of the subjects are related to the effect of anxiety relief. The results of the subgroup analysis of moderators prove that compared with the middle-aged people (SMD -0.63, 95% CI: -1.13 to -0.12), young people (SMD -1.50, 95% CI: -1.90 to -1.10) get better anxiety alleviation effect in the natural environment. In terms of exposure time, compared with 0.5-2 h (SMD -0.18, 95% CI: -0.59 to -0.23) and >2 h (SMD -0.84, 95% CI: -1.40 to -0.27) exposure periods, subjects get the maximum anxiety relief benefit when they spent <0.5 h (SMD -1.60, 95% CI: -1.93 to -1.27) in the natural environment. However, the quality of the included studies varies greatly and there is a significant heterogeneity in the meta-analysis. Study location, natural environment type and other moderator factors have no obvious correlation with anxiety-alleviation effect of the nature. A higher quality and more comprehensive study needs to be carried out to find out more moderators about the effects of the natural environment on anxiety alleviation. Further experimental studies should also be conducted to determine the mechanism by which natural exposure reduces anxiety so as to provide strong support for the construction and improvement of healthy natural environment.

Traveling to high altitudes for entertainment or work is sometimes associated with acute high altitude pathologies. In the past, scientific literature from the lowlander point of view was primarily based on mountain climbing. Sea level scientists developed all guidelines, but they need modifications for medical care in high altitude cities. Acute Mountain Sickness, High Altitude Pulmonary Edema, and High Altitude Cerebral Edema are medical conditions that some travelers can face. We present how to diagnose and treat acute high altitude pathologies, based on 51 years of high altitude physiology research and medical practice in hypobaric hypoxic diseases in La Paz, Bolivia (3,600 m; 11,811 ft), at the High Altitude Pulmonary and Pathology Institute (HAPPI - IPPA). These can occasionally present after flights to high altitude cities, both in lowlanders or high-altitude residents during re-entry. Acute high altitude ascent diseases can be adequately diagnosed and treated in high altitude cities following the presented guidelines. Treating these high-altitude illnesses, we had no loss of life. Traveling to a high altitude with sound medical advice should not be feared as it has many benefits. Nowadays, altitude descent and evacuation are not mandatory in populated highland cities, with adequate medical resources.