Environmental Research Communications最新文献

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is one of the most prevalent neurodegenerative disorders and one of the leading causes of death in individuals over the age of 65. Most cases of AD develop sporadically, however, there are several risk factors that have been identified which significantly increases an individual's risk for developing AD. The most prominent of these is Apolipoprotein E4 (APOE4), which can potentially result in an up to 10-fold greater risk of developing AD. The presence of APOE4 alone, however, cannot be solely responsible for AD as the disease may occur even in the absence of APOE4. Therefore, there must be other contributing factors such as exposure to environmental toxins including heavy metals and pesticides, which have independently been shown to contribute to AD. Nano- and microplastics (NMPs) are plastic particles less than 1 μm and 5 mm in size, respectively, and have only recently been identified as a major environmental pollutant with serious health concerns. Given the adverse health effects that are increasingly being associated with NMPs exposure, we sought to understand how the combination of APOE4 and NMPs exposure may work synergistically to promote cognitive dysfunction and alter key regulatory pathways to impact overall health. Following a short-term (3 week) exposure to pristine spherical fluorescently-labeled 0.1 and 2 μm polystyrene (PS) NMPs, we found significant sex-dependent alterations in locomotor and recognition memory in APOE4 mice, but not in APOE3 controls. We additionally found that exposure to PS-NMPs resulted in sex and genotype specific alterations in astrocytic and microglial markers in the brain, and in CYP1A1, a major metabolizer of environmental polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, in the liver. These results suggest PS-NMPs may interact with the APOE4 allele to promote cognitive dysfunction and alter immune and metabolic pathways which may contribute to disease-like states.

Background: Air pollution is a prominent contributor to the burden of adverse birth and early child health outcomes. However, considerable heterogeneity of impacts has been observed, which may be due to limited exploration of key effect modifiers. This scoping review was conducted to synthesize evidence on the potential effect modifying roles of nutrition, physical activity, and body mass index (BMI) on the associations between early-life air pollution exposures and adverse birth and early-life health outcomes.

Methods: PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus databases were systematically searched for relevant studies through July 2023. Studies were included if they were conducted amongst pregnant women or individuals between 0-17 years, provided empirical evidence on associations between air pollution exposure and adverse birth and/or early-childhood health outcomes, and conducted effect modification-related analyses by maternal (i.e., in-utero) or early childhood nutrition, physical activity, or BMI. Data from selected studies were abstracted and summarized based on study design, population characteristics, and the exposures, outcomes, and effect modifiers assessed.

Results: A total of 13 studies were included; 10 were cohort studies, and 3 were cross-sectional studies. All but one of the studies explored the impact of ambient air pollutants (particulate matter, nitrogen dioxide, ozone, ultra-fine particles, elemental carbon, and black carbon) prenatally or in early life on adverse birth (preterm birth, birth weight, low birth weight) and early childhood outcomes (childhood obesity). Effect modifiers examined included pre-pregnancy BMI (n = 5 studies), maternal and child dietary characteristics (n = 7 studies), and child physical activity patterns (n = 2 studies).

Discussion: Evidence for effect modification, although present, was inconsistent and weak. Consideration should be given to exploring effect modification of air pollution-related impacts to help explain heterogeneity of associations observed across populations, a key knowledge gap limiting public health messaging strategies.

Background. Exposure to PM_2.5 is associated with adverse birth outcomes and early development. Pregnancy is typically characterized by the production of several important hormones that impact aspects of maternal and fetal physiology, including progesterone, estriol, and corticotropin releasing hormone (CRH). No previous studies have examined PM associations in pregnant persons for CRH and estriol. Methods. We used linear mixed effects models to investigate associations between PM_2.5 and pregnancy hormones in 1,041 pregnant persons ages 18-41 living in Puerto Rico between 2011 and 2020. Individual 3-, 7-, and 30-day moving average exposures were assigned from EPA data sources. Hormone levels were analyzed in blood collected at study visits at 16-20 and 20-24 weeks of gestation. Models were adjusted for demographics, socioeconomic status, and health behaviors.Results. Mean participant exposures for 3-, 7-, and 30-day PM_2.5 were 8.0 ± 5.9, 8.2 ± 5.3, and 8.1 ± 4.4 μg m^-3. In base models, increased PM_2.5 exposure was associated with lower levels of progesterone, CRH, and estriol. In adjusted models, 10 μg m^-3 increase in PM_2.5 was associated with 11.2% (95% CI: 17.6, 4.3; p = 0.003) and 14.9% (95% CI: 23.4, 5.4; p = 0.004) lower CRH for 7-day and 30-day exposures. In cross-sectional models, the inverse CRH association was driven by the 20-24 week gestation period with a 12.4% reduction (95% CI: 21.8, 1.9; p = 0.022) for 7-day and 17.5% reduction (95% CI: 29.7, 3.0; p = 0.020) for 30-day exposure. Other investigated associations were null.Conclusions. In pregnant persons in Puerto Rico, we observed that elevated PM_2.5 exposures were significantly associated with decrements in CRH, but not in other pregnancy-associated hormones. CRH may be an important pathway through which prenatal PM_2.5 impacts normal pregnancy.

Research has yielded increasingly robust estimates of the co-benefits from mitigating climate change while reducing air pollution, improving health, and meeting other development needs. Though quantifying these often hidden benefits could ease cost concerns and lower technological constraints for development-friendly climate solutions, achieving co-benefits frequently requires overcoming difficult-to-measure social and institutional barriers. This study extends insights from research focusing on quantitatively assessing the feasibility of a 1.5 °C future to build a multidimensional framework for measuring different barriers to achieving co-benefits. The framework offers a novel yet generalizable approach for bringing context-appropriate assessments of different dimensions of feasibility into the integrated assessment modelling that underpins work on co-benefits. It then outlines five steps for applying that framework to evaluate the size of different barriers for transport, agricultural and residential energy co-benefit solutions in Thailand. The results demonstrate that the sum of the delays from social/institutional barriers exceed economic/technological barriers for four out of six studied solutions. These delays also lead to increases of 24% to 31% in PM_2.5 emissions relative to a no-barriers effective implementation scenario between 2015 and 2030 and 2040. The feasibility framework can be integrated into not only national policy scenarios but also project assessments, following trends in carbon finance. An international barriers database as well as strengthening links to work on barriers and technological diffusion, transaction costs, and multi-level transitions can also help spread multi-dimensional feasibility assessments across countries and scales.

Incorporating equity into climate resilience planning, especially through participatory processes, is important to adequately address social vulnerability and avoid reproducing inequities. Recent analyses of resilience and adaptation plans in the United States suggest that there is increasing attention on equity and justice, but a wide variation in how it is being incorporated and implemented. Available studies of resilience planning are limited by their focus on larger urban areas and on plan contents. This research contributes a qualitative analysis of participatory engagement for resilience planning in smaller cities and rural areas. It presents findings from community case studies used as part of human-centered design research to develop an equitable resilience planning tool. Materials from the tool were used to conduct participatory engagement activities including storytelling, mapping, and brainstorming actions that elicited community members' experiences with hazards and disasters and ideas for equitable resilience actions. Themes that emerged from the qualitative analysis of the workshop discussions were: community members' include both environmental and social concerns in addressing resilience, challenges associated with social vulnerability framing, the underlying social systems that perpetuate inequities, recognizing different types of trauma, the power of convening, and challenges with sustaining engagement without dedicated resources. This article provides insights that inform efforts to better incorporate equity into resilience planning and advance the study of equitable resilience.

Bioaerosols, a significant yet underexplored component of atmospheric particulate matter, pose substantial public health risks, particularly in regions with poor air quality. This study investigates the composition of bioaerosols in public spaces, specifically two interstate motor parks and two marketplaces in Osun State, Nigeria, over six months. Air samples were collected, and bacterial and fungal species were identified, focusing on pathogenic organisms. The results revealed the presence of well-known pathogens, including Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella sp., Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Aspergillus sp., and Fusarium sp., which are associated with respiratory and gastrointestinal infections, as well as antimicrobial resistance. Site-specific differences in microbial diversity were observed, with higher bacterial diversity in motor parks and greater fungal occurrence in marketplaces influenced by environmental factors such as waste management. The findings highlight the urgent need for microbial air quality monitoring in public spaces, alongside improved sanitation practices. This study provides critical insights into the public health risks posed by bioaerosols and calls for local and global interventions to mitigate the impact of airborne pathogens in urban environments.

The potential impacts of climate change on violent conflict are high on the agenda of scholars and policy makers. This article reviews existing literature to clarify the relationship between climate change and conflict risk, focusing on the roles of temperature and precipitation. While some debate remains, substantial evidence shows that climate change increases conflict risk under specific conditions. We examine four key pathways through which climate affects conflict: (i) economic shocks, (ii), agricultural decline, (iii) natural resources competition, and (iv) migration. Key gaps include limited long-term data, insufficient integrated studies, and the inadequate understanding of causal mechanisms, necessitating transdisciplinary research that addresses social vulnerability and underlying pathways.