1,721,171 research outputs found
Environmental exposure to cadmium, forearm bone density, and risk of fractures: prospective population study
No full textBackground Chronic low-level exposure to cadmium may promote calcium loss via urinary excretion. We undertook a prospective population study to investigate whether environmental exposure to cadmium lowers bone density and increases risk of fractures. Methods We measured urinary cadmium excretion, a biomarker of lifetime exposure, in people from ten districts of Belgium, of which six districts bordered on three zinc smelters. We also measured cadmium in soil and in vegetables from the districts, and collected data on incidence of fractures and height loss. Bone density was measured at the forearm just above the wrist by single photon absorptiometry, and calculated as the mean of six proximal and four distal scans. Findings Mean cadmium excretion at baseline was 8.7 nmol dairy. Across the ten districts, mean cadmium concentration in soil ranged from 0.8 to 14.7 mg/kg, and from 0.1 to 4.0 mg/kg dry weight in vegetables. Median follow-up was 6.6 years. Mean forearm bane density in proximal and distal scans was 0.54 g/cm(2) and 0.43 g/cm(2) in men, and 0.44 g/cm(2) and 0.34 g/cm(2) in women, in postmenopausal women, a twofold increase in urinary cadmium correlated with 0.01 g/cm(2) decrease in bone density (p < 0.02). The relative risks associated with doubted urinary cadmium were 1.73 (95% CI 1.16-2.57; p = 0.007) for fractures in women and 1.60 (0.94-2.72, p = 0.08) for height toss in men. Cadmium excretion in districts near smelters was 22.8% higher (p = 0.001) than in other districts, with fracture rates of 16.0 end 10.3 cases per 1000 person-years, respectively, and a population-attributable risk of 35.0%. Interpretation Even at a low degree of environmental exposure, cadmium may promote skeletal demineralisation, which may lead to increased bone fragility and raised risk of fractures
Cadmium from zinc smelter emission and variation in cancer incidence: the hierarchy of evidence.
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Environmental exposure to cadmium, forearm bone density, and risk of fractures: prospective population study
No full textBackground Chronic low-level exposure to cadmium may promote calcium loss via urinary excretion. We undertook a prospective population study to investigate whether environmental exposure to cadmium lowers bone density and increases risk of fractures. Methods We measured urinary cadmium excretion, a biomarker of lifetime exposure, in people from ten districts of Belgium, of which six districts bordered on three zinc smelters. We also measured cadmium in soil and in vegetables from the districts, and collected data on incidence of fractures and height loss. Bone density was measured at the forearm just above the wrist by single photon absorptiometry, and calculated as the mean of six proximal and four distal scans. Findings Mean cadmium excretion at baseline was 8.7 nmol dairy. Across the ten districts, mean cadmium concentration in soil ranged from 0.8 to 14.7 mg/kg, and from 0.1 to 4.0 mg/kg dry weight in vegetables. Median follow-up was 6.6 years. Mean forearm bane density in proximal and distal scans was 0.54 g/cm(2) and 0.43 g/cm(2) in men, and 0.44 g/cm(2) and 0.34 g/cm(2) in women, in postmenopausal women, a twofold increase in urinary cadmium correlated with 0.01 g/cm(2) decrease in bone density (p < 0.02). The relative risks associated with doubted urinary cadmium were 1.73 (95% CI 1.16-2.57; p = 0.007) for fractures in women and 1.60 (0.94-2.72, p = 0.08) for height toss in men. Cadmium excretion in districts near smelters was 22.8% higher (p = 0.001) than in other districts, with fracture rates of 16.0 end 10.3 cases per 1000 person-years, respectively, and a population-attributable risk of 35.0%. Interpretation Even at a low degree of environmental exposure, cadmium may promote skeletal demineralisation, which may lead to increased bone fragility and raised risk of fractures
Public and occupational health risks related to lead exposure updated according to present-day blood lead levels
No full textLead is an environmental hazard that should be addressed worldwide. Over time, human lead exposure in the western world has decreased drastically to levels comparable to those among humans living in the preindustrial era, who were mainly exposed to natural sources of lead. To re-evaluate the potential health risks associated with present-day lead exposure, a two-pronged approach was applied. First, recently published population metrics describing the adverse health effects associated with lead exposure at the population level were critically assessed. Next, the key results of the Study for Promotion of Health in Recycling Lead (SPHERL; NCT02243904) were summarized and put in perspective with those of the published population metrics. To our knowledge, SPHERL is the first prospective study that accounted for interindividual variability between people with respect to their vulnerability to the toxic effects of lead exposure by assessing the participants' health status before and after occupational lead exposure. The overall conclusion of this comprehensive review is that mainstream ideas about the public and occupational health risks related to lead exposure urgently need to be updated because a large portion of the available literature became obsolete given the sharp decrease in exposure levels over the past 40 years.sponsorship: The International Lead Association (www.ila-lead.org) provided an unrestricted grant to the Research Unit Hypertension and Cardiovascular Epidemiology, KU Leuven Department of Cardiovascular Sciences, partially supporting data collection and management and statistical analysis of the SPHERL project. The Non-Profit Research Association Alliance for the Promotion of Preventive Medicine, Mechelen, Belgium (URL, www.appremed.org) received a nonbinding grant from OMRON Healthcare Co Ltd, Kyoto, Japan. These funders played no role in the decision to submit this review article. (OMRON Healthcare Co Ltd, Kyoto, Japan)status: Publishe
Ambient air pollution exposure during the late gestational period is linked with lower placental iodine load in a Belgian birth cohort
No full textBACKGROUND: Adequate intake of iodine is required for the production of thyroid hormones and contributes in pregnant women to a healthy brain development and growth in their offspring. To date, some evidence exists that fine particulate air pollution is linked with the fetal thyroid hormone homeostasis. However, possible effects of air pollutants on the placental iodine storage have not been investigated so far. OBJECTIVES: We investigated the association between air pollution exposure to particulate matter with a diameter less than 2.5 µm (PM2.5), NO2, and black carbon and the placental iodine load. METHODS: The current study is part of the ENVIRONAGE birth cohort and included 470 mother-newborn pairs. Iodine concentrations were measured in placental tissue. A high-resolution air pollution model was used to estimate the daily exposure to PM2.5, NO2, and black carbon over the entire pregnancy based on the maternal residential addresses. Distributed lag nonlinear models (DLNMs) were used to estimate gestational week-specific associations between placental iodine concentrations and the air pollutants to understand the impact of specific exposure windows. RESULTS: PM2.5 showed a positive association with placental iodine concentration between the 16th and 22nd week of gestation. In contrast, a significant inverse association between PM2.5 and placental iodine concentration was observed in gestational weeks 29-35. The effect estimate, for a 5 µg/m3 increment in PM2.5 concentration, was the strongest at week 32 (β -0.11 µg/kg; 95%CI: -0.18 to -0.03). No associations were observed between placental iodine concentrations and NO2 or black carbon. Assuming causality, we estimated that placental iodine mediated 26% (-0.33 pmol/L; 95%CI: -0.70 to 0.04 pmol/L) of the estimated effect of a 5 µg/m3 increment in PM2.5 exposure on cord blood free thyroxine (FT4) concentrations. CONCLUSION: In utero exposure to particulate matter during the third trimester of pregnancy is linked with a lower placental iodine load. Furthermore, the effect of air pollution on cord blood FT4 levels was partially mediated by the placental iodine load.sponsorship: The ENVIRONAGE birth cohort is supported by grants from the European Research Council (ERC-2012-StG 310898) and Flemish Research Council (FWO G073315N). Bram G. Janssen is a postdoctoral fellow of the FWO (FWO 12W3218N). We thank R. Machiels for his skillful technical assistance in relation to the iodine determinations in the Sciensano lab. (European Research Council|ERC-2012-StG 310898, Flemish Research Council|FWO G073315N, FWO|FWO 12W3218N)status: Publishe
Adverse Effects of fine particulate matter on human kidney functioning: a systematic review
No full textBACKGROUND: Ambient fine particulate matter (PM < 2.5 μm, PM2.5) is gaining increasing attention as an environmental risk factor for health. The kidneys are considered a particularly vulnerable target to the toxic effects that PM2.5 exerts. Alteration of kidney function may lead to a disrupted homeostasis, affecting disparate tissues in the body. This review intends to summarize all relevant knowledge published between January 2000 and December 2021 on the effects of ambient PM2.5 and the adverse effects on kidney function in adults (≥ 18 years). RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: Studies published in peer-reviewed journals, written in English, regarding the effects of PM2.5 on kidney function and the development and/or exacerbation of kidney disease(s) were included. Of the 587 nonduplicate studies evaluated, 40 were included, comprising of studies on healthy or diagnosed with pre-existing disease (sub)populations. Most of the studies were cohort studies (n = 27), followed by 10 cross-sectional, 1 ecological and 2 time-series studies. One longitudinal study was considered intermediate risk of bias, the other included studies were considered low risk of bias. A large portion of the studies (n = 36) showed that PM2.5 exposure worsened kidney outcome(s) investigated; however, some studies show contradictory results. Measurement of the estimated glomerular filtration rate, for instance, was found to be positively associated (n = 8) as well as negatively associated (n = 4) with PM2.5. LIMITATIONS AND CONCLUSION: The main limitations of the included studies include residual confounding (e.g., smoking) and lack of individual exposure levels. The majority of included studies focused on specific subpopulations, which may limit generalizability. Evidence of the detrimental effects that ambient PM2.5 may exert on kidney function is emerging. However, further investigations are required to determine how and to what extent air pollution, specifically PM2.5, exerts adverse effects on the kidney and alters its function. REGISTRATION: The systematic review protocol was submitted and published by the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO; CRD42020175615 ).sponsorship: The authors acknowledge funding from the Special Research Fund (BOF) from Hasselt University granted to LR (BOF20DOC15) and the Flemish Scientific Research Foundation (FWO) funding granted to KVB (G059219N). BOF and FWO had no role in the design, conduct, and preparation of the manuscript. (Special Research Fund (BOF) from Hasselt University|BOF20DOC15, Flemish Scientific Research Foundation (FWO)|G059219N)status: Publishe
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Longkankerrisico en blootstelling aan Cadmium via het milieu: antwoord op de kritiek met toetsing van de causaliteit
Full text linkWe investigated whether the risk of lung cancer is related to environmental exposure to cadmium. From 1985-1989 we randomly recruited 994 subjects from areas with low and high exposure to cadmium. We measured their 24-hour urinary cadmium excretion, an index of lifelong exposure, as well as the cadmium concentration in the soil of their kitchen gardens. The cadmium concentration in the soil ranged from 0.8 to 17.0 mg/kg. The 24-hour urinary cadmium excretion averaged 12.3 nmol in residents of the polluted area, compared to 7.7 nmol in the reference area (p < 0.0001). During 17.2 years (median) of follow-up, 53 fatal and 20 non-fatal cancers occurred, of which 18 and 1 were lung cancers (outcome updated until 31 October 2004). The hazard ratios for lung cancer adjusted for sex, age and smoking, were 1.70 (1.13-2.57; p = 0.011) for a doubling of the urinary cadmium excretion, 4.17 (1.21-14.4; p = 0.024) for residing in the high versus low exposure area, and 1.57 (1.11-2.24; p = 0.012) for a doubling of the cadmium concentration in the soil. In the first part of the present overview, we summarized our findings which were previously published in English. Next, we report the results of additional analyses, which we executed in response to the critical comments on our primary study. We also verified our primary and additional study results according to the Bradford-Hill criteria to detect a causal association. Finally, we reviewed possible mechanisms underlying the association between lung cancer and exposure to cadmium as well as the preventive measures which can be implemented in areas environmentally polluted by cadmium.status: Publishe
Cadmium praktijkgids voor artsen
No full textDe cadmiumpraktijkgids is een praktische leidraad voor artsen die zorgen verlenen aan patiënten met vragen over hoe blootstelling aan cadmium via hat leefmilieu mogelijke geovlgen kan hebben voor hun gezondheid
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