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PubMed2005

Temporal changes in U.S. benzene emissions inferred from atmospheric measurements.

The 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments required the United States Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) to enact stricter regulations aimed at reducing benzene emissions. In an effort to determine whether these new regulations have been successful in reducing atmospheric benzene concentrations, we have evaluated benzene-to-acetylene ratios from data sets spanning nearlythree decades, collected during several field studies and from the U.S. EPA's Photochemical Assessment Monitoring Station (PAMS) network. The field-study data indicate a decrease in benzene relative to acetylene of approximately 40% from 1994 to 2002. This corresponds to a decrease in benzene alone of approximately 56% over the same period. In contrast, the PAMS data exhibit high interannual variability with no discernible trend. This discrepancy is attributed to measurement problems in the PAMS data sets.

Air Pollutants↗
PubMed1999

Relation between indoor and outdoor exposure to fine particles near a busy arterial road.

Various studies on indoor and outdoor particulate matter in the urban environment in the vicinity of busy arterial roads in the centre of the subtropical city of Brisbane have indicated that the revised United States Environmental Protection Agency National Ambient Air Quality Standards (US EPA NAAQS) for Particulate matter PM2.5 could be exceeded not only outdoors but also indoors. The aim of this work was to investigate outdoor exposure to submicrometer particles and their relationship with indoor exposure in a hypothetical office building located in the vicinity of a busy arterial road. The outdoor exposure values and trends were measured in terms of particle number in the submicrometer size range and were then recalculated to represent mass concentration trends. The results of this study indicate that exposure to PM0.7 particles in ambient air close to a busy road often exceeds the levels of the annual and 24-hour US EPA NAAQS PM2.5 standards. It is likely that exposure to PM2.5 is even higher, and may significantly exceed these standards.

Air Pollution, Indoor↗
PubMed2005

Mercury, food webs, and marine mammals: implications of diet and climate change for human health.

We modeled the flow of methyl mercury, a toxic global pollutant, in the Faroe Islands marine ecosystem and compared average human methyl mercury exposure from consumption of pilot whale meat and fish (cod, Gadus morhua) with current tolerable weekly intake (TWI) levels. Under present conditions and climate change scenarios, methyl mercury increased in the ecosystem, translating into increased human exposure over time. However, we saw greater changes as a result of changing fishing mortalities. A large portion of the general human population exceed the TWI levels set by the World Health Organization [WHO; 1.6 microg/kg body weight (bw)], and they all exceed the reference dose (RfD) of 0.1 microg/kg bw/day set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA; equivalent to a TWI of 0.7 microg/kg bw). As a result of an independent study documenting that Faroese children exposed prenatally to methyl mercury had reduced cognitive abilities, pregnant women have decreased their intake of whale meat and were below the TWI levels set by the WHO and the U.S. EPA. Cod had approximately 95% lower methyl mercury concentrations than did pilot whale. Thus, the high and harmful levels of methyl mercury in the diet of Faroe Islanders are driven by whale meat consumption, and the increasing impact of climate change is likely to exacerbate this situation. Significantly, base inflow rates of mercury into the environment would need to be reduced by approximately 50% to ensure levels of intake below the WHO TWI levels, given current levels of whale consumption.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1999

Public health and the Air Management Information System (AMIS).

This paper discusses the importance of public health studies with respect to risk assessment and risk management in the framework of air quality management. This is performed with respect to the Air Management Information System (AMIS), which was set up recently by the World Health Organization. The Air Management Information System is an information-exchange system in the scheme of the Global Air Quality Partnership providing information on all issues of air quality management between its participants: municipalities, countries' environmental protection agencies, international organizations, World Bank and international development banks, and nongovernmental organizations. Public health studies of air pollution-induced health effects are an important ingredient for decisions with respect to the management of air quality. First, they are to be used to derive air quality standards from air quality guidelines. Secondly, they serve to assess the causal link between observed health effects in the population and the causative agents in the air. Thirdly, they can be used to estimate ideal (in the sense of not being expressed in monetary terms) or economic damage functions that are necessary to assess the magnitude of the ideal or economic damages to human health. The latter are necessary for a sensible cost-benefit analysis in which the costs of control measures to reduce air pollution are compared with the costs of health effects.

Air Pollution↗
PubMed2000

Chemicals in the environment and developmental toxicity to children: a public health and policy perspective.

There are numerous pesticides and toxic chemicals in the environment that have yet to be evaluated for potential to cause developmental neurotoxicity. Recent legislation and testing initiatives provide an impetus to generating more information about potential hazards to children. In the United States, the 1996 Food Quality Protection Act (FQPA) required the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) to make a finding that a pesticide food use is safe for children. In addition, the law requires U.S. EPA to incorporate an additional 10-fold factor in risk assessments for pesticide residue tolerances to take into account the special sensitivities of infants and children as well as incomplete data with respect to toxicity and exposures. The potential of chemicals in food and drinking water to cause endocrine disruption will also be examined via the Endocrine Disruptor Screening and Testing Program required by the FQPA and the 1996 Safe Drinking Water Act. In addition, a new voluntary chemical information program will provide screening-level information for the some 2,800 high-volume chemicals in commerce in the United States. These initiatives will need to be accompanied by research focused on developmental toxicity for children, including developmental disabilities. Developmental disabilities exact a large toll on children's health in the United States. Three major developmental disabilities--autism, cerebral palsy, and severe mental retardation--each affect substantial numbers of children. We know very little about the etiology of these conditions. A number of priority areas for research are suggested, including a large environmental prospective study of developmental neurotoxicity.

Child↗
PubMed2004

Children as a sensitive subpopulation for the risk assessment process.

For cancer risk assessment purposes, it is necessary to consider how to incorporate sensitive subpopulations into the process to ensure that they are appropriately protected. Children represent one such potentially sensitive subpopulation that is of quite considerable magnitude. The data needs include sensitivity to the induction of childhood cancers compared to adult cancers and relative sensitivity of early-life exposures for the formation of tumors in adults. These needs as far as human data are concerned are best met for ionizing radiations, for which it has been shown in the atomic bomb survivors that early-life exposures are more effective at inducing cancers later in life. The risk assessment approach for ionizing radiations, however, is based on tumor data itself for total population exposures so that there is no requirement to consider specifically the impact of early-life exposures. In the case of environmental chemicals, the majority of the tumor data used for risk assessments are from rodent bioassays. There is a paucity of data that allow for a comparison of the response to early-life exposures compared to that for adult-only exposures. This presents a fairly difficult challenge to the identification of a general sensitivity factor or a chemical-specific sensitivity factor for early-life exposures. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has not, until recently, incorporated a general adjustment for early-life exposure to carcinogens into its risk assessment guidelines. The Agency has relied on the fact that, in the absence of specific data to the contrary, the linear extrapolation for rodent tumor data provided appropriate protection. When specific data are available, then an adjustment can be calculated. In its most recent draft guidelines, however, a general adjustment has been proposed for mutagenic chemicals. A 10-fold risk adjustment is recommended for the first 2 years of life, a 3-fold adjustment for years 3-15, and no adjustment for exposures after age 15. For chemicals that do not have a mutagenic mode of action, no adjustment is recommended because the data for deriving such an adjustment are simply not available. Clearly, this is an interim position that is dependent on more pertinent data being collected. A significant component of this is to conduct cancer bioassays that include early-life exposures.

Adult↗
PubMed2005

How much uncertainty is too much and how do we know? A case example of the assessment of ozone monitor network options.

Limited time and resources usually characterize environmental decision making at policy organizations such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. In these climates, addressing uncertainty, usually considered a flaw in scientific analyses, is often avoided. However, ignoring uncertainties can result in unpleasant policy surprises. Furthermore, it is important for decisionmakers to know how defensible a chosen policy option is over other options when the uncertainties of the data are considered. The purpose of this article is to suggest an approach that is unique from other approaches in that it considers uncertainty in two specific ways-the uncertainty of stakeholder values within a particular decision context and data uncertainty in the light of the decision-contextual data-values relationship. It is the premise of this article that the interaction between data and stakeholder values is critical to how the decision options are viewed and determines the effect of data uncertainty on the relative acceptability of the decision options, making the understanding of this interaction important to decisionmakers and other stakeholders. This approach utilizes the recently developed decision analysis framework and process, multi-criteria integrated resource assessment (MIRA). This article will specifically address how MIRA can be used to help decisionmakers better understand the importance of uncertainty on the specific (i.e., decision contextual) environmental policy options that they are deliberating.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2007

Secret ties to industry and conflicting interests in cancer research.

BACKGROUND: Recently it was reported that a Swedish professor in environmental health has for decades worked as a consultant for Philip Morris without reporting his employment to his academic employer or declaring conflicts of interest in his research. The potential for distorting the epidemiological assessments of hazard and risk through paid consultants, pretending to be independent, is not exclusive to the tobacco industry. METHODS: Documentation is drawn from peer reviewed publications, websites, documents from the Environmental Protection Agency, University reports, Wellcome Library Special Collections and the Washington Post. RESULTS: Some consulting firms employ university researchers for industry work thereby disguising industry links in the income of large departments. If the industry affiliation is concealed by the scientist, biases from conflicting interests in risk assessments cannot be evaluated and dealt with properly. Furthermore, there is reason to suspect that editors and journal staff may suppress publication of scientific results that are adverse to industry owing to internal conflict of interest between editorial integrity and business needs. CONCLUSIONS: Examples of these problems from Sweden, UK, and USA are presented. The shortfalls cited in this article illustrate the need for improved transparency, regulations that will help curb abuses as well as instruments for control and enforcement against abuses.

Biomedical Research↗
PubMed2005

Exposure to selected heavy metals through water ingestion in an area under the influence of tanneries.

This study evaluated the potential toxicological risk posed to human health due to the exposure to heavy metals by water ingestion in an area affected by tanneries - the Cadeia-Feitoria hydrographic basin (Brazil). River water was collected at 10 sites, every 3 months, from July 1999 to April 2000. After acid digestion, total metal concentration was determined by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (Cd, Cu, Cr, Ni, Zn), flame atomic absorption (Al, Fe, Pb, Mn), or cold vapor atomic absorption spectrometry (Hg). Cr(VI) was complexed with diphenyl-carbazide and detected by UV-vis spectrometry. In order to quantify the risk of exposure, the risk assessment methodology employed by the Environmental Protection Agency of the United States was applied at a screening level. The assumed scenarios included extreme exposure patterns (ingestion of untreated water, conversion of Cr(III) to Cr(VI), temporal peaks of pollution). Fe, Al, Cd, Hg, and Pb were not included in the risk analysis, since they showed a low toxicity potential or were undetected in the samples. The selected metals presented Hazard Quotients < 1, in the following order of increasing risk: Cu < Cr(III) < Zn < Ni < Mn < Cr(VI). Hazard indexes, representing the additive effect of contaminants, were also low in the basin (< 1), but comparatively increased in the lower reach of Feitoria and Cadeia Rivers. Although noncarcinogenic risk levels did not suggest possible adverse toxicological effects to the human population, a considerable deviation from background conditions was observed downstream the area where tanneries are mainly located.

Brazil↗
PubMed1991

Dioxins and dibenzofurans in adipose tissue of US Vietnam veterans and controls.

The primary reason for concern about the adverse effects of exposure to Agent Orange is attributable to its toxic contaminant, 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) or dioxin. We studied adipose tissues from 36 Vietnam veterans, a similar group of 79 non-Vietnam veterans, and 80 civilians; the tissue specimens were selected from the 8,000 archived tissues collected from the non-institutionalized general population by the US Environmental Protection Agency. The geometric mean (+/- standard deviation) dioxin levels in adipose tissue for Vietnam veterans, non-Vietnam veterans, and civilian controls were 11.7 (+/- 1.7), 10.9 (+/- 1.7), and 12.4 (+/- 1.9) parts per trillion on a lipid weight basis, respectively. The mean levels for these groups were not significantly different from each other with or without adjustment for age of individuals, body mass index, and specimen collection year. In addition, none of the surrogate measures of Agent Orange exposure such as military branch, service within specific geographic region, military occupation, and troop location in relation to recorded Agent Orange spray was associated with the dioxin levels in adipose tissue of Vietnam veterans. Our results suggest that heavy exposure to Agent Orange or dioxin for most US troops was unlikely.

Adipose Tissue↗
PubMed2006

The use of biomonitoring data in exposure and human health risk assessments.

Biomonitoring uses analytic methods that permit the accurate measurement of low levels of environmental chemicals in human tissues. However, depending on the intended use, biomonitoring, like all exposure tools, may not be a stand-alone exposure assessment tool for some of its environmental public health uses. Although biomonitoring data demonstrate that many environmental chemicals are absorbed in human tissues, uncertainty exists regarding if and at what concentrations many of these chemicals cause adverse health outcomes. Moreover, without exposure pathway information, it is difficult to relate biomonitoring results to sources and routes of exposure and develop effective health risk management strategies. In September 2004, the Health and Environmental Sciences Institute, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, and International Council of Chemical Associations co-sponsored the International Biomonitoring Workshop, which explored the processes and information needed for placing biomonitoring data into perspective for risk assessment purposes, with special emphasis on integrating biomarker measurements of exposure, internal dose, and potential health outcome. Scientists from international governments, academia, and industry recommended criteria for applying biomonitoring data for various uses. Six case studies, which are part of this mini-monograph, were examined: inorganic arsenic, methyl eugenol, organophosphorus pesticides, perfluorooctanesulfonate, phthalates, and polybrominated diphenyl ethers. Based on the workshop and follow-up discussions, this overview article summarizes lessons learned, identifies data gaps, outlines research needs, and offers guidance for designing and conducting biomonitoring studies, as well as interpreting biomonitoring data in the context of risk assessment and risk management.

Environmental Exposure↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Assessment of exposure to organic aromatic compounds and PAH in asphalt industry: the PPTP-POPA Study results].

Asphalt is a mixture of mineral matter and bitumen, its fumes contain about 1% of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAH), some of which are carcinogens. In the PPTP-POPA Study of Lombardy Region, a group of 100 asphalt workers (exposed to bitumen fumes and diesel exhausts) and a group of 47 ground construction operators (exposed only to diesel exhausts) were investigated to assess PAH exposure in Italy, by means of environmental-air monitoring (the 16 most relevant, according to the American Environmental Protection Agency, EPA) and biological monitoring (urinary 1-hydroxypyrene excretion). Our results show that PAH exposure in these workers is not higher than that observed in traffic policemen working in urban areas. Since dermal exposure has been suggested as a major determinant of the total PAH dose absorbed by road pavers from bitumen fumes, we assessed skin contamination by organic aromatic compounds and by sixteen PAH: in both groups, six pads were applied to each subject in different parts of the body, during the workshift. The results show that the dermal contamination in road pavers is higher than in ground construction operators and that cutaneous dose rate is higher than respiratory dose rate, whereas the amount of absorption the ratio is inverted.

Adult↗
PubMed2006

Cancer and non-cancer health risk from eating cassava grown in some mining communities in Ghana.

Food crops such as cassava, cocoyam and other tuber crops grown in mining communities uptake toxic or hazardous chemicals such as arsenic, and cadmium, from the soil. Cassava is a stable food for Ghanaians. This study evaluated human health risk from eating cassava grown in some mining communities in Ghana such as Bogoso, Prestea, Tarkwa and Tamso, which are important mining towns in the Western Region of Ghana. The study evaluated cancer and non-cancer health effects from eating cassava grown in the study areas in accordance with US Environmental Protection Agency's Risk Assessment guidelines. The results of the study revealed the following: cancer health risk for Tamso, 0.098 (RME--Reasonable Maximum Exposure) and 0.082 (CTE--Central Tendency Exposure). This means that approximately 10 and 8 out of 100 resident adults are likely to suffer from cancer related cases by RME and CTE parameters respectively. For Prestea, we have 0.010 and 0.12, which also means that approximately 1 out of 100 and 10 resident adults out of 100 are also likely to suffer from cancer related diseases by RME and CTE parameters. The results of the study obtained were found to be above the acceptable cancer risk range of 1x 10(-6) to 1x 10(-4), i.e., 1 case of cancer out of 1 million or 100,000 people respectively.

Adult↗
PubMed1975

Carbon monoxide in school buses.

Following an incident in which eight children became ill from carbon monoxide in a school bus, an investigation was made of CO levels in school buses in the Seattle area. The procedure selected for the evaluation was to test a large number of buses at a nearby ski resort. On the day selected for the sampling, over 200 buses arrived, bringing school children from a number of school districts in the Seattle are for skiing lessons. As they arrived, 33 buses were checked immediately to determine in-transit levels of CO. Four of the 33 buses had CO levels in excess of Environmental Protection Agency maximum allowable concentrations for an 8-hr exposure. As the buses sat idling in the parking lot, 65 of them were tested--during the lunch hour when the students returned to the buses to have their lunch and to rest. Two buses had nearly 3 times the concentration of CO permitted by the EPA for a 1-hr exposure. A total of seven buses (10 per cent) had concentrations of CO not permitted by the EPA for more than a 1-hr period. Altogether there were 24 buses (36 per cent) that had levels of CO in excess of EPA standards for an 8-hr exposure. As a result of these determinations and other observations a number of recommendations were made to reduce the hazard of exposure to carbon monoxide in school buses.

Air Pollutants↗
PubMed2001

Pentagon surface wipe sampling health risk assessment.

Within hours after the terrorist attack on the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, an extensive sampling effort was initiated within the building to include surface wipe sampling for select coplanar polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), congeners of polychlorinated dibenzo(p)dioxins and dibenzofurans (dioxins/furans) and lead. A risk-based screening level method was utilized to determine the necessity of additional sampling and to assess the potential for emergency response crews, remediation crews, and returning Pentagon workers to have adverse health impact from exposure to the PCBs. dioxins/furans, and lead on nonporous surfaces. The screening level method included all exposure pathways: dermal absorption, incidental ingestion, and inhalation. Various U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) guidance documents provided the basis for the method. The underlying assumptions were that the PCBs, dioxins/furans, and lead were contained in the dust or soot layer found on nonporous surfaces, that sampling results were representative of the surfaces from which they were taken, and that the analytical methods employed were able to detect 100% of these substances. A few of the limitations associated with this method included the lack of toxicity values for dermal absorption and the lack of accurate, discrete dermal-exposure values. Evaluation results indicated that additional sampling was not necessary and that concentrations of PCBs, dioxins/furans, and lead on nonporous surfaces were below levels expected to cause adverse health impacts to emergency response crews, remediation crews, and returning Pentagon workers.

Administration, Cutaneous↗
PubMed2004

Inorganic acid emission factors of semiconductor manufacturing processes.

A huge amount of inorganic acids can be produced and emitted with waste gases from integrated circuit manufacturing processes such as cleaning and etching. Emission of inorganic acids from selected semiconductor factories was measured in this study. The sampling of the inorganic acids was based on the porous metal denuders, and samples were then analyzed by ion chromatography. The amount of chemical usage was adopted from the data that were reported to the Environmental Protection Bureau in Hsin-chu County according to the Taiwan Environmental Protection Agency regulation. The emission factor is defined as the emission rate (kg/month) divided by the amount of chemical usage (L/month). Emission factors of three inorganic acids (i.e., hydrofluoric acid [HF], hydrochloric acid [HCl], and sulfuric acid [H2SO4]) were estimated by the same method. The emission factors of HF and HCl were determined to be 0.0075 kg/L (coefficient of variation [CV] = 60.7%, n = 80) and 0.0096 kg/L (CV = 68.2%, n = 91), respectively. Linear regression equations are proposed to fit the data with correlation coefficient square (R2) = 0.82 and 0.9, respectively. The emission factor of H2SO4, which is in the droplet form, was determined to be 0.0016 kg/L (CV = 99.2%, n = 107), and its R2 was 0.84. The emission profiles of gaseous inorganic acids show that HF is the dominant chemical in most of the fabricators.

Acids↗
PubMed2004

Bioremediation of creosote-contaminated soil in South Africa by landfarming.

AIMS: To determine the combined effects of biostimulation and bioaugmentation in the landfarming of a mispah form (lithosol; food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO)) soil contaminated with >310000 mg kg-1 creosote with a view to developing a bioremediation technology for soils heavily contaminated with creosote. METHODS AND RESULTS: The excavated soil was mixed with 2500 kg ha-1 dolomitic lime and 2000 kg ha-1 mono-ammonium phosphate (MAP) before spreading over a treatment bed of shale reinforced with clay. Sewage sludge (500 kg) was ploughed into 450 m3 of contaminated soil in the second and sixth months of treatment. A further 1000 kg ha-1 MAP was added to the soil at the end of the fifth month. Moisture was maintained at 70% field capacity. Total creosote was determined by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) method 418.1 and concentrations of selected creosote components were determined by gas chromatography/flame ionisation detection (GC/FID). Total creosote was reduced by more than 90% by the 10th month of landfarming. The rate of reduction in creosote concentration was highest after the addition of sewage sludge. The three-ring PAHs were more slowly removed than naphthalene and the phenolic compounds. The four- and five-ring PAHs, although persist until the end of treatment, were reduced by 76-87% at the end of the experiment. CONCLUSIONS: A combination of biostimulation and bioaugmentation during landfarming could enhance the bioremediation of soils heavily contaminated with creosote. SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF THE STUDY: The study provides information on the management of a combination of biostimulation and bioaugmentation during landfarming, and contributes to the knowledge and database necessary for the development of a technology for bioremediating creosote-contaminated land.

Agriculture↗
PubMed1985

Use of selected toxicology information resources in assessing relationships between chemical structure and biological activity.

This paper addresses the subject of the use of selected toxicology information resources in assessing relationships between chemical structure and specific biological end points. To assist the researcher in how to access the primary literature of genetic toxicology, teratogenesis, and carcinogenesis, three specific specialized information centers are discussed--Environmental Mutagen Information Center, Environmental Teratology Information Center, and Environmental Carcinogenesis Information Center. Also included are descriptions of information resources that contain evaluated (peer-reviewed) biological research results. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Genetic Toxicology Program, the International Agency for Research on Cancer Monographs, and the Toxicology Data Bank are the best sources currently available to obtain peer-reviewed results for compounds tested for genotoxicity, carcinogenicity, and other toxicological end points. The value of published information lies in its use. It has become evident that most information cannot be accepted at face value for interpretation and analysis when subjected to stringent quality evaluation criteria. This deficit can be corrected by rigid editorship and the cognizance of authors. Increased interest in alternative methods to in vivo animal testing will be exemplified by use of short-term bioassays and in structure-activity relationship studies. With respect to this latter area, it must be remembered that mechanically (computer generated) derived data cannot substitute, at least at this stage, for data obtained from actual animal testing. The future of structure-activity relationship studies will rest only in their use as a predictive tool.

Carcinogens, Environmental↗