Environmental Health Commons^™

Rationale, Design And Methods Of "Set The Rules": A Tailored Peer-To-Peer Health Information Intervention, Jennifer R. Warren, Brandi M. White

Health and Clinical Sciences Faculty Publications

Ensuring equitable access to health information is one strategy to promote health equity for underserved communities, especially for low-income African Americans (AAs). Childcare centers are one viable site to deliver health information to address this disparity. This paper describes the methods used in a community-based participatory research project with a childcare facility that aimed to reduce environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) exposure among low-income AA children. Through collaboration and multiple data collection methods, partners identified communication strategies to overcome informational barriers. These initial findings indicated a peer-to-peer health information intervention, entitled “Set the Rules”, as the best strategy to increase awareness. …

La Asociación Entre La Contaminación Del Agua Y La Salud En Los Niños Menores De Cinco Años En Villa Garrote, Partido De Tigre / The Association Between Water Pollution And Health In Children Under Five In Villa Garrote, Tigre Party, Morgan Whyte

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

La intersección entre el medio ambiente y la salud es un tema central en el estudio de la salud pública porque el acceso a un medio ambiente seguro es esencial para los resultados positivos en la salud. Este tema es particularmente relevante al considerar a Villa Garrote, una pequeña villa situada en el río Reconquista en el municipio de Tigre. Para abordar este tema dentro de esta villa, esta investigación pretende explorar la asociación entre la contaminación del agua y la salud de los niños. Además, los objetivos específicos de este estudio incluyen: investigar los principales elementos que contaminan el …

It's About Communities: The Commitment To Promoting A Culturally Competent Environmental Health Workforce, Clint Pinion Jr., Leslie D. Mitchell, Jason W. Marion

EKU Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Environmental health and public health are profoundly local. The Association of Environmental Health Academic Programs (AEHAP) firmly agrees and for this reason, it is important to have local environmental health experts who know the pulse of their communities. AEHAP believes in supporting the advanced scientific education of environmental health in these communities through people from these communities. Accordingly, AEHAP has sought to promote and support accredited environmental health programs among a diverse cross-section of the U.S. higher education landscape. AEHAP’s students are diverse in many ways, including socioeconomically, racially, ethnically, and culturally. The value of this approach enhances the overall …

Influenza Virus Infectivity Is Retained In Aerosols And Droplets Independent Of Relative Humidity, Karen A. Kormuth, Kaisen Lin, Aaron J. Prussin, Eric P. Vejerano, Andrea J. Tiwari, Steve S. Cox, Micheal M. Myerburg, Seema S. Lakdawala, Linsey C. Marr

Faculty Publications

Pandemic and seasonal influenza viruses can be transmitted through aerosols and droplets, in which viruses must remain stable and infectious across a wide range of environmental conditions. Using humidity-controlled chambers, we studied the impact of relative humidity on the stability of 2009 pandemic influenza A(H1N1) virus in suspended aerosols and stationary droplets. Contrary to the prevailing paradigm that humidity modulates the stability of respiratory viruses in aerosols, we found that viruses supplemented with material from the apical surface of differentiated primary human airway epithelial cells remained equally infectious for 1 hour at all relative humidities tested. This sustained infectivity was …

Macrophages But Not Astrocytes Harbor Hiv Dna In The Brains Of Hiv-1-Infected Aviremic Individuals On Suppressive Antiretroviral Therapy, Allen Ko, Guobin Kang, Julian B. Hattler, Hadiza I. Galadima, Junfeng Zhang, Qingsheng Li, Woong-Ki Kim

Community & Environmental Health Faculty Publications

The question of whether the human brain is an anatomical site of persistent HIV-1 infection during suppressive antiretroviral therapy (ART) is critical, but remains unanswered. The presence of virus in the brains of HIV patients whose viral load is effectively suppressed would demonstrate not only the potential for CNS to act as an anatomical HIV reservoir, but also the urgent need to understand the factors contributing to persistent HIV behind the blood-brain barrier. Here, we investigated for the first time the presence of cells harboring HIV DNA and RNA in the brains from subjects with undetectable plasma viral load and …

Aerosol Microdroplets Exhibit A Stable Ph Gradient, Haoran Wei, Eric P. Vejerano, Weinan Leng, Qishen Haung, Marjorie R. Willner, Linsey C. Marr, Peter J. Vikesland

Faculty Publications

Suspended aqueous aerosol droplets (<50 μm) are microreactors for many important atmospheric reactions. In droplets and other aquatic environments, pH is arguably the key parameter dictating chemical and biological processes. The nature of the droplet air/ water interface has the potential to significantly alter droplet pH relative to bulk water. Historically, it has been challenging to measure the pH of individual droplets because of their inaccessibility to conventional pH probes. In this study, we scanned droplets containing 4-mercaptobenzoic acid–functionalized gold nanoparticle pH nanoprobes by 2D and 3D laser confocal Raman microscopy. Using surface-enhanced Raman scattering, we acquired the pH distribution inside approximately 20-μm-diameter phosphate-buffered aerosol droplets and found that the pH in the core of a droplet is higher than that of bulk solution by up to 3.6 pH units. This finding suggests the accumulation of protons at the air/water interface and is consistent with recent thermodynamic model results. The existence of this pH shift was corroborated by the observation that a catalytic reaction that occurs only under basic conditions (i.e., dimerization of 4-aminothiophenol to produce dimercaptoazobenzene) occurs within the high pH core of a droplet, but not in bulk solution. Our nanoparticle probe enables pH quantification through the cross-section of an aerosol droplet, revealing a spatial gradient that has implications for acid-base–catalyzed atmospheric chemistry.

Variation In Airborne Pollen Concentrations Among Five Monitoring Locations In A Desert Urban Environment, Tanviben Y. Patel, Mark P. Buttner, David Rivas, Chad L. Cross, Dennis A. Bazylinski, Joram S. Seggev

Environmental & Occupational Health Faculty Publications

The urbanization of the Las Vegas Valley has transformed this part of the Mohave Desert into a green oasis by introducing many non-native plant species, some of which are allergenic. Typically, one monitoring station is established per city to obtain pollen counts for an entire metropolitan area. However, variations in pollen concentrations could occur among different microenvironments. The objective of this study is to measure and compare pollen concentrations in five locations in Las Vegas to determine if there are significant differences between microenvironments within the city. Air samples were collected from five sites across the Las Vegas Valley over …

Physico-Chemical Characteristics Of Evaporating Respiratory Fluid Droplets, Eric P. Vejerano, Linsey C. Marr

Faculty Publications

The detailed physico-chemical characteristics of respiratory droplets in ambient air, where they are subject to evaporation, are poorly understood. Changes in the concentration and phase of major components in a droplet—salt (NaCl), protein (mucin) and surfactant (dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine)—may affect the viability of any pathogens contained within it and thus may affect the efficiency of transmission of infectious disease by droplets and aerosols. The objective of this study is to investigate the effect of relative humidity (RH) on the physico-chemical characteristics of evaporating droplets of model respiratory fluids. We labelled these components in model respiratory fluids and observed evaporating droplets suspended on …

Assessment Of Temperature And Ultraviolet Radiation Effects On Sunburn At An Inland U.S. Beach: A Cohort Study, Jason W. Marion, Jiyoung Lee, James Rosenblum, Timothy J. Buckley

EKU Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Background

Increases in outdoor temperature may lead to increases in sunburn, outdoor exposure, and skin cancer in human populations.

Objective

This study aimed to quantify sunburn incidence and risk for Ohio beachgoers exposed to varying outdoor conditions.

Methods

Sunburn incidence data were obtained through a prospective cohort study at East Fork Lake (Cincinnati, Ohio, USA). Recruitment occurred over 26 weekend days. Beach interviews and follow-up telephone interviews obtained exposure and health information. New sunburns were self-reported 8–9 days post-enrollment. Survey data were paired with ultraviolet radiation (UVR) index and temperature data for statistical analysis.

Results

Among 947 beachgoers, new sunburns …

Horse-Related Injuries: Causes, Preventability, And Where Educational Efforts Should Be Focused, Fernanda Camargo, William R. Gombeski Jr., Polly Barger, Connie Jehlik, Holly Wiemers, James Mead, Amy Lawyer

Animal and Food Sciences Faculty Publications

A high percentage of equestrians will experience accidents, with different degrees of severity, throughout their riding careers. Horse-related injuries have the highest likelihood of requiring hospitalization based on individuals visiting US emergency departments. Studies have shown that the majority of injured riders said they could have prevented the accident and the injury was due to rider/handler error. Therefore, equestrians reported their injuries, and a panel of experts analyzed these reports to better understand the causes, how to prevent, and where to invest educational resources to generate a reduction in horse-related accidents. The majority of riders reported intermediate riding skills, most …

Regulation Of Radioactive Fracking Waste, Elizabeth Ann Glass Geltman, Nichole Leclair

Publications and Research

Natural gas extracted form shale reached record production totals in 2015 in the United States and the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) forecasts natural gas production will continue to increase. Wastes from shale gas extraction can contain the radioactive isotopes radium-226 (Ra-226) and radium-228 (Ra-228), which decay further into radon (Rn). Exposure to radon, a form of naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM), is the leading cause of lung cancer in the United States, after smoking. This article explores how states handle the disposal of technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive materials (TENORM) and/or NORM waste from oil and gas operations to …

Outdoor Air Quality, Taylor Curley

Global Issues in Public Health

Outdoor air quality is a significant issue for the entire world. It affects any and all people, but is more of an issue in low-income countries and among people that are more susceptible to respiratory issues such as young children, pregnant women, the elderly, and people who already suffer from respiratory problems like asthma. Poor air quality is caused by the burning of fossil fuels which releases particles and chemicals into the air like carbon dioxide, particulate matter, and nitrogen to name a few. It can cause multiple health issues such as respiratory problems to people who are exposed to …

Type 1 Diabetes, Dan Bornstein

Global Issues in Public Health

The aim of this research was to increase the awareness of this disease and show the range of which it travels. Type 1 Diabetes, although not as common as Type 2 Diabetes, is a very serious disease present well around the world. Between the two forms, there are nearly 1.5 million people diagnosed with diabetes each year (American Diabetes Association, 2015). Northern European countries tend to have the highest prevalence of Type 1 diabetes. Younger children on average ages of 0-14 years, are most frequently struck with this disease (American Diabetes Association, 2015). With the given amount of symptoms that …

Maternal Engineered Nanomaterial Inhalation During Gestation Alters The Fetal Transcriptome, P.A. Stapleton, Q.A. Hathaway, C.E. Nichols, A.B. Abukabda, M.V. Pinti, D.L. Shepherd, C.R. Mcbride, J. Yi, V.C. Castranova, J.M Hollander, Timothy Robert Nurkiewicz

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Background: The integration of engineered nanomaterials (ENM) is well-established and widespread in clinical, commercial, and domestic applications. Cardiovascular dysfunctions have been reported in adult populations after exposure to a variety of ENM. As the diversity of these exposures continues to increase, the fetal ramifications of maternal exposures have yet to be determined. We, and others, have explored the consequences of ENM inhalation during gestation and identified many cardiovascular and metabolic outcomes in the F1 generation. The purpose of these studies was to identify genetic alterations in the F1 generation of Sprague-Dawley rats that result from maternal ENM inhalation during gestation. …