Environmental Public Health Commons^™

The Impact Of The 2008 Financial Crisis On Food Security And Food Expenditures In Mexico: A Disproportionate Effect On The Vulnerable, Mireya Vilar-Compte, Sebastian Sandoval-Olascoaga, Ana Bernal-Stuart, Sandhya Shimoga, Arturo Vargas-Bustamante

Department of Public Health Scholarship and Creative Works

Objective The present paper investigated the impact of the 2008 financial crisis on food security in Mexico and how it disproportionally affected vulnerable households. Design A generalized ordered logistic regression was estimated to assess the impact of the crisis on households' food security status. An ordinary least squares and a quantile regression were estimated to evaluate the effect of the financial crisis on a continuous proxy measure of food security defined as the share of a household's current income devoted to food expenditures. Setting Both analyses were performed using pooled cross-sectional data from the Mexican National Household Income and Expenditure …

Prenatal Exposure To Perfluoroalkyl Acids And Serum Testosterone Concentrations At 15 Years Of Age In Female Alspac Study Participants, Mildred Maisonet, Antonia M. Calafat, Michele Marcus, Jouni J.K. Jaakkola, Hany Lashen

ETSU Faculty Works

Background: Exposure to perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) or to perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) increases mouse and human peroxisome proliferator–activated receptor alpha (PPARα) subtype activity, which influences lipid metabolism. Because cholesterol is the substrate from which testosterone is synthesized, exposure to these substances has the potential to alter testosterone concentrations.

Objectives: We explored associations of total testosterone and sex hormone–binding globulin (SHBG) concentrations at age 15 years with prenatal exposures to PFOS, PFOA, perfluorohexane sulfonic acid (PFHxS), and perfluoronanoic acid (PFNA) in females.

Methods: Prenatal concentrations of the perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAAs) were measured in serum collected from pregnant mothers at enrollment (1991–1992) …

Associations Of Perfluoroalkyl Substances (Pfass) With Lower Birth Weight: An Evaluation Of Potential Confounding By Glomerular Filtration Rate Using A Physiologically Based Pharmacokinetic Model (Pbpk), Marc-André Verner, Anne E. Loccisano, Nils-Halvdan Morken, Miyoung Yoon, Huali Wu, Robin Mcdougall, Mildred Maisonet, Michele Marcus, Reiko Kishi, Chihiro Miyashita, Mei-Huei Chen, Wu-Shiun Hsieh, Melvin E. Andersen, Harvey J. Clewell Iii, Matthew P. Longnecker

ETSU Faculty Works

Background: Prenatal exposure to perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) has been associated with lower birth weight in epidemiologic studies. This association could be attributable to glomerular filtration rate (GFR), which is related to PFAS concentration and birth weight.

Objectives: We used a physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) model of pregnancy to assess how much of the PFAS–birth weight association observed in epidemiologic studies might be attributable to GFR.

Methods: We modified a PBPK model to reflect the association of GFR with birth weight (estimated from three studies of GFR and birth weight) and used it to simulate PFAS concentrations in maternal and cord …

The Association Between The Neighbourhood Food Environment And Prevalence Of Three Chronic Diseases In Urban Canada: A Cross-Sectional Analysis, Jagraj Singh Pandher

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Research on the association between the neighbourhood food environment and prevalence of chronic diseases is very limited in Canada. The objective of this thesis was to investigate: (i) the associations between the neighbourhood food environment and prevalence of type II diabetes, cardiovascular disease and hypertension among Canadian adults living in urban areas; and (ii) whether or not dietary patterns, obesity and physical activity mediate such associations. Self-reported diagnosis of three chronic diseases, and individual-level socio-demographic and lifestyle variables were taken from the 2009-2010 Canadian Community Health Survey; neighbourhood-level socio-economic data were taken from the 2011 National Household Survey; and the …

Urinary Phthalate Metabolite Concentrations And Cancer Mortality In Nhanes, 1999-2006, A B. Kaiser

Masters Theses

Four in ten people in the US will be diagnosed with cancer during their lifetime. Environmental exposures are important determinants of cancer risk, causing as many as 19% of cancers worldwide. Phthalates are a group of chemicals used to increase the flexibility of plastics and vinyl in household materials such as food packaging, plastic toys, wood finishes and adhesives. Some phthalates may act as endocrine disruptors with hypothesized links to endometriosis, breast cancer, and reproductive outcomes. However, no research yet exists on phthalate exposure and all-cancer mortality. We investigated the relationship between seven urinary phthalate metabolites among 5,205 adults in …

Historical Differences In School Term Length And Measured Blood Pressure: Contributions To Persistent Racial Disparities Among Us- Born Adults, Sze Yan Liu, Jennifer J. Manly, Benjamin D. Capistrant, M. Maria Glymour

Department of Public Health Scholarship and Creative Works

Introduction
Legally mandated segregation policies dictated significant differences in the educational experiences of black and white Americans through the first half of the 20th century, with markedly lower quality in schools attended by black children. We determined whether school term length, a common marker of school quality, was associated with blood pressure and hypertension among a cohort of older Americans who attended school during the de jure segregation era.
Methods
National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey I and II data were linked to state-level historical information on school term length. We used race and gender-stratified linear regression models adjusted for …

Upending The Social Ecological Model To Guide Health Promotion Efforts Toward Policy And Environmental Change, Lisa D. Lieberman, Shelley D. Golden, Kenneth R. Mcleroy, Lawrence W. Green, Jo Anne L. Earp

Department of Public Health Scholarship and Creative Works

Efforts to change policies and the environments in which people live, work, and play have gained increasing attention over the past several decades. Yet health promotion frameworks that illustrate the complex processes that produce health-enhancing structural changes are limited. Building on the experiences of health educators, community activists, and community-based researchers described in this supplement and elsewhere, as well as several political, social, and behavioral science theories, we propose a new framework to organize our thinking about producing policy, environmental, and other structural changes. We build on the social ecological model, a framework widely employed in public health research and …

Influence Of Environmental Exposure On Human Epigenetic Regulation, C. J. Marsit

Dartmouth Scholarship

Environmental toxicants can alter epigenetic regulatory features such as DNA methylation and microRNA expression. As the sensitivity of epigenomic regulatory features may be greatest during the in utero period, when critical windows are narrow, and when epigenomic profiles are being set, this review will highlight research focused on that period. I will focus on work in human populations, where the impact of environmental toxicants in utero, including cigarette smoke and toxic trace metals such as arsenic, mercury and manganese, on genome-wide, gene-specific DNA methylation has been assessed. In particular, arsenic is highlighted, as this metalloid has been the focus …

Calling Science Pseudoscience: Fleck’S Archaeologies Of Fact And Latour’S ‘Biography Of An Investigation’ In Aids Denialism And Homeopathy, Babette Babich

Articles and Chapters in Academic Book Collections

Fleck’s Genesis and Development of a Scientific Fact foregrounds claims traditionally excluded from reception, often regarded as opposed to fact, scientific claims that are increasingly seldom discussed in connection with philosophy of science save as examples of pseudo-science. I am especially concerned with scientists who question the epidemiological link between HIV and AIDS and who are thereby discounted—no matter their credentials, no matter the cogency of their arguments, no matter the sobriety of their statistics—but also with other classic examples of so-called pseudo-science including homeopathy and other sciences, such as cold fusion. The pseudo-science version of the demarcation problem turns …

La Paradoja Hispana Epidemiológica: Investigando Las Preconcepciones Y Generalizaciones, Maya H. Sandalow

CMC Senior Theses

En los Estados Unidos, los latinos suelen tener menos acceso a la educación, el trabajo, y el seguro médico en comparación con los blancos no-latinos, pero aun así el grupo parece superar ciertos obstáculos de la salud. Las estadísticas de la población latina muestran mayor longevidad y otras tasas favorables en comparación con los blancos no-latinos. Los expertos han titulado esta contradicción “La Paradoja Hispana Epidemiológica”.

Desafortunadamente, la investigación de la paradoja está llena de generalizaciones y presuposiciones erróneas sobre la población latina diversa. Esta tesis investiga los participantes que producen generalizaciones sobre la supuesta paradoja para mostrar que estas …

Effects Of Cobalt On Dna Double Strand Break Repair-Deficient Cells, Sean Raph Ms

All Student Scholarship

Epidemiology studies of human workers exposed to particulate cobalt have found increased incidence of lung cancer. A hallmark of lung cancer, chromosome instability(CIN) manifests as either numerical or structural abnormalities, which are thought to result from unrepaired or miss-repaired DNA double strand breaks, homologous recombination (HR) and non homologous end joining (NHEJ). Previous studies have shown that HR protects cells against metal induced CIN while NHEJ does not. We investigated whether this outcome occurs for cobalt.

Creating Healthy Community In The Postindustrial City, Brian A. Hoey

Brian A. Hoey, Ph.D.