Adverse health and environmental outcomes of cycling in heavily polluted urban environments

Cycling is a healthy habit; however, are its benefits outweighing risks when biking in heavily trafficked and air-polluted cities? Research involved studying contamination with traffic-related elements of dust collected from bike paths located in top trafficked cities of Europe in Poland. Human health risk was assessed via inhalation and ingestion pathways for adults and children. Bike path dust was heavily contaminated with Zn, Cd (Geoaccumulation index Igeo 4) and Pb (Igeo 3), sourced predominantly from nonexhaust car emissions. The concentrations of metals in dust decreased in the following descending order: Zn > Mn > Cu > Pb > Cr > Cd. A fractionation study revealed that Zn and Cd are almost entirely bioavailable (Mobility factor MF above 90%), causing hazards to humans and the environment. The highest congested intersections result in more TRAP-contaminated dust deposited on bike paths, which is easily resuspended, posing a health risk for cyclists or pedestrians. Avoiding cycling in proximity to heavily trafficked routes should be considered, when possible, as well as physical removal of dust by wet sweeping to limit dust resuspension.

Evidence-Based Challenges to the Continued Recommendation and Use of Peroxidatively-Susceptible Polyunsaturated Fatty Acid-Rich Culinary Oils for High-Temperature Frying Practises: Experimental Revelations Focused on Toxic Aldehydic Lipid Oxidation Products

In this manuscript, a series of research reports focused on dietary lipid oxidation products (LOPs), their toxicities and adverse health effects are critically reviewed in order to present a challenge to the mindset supporting, or strongly supporting, the notion that polyunsaturated fatty acid-laden frying oils are “safe” to use for high-temperature frying practises. The generation, physiological fates, and toxicities of less commonly known or documented LOPs, such as epoxy-fatty acids, are also considered. Primarily, an introduction to the sequential autocatalytic peroxidative degradation of unsaturated fatty acids (UFAs) occurring during frying episodes is described, as are the potential adverse health effects posed by the dietary consumption of aldehydic and other LOP toxins formed. In continuance, statistics on the dietary consumption of fried foods by humans are reviewed, with a special consideration of French fries. Subsequently, estimates of human dietary aldehyde intake are critically explored, which unfortunately are limited to acrolein and other lower homologues such as acetaldehyde and formaldehyde. However, a full update on estimates of quantities derived from fried food sources is provided here. Further items reviewed include the biochemical reactivities, metabolism and volatilities of aldehydic LOPs (the latter of which is of critical importance regarding the adverse health effects mediated by the inhalation of cooking/frying oil fumes); their toxicological actions, including sections focussed on governmental health authority tolerable daily intakes, delivery methods and routes employed for assessing such effects in animal model systems, along with problems encountered with the Cramer classification of such toxins. The mutagenicities, genotoxicities, and carcinogenic potential of aldehydes are then reviewed in some detail, and following this the physiological concentrations of aldehydes and their likely dietary sources are considered. Finally, conclusions from this study are drawn, with special reference to requirements for (1) the establishment of tolerable daily intake (TDI) values for a much wider range of aldehydic LOPs, and (2) the performance of future nutritional and epidemiological trials to explore associations between their dietary intake and the incidence and severity of non-communicable chronic diseases (NCDs).

Association Between Serum Follicle-Stimulating Hormone and Sarcopenia and Physical Disability Among Older Chinese Men: Evidence From a Cross-Sectional Study

Background: Sarcopenia is a geriatric syndrome characterized by progressive loss of muscle mass, function and quality and associated with a range of adverse health outcomes including disability. Despite a negative correlation between muscle mass and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) levels in postmenopausal women, it is unclear if FSH is associated with sarcopenia and its poor outcomes, especially in older men.Methods: We used cross-sectional data from 360 men aged over 80 who participated in health check-ups to investigate correlations between serum FSH and sarcopenia, individual sarcopenia components, low physical performance (gait speed ≤ 0.8 m/s) and instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) disability. Sarcopenia and severe sarcopenia were diagnosed according to the revised definition of the European Working Group on Sarcopenia in Old People (EWGSOP2).Results: The prevalence of sarcopenia was 17.8% in this population. In binary logistic regression analysis, compared with higher FSH group, lower FSH group showed a significant reduction in the risk of low calf circumference (a surrogate for muscle mass; OR 0.308, 95% CI 0.109–0.868, P = 0.026) after adjusting potential confounders including age, waist circumference, education, exercise, associated biochemical parameters, other sex hormones and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein. The correlation between FSH and low handgrip strength was marginally significant (OR 0.390, 95% CI 0.151–1.005, P = 0.051). No associations were observed between FSH and sarcopenia, severe sarcopenia, and disability in adjusted models.Conclusion: In older men, circulating FSH was not associated with sarcopenia, sarcopenia severity, the majority of its components and adverse health outcome (IADL disability), with the exception of low calf circumference. Further work is needed to better elucidate the association of FSH and low muscle quantity by adopting more accurate measurement method of appendicular skeletal muscle mass such as DXA, CT or MRI.

TUBE Project: Transport-Derived Ultrafines and the Brain Effects

The adverse effects of air pollutants on the respiratory and cardiovascular systems are unquestionable. However, in recent years, indications of effects beyond these organ systems have become more evident. Traffic-related air pollution has been linked with neurological diseases, exacerbated cognitive dysfunction, and Alzheimer’s disease. However, the exact air pollutant compositions and exposure scenarios leading to these adverse health effects are not known. Although several components of air pollution may be at play, recent experimental studies point to a key role of ultrafine particles (UFPs). While the importance of UFPs has been recognized, almost nothing is known about the smallest fraction of UFPs, and only >23 nm emissions are regulated in the EU. Moreover, the role of the semivolatile fraction of the emissions has been neglected. The Transport-Derived Ultrafines and the Brain Effects (TUBE) project will increase knowledge on harmful ultrafine air pollutants, as well as semivolatile compounds related to adverse health effects. By including all the major current combustion and emission control technologies, the TUBE project aims to provide new information on the adverse health effects of current traffic, as well as information for decision makers to develop more effective emission legislation. Most importantly, the TUBE project will include adverse health effects beyond the respiratory system; TUBE will assess how air pollution affects the brain and how air pollution particles might be removed from the brain. The purpose of this report is to describe the TUBE project, its background, and its goals.

Acetazolamide to Prevent Adverse Altitude Effects in COPD and Healthy Adults

Furian and colleagues report on the results of two randomized controlled trials testing the use of acetazolamide to prevent the adverse effects of altitude on healthy older persons and in people with COPD. They find that acetazolamide decreased the incidence of altitude related adverse health events (primarily hypoxemia) in both populations with no evidence of adverse events.

Exploring the Use of Mould Estimation Software in New Zealand Residential Houses

<p>Regularly being exposed to the types of mould spores that can grow in houses has been shown to lead to adverse health effects such as respiratory diseases, and the exacerbation of asthma. While susceptible groups such as children, the elderly, and atopic persons are more susceptible to these effects, adverse health effects from mould spores have been shown to affect non-topic populations. The 2015 Building Research Association of New Zealand House Condition Survey found that 46% of owner-occupied properties, and 54% of rented properties in a representative sample of the New Zealand housing stock have some form of mould in them. This means that a large portion of the population could be at risk of suffering from the adverse health effects associated with mould growth in houses. Increased air-tightness in new houses could also be at risk of being under-ventilated, potentially exacerbating this mould issue. It is unknown whether the current New Zealand Building Code, at the time of writing, provides sufficient ventilation requirements to prevent new houses from being under-ventilated. It also does not consider existing houses, which is where most of the mould in the HCS was found. This study explored whether data from the House Condition Survey and WuFi-Bio could be used to test mould mitigation strategies in New Zealand residential bathrooms. This was done by modelling a subset of houses from the House Condition Survey in WuFi-Pro, estimating the risk of mould in them with WuFi-Bio, and comparing this to the observations from the House Condition Survey. Parameters in the models were then changed to reflect the impact that strategies would have on the humidity and temperature in the bathrooms. The aim of this was to develop a hierarchy of recommendations that could help home occupiers and designers determine the most appropriate methods they could use to prevent mould from growing in their homes/designs. However, the results did not align with the observations from the House Condition Survey, and testing the validity of the models by exploring the impact of assumptions showed they had no significant impact. The cause of this misalignment could not be determined, however a lack of internal condition time-series data and information about how observed mould from the House Condition Survey were identified of areas of uncertainty and prevented further exploration. The exploration that was conducted revealed the importance of having enough data to understand the conditions that lead to any observed mould if an existing bathroom is being assessed using WuFi-Bio. It was concluded that attempting to assess a large number of houses with little data using WuFi-Bio was impractical. A controlled experimental study aimed at understanding a few houses in-depth would be a more appropriate method to test mould mitigation strategies, and help address the mould issue in New Zealand houses.</p>