Published Studies
Scientists at UC San Francisco have detected 109 chemicals in a study of pregnant women, including 55 chemicals never before reported in people and 42 “mystery chemicals,” whose sources and uses are unknown. The chemicals most likely come from consumer products or other industrial sources.
Climate change continues to result in increased exposure to wildfires in California and around the world with smoke reaching far more populations than in recent years. There is increased concern for the health effects of these fires, especially for pregnant people and their developing foetuses.
Wildfire, pregnancy, California, birth defects, commentary
Occupational exposures to flame retardants (FRs), a class of suspected endocrine-disrupting compounds, are of health concern for firefighters. We sought to characterize exposure to FR compounds and evaluate their association with thyroid hormone levels, a biomarker of early effect, in female firefighters and office workers in San Francisco.
Evidence-to-decision (EtD) frameworks provide a structured and transparent approach for groups of experts to use when formulating recommendations or making decisions. While extensively used for clinical and public health recommendations, EtD frameworks are not in widespread use in environmental health.
In light of new scientific developments and the pressing need to characterize the public health burdens of chemicals, it is imperative to reinvigorate the use of environmental epidemiology in chemical risk assessment. A PRHE collaborative project examines two case studies of chemical assessments from the U.S.
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Climate change is one of the major global health threats to the world's population. Particularly vulnerable populations are affected, including women, pregnant women, children, the disabled, and the elderly, who comprise the majority of the poor globally.
Per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are commonly detected in a variety of foods and food packaging materials. However, few studies have examined diet as a potential source of PFAS exposure during pregnancy. In the present cross-sectional study, we examined prenatal PFAS levels in relation to self-reported consumption of meats, dairy products, and processed foods during pregnancy.
The concept of the exposome was introduced over 15 years ago to reflect the important role that the environment exerts on health and disease.
Systematic reviews are routinely used to synthesize current science and evaluate the evidential strength and quality of resulting recommendations. For specific events, such as rare acute poisonings or preliminary reports of new drugs, we posit that case reports/studies and case series (human subjects research with no control group) may provide important evidence for systematic reviews.
Environmental chemical exposures can affect telomere length, which in turn has been associated with adverse health outcomes including cancer. Firefighters are occupationally exposed to many hazardous chemicals and have higher rates of certain cancers.
Non-targeted analysis (NTA), including both suspect screening analysis (SSA) and unknown compound analysis, has gained increasing popularity in various fields for its capability in identifying new compounds of interests.
Systematic reviews are fast increasing in prevalence in the toxicology and environmental health literature. However, how well these complex research projects are being conducted and reported is unclear.
Recent technological advances in mass spectrometry have enabled us to screen biological samples for a very broad spectrum of chemical compounds allowing us to more comprehensively characterize the human exposome in critical periods of development.
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) are endocrine disrupting chemicals with widespread exposures across the U.S. given their abundance in consumer products. PFAS and PBDEs are associated with reproductive toxicity and adverse health outcomes, including certain cancers.