Indoor Air Quality Prior to and Following School Building Renovation in a Mid-Atlantic School District.

Children spend the majority of their time indoors, and a substantial portion of this time in the school environment. Air pollution has been shown to adversely impact lung development and has effects that extend beyond respiratory health. The goal of this study was to evaluate the indoor environment in public schools in the context of an ongoing urban renovation program to investigate the impact of school building renovation and replacement on indoor air quality. Indoor air quality (CO2, PM2.5, CO, and temperature) was assessed for two weeks during fall, winter, and spring seasons in 29 urban public schools between December 2015 and March 2020. Seven schools had pre- and post-renovation data available. Linear mixed models were used to examine changes in air quality outcomes by renovation status in the seven schools with pre- and post-renovation data. Prior to renovation, indoor CO measurements were within World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines, and indoor PM2.5 measurements rarely exceeded them. Within the seven schools with pre- and post-renovation data, over 30% of indoor CO2 measurements and over 50% of indoor temperatures exceeded recommended guidelines from the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air Conditioning Engineers. Following renovation, 10% of indoor CO2 measurements and 28% of indoor temperatures fell outside of the recommended ranges. Linear mixed models showed significant improvement in CO2, indoor PM2.5, and CO following school renovation. Even among schools that generally met recommendations on key guidelines, school renovation improved the indoor air quality. Our findings suggest that school renovation may benefit communities of children, particularly those in low-income areas with aging school infrastructure, through improvements in the indoor environment.

FABP2 Ala54Thr genotype is associated with glucoregulatory function and lipid oxidation after a high-fat meal in sedentary nondiabetic men and women.

BACKGROUND: A common functional missense mutation [Ala54Thr of the fatty acid-binding protein 2 gene (FABP2)] has previously been studied for associations with glucoregulation, postprandial lipemia, and lipid oxidation rates. However, most of those studies have not accounted for the interactive and potentially confounding effects of habitual physical activity and diet. OBJECTIVE: We tested the hypothesis that, in sedentary nondiabetic subjects following a low-fat diet, Thr54 FABP2 carriers have lower glucoregulatory function, greater postprandial lipemia, and greater lipid oxidation rates than do their Ala54 FABP2-homozygous counterparts. DESIGN: Men and women (n = 122) aged 50-75 y who were following a low-fat diet were genotyped and underwent oral-glucose-tolerance tests. A subgroup (n = 36) also underwent postprandial lipemia tests with lipid oxidation rate measurements. RESULTS: Thr54 carriers were less likely to have normal glucose tolerance (P = 0.05) and had higher fasting glucose concentrations (P = 0.003) than did Ala54 homozygotes. In Thr54 carriers, the insulin sensitivity index was lower (P = 0.02), and the fasting insulin and the oral-glucose-tolerance test insulin area under the curve were higher (P = 0.05 and 0.03, respectively) than in Ala54 homozygotes. FABP2 genotype was not associated with fasting or postprandial lipemia test triacylglycerol or free fatty acids (P > or = 0.22 for all), but postprandial lipid oxidation rates were higher (P = 0.01), which suggests that fat absorption is higher in Thr54 carriers than in Ala54 homozygotes. CONCLUSIONS: In sedentary nondiabetic persons following a low-fat diet, FABP2 Thr54 carriers have lower glucose tolerance and lower insulin action than do Ala54-homozygous persons. Furthermore, FABP Thr54 carriers have higher lipid oxidation rates, which may be the mechanism of glucoregulatory dysfunction.

Endurance training-induced changes in the insulin response to oral glucose are associated with the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma2 Pro12Ala genotype in men but not in women.

The present study sought to investigate, in sedentary men and women, (a) whether a common functional gene variant (peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma2 [PPARgamma2] Pro12Ala) predicts insulin action and (b) whether improvements in insulin action in response to endurance exercise training are associated with PPARgamma2 Pro12Ala. Sedentary, 50- to 75-year-old men and women (N = 73) were genotyped and underwent oral glucose tolerance tests (OGTTs) before and after 6 months of endurance training. At baseline, men heterozygous for the Pro12Ala variant had a greater OGTT insulin area under the curve (AUC) as compared with Pro12 homozygous men (P = .009). Endurance training resulted in a significantly greater improvement in insulin AUC in Pro12Ala heterozygous men as compared with Pro12 homozygous men (P = .003) despite no genotype-specific differences with respect to training-induced changes in body weight, body mass index, and percent body fat. No differences between genotype groups were present at baseline or in response to training in women. Training did not alter the OGTT glucose AUC for the group as a whole, and the baseline, final, and change in glucose AUC were not dependent on PPARgamma2 genotype and/or sex. In conclusion, these findings suggest that sedentary men with the PPARgamma2 Pro12Ala variant have lower insulin action on glucose disposal as compared with their counterparts. However, these men are particularly responsive with respect to the magnitude of endurance training-induced improvement in insulin action.