Boron Exposure Assessment of Desalinated Seawater on an Island in China.

This study aimed to investigate the boron level in drinking water and daily boron intake of island residents, and to have a health risk assessment of the boron exposure. One-year water boron surveillance was made through the 18 selected sampling sites (5 finished water and 13 tap water) covered by 5 water treatment plants with different water sources. We recruited 220 healthy volunteers (half men and half women) from 89 families covering all age groups living in Shengshan to provide basic information and living habits. One-third of the families attended the daily food boron intake evaluation through the double meal method for three days. In each family, only one family member provided the food samples. Urine samples were collected from all subjects to get the urine boron level. Furthermore, we used the EPA model and TDI for health risk assessments. The boron level in finished water and tap water with different sources were 0.68-1.46 mg/L and 0.62-1.26 mg/L for desalinated water, 0.30-0.39 mg/L and 0.20-0.50 mg/L for reservoir water, and 0.32-0.43 mg/L and 0.20-0.79 mg/L for mixture water. The average level of water boron intake, diet boron intake, and total boron intake was 0.113 ± 0.127 mg/d, 1.562 ± 0.927 mg/d, 1.674 ± 0.939mg/d, respectively, for the select sampling subjects. There were no significant differences in total boron intake for different age groups (1.685 ± 1.216 mg/d vs. 1.669 ± 0.793 mg/d for <45 yrs vs. ≥45 yrs, p = 0.968) and gender groups (1.754 ± 1.009 mg/d vs. 1.633 ± 0.923 mg/d for male vs. female, p = 0.735). Urine boron concentrations were similar in the two age groups (1.938 mg/g creatinine vs. 1.762 mg/g creatinine for <45 yrs vs. ≥45 yrs, p = 0.635). There were significant differences in urinary boron between males and females (1.569 mg/g creatinine vs. 2.148 mg/g creatinine, p = 0.018). The largest hazard quotient (HQ) of drinking water was 0.31, and the total boron exposures in this population were 0.03 mg/kg bw per day. The study showed that there was no possible non-carcinogenic risk of water boron exposure and lower health risk of total boron exposure to humans in this region, but its toxicity should not be ignored. The subsequent studies should strengthen the analysis of the subgroup populations.

Global assessment of chemical quality of drinking water: The case of trihalomethanes.

BACKGROUND: Trihalomethanes (THM), a major class of disinfection by-products, are widespread and are associated with adverse health effects. We conducted a global evaluation of current THM regulations and concentrations in drinking water. METHODS: We included 120 countries (∼7000 million inhabitants in 2016), representing 94% of the world population. We searched for country regulations and THM routine monitoring data using a questionnaire addressed to referent contacts. Scientific and gray literature was reviewed where contacts were not identified or declined participation. We obtained or estimated annual average THM concentrations, weighted to the population served when possible. RESULTS: Drinking water regulations were ascertained for 116/120 (97%) countries, with 89/116 (77%) including THM regulations. Routine monitoring was implemented in 47/89 (53%) of countries with THM regulations. THM data with a varying population coverage was obtained for 69/120 (58%) countries consisting of ∼5600 million inhabitants (76% of world's population in 2016). Population coverage was ≥90% in 14 countries, mostly in the Global North, 50-89% in 19 countries, 11-49% among 21 countries, and ≤10% in 14 countries including India, China, Russian Federation and Nigeria (40% of world's population). DISCUSSION: An enormous gap exists in THM regulatory status, routine monitoring practice, reporting and data availability among countries, especially between high- vs. low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). More efforts are warranted to regulate and systematically assess chemical quality of drinking water, centralize, harmonize, and openly report data, particularly in LMICs.

The Risk of CVDs from Desalinated Seawater: A Nested Case-Control Study.

The aim of this paper was to assess the association between desalinated seawater and cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). We conducted a nested case-control prospective study on a cohort of 7806 subjects who live on an island of China that lacks fresh water. From this cohort, we identified 140 paired CVD cases and matched controls by sex and age during the same period. Questionnaires were used in order to investigate basic sociodemographic information and risk factors for CVDs, and urine samples were collected to measure calcium and magnesium levels. Using these data we developed and tested both univariate and multivariate logistic regression models. We observed no significant differences in risk of CVDs between groups with desalinated seawater and fresh water intake. From multivariate logistic regression, we found that obesity (OR = 5.38, 95% CI: 1.05-27.45), physical activity (OR = 0.35, 95% CI: 0.16-0.75), hypertension (OR = 3.61, 95% CI: 1.58-8.25), alcohol consumption (OR = 2.57, 95% CI: 1.02-6.47), and irritability (OR = 4.30, 95% CI: 1.93-9.60) were associated with an increased risk of CVD. In this population, we found no association between desalinated seawater intake and CVDs; the incidence of CVDs was primarily related to lifestyle.

Environmental and Socioeconomic Factors for Gastric Cancer in 14 Counties of the Huai River Basin from 2014 to 2018.

To explore the potential relationship between environmental and socioeconomic factors and the risk of gastric cancer (GC) in the Huai River Basin, the GC incidence rate (GIR) and GC mortality rate (GMR) data from 2014 to 2018 in 14 counties of the Huai River Basin were collected from the Chinese Cancer Registration Annual Report. Environmental and socioeconomic parameters were collected through the Statistical Yearbook. The 14 counties were classified into three groups with low, moderate, and high risk of GC according to the point density of environmental factors (PDF) and index of socioeconomic factors (ISF). Significant differences in GIR and GMR were found among the counties with PDF (χ2 = 21.36, p < 0.01) and ISF (χ2 = 11.37, p < 0.05) levels. Meanwhile, significant differences in mortality rate were observed among counties with different PDF (χ2 = 11.25, p < 0.01) and ISF (χ2 = 18.74, p < 0.01), and the results showed that the ISF and PDF were increased while the GIR and GMR were decreased. Meanwhile, there was a lag effect between them, and we used two models to explore the lag effects between ISF, PDF and GIR and GMR; the coefficient influence between the ISF lag phase and GIR was -2.9768, and the coefficient influence between PDF and the lag phase on the GIR was -0.9332, and there were both significant impact when there was a probability of more than 95%. The results showed that the higher the ISF and PDF that lags in one stage, the more GIR was reduced, while the impact of the ISF and PDF on lag stage on mortality was not obvious. We used differential GMM to test the results, and also research results were relatively robust. Overall, GIR and GMR decreased with increasing point density of environmental factors and index of socioeconomic factors.

Assessment of exposure of children swimmers to trihalomethanes in an indoor swimming pool.

This study aimed to understand the exposure levels of trihalomethanes (THMs) in an indoor swimming pool and calculate the risks of exposure to THMs, based on the presence of each THM species, of children swimmers aged 6-17, in Beijing, China. We obtained exposure factors for the children through questionnaires and measured THM concentrations through laboratory tests, and we combined the results with an exposure model to calculate the risks, with consideration of different exposure routes (oral ingestion, inhalation and dermal absorption). In terms of exposure factors for the swimmers aged 6-17, the average body weight, exposure duration, exposure frequency, swimming time, shower time, changing time, warm-up exercise and rest time, skin surface area and ingestion rate of pool water were 40.46 kg, 2.70 years, 96 events/year, 64.03 min/event, 17.04 min/event, 15.31 min/event, 12.71 min/event, 1.37 m2 and 48.93 ml/event, respectively. The THM concentrations in swimming pool water, shower water, swimming pool air and locker room air were 67.17 µg/L, 12.64 µg/L, 358.66 µg/m3 and 40.98 µg/m3, respectively. The average cancer risk of THMs was 5.44 × 10-6, which is an unacceptable risk according to the United State Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) Guidelines. The average hazard index was 0.007, i.e., less than 1, indicating that the noncancer risk was acceptable. Chloroform (TCM) was the main substance in four species of THMs and inhalation exposure was the main exposure pathway. The risk of cancer and noncancer from inhalation exposure to THMs accounts for 97-99% of the total risk. As a result, the disease control authorities and administrative department should pay attention to the health and safety of swimming facilities and, at the same time, establish standards for THMs in the air through further research.

Systematic review and meta-analysis of the adverse health effects of ambient PM2.5 and PM10 pollution in the Chinese population.

INTRODUCTION: As the largest developing country, China has some of the worst air quality in the world. Heavy smog in January 2013 led to unprecedented public concern about the health impact of exposure to particulate matter. Conducting health impact assessments of particulate matter has thus become an urgent task for public health practitioners. Combined estimates of the health effects of exposure to particulate matter from quantitative reviews could provide vital information for epidemiology-based health impact assessments, but estimates for the Chinese population are limited. METHODS: On December 31, 2013, we systematically searched the PubMed, Web of Science, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure databases using as keywords names of 127 major cities in Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. From among the 1464 articles identified, 59 studies were manually screened. Random-effects or fixed-effects models were used to combine their risk estimates, the funnel plots with Egger test were performed to evaluate the publication bias and Meta regression were run to explore the association between exposure to particulate matter with aerodynamic diameters less than 10 and 2.5 µm (PM10 and PM2.5) and the resulting health effects by the Comprehensive Meta Analysis. RESULTS: In terms of short-term effects, the combined excess risks of total non-accidental mortality, mortality due to cardiovascular disease, and mortality due to respiratory disease were 0.36% (95% confidence interval [95%CI]: 0.26%, 0.46%), 0.36% (95%CI: 0.24%, 0.49%), and 0.42% (95%CI: 0.28%, 0.55%), for each 10 µg/m(3) increase in PM10. A 10 µg/m(3) increase in PM2.5 was associated with a 0.40% (95%CI: 0.22%, 0.59%) increase in total non-accidental mortality, a 0.63% (95%CI: 0.35%, 0.91%) increase in mortality due to cardiovascular disease, and a 0.75% (95%CI: 01.39%, 1.11%) increase in mortality due to respiratory disease. For constituent-specific mortality, increases of 0.40-3.11% were associated with an increase of 10 ng/m(3) for nickel in PM. The summary estimate ranges of hospital utilization were 0.08% ~ 0.72% and -0.58% ~ 1.32% for a 10 µg/m(3) increase in PM10 and PM2.5. In terms of long-term effects, a 10 µg/m(3) increase of PM10 corresponded to 23-67% increase in the risk of mortality. CONCLUSION: Short exposures to PM10 and PM2.5 are associated with increases in mortality, but evidence of constituent-associated health effects, long-term effects and morbidity in China is still inadequate.

[Relationship of PAHs levels in umbilical cord blood and the PAHs exposure between the mother and the paired newborns].

OBJECTIVE: To determinate the present polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) levels in cord blood in order to discuss the PAHs exposure relationships between mother and paired newborns. METHODS: 347 pregnant women joined the study and the information of the 271 paired mother-newborns were used to analysis the exposure relationship. Questionnaire and bio-samples were got during the period of October 2006 to January 2008. High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was used to determine the PAHs (7 kinds) levels in cord blood and maternal blood. RESULTS: In the 271 paired mother/newborns, several kinds of PAHs were detected in nearly all the serum of the subjects. The serum concentrations of B(k)F, B(a)P and DB(a, h) A in cord blood were significantly higher than those in paired maternal blood. In addition, the serum concentrations of B(b)F in cord blood was higher than that in maternal blood (P > 0.05). CONCLUSION: There are several kinds of PAHs detected in the umbilical cord blood and the PAHs levels in cord blood is the same as or even higher than that in the maternal blood, which means that could be is very important to develop the prenatal exposure assessment.

[Polymorphisms of GSTM1, GSTT1 and CYP1A1 genes in mothers and neonates related to susceptibility to preterm delivery].

OBJECTIVE: Objective Based on the distribution of genetic polymorphisms of GSTM1 ,GSTT1 and CYP1A1 genotypes in mothers and neonates with preterm delivery and health controls, to explore the relationship between these gene polymorphisms and susceptibility to preterm delivery. METHODS: we investigated mothers and neonates with preterm delivery and health controls were investigated by case-control method. The frequencies of GSTM1, GSTr1 and CYP1A1 genotypes were detected by PCR and RFLP-PCR techniques. RESULTS: The difference of variation frequencies of GSTM1, GSTT1 and CYP1A1 (Msp I polymorphism) genotypes between cases (mothers and neonates respectively) and their health controls were not statistically significant (P > 0.05). The difference of variation frequencies of GSTM1 and GSTT1 combined between mother cases group and control groups were not statistically significant (P > 0.05). The neonates was same as mother groups. However, the differences of CYP1A1 heterozygous mutation and homozygous mutation gene combined with the null genotypes among GSTT1 between mother groups with preterm delivery and health controls were statistically significant (chi2 = 4.683, P < 0.05, OR = 2.440). CONCLUSION: CYP1A1 heterozygous mutation and homozygous mutation gene combined with GSTT1 null genotypes in mothers could increase the risk of preterm delivery.

[Study on using in vitro 3T3 neutral red uptake to test phototoxicity].

OBJECTIVE: To establish neutral red uptake test of 3T3 in vitro to detect phototoxicity of chemicals and study the in vitro 3T3 NUR as an alternative method instead of animal skin phototoxicity test. METHODS: Using incubated Balb/c3T3 cells to establish the optimal conditions of reaction system. RESULTS: The concentration of neutral red, the incubate time, pH and the density of cells were the factors effecting test results. CONCLUSION: It is suggested that in vitro 3T3 neutral red uptake test can be used as an alternative instead of animals phototoxicity test.

[Study on the relations between overweight, obesity, blood pressures, serum lipids and glucose in schoolchildren of Shijiazhunag].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the clustering character of overweight and obesity with multiple cardiovascular disease risk factors such as blood pressure, serum lipids and glucose, and to provide evidence for intervention in childhood. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 913 children aged 7-13 years in urban area of Shijiazhuang. Measurements included height, weight, systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP) and fasting serum total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and serum glucose (GLU). RESULTS: Overall prevalence rate of overweight and obesity was 29.24% (boys: 34.98% vs. girls: 24.23%). When compared with normal children, children with overweight or obesity had significantly higher levels of SBP, DBP, TC, TG but low HDL-C. The prevalence rates of high SBP, DBP, TC, TG, GLU and low HDL-C in overweight and obese children were higher than in normal children. After adjusted for gender and age, the odds ratios of overweight and obese children for high SBP, DBP, TC, TG, GLU and low HDL-C were 6.77, 3.22, 2.55, 6.42, 3.85 and 2.94 (95% CI: 4.15-11.04, 1.38-7.49, 1.59-4.11, 3.46-11.92, 1.69-8.78 and 1.83-4.73), respectively. Odds ratios of overweight and obese children holding any one, two or three of the selected six risk factors appeared to be 2.74, 13.15 and 15.33 (95% CI : 1.92-3.92, 6.69-25.87 and 4.17-56.39), respectively. CONCLUSION: Childhood overweight and obesity increased the clustering of children's risk factors on cardiovascular diseases, as well as increasing the risk of children acquiring multiple cardiovascular disease risk factors. Controlling overweight and obesity would help early prevention on children from getting cardiovascular diseases.