The association between outdoor air pollution and body mass index, central obesity, and visceral adiposity index among middle-aged and elderly adults: a nationwide study in China.

Background: Previous animal studies have suggested that air pollution (AP) exposure may be a potential risk factor for obesity; however, there is limited epidemiological evidence available to describe the association of obesity with AP exposure. Methods: A retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted on 11,766 participants across mainland China in 2015. Obesity was assessed using body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), and visceral adiposity index (VAI). The space-time extremely randomized tree (STET) model was used to estimate the concentration of air pollutants, including SO2, NO2, O3, PM1, PM2.5, and PM10, matched to participants' residential addresses. Logistic regression models were employed to estimate the associations of obesity with outdoor AP exposure. Further stratified analysis was conducted to evaluate whether sociodemographics or lifestyles modified the effects. Results: Increased AP exposure was statistically associated with increased odds of obesity. The odds ratio (ORs) and 95% confidence interval (CI) of BMI-defined obesity were 1.21 (1.17, 1.26) for SO2, 1.33 (1.26, 1.40) for NO2, 1.15 (1.10, 1.21) for O3, 1.38 (1.29, 1.48) for PM1, 1.19 (1.15, 1.22) for PM2.5, and 1.11 (1.09, 1.13) for PM10 per 10 µg/m3 increase in concentration. Similar results were found for central obesity. Stratified analyses suggested that elderly participants experienced more adverse effects from all 6 air pollutants than middle-aged participants. Furthermore, notable multiplicative interactions were found between O3 exposure and females as well as second-hand smokers in BMI-defined obesity. Conclusions: This study suggested that outdoor AP exposure had a significant association with the risk of obesity in the middle-aged and elderly Chinese population. Elderly individuals and women may be more vulnerable to AP exposure.

Multifunctional Textile Electronic with Sensing, Energy Storing, and Electrothermal Heating Capabilities.

The development of wearable devices has stimulated significant engineering and technologies of textile electronics (TEs). Improving sensing, energy-storing, and electro-heating capabilities of TEs is still challenging but crucial for their practical applications. Herein, a drip-coating method that constructs a dense ß-FeOOH scaffold on a nylon strip for enhancing polypyrrole loading is proposed, which facilitates the fabrication of highly conductive and hydrophobic PFCNS (polypyrrole/ß-FeOOH/nylon strip). The space provided by the ß-FeOOH scaffold increases the mass of polypyrrole on fibers from 1.1 (polypyrrole/nylon strip) to 3.0 mg cm-2 (polypyrrole/ß-FeOOH/nylon strip), which decreases the resistance from 104.96 to 34.29 Ω cm-1. The PFCNS exhibits a linear elastic modulus of 0.758 MPa within 150% strain, performs a unique resistance variation mechanism, and enables great sensing capability with rapid response time (140 ms), long durability (10,000 stretching-recovering), and effective movement monitoring (e.g., breathing, back bending, jumping). The sensing signals for knee bending have been analyzed in detail by combining with both stretching and pressing response mechanisms. The PFCNS electrode attains a diffusion-controlled capacitance of 574 mF cm-2 and discharging-capacitance of 916 mF cm-2. Furthermore, an interdigitally parallel connection is proposed, which assists the PFCNS heater in achieving high temperature (84 °C) at a low voltage (4 V). This work provides a simple route for nylon-based TEs and promises satisfactory application in wearable sensors, power sources, and heaters.

Emergency Response and Risk Communication Effects of Local Media during COVID-19 Pandemic in China: A Study Based on a Social Media Network.

As the country where the COVID-19 was first reported and initially broke out, China has controlled the spread of the pandemic well. The pandemic prevention process included emergency response and risk communication, both of which could notably increase public participation, people's anxiety has been alleviated, their confidence in the government has been enhanced, and the implementation of prevention and control measures has been understood. This study selected 157,283 articles published by 447 accounts across 326 cities in February 2020 from WeChat, the largest social media application in China, to systematically compare the spatial distributions in the effectiveness of emergency responses and risk communication. The results showed that there were significant regional differences in the effectiveness of emergency response and risk communication during the pandemic period in China. The effectiveness of emergency response and risk communication are related to the exposure risk to the COVID-19, the level of economy, culture, and education of the region, the type of accounts and articles, and the ranking of the articles in posts. The timeliness and distribution types of articles should take into account the psychological changes in communication recipients to avoid the dissemination of homogenized information to the masses and the resulting information receiving fatigue period.

The exposures and health effects of benzene, toluene and naphthalene for Chinese chefs in multiple cooking styles of kitchens.

Commercial cooking has higher intensity and more severe instantaneous cooking pollution from volatile organic chemicals compared to home cooking, making health risk assessment of occupational exposure for chefs a priority. In this study, chefs from three cooking styles of kitchens, including steaming, frying, and grilling, were selected to investigate the external and internal exposures, health risks and effects of several typical aromatic hydrocarbons (benzene, toluene and naphthalene). Naphthalene was found to be the most concentrated contaminant in air samples among the different kitchens, while benzene had the lowest concentration. The concentration of toluene in frying kitchens was significantly higher than that in steaming kitchens. Air concentrations of toluene in frying kitchens, as well as benzene concentrations in grilling kitchens exceeded the standard level according to indoor air quality standard (GB/T18883-2002). Regarding the metabolites of pollutants in urine, the content of S-benzylmercapturic acids (S-BMA) for frying chefs was significantly higher than that for other cooking styles of chefs, which was consistent with the relatively higher air concentrations of toluene. There was a good correlation between internal and external exposure of the pollutants. The level of oxidative stress was influenced by 2-hydroxynaphthalene (2-OHN) and S-BMA, indicating the potential health risks of these occupational exposed chefs. This study indicates the need to improve the monitoring of typical aromatic hydrocarbons, as well as to investigate their potential health effects in large-scale groups, and improve the ventilation in kitchens.