Beyond lung cancer: air pollution and bladder, breast and prostate cancer incidence.

Background: The carcinogenicity of air pollution and its impact on the risk of lung cancer is well known; however, there are still knowledge gaps and mixed results for other sites of cancer.

Methods: The current study aimed to evaluate the associations between ambient air pollution [fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and nitrogen oxides (NOx)] and cancer incidence.

Biofilm Formation by Hospital-Acquired Resistant Bacteria Isolated from Respiratory Samples.

Background: Hospital-acquired resistant infections (HARI) are infections, which develop 48 h or more after admission to a healthcare facility. HARI pose a considerably acute challenge, due to limited treatment options. These infections are associated bacterial biofilms, which act as a physical barrier to diverse external stresses, such as desiccation, antimicrobials and biocides.

Residential greenness and lower breast and prostate cancer incidence: Evidence from a retrospective cohort study of 977,644 participants from Israel.

Background: There is limited evidence on the associations between residential greenness and cancer incidence in longitudinal studies.

Objectives: The aim of the study was to evaluate the associations between weighted mean residential greenness exposure and cancer incidence.

Methods: This is a registry based retrospective cohort study of 977,644 participants.

Residence near industrial complex and cancer incidence: A registry-based cohort of 1,022,637 participants with a follow-up of 21 years, Israel.

Background: Industrial complex (IC) residence is associated with higher cancer incidence in adults and children. However, the effect on young adults and the residence duration are not well described. Since the beginning of the 20th century, the Haifa bay area (HBA) has a major IC area with petrochemical industry complex and many other industries.

Antibiotic resistance patterns of Helicobacter pylori in North Israel - A six-year study.

Background: One main challenge in Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) eradication is its increasing antibiotic resistance. Additionally, resistance rates vary between geographic areas and periods.

"Residential greenness and site-specific cancer: A registry based cohort of 144,427 participants with a 21-years of follow-up, Tel-Aviv district, Israel".

Background: Few longitudinal studies evaluated the beneficial associations between cumulative residential greenness and site-specific cancer. Our objective was to evaluate the associations between cumulative residential greenness exposure and site-specific cancer incidence (lung, bladder, breast, prostate, and skin cancer) within a registry-based cohort study.

Methods: This study was based on 144,427 participants who lived in the Tel Aviv district during 1995-2015.

Obesity II: Establishing causal links between chemical exposures and obesity.

Obesity is a multifactorial disease with both genetic and environmental components. The prevailing view is that obesity results from an imbalance between energy intake and expenditure caused by overeating and insufficient exercise. We describe another environmental element that can alter the balance between energy intake and energy expenditure: obesogens.

Residential greenness and hair cortisol levels during the first trimester of pregnancy.

Background And Aim: Studies have shown that increased maternal cortisol level is associated with child adverse health outcomes. Hair cortisol (HC) is suitable for assessing long-term circulating cortisol concentration. Only two previous studies reported beneficial associations between cortisol and residential greenness during pregnancy and no study focused on the first trimester.

Low and High Ambient Temperatures during Pregnancy and Birth Weight among 624,940 Singleton Term Births in Israel (2010-2014): An Investigation of Potential Windows of Susceptibility.

Background: Exposure to heat during pregnancy has been associated with reduced fetal growth. Less is known about associations with cold and the potential for critical time windows of exposure.

Objectives: We aimed to evaluate, in a national retrospective cohort, critical windows of susceptibility during pregnancy to extreme temperatures (low and high) and fetal growth, among 624,940 singleton term births in Israel during the period 2010-2014.

Reduced Susceptibility to Chlorhexidine among Isolates in Israel: Phenotypic and Genotypic Tolerance.

Antiseptic use for body decolonization is the main activity applied to prevent healthcare-associated infections, including those caused by . Consequentially, tolerance to several antiseptics such as chlorhexidine gluconate (CHG) has developed. This study aimed to estimate the prevalence of CHG tolerance among strains in Israel and to evaluate factors that may affect this tolerance.

There's no place like home? The psychological, physiological, and cognitive effects of short visits to outdoor urban environments compared to staying in the indoor home environment, a field experiment on women from two ethnic groups.

Background: The home environment is regarded as a safe, comfortable environment, however, home can also be a stressful place. Compared to staying in the indoor home environment, the effects of short visits to outdoor urban environments on short-term psychological, physiological and cognitive responses were not studied previously.

Aim: To evaluate whether visits to different urban and ethnic environments, in comparison to staying in the home indoor environment, leads to short-term changes in psychological, physiological and cognitive responses and whether these responses are independent of ethnicity.

Unconventional oil and gas development and health outcomes: A scoping review of the epidemiological research.

Background: Hydraulic fracturing together with directional and horizontal well drilling (unconventional oil and gas (UOG) development) has increased substantially over the last decade. UOG development is a complex process presenting many potential environmental health hazards, raising serious public concern.

Aim: To conduct a scoping review to assess what is known about the human health outcomes associated with exposure to UOG development.

Ethnic Differences in Home-Related Maternal Stress: Muslim and Jewish Mothers.

Parental stresses are normal responses to raising children. They are affected by stresses parents and children accumulate and bring to their interrelations. Background factors like economic difficulties or the relations between the parents may affect parental stresses as well as demographic and environmental factors like noise and access to urban parks.

The effects of crossing ethnic boundaries on the autonomic nervous system in Muslim and Jewish young women in Israel.

Exposure to alien inter-group environments can differently effect ethnic groups' autonomous nervous system, measured by heart rate variability (HRV). Our aim was to evaluate the effect of crossing alien ethnic boundaries on heart rate variability in three selected types of environments. In a field experiment study, we test responses of 72 Muslim and Jewish women to exposure to alien ethnic environments.

Mean and variance of greenness and pregnancy outcomes in Tel Aviv during 2000-14: longitudinal and cross-sectional approaches.

Background: Natural environments may have beneficial impacts on pregnancy outcomes. However, longitudinal evidence is limited and the associations with variance in surrounding greenness is unknown. Our objective was to evaluate these associations among 73 221 live births in Tel Aviv, Israel.

A comparison of the effects of selected mono-ethnic urban environments on the autonomic functions of Muslim and Jewish women in Israel.

Few previous studies evaluated ethnic differences in the effects of urban environments on the autonomic balance in intra-ethnic environments and the mediation effects of environmental exposures (air pollution, noise, and thermal load). In a field experimental study, we exposed 48 Muslim and 24 Jewish women to park, town center, and residential street in Israeli mono-ethnic small towns. Heart rate variability (HRV), noise, thermal load, and carbon monoxide (CO) were measured by portable devices while visiting the environments and were analyzed using mixed models.

Trends in Fetal Growth Between 2000 to 2014 in Singleton Live Births from Israel.

Trends in birthweight and abnormal fetal growth, namely term low birthweight (LBW), macrosomia, small-for-gestational age (SGA) and large-for-gestational age (LGA), are important indicators of changes in the health of populations. We performed this epidemiological study to evaluate these trends among 2,039,415 singleton live births from Israel over a period of 15 years. Birth certificate data was obtained from the Ministry of Health.

Exposure to Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals during Pregnancy and Weight at 7 Years of Age: A Multi-pollutant Approach.

Background: Prenatal exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) may induce weight gain and obesity in children, but the obesogenic effects of mixtures have not been studied.

Objective: We evaluated the associations between pre- and perinatal biomarker concentrations of 27 EDCs and child weight status at 7 years of age.

Methods: In pregnant women enrolled in a Spanish birth cohort study between 2004 and 2006, we measured the concentrations of 10 phthalate metabolites, bisphenol A, cadmium, arsenic, and lead in two maternal pregnancy urine samples; 6 organochlorine compounds in maternal pregnancy serum; mercury in cord blood; and 6 polybrominated diphenyl ether congeners in colostrum.

Green spaces and adverse pregnancy outcomes.

Objective: The objective of this study was to evaluate the associations between proximity to green spaces and surrounding greenness and pregnancy outcomes, such as birth weight, low birth weight (LBW), very LBW (VLBW), gestational age, preterm deliveries (PTD) and very PTD (VPTD).

Methods: This study was based on 39,132 singleton live births from a registry birth cohort in Tel Aviv, Israel, during 2000-2006. Surrounding greenness was defined as the average of satellite-based Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) in 250 m buffers and proximity to major green spaces was defined as residence within a buffer of 300 m from boundaries of a major green space (5000 m(2)), based on data constructed from OpenStreetMap.

Air pollution and congenital heart defects.

Environmental factors such as ambient air pollution have been associated with congenital heart defects. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between gestational exposure to air pollution and the risk of congenital heart defects. We conducted a registry-based cohort study with a total of 135,527 live- and still-births in the Tel-Aviv region during 2000-2006.

Periodicity and time trends in the prevalence of total births and conceptions with congenital malformations among Jews and Muslims in Israel, 1999-2006: a time series study of 823,966 births.

BACKGROUND Congenital malformations (CMs) are a leading cause of infant disability. Geophysical patterns such as 2-year, yearly, half-year, 3-month, and lunar cycles regulate much of the temporal biology of all life on Earth and may affect birth and birth outcomes in humans. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate and compare trends and periodicity in total births and CM conceptions in two Israeli populations.