Polychlorinated dibenzo-dioxin/furan and polychlorinated biphenyl concentrations in the human milk of individuals living near municipal waste incinerators in the UK: Findings from the Breast milk, Environment, Early-life, and development (BEED) human biomonitoring study.

The objective of this study is to report recent PCDD/F and PCB human milk concentrations in the United Kingdom (UK) and relate these to two proxies for exposure to municipal waste incinerator (MWI) emissions. As part of the Breast milk, Environment, Early-life, and Development (BEED) study, primiparous individuals were recruited from within 20 km of English MWIs between 2013 and 2015 and asked to provide human milk samples. The samples were analysed for quantitative concentrations of 17 PCDD/F and 12 PCB congeners.

Impact of short-term aircraft noise on cardiovascular disease risk in the area surrounding London Heathrow airport: the RISTANCO epidemiological study.

Background: Long-term exposure to aircraft noise has been associated with small increases in cardiovascular disease risk, but there are almost no short-term exposure studies.

Objectives: Research questions were: Is there an association between short-term changes in exposure to aircraft noise and cardiovascular morbidity and mortality? What are the key effect modifiers? Is there variability in risk estimates between areas with consistent versus changing patterns of noise exposure? Do risk estimates differ when using different noise metrics?

Design: Descriptive analyses of noise levels and variability at different times of day, analyses of inequalities in noise exposure and case-crossover analyses of cardiovascular events in relation to aircraft noise exposure.

Setting: Area surrounding London Heathrow airport.

Associations between Aircraft Noise, Sleep, and Sleep-Wake Cycle: Actimetric Data from the UK Biobank Cohort near Four Major Airports.

Background: Nighttime aircraft noise may affect people's sleep, yet large-scale evidence using objective and subjective measures remains limited.

Objective: Our aim was to investigate associations between nighttime aircraft noise exposure and objectively measured sleep disturbance using a large UK cohort.

Methods: We used data from 105,770 UK Biobank cohort participants exposed and unexposed to aircraft noise who lived in 44 local authority districts near 4 international airports in England.

Associations of air pollution exposures in preconception and pregnancy with birth outcomes and infant neurocognitive development: analysis of the Complex Lipids in Mothers and Babies (CLIMB) prospective cohort in Chongqing, China.

Objectives: To investigate the associations of traffic-related air pollution exposures in early pregnancy with birth outcomes and infant neurocognitive development.

Design: Cohort study.

Setting: Eligible women attended six visits in the maternity clinics of two centres, the First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University and Chongqing Health Centre for Women and Children.

Air pollution, lung function and mortality: survival and mediation analyses in UK Biobank.

Background: Air pollution is associated with lower lung function, and both are associated with premature mortality and cardiovascular disease (CVD). Evidence remains scarce on the potential mediating effect of impaired lung function on the association between air pollution and mortality or CVD.

Methods: We used data from UK Biobank (n∼200 000 individuals) with 8-year follow-up to mortality and incident CVD.

Prospective study design and data analysis in UK Biobank.

Population-based prospective studies, such as UK Biobank, are valuable for generating and testing hypotheses about the potential causes of human disease. We describe how UK Biobank's study design, data access policies, and approaches to statistical analysis can help to minimize error and improve the interpretability of research findings, with implications for other population-based prospective studies being established worldwide.

Comparison of devices used to measure blood pressure, grip strength and lung function: A randomised cross-over study.

Background: Blood pressure, grip strength and lung function are frequently assessed in longitudinal population studies, but the measurement devices used differ between studies and within studies over time. We aimed to compare measurements ascertained from different commonly used devices.

Methods: We used a randomised cross-over study.

Genome-wide association study of thyroid-stimulating hormone highlights new genes, pathways and associations with thyroid disease.

Thyroid hormones play a critical role in regulation of multiple physiological functions and thyroid dysfunction is associated with substantial morbidity. Here, we use electronic health records to undertake a genome-wide association study of thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) levels, with a total sample size of 247,107. We identify 158 novel genetic associations, more than doubling the number of known associations with TSH, and implicate 112 putative causal genes, of which 76 are not previously implicated.

Association between ambient temperature and common allergenic pollen and fungal spores: A 52-year analysis in central England, United Kingdom.

Exposure to pollen and fungal spores can trigger asthma/allergic symptoms and affect health. Rising temperatures from climate change have been associated with earlier seasons and increasing intensity for some pollen, with weaker evidence for fungal spores. It is unclear whether climate change has resulted in changes in the exposure-response function between temperature and pollen/fungal spore concentrations over time.

Spatial assessment of the attributable burden of disease due to transportation noise in England.

Background: Noise pollution from transportation is one of the leading contributors to the environmental disease burden in Europe. We provide a novel assessment of spatial variations of these health impacts within a country, using England as an example.

Methods: We estimated the burden of annoyance (highly annoyed), sleep disturbance (highly sleep disturbed), ischemic heart disease (IHD), stroke, and diabetes attributable to long-term transportation noise exposures in England for the adult population in 2018 down to local authority level (average adult population: 136,000).

Aircraft noise and cardiovascular morbidity and mortality near Heathrow Airport: A case-crossover study.

Aircraft noise causes annoyance and sleep disturbance and there is some evidence of associations between long-term exposures and cardiovascular disease (CVD). We investigated short-term associations between previous day aircraft noise and cardiovascular events in a population of 6.3 million residing near Heathrow Airport using a case-crossover design and exposure data for different times of day and night.

Does air pollution confound associations between environmental noise and cardiovascular outcomes? - A systematic review.

Background: Exposure to environmental noise is associated with adverse health effects, but there is potential for confounding and interaction with air pollution, particularly where both exposures arise from the same source, such as transport.

Objectives: To review evidence on confounding and interaction of air pollution in relation to associations between environmental noise and cardiovascular outcomes.

Methods: Papers were identified from similar reviews published in 2013 and 2015, from the systematic reviews supporting the WHO 2018 noise guidelines, and from a literature search covering the period 2016-2022 using Medline and PubMed databases.

Road Traffic Noise and Incidence of Primary Hypertension: A Prospective Analysis in UK Biobank.

Background: The quality of evidence regarding the associations between road traffic noise and hypertension is low due to the limitations of cross-sectional study design, and the role of air pollution remains to be further clarified.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the associations of long-term road traffic noise exposure with incident primary hypertension; we conducted a prospective population-based analysis in UK Biobank.

Methods: Road traffic noise was estimated at baseline residential address using the common noise assessment method model.

Associations between air pollution and multimorbidity in the UK Biobank: A cross-sectional study.

Background: Long-term exposure to air pollution concentrations is known to be adversely associated with a broad range of single non-communicable diseases, but its role in multimorbidity has not been investigated in the UK. We aimed to assess associations between long-term air pollution exposure and multimorbidity status, severity, and patterns using the UK Biobank cohort.

Methods: Multimorbidity status was calculated based on 41 physical and mental conditions.

Assessing the health risk of living near composting facilities on lung health, fungal and bacterial disease in cystic fibrosis: a UK CF Registry study.

Aim: To explore the health risk of living near permitted composting sites (PCSs) on disease severity in children and adults with cystic fibrosis (CF) across the UK.  METHODS: A semi-individual cross-sectional study was used to examine the risk of disease severity in people with CF (pwCF) within and beyond 4 km of PCSs in the UK in 2016. All pwCF registered in the UK CF Registry were eligible for this study.

How to design and implement a university-based COVID-19 testing programme? An evaluation of a novel RT-LAMP COVID-19 testing programme in a UK university.

Background: Little is known about how asymptomatic testing as a method to control transmission of COVID-19 can be implemented, and the prevalence of asymptomatic infection within university populations. The objective of this study was to investigate how to effectively set-up and implement a COVID-19 testing programme using novel reverse transcriptase loop-mediated isothermal amplification (RT-LAMP) technology and to quantify the scale of asymptomatic infection on a university campus.

Methods: An observational study to describe the set-up and implementation of a novel COVID-19 testing programme on a UK university campus between September and December 2020.

Environmental noise and health in low-middle-income-countries: A systematic review of epidemiological evidence.

Evidence of the health impacts from environmental noise has largely been drawn from studies in high-income countries, which has then been used to inform development of noise guidelines. It is unclear whether findings in high-income countries can be readily translated into policy contexts in low-middle-income-countries (LMICs). We conducted this systematic review to summarise noise epidemiological studies in LMICs.

Differences in the risk of cardiovascular disease across ethnic groups: UK Biobank observational study.

Background And Aims: To describe sociodemographic, lifestyle, environmental and traditional clinical risk factor differences between ethnic groups and to investigate the extent to which such differences confound the association between ethnic groups and the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) METHODS AND RESULTS: A total of 440,693 white European (55.9% women), 7305 South Asian (48.6%) and 7628 black African or Caribbean (57.

Association between Noise Annoyance and Mental Health Outcomes: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

To date, most studies of noise and mental health have focused on noise exposure rather than noise annoyance. The purpose of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to evaluate whether the available evidence supports an adverse association between noise annoyance and mental health problems in people. We carried out a literature search of Web of Science, PubMed, Scopus, PsycINFO, and conference proceedings published between 2000 and 2022.

Household Air Pollution and Respiratory Symptoms a Month Before and During the Stringent COVID-19 Lockdown Levels 5 and 4 in South Africa.

Background: Household air pollution (HAP) is associated with adverse human health impacts. During COVID-19 Lockdown Levels 5 and 4 (the most stringent levels), South Africans remained at home, potentially increasing their exposure to HAP.

Objectives: To investigate changes in fuel use behaviours/patterns of use affecting HAP exposure and associated HAP-related respiratory health outcomes during COVID-19 Lockdown Levels 5 and 4.

Sources of particle number concentration and noise near London Gatwick Airport.

There is increasing evidence of potential health impacts from both aircraft noise and aircraft-associated ultrafine particles (UFP). Measurements of noise and UFP are however scarce near airports and so their variability and relationship are not well understood. Particle number size distributions and noise levels were measured at two locations near Gatwick airport (UK) in 2018-19 with the aim to characterize particle number concentrations (PNC) and link PNC sources, especially UFP, with noise.

Genome-wide gene-air pollution interaction analysis of lung function in 300,000 individuals.

Background: Impaired lung function is predictive of mortality and is a key component of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Lung function has a strong genetic component but is also affected by environmental factors such as increased exposure to air pollution, but the effect of their interactions is not well understood.

Objectives: To identify interactions between genetic variants and air pollution measures which affect COPD risk and lung function.