Hurricanes, industrial animal operations, and acute gastrointestinal illness in North Carolina, USA.

North Carolina (NC) ranks third among US states in both hog production and hurricanes. NC's hogs are housed in concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) in the eastern, hurricane-prone part of the state. Hurricanes can inundate hog waste lagoons, transporting fecal bacteria that may cause acute gastrointestinal illness (AGI).

Residents' experiences during a hydrogen sulfide crisis in Carson, California.

Background: In early October 2021, thousands of residents in Carson, California began complaining of malodors and headaches. Hydrogen sulfide (HS), a noxious odorous gas, was measured at concentrations up to 7000 parts per billion (ppb) and remained above California's acute air quality standard of 30 ppb for a month. Intermittent elevations of HS continued for 3 months.

Residents' experiences during a hydrogen sulfide crisis in Carson, California.

Background: In early October 2021, thousands of residents in Carson, California began complaining of malodors and headaches. The odor was identified as hydrogen sulfide (HS), a noxious odorous gas. HS was measured at concentrations up to 7000 parts per billion (ppb) and remained above California's acute air quality standard of 30 ppb for a month, with intermittent elevations continuing for 3 months.

Respiratory and nervous system effects of a hydrogen sulfide crisis in Carson, California.

Background: In October 2021, many residents in Carson, California experienced malodors, headaches, and respiratory symptoms. Hydrogen sulfide (HS), a toxic odorous gas, was measured in Carson at concentrations up to 7000 parts per billion (ppb) and remained above California's acute air quality standard of 30 ppb for about a month. Research on how low- and medium-level HS exposure affects the respiratory and nervous systems has yielded conflicting results, and few studies have examined the effects of subacute HS exposure.

Cardiovascular health and proximity to urban oil drilling in Los Angeles, California.

Background: Although ~18 million people live within a mile from active oil and gas development (OGD) sites in the United States, epidemiological research on how OGD affects the health of nearby urban residents is sparse. Thousands of OGD sites are spread across Los Angeles (LA) County, California, home to the largest urban oil production in the country. Air pollution and noise from OGD may contribute to cardiovascular morbidity.

Development and demonstration of a data visualization platform of short-term guidelines for ambient air levels of benzene during disaster response in Houston, Texas.

Industrial disasters have caused hazardous air pollution and public health impacts. Response officials have developed limited exposure guidelines to direct them during the event; often, guidelines are outdated and may not represent relevant elevated-exposure periods. The 2019 Intercontinental Terminals Company (ITC) fire in Houston, Texas led to large-scale releases of benzene and presented a public health threat.

Malodors as environmental injustice: health symptoms in the aftermath of a hydrogen sulfide emergency in Carson, California, USA.

In October 2021, hydrogen sulfide (HS), a toxic odorous gas, was measured in Carson, California at concentrations reaching 7000 parts per billion (ppb), exceeding California’s 30 ppb acute air quality standard. Thousands of residents complained of malodors and headaches. We responded to community concerns by launching a rapid survey assessing symptoms.

Metal Exposures in Residents Living Near an Urban Oil Drilling Site in Los Angeles, California.

Urban environmental justice communities are potentially exposed to multiple toxic metals, through contaminated air, soil, water, and food. However, information on metals and their sources is lacking. This study uses non-negative matrix factorization (NMF) in a community-based participatory research study to identify potential sources and to understand how these metals cluster in a population near an urban oil drilling site.

Exposure to industrial hog and poultry operations and urinary tract infections in North Carolina, USA.

An increasing share of urinary tract infections (UTIs) are caused by extraintestinal pathogenic Escherichia coli (ExPEC) lineages that have also been identified in poultry and hogs with high genetic similarity to human clinical isolates. We investigated industrial food animal production as a source of uropathogen transmission by examining relationships of hog and poultry density with emergency department (ED) visits for UTIs in North Carolina (NC). ED visits for UTI in 2016-2019 were identified by ICD-10 code from NC's ZIP code-level syndromic surveillance system and livestock counts were obtained from permit data and aerial imagery.

Exposure to industrial hog operations and gastrointestinal illness in North Carolina, USA.

With 9 million hogs, North Carolina (NC) is the second leading hog producer in the United States. Most hogs are housed at concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), where millions of tons of hog waste can pollute air and water with fecal pathogens that can cause diarrhea, vomiting, and/or nausea (known as acute gastrointestinal illness (AGI)). We used NC's ZIP code-level emergency department (ED) data to calculate rates of AGI ED visits (2016-2019) and swine permit data to estimate hog exposure.

Life Course Racism and Depressive Symptoms among Young Black Women.

The objective of this study is to evaluate the life course effects of racism on depressive symptoms in young Black women and to identify particularly sensitive periods. Guided by life-course theory and using logistic regression, we analyzed baseline data on racism frequency and stress from racism at two time periods (before age 20 and during the 20s) and follow-up data (at approximate 20-month intervals) on depressive symptoms (using a modified 11-item Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale, CES-D) among 1612 Black women participants aged 23-34 years living in Detroit, MI. Of the 1612 women, 65% reported experiencing some racism at baseline, and 36.

Hurricane flooding and acute gastrointestinal illness in North Carolina.

Hurricanes often flood homes and industries, spreading pathogens. Contact with pathogen-contaminated water can result in diarrhea, vomiting, and/or nausea, known collectively as acute gastrointestinal illness (AGI). Hurricanes Matthew and Florence caused record-breaking flooding in North Carolina (NC) in October 2016 and September 2018, respectively.

The compliance with a patient-safety bundle for management of placenta accreta spectrum.

Objective: Our objective was to evaluate the compliance with a patient-safety bundle for placenta accreta spectrum (PAS) by comparing the implementation of the components of the patient-safety bundle in the pre- and post-protocol time periods as a quality improvement project.

Study Design: This is a before and after retrospective cohort study as a quality improvement report examining compliance with a multidisciplinary delivery approach for patients with suspected PAS between 2007 and 2018. This bundle involved a multidisciplinary approach with maternal-fetal medicine, gynecologic oncology, intervention radiology, obstetric anesthesia, neonatology, and blood bank.

Ingested nitrate and nitrite, disinfection by-products, and pancreatic cancer risk in postmenopausal women.

Nitrate and nitrite are precursors of N-nitroso compounds (NOC), probable human carcinogens that cause pancreatic tumors in animals. Disinfection by-products (DBP) exposures have also been linked with digestive system cancers, but few studies have evaluated relationships with pancreatic cancer. We investigated the association of pancreatic cancer with these drinking water contaminants and dietary nitrate/nitrite in a cohort of postmenopausal women in Iowa (1986-2011).

Outpatient CPOE orders discontinued due to 'erroneous entry': prospective survey of prescribers' explanations for errors.

Background: Computerised prescriber order entry (CPOE) systems users often discontinue medications because the initial order was erroneous.

Objective: To elucidate error types by querying prescribers about their reasons for discontinuing outpatient medication orders that they had self-identified as erroneous.

Methods: During a nearly 3 year retrospective data collection period, we identified 57 972 drugs discontinued with the reason 'Error (erroneous entry).

Locomotor and energetic consequences of behavioral thermoregulation in the sanguivorous leech Hirudo verbana.

Medicinal leeches (Hirudo verbana) thermoregulate with respect to their sanguivorous feeding behavior. Immediate postprandial preferences are for warmer than their initial acclimation temperature (T, 21°C, Petersen et al. 2011), while unfed leeches have a lower preferred temperature (T, 12.

Analysis of variations in the display of drug names in computerized prescriber-order-entry systems.

Purpose: The variations in how drug names are displayed in computerized prescriber-order-entry (CPOE) systems were analyzed to determine their contribution to potential medication errors.

Methods: A diverse set of 10 inpatient and outpatient CPOE system vendors and self-developed CPOE systems in 6 U.S.