A population-based case-control study of extreme summer temperature and birth defects.

Background: Although hyperthermia is a recognized animal teratogen and maternal fever has been associated with birth defects in humans, data on the relationship between high environmental temperatures and birth defects are limited.

Objective: To determine whether pregnancies are potentially vulnerable to the weather extremes anticipated with climate change, we evaluated the relationship between extreme summer temperature and the occurrence of birth defects.

Methods: We performed a population-based case-control study by linking the New York State Congenital Malformations Registry to birth certificates for the years 1992-2006.

Association of summer temperatures with hospital admissions for renal diseases in New York State: a case-crossover study.

This study assessed the association between high temperatures and increased odds of hospitalization for renal diseases that, to date, has been examined in only a small number of studies. A case-crossover design was used to study 147,885 hospital admissions with renal diagnoses during July and August, 1991-2004, in New York State. Regional temperature, humidity, and barometric pressure data from automated monitors were used as exposure indicators.

Health impact in New York City during the Northeastern blackout of 2003.

Objective: This study assessed the health effects of the 2003 Northeastern blackout, the largest one in history, on mortality and hospital admissions due to respiratory, cardiovascular, and renal diseases in New York City (NYC), and compared the disease patterns and sociodemographic profiles of cases during the blackout with those on control days.

Method: We investigated the effects of the blackout on health using incidence rate ratios to compare the disease on blackout days (August 14 and 15, 2003) with those on normal and comparably hot days (controls). Normal days were defined as summer days (June-August) between the 25th and 75th percentiles of maximum temperature during 1991-2004.

Fish consumption and concentrations of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) in the serum of older residents of upper Hudson River communities.

A study was conducted to evaluate exposure to polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) among 144 men and women 55 to 74 years residing along the Hudson River. The results indicated a median serum PBDE concentration of 23.9 ng/g lipid wt.

Trajectories of fatigue in family caregivers of patients undergoing radiation therapy for prostate cancer.

Predictors of and trajectories for evening and morning fatigue were evaluated in family caregivers of oncology patients using hierarchical linear modeling. Evening fatigue trajectory fit a quadratic model. Predictors included baseline sleep disturbances in family caregivers and baseline evening fatigue in patients.

A 40+ year record of Cd, Hg, Pb, and U deposition in sediments of Patroon Reservoir, Albany County, NY, USA.

Sediments of the Patroon Creek watershed (33 km(2)) are known to contain significant concentrations of heavy metals derived from two industrial sites within the watershed. Mercury Refining, Inc (Mereco) has stored and recycled Hg from 1955 to the present day, and National Lead Industries (NLI) manufactured aircraft components containing Cd, Pb, and U from 1958 to 1984. Here we present the first record of heavy metal deposition as preserved in a 3-m long sediment core collected in 1999 from Patroon Reservoir, a small water body (1.