Environmental Risk Factors for Parkinson's Disease: A Critical Review and Policy Implications.

The age-standardized prevalence of Parkinson's disease (PD) has increased substantially over the years and is expected to increase further. This emphasizes the need to identify modifiable risk factors of PD, which could form a logical entry point for the prevention of PD. The World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended reducing exposure to specific environmental factors that have been reported to be associated with PD, in particular pesticides, trichloroethylene (TCE), and air pollution.

Sources of PM exposure misclassification in three Finnish register-based study populations and the impact on attenuation of health effect estimates.

Air pollution is a leading environmental health risk factor. The risk estimates, primarily based on air pollution epidemiology, are sensitive to exposure misclassification, which can result in underestimation. To address some of these challenges, our aim is to investigate how the length of the period over which the exposure is averaged, trends in long-term PM concentrations, and the seasonal variability are associated with each other.

Long-term exposure to low-level particulate air pollution and Parkinson's disease diagnosis - A Finnish register-based study.

Background: There is mixed evidence for an association between particulate matter air pollution and Parkinson's disease despite biological plausibility.

Objectives: We studied the association between particulate air pollution, its components and Parkinson's disease (PD) risk.

Methods: We conducted a nested case-control study within the population of Finland using national registers.

Effect of Grandmaternal Smoking on Body Size and Proportions at Birth.

Many long-term adverse effects of smoking during pregnancy are known. Increasingly, adverse effects in the grandchild after grandmaternal smoking during pregnancy are reported. We explored this in a birth cohort of 24,000 grandmother-mother-child triads identified from the Finnish Medical Birth Register in 1991-2016.

Chained Risk Assessment for Life-Long Disease Burden of Early Exposures - Demonstration of Concept Using Prenatal Maternal Smoking.

Traditional risk factors and environmental exposures only explain less than half of the disease burden. The developmental origin of the health and disease (DOHaD) concept proposes that prenatal and early postnatal exposures increase disease susceptibility throughout life. The aim of this work is to demonstrate the application of the DOHaD concept in a chained risk assessment and to provide an estimate of later in life burden of disease related to maternal smoking.

Smoking during pregnancy in Finland - Trends in the MATEX cohort.

In Finland, smoking rates in the general population are decreasing due to increased awareness of the adverse effects and tightened tobacco legislation. However, previous studies have shown that smoking in pregnant Finnish women remained as high as in the general Finnish female population at around 15% in 2010. Our aim was to describe temporal and spatial trends in smoking behaviour, and determinants of changes in smoking behaviour between first and second pregnancy.

Methods of health risk and impact assessment at industrially contaminated sites: a systematic review.

Background: this paper is based upon work from COST Action ICSHNet. Industrially contaminated sites (ICSs) are a serious problem worldwide and there is growing concern about their impacts on the environment and public health. Health risk assessment methods are used to characterize and quantify the health impacts on nearby populations and to guide public health interventions.

The MATEX cohort - a Finnish population register birth cohort to study health effects of prenatal exposures.

Background: The prevalence of chronic diseases, such as immune, neurobehavioral, and metabolic disorders has increased in recent decades. According to the concept of Developmental Origin of Health and Disease (DOHaD), developmental factors associated with environmental exposures and maternal lifestyle choices may partly explain the observed increase. Register-based epidemiology is a prime tool to investigate the effects of prenatal exposures over the whole life course.

Maternal Smoking and the Risk of Cancer in Early Life - A Meta-Analysis.

Background: In spite of the well-known harmful effects on the fetus, many women continue smoking during pregnancy. Smoking as an important source of toxic chemicals may contribute to the developmental origin of diseases.

Objectives: The aim of this work was to pursue the possible association between maternal smoking and cancer in early life.

Environmental Asthma Reduction Potential Estimates for Selected Mitigation Actions in Finland Using a Life Table Approach.

Aims: To quantify the reduction potential of asthma in Finland achievable by adjusting exposures to selected environmental factors.

Methods: A life table model for the Finnish population for 1986-2040 was developed and Years Lived with Disability caused by asthma and attributable to the following selected exposures were estimated: tobacco smoke (smoking and second hand tobacco smoke), ambient fine particles, indoor dampness and mould, and pets.

Results: At baseline (2011) about 25% of the total asthma burden was attributable to the selected exposures.