PM10 air pollution exposure during pregnancy and term low birth weight in Allegheny County, PA, 1994-2000.

Purpose: Low birth weight has been associated with increased risks of mortality and/or morbidity in childhood and adulthood. Epidemiological studies suggest that maternal exposure to air pollution, especially particulate matter during pregnancy, is associated with an increased risk of delivering a low birth weight infant. The aim of this study is to explore the association between exposure to particulate matter (PM10) during pregnancy and term low birth weight (LBW: birth weight <2,500 g and gestation age ≥ 37 weeks).

Case-crossover analysis of air pollution and cardiorespiratory hospitalizations: using routinely collected health and environmental data for tracking: science and data.

Background: From the early 1900s until its closure in February 1998, a Steel coke oven in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was a key source of air pollution. A case-crossover study was performed to assess the associations between daily air pollution and cardiorespiratory (International Classification of Disease Ninth Revision [ICD-9]: 390-519) hospitalizations before and after plant closure and to evaluate how closure influenced these associations.

Methods: Air pollution data, climatic data, and cardiorespiratory hospitalizations among residents ages 65 years and older were obtained for the period of 1996 through 2000 for the study area.

Cigarette smoking and the risk of adult leukemia: results from the Three Mile Island cohort study.

Smoking is an unconfirmed risk factor for the development of leukemia. The authors examined the potential link using data from the Three Mile Island cohort for the period 1979-1995. Eligible for analysis were 24,539 individuals aged 14 years or older who were followed up over 16 years from the Three Mile Island cohort.

Connecting environmental health data to people and policy: integrating information and mobilizing communities for environmental public health tracking.

Evaluation of available data is a critical preliminary step in the assessment of local environmental health. As part of a multi-organizational initiative to improve environmental health in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania region, the University of Pittsburgh Center for Healthy Environments and Communities (CHEC) interviewed 70 experts in the academic, government, non-profit, and private sectors and reviewed print and electronic resources to characterize environmental and public health data available in the region. The objectives of this undertaking were: to provide a conceptual framework for categorizing data locally on environmental hazards, exposures and health endpoints, to describe and evaluate the types of environmental public health data available nationally and locally, to identify existing endeavors to gather and categorize such data, and to present case studies on the real-life relevance of the availability or lack of availability of environmental health data.

Polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS): a significant contributor to the overall burden of type 2 diabetes in women.

Background: Given the high prevalence of polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) in the population, the increased risk for the development of type 2 diabetes in these women, and the role of type 2 diabetes in mediating adverse long-term sequelae, the objective of this analysis was to quantify the contribution of this early-life exposure (e.g., PCOS) to the burden of type 2 diabetes in the total population of middle-aged women.

Risk of cancer as a result of community exposure to gasoline vapors.

The Tranguch Gasoline Spill leaked 50,000-900,000 gallons of gasoline from underground storage tanks, potentially exposing an area of Hazle Township and Hazleton, Pennsylvania, to chronic low levels of benzene since at least 1990. A retrospective cohort study of 663 individuals representing 275 households assessed whether affected residents were at increased risk for cancer from 1990-2000 compared with the Pennsylvania populace. Age-adjusted standard incidence ratios (SIRs) were calculated using Pennsylvania rates to determine expected numbers.

A retrospective investigation of PM10 in ambient air and cardiopulmonary hospital admissions in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania: 1995-2000.

Objective: Air quality in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, has improved over the last decade, and we investigated whether the lower concentrations of fine particulate matter (PM10) are still associated with adverse health outcomes.

Methods: Daily cardiopulmonary hospital admissions in elderly residents of Allegheny County and countywide average PM10 measures were available from 1995 through 2000. Using generalized additive models (GAM), a Poisson regression model was fit to the number of daily admissions using predictor variables: lags of PM10, daily temperature and humidity, day of the week, and time.

Long-term follow-up of the residents of the Three Mile Island accident area: 1979-1998.

The Three Mile Island (TMI) nuclear power plant accident (1979) prompted the Pennsylvania Department of Health to initiate a cohort mortality study in the TMI accident area. This study is significant because of the long follow-up (1979-1998), large cohort size (32,135), and evidence from earlier reports indicating increased cancer risks. Standardized mortality ratios (SMRs) were calculated to assess the mortality experience of the cohort compared with a local population.

Evidence for competing effects of body mass, hyperinsulinemia, insulin resistance, and androgens on leptin levels among lean, overweight, and obese women with polycystic ovary syndrome.

Objective: To evaluate the relationships between leptin, body composition, insulin resistance, androgens, and reproductive indices among women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS).

Design: Matched case-control study.

Setting: Academic reproductive endocrine practice; school of public health.