Physicochemical Characterization of the Particulate Matter in New Jersey/New York City Area, Resulting from the Canadian Quebec Wildfires in June 2023.

The global increase in wildfires, primarily driven by climate change, significantly affects air quality and health. Wildfire-emitted particulate matter (WFPM) is linked to adverse health effects, yet the toxicological mechanisms are not fully understood given its physicochemical complexity and the lack of spatiotemporal exposure data. This study focuses on the physicochemical characterization of WFPM from a Canadian wildfire in June 2023, which affected over 100 million people in the US Northeast, particularly around New Jersey/New York.

Long-Term Impact of Childhood Adversity on the Gut Microbiome of Nursing Students.

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) encompass negative, stressful, and potentially traumatic events during childhood, impacting physical and mental health outcomes in adulthood. Limited studies suggest ACEs can have short-term effects on children's gut microbiomes and adult cognitive performance under stress. Nevertheless, the long-term effects of ACEs experienced during adulthood remain unexplored.

The effects of cool roofs on health, environmental, and economic outcomes in rural Africa: study protocol for a community-based cluster randomized controlled trial.

Background: High ambient air temperatures in Africa pose significant health and behavioral challenges in populations with limited access to cooling adaptations. The built environment can exacerbate heat exposure, making passive home cooling adaptations a potential method for protecting occupants against indoor heat exposure.

Methods: We are conducting a 2-year community-based stratified cluster randomized controlled trial (cRCT) implementing sunlight-reflecting roof coatings, known as "cool roofs," as a climate change adaptation intervention for passive indoor home cooling.

In situ psycho-cognitive assessments support self-determined urban green exercise time.

Prescribed nature walks frequently yield improvements to mood and cognition as observed in experimental studies. Research that uses real life settings such as self-determined time exercising outdoors for restorative health benefits may more accurately elicit effects than time-specified study protocols. This study examined in situ psycho-cognitive outcomes of routine walks in urban greenspace to test the concept that self-set exposure duration and not context alone is related to magnitude of psycho-cognitive benefit.

Implications of disparities in social and built environment antecedents to adult nature engagement.

Antecedent factors which influence adult engagement with nature are underexplored given the human health benefits strongly associated with nature exposure. Formative pathways and impediments to nature contact merit understanding as they may contribute to later-life health disparities. We probed experiential pathways and attitudes toward nature engagement among adults purposefully sampled across U.

Tradeoffs between ventilation, air mixing, and passenger density for the airborne transmission risk in airport transportation vehicles.

Airport transportation vehicles, such as buses, aerotrains, and shuttles, provide important passenger transfer services in airports. This study quantitatively investigated COVID-19 aerosol infection risk and identified acceptable operational conditions, such as passenger occupancy rates and duration of rides, given the performance of vehicle ventilation. The greatest risk to the largest number of passengers is from an index case whose exhaled breath would take the longest time to exit the vehicle.

Associations between Acute Exposures to PM and Carbon Dioxide Indoors and Cognitive Function in Office Workers: A Multicountry Longitudinal Prospective Observational Study.

Despite evidence of the air pollution effects on cognitive function, little is known about the acute impact of indoor air pollution on cognitive function among the working-age population. We aimed to understand whether cognitive function was associated with real-time indoor concentrations of particulate matter (PM) and carbon dioxide (CO). We conducted a prospective observational longitudinal study among 302 office workers in urban commercial buildings located in six countries (China, India, Mexico, Thailand, the United States of America, and the United Kingdom).

Indoor humidity levels and associations with reported symptoms in office buildings.

Moderate indoor relative humidity (RH) levels (i.e., 40%-60%) may minimize transmission and viability of some viruses, maximize human immune function, and minimize health risks from mold, yet uncertainties exist about typical RH levels in offices globally and about the potential independent impacts of RH levels on workers' health.

Differential impacts of ridesharing on alcohol-related crashes by socioeconomic municipalities: rate of technology adoption matters.

Background: An emergent group of studies have examined the extent under which ridesharing may decrease alcohol-related crashes in countries such as United States, United Kingdom, Brazil, and Chile. Virtually all existent studies have assumed that ridesharing is equally distributed across socioeconomic groups, potentially masking differences across them. We contribute to this literature by studying how socioeconomic status at the municipal level impacts Uber's effect on alcohol-related crashes.

Cultural Sets Shape Adult Conceptualizations and Relationships to Nature.

The variability of nature and the nature construct have complicated interpretations of empirical evidence from nature-based health studies. The challenge of defining nature exposure for purposes of methodological standardization may encompass constructs beyond vegetated landcover. This study offers a new construct for defining 'nature exposure' that considers cultural sets and nature familiarity.

Chemical contaminant exposures assessed using silicone wristbands among occupants in office buildings in the USA, UK, China, and India.

Little is known about chemical contaminant exposures of office workers in buildings globally. Complex mixtures of harmful chemicals accumulate indoors from building materials, building maintenance, personal products, and outdoor pollution. We evaluated exposures to 99 chemicals in urban office buildings in the USA, UK, China, and India using silicone wristbands worn by 251 participants while they were at work.

The Effects of Ventilation and Filtration on Indoor PM in Office Buildings in Four Countries.

Fine particulate matter (PM) is an airborne pollutant associated with negative acute and chronic human health outcomes. Although the majority of PM research has focused on outdoor exposures, people spend the majority of their time indoors, where PM of outdoor origin can penetrate. In this work, we measured indoor PM continuously for one year in 37 urban commercial offices with mechanical or mixed-mode ventilation in China, India, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Influence of living in the same home on biomonitored levels of consumer product chemicals.

Background: Individuals living in the same home may share exposures from direct contact with sources or indirectly through contamination of the home environment.

Objective: We investigated the influence of sharing a home on urine levels of ten phenolic chemicals present in some consumer products.

Methods: We used data from Silent Spring Institute's Detox Me Action Kit (DMAK), a crowdsourced biomonitoring program in the US.

Responding to Natural and Industrial Disasters: Partnerships and Lessons Learned.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to provide insights learned from disaster research response (DR2) efforts following Hurricane Harvey in 2017 to launch DR2 activities following the Intercontinental Terminals Company (ITC) fire in Deer Park, Texas, in 2019.

Methods: A multidisciplinary group of academic, community, and government partners launched a myriad of DR2 activities.

Results: The DR2 response to Hurricane Harvey focused on enhancing environmental health literacy around clean-up efforts, measuring environmental contaminants in soil and water in impacted neighborhoods, and launching studies to evaluate the health impact of the disaster.

The Relationship between Nature Deprivation and Individual Wellbeing across Urban Gradients under COVID-19.

Lockdown aiming at slowing COVID-19 transmission has altered nature accessibility patterns, creating quasi-experimental conditions to assess if retracted nature contact and perceived nature deprivation influence physical and emotional wellbeing. We measure through on-line survey methods ( = 529) how pandemic mandates limiting personal movement and outdoor nature access within the United States affect self-assessed nature exposure, perceived nature deprivation, and subsequent flourishing as measured by the Harvard Flourishing Index. Results indicate that perceived nature deprivation strongly associates with local nature contact, time in nature, and access to municipal nature during the pandemic, after controlling for lockdown mandates, job status, household composition, and sociodemographic variables.

Mechanistic transmission modeling of COVID-19 on the cruise ship demonstrates the importance of aerosol transmission.

Several lines of existing evidence support the possibility of airborne transmission of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). However, quantitative information on the relative importance of transmission pathways of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) remains limited. To evaluate the relative importance of multiple transmission routes for SARS-CoV-2, we developed a modeling framework and leveraged detailed information available from the cruise ship outbreak that occurred in early 2020.

An Unrecognized Hazard in E-Cigarette Vapor: Preliminary Quantification of Methylglyoxal Formation from Propylene Glycol in E-Cigarettes.

Up to 95% of the liquid volume in an e-cigarette consists of propylene glycol. Previous research has shown that propylene glycol can generate diacetyl and formaldehyde when heated. New research shows that propylene glycol can also generate methylglyoxal, an alpha di-carbonyl compound recently shown to cause epithelial necrosis at even lower concentrations than diacetyl, the flavoring chemical associated with bronchiolitis obliterans ("Popcorn Lung").

Real-time indoor PM monitoring in an urban cohort: Implications for exposure disparities and source control.

Fine particulate matter (PM) concentrations are highly variable indoors, with evidence for exposure disparities. Real-time monitoring coupled with novel statistical approaches can better characterize drivers of elevated PM indoors. We collected real-time PM data in 71 homes in an urban community of Greater Boston, Massachusetts using Alphasense OPC-N2 monitors.

Green, Brown, and Gray: Associations between Different Measurements of Land Patterns and Depression among Nursing Students in El Paso, Texas.

Background: While greenness has been associated with lower depression, the generalizability of this association in arid landscapes remains undetermined. We assessed the association between depression and residential greenness, but also brownness and grayness among nursing students living in El Paso, Texas (the Chihuahuan desert).

Methods: Depression was measured with the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 scale and greenness with the normalized difference vegetation index across three buffer sizes (i.

Correction to: Estimating the nationwide transmission risk of measles in US schools and impacts of vaccination and supplemental infection control strategies.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via the original article.

Estimating the nationwide transmission risk of measles in US schools and impacts of vaccination and supplemental infection control strategies.

Background: The spread of airborne infectious diseases such as measles is a critical public health concern. The U.S.

Correction to: Response to "A critical look at 'Energy savings, emissions reductions, and health co-benefits of the green building movement'".

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

Stress and Health in Nursing Students: The Nurse Engagement and Wellness Study.

Background: Evidence suggests that behavioral, social, and environmental factors may modify the effects of life stress on health and performance of new nurses as they transition to hospitals.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to describe the methods of a project designed to investigate the role of social, behavioral, and environmental factors in modifying the adverse effects of stress on new nurses and to discuss demographic, health, and life stress characteristics of the cohort at baseline.

Methods: A prospective cohort design was used to conduct a comprehensive assessment of health endpoints, life stress, behaviors, personal traits, social factors, indicators of engagement and performance, and environmental exposures in nursing students.

Heart Rate Variability and Performance of Commercial Airline Pilots during Flight Simulations.

Pilots undergo a variety of stressors that may affect their performance during all phases of flight. Heart rate variability (HRV) has been considered as a reliable indicator of the parasympathetic and sympathetic activities of human autonomic nervous system, which can be used to characterize the sympathetic stress response of pilots during flight. In this study, thirty active commercial airline pilots were recruited to fly three flight segments in a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)-certified A320 flight simulator with each segment at a different carbon dioxide (CO₂) concentration on the flight deck.