Prediction of gastrointestinal disease with over-the-counter diarrheal remedy sales records in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Background: Water utilities continue to be interested in implementing syndromic surveillance for the enhanced detection of waterborne disease outbreaks. The authors evaluated the ability of sales of over-the-counter diarrheal remedies available from the National Retail Data Monitor to predict endemic and epidemic gastrointestinal disease in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Methods: Time series models were fit to weekly diarrheal remedy sales and diarrheal illness case counts.

Heterogeneous dermatitis complaints after change in drinking water treatment: a case report.

Background: The disinfectant monochloramine minimizes the formation of potentially hazardous and regulated byproducts, and many drinking water utilities are shifting to its use.

Case Presentation: After a drinking water utility serving 2.4 million people switched to monochloramine for residual disinfection, a small number of residents complained of dermatitis reactions.

Reducing Legionella colonization in water systems with monochloramine.

Monochloramine disinfection of municipal water supplies is associated with decreased risk for Legionnaires' disease. We conducted a 2-year, prospective, environmental study to evaluate whether converting from chlorine to monochloramine for water disinfection would decrease Legionella colonization of hot water systems. Water and biofilm samples from 53 buildings were collected for Legionella culture during 6 intervals.

Review of syndromic surveillance: implications for waterborne disease detection.

Syndromic surveillance is the gathering of data for public health purposes before laboratory or clinically confirmed information is available. Interest in syndromic surveillance has increased because of concerns about bioterrorism. In addition to bioterrorism detection, syndromic surveillance may be suited to detecting waterborne disease outbreaks.

Improving cryptosporidium testing methods: a public health perspective.

Cryptosporidium is a protozoan parasite found in surface waters throughout the United States. Waterborne cryptosporidiosis outbreaks may be associated with contaminated drinking water supplies. The approved method, USEPA (United States Environmental Protection Agency) Method 1623, for testing for the presence of Cryptosporidium in United States surface waters has several limitations.

Association of DDT and DDE with birth weight and length of gestation in the Child Health and Development Studies, 1959-1967.

The pesticide p,p'-dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) and its persistent metabolite p,p'-dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene (DDE) are associated with negative reproductive outcomes in animals. In humans, however, the findings are inconsistent. Using data from the Child Health and Development Studies, a longitudinal study of 20,754 pregnancies among San Francisco Bay Area women from 1959 to 1967, the authors examined the effects of maternal serum DDT and DDE concentrations on preterm birth, small-for-gestational-age birth, birth weight, and gestational age in 420 male subjects.

Organochlorine pesticides and male genital anomalies in the child health and development studies.

Increasing rates of cryptorchidism and hypospadias in human populations may be caused by exogenous environmental agents. We conducted a case-control study of serum levels of p,p'-dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) and its major metabolite, p,p'-dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene (DDE), and cryptorchidism and hypospadias in the Child Health and Development Study, a longitudinal cohort of pregnancies that occurred between 1959 and 1967, a period when DDT was produced and used in the United States. Serum was available from the mothers of 75 male children born with cryptorchidism, 66 with hypospadias, and 4 with both conditions.

Postmenopausal hormone use and lens opacities.

Purpose: Women are at higher risk for age-related cataract than men, and it has been hypothesized that this difference is due in part to gender-related hormonal differences.

Methods: We investigated the association between postmenopausal hormone use and lens opacities in a population of 480 postmenopausal women from the Nurses' Health Study for whom we had prospectively collected exposure data. Participants received standardized eye exams; the Lens Opacity Classification System III (LOCS III) was used to measure the degree of opacification.

Smoking cessation and risk of cataract extraction among US women and men.

Although the observational evidence linking cigarette smoking with risk of senile cataract is well-established, it is unclear whether any benefit is obtained from quitting smoking. Therefore, in this study, the authors examined the association between time since quitting smoking and incidence of cataract extraction in women and men enrolled in the Nurses' Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study, respectively. There were 4,281 incident physician-confirmed cases of cataract and 1,038,493 accumulated person-years of follow-up.