Frequency of personal care product use among reproductive-aged Black individuals and associations with socio-demographic characteristics.

Background: Compared to White women, Black women in the United States are more likely to use personal care products (PCPs) with higher concentrations of endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) and harsher chemical formulations. This may contribute to differential health outcomes in Black women such as increased risk of breast cancer, cardiometabolic outcomes, adverse birth outcomes, and uterine fibroids.

Objective: Classify distinct PCP use patterns across multiple types of products and examine how patterns vary by socio-demographic characteristics.

Personal Care Product Use during Puberty and Incident Breast Cancer among Black, Hispanic/Latina, and White Women in a Prospective US-Wide Cohort.

Background: Some personal care products (PCPs) contain endocrine-disrupting chemicals that may affect breast cancer (BC) risk. Patterns of use vary by race and ethnicity. Use often starts in adolescence, when rapidly developing breast tissue may be more susceptible to environmental carcinogens.

I-REFF diagrams: enhancing transparency in systematic review through interactive reference flow diagrams.

Systematic review methods are recognized for their rigor and transparency and are widely adapted to frameworks that cover review types such as systematic reviews, scoping reviews, and systematic evidence maps. Reporting guidelines help promote better systematic review practices and detailed documentation of the review process for different types of health research (e.g.

Use of personal care product mixtures and incident hormone-sensitive cancers in the Sister Study: A U.S.-wide prospective cohort.

Background: Personal care products (PCPs), a source of endocrine-disrupting chemical exposure, may be associated with the risk of hormone-sensitive cancers. Few studies have investigated associations for PCP use with the incidence of hormone-sensitive cancers or considered the joint effect of multiple correlated PCPs. We examined associations between frequently used, or "everyday", PCPs and incident cancers of the breast, ovary, and uterus with a fucus on the joint effect of multiple product exposure.

Systematic evidence mapping informs a class-based approach to assessing personal care products and pubertal timing.

Background: Personal care products (PCPs) contain many different compounds and are a source of exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs), including phthalates and phenols. Early-life exposure to EDCs commonly found in PCPs has been linked to earlier onset of puberty.

Objective: To characterize the human and animal evidence on the association between puberty-related outcomes and exposure to PCPs and their chemical constituents and, if there is sufficient evidence, identify groups of chemicals and outcomes to support a systematic review for a class-based hazard or risk assessment.

Correlates of non-persistent endocrine disrupting chemical mixtures among reproductive-aged Black women in Detroit, Michigan.

Some studies indicate that Black women have higher exposure to multiple non-persistent endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) than white women, but little is known about correlates of exposure to EDC mixtures. Using baseline data from a prospective cohort study of reproductive-aged Black women (N = 751), we characterized profiles of EDC mixtures and identified correlates of exposure. At baseline, we quantified biomarkers of 16 phthalates, 7 phenols, 4 parabens, and triclocarban in urine and collected covariate data through self-administered questionnaires and interviews.

An approach to quantifying the potential importance of residual confounding in systematic reviews of observational studies: A GRADE concept paper.

Small relative effect sizes are common in observational studies of exposure in environmental and public health. However, such effects can still have considerable policy importance when the baseline rate of the health outcome is high, and many persons are exposed. Assessing the certainty of the evidence based on these effect sizes is challenging because they can be prone to residual confounding due to the non-randomized nature of the evidence.

Integrating Personal Air Sensor and GPS to Determine Microenvironment-Specific Exposures to Volatile Organic Compounds.

Personal exposure to volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from indoor sources including consumer products is an understudied public health concern. To develop and evaluate methods for monitoring personal VOC exposures, we performed a pilot study and examined time-resolved sensor-based measurements of geocoded total VOC (TVOC) exposures across individuals and microenvironments (MEs). We integrated continuous (1 min) data from a personal TVOC sensor and a global positioning system (GPS) logger, with a GPS-based ME classification model, to determine TVOC exposures in four MEs, including indoors at home (Home-In), indoors at other buildings (Other-In), inside vehicles (In-Vehicle), and outdoors (Out), across 45 participant-days for five participants.

Adolescent use of hair dyes, straighteners and perms in relation to breast cancer risk.

Hair products can contain hormonally active and carcinogenic compounds. Adolescence may be a period of enhanced susceptibility of the breast tissue to exposure to chemicals. We therefore evaluated associations between adolescent hair product use and breast cancer risk.

Correlates of urinary concentrations of phthalate and phthalate alternative metabolites among reproductive-aged Black women from Detroit, Michigan.

Background: Phthalates are endocrine-disrupting chemicals that are widely present in consumer products. In the United States, Black women are more highly exposed to phthalates than other racial/ethnic groups, yet information on predictors of phthalate exposure among Black women is limited.

Objective: We evaluated the association of demographics, lifestyle, reproductive history, and personal care product use with urinary concentrations of phthalate and phthalate alternative metabolites, using cross-sectional data from a study of 754 Black women from Detroit, Michigan (2010-2012).

A national toxicology program systematic review of the evidence for long-term effects after acute exposure to sarin nerve agent.

Sarin is a highly toxic nerve agent that was developed for chemical warfare during World War II and is used in present conflicts. Immediate effects of acute sarin exposure are established; however, whether effects persist after initial signs have subsided is debated. The National Toxicology Program (NTP) conducted a systematic review to evaluate the evidence for long-term neurological effects following acute (<24 hour) exposure to sarin.

Challenges and recommendations on the conduct of systematic reviews of observational epidemiologic studies in environmental and occupational health.

Systematic reviews are powerful tools for drawing causal inference for evidence-based decision-making. Published systematic reviews and meta-analyses of environmental and occupational epidemiology studies have increased dramatically in recent years; however, the quality and utility of published reviews are variable. Most methodologies were adapted from clinical epidemiology and have not been adequately modified to evaluate and integrate evidence from observational epidemiology studies assessing environmental and occupational hazards, especially in evaluating the quality of exposure assessments.

Hair dye and chemical straightener use and breast cancer risk in a large US population of black and white women.

Many hair products contain endocrine-disrupting compounds and carcinogens potentially relevant to breast cancer. Products used predominately by black women may contain more hormonally-active compounds. In a national prospective cohort study, we examined the association between hair dye and chemical relaxer/straightener use and breast cancer risk by ethnicity.

Longitudinal association of biomarkers of pesticide exposure with cardiovascular disease risk factors in youth with diabetes.

Background: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death among individuals with diabetes, but little is known about the role of exposures to environmental chemicals such as pesticides in the early development of CVD risk in this population.

Objectives: To describe changes over time in concentrations of pesticide biomarkers among youth with diabetes in the United States and to estimate the longitudinal association between these concentrations and established risk factors for CVD.

Methods: Pesticide biomarkers were quantified in urine and serum samples from 87 youth with diabetes participating in the multi-center SEARCH cohort study.

Chemical/straightening and other hair product usage during childhood, adolescence, and adulthood among African-American women: potential implications for health.

Few studies have characterized life course hair product usage beyond ever/never. We investigated hair product use from childhood to adulthood, usage patterns in adulthood, and socioeconomic status (SES) correlates among African-American (AA) women. Using self-reported data from 1555 AA women enrolled in the Study of Environment, Lifestyle, and Fibroids (2010-2018), we estimated the usage frequency of chemical relaxer/straightener (≥twice/year, once/year, and rarely/never) and leave-in/leave-on conditioner (≥once/week, 1-3 times/month, and rarely/never) during childhood, adolescence, and adulthood.

Associations between Personal Care Product Use Patterns and Breast Cancer Risk among White and Black Women in the Sister Study.

Background: Many personal care products include chemicals that might act as endocrine disruptors and thus increase the risk of breast cancer.

Objective: We examined the association between usage patterns of beauty, hair, and skin-related personal care products and breast cancer incidence in the Sister Study, a national prospective cohort study (enrollment 2003-2009).

Methods: Non-Hispanic black (4,452) and white women (n=42,453) were examined separately using latent class analysis (LCA) to identify groups of individuals with similar patterns of self-reported product use in three categories (beauty, skin, hair).

Associations among personal care product use patterns and exogenous hormone use in the NIEHS Sister Study.

It is hypothesized that certain chemicals in personal care products may alter the risk of adverse health outcomes. The primary aim of this study was to use a data-centered approach to classify complex patterns of exposure to personal care products and to understand how these patterns vary according to use of exogenous hormone exposures, oral contraceptives (OCs) and post-menopausal hormone therapy (HT). The NIEHS Sister Study is a prospective cohort study of 50,884 US women.

Exposure to multiple chemicals in a cohort of reproductive-aged Danish women.

Background: Current exposure assessment research does not sufficiently address multi-pollutant exposure and their correlations in human media. Understanding the extent of chemical exposure in reproductive-aged women is of particular concern due to the potential for in utero exposure and fetal susceptibility.

Objectives: The objectives of this study were to characterize concentrations of chemical biomarkers during preconception and examine correlations between and within chemical classes.

Statistical Approaches for Assessing Health Effects of Environmental Chemical Mixtures in Epidemiology: Lessons from an Innovative Workshop.

Quantifying the impact of exposure to environmental chemical mixtures is important for identifying risk factors for diseases and developing more targeted public health interventions. The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) held a workshop in July 2015 to address the need to develop novel statistical approaches for multi-pollutant epidemiology studies. The primary objective of the workshop was to identify and compare different statistical approaches and methods for analyzing complex chemical mixtures data in both simulated and real-world data sets.

Bisphenol A, Bisphenol S, and 4-Hydro​xyphenyl 4-Isopro​oxyphenyl​sulfone (BPSIP) in Urine and Blood of Cashiers.

Background: Bisphenol A (BPA) is a high-production-volume chemical associated with a wide range of health outcomes in animal and human studies. BPA is used as a developer in thermal paper products, including cash register receipt paper; however, little is known about exposure of cashiers to BPA and alternative compounds in receipt paper.

Objective: We determined whether handling receipt paper results in measurable absorption of BPA or the BPA alternatives bisphenol S (BPS) and 4-hydroxyphenyl 4-isoprooxyphenylsulfone (BPSIP).