Operational Risk Assessment Tool for Evaluating Leishmania infantum Introduction and Establishment in the United States through Dog Importation.

International pet travel and commercial operations have increased animal disease importation risks, including for Leishmania infantum, a deadly parasite of humans and domestic dogs. Collaborating as an interdisciplinary working group, we developed an operational tool for veterinary and public health practitioners to assess and manage L. infantum risk in dogs imported to the United States.

Collection of Time Activity Data to Support Exposure Assessment: Protocol for a Systematic Evidence Map.

Background: Time Activity Data (TAD) describe the timing, duration, and/or frequency of human activities. Given that activity dictates the rate of contact a person has with an environmental agent, activity data can be used to derive rigorous estimates of exposure. TAD has been used to support exposure estimation in a variety of contexts, although there has been no systematic characterization of how TAD has been collected for environmental health applications.

Application and demonstration of meso-activity exposure factors to advance estimates of incidental soil ingestion among agricultural workers.

Background: Soil is an understudied and underregulated pathway of chemical exposure, particularly for agricultural workers who cultivate food in soils. Little is known about how agricultural workers spend their time and how they may contact soil while growing food. Exposure factors are behavioral and environmental variables used in exposure estimation.

Aspartame exposures in the US population: Demonstration of a novel approach for exposure estimates to food additives using NHANES data.

Background: Exposure to food additives is widespread but up-to-date and accurate intake estimates are rarely available. The safety of the food additive aspartame is the subject of recent controversy and intake estimates for this nonnutritive sweetener are typically derived from surrogates such as diet soda consumption.

Objective: We describe an approach for developing nationally representative dietary exposure estimates for food additives that combines intake from dietary recalls and grocery purchasing information.

Nutrients and non-essential metals in darkibor kale grown at urban and rural farms: A pilot study.

Kale is a nutrient-dense leafy vegetable associated with wide-ranging health benefits. It is tolerant of drought and temperature fluctuations, and could thus serve an increasingly important role in providing a safe and nutritious food supply during the climate crisis, while kale's ease of cultivation and ability to be grown in a wide range of soils make it a good fit for urban agriculture. In this pilot study we explored potential differences between kale grown at urban versus rural farms.

Limitations of Reporting Requirements under California's Livestock Antimicrobial Restriction Law.

Background: Antimicrobial use in livestock production is considered a key contributor to growing antimicrobial resistance in bacteria. In 2015, California became the first state to enact restrictions on routine antimicrobial use in livestock production via Senate Bill 27 (SB27). SB27 further required the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) to collect and disseminate data on antimicrobial use in livestock production.

Assessing the difference in contamination of retail meat with multidrug-resistant bacteria using for-consumer package label claims that indicate on-farm antibiotic use practices- United States, 2016-2019.

Background: Antibiotic use in food-producing animals can select for antibiotic resistance in bacteria that can be transmitted to people through contamination of food products during meat processing. Contamination resulting in foodborne illness contributes to adverse health outcomes. Some livestock producers have implemented antibiotic use reduction strategies marketed to consumers on regulated retail meat packaging labels ("label claims").

(Non)targeted Chemical Analysis and Risk Assessment of Organic Contaminants in Darkibor Kale Grown at Rural and Urban Farms.

This study investigated the presence and human hazards associated with pesticides and other anthropogenic chemicals identified in kale grown in urban and rural environments. Pesticides and related compounds (i.e.

Distance and destination of retail meat alter multidrug resistant contamination in the United States food system.

Antibiotic-resistant infections are a global concern, especially those caused by multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacteria, defined as those resistant to more than three drug classes. The animal agriculture industry contributes to the antimicrobial resistant foodborne illness burden via contaminated retail meat. In the United States, retail meat is shipped across the country.

Characterizing metals in particulate pollution in communities at the fenceline of heavy industry: combining mobile monitoring and size-resolved filter measurements.

Exposures to metals from industrial emissions can pose important health risks. The Chester-Trainer-Marcus Hook area of southeastern Pennsylvania is home to multiple petrochemical plants, a refinery, and a waste incinerator, most abutting socio-economically disadvantaged residential communities. Existing information on fenceline community exposures is based on monitoring data with low temporal and spatial resolution and EPA models that incorporate industry self-reporting.

Multidrug Resistance of From Outpatient Uncomplicated Urinary Tract Infections in a Large United States Integrated Healthcare Organization.

Background: Urinary tract infections (UTIs) cause significant disease and economic burden. Uncomplicated UTIs (uUTIs) occur in otherwise healthy individuals without underlying structural abnormalities, with uropathogenic (UPEC) accounting for 80% of cases. With recent transitions in healthcare toward virtual visits, data on multidrug resistance (MDR) (resistant to ≥3 antibiotic classes) by care setting are needed to inform empiric treatment decision making.

Impact of California's Senate Bill 27 on Antimicrobial-Resistant Escherichia coli Urinary Tract Infection in Humans: Protocol for a Study of Methods and Baseline Data.

Background: Overuse of antibiotics contributes to antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and is a growing threat to human health worldwide. Previous work suggests a link between antimicrobial use in poultry and human AMR extraintestinal pathogenic Escherichia coli (E coli) urinary tract infections (UTIs). However, few US-based studies exist, and none have comprehensively assessed both foodborne and environmental pathways using advanced molecular and spatial epidemiologic methods in a quasi-experimental design.

Impact of a Statewide Livestock Antibiotic Use Policy on Resistance in Human Urine Isolates: A Synthetic Control Analysis.

Background: On 1 January 2018, California implemented Senate Bill 27 (SB27), banning, for the first time in the United States, routine preventive use of antibiotics in food-animal production and any antibiotic use without a veterinarian's prescription.

Objectives: Our objective was to assess whether SB27 was associated with decreased antimicrobial resistance among isolated from human urine.

Methods: We used U.

Advancing the science on chemical classes.

Background: Hazard identification, risk assessment, regulatory, and policy activity are usually conducted on a chemical-by-chemical basis. Grouping chemicals into categories or classes is an underutilized approach that could make risk assessment and management of chemicals more efficient for regulators.

Objective And Methods: While there are some available methods and regulatory frameworks that include the grouping of chemicals (e.

A qualitative characterization of meso-activity factors to estimate soil exposure for agricultural workers.

Background: Agricultural workers' exposure to soil contaminants is not well characterized. Activity pattern data are a useful exposure assessment tool to estimate extent of soil contact, though existing data do not sufficiently capture the range and magnitude of soil contact in the agricultural context.

Objective: We introduce meso-activity, or specific tasks, to improve traditional activity pattern methodology.

Urban Soil Safety Policies: The Next Frontier for Mitigating Lead Exposures and Promoting Sustainable Food Production.

Urban soils bear the persistent legacy of leaded gasoline and past industrial practices. Soil safety policies (SSPs) are an important public health tool with the potential to inform, identify, and mitigate potential health risks faced by urban growers, but little is known about how these policies may protect growers from exposures to lead and other soil contaminants. We reviewed and evaluated 43 urban agriculture (UA) policies in 40 US cities pertaining to soil safety.

A Review of the Effectiveness of Current US Policies on Antimicrobial Use in Meat and Poultry Production.

Purpose: Industrial food animal production accounts for most animal-source protein consumed in the USA. These operations rely on an array of external inputs, which can include antimicrobials of medical importance. The use of these drugs in this context has been the subject of public health debate for decades because their widespread use contributes to the selection for and proliferation of drug-resistant bacteria and their genetic determinants.

Charting a Path Forward: Assessing the Science of Chemical Risk Evaluations under the Toxic Substances Control Act in the Context of Recent National Academies Recommendations.

Background: In 2016, Congress enacted the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act ("the Lautenberg Act"), which made major revisions to the main U.S.

How animal agriculture stakeholders define, perceive, and are impacted by antimicrobial resistance: challenging the Wellcome Trust's principles.

Humans, animals, and the environment face a universal crisis: antimicrobial resistance (AR). Addressing AR and its multi-disciplinary causes across many sectors including in human and veterinary medicine remains underdeveloped. One barrier to AR efforts is an inconsistent process to incorporate the plenitude of stakeholders about what AR is and how to stifle its development and spread-especially stakeholders from the animal agriculture sector, one of the largest purchasers of antimicrobial drugs.

The Safe Urban Harvests Study: A Community-Driven Cross-Sectional Assessment of Metals in Soil, Irrigation Water, and Produce from Urban Farms and Gardens in Baltimore, Maryland.

Background: Emerging evidence suggests social, health, environmental, and economic benefits of urban agriculture (UA). However, limited work has characterized the risks from metal contaminant exposures faced by urban growers and consumers of urban-grown produce.

Objectives: We aimed to answer community-driven questions about the safety of UA and the consumption of urban-grown produce by measuring concentrations of nine metals in the soil, irrigation water, and urban-grown produce across urban farms and gardens in Baltimore, Maryland.