Air Pollution and Temperature in Seizures and Epilepsy: A Scoping Review of Epidemiological Studies.

Purpose Of The Review: Seizures and epilepsy can be debilitating neurological conditions and have few known causes. Emerging evidence has highlighted the potential contribution of environmental exposures to the etiology of these conditions, possibly manifesting via neuroinflammation and increased oxidative stress in the brain. We conducted a scoping review of epidemiological literature linking air pollution and temperature exposures with incidence and acute aggravation of seizures and epilepsy.

Power Outages: An Underappreciated Risk Factor for Children's Carbon Monoxide Poisoning.

Children's risk of exposure to carbon monoxide (CO) increases after disasters, likely due to improper generator use during power outages. Here, we evaluate the impact of outages on children's CO-related emergency department (ED) visits in New York State (NYS). We leveraged power outage data spanning 2017-2020 from the NYS Department of Public Service for 1,865 power operating localities (i.

Community violence and asthma: A review.

Over the past 2 decades, epidemiologic studies have identified significant associations between exposure to violence, as a psychosocial stressor, and the incidence or exacerbation of asthma. Across diverse populations, study designs, and measures of community violence, researchers have consistently identified adverse associations. In this review, the published epidemiologic evidence is summarized with special attention to research published in the last 5 years and seminal papers.

Power outages and pediatric unintentional injury hospitalizations in New York State.

Background: In the past decade, electrical power disruptions (outages) have increased in the United States, especially those attributable to weather events. These outages have a range of health impacts but are largely unstudied in children. Here, we investigated the association between outages and unintentional injury hospitalizations, a leading cause of childhood morbidity.

High ambient temperatures associations with children and young adult injury emergency department visits in NYC.

Injury is a significant health burden for children and young adult and may be an increasing concern in a warming climate. Research reveals many impacts to children's health associated with hot weather and heatwave events, including a growing literature on the association between high ambient temperature and injury, which may vary by intent such as injury resulting from violence. However, little is known about how this association varies across different types of injury and subgroups of young people.

The Climate Change Conversation: Understanding Nationwide Medical Education Efforts.

Despite increasing awareness of the public and global health ramifications of climate change, there is a lack of curricula discussing climate change within medical education. Where greater societal awareness and improved scientific understanding have begun to grab the attention of members of the medical education community, there is the precedent, the desire, and the need to incorporate climate-health topics into medical education. We hosted semi-structured interviews (n=9) with faculty members at different institutions across the country who have been involved with climate change education.

Neighborhood violence and socioeconomic deprivation influence associations between acute air pollution and temperature on childhood asthma in New York city.

Ambient air pollution, temperature, and social stressor exposures are linked with asthma risk, with potential synergistic effects. We examined associations for acute pollution and temperature exposures, with modification by neighborhood violent crime and socioeconomic deprivation, on asthma morbidity among children aged 5-17 years year-round in New York City. Using conditional logistic regression in a time-stratified, case-crossover design, we quantified percent excess risk of asthma event per 10-unit increase in daily, residence-specific exposures to PM, NO, SO, O, and minimum daily temperature (Tmin).

Neighborhood environmental vulnerability and pediatric asthma morbidity in US metropolitan areas.

Background: Research suggests demographic, economic, residential, and health-related factors influence vulnerability to environmental exposures. Greater environmental vulnerability may exacerbate environmentally related health outcomes. We developed a neighborhood environmental vulnerability index (NEVI) to operationalize environmental vulnerability on a neighborhood level.

Particulate Air Pollution Exposure and Stroke among Adults in Israel.

Stroke is the second most common cause of death and disability in the world. Many studies have found fine particulate matter (PM) exposure to be associated with an increased risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, mostly focusing on ischemic heart disease and acute myocardial infarction. In a national analysis conducted in Israel-an area with unique climate conditions and high air pollution levels, we estimated the association between short-term PM exposure and ischemic stroke, intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), or transient ischemic attacks (TIA).

Association of ambient extreme heat with pediatric morbidity: a scoping review.

Global climate change is leading to higher ambient temperatures and more frequent heatwaves. To date, impacts of ambient extreme heat on childhood morbidity have been understudied, although-given children's physiologic susceptibility, with smaller body surface-to-mass ratios, and many years of increasing temperatures ahead-there is an urgent need for better information to inform public health policies and clinical approaches. In this review, we aim to (1) identify pediatric morbidity outcomes previously associated with extreme heat, (2) to identify predisposing co-morbidities which may make children more susceptible to heat-related outcomes, and (3) to map the current body of available literature.

Climate change and physical activity: ambient temperature and urban trail use in Texas.

Individuals in the USA are insufficiently active, increasing their chronic disease risk. Extreme temperatures may reduce physical activity due to thermal discomfort. Cooler climate studies have suggested climate change may have a net positive effect on physical activity, yet research gaps remain for warmer climates and within-day physical activity patterns.

What Is "Socioeconomic Position (SEP)," and How Might It Modify Air Pollution-Health Associations? Cohering Findings, Identifying Challenges, and Disentangling Effects of SEP and Race in US City Settings.

Purpose Of Review: Environmental epidemiology has long considered socioeconomic position (SEP) to be an important confounder of pollution effects on health, given that, in the USA, lower-income and minority communities are often disproportionately exposed to pollution. In recent decades, a growing literature has revealed that lower-SEP communities may also be more susceptible to pollution. Given the vast number of material and psychosocial stressors that vary by SEP, however, it is unclear which specific aspects of SEP may underlie this susceptibility.

Warm Season and Emergency Department Visits to U.S. Children's Hospitals.

Background: Extreme heat exposures are increasing with climate change. Health effects are well documented in adults, but the risks to children are not well characterized.

Objectives: We estimated the association between warm season (May to September) temperatures and cause-specific emergency department (ED) visits among U.

Multi-Level Socioenvironmental Contributors to Childhood Asthma in New York City: a Cluster Analysis.

Childhood asthma exacerbation remains the leading cause of pediatric emergency department visits and hospitalizations and disproportionately affects Latinx and Black children, compared to non-Latinx White children in NYC. Environmental exposures and socioeconomic factors may jointly contribute to childhood asthma exacerbations; however, they are often studied separately. To better investigate the multiple contributors to disparities in childhood asthma, we compiled data on various individual and neighborhood level socioeconomic and environmental factors, including education, race/ethnicity, income disparities, gentrification, housing characteristics, built environment, and structural racism, from the NYC Department of Health's KIDS 2017 survey and the US Census' American Community Survey.

The intersection of pediatrics, climate change, and structural racism: Ensuring health equity through climate justice.

Understanding and intervening at the intersection of climate change and child health disparities require pediatric providers to broaden their competency with structural determinants of health - even in the clinic. The environmental effects of climate change at the community level intersect in complex ways with structural racism and social influences of health. Climate injustice is further evident in policies and practices that disproportionately affect low-income communities and communities of color through exposure to harmful pollutants from industrial plants, heavy vehicular traffic, and flooding waterways, as well as to harm from degraded civic infrastructure such as leaking water lines and unsafe bridges.

High ambient temperature and child emergency and hospital visits in New York City.

Background: Emerging literature has documented heat-related impacts on child health, yet few studies have evaluated the effects of heat among children of different age groups and comparing emergency department (ED) and hospitalisation risks.

Objectives: To examine the differing associations between high ambient temperatures and risk of ED visits and hospitalisations among children by age group in New York City (NYC).

Methods: We used New York Statewide Planning and Research Cooperative System (SPARCS) data on children aged 0-18 years admitted to NYC EDs (n = 2,252,550) and hospitals (n = 228,006) during the warm months (May-September) between 2005 and 2011.

Climatic and Environmental Correlates of Dry Eye Disease Severity: A Report From the Dry Eye Assessment and Management (DREAM) Study.

Purpose: Correlate climate, weather parameters, and environmental exposures with the severity of symptoms and signs of dry eye disease (DED) in Dry Eye Assessment and Management (DREAM) study participants.

Methods: Participants from five distinct climates completed the Ocular Surface Disease Index (OSDI) and were examined for corneal and conjunctival staining, tear breakup time (TBUT), and Schirmer's testing at baseline, 3, 6, and 12 months. Climate, weather parameters, and pollutants including ozone (O), carbon monoxide (CO), nitrous oxides (NO, NO, NO), sulfur dioxide (SO), particulate matter, and optical depth were obtained from governmental databases.

Geocoding Error, Spatial Uncertainty, and Implications for Exposure Assessment and Environmental Epidemiology.

Although environmental epidemiology studies often rely on geocoding procedures in the process of assigning spatial exposure estimates, geocoding methods are not commonly reported, nor are consequent errors in exposure assignment explored. Geocoding methods differ in accuracy, however, and, given the increasing refinement of available exposure models for air pollution and other exposures, geocoding error may account for an increasingly larger proportion of exposure misclassification. We used residential addresses from a reasonably large, dense dataset of asthma emergency department visits from all New York City hospitals ( = 21,183; 26.

Education for sustainable health care: From learning to professional practice.

A number of planetary boundaries, including climate change as a result of greenhouse gas emissions, has already been exceeded. This situation has deleterious consequences for public health. Paradoxically, 4.

Violent crime and socioeconomic deprivation in shaping asthma-related pollution susceptibility: a case-crossover design.

Background: The objective of this study was to quantify and compare the relative influence of community violent crime and socioeconomic deprivation in modifying associations between ozone and emergency department (ED) visits for asthma among children.

Methods: We used a spatiotemporal case-crossover analysis for all New York City EDs for the months May-September from 2005 to 2011 from a statewide administrative ED dataset. The data included 11 719 asthmatic children aged 5-18 years, and the main outcome measure was percentage of excess risk of asthma ED visit based on Cox regression analysis.