Participant perspectives related to individual chemical exposure report-back approaches in three environmental health studies.

Returning results to participants of environmental exposure studies has become more common in recent years. Despite evidence of benefits for study participants, there are challenges in communicating results to people with limited resources or capacity to mitigate chemical exposures. We interviewed N = 54 participants and compared exposure report-back conducted in 2010-2013 across three susceptible study populations: 1) low-income pregnant individuals in the Chemicals in Our Bodies (CIOB) study; 2) the Center for the Health Assessment of Mothers and Children of Salinas (CHAMACOS) cohort; and 3) early childhood educators (ECE).

Quantifying Disparities in Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) Levels in Drinking Water from Overburdened Communities in New Jersey, 2019-2021.

Background: Policymakers have become increasingly concerned regarding the widespread exposure and toxicity of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). While concerns exist about unequal distribution of PFAS contamination in drinking water, research is lacking.

Objectives: We assess the scope of PFAS contamination in drinking water in New Jersey (NJ), the first US state to develop regulatory levels for PFAS in drinking water.

PFAS Contamination in Europe: Generating Knowledge and Mapping Known and Likely Contamination with "Expert-Reviewed" Journalism.

While the extent of environmental contamination by per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) has mobilized considerable efforts around the globe in recent years, publicly available data on PFAS in Europe were very limited. In an unprecedented experiment of "expert-reviewed journalism" involving 29 journalists and seven scientific advisers, a cross-border collaborative project, the "Forever Pollution Project" (FPP), drew on both scientific methods and investigative journalism techniques such as open-source intelligence (OSINT) and freedom of information (FOI) requests to map contamination across Europe, making public data that previously had existed as "unseen science". The FPP identified 22,934 known contamination sites, including 20 PFAS manufacturing facilities, and 21,426 "presumptive contamination sites", including 13,745 sites presumably contaminated with fluorinated aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF) discharge, 2911 industrial facilities, and 4752 sites related to PFAS-containing waste.

Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substance Exposure Risks in US Carceral Facilities, 2022.

To assess the US incarcerated population's risk of exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs). We assessed how many of the 6118 US carceral facilities were located in the same hydrologic unit code watershed boundaries as known or likely locations of PFAS contamination. We conducted geospatial analyses on data aggregated from Environmental Protection Agency databases and a PFAS site tracker in 2022 to model the hydrologically feasible known and presumptive PFAS contamination sites for nearly 2 million incarcerated people.

Pathways for diversifying and enhancing science advocacy.

Science is under attack and scientists are becoming more involved in efforts to defend it. The rise in science advocacy raises important questions regarding how science mobilization can both defend science and promote its use for the public good while also including the communities that benefit from science. This article begins with a discussion of the relevance of science advocacy.

Mi PROTECT: A personalized smartphone platform to report back results to participants of a maternal-child and environmental health research cohort program in Puerto Rico.

Background: The PROTECT Center is a multi-project initiative that studies the relationship between exposure to environmental contaminants and preterm births during the prenatal and postnatal period among women living in Puerto Rico. PROTECT's Community Engagement Core and Research Translation Coordinator (CEC/RTC) play a key role in building trust and capacity by approaching the cohort as an engaged community that provides feedback about processes, including how personalized results of their exposure to chemicals should be reported back. The goal of the Mi PROTECT platform was to create a mobile-based application of DERBI (Digital Exposure Report-Back Interface) for our cohort that provides tailored, culturally appropriate information about individual contaminant exposures as well as education on chemical substances and approaches to exposure reduction.

Addressing systemic problems with exposure assessments to protect the public's health.

Background: Understanding, characterizing, and quantifying human exposures to environmental chemicals is critical to protect public health. Exposure assessments are key to determining risks to the general population and for specific subpopulations given that exposures differ between groups. Exposure data are also important for understanding where interventions, including public policies, should be targeted and the extent to which interventions have been successful.

Perspectives of peripartum people on opportunities for personal and collective action to reduce exposure to everyday chemicals: Focus groups to inform exposure report-back.

Participants in biomonitoring studies who receive personal exposure reports seek information to reduce exposures. Many chemical exposures are driven by systems-level policies rather than individual actions; therefore, change requires engagement in collective action. Participants' perceptions of collective action and use of report-back to support engagement remain unclear.

COVID-19 as Eco-Pandemic Injustice: Opportunities for Collective and Antiracist Approaches to Environmental Health.

The COVID-19 pandemic has coincided with a powerful upsurge in antiracist activism in the United States, linking many forms and consequences of racism to public and environmental health. This commentary develops the concept of to explain interrelationships between the pandemic and socioecological systems, demonstrating how COVID-19 both reveals and deepens structural inequalities that form along lines of environmental health. Using Pellow's critical environmental justice theory, we examine how the crisis has made more visible and exacerbated links between racism, poverty, and health while providing opportunities to enact change through .

Investigating the impact of Hurricane Maria on an ongoing birth cohort in Puerto Rico.

Prior to Hurricane Maria, Puerto Rico already had 200+ hazardous waste sites, significant contamination of water resources, and among the highest rates of preterm birth in the US. To address these issues, the Puerto Rico Testsite for Exploring Contamination Threats (PROTECT) Center was formed in 2010 to investigate prenatal environmental exposures, particularly phthalates, and adverse birth outcomes. Recent work from the PROTECT study confirms that in utero exposure to certain phthalates is associated with shorter gestation and increased risk of preterm birth.

Functional outcomes & metal ion levels following ceramic on metal total hip arthroplasty: 9 Year follow-up.

In this study, we evaluate the mid-term functional and radiological outcomes of Ceramic on Metal Total Hip Arthroplasty (CoM THA) THA. 66 CoM THAs were performed between 2008 and 2010. These were evaluated and followed up in 2017-18, at a mean follow-up of 9 years to record the Oxford Hip Score [OHS] and whole blood Cobalt and Chrome levels.

A Study Comparing the Outcomes of Transverse Ulnar Shortening Osteotomy Fixed with a DCP to Oblique Osteotomy Fixed with a Procedure Specific Plate.

Ulnar shortening osteotomy (USO) is a well-established procedure for ulnar impaction syndrome. Various types of osteotomies have been described. A retrospective cohort study was conducted to compare the results of transverse osteotomy (TO) fixed with a small fragment dynamic compression plate (Synthes, Pennsylvania, USA), to oblique osteotomy (OO) fixed with a procedure specific plate and instrumentation system (Acumed LLC, Oregon, USA).

Cohort profile: Center for Research on Early Childhood Exposure and Development in Puerto Rico.

Purpose: Puerto Rican children experience high rates of asthma and obesity. Further, infants born in Puerto Rico are more at risk for being born prematurely compared with infants on the mainland USA. Environmental exposures from multiple sources during critical periods of child development, potentially modified by psychosocial factors, may contribute to these adverse health outcomes.

Perceived Risks, Benefits, and Interest in Participating in Environmental Health Studies That Share Personal Exposure Data: A U.S. Survey of Prospective Participants.

Little is known about the willingness of prospective study participants to share environmental health data. To fill this gap, we conducted a hypothetical vignette survey among 1,575 women who have volunteered to be contacted about breast cancer studies. Eighty-three percent were interested in participating in the environmental studies, with little difference whether data were restricted to the research team, shared with approved researchers, or publicly accessible.

Correction: Guideline levels for PFOA and PFOS in drinking water: the role of scientific uncertainty, risk assessment decisions, and social factors.

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

Relationships between psychosocial factors during pregnancy and preterm birth in Puerto Rico.

Psychosocial stress during pregnancy has been associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes including preterm birth (PTB). This has not been studied in Puerto Rico, an area with high PTB rates. Our objective was to develop a conceptual model describing the interrelationships between measures of psychosocial stress and depression, a result of stress, among pregnant women in Puerto Rico and to examine their associations with PTB.

Privacy Risks of Sharing Data from Environmental Health Studies.

Background: Sharing research data uses resources effectively; enables large, diverse data sets; and supports rigor and reproducibility. However, sharing such data increases privacy risks for participants who may be re-identified by linking study data to outside data sets. These risks have been investigated for genetic and medical records but rarely for environmental data.

Impact of Hurricanes Irma and Maria on Puerto Rico Maternal and Child Health Research Programs.

Puerto Rico was hit by two major hurricanes in September 2017 causing great devastation, losing over 90% of the power grid, wireless communication and access to potable water, and destroying many homes. Our research programs: Puerto Rico Testsite for Exploring Contamination Threats (PROTECT), Center for Research on Early Childhood Exposure and Development in Puerto Rico (CRECE), Zika in Infants and Pregnancy (ZIP), and Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) are ongoing observational cohort studies that have been investigating environmental risk factors for perinatal health outcomes among Puerto Rican mothers and infants. Our projects paused operations for about two weeks, to begin recovery process and become a source of assistance, retaining 95% of study participants across all research programs.

Combining Social Science and Environmental Health Research for Community Engagement.

Social science-environmental health (SS-EH) research takes many structural forms and contributes to a wide variety of topical areas. In this article we discuss the general nature of SS-EH contributions and offer a new typology of SS-EH practice that situates this type of research in a larger transdisciplinary sensibility: (1) environmental health science influenced by social science; (2) social science studies of environmental health; and (3) social science-environmental health collaborations. We describe examples from our own and others' work and we discuss the central role that research centers, training programs, and conferences play in furthering SS-EH research.

Associations between socioeconomic status, psychosocial stress, and urinary levels of 8-iso-prostaglandin-F during pregnancy in Puerto Rico.

Background: Lower socioeconomic status (SES) and psychosocial stress during pregnancy have been associated with adverse birth outcomes. While hypothalamic-pituitary-axis activation is thought to be the primary driver, oxidative stress may also be involved mechanistically. We used data from the Puerto Rico Testsite for Exploring Contamination Threats (PROTECT) cohort (N=476) to examine associations between self-reported psychosocial stress measures, SES indicators, and urinary oxidative stress biomarker concentrations, hypothesizing that women with lower SES and increased psychosocial stress would have elevated oxidative stress biomarkers.