Alignment of Air Pollution Exposure Inequality Metrics with Environmental Justice and Equity Goals in the United States.

A growing literature within the field of air pollution exposure assessment addresses the issue of environmental justice. Leveraging the increasing availability of exposure datasets with broad spatial coverage and high spatial resolution, a number of works have assessed inequalities in exposure across racial/ethnic and other socioeconomic groupings. However, environmental justice research presents the additional need to evaluate exposure inequity-inequality that is systematic, unfair, and avoidable-which may be framed in several ways.

A causal machine-learning framework for studying policy impact on air pollution: A case-study in COVID-19 lockdowns.

When studying the impact of policy interventions or natural experiments on air pollution, such as new environmental policies and opening or closing an industrial facility, careful statistical analysis is needed to separate causal changes from other confounding factors. Using COVID-19 lockdowns as a case-study, we present a comprehensive framework for estimating and validating causal changes from such perturbations. We propose using flexible machine learning-based comparative interrupted time series (CITS) models for estimating such a causal effect.

Association of a Housing Mobility Program With Childhood Asthma Symptoms and Exacerbations.

Importance: Structural racism has been implicated in the disproportionally high asthma morbidity experienced by children living in disadvantaged, urban neighborhoods. Current approaches designed to reduce asthma triggers have modest impact.

Objective: To examine whether participation in a housing mobility program that provided housing vouchers and assistance moving to low-poverty neighborhoods was associated with reduced asthma morbidity among children and to explore potential mediating factors.

Indoor Air Pollution and Impaired Cardiac Autonomic Function in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.

Indoor air pollution represents a modifiable risk factor for respiratory morbidity in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The effects of indoor air pollution, as well as the impact of interventions to improve indoor air quality, on cardiovascular morbidity in COPD remain unknown. To determine the association between indoor particulate matter (PM) and heart rate variability (HRV), a measure of cardiac autonomic function tied to cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, as well as the impact of household air purifiers on HRV.

Comprehensive home environmental intervention did not reduce allergen concentrations or controller medication requirements among children in Baltimore.

Objective: To determine if the addition of home environmental control strategies (ECSs) to controller medication titration reduces asthma controller medication requirements and in-home allergen concentrations among children with persistent asthma in Baltimore City.

Methods: 155 children ages 5-17 with allergen-sensitized asthma were enrolled in a 6-month randomized clinical trial of multifaceted, individually-tailored ECS plus asthma controller medication titration compared to controller medication titration alone. Participants had to meet criteria for persistent asthma and have had an exacerbation in the previous 18 months.

Risk factors for antimicrobial resistance among Staphylococcus isolated from pets living with a patient diagnosed with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infection.

It has been suggested that pets play a critical role in the maintenance of methicillin-resistant (MR) and multidrug-resistant (MDR) Staphylococcus spp. in the household. We examined risk factors for carriage of antimicrobial-resistant coagulase-positive staphylococci, with particular attention to Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcus pseudintermedius isolated from pets living in households of people diagnosed with methicillin-resistant S.

Phthalate biomarkers and associations with respiratory symptoms and healthcare utilization among low-income urban children with asthma.

Background: Phthalates are synthetic chemicals present in building materials, personal care products and other consumer goods. Limited studies link phthalates to pediatric asthma incidence; however, their effects on respiratory-related outcomes among those with pre-existing asthma remains unclear.

Objective: We examined associations between phthalates and asthma symptoms, healthcare use, lung function, and lung inflammation among children with asthma.

Ambient ozone effects on respiratory outcomes among smokers modified by neighborhood poverty: An analysis of SPIROMICS AIR.

Background: Neighborhood poverty has been associated with poor health outcomes. Previous studies have also identified adverse respiratory effects of long-term ambient ozone. Factors associated with neighborhood poverty may accentuate the adverse impact of ozone on respiratory health.

Assessing the health estimation capacity of air pollution exposure prediction models.

Background: The era of big data has enabled sophisticated models to predict air pollution concentrations over space and time. Historically these models have been evaluated using overall metrics that measure how close predictions are to monitoring data. However, overall methods are not designed to distinguish error at timescales most relevant for epidemiologic studies, such as day-to-day errors that impact studies of short-term health associations.

Estimating the health effects of environmental mixtures using principal stratification.

The control of ambient air quality in the United States has been a major public health success since the passing of the Clean Air Act, with particulate matter (PM) reductions resulting in an estimated 160 000 premature deaths prevented in 2010 alone. Currently, public policy is oriented around lowering the levels of individual pollutants and this focus has driven the nature of much epidemiological research. Recently, attention has been given to viewing air pollution as a complex mixture and to developing a multi-pollutant approach to controlling ambient concentrations.

Do temporal trends of associations between short-term exposure to fine particulate matter (PM) and risk of hospitalizations differ by sub-populations and urbanicity-a study of 968 U.S. counties and the Medicare population.

While associations between short-term exposure to fine particulate matter (PM) and risk of hospitalization are well documented and evidence suggests that such associations change over time, it is unclear whether these temporal changes exist in understudied less-urban areas or differ by sub-population. We analyzed daily time-series data of 968 continental U.S.

Neighborhoods, Caregiver Stress, and Children's Asthma Symptoms.

Background: Neighborhood and caregiver characteristics have each been linked to children's asthma outcomes, but less is known about how caregiver psychosocial functioning may explain the link between neighborhood characteristics and asthma outcomes.

Objective: To examine associations between neighborhood safety, caregiver stress and depressive symptoms, and children's asthma outcomes, and to evaluate whether caregiver stress and depressive symptoms mediate the relationship between neighborhood safety and asthma outcomes.

Methods: We analyzed baseline data from a prospective cohort study of the effects of a housing mobility program on children's asthma-related outcomes.

Indoor Environmental Factors May Modify the Response to Mouse Allergen Reduction Among Mouse-Sensitized and Exposed Children with Persistent Asthma.

Background: Whether concomitant home exposures modify the effectiveness of mouse allergen reduction among mouse-sensitized children with asthma is unknown.

Objective: To determine whether a lower baseline home mouse allergen level, lower particulate matter 10 μ or less (PM), and the absence of sensitization and exposure to other indoor allergens are associated with greater improvements in asthma associated with mouse allergen reduction.

Methods: A secondary analysis of a randomized clinical trial of a home mouse allergen intervention was performed to examine the effect of 3 indoor factors on the relationship between mouse allergen reduction and a range of asthma outcomes.

Temporal variation in association between short-term exposure to fine particulate matter and hospitalisations in older adults in the USA: a long-term time-series analysis of the US Medicare dataset.

Background: Short-term exposure to fine particulate matter (PM) is associated with increased risk of hospital admissions and mortality, and health risks differ by the chemical composition of PM. Policies to control PM could change its chemical composition and total mass concentration, leading to change in the subsequent health impact. However, there is little ence on whether associations between PM and health exhibit temporal variation.

Determinants of phthalate exposure among a U.S.-based group of Latino workers.

Background: Phthalates are endocrine disrupting compounds linked to various adverse health effects. U.S.

Tropical Cyclone Exposures and Risks of Emergency Medicare Hospital Admission for Cardiorespiratory Diseases in 175 Urban United States Counties, 1999-2010.

Background: Although injuries experienced during hurricanes and other tropical cyclones have been relatively well-characterized through traditional surveillance, less is known about tropical cyclones' impacts on noninjury morbidity, which can be triggered through pathways that include psychosocial stress or interruption in medical treatment.

Methods: We investigated daily emergency Medicare hospitalizations (1999-2010) in 180 US counties, drawing on an existing cohort of high-population counties. We classified counties as exposed to tropical cyclones when storm-associated peak sustained winds were ≥21 m/s at the county center; secondary analyses considered other wind thresholds and hazards.

Reproducible Research: A Retrospective.

Advances in computing technology have spurred two extraordinary phenomena in science: large-scale and high-throughput data collection coupled with the creation and implementation of complex statistical algorithms for data analysis. These two phenomena have brought about tremendous advances in scientific discovery but have raised two serious concerns. The complexity of modern data analyses raises questions about the reproducibility of the analyses, meaning the ability of independent analysts to recreate the results claimed by the original authors using the original data and analysis techniques.

Assessing United States County-Level Exposure for Research on Tropical Cyclones and Human Health.

Background: Tropical cyclone epidemiology can be advanced through exposure assessment methods that are comprehensive and consistent across space and time, as these facilitate multiyear, multistorm studies. Further, an understanding of patterns in and between exposure metrics that are based on specific hazards of the storm can help in designing tropical cyclone epidemiological research.

Objectives: ) Provide an open-source data set for tropical cyclone exposure assessment for epidemiological research; and ) investigate patterns and agreement between county-level assessments of tropical cyclone exposure based on different storm hazards.

Exposure to bisphenols and asthma morbidity among low-income urban children with asthma.

Background: Bisphenol A (BPA) has been linked with pediatric asthma development and allergic airway inflammation in animal models. Whether exposure to BPA or its structural analogs bisphenol S (BPS) and bisphenol F (BPF) is associated with asthma morbidity remains unknown.

Objective: We examined associations between bisphenols and morbidity due to pediatric asthma.