Associations between environmental noise and myocardial infarction and stroke: Investigating the potential mediating effects of hypertension.

Background: We investigated whether hypertension may be a mediator in the pathway linking environmental noise exposure to incident MI and stroke.

Methods: Separately for MI and stroke, we built two population-based cohorts from linked health administrative data. Participants were residents of Montreal (Canada) between 2000 and 2014, aged 45 years and older who were free of hypertension and MI or stroke at time of entry.

Relationships between long-term residential exposure to total environmental noise and stroke incidence.

Background: Noise has been related to several cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) such as coronary heart disease and to their risk factors such as hypertension, but associations with stroke remain under-researched, even if CVD likely share similar pathophysiologic mechanisms.

Aim: The objective of the study was to examine the association between long-term residential exposure to total environmental noise and stroke incidence in Montreal, Canada.

Materials And Methods: We created an open cohort of adults aged ≥45years, free of stroke before entering the cohort for the years 2000 to 2014 with health administrative data.

Manuscript title: Long─term residential exposure to environmental/transportation noise and the incidence of myocardial infarction.

Background: Cardiovascular effects of environmental noise are a growing concern. However, the evidence remains largely limited to the association between road traffic noise and hypertension and coronary heart diseases.

Objectives: To investigate the association between long-term residential exposure to environmental/transportation noise and the incidence of myocardial infarction (MI) in the adult population living in Montreal.

The Montreal heat response plan: evaluation of its implementation towards healthcare professionals and vulnerable populations.

Objectives: Since 2004, the Montreal heat response plan (MHRP) has been developed and implemented on the Island of Montreal to reduce heat-related health effects in the general population. In this paper, we aimed to assess the barriers and facilitators to implementation of the MHRP and evaluate the awareness of key elements of the plan by healthcare professionals and individuals from vulnerable populations.

Methods: Data were gathered from monitoring reports and a questionnaire administered to managers of healthcare institutions and healthcare workers in Montreal-area health and social services institutions.

Characterization of indoor diesel exhaust emissions from the parking garage of a school.

Diesel exhaust (DE) emissions from a parking garage located in the basement of a school were characterized during spring and winter using direct reading devices and integrated sampling methods. Concentrations of CO and NO were evaluated using electrochemical sensors and passive colorimetric tubes, respectively. Elemental and total carbon concentrations were measured using the NIOSH 5040 method.

Statistical modeling of the spatial variability of environmental noise levels in Montreal, Canada, using noise measurements and land use characteristics.

The availability of noise maps to assess exposure to noise is often limited, especially in North American cities. We developed land use regression (LUR) models for LA, L, and L to assess the long-term spatial variability of environmental noise levels in Montreal, Canada, considering various transportation noise sources (road, rail, and air). To explore the effects of sampling duration, we compared our LA levels that were computed over at least five complete contiguous days of measurements to shorter sampling periods (20 min and 24 h).

Sleep Disturbance from Road Traffic, Railways, Airplanes and from Total Environmental Noise Levels in Montreal.

The objective of our study was to measure the impact of transportation-related noise and total environmental noise on sleep disturbance for the residents of Montreal, Canada. A telephone-based survey on noise-related sleep disturbance among 4336 persons aged 18 years and over was conducted. LNight for each study participant was estimated using a land use regression (LUR) model.

Annoyance from Road Traffic, Trains, Airplanes and from Total Environmental Noise Levels.

There is a lack of studies assessing the exposure-response relationship between transportation noise and annoyance in North America. Our aims were to investigate the prevalence of noise annoyance induced by road traffic, trains and airplanes in relation to distance to transportation noise sources, and to total environmental noise levels in Montreal, Canada; annoyance was assessed as noise-induced disturbance. A telephone-based survey among 4336 persons aged >18 years was conducted.

Socioeconomic status and environmental noise exposure in Montreal, Canada.

Background: This study's objective was to determine whether socioeconomically deprived populations are exposed to greater levels of environmental noise.

Methods: Indicators of socioeconomic status were correlated with LAeq24h noise levels estimated with a land-use regression model at a small geographic scale.

Results: We found that noise exposure was associated with all socioeconomic indicators, with the strongest correlations found for median household income, proportion of people who spend over 30% of their income on housing, proportion of people below the low income boundary and with a social deprivation index combining several socio-economic variables.

Cardiovascular health, traffic-related air pollution and noise: are associations mutually confounded? A systematic review.

Objectives: This review assessed the confounding effect of one traffic-related exposure (noise or air pollutants) on the association between the other exposure and cardiovascular outcomes.

Methods: A systematic review was conducted with the databases Medline and Embase. The confounding effects in studies were assessed by using change in the estimate with a 10 % cutoff point.

Risk assessment of aircraft noise on sleep in Montreal.

Objective: Estimate the number of awakenings additional to spontaneous awakenings, induced by the nighttime aircraft movements at an international airport in Montreal, in the population residing nearby in 2009.

Methods: Maximum sound levels (LAS,max) were derived from aircraft movements using the Integrated Noise Model 7.0b, on a 28 x 28 km grid centred on the airport and with a 0.

Implementation of the Montreal heat response plan during the 2010 heat wave.

Objectives: The objective of this paper is to describe Montreal's heat response plan and its application during the July 2010 heat wave.

Participants And Setting: The Montreal heat response plan is designed to ensure the surveillance of weather and health indicators during the summer season and to coordinate actions to be undertaken during this period to reduce morbidity and mortality due to heat, particularly when weather thresholds are reached or an increase in health indicators is observed. It was developed to coordinate and apply intervention measures on the Island of Montreal and has been in effect since 2004.

Bed bugs and public health: new approaches for an old scourge.

Objective: To share four Canadian cities' experiences with bed bug infestations and to explore public health roles in managing them.

Methods: We summarize presentations from a workshop at the 2010 Canadian Public Health Association Conference which examined the re-emergence of bed bugs in Canada and compared management approaches of municipal and public health authorities in four large Canadian cities. We include updates on their activities since the workshop.

Mental health effects from urban bed bug infestation (Cimex lectularius L.): a cross-sectional study.

Objective: To assess whether bed bug infestation was linked to sleep disturbances and symptoms of anxiety and depression.

Design: Exploratory cross-sectional study.

Setting: Convenience sample of tenants recruited in apartment complexes from Montreal, Canada.

Active and uncontrolled asthma among children exposed to air stack emissions of sulphur dioxide from petroleum refineries in Montreal, Quebec: a cross-sectional study.

Background: Little attention has been devoted to the effects on children's respiratory health of exposure to sulphur dioxide (SO2) in ambient air from local industrial emissions. Most studies on the effects of SO(2) have assessed its impact as part of the regional ambient air pollutant mix.

Objective: To examine the association between exposure to stack emissions of SO(2) from petroleum refineries located in Montreal's (Quebec) east-end industrial complex and the prevalence of active asthma and poor asthma control among children living nearby.

Risk of childhood asthma prevalence attributable to residential proximity to major roads in Montreal, Canada.

Objectives: Exposure to traffic-related air pollutants plays a role in several health outcomes. A large body of evidence tends to link asthma in children with traffic exposure. Increasing asthma prevalence and incidence in children in Canadian cities has been of concern for public health authorities.

Review of the effect of aircraft noise on sleep disturbance in adults.

Noise exposure generated by air traffic has been linked with sleep disturbances. The purpose of this systematic review is to clarify whether there is a causal link between aircraft noise exposure and sleep disturbances. Only complete, peer-reviewed articles published in scientific journals were examined.

Home environmental factors associated with poor asthma control in Montreal children: a population-based study.

Background: Home environmental exposures may aggravate asthma. Few population-based studies have investigated the relationship between asthma control in children and home environmental exposures.

Objective: Identify home environmental exposures associated with poor control of asthma among asthmatic children less than 12 years of age in Montreal (Quebec, Canada).

Cardiovascular effects of sub-daily levels of ambient fine particles: a systematic review.

Background: While the effects of daily fine particulate exposure (PM) have been well reviewed, the epidemiological and physiological evidence of cardiovascular effects associated to sub-daily exposures has not. We performed a theoretical model-driven systematic non-meta-analytical literature review to document the association between PM sub-daily exposures (< or =6 hours) and arrhythmia, ischemia and myocardial infarction (MI) as well as the likely mechanisms by which sub-daily PM exposures might induce these acute cardiovascular effects. This review was motivated by the assessment of the risk of exposure to elevated sub-daily levels of PM during fireworks displays.

Comparison of primary percutaneous coronary intervention and fibrinolytic therapy in ST-segment-elevation myocardial infarction: bayesian hierarchical meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials and observational studies.

Background: Published meta-analyses comparing primary percutaneous coronary intervention with fibrinolytic therapy in patients with ST-segment-elevation myocardial infarction include only randomized controlled trials (RCTs). We aim to obviate the limited applicability of RCTs to real-world settings by undertaking meta-analyses of both RCTs and observational studies.

Methods And Results: We included all RCTs and observational studies, without language restriction, published up to May 1, 2008.