The human health effects of unconventional oil and gas (UOG) chemical exposures: a scoping review of the toxicological literature.

Many chemicals associated with unconventional oil and natural gas (UOG) are known toxicants, leading to health concerns about the effects of UOG. Our objective was to conduct a scoping review of the toxicological literature to assess the effects of UOG chemical exposures in models relevant to human health. We searched databases for primary research studies published in English or French between January 2000 and June 2023 on UOG-related toxicology studies.

The human health effects of unconventional oil and gas development (UOGD): A scoping review of epidemiologic studies.

Objective: Unconventional oil and gas development (UOGD, sometimes termed "fracking" or "hydraulic fracturing") is an industrial process to extract methane gas and/or oil deposits. Many chemicals used in UOGD have known adverse human health effects. Canada is a major producer of UOGD-derived gas with wells frequently located in and around rural and Indigenous communities.

Maternal smoking during pregnancy increases the risk of gut microbiome-associated childhood overweight and obesity.

Childhood obesity is linked to maternal smoking during pregnancy. Gut microbiota may partially mediate this association and could be potential targets for intervention; however, its role is understudied. We included 1,592 infants from the Canadian Healthy Infants Longitudinal Development Cohort.

Organophosphate ester flame retardants and plasticizers in house dust and mental health outcomes among Canadian mothers: A nested prospective cohort study in CHILD.

Organophosphate ester flame retardants and plasticizers (OPEs) are common exposures in modern built environments. Toxicological models report that some OPEs reduce dopamine and serotonin in the brain. Deficiencies in these neurotransmitters are associated with anxiety and depression.

Natural Green Spaces, Sensitization to Allergens, and the Role of Gut Microbiota during Infancy.

The environment plays an instrumental role in the developmental origins of health and disease. Protective features of the environment in the development of asthma and atopy have been insufficiently studied. We used data from the CHILD (Canadian Healthy Infant Longitudinal Development) Cohort Study to examine relationships between living near natural green spaces in early infancy in Edmonton, AB, Canada and the development of atopic sensitization at 1 year and 3 years of age in a cohort of 699 infants, and whether these associations were mediated by infant gut microbiota (measured using 16s V4 amplicon sequencing) at 4 months.

On the possibility of decolonising planetary health: exploring new geographies for collaboration.

Decolonial planetary health aspires to centre the diversity and importance of Indigenous thought and stewardship. In this Viewpoint, we explore research in planetary health across holistic worldviews and western scientific approaches. We base our examination of decolonising interventions in planetary health by exploring how global trajectories play out in British Columbia, Canada.

Individual physical activity, neighbourhood active living environment and mental illness hospitalisation among adults with cardiometabolic disease: a Canadian population-based cohort analysis.

Objectives: This population-based observational study explores the associations between individual-level and neighbourhood-level indices of active living with inpatient mental healthcare use among adults with an underlying chronic cardiometabolic condition.

Design And Setting: Data from the 2013-2014 Canadian Community Health Survey were linked longitudinally to hospital records from the 2013/2014‒2017/2018 Discharge Abstract Database and to a geocoded measure of active living environments (ALE). Relationships between individuals' leisure-time physical activity and neighbourhood ALE with risk of hospital admission for mental health disorders were assessed using multivariable Cox regressions.

GlobeCorr: interactive globe-based visualization for correlation datasets.

Motivation: Increasingly complex omics datasets are being generated, along with associated diverse categories of metadata (environmental, clinical, etc.). Looking at the correlation between these variables can be critical to identify potential confounding factors and novel relationships.

Cumulative Impacts of Diverse Land Uses in British Columbia, Canada: Application of the "EnviroScreen" Method.

(1) Objectives: Cumulative impacts refer to the legacies of land use decisions on environmental, community and health values. New integrative impact assessment tools are required to assess cumulative impacts on diverse values to meet sustainability goals in the 21st century. In this contribution, the CalEnviroScreen methodology-a screening tool capable of merging environmental, socioeconomic and health data-is applied to Local Health Areas in British Columbia, Canada.

Early Life Antimicrobial Exposure: Impact on Colonization in Infants.

The relationship between antibiotic use and () has been well established in adults and older children but remains unclear and is yet to be fully examined in infant populations. This study aimed to determine the separate and cumulative impact from antibiotics and household cleaning products on colonization in infants. This study included 1429 infants at 3-4 months of age and 1728 infants at 12 months of age from the Canadian Healthy Infant Longitudinal Development (CHILD) birth cohort.

Associations between extreme precipitation, drinking water, and protozoan acute gastrointestinal illnesses in four North American Great Lakes cities (2009-2014).

Climate change is already impacting the North American Great Lakes ecosystem and understanding the relationship between climate events and public health, such as waterborne acute gastrointestinal illnesses (AGIs), can help inform needed adaptive capacity for drinking water systems (DWSs). In this study, we assessed a harmonized binational dataset for the effects of extreme precipitation events (≥90th percentile) and preceding dry periods, source water turbidity, total coliforms, and protozoan AGIs - cryptosporidiosis and giardiasis - in the populations served by four DWSs that source surface water from Lake Ontario (Hamilton and Toronto, Ontario, Canada) and Lake Michigan (Green Bay and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA) from January 2009 through August 2014. We used distributed lag non-linear Poisson regression models adjusted for seasonality and found extreme precipitation weeks preceded by dry periods increased the relative risk of protozoan AGI after 1 and 3-5 weeks in three of the four cities, although only statistically significant in two.

Within city spatiotemporal variation of pollen concentration in the city of Toronto, Canada.

Background: The exacerbation of asthma and respiratory allergies has been associated with exposure to aeroallergens such as pollen. Within an urban area, tree cover, level of urbanization, atmospheric conditions, and the number of source plants can influence spatiotemporal variations in outdoor pollen concentrations.

Objective: We analyze weekly pollen measurements made between March and October 2018 over 17 sites in Toronto, Canada.

Assessing secondhand and thirdhand tobacco smoke exposure in Canadian infants using questionnaires, biomarkers, and machine learning.

Background: As smoking prevalence has decreased in Canada, particularly during pregnancy and around children, and technological improvements have lowered detection limits, the use of traditional tobacco smoke biomarkers in infant populations requires re-evaluation.

Objective: We evaluated concentrations of urinary nicotine biomarkers, cotinine and trans-3'-hydroxycotinine (3HC), and questionnaire responses. We used machine learning and prediction modeling to understand sources of tobacco smoke exposure for infants from the CHILD Cohort Study.

Association Between Gestational Exposure to Toxicants and Autistic Behaviors Using Bayesian Quantile Regression.

Autism spectrum disorder, which is characterized by impaired social communication and stereotypic behaviors, affects 1%-2% of children. Although prenatal exposure to toxicants has been associated with autistic behaviors, most studies have been focused on shifts in mean behavior scores. We used Bayesian quantile regression to assess the associations between log2-transformed toxicant concentrations and autistic behaviors across the distribution of behaviors.

Natural environments in the urban context and gut microbiota in infants.

The biodiversity hypothesis that contact with natural environments (e.g. native vegetation) and biodiversity, through the influence of environmental microbes, may be beneficial for human commensal microbiota has been insufficiently tested.

Associations of five food- and water-borne diseases with ecological zone, land use and aquifer type in a changing climate.

Background: Food- and water-borne pathogens exhibit spatial heterogeneity, but attribution to specific environmental processes is lacking while anthropogenic climate change alters these processes. The goal of this study was to investigate ecology, land-use and health associations of these pathogens and to make future disease projections.

Methods: The rates of five acute gastrointestinal illnesses (AGIs) (campylobacteriosis, Verotoxin- producing Escherichia coli, salmonellosis, giardiasis and cryptosporidiosis) from 2000 to 2013 in British Columbia, Canada, were calculated across three environmental variables: ecological zone, land use, and aquifer type.

Association of use of cleaning products with respiratory health in a Canadian birth cohort.

Background: Comprehensive longitudinal studies are important for understanding the complex risk factors, pathways, exposures and interactions that lead to the development and persistence of asthma. We aimed to examine associations between use of household cleaning products in early life and childhood respiratory and allergic disease using data from the Canadian Healthy Infant Longitudinal Development (CHILD) Cohort Study.

Methods: We summed responses from parental questionnaires that indicated the frequency of use of 26 household cleaning products in the homes of 2022 children from this birth cohort when they were 3-4 months of age to create a cumulative Frequency of Use Score (FUS).

Projected local rain events due to climate change and the impacts on waterborne diseases in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Background: Climate change is increasing the number and intensity of extreme weather events in many parts of the world. Precipitation extremes have been linked to both outbreaks and sporadic cases of waterborne illness. We have previously shown a link between heavy rain and turbidity to population-level risk of sporadic cryptosporidiosis and giardiasis in a major Canadian urban population.

Coal smoke, gestational cadmium exposure, and fetal growth.

Background: Gestational cadmium exposure may impair fetal growth. Coal smoke has largely been unexplored as a source of cadmium exposure. We investigated the relationship between gestational cadmium exposure and fetal growth, and assessed coal smoke as a potential source of airborne cadmium, among non-smoking pregnant women in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, where coal combustion in home heating stoves is a major source of outdoor and indoor air pollution.