Programming microphysiological systems for children's health protection.

Microphysiological systems (MPS) and computer simulation models that recapitulate the underlying biology and toxicology of critical developmental transitions are emerging tools for developmental effects assessment of drugs/chemicals. Opportunities and challenges exist for their application to alternative, more public health relevant and efficient chemical toxicity testing methods. This is especially pertinent to children's health research and the evaluation of complex embryological and reproductive impacts of drug/chemical exposure.

Technical note: Coordination and harmonization of the multi-scale, multi-model activities HTAP2, AQMEII3, and MICS-Asia3: simulations, emission inventories, boundary conditions, and model output formats.

We present an overview of the coordinated global numerical modelling experiments performed during 2012-2016 by the Task Force on Hemispheric Transport of Air Pollution (TF HTAP), the regional experiments by the Air Quality Model Evaluation International Initiative (AQMEII) over Europe and North America, and the Model Intercomparison Study for Asia (MICS-Asia). To improve model estimates of the impacts of intercontinental transport of air pollution on climate, ecosystems, and human health and to answer a set of policy-relevant questions, these three initiatives performed emission perturbation modelling experiments consistent across the global, hemispheric, and continental/regional scales. In all three initiatives, model results are extensively compared against monitoring data for a range of variables (meteorological, trace gas concentrations, and aerosol mass and composition) from different measurement platforms (ground measurements, vertical profiles, airborne measurements) collected from a number of sources.

A Systematic Review of Community Engagement in the US Environmental Protection Agency's Extramural Research Solicitations: Implications for Research Funders.

Objectives: We systematically reviewed the Environmental Protection Agency, National Center for Environmental Research's (NCER's) requests for applications (RFAs) and identified strategies that NCER and other funders can take to bolster community engagement.

Methods: We queried NCER's publically available online archive of funding opportunities from fiscal years 1997 to 2013. From an initial list of 211 RFAs that met our inclusion criteria, 33 discussed or incorporated elements of community engagement.

Community-based research as a mechanism to reduce environmental health disparities in american Indian and alaska native communities.

Racial and ethnic minority communities, including American Indian and Alaska Natives, have been disproportionately impacted by environmental pollution and contamination. This includes siting and location of point sources of pollution, legacies of contamination of drinking and recreational water, and mining, military and agricultural impacts. As a result, both quantity and quality of culturally important subsistence resources are diminished, contributing to poor nutrition and obesity, and overall reductions in quality of life and life expectancy.

Open burning of household waste: Effect of experimental condition on combustion quality and emission of PCDD, PCDF and PCB.

Open burning for waste disposal is, in many countries, the dominant source of polychlorinated dibenzodioxins, dibenzofurans and biphenyls (PCDD/PCDF/PCB) release to the environment. To generate emission factors for open burning, experimental pile burns of about 100 kg of household waste were conducted with emissions sampling. From these experiments and others conducted by the same authors it is found that less compaction of waste or active mixing during the fire--"stirring"--promotes better combustion (as evidenced by lower CO/CO(2) ratio) and reduces emissions of PCDD/PCDF/PCB; an intuitive but previously undemonstrated result.

Parameterization of meteorological variables in the process of infiltration of outdoor ultrafine particles into a residential building.

As part of the Brooklyn Traffic Real-Time Ambient Pollutant Penetration and Environmental Dispersion (B-TRAPPED) study, a field investigation was conducted of the mechanisms involved in infiltration of outdoor particles (0.02 microm to 1 microm) into a near-highway urban residential building. Using continuous real-time total number concentration time-series data measured simultaneously at multiple outdoor and indoor locations, the infiltration time was estimated for various indoor sites by using the cross-correlation analysis method.

Characterization of traffic-related PM concentration distribution and fluctuation patterns in near-highway urban residential street canyons.

Analyses of outdoor traffic-related particulate matter (PM) concentration distribution and fluctuation patterns in urban street canyons within a microscale distance of less than 500 m from a highway source are presented as part of the results from the Brooklyn Traffic Real-Time Ambient Pollutant Penetration and Environmental Dispersion (B-TRAPPED) study. Various patterns of spatial and temporal changes in the street canyon PM concentrations were investigated using time-series data of real-time PM concentrations measured during multiple monitoring periods. Concurrent time-series data of local street canyon wind conditions and wind data from the John F.

Overview of the Brooklyn traffic real-time ambient pollutant penetration and environmental dispersion (B-TRAPPED) study: theoretical background and model for design of field experiments.

The Brooklyn traffic real-time ambient pollutant penetration and environmental dispersion (B-TRAPPED) study was a multidisciplinary field research project that investigated the transport, dispersion, and infiltration processes of traffic emission particulate matter (PM) pollutants in a near-highway urban residential area. The urban PM transport, dispersion, and infiltration processes were described mathematically in a theoretical model that was constructed to develop the experimental objectives of the B-TRAPPED study. In the study, simultaneous and continuous time-series PM concentration and meteorological data collected at multiple outdoor and indoor monitoring locations were used to characterize both temporal and spatial patterns of the PM concentration movements within microscale distances (<500 m) from the highway.

Evaluating cumulative organophosphorus pesticide body burden of children: a national case study.

Biomonitoring is a valuable tool for identifying exposures to chemicals that pose potential harm to human health. However, to date there has been little published on ways to evaluate the relative public health significance of biomonitoring data for different chemicals and even less on cumulative assessment of multiple chemicals. The objectives of our study are to develop a methodology for a health risk interpretation of biomonitoring data and to apply it using NHANES 1999-2002 body burden data fororganophosphorus (OP) pesticides.

Mercury exposure from domestic and imported estuarine and marine fish in the U.S. seafood market.

Background: Methylmercury exposure causes a variety of adverse effects on human health. Per capita estimates of mercury exposure are critical for risk assessments and for developing effective risk management strategies.

Objective: This study investigated the impact of natural stochasticity in mercury concentrations among fish and shellfish harvested from the Atlantic Ocean, Pacific Ocean, and foreign shores on estimated mercury exposures.

Phytoextraction of toxic metals: a review of biological mechanisms.

Remediation of sites contaminated with toxic metals is particularly challenging. Unlike organic compounds, metals cannot be degraded, and the cleanup usually requires their removal. However, this energy-intensive approach can be prohibitively expensive.