Publications by authors named "Antonio J Signes-Pastor"

A child's exposure to arsenic (As) can begin in utero through placental transfer to the fetus. There is a growing body of epidemiologic evidence suggesting an association between As exposure and neuropsychological development. Therefore, our objective was to describe the consequences of maternal and/or childhood As exposure on children's neuropsychological development.

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Background: Exposure to metals and metalloids (hereafter referred to as 'metals') during gestation and early childhood may affect children's neurodevelopment. However, few studies have simultaneously evaluated the impact of exposure to both essential and non-essential metals across specific windows of exposure on children's neurodevelopmental outcomes.

Objective: To investigate whether levels of metals during gestation and the early postnatal period, individually and as a mixture, are related to child cognition at 5 years of age among participants in the New Hampshire Birth Cohort Study (NHBCS).

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Background: Exposure to arsenic (As) and its metabolites can affect normal growth in children, but the combine effects at simultaneous low-level exposures, remain uncertain. Hence, this study aims to analyze how the combined effects of As and its metabolites can impact growth indicators in 1,792 US children aged 6-12 years, from the NHANES.

Methods: Levels of arsenic species in urine were measured using HPLC coupled with ICP-DRC-MS during the 2007-2020 NHANES cycles.

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This study explored the association between dairy products consumption (total and subgroups) and cancer of the esophagus, stomach, and pancreas within the PANESOES case-control study. Data from 1229 participants, including 774 incident cases of cancer and 455 controls matched by age, sex, and region, were analyzed. Dietary intake was assessed using a validated Food Frequency Questionnaire, categorizing dairy intake by total and subgroups (fermented dairy, sugary dairy desserts, and milk).

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Article Synopsis
  • Infancy is a crucial growth period where lack of essential nutrients and exposure to harmful elements can lead to long-term health problems; this study focuses on measuring urine concentrations of these elements during the weaning period (3 to 18 months).
  • Data from the Nutrition in Early Life and Asthma (NELA) cohort included sociodemographic and dietary information, revealing that breastfed infants had lower concentrations of certain harmful elements compared to formula-fed infants.
  • Results showed significant increases in the urine concentrations of some non-essential elements (like arsenic and lead) as infants transitioned to solid foods, highlighting the impact of diet on exposure levels during this developmental stage.
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Purpose: Pro-vegetarian (PVG) dietary patterns have shown health benefits, although the evidence concerning their association with mortality is scarce, particularly in older populations. We investigated the effect of three defined PVG patterns on all-cause, cardiovascular disease (CVD) and cancer mortality risk in an older Mediterranean population.

Methods: We analysed baseline data from 597 adults aged 65 and older who participated in a population-based cross-sectional study, and mortality during a 12-year period.

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Recent studies have found arsenic contamination of drinking water in some parts of Iran, as in many other countries. Thus, a comprehensive systematic review is necessary to assess the distribution and concentration of arsenic in drinking water sources. For this purpose, articles published from the first identification until December 2023, were retrieved from various national and international databases.

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Background: Endocrine disruptors (EDs) have emerged as potential contributors to the development of type-2 diabetes. Perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS), is one of these EDs linked with chronic diseases and gathered attention due to its widespread in food.

Objective: To assess at baseline and after 1-year of follow-up associations between estimated dietary intake (DI) of PFOS, and glucose homeostasis parameters and body-mass-index (BMI) in a senior population of 4600 non-diabetic participants from the PREDIMED-plus study.

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Dietary patterns provide a comprehensive assessment of food consumption, including essential nutrients and potential exposure to environmental contaminants. While pro-vegetarian (PVG) dietary patterns have shown health benefits in adults, their effects on children are less well studied. This study aims to explore the association between children's adherence to the most common PVG dietary patterns and their exposure to metals, assessed through urine concentration.

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Volcanic eruptions can have long-lasting negative effects on nearby environments and communities, especially those relying on agriculture. The Tungurahua and Sangay volcanoes in Ecuador's highlands pose a significant risk to the region's agricultural economy and inhabitants. The most recent eruption of the Tungurahua volcano spanned from September 1999 to March 2016.

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Prenatal exposure to metals/metalloids, even at common US population levels, may pose risks to fetal health, and affect children's lung function. Yet, the combined effects of simultaneous prenatal exposures on children's lung function remain largely unexplored. This study analyzed 11 metals (As speciation, Cd, Co, Cu, Mo, Ni, Pb, Sb, Se, Sn, Zn) in maternal urine during weeks 24-28 of gestation and evaluated lung function, including forced vital capacity (FVC) and forced expiratory volume in the first second of expiration (FEV), in 316 US mother-child pairs at around age 7.

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Introduction: The principal source of exposure to Polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and polychlorinated dibenzo-p-furans (PCDD/Fs) in humans comes from food intake. PCDD/Fs, are a family of potential endocrine disruptors and have been associated with different chronic diseases such as diabetes and hypertension. However, studies assessing the relationship between dietary exposure to PCDD/Fs and adiposity or obesity status in a middle-aged population are limited.

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Unlabelled: Even the low levels of non-essential elements exposure common in the US may have health consequences especially early in life. However, little is known about the infant's dynamic exposure to essential and non-essential elements. This study aims to evaluate exposure to essential and non-essential elements during infants' first year of life and to explore the association between the exposure and rice consumption.

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Concerns have been raised regarding toxic-element (arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury) contamination of commercially available infant foods around the world. Young children are vulnerable to the effects of toxic elements, based on higher absorption levels and potentially poorer detoxification capacities. Toxic-element exposures in early life exact high societal costs, but it is unclear how much dietary exposure to these elements contributes to adverse health outcomes.

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Background: Research related to sustainable diets is is highly relevant to provide better understanding of the impact of dietary intake on the health and the environment.

Aim: To assess the association between the adherence to an energy-restricted Mediterranean diet and the amount of CO emitted in an older adult population.

Design And Population: Using a cross-sectional design, the association between the adherence to an energy-reduced Mediterranean Diet (erMedDiet) score and dietary CO emissions in 6646 participants was assessed.

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Ingested inorganic arsenic (iAs) is a human carcinogen that is also linked to other adverse health effects, such as respiratory outcomes. Yet, among populations consuming low-arsenic drinking water, the impact of iAs exposure on childhood respiratory health is still uncertain. For a Spanish child study cohort (INfancia y Medio Ambiente-INMA), low-arsenic drinking water is usually available and ingestion of iAs from food is considered the major source of exposure.

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Background: Helping consumers to improve the nutritional quality of their diet is a key public health action to prevent cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). The modified version of the Food Standard Agency Nutrient Profiling System Dietary Index (FSAm-NPS DI) underpinning the Nutri-Score front-of-pack label has been used in public health strategies to address the deleterious consequences of poor diets. This study aimed to assess the association between the FSAm-NPS DI and some CVD risk factors including body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, plasma glucose levels, triglyceride levels, high-density lipoprotein (HDL) and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, and diastolic and systolic blood pressure.

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Arsenic exposure during pregnancy may increase the risk for intellectual deficits in children, but limited data exist from prospective epidemiologic studies, particularly at low arsenic exposure levels. We investigated the association between prenatal maternal urinary arsenic concentrations and childhood cognitive abilities in the Health Outcomes and Measures of the Environment (HOME) Study. We used anion exchange chromatography coupled with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry detection to measure arsenic species content in pregnant women's urine.

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Background: During pregnancy, women are commonly exposed to several endocrine-disrupting chemicals, including persistent organic pollutants (POPs). These compounds can transfer to the fetus through the placenta. Prenatal POP exposure is related to altered fetal genital and reproductive tract development.

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Retrospective data harmonization across multiple research cohorts and studies is frequently done to increase statistical power, provide comparison analysis, and create a richer data source for data mining. However, when combining disparate data sources, harmonization projects face data management and analysis challenges. These include differences in the data dictionaries and variable definitions, privacy concerns surrounding health data representing sensitive populations, and lack of properly defined data models.

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Rice products marketed in the USA, including baby rice cereal, contain inorganic arsenic, a putative immunotoxin. We sought to determine whether the timing of introduction of rice cereal in the first year of life influences occurrence of infections, respiratory symptoms, and allergy. Among 572 infants from the New Hampshire Birth Cohort Study, we used generalized estimating equation, adjusted for maternal smoking during pregnancy, marital status, education attainment, pre-pregnancy body mass index, maternal age at enrollment, infant birth weight, and breastfeeding history.

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Plant-forward dietary patterns have been associated with cardiometabolic health benefits, which, in turn, have been related to cognitive performance with inconsistent findings. The objective of this study was to examine the relationship between baseline adherence to three dietary patterns (Mediterranean, DASH, and MIND diets) with 2-year changes in cognitive performance in older adults with overweight or obesity and high cardiovascular disease risk. A prospective cohort analysis was conducted within the PREDIMED-Plus trial, involving 6,647 men and women aged 55-75 years with overweight or obesity and metabolic syndrome.

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Background: Exposure to toxic and non-toxic metals impacts childhood growth and development, but limited data exists on exposure to metal mixtures. Here, we investigated the effects of exposure to individual metals and a mixture of barium, cadmium, cobalt, lead, molybdenum, zinc, and arsenic on growth indicators in children 4-5 years of age.

Methods: We used urine metal concentrations as biomarkers of exposure in 328 children enrolled in the Spanish INMA-Asturias cohort.

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Lead (Pb), mercury (Hg) and fluoride (F) exposure during childhood is of concern owing to their toxicity. Also, evidence suggests that high and low exposure levels to manganese (Mn) and selenium (Se) during this vulnerable period are associated with an increased risk of adverse health effects. A reduced growth is associated with high Pb and F exposure; however, little is known about their impact on children's body size, and there is a lack of consensus on the effects of Hg, Mn, and Se exposure on children's anthropometric measures.

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Prenatal arsenic exposure is associated with an increased risk of lung cancer along with multiple non-carcinogenic outcomes, including respiratory diseases in arsenic-contaminated areas. Limited epidemiologic data exist on whether in utero arsenic exposure influences lung development and subsequent respiratory health. We investigated the association between gestational arsenic exposure and childhood lung function in the New Hampshire Birth Cohort Study.

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