Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in drinking water in Southeast Los Angeles: Industrial legacy and environmental justice.

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are persistent chemicals of increasing concern to human health. PFAS contamination in water systems has been linked to a variety of sources including hydrocarbon fire suppression activities, industrial and military land uses, agricultural applications of biosolids, and consumer products. To assess PFAS in California tap water, we collected 60 water samples from inside homes in four different geographic regions, both urban and rural.

Association between long-term exposure to particulate air pollution with SARS-CoV-2 infections and COVID-19 deaths in California, U.S.A.

Previous studies have reported associations between air pollution and COVID-19 morbidity and mortality, but most have limited their exposure assessment to a large area, have not used individual-level variables, nor studied infections. We examined 3.1 million SARS-CoV-2 infections and 49,691 COVID-19 deaths that occurred in California from February 2020 to February 2021 to evaluate risks associated with long-term neighborhood concentrations of particulate matter less than 2.

Returning Individual Tap Water Testing Results to Research Study Participants after a Wildfire Disaster.

After the devastating wildfire that destroyed most of the town of Paradise, California in 2018, volatile organic compounds were found in water distribution pipes. Approximately 11 months after the fire, we collected tap water samples from 136 homes that were still standing and tested for over 100 chemicals. Each participant received a customized report showing the laboratory findings from their sample.

Contribution of low-cost sensor measurements to the prediction of PM levels: A case study in Imperial County, California, USA.

Regulatory monitoring networks are often too sparse to support community-scale PM exposure assessment while emerging low-cost sensors have the potential to fill in the gaps. To date, limited studies, if any, have been conducted to utilize low-cost sensor measurements to improve PM prediction with high spatiotemporal resolutions based on statistical models. Imperial County in California is an exemplary region with sparse Air Quality System (AQS) monitors and a community-operated low-cost network entitled Identifying Violations Affecting Neighborhoods (IVAN).

Residential agricultural pesticide exposures and risks of preeclampsia.

We investigated risks of preeclampsia phenotypes from potential residential pesticide exposures, including 543 individual chemicals and 69 physicochemical groupings that were applied in the San Joaquin Valley of California during the study period, 1998-2011. The study population was derived from birth certificate data linked with Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development maternal and infant hospital discharge data. The following numbers of women with preeclampsia phenotypes were identified: 1045 with superimposed (pre-existing hypertension with preeclampsia) preeclampsia (265 with gestational weeks 20-31 and 780 with gestational weeks 32-36); 3471 with severe preeclampsia (824 with gestational weeks 20-31 and 2647 with gestational weeks 32-36); and 2780 with mild preeclampsia (207 with gestational weeks 20-31 and 2573 with gestational weeks 32-36).

Traffic-Related Air Pollution and All-Cause Mortality during Tuberculosis Treatment in California.

Background: Ambient air pollution and tuberculosis (TB) have an impact on public health worldwide, yet associations between the two remain uncertain.

Objective: We determined the impact of residential traffic on mortality during treatment of active TB.

Methods: From 2000-2012, we enrolled 32,875 patients in California with active TB and followed them throughout treatment.

Residential Agricultural Pesticide Exposures and Risks of Spontaneous Preterm Birth.

Background: Pesticides exposures are aspects of the human exposome that have not been sufficiently studied for their contribution to risk for preterm birth. We investigated risks of spontaneous preterm birth from potential residential exposures to 543 individual chemicals and 69 physicochemical groupings that were applied in the San Joaquin Valley of California during the study period, 1998-2011.

Methods: The study population was derived from birth certificate data linked with Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development maternal and infant hospital discharge data.

The Imperial County Community Air Monitoring Network: A Model for Community-based Environmental Monitoring for Public Health Action.

The Imperial County Community Air Monitoring Network (the Network) is a collaborative group of community, academic, nongovernmental, and government partners designed to fill the need for more detailed data on particulate matter in an area that often exceeds air quality standards. The Network employs a community-based environmental monitoring process in which the community and researchers have specific, well-defined roles as part of an equitable partnership that also includes shared decision-making to determine study direction, plan research protocols, and conduct project activities. The Network is currently producing real-time particulate matter data from 40 low-cost sensors throughout Imperial County, one of the largest community-based air networks in the United States.

Development and field validation of a community-engaged particulate matter air quality monitoring network in Imperial, California, USA.

Unlabelled: The Imperial County Community Air Monitoring Network was developed as part of a community-engaged research study to provide real-time particulate matter (PM) air quality information at a high spatial resolution in Imperial County, California. The network augmented the few existing regulatory monitors and increased monitoring near susceptible populations. Monitors were both calibrated and field validated, a key component of evaluating the quality of the data produced by the community monitoring network.

Analysis of multiple-variable missing-not-at-random survey data for child lead surveillance using NHANES.

Background: Although ongoing, multi-topic surveys form the basis of public health surveillance in many countries, their utility for specific subject matter areas can be limited by high proportions of missing data. For example, the National Health and Examination Survey is the main resource for surveillance of elevated blood lead levels (EBLLs) in US children, but key predictor variables are missing for as many as 35% of respondents.

Methods: Using a Bayesian framework, we formulate a t-distributed Heckman selection model applicable to the case of multiple missing-not-at-random variables in the context of a complex survey design.

Residential agricultural pesticide exposures and risks of selected birth defects among offspring in the San Joaquin Valley of California.

Background: We examined associations of birth defects with residential proximity to commercial agricultural pesticide applications in California. Subjects included 367 cases representing five types of birth defects and 785 nonmalformed controls born 1997 to 2006.

Methods: Associations with any versus no exposure to physicochemical groups of pesticides and specific chemicals were assessed using logistic regression adjusted for covariates.

Survival and Cause of Death among a Cohort of Confirmed Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Cases.

Introduction: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder. Estimates of survival from disease onset range from 20 to 48 months and have been generated using clinical populations or death records alone.

Methods: Data on a cohort of ALS cases diagnosed between 2009-2011 were collected as part of the Los Angeles and San Francisco Bay Area Metropolitan ALS Surveillance projects; death records 2009-2013 were linked to these confirmed cases to determine survival post diagnosis and factors associated with survival time.

Residential agricultural pesticide exposures and risk of selected congenital heart defects among offspring in the San Joaquin Valley of California.

Background: Pesticide exposures are ubiquitous and of substantial public concern. We examined the potential association of congenital heart defects with residential proximity to commercial agricultural pesticide applications in the San Joaquin Valley, California.

Methods: Study subjects included 569 heart defect cases and 785 non-malformed controls born from 1997 to 2006 whose mothers participated in a population-based case-control study.

Early pregnancy agricultural pesticide exposures and risk of gastroschisis among offspring in the San Joaquin Valley of California.

Background: Prevalence of gastroschisis has inexplicably been increasing over the past few decades. Our intent was to explore whether early gestational exposures to pesticides were associated with risk of gastroschisis.

Methods: We used population-based data, accompanied by detailed information from maternal interviews as well as information on residential proximity to a large number of commercial pesticide applications during early pregnancy.

Residential agricultural pesticide exposures and risk of neural tube defects and orofacial clefts among offspring in the San Joaquin Valley of California.

We examined whether early gestational exposures to pesticides were associated with an increased risk of anencephaly, spina bifida, cleft lip with or without cleft palate (CLP), or cleft palate only. We used population-based data along with detailed information from maternal interviews. Exposure estimates were based on residential proximity to agricultural pesticide applications during early pregnancy.

Bayesian modeling of time-dependent vulnerability to environmental hazards: an example using autism and pesticide data.

Background: Flexible modeling of time-dependent effects is required when vulnerability to hazards can be expected to vary over time, but the nature of this temporal dependency cannot be specified in advance. We present an analytic approach requiring minimal a priori assumptions about temporal parameters and producing measures of uncertainty for these parameters.

Methods: As a demonstration, we employ data describing autism spectrum disorders and applications of organochlorine pesticides in proximity to maternal residence before, during, and after pregnancy.

Evaluation of a heat vulnerability index on abnormally hot days: an environmental public health tracking study.

Background: Extreme hot weather conditions have been associated with increased morbidity and mortality, but risks are not evenly distributed throughout the population. Previously, a heat vulnerability index (HVI) was created to geographically locate populations with increased vulnerability to heat in metropolitan areas throughout the United States.

Objectives: We sought to determine whether areas with higher heat vulnerability, as characterized by the HVI, experienced higher rates of morbidity and mortality on abnormally hot days.

Environmental health indicators of climate change for the United States: findings from the State Environmental Health Indicator Collaborative.

Objective: To develop public health adaptation strategies and to project the impacts of climate change on human health, indicators of vulnerability and preparedness along with accurate surveillance data on climate-sensitive health outcomes are needed. We researched and developed environmental health indicators for inputs into human health vulnerability assessments for climate change and to propose public health preventative actions.

Data Sources: We conducted a review of the scientific literature to identify outcomes and actions that were related to climate change.

Spatially continuous local rate modeling for communication in public health: a practical approach.

A primary function of Environmental Public Health Tracking is the communication of spatial trends of diseases. Traditional (choropleth) approaches to disease mapping}?> have difficulty conveying intuitive understandings of the spatial continuity of disease risk, rate calculations in rural areas, and degrees of statistical significance. A spatial loess function can be utilized to depict continuous variations in preterm birth risk for the state of California on the basis of a 3-year birth cohort.

Maternal residence near agricultural pesticide applications and autism spectrum disorders among children in the California Central Valley.

Background: Ambient levels of pesticides ("pesticide drift") are detectable at residences near agricultural field sites.

Objective: Our goal was to evaluate the hypothesis that maternal residence near agricultural pesticide applications during key periods of gestation could be associated with the development of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) in children.

Methods: We identified 465 children with ASD born during 1996-1998 using the California Department of Developmental Services electronic files, and matched them by maternal date of last menstrual period to 6,975 live-born, normal-birth-weight, term infants as controls.

Progress in pediatric asthma surveillance II: geospatial patterns of asthma in Alameda County, California.

Introduction: As with many diseases, the epidemic of asthma among children over the past few decades has been shaped by a social and environmental context that is becoming progressively more evident. Commonly used methods for asthma surveillance, however, are based on national rather than local data. The purpose of this study was to develop high-resolution asthma surveillance techniques responsive to the needs of health care professionals and local child health and social justice advocates.

Progress in pediatric asthma surveillance I: the application of health care use data in Alameda County, California.

Introduction: The ability to conduct community-level asthma surveillance is increasingly crucial for public health programming and child health advocacy. We explored the potential and limitations of health care use records from both public and private sources for asthma surveillance in a California county.

Methods: We combined administrative patient record data from Kaiser Permanente of Northern California and Medi-Cal (the California Medicaid program) for Alameda County residents during 2001.

Nitrogen dioxide prediction in Southern California using land use regression modeling: potential for environmental health analyses.

We modeled the intraurban distribution of nitrogen dioxide (NO(2)), a marker for traffic pollution, with land use regression, a promising new exposure classification technique. We deployed diffusion tubes to measure NO(2) levels at 39 locations in the fall of 2003 in San Diego County, CA, USA. At each sample location, we constructed circular buffers in a geographic information system and captured information on roads, traffic flow, land use, population and housing.

Parental and birth characteristics in relation to testicular cancer risk among males born between 1960 and 1995 in California (United States).

Objective: We explored birth and parental risk factors for testicular cancer, examining risk factors for all testicular cancers and by histologic type.

Methods: We linked 1645 testicular cancer cases to live singleton birth certificates, selecting three random controls per case, matched by sex and date of birth. We used conditional multiple logistic regression to assess the mutually adjusted effects of parental and birth characteristics on testicular cancer risk.

Changes in the spatial pattern of low birth weight in a southern California county: the role of individual and neighborhood level factors.

Individual-level maternal risk factors have been able to explain only a small proportion of low birth weight (LBW) births in the US to date and neighborhood-level factors have not been recognized as important predictors of reproductive outcomes. At the US/Mexico border, tremendous demographic changes have taken place between 1980 and 1990. Whether high population growth, economic pressures, and community instability have affected reproductive health in this region is not known.