Publications by authors named "Phong K Thai"

Antibiotics and their metabolites are widely used as biomarkers in wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) to estimate population-level antibiotic consumption. However, the stability of these markers in sewer systems, a crucial factor for reliable WBE, is not well understood. Furthermore, the persistence of these compounds in sewer networks may cause long-term pressure for antimicrobial resistance (AMR) selection, thereby undermining antibiotic sustainability.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background And Aim: Illicit drug use causes great harm and economical loss to society, yet there is limited understanding of its prevalence in the population in low-income countries like Vietnam where survey resources are scarce. In this study, we used wastewater analysis as a cost-effective monitoring tool to measure illicit drug use in a population of Hanoi, Vietnam, a low-income country in Southeast Asia.

Design, Setting And Participants: This is a longitudinal observational study.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Air pollution is an environmental threat to public health. This study aimed to assess PM concentrations in various microenvironments and identify their influence on personal PM exposure among schoolchildren in Vietnam. We used portable PM monitors (AirBeam3) for personal PM measurements of children aged 11-12 years living in two districts (defined as Group A and B) in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, between December 2022 and January 2023, with children's activities recorded in diaries.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Oxypurinol is a metabolite of allopurinol, a drug used to treat gout, and metformin is a first-line treatment for type 2 diabetes. Both oxypurinol and metformin enter the wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in high loads, but information about their potential environmental risks remains scarce. This study systematically investigated the occurrence, emission, removal rate, and environmental risks of oxypurinol and metformin in effluents from 88 and 65 WWTPs across Australia in 2016 and 2021, respectively.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objectives: Alcohol consumption in Vietnam increased significantly over past decade alongside its economic development. However, in recent years, several alcohol control measures including a new drink-driving law and taxes as well as the COVID-19 pandemic have affected the consumption levels. This study aimed to monitor alcohol use trends in Hanoi over six consecutive years.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

This cross-sectional study examined the one-year prevalence of respiratory symptoms (RS) and the influence of home and out-of-school factors among 1,033 schoolchildren (aged 9-12) in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), Vietnam. PM levels were also monitored in schools near major roads and residential areas. Near major roads and in residential areas the prevalence of wheezing was 20.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are ubiquitous, persistent environmental contaminants, posing significant health risks to animals and humans. While dermal exposure to PFAS through daily contact with consumer products such as school uniforms and personal care items is common, the mechanisms and extent of skin uptake remain poorly understood. This study investigated the dermal penetration of 30 PFAS, both as mixtures and individual compounds, using in vitro human skin models in a Franz Diffusion Cell system.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Monitoring antidepressant use is important for understanding mental health treatment status in populations and detecting potential misuse. Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) is a cost-effective approach to conduct such monitoring but requires valid correction factors (CFs) to accurately convert wastewater mass loads into consumption estimates. Most existing CFs are calculated from pharmacokinetic studies with small cohorts and are not specifically validated for WBE purposes.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Allergies have become an important public health issue as their occurrence is reportedly on the rise around the world. Exposure to environmental factors is considered as trigger for allergic diseases. However, there was limited data on the importance of each factor, particularly in China.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: It is critical to assess the progress toward achieving the national goal of reducing premature mortality from non-communicable diseases (NCDs) by one-third by 2030 in Vietnam. This study aimed to examine the pooled prevalence of dyslipidemia among the Vietnamese adult population.

Method: Five databases, PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, CINAHL, Google Scholar, and local peer-reviewed journals were searched from inception to May 2024 without language restrictions.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Understanding the impact of exposure to air pollution on children's health is critical for developing effective child health protection policies. Alveolar macrophage black carbon (AMBC) provides an indicator of personal exposure to air pollution. Hence, we aimed to examine air pollution exposure and its effects on children by measuring AMBC area and inflammatory cytokines in sputum.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The study aims to evaluate the effects of diurnal temperature range (DTR) on all causes, cardiovascular and respiratory conditions in the Central Coast of Vietnam, a tropical, low-income region with high DTR exposure but limited research. Daily hospital admission data from the largest hospitals in three provinces were analyzed alongside meteorological data. A time-series analysis using a generalized linear distributed lag model was conducted to examine the non-linear DTR-hospitalization association.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have been a global concern in relation to human exposure. Dust has been proven to be an important source of human exposure to many groups of organic pollutants, however, no study so far has systematically evaluated human exposure to PFAS depending on time spent in different indoor environments i.e.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • - Between 2018 and 2020, Australia made significant changes to its opioid prescribing policies, particularly focusing on oxycodone, to enhance prescribing quality and safety.
  • - A study using wastewater analysis demonstrated that oxycodone consumption increased by 52% from 2017 to August 2019, then decreased by 45% from that point until December 2020, indicating a direct correlation with new regulatory measures.
  • - The findings suggest that Australia’s policy interventions were effective in reducing pharmaceutical opioid use, showcasing the value of wastewater-based epidemiology in evaluating drug consumption trends.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: On 1 January 2020, Vietnam introduced a new law with harsher fines and penalties for driving under the influence of alcohol. Reports of empty beer restaurants following this implementation suggested the new law has the potential to reduce population-level alcohol consumption. This pilot study aims to quantify short-term changes in alcohol consumption levels after the implementation of the new law and assess whether it could lead to a reduction in total alcohol consumption in the population.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

N-(1,3-dimethylbutyl)-N'-phenyl-p-phenylenediamine quinone (6PPD-Q) has been identified to induce acute toxicity to multifarious aquatic organisms at exceptionally low concentrations. The ubiquity and harmful effects of 6PPD-Q emphasize the critical need for its degradation from water ecosystems. Herein, we explored the transformation of 6PPD-Q by an ultraviolet-activated peroxymonosulfate (UV/PMS) system, focusing on mechanism, products and toxicity variation.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Tobacco-specific alkaloids and nitrosamines are important biomarkers for the estimation of tobacco use and human exposure to tobacco-specific nitrosamines that can be monitored by wastewater analysis. Thus far their analysis has used solid phase extraction, which is costly and time-consuming. In this study, we developed a direct injection liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry method for the quantification of two tobacco-specific alkaloids and five nitrosamines in wastewater.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Aims: This study aims to investigate the trends in treatment coverage through dispensing diabetes medications in Vietnam from 2015 to 2021. The findings will serve to inform health policies to mitigate the health burden of Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM).

Methods: We collected information on major antidiabetic medicines from General Department of Vietnam Customs and payments for antidiabetics via the National Health Insurance Program.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Wastewater analysis provides a complementary measure of alcohol use in whole communities. We assessed absolute differences and temporal trends in alcohol consumption by degree of remoteness and socioeconomics indicators in Australia from 2016 to 2023.

Methods: Alcohol consumption estimates from 50 wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) in the Australian National Wastewater Drug Monitoring Program were used.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) have been recognized as secondary sources of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) released into the environment. In this study, PFAS concentrations were measured in effluent and biosolids samples collected from 75 WWTPs across Australia during the 2016 Census period, which covers more than half of the Australian population. Twelve PFAS compounds, including six C5-C10 perfluoroalkyl carboxylic acids (PFCAs), four perfluoro sulfonic acids (PFSAs) such as perfluorobutane sulfonate (PFBS), perfuorohexane sulfonic (PFHxS), perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS), and perfluorodecane sulfonic acid (PFDS), and one fluorotelomer sulfonic acid (6:2 FTS), were detected in the effluent, with concentrations up to 504 ng/L (PFHxS).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) is proposed as a cost-effective approach to objectively monitor the antidepressant use but it requires more accurate correction factors (CF) than what had been used in previous studies. Amitriptyline is a popular prescription medicine for treating depression and nerve pain, which could be prone to misuse and need monitoring. The CF of amitriptyline employed in previous WBE studies varied from 10 to 100, leading to substantial disparities between WBE estimates and expected mass of antidepressants in wastewater.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Antibiotic use, particularly inappropriate use by irrational prescribing or over-the-counter purchases, is of great concern for China as it facilitates the spread of antibiotic resistances. In this study, we applied wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) to monitor the total consumption of eight common antibiotics in three cities in northern, eastern and southern China. Wastewater samples were successively collected from 17 wastewater treatment plants including weekdays and weekends spanning four seasons between 2019 and 2021.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Landfills are the primary endpoint for the disposal of PFAS-laden waste, which subsequently releases PFAS to the surrounding environments through landfill leachate. Ozone foam fractionation emerges as a promising technology for PFAS removal to address the issue. This study aims to (i) assess the effectiveness of the ozone foam fractionation system to remove PFAS from landfill leachate, and (ii) quantify equilibrium PFAS adsorption onto the gas-water interface of ozone bubbles, followed by a comparison with air foam fractionation.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF