Rice can be a major source of inorganic arsenic (Asi) for many sub-populations. Rice products are also used as ingredients in prepared foods, some of which may not be obviously rice based. Organic brown rice syrup (OBRS) is used as a sweetener in organic food products as an alternative to high-fructose corn syrup. We hypothesized that OBRS introduces As into these products.

Central California’s agricultural bounty, which has stocked grocery shelves across North America for decades, has also stocked the region’s groundwater supply with nitrates, according to a two-year study by researchers at the University of California, Davis.

All around the world, oil and gas companies are being forced by resource declines to drill in less accessible areas, and the Arctic is their newest frontier. The geology above the Arctic Circle—that is, everything above latitude 66.56°N—holds an estimated 90 billion barrels of oil and 1,669 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, or 22% of the world’s undiscovered conventional resources, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

I support the warning about the hazards of power sanding and their call for enforcing the New Orleans, Louisiana, Code of Ordinances (2001) and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Renovation, Repair, and Painting Rule (U.S. EPA 2008) for cleanup of residual lead dust at residential properties. Power sanding has been a scourge to the safety and well-being of children and pets in New Orleans for many years (Jacobs et al. 2003; Mielke et al. 2001). (Correspondence)

In May 2010, a team of national and international organizations was assembled to investigate children’s deaths due to lead poisoning in villages in northwestern Nigeria. The goal of the study was to determine the cause of the childhood lead poisoning outbreak, investigate risk factors for child mortality, and identify children

Data on insecticide use for vector control are essential for guiding pesticide management systems on judicious and appropriate use, resistance management, and reduction of risks to human health and the environment. The researchers studied the global use and trends of insecticide use for control of vector-borne diseases for the period 2000 through 2009.

Many epidemiological studies have linked daily counts of hospital admissions to particulate matter (PM) with an aerodynamic diameter ≤ 10 μm (PM10) and ≤ 2.5 μm (PM2.5), but relatively few have investigated the relationship of hospital admissions with coarse PM (PMc; 2.5–10 μm aerodynamic diameter). The researchers conducted this study to estimate the health effects of PMc on emergency hospital admissions for respiratory diseases in Hong Kong after controlling for PM2.5 and gaseous pollutants.

Understanding the health impacts of heat waves is important, especially given anticipated increases in the frequency, duration, and intensity of heat waves due to climate change. The researchers examined mortality from heat waves in seven major Korean cities for 2000 through 2007 and investigated effect modification by individual characteristics and heat wave characteristics (intensity, duration, and timing in season).

Evidence is limited that long-term human exposure to organophosphate (OP) pesticides, without poisoning, is associated with adverse peripheral nervous system (PNS) function. The researchers investigated associations between OP pesticide use and PNS function by administering PNS tests to 701 male pesticide applicators in the Agricultural Health Study (AHS).

Epidemiological studies emphasize the possible role of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in obesity and the metabolic syndrome. These pollutants are stored in adipose tissue (AT). The aim of the paper was to study the effects of POPs on human adipose cells and rodent AT.