Environmental exposure to arsenic has been linked to hypertension in persons living in arsenic-endemic areas. The researchers summarized published epidemiologic studies concerning arsenic exposure and hypertension or blood pressure (BP) measurements to evaluate the potential relationship.

The Marcellus Shale is a vast natural gas field underlying parts of Pennsylvania, New York, West Virginia, Virginia, and Maryland. Rapid development of this field has been enabled by advances in hydrofracking techniques that include injection of chemical and physical agents deep underground. Response to public concern about potential adverse environmental and health impacts has led to the formation of state and national advisory committees.

Healthy ecosystems provide us with fertile soil, clean water, timber, and food. They reduce the spread of diseases. They protect against flooding. Worldwide, they regulate atmospheric concentrations of oxygen and carbon dioxide. They moderate climate. Without these and other “ecosystem services,” we’d all perish.

Data concerning the effects of prenatal exposures to phthalates and phenols on fetal growth are limited in humans. Previous findings suggest possible effects of some phenols on male birth weight. The aim of the study was to assess the relationships between prenatal exposures to phthalates and phenols and fetal growth among male newborns.

The first global estimates of deaths from non-domestic smoke exposure are surprisingly high, say researchers, who warn the casualties will increase as temperatures rise because of climate change.

Limited human data suggest an association of organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) with adverse effects on children’s growth. The authors evaluated the associations of OCPs with longitudinally assessed growth among peripubertal boys from a Russian cohort with high environmental OCP levels.

Heat waves have a drastic impact on urban populations, which could increase with climate change. The authors evaluated new indicators of elderly people’s exposure to heat in Paris, from a public health prevention perspective, using satellite thermal images.

Indoor air pollutants (IAPs) cause multiple health impacts. Prioritizing mitigation options that differentially affect individual pollutants and comparing IAPs with other environmental health hazards require a common metric of harm. The objective was to demonstrate a methodology to quantify and compare health impacts from IAPs. The methodology is needed to assess population health impacts of large-scale initiatives—including energy efficiency upgrades and ventilation standards—that affect indoor air quality (IAQ).

Public health policies such as tobacco control, air pollution reduction, and hazardous waste remediation may have reduced cadmium exposure among U.S. adults. However, trends in urine cadmium, a marker of cumulative cadmium exposure, have not been evaluated. The authors estimated the trends in urine cadmium concentrations in U.S. adults using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES) from 1988 to 2008.

Measuring the oxidative potential of airborne particulate matter (PM) may provide a more health-based exposure measure by integrating various biologically relevant properties of PM into a single predictor of biological activity. The authors aimed to assess the contrast in oxidative potential of PM collected at major urban streets and background locations, the associaton of oxidative potential with other PM characteristics, and the oxidative potential in different PM size fractions.