Recent evidence has shown that humans metabolize benzene more efficiently at environmental air concentrations than at concentrations > 1 ppm. This led the researchers to speculate that an unidentified metabolic pathway was mainly responsible for benzene metabolism at ambient levels.

Fine particulate matter [aerodynamic diameter ? 2.5 ?m (PM2.5)] has been associated with autonomic dysregulation. The authors hypothesized that PM2.5 influences postural changes in systolic blood pressure (?SBP) and in diastolic blood pressure (?DBP) and that this effect is modified by genes thought to be related to chronic lung disease.

During the last week of June 2008, central and northern California experienced thousands of forest and brush fires, giving rise to a week of severe fire-related particulate air pollution

Studies of chronic health effects due to exposures to particulate matter with aerodynamic diameters ? 2.5 ?m (PM2.5) are often limited by sparse measurements. Satellite aerosol remote sensing data may be used to extend PM2.5 ground networks to cover a much larger area.

Traditional hazards such as poor sanitation currently account for most of Africa

Traditional hazards such as poor sanitation currently account for most of Africa

In this commentary the authors summarize the health risks of climate change in the United States and examine the extent of federal funding devoted to understanding, avoiding, preparing for, and responding to the human health risks of climate change.

Intrinsic antibiotic resistance has been a fact of bacterium life since long before humans discovered the use of antibiotic drugs. However, the introduction of pharmaceutical antibiotics in the 1940s and explosion in use ever since dramatically accelerated the spread of antibiotic-resistance genes.

Exposure to arsenic-contaminated drinking water reduces immunity to the influenza subtype that includes swine flu, researchers have found.

Ambient measurements of hazardous air pollutants (air toxics) have been used to validate model-predicted concentrations of air toxics but have not been used to perform risk screening at the national level. The authors used ambient concentrations of routinely measured air toxics to determine the relative importance of individual air toxics for chronic cancer and noncancer exposures.