Wastewater disposal wells in southern Texas are disproportionately permitted in areas with higher proportions of people of color and residents living in poverty, a pattern known as "environmental injustice."

Background:Some epidemiologic and laboratory studies suggest that insecticides are related to increased breast cancer risk, but the evidence is inconsistent. Women engaged in agricultural work or who reside in agricultural areas may experience appreciable exposures to a wide range of insecticides.Objective:We examined associations between insecticide use and breast cancer incidence among wives of pesticide applicators (farmers) in the prospective Agricultural Health Study.Methods:Farmers and their wives provided information on insecticide use, demographics, and reproductive history at enrollment in 1993–1997 and in 5-y follow-up interviews. Cancer incidence was determined via cancer registries. Among 30,594 wives with no history of breast cancer before enrollment, we examined breast cancer risk in relation to the women’s and their husbands’ insecticide use using Cox proportional hazards regression to estimate adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs).Results:During an average 14.7-y follow-up, 39% of the women reported ever using insecticides, and 1,081 were diagnosed with breast cancer. Although ever use of insecticides overall was not associated with breast cancer risk, risk was elevated among women who had ever used the organophosphates chlorpyrifos [HR=1.4 (95% CI: 1.0, 2.0)] or terbufos [HR=1.5 (95% CI: 1.0, 2.1)], with nonsignificantly increased risks for coumaphos [HR=1.5 (95% CI: 0.9, 2.5)] and heptachlor [HR=1.5 (95% CI: 0.7, 2.9)]. Risk in relation to the wives’ use was associated primarily with premenopausal breast cancer. We found little evidence of differential risk by tumor estrogen receptor status. Among women who did not apply pesticides, the husband’s use of fonofos was associated with elevated risk, although no exposure–response trend was observed.Conclusion:Use of several organophosphate insecticides was associated with elevated breast cancer risk. However, associations for the women’s and husbands’ use of these insecticides showed limited concordance. Ongoing cohort follow-up may help clarify the relationship, if any, between individual insecticide exposures and breast cancer risk. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP1295

Purpose To study the effect of maternal psychiatric disorders (depression, anxiety disorder, bipolar disease, schizophrenia, unspecified psychiatric disorder, and comorbid conditions) and odds of preterm birth. Methods The Consortium on Safe Labor (2002-2008), an observational cohort with 12 centers from across the U.S. included 223,394 singleton pregnancies with clinical data obtained from electronic medical records and maternal diagnoses of psychiatric disorders from maternal discharge summaries. Length of gestation was based on the best clinical estimate and categorized as birth <39, <37, <34 and <28 weeks’ gestation. The adjusted odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals of birth were estimated by logistic regression with generalized estimating equations. Results Any maternal psychiatric disorder was associated with odds of birth <39 weeks’ gestation (OR=1.32, 95% confidence interval 1.28-1.37), <37 weeks’ gestation (OR=1.45, 1.38-1.52), <34 weeks’ gestation (OR=1.47, 1.35-1.59) and <28 weeks’ gestation (OR=1.57, 1.36-1.82). Specifically, odds of birth <37 weeks’ gestation were associated with maternal depression (OR=1.31, 1.23-1.40), anxiety disorder (OR=1.68, 1.41-2.01), depression with anxiety disorder (OR=2.31, 1.93-2.78), bipolar disease (OR=1.54, 1.22-1.94), bipolar disease with depression and=or anxiety disorder (OR=1.70, 1.30-2.22) and unspecified psychiatric disorder (OR=1.52, 1.41-1.64). Conclusions Maternal psychiatric disorders, especially comorbid psychiatric conditions, were associated with increased likelihood of preterm birth.

IMPORTANCEPoor olfaction is common in older adults and signifies multiple adverse health outcomes, but it often goes unrecognized.OBJECTIVE To characterize the self-awareness of poor olfaction in women, including its prevalence, associated factors, reporting reliability, validity against an objective test, and factors associated with validity. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS These cross-sectional survey data and a case-control subsample were taken from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences' Sister Study. Of 41 118 participants (aged 41-85 years) who reported olfaction in 2014 through 2016, 3406 (aged 50-79 years) reported olfaction again in 2018 through 2019 and completed the 12-item Brief Smell Identification Test, version A, including 2353 women who self-reported poor olfaction in 2014 through 2016 and 1053 women who reported normal olfaction. Data analyses were performed between May 28, 2021, and December 23, 2021.MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES Self-reported (yes/no) and objectively tested poor olfaction defined as a Brief Smell Identification Test score of 9 or lower. Multivariable logistic regressions were used to assess factors that might be associated with the prevalence and reporting accuracy of self-reported olfaction. In subsample analyses, the sampling strategy was accounted for to extrapolate data to eligible cohort samples. RESULTSOf the 41 118 women (mean [SD] age, 64.3 [8.7] years) included in the analysis, 3322 (8.1%) self-reported poor olfaction. Higher prevalence was associated with older age, not being married, current smoking status, frequent coffee drinking, overweight or obesity, less than optimal health, Parkinson disease, cognitive impairment, depression, anxiety, and seasonal allergy, whereas a lower prevalence was associated with non-Hispanic Black race and physical activity. In the subsample analyses, olfaction status reported 3 years apart showed a modest agreement (κ, 0.56; 95% CI, 0.51-0.61). The prevalence of objectively tested poor olfaction was 13.3% (95% CI, 11.5%-15.0%), and in contrast with self-reports, it was twice as high in non-Hispanic Black women as in non-Hispanic White women (24.5% vs 12.5%). Compared with objective tests, self-reports showed a low sensitivity (22.6%; 95% CI, 19.6%-25.6%), especially in non-Hispanic Black women (12.4%; 95% CI, 7.0%-17.8%). The specificity was uniformly high (>90%). Among participants who reported poor olfaction, higher odds of true vs false positives were associated with age older than 60 years (60-64