Objective To investigate the association between long term residential exposure to road traffic and railway noise and risk of incident dementia. Design Nationwide prospective register based cohort study. Setting Denmark. Participants 1 938 994 adults aged ≥60 years living in Denmark between 1 January 2004 and 31 December 2017. Main outcome measures Incident cases of all cause dementia and dementia subtypes (Alzheimer’s disease, vascular dementia, and Parkinson’s disease related dementia), identified from national hospital and prescription registries. Results The study population included 103 500 participants with incident dementia, and of those, 31 219 received a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease, 8664 of vascular dementia, and 2192 of Parkinson’s disease related dementia. Using Cox regression models, 10 year mean exposure to road traffic and railway noise at the most (L den max) and least (L den min) exposed façades of buildings were associated with a higher risk of all cause dementia. These associations showed a general pattern of higher hazard ratios with higher noise exposure, but with a levelling off or even small declines in risk at higher noise levels. In subtype analyses, both road traffic noise and railway noise were associated with a higher risk of Alzheimer’s disease, with hazard ratios of 1.16 (95% confidence interval 1.11 to 1.22) for road L den max ≥65 dB compared with <45 dB, 1.27 (1.22 to 1.34) for road L den min ≥55 dB compared with <40 dB, 1.16 (1.10 to 1.23) for railway L den max ≥60 dB compared with <40 dB, and 1.24 (1.17 to 1.30) for railway L den min ≥50 dB compared with <40 dB. Road traffic, but not railway, noise was associated with an increased risk of vascular dementia. Results indicated associations between road traffic L den min and Parkinson’s disease related dementia. Conclusions This nationwide cohort study found transportation noise to be associated with a higher risk of all cause dementia and dementia subtypes, especially Alzheimer’s disease.

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BackgroundInternet has been broadly employed as a facilitator for epidemiological surveys, as a way to provide a more economical and practical alternative to traditional survey modes. A current trend in survey research is to combine Web-based surveys with other survey modes by offering the participant the possibility of choosing his/her preferred response method (i.e. mixed-mode approach). However, studies have also demonstrated that the use of different survey modes may produce different responses to the same questions, posing potential challenges on the use of mixed-mode approaches.MethodsIn this paper, we have implemented a statistical comparison between mixed-mode survey responses collected via mail (i.e. paper) and Web methods obtained from a cross-sectional study in non-urban areas of Denmark. Responses provided by mail and Web participants were compared in terms of: 1) the impact of reminder letters in increasing response rates; 2) differences in socio-demographic characteristics between response groups; 3) changes on the likelihood of reporting health symptoms and negative attitudes towards environmental stressors. Comparisons were mainly performed by two sample t-test, Pearson’s Chi-squared test and multinomial logistic regression models.ResultsAmong 3104 contacted households, 1066 residents decided to participate on the study. Out of those, 971 selected to respond via mail, whereas 275 preferred the Web method. The majority of socio-demographic characteristics between these two groups of respondents were shown to be statistically different. The use of mailed surveys increased the likelihood of reporting health symptoms and negative attitudes towards environmental stressors, even after controlling for demographic characteristics. Furthermore, the use of reminder letters had a higher positive impact in increasing responses of Web surveys when compared to mail surveys.ConclusionsOur main findings suggest that the use of mail and Web surveys may produce different responses to the same questions posed to participants, but, at the same time, may reach different groups of respondents, given that the overall characteristics of both groups considerably differ. Therefore, the tradeoff between using mixed-mode survey as a way to increase response rate and obtaining undesirable measurement changes may be attentively considered in future survey studies.

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Our findings suggest a potential association between exposure to higher road traffic noise levels and changes in glucocorticoid metabolism in early postnatal life. A possible physiological relevance and associations with short- and long-term adverse health effects in a larger study population need to be further investigated.

Background: There is a growing body of evidence linking residential exposure to transportation noise with several nonauditory health outcomes. However, auditory outcomes, such as tinnitus, are virtually unexplored. Objectives: We aimed to investigate the association between residential transportation noise and risk of incident tinnitus. Methods: We conducted a nationwide cohort study including all residents in Denmark age , of whom 40,692 were diagnosed with tinnitus. We modeled road traffic and railway noise at the most ( ) and least ( ) exposed façades of all Danish addresses from 1990 until 2017. For all participants, we calculated 1-, 5-, and 10-y time-weighted mean noise exposure and retrieved detailed information on individual- and area-level socioeconomic covariates. We conducted analyses using Cox proportional hazards models. Results: We found positive associations between exposure to road traffic noise and risk of tinnitus, with hazard ratios of 1.06 [95% confidence interval (CI): 1.04, 1.08] and 1.02 (95% CI: 1.01, 1.03) per 10-dB increase in 10-y and , respectively. Highest risk estimates were found for women, people without a hearing loss, people with high education and income, and people who had never been in a blue-collar job. The association with road followed a positive, monotonic exposure–response relationship. We found no association between railway noise and tinnitus. Discussion: To our knowledge, this is the first study to show that residential exposure to road traffic noise may increase risk of tinnitus, suggesting noise may negatively affect the auditory system. If confirmed, this finding adds to the growing evidence of road traffic noise as a harmful pollutant with a substantial health burden. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP11248

-The removal of heavy metals from wastewater has become an important subject for scientific research. Among the common methods, adsorption has shown good potential to treat contaminated effluents. In this study, the thermally treated clay called "Verde-lodo" was used in the adsorption of silver ions, a metal with wide industrial use and high commercial value. Firstly, the process kinetics was studied in different silver concentrations. The kinetic curves were adjusted by the following models: pseudo-first order, pseudo-second order, intra-particle diffusion, Boyd and mass transfer in the extern film models. The adsorbent before and after process was characterized by the techniques: BET and Helium Pycnometry.

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