Background:Environmental heat exposure is a public health concern. The impacts of environmental heat on mortality and morbidity at the population scale are well documented, but little is known about specific exposures that individuals experience.Objectives:The first objective of this work was to catalyze discussion of the role of personal heat exposure information in research and risk assessment. The second objective was to provide guidance regarding the operationalization of personal heat exposure research methods.Discussion:We define personal heat exposure as realized contact between a person and an indoor or outdoor environment that poses a risk of increases in body core temperature and/or perceived discomfort. Personal heat exposure can be measured directly with wearable monitors or estimated indirectly through the combination of time–activity and meteorological data sets. Complementary information to understand individual-scale drivers of behavior, susceptibility, and health and comfort outcomes can be collected from additional monitors, surveys, interviews, ethnographic approaches, and additional social and health data sets. Personal exposure research can help reveal the extent of exposure misclassification that occurs when individual exposure to heat is estimated using ambient temperature measured at fixed sites and can provide insights for epidemiological risk assessment concerning extreme heat.Conclusions:Personal heat exposure research provides more valid and precise insights into how often people encounter heat conditions and when, where, to whom, and why these encounters occur. Published literature on personal heat exposure is limited to date, but existing studies point to opportunities to inform public health practice regarding extreme heat, particularly where fine-scale precision is needed to reduce health consequences of heat exposure. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP556
The genotoxicity of a complex mixture [neutral fraction (NF)] from a wood preserving waste and reconstituted mixture (RM) mimicking the NF with seven major polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and benzo(a)pyrene (BaP) was investigated by determining DNA adducts and tumor incidence in male B6C3F1 mice exposed to 3 different doses of the chemical mixtures. The peak values of DNA adducts were observed after 24 h and the highest levels of PAH-DNA adducts were exhibited in mice administered NF+BaP, and the highest tumor incidence and mortality were also observed in this group. DNA adduct levels after 1, 7, or 21 d were significantly correlated with animal mortality and incidence of total tumors including liver, lung, and forestomach. However, only hepatic DNA adducts after 7 d significantly correlated with liver tumor incidence. Most proteins involved in DNA repair including ATM, pATR, Chk1, pChk1, DNA PKcs, XRCC1, FANCD2, Ku80, Mre11 and Brca2 were significantly lower in liver tumor tissue compared to non-tumor tissue. Expression of proteins involved in apoptosis and cell cycle regulation were also significantly different in tumor vs non-tumor tissues and it is possible that PAH-induced changes in these gene products are important for tumor development and growth.
Potential obesity-related policy approaches have recently been receiving more attention. While some have been implemented and others only proposed, few have been formally evaluated. We discuss the relevance, and in some cases irrelevance, of some of the types of evidence that are often brought to bear in considering obesity-related policy decisions. We discuss major methods used to generate such evidence, emphasizing study design and the varying quality of the evidence obtained. Third, we consider what the standards of evidence should be in various contexts, who ought to set those standards, as well as the inherent subjectivity involved in making policy decisions. Finally, we suggest greater transparency from both academics and policymakers in the acknowledgment of subjectivities so they can distinguish and communicate the roles played by empirical evidence and subjective values in the formulation of policy.
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