Personal exposure to environmental substances is largely determined by time-microenvironment-activity patterns while moving across locations or microenvironments. Therefore, time-microenvironment-activity data are particularly useful in modeling exposure. We investigated determinants of workday time-microenvironment-activity patterns of the adult urban population in seven European cities. The EXPOLIS study assessed workday timemicroenvironment-activity patterns among a total of 1427 subjects (age 19-60 years) in Helsinki (Finland), Athens (Greece), Basel (Switzerland), Grenoble (France), Milan (Italy), Prague (Czech Republic), and Oxford (UK). Subjects completed time-microenvironment-activity diaries during two working days. We present time spent indoors F at home, at work, and elsewhere, and time exposed to tobacco smoke indoors for all cities. The contribution of sociodemographic factors has been assessed using regression models. More than 90% of the variance in indoor time-microenvironmentactivity patterns originated from differences between and within subjects rather than between cities. The most common factors that were associated with indoor time-microenvironment-activity patterns, with similar contributions in all cities, were the specific work status, employment status, whether the participants were living alone, and whether the participants had children at home. Gender and season were associated with indoor timemicroenvironment-activity patterns as well but the effects were rather heterogeneous across the seven cities. Exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke differed substantially across these cities. The heterogeneity of these factors across cities may reflect city-specific characteristics but selection biases in the sampled local populations may also explain part of the findings. Determinants of time-microenvironment-activity patterns need to be taken into account in exposure assessment, epidemiological analyses, exposure simulations, as well as in the development of preventive strategies that focus on timemicroenvironment-activity patterns that ultimately determine exposures.

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BackgroundOrganochlorine (OC) pesticides are a group of environmental endocrine disruptors that may be associated with an increased risk for hormone-related cancers including cancers of the breast and prostate. However, epidemiologic evidence is limited and inconsistent.Objectives and methodsWe used 1999–2004 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data to examine associations between serum concentrations of OC pesticides and prostate and breast cancers.ResultsAfter adjustment for other covariates, serum concentrations of β-hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH) (p for trend = 0.02), trans-nonachlor (p for trend = 0.002), and dieldrin (p for trend = 0.04) were significantly associated with the risk of prevalent prostate cancer. Adjusted odds ratios for the second and third tertiles of detectable values were 1.46 [95% confidence interval (CI), 0.52–4.13] and 3.36 (95% CI, 1.24–9.10) for β -HCH; 5.84 (95% CI, 1.06–32.2) and 14.1 (95% CI, 2.55–77.9) for trans-nonachlor; and 1.06 (95% CI, 0.30–3.73) and 2.74 (95% CI, 1.01–7.49) for dieldrin compared with concentrations in the lowest tertile or below the limit of detection. However, there was no positive association between serum concentrations of OC pesticides and breast cancer prevalence.ConclusionAlthough further study is necessary to confirm these findings, these results suggest that OC pesticide exposures may have a significant effect on cancer risk. Efforts to reduce worldwide OC use are warranted.

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This paper presents the design and evaluation of a tubetype diffusive sampler, the Personal Aldehydes and Ketones Sampler (PAKS). The sampler employs dansylhydrazine (DNSH)-coated solid sorbent to collect aldehydes and ketones (carbonyls). The DNSH-carbonyl derivatives are analyzed using a sensitive HPLC-fluorescence technique. The PAKS was evaluated using test atmospheres containing eight carbonyls for a range of face velocity, temperature, relative humidity, concentration, and sampling duration. The PAKS was also evaluated in the field by comparing results obtained from the PAKS method to those from a conventional DNPH method. The evaluation results indicate that the PAKS is a valid passive sampler for 24-48-h collection of carbonyls in indoor, outdoor, or personal air. The fluorescence detection of DNSH-carbonyl derivatives substantially enhances the sensitivity of the PAKS method as compared to the DNPH method when the sampling rates for the two methods are comparable. The PAKS exposure detection limits for the eight tested carbonyls of relatively large health risk importance (formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, acetone, acrolein, propionaldehyde, crotonaldehyde, benzaldehyde, and hexaldehyde) range from 0.4 to 1.6 (ppb) (day).