Risk and Recreation: Differences Due to Gender, Age and Education

Dr. Burger explores the differences in risk perception due to gender, age and education with regard to recreation activities on former U.S. Government weapons test sites

Fish Advisories: Useful Or Difficult to Interpret?

The authors note that fish and shellfish offer significant exposure to environmental toxins but find that consumer knowledge and other factors may limit efforts to control risk in urban populations

Hunting and Exposure: Estimating Risk and Future Use at Nuclear Production Sites

The authors advocate specific criteria for informed decisions about the future use - of contaminated nuclear sites. They also compare the implications of official recommendations for one site with results from a study

Obesity and Fertility: A Prospective Cohort Study

Background and Hypothesis: Previous studies have linked body mass index (BMI) with time to pregnancy. The objective of this analysis was to determine if obesity (BMI > 30 kg/m2) is associated with reduced fertility in a cohort of women who discontinued contraceptive method to attempt conception. We hypothesized that BMI is associated with time to conception after controlling for potential confounding variables. Methods: We performed a secondary analysis of the FACT (Fertility After Contraceptive Termination) study. We included 432 women, aged 18-35 years old, who discontinued contraception in an effort to conceive, were sexually active with a male partner, had the ability to consent, and had a minimum of 12 months of follow-up data. Participants were excluded who were already pregnant, had a history of infertility or medically induced sterility or, used depot medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA) in the past 5 months. We collected participant data on demographic, reproductive, medical characteristics, and sexual history, as well as date of contraceptive termination. We used Cox proportional hazard models to assess associations between BMI and time to conception while controlling for race, socioeconomic status, and prior contraceptive method. Results: A BMI of 30 or greater was associated with reduced fertility compared to participants with a BMI of less than 25 after controlling for race, low SES, and prior contraceptive method (HRadj=0.72; 95% CI 0.53, 0.97; p=0.03). We also noted that obese women with regular menses had reduced fertility compared to normal weight participants with regular cycles (HRadj 0.58; 95% CI 0.39, 0.86, p=0.007). For participants with irregular menstrual cycles, BMI was not associated with time to conception. Conclusion & Potential Impact: Our study supports the association of obesity with reduced fertility and increased time to conception. Future studies of weight loss should be considered as a method to improve conception rates

Editorial

Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The AuthorsEvery two years, the Pollutant Toxic Ions and Molecules Conference, PTIM, meets the environmentalist, biologist, chemists and health researchers in Costa de Caparica, Portugal, to showcase the latest technologies, methodologies and research advances in pollution detection, contamination control, remediation, and related health issues, as well as policy implications.publishersversionpublishe

DNA Double-Strand Breakage as an Endpoint to Examine Metal and Radionuclide Exposure Effects to Water Snakes on a Nuclear Industrial Site

This study examined metal levels (especially U and Ni) in the tail tissues of water snakes from contaminated (Tim’s Branch) and reference areas on the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site (SRS). Home ranges of snakes were quantified to determine the ratio of the habitat that they use in relation to the contaminated areas to better estimate exposure Compared to conventional methods that do not. The exposure assessment indicated that water snakes in the contaminated areas could expect U exposure at 3–4 orders of magnitude greater than the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry’sMinimum Risk Level (MRL) from ingestion of amphibians and fish. Ni and U, in addition to Se, Mn, and Cu, were related to increased DNA double-strand breakage (DDSB) in water snakes.We report burdens for each metal individually, but the results of the DDSB indicated that these metals did not behave independently, but as a suite. If we did not have a secondary endpoint (DDSB), we might have assumed from the exposure predictions and tissue burden analyses that U was the sole metal of concern to water snakes in Tim’s Branch. These data also imply that these toxicants do not biomagnify at the spatial and temporal scale of this study

Using Raccoons as an Indicator Species for Metal Accumulation Across Trophic Accumulation across Trophic Levels: A Stable Isotope Approach

: The fact that raccoons (Procyon lotor) are an opportunistic omnivore has severely complicated interpreta- tions of contaminant uptake patterns due to the inability to determine the trophic position an individual occupies. Moreover, few studies have examined the relationships between heavy metal bioaccumulation and trophic struc- ture, especially in the terrestrial environment. In this study, the stable isotopes of nitrogen were used to charac- terize the feeding habits of the raccoon at the population level and to determine whether metal burden was relat- ed to trophic feeding structure within a welldefined ecosystem. Raccoon populations were isotopically distinct, and significant positive relationships existed between some trace element contents and 6 1 5 ~of muscle when site was used as a covariable in a statistical model. Although the transfer of metals through terrestrial ecosystems is com- plex, our study showed that some of the variation in contaminant body burdens in raccoon populations can be attributed to trophic feeding position and that 1 5 ~ / 1 4 ~ ratios of muscle tissue provide a quantitative measure of this process. The potential for using omnivores such as the raccoon, as a sentinel species for contaminant studies, should be explored further since the ambiguity of the relative trophlc level an animal occupies can be directly esti- mated. This provides a more extensive sampling across trophic levels using a single species, which can have broad consequences for ecological risk assessment