Childhood leukemia and residential proximity to industrial and urban sites

BACKGROUND: Few risk factors for the childhood leukemia are well established. While a small fraction of cases of childhood leukemia might be partially attributable to some diseases or ionizing radiation exposure, the role of industrial and urban pollution also needs to be assessed. OBJECTIVES: To ascertain the possible effect of residential proximity to both industrial and urban areas on childhood leukemia, taking into account industrial groups and toxic substances released. METHODS: We conducted a population-based case-control study of childhood leukemia in Spain, covering 638 incident cases gathered from the Spanish Registry of Childhood Tumors and for those Autonomous Regions with 100% coverage (period 1990-2011), and 13,188 controls, individually matched by year of birth, sex, and autonomous region of residence. Distances were computed from the respective subject's residences to the 1068 industries and the 157 urban areas with ≥10,000 inhabitants, located in the study area. Using logistic regression, odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (95%CIs) for categories of distance to industrial and urban pollution sources were calculated, with adjustment for matching variables. RESULTS: Excess risk of childhood leukemia was observed for children living near (≤2.5 km) industries (OR=1.31; 95%CI=1.03-1.67) - particularly glass and mineral fibers (OR=2.42; 95%CI=1.49-3.92), surface treatment using organic solvents (OR=1.87; 95%CI=1.24-2.83), galvanization (OR=1.86; 95%CI=1.07-3.21), production and processing of metals (OR=1.69; 95%CI=1.22-2.34), and surface treatment of metals (OR=1.62; 95%CI=1.22-2.15) - , and urban areas (OR=1.36; 95%CI=1.02-1.80). CONCLUSIONS: Our study furnishes some evidence that living in the proximity of industrial and urban sites may be a risk factor for childhood leukemia.This study was funded by Spain’s Health Research Fund (Fondode Investigación Sanitaria–FIS 12/01416 and FIS CP11/00112).S

Association between residential proximity to environmental pollution sources and childhood renal tumors

FI=3.835 (año 2016), Q1Background: Few risk factors for childhood renal tumors are well established. While a small fraction of cases might be attributable to susceptibility genes and congenital anomalies, the role of environmental factors needs to be assessed. Objectives: To explore the possible association between residential proximity to environmental pollution sources (industrial and urban areas, and agricultural crops) and childhood renal cancer, taking into account industrial groups and toxic substances released. Methods: We conducted a population-based case-control study of childhood renal cancer in Spain, including 213 incident cases gathered from the Spanish Registry of Childhood Tumors (period 1996-2011), and 1278 controls individually matched by year of birth, sex, and region of residence. Distances were computed from the respective subject's residences to the 1271 industries, the 30 urban areas with ≥75,000 inhabitants, and the agricultural crops located in the study area. Using logistic regression, odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (95%CIs) for categories of distance to pollution sources were calculated, with adjustment for matching variables and socioeconomic confounders. Results: Excess risk (OR; 95%CI) of childhood renal tumors was observed for children living near (≤2.5km) industrial installations as a whole (1.97; 1.13-3.42) - particularly glass and mineral fibers (2.69; 1.19-6.08), galvanization (2.66; 1.14-6.22), hazardous waste (2.59; 1.25-5.37), ceramic (2.35; 1.06-5.21), surface treatment of metals (2.25; 1.24-4.08), organic chemical industry (2.22; 1.15-4.26), food and beverage sector (2.19; 1.18-4.07), urban and waste-water treatment plants (2.14; 1.07-4.30), and production and processing of metals (1.98; 1.03-3.82) -, and in the proximity of agricultural crops (3.16; 1.54-8.89 for children with percentage of crop surface ≥24.35% in a 1-km buffer around their residences). Conclusions: Our study provides some epidemiological evidence that living near certain industrial areas and agricultural crops may be a risk factor for childhood renal cancer.This study was funded by Spain's Health Research Fund (Fondo de Investigación Sanitaria - FIS 12/01416 and FIS CP11/00112).N

Tourism economics research: A review and assessment

This paper aims to provide the most up-to-date survey of tourism economics research and to summarise the key trends in its recent development. Particular attention is paid to the research progress made over the last decade in respect of approaches, methodological innovations, emerging topics, research gaps, and directions for future research. Remarkable but unbalanced developments have been observed across different sub-research areas in tourism economics. While neoclassical economics has contributed the most to the development of tourism economics, alternative schools of thought in economics have also emerged in advancing our understanding of tourism from different perspectives. As tourism studies are multi- and inter-disciplinary, integrating economics with other social science disciplines will further contribute to knowledge creation in tourism studies

Iron Behaving Badly: Inappropriate Iron Chelation as a Major Contributor to the Aetiology of Vascular and Other Progressive Inflammatory and Degenerative Diseases

The production of peroxide and superoxide is an inevitable consequence of aerobic metabolism, and while these particular "reactive oxygen species" (ROSs) can exhibit a number of biological effects, they are not of themselves excessively reactive and thus they are not especially damaging at physiological concentrations. However, their reactions with poorly liganded iron species can lead to the catalytic production of the very reactive and dangerous hydroxyl radical, which is exceptionally damaging, and a major cause of chronic inflammation. We review the considerable and wide-ranging evidence for the involvement of this combination of (su)peroxide and poorly liganded iron in a large number of physiological and indeed pathological processes and inflammatory disorders, especially those involving the progressive degradation of cellular and organismal performance. These diseases share a great many similarities and thus might be considered to have a common cause (i.e. iron-catalysed free radical and especially hydroxyl radical generation). The studies reviewed include those focused on a series of cardiovascular, metabolic and neurological diseases, where iron can be found at the sites of plaques and lesions, as well as studies showing the significance of iron to aging and longevity. The effective chelation of iron by natural or synthetic ligands is thus of major physiological (and potentially therapeutic) importance. As systems properties, we need to recognise that physiological observables have multiple molecular causes, and studying them in isolation leads to inconsistent patterns of apparent causality when it is the simultaneous combination of multiple factors that is responsible. This explains, for instance, the decidedly mixed effects of antioxidants that have been observed, etc...Comment: 159 pages, including 9 Figs and 2184 reference

Isoprene contribution to ozone production under climate change conditions in the French Mediterranean area

International audience26 Tropospheric ozone is a strong oxidant which affects human health, agricultural yields, and 27 ecosystems functioning. Thus, it is very important to determine ozone formation in order to 28 control air pollution. It is well known that isoprene participates in ozone formation. In this 29 study, we assess the potential impact of climate change in the Mediterranean region on ozone 30 concentration, through drought-related increase or decrease in isoprene emissions after 1 (Short 31 Drought scenario-1 year of 35% annual rain restriction) and 3 (Long Drought scenario-3 32 repeated years of 35% annual restriction) years of drought stress. 3