The effectiveness of public health interventions to reduce the health impact of climate change:a systematic review of systematic reviews

Climate change is likely to be one of the most important threats to public health in the coming years. Yet despite the large number of papers considering the health impact of climate change, few have considered what public health interventions may be of most value in reducing the disease burden. We aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of public health interventions to reduce the disease burden of high priority climate sensitive diseases

Water safety plans and climate change mitigation

[Excerpt] Definition Quality water at affordable prices for all is a key condition for the promotion of public health, environmental sustainability, and quality and safety of life. In a context of growing external uncertainties arising from changes in the climate and the environment, ensuring these conditions is an upward concern and is of utmost relevance to increase scientific research on the impacts of climate change on water quality modification and in minimization/mitigation strategies

The association between maternal 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentration during gestation and early childhood cardio-metabolic outcomes: is there interaction with pre-pregnancy BMI?

Both maternal 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25OHD) status and pre-pregnancy BMI (pBMI) may influence offspring cardio-metabolic outcomes. Lower 25OHD concentrations have been observed in women with both low and high pBMIs, but the combined influence of pBMI and 25OHD on offspring cardio-metabolic outcomes is unknown. Therefore, this study investigated the role of pBMI in the association between maternal 25OHD concentration and cardio-metabolic outcomes in 5-6 year old children. Data were obtained from the ABCD cohort study and 1882 mother-child pairs were included. The offspring outcomes investigated were systolic and diastolic blood pressure, heart rate, BMI, body fat percentage (%BF), waist-to-height ratio, total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, triglycerides, glucose, C-peptide, and insulin resistance (HOMA2-IR). 62% of the C-peptide samples were below the detection limit and were thus imputed using survival analysis. Models were corrected for maternal and offspring covariates and tested for interaction with pBMI. Interaction with pBMI was observed in the associations with insulin resistance markers: in offspring of overweight mothers (≥25.0 kg/m2), a 10 nmol/L increase in maternal 25OHD was associated with a 0.007(99%CI:-0.01,-0.001) nmol/L decrease in C-peptide and a 0.02(99%CI:-0.03,-0.004) decrease in HOMA2-IR. When only non-imputed data were analyzed, there was a trend for interaction in the relationship but the results lost significance. Interaction with pBMI was not observed for the other outcomes. A 10 nmol/L increase in maternal 25OHD was significantly associated with a 0.13%(99%CI:-0.3,-0.003) decrease in %BF after correction for maternal and child covariates. Thus, intrauterine exposure to both low 25OHD and maternal overweight may be associated with increased insulin resistance in offspring, while exposure to low 25OHD in utero may be associated with increased offspring %BF with no interactive effects from pBMI. Due to the limitations of this study, these results are not conclusive, however the observations of this study pose important research questions for future studies to investigate

Occurrence of N-nitrosodiphenylamine and N-nitrosodimethylamine in 38 Drinking Water Distribution Systems in Canada and the U.S.A.

This study presents the first investigation into the occurrence of N-nitrosodiphenylamine (NDPhA), a thermally unstable nitrosamine, in drinking water from Canada and the United States. NDPhA, in addition to 8 other nitrosamines, were determined in water samples collected from 38 drinking water distribution systems using high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS). Of the 9 nitrosamines analyzed, NDPhA, NMor and NDMA were detected. Our results show that nitrosamine concentrations change in the distribution system, demonstrating that measurements done solely at the water treatment plant may misestimate the nitrosamine concentrations consumers are exposed to and that NDPhA exposure should be explored. These results are useful for directing future exposure assessments and chloramination treatment