Residential Environmental Exposures and other Characteristics Associated with Detectable PAH-DNA Adducts in Peripheral Mononuclear Cells in a Population-Based Sample of Adult Females

The detection of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH)-DNA adducts in human lymphocytes may be useful as a surrogate end point for individual cancer risk prediction. In this study, we examined the relationship between environmental sources of residential PAH, as well as other potential factors that may confound their association with cancer risk, and the detection of PAH-DNA adducts in a large population-based sample of adult women. Adult female residents of Long Island, New York, aged at least 20 years were identified from the general population between August 1996 and July 1997. Among 1556 women who completed a structured questionnaire, 941 donated sufficient blood (25+ ml) to allow use of a competitive ELISA for measurement of PAH-DNA adducts in peripheral blood mononuclear cells. Ambient PAH exposure at the current residence was estimated using geographic modeling (n=796). Environmental home samples of dust (n=356) and soil (n=360) were collected on a random subset of long-term residents (15+ years). Multivariable regression was conducted to obtain the best-fitting predictive models. Three separate models were constructed based on data from : (A) the questionnaire, including a dietary history; (B) environmental home samples; and (C) geographic modeling. Women who donated blood in summer and fall had increased odds of detectable PAH-DNA adducts (OR=2.65, 95% confidence interval (CI)=1.69, 4.17; OR=1.59, 95% CI=1.08, 2.32, respectively), as did current and past smokers (OR=1.50, 95% CI=1.00, 2.24; OR=1.46, 95% CI=1.05, 2.02, respectively). There were inconsistent associations between detectable PAH-DNA adducts and other known sources of residential PAH, such as grilled and smoked foods, or a summary measure of total dietary benzo-[a]-pyrene (BaP) intake during the year prior to the interview. Detectable PAH-DNA adducts were inversely associated with increased BaP levels in dust in the home, but positively associated with BaP levels in soil outside of the home, although CIs were wide. Ambient BaP estimates from the geographic model were not associated with detectable PAH-DNA adducts. These data suggest that PAH-DNA adducts detected in a population-based sample of adult women with ambient exposure levels reflect some key residential PAH exposure sources assessed in this study, such as cigarette smoking

Environmental toxins and breast cancer on Long Island. I. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon DNA adducts

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) are potent mammary carcinogens in rodents, but their effect on breast cancer development in women is not clear. To examine whether currently measurable PAH damage to DNA increases breast cancer risk, a population-based case-control study was undertaken on Long Island, NY. Cases were women newly diagnosed with in situ and invasive breast cancer; controls were randomly selected women frequency matched to the age distribution of cases. Blood samples were donated by 1102 (73.0%) and 1141 (73.3%) of case and control respondents, respectively. Samples from 576 cases and 427 controls were assayed for PAH-DNA adducts using an ELISA. The geometric mean (and geometric SD) of the log-transformed levels of PAH-DNA adducts on a natural scale was slightly, but nonsignificantly, higher among cases [7.36 (7.29)] than among controls [6.21 (4.17); p = 0.51]. The age-adjusted odds ratio (OR) for breast cancer in relation to the highest quintile of adduct levels compared with the lowest was 1.51 [95% confidence interval (CI), 1.04 –2.20], with little or no evidence of substantial confounding (corresponding multivariate-adjusted OR, 1.49; 95% CI, 1.00 –2.21). There was no consistent elevation in risk with increasing adduct levels, nor was there a consistent association between adduct levels and two of the main sources of PAH, active or passive cigarette smoking or consumption of grilled and smoked foods. These data indicate that PAH-DNA adduct formation may influence breast cancer development, although the association does not appear to be dose dependent and may have a threshold effect

Overview of the DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys

The DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys (http://legacysurvey.org/) are a combination of three public projects (the Dark Energy Camera Legacy Survey, the Beijing–Arizona Sky Survey, and the Mayall z-band Legacy Survey) that will jointly image ≈14,000 deg2 of the extragalactic sky visible from the northern hemisphere in three optical bands (g, r, and z) using telescopes at the Kitt Peak National Observatory and the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory. The combined survey footprint is split into two contiguous areas by the Galactic plane. The optical imaging is conducted using a unique strategy of dynamically adjusting the exposure times and pointing selection during observing that results in a survey of nearly uniform depth. In addition to calibrated images, the project is delivering a catalog, constructed by using a probabilistic inference-based approach to estimate source shapes and brightnesses. The catalog includes photometry from the grz optical bands and from four mid-infrared bands (at 3.4, 4.6, 12, and 22 μm) observed by the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer satellite during its full operational lifetime. The project plans two public data releases each year. All the software used to generate the catalogs is also released with the data. This paper provides an overview of the Legacy Surveys project