Breast cancer risk and drinking water contaminated by wastewater: a case control study

BACKGROUND: Drinking water contaminated by wastewater is a potential source of exposure to mammary carcinogens and endocrine disrupting compounds from commercial products and excreted natural and pharmaceutical hormones. These contaminants are hypothesized to increase breast cancer risk. Cape Cod, Massachusetts, has a history of wastewater contamination in many, but not all, of its public water supplies; and the region has a history of higher breast cancer incidence that is unexplained by the population's age, in-migration, mammography use, or established breast cancer risk factors. We conducted a case-control study to investigate whether exposure to drinking water contaminated by wastewater increases the risk of breast cancer. METHODS: Participants were 824 Cape Cod women diagnosed with breast cancer in 1988–1995 and 745 controls who lived in homes served by public drinking water supplies and never lived in a home served by a Cape Cod private well. We assessed each woman's exposure yearly since 1972 at each of her Cape Cod addresses, using nitrate nitrogen (nitrate-N) levels measured in public wells and pumping volumes for the wells. Nitrate-N is an established wastewater indicator in the region. As an alternative drinking water quality indicator, we calculated the fraction of recharge zones in residential, commercial, and pesticide land use areas. RESULTS: After controlling for established breast cancer risk factors, mammography, and length of residence on Cape Cod, results showed no consistent association between breast cancer and average annual nitrate-N (OR = 1.8; 95% CI 0.6 – 5.0 for ≥ 1.2 vs. < .3 mg/L), the sum of annual nitrate-N concentrations (OR = 0.9; 95% CI 0.6 – 1.5 for ≥ 10 vs. 1 to < 10 mg/L), or the number of years exposed to nitrate-N over 1 mg/L (OR = 0.9; 95% CI 0.5 – 1.5 for ≥ 8 vs. 0 years). Variation in exposure levels was limited, with 99% of women receiving some of their water from supplies with nitrate-N levels in excess of background. The total fraction of residential, commercial, and pesticide use land in recharge zones of public supply wells was associated with a small statistically unstable higher breast cancer incidence (OR = 1.4; 95% CI 0.8–2.4 for highest compared with lowest land use), but risk did not increase for increasing land use fractions. CONCLUSION: Results did not provide evidence of an association between breast cancer and drinking water contaminated by wastewater. The computer mapping methods used in this study to link routine measurements required by the Safe Drinking Water Act with interview data can enhance individual-level epidemiologic studies of multiple health outcomes, including diseases with substantial latency

Biogeographical analyses to facilitate targeted conservation of orchid diversity hotspots in Costa Rica

Aim: We conduct a biogeographical assessment of orchids in a global biodiversity hotspot to explore their distribution and occurrences of local hotspots while identifying geographic attributes underpinning diversity patterns. We evaluate habitat characteristics associated with orchid diversity hotspots and make comparisons to other centres of orchid diversity to test for global trends. The ultimate goal was to identify an overall set of parameters that effectively characterize critical habitats to target in local and global orchid conservation efforts. Location: Costa Rica; Mesoamerica. Taxon: Orchidaceae. Methods: Data from an extensive set of herbarium records were used to map orchid distributions and to identify diversity hotspots. Hotspot data were combined with geographic attribute data, including environmental and geopolitical variables, and a random forest regression model was utilized to assess the importance of each variable for explaining the distribution of orchid hotspots. A likelihood model was created based on variable importance to identify locations where suitable habitats and unidentified orchid hotspots might occur. Results: Orchids were widely distributed and hotspots occurred primarily in mountainous regions, but occasionally at lower elevations. Precipitation and vegetation cover were the most important predictive variables associated with orchid hotspots. Variable values underpinning Costa Rican orchid hotspots were similar to those reported at other sites worldwide. Models also identified suitable habitats for sustaining orchid diversity that occurred outside of known hotspots and protected areas. Main conclusions: Several orchid diversity hotspots and potentially suitable habitats occur outside of known distributions and/or protected areas. Recognition of these sites and their associated geographic attributes provides clear targets for optimizing orchid conservation efforts in Costa Rica, although certain caveats warrant consideration. Habitats linked with orchid hotspots in Costa Rica were similar to those documented elsewhere, suggesting the existence of a common biogeographical trend regarding critical habitats for orchid conservation in disparate tropical regions.Universidad de Puerto Rico/[]/UPR/Puerto RicoUniversidad de Costa Rica/[]/UCR/Costa RicaUCR::Vicerrectoría de Investigación::Unidades de Investigación::Ciencias Agroalimentarias::Jardín Botánico Lankester (JBL

Distribution and habitat of unionid mussels and invasive sea lamprey larvae in the Paw Paw River, a tributary of Lake Michigan

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/91129/1/j.1365-2427.2012.02777.x.pd

Predicting invasions of North American basses in Japan using native range data and a genetic algorithm

Largemouth bass Micropterus salmoides and smallmouth bass M. dolomieu have been introduced into freshwater habitats in Japan, with potentially serious consequences for native fish populations. In this paper we apply the technique of ecological niche modeling using the genetic algorithm for rule-set prediction (GARP) to predict the potential distributions of these two species in Japan. This algorithm constructs a niche model based on point occurrence records and ecological coverages. The model can be visualized in geographic space, yielding a prediction of potential geographic range. The model can then be tested by determining how well independent point occurrence data are predicted according to the criteria of sensitivity and specificity provided by receiver–operator curve analysis. We ground-truthed GARP’s ability to forecast the geographic occurrence of each species in its native range. The predictions were statistically significant for both species (P , 0.001). We projected the niche models onto the Japanese landscape to visualize the potential geographic ranges of both species in Japan. We tested these predictions using known occurrences from introduced populations of largemouth bass, both in the aggregate and by habitat type. All analyses robustly predicted known Japanese occurrences (P , 0.001). The number of smallmouth bass in Japan was too small for statistical tests, but the 10 known occurrences were predicted by the majority of models