Validating the underlying assumption of quasi-induced exposure technique disaggregated by crash injury severity

Introduction: Quasi-induced exposure (QIE) technique has been popularly applied in the field of traffic safety research for decades. One of the basic assumptions of QIE theory is that the not-at-fault driving parties (D2s) involved in the crashes are the random selection of overall driving population at the event of crash occurrence. Very few literatures, however, can be identified to validate the assumption for crashes with specific injury severities that may not be satisfied in reality. Method: The study aims to check the validity of the assumption categorized by crash injury severity with the use of Michigan crash data. Latent class analysis is employed to generate several latent classes for the crashes with specific injury outcomes. Chi-square test is adopted to identify the significance of the similarity of D2 distributions among the latent classes. Results: The results indicate that: (a) for fatal crashes the statistical tests do not identify the significant discrepancies for D2 distributions of driver gender, age, and vehicle type between latent classes; (b) for injury crashes, both D2 driver gender and age have the similar distributions between/among various classes, while the D2 vehicle types show the inconsistent distributions; and (c) with respect to property damage only crashes, the distributions of three vehicle-driver characteristics are significantly different among the latent classes. It implies that the underlying assumption may not entirely hold true for all the injury severities and driver-vehicle characteristics. Practical Applications: The findings pinpoint the applicability of the QIE technique under specific scenarios and highlight the importance of validating the underlying assumption of QIE prior to its application.     

The greenhouse work environment: a modifier of occupational pesticide exposure?

Abstract

Greenhouses are enclosed structures which have various characteristics that enhance crop productivity, but the implications for workers’ pesticide exposure and uptake are not well understood. A narrative literature review was conducted to explore the mechanism/s of interactions between greenhouse characteristics and occupational pesticide exposure. Using a “work”, “worker” and “workplace” conceptual framework, the greenhouse environment (hot and humid microclimate, limited space and dense crop arrangements) combines with work characteristics (high work and pesticide use intensity, multi-tasking, predominantly manual spraying techniques and quick reentry to treated farms) to potentially increase occupational pesticide exposure, compared with open field farming. Greenhouse environments, are variable but have been shown to influence pesticide availability, route, pathways and frequency of exposure, deposition and distribution on a worker’s body as well as use and performance of exposure control methods. Training programs can emphasize the differences in exposure potential between greenhouse and open field farming. Development of tailored guidelines for exposure control strategies to better suit the level of uniqueness of greenhouse agriculture seems warranted.     

Gamma aminobutyric acid radioreceptor‐assay a possible biomarker for human exposure to certain agrochemicals

Abstract

Cyclodiene insecticides, hexachlorocyclohexanes, pyrethroids, bicyclophosphates, the bicycloorthocarboxylate insecticides and some of their metabolites and environmental degradation products are central nervous system toxicants with high specific binding affinity to the chloride channel of the γ‐ aminobutyric acid (GABA)_A receptor‐ionophore sites. [³⁵S] tertiary‐butylbicyclophosphorothionate (TBPS) with specific activity higher than 60 Ci/mmole has a high binding affinity to the same sites and is now commercially available and can be used to label the GABA_A receptor for the development of a radioreceptor assay technique. The GABA receptor was prepared by ultra centnfugation and dialysis of brain homogenates of either cow, goat, rat or catfish. The receptor was then labeled with [³⁵S] TBPS and the assay was conducted by measuring the displacement of radioactivity following incubation with samples containing the analytes. A radioreceptor assay protocol was developed to measure the amount of the α‐endosulfan in blood samples. The assay was extremely sensitive, and can detect 0.2 nM of endosulfan at a level equivalent to 0.08 ppb or 8x10^‐11 gm of endosulfan in each ml of the blood samples.     

Data requirements of GREAT-ER: Modelling and validation using LAS in four UK catchments

Higher-tier environmental risk assessments on “down-the-drain” chemicals in river networks can be conducted using models such as GREAT-ER (Geography-referenced Regional Exposure Assessment Tool for European Rivers). It is important these models are evaluated and their sensitivities to input variables understood. This study had two primary objectives: evaluate GREAT-ER model performance, comparing simulated modelled predictions for LAS (linear alkylbenzene sulphonate) with measured concentrations, for four rivers in the UK, and investigate model sensitivity to input variables. We demonstrate that the GREAT-ER model is very sensitive to variability in river discharges. However it is insensitive to the form of distributions used to describe chemical usage and removal rate in sewage treatment plants (STPs). It is concluded that more effort should be directed towards improving empirical estimates of effluent load and reducing uncertainty associated with usage and removal rates in STPs. Simulations could be improved by incorporating the effect of river depth on dissipation rates.     

广州市多污染物联合暴露的健康效应评估

本研究应用贝叶斯核机器回归(BKMR)分析了广州市2015~2018年大气主要污染物(SO₂、NO₂、PM₁₀、PM_2.5、CO和O₃)与非意外死亡之间的联合健康效应。结果表明,6种污染物对健康结局均存在较大影响。随着其它污染物固定百分位数浓度的增加,SO₂、O₃或NO₂的浓度从第25百分位数变化到第75百分位数导致的效应值的绝对值逐渐升高;相反,PM_2.5、CO或PM₁₀的浓度从第25百分位数变化到第75百分位数导致的效应值的绝对值逐渐减少。在累积滞后0~1d时,多种空气污染物的混合暴露对非意外死亡人数的影响效应值为正,与最低浓度相较,当所有污染物的浓度增至第90百分位数时,人数非意外死亡人数将增加21.98%(95%CI:3.04%,44.41%)。通过应用BKMR模型,本研究证实多种污染物的暴露可对广州市人群公共健康造成联合的综合影响。在污染物的防控治理上,不仅需要针对当地主要空气污染物,还需加强对多污染物暴露的防控。     

太阳跟踪反射聚能户外加速曝晒方法的对比研究

目的 找出太阳跟踪反射聚能户外加速曝晒方法的特点和价值。方法 基于几种典型的透明高分子材料试样,分别在佛罗里达典型亚热带潮湿环境自然曝晒、汽车外饰实验室氙灯加速耐候试验及亚利桑那太阳跟踪反射聚能户外加速曝晒黄变结果相关性、加速性和区分度的对比分析,来比较这几种试验方法的特点。结果 户外加速曝晒和自然曝晒的相关性高于氙灯加速试验和自然曝晒的相关性。与自然曝晒相比,户外加速曝晒的平均加速倍率及不同试样的加速倍率的相对差异明显小于氙灯加速试验。自然曝晒和户外加速曝晒的区分度也明显大于实验室氙灯加速试验。结论 户外加速曝晒方法较好地均衡了相关性、加速性、加速一致性及区分度,适合高分子材料的验证性试验。     

杂交水稻对Cd的吸收与籽粒积累:土壤和品种的交互影响

土壤-作物-食物是人类摄取Cd的主要途径,而水稻是籽粒Cd积累最强的粮食作物.选择2种杂交水稻(普通杂交稻“汕优63”和超级稻“Ⅱ优明86”)与乌栅土和红沙泥田2种水稻土为材料,采用添加Cd(2.5 mg/kg)和不添加Cd处理进行盆栽试验,研究了水稻在成熟期对土壤中Cd的吸收及籽粒积累特点.结果表明,杂交水稻对Cd的吸收及籽粒积累依土壤、品种及两者的交互作用而变化.杂交稻对土壤中原有Cd的吸收与积累,基因型影响高于土壤类型的影响,但对外源Cd的吸收与籽粒积累,土壤类型的影响强于品种基因型,而土壤与品种间的正交互作用(Cd吸收强的超级稻种植于土壤Cd化学有效性高的红沙泥田)可使水稻籽粒Cd积累成倍提高.说明在未污染条件下,杂交稻对Cd的吸收与籽粒积累主要受品种的吸收能力控制,而在污染条件下,土壤化学性质对Cd有效性的影响成为土壤-水稻系统Cd迁移的主要控制因素.本实验显示,在酸性土壤或污染条件下,超级稻对Cd的吸收与籽粒积累十分强烈,就地消费人群的籽粒Cd暴露风险水平达到数倍于临界摄入剂量水平.加Cd处理下,汕优63中Cd滞留于根部,而Ⅱ优明86有较强的将Cd向上运输的能力,Ⅱ优明86籽粒Cd积累的不利效应远远超过其产量的增加效应.因此,在高产水稻育种中必须考虑水稻对Cd吸收的基因型差异与籽粒Cd的暴露风险,推广高产杂交水稻根据其Cd的吸收特性考虑土壤-品种的合理布局.     

Environmental fate and bioavailability of agent orange and its associated dioxin during the vietnam war

BACKGROUND: In 1996, the Committee on the Assessment of Wartime Exposure to Herbicides in Vietnam of the National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine (IOM) issued a report on an exposure model for use in epidemiological studies of Vietnam veterans. This exposure model would consider troop locations based on military records; aerial spray mission data; estimated ground spraying activity; estimated exposure opportunity factors; military indications for herbicide use; and considerations of the composition and environmental fate of herbicides, including changes in the TCDD content of the herbicides over time, the persistence of TCDD and herbicides in the environment, and the degree of likely penetration of the herbicides into the ground. When the final report of the IOM Committee was released in October 2003, several components of the exposure model envisioned by the Committee were not addressed. These components included the environmental fate of the herbicides, including changes in the TCDD content over time, the persistence of TCDD and herbicides in the environment, and the degree of likely penetration of herbicides into the ground. This paper is intended to help investigators understand better the fate and transport of herbicides and TCDD from spray missions, particularly in performing epidemiological studies. METHODS: This paper reviews the published scientific literature related to the environmental fate of Agent Orange and the contaminant, 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD), and discusses how this affected the potential exposure to TCDD of ground troops in Vietnam. Specifically, the mechanisms of dissipation and degradation as they relate to environmental distribution and bioavailability are addressed. RESULTS: The evaluation of the spray systems used to disseminate herbicides in Vietnam showed that they were capable of highly precise applications both in terms of concentrations sprayed and area treated. Research on tropical forest canopies with leaf area indices (a measure of foliage density) from 2 to 5 indicated that the amount of herbicide and associated TCDD reaching the forest floor would have been between 1 and 6% of the total aerial spray. Studies of the properties of plant surface waxes of the cuticle layer suggested that Agent Orange, including the TCDD, would have dried (i.e., be absorbed into the wax layer of the plant cuticle) upon spraying within minutes and could not be physically dislodged. Studies of Agent Orange and the associated TCDD on both leaf and soil surface have demonstrated that photolysis by sunlight would have rapidly decreased the concentration of TCDD, and this process continued in shade. Studies of 'dislodgeable foliar residues' (DFR, the fraction of a substance that is available for cutaneous uptake from the plant leaves) showed that only 8% of the DFR was present 1 hr after application. This dropped to 1% of the total 24 hrs after application. Studies with human volunteers confirmed that after 2 hrs of saturated contact with bare skin, only 0.15-0.46% of 2,4,5-T, one of the phenoxy acetic acid compounds that was an active ingredient of Agent Orange, entered the body and was eliminated in the urine. CONCLUSIONS: The prospect of exposure to TCDD from Agent Orange in ground troops in Vietnam seems unlikely in light of the environmental dissipation of TCDD, little bioavailability, and the properties of the herbicides and circumstances of application that occurred. Photochemical degradation of TCDD and limited bioavailability of any residual TCDD present in soil or on vegetation suggest that dioxin concentrations in ground troops who served in Vietnam would have been small and indistinguishable from background levels even if they had been in recently treated areas. Laboratory and field data reported in the literature provide compelling evidence on the fate and dislodgeability of herbicide and TCDD in the environment. This evidence of the environmental fate and poor bioavailability of TCDD from Agent Orange is consistent with the observation of little or no exposure in the veterans who served in Vietnam. Appreciable accumulation of TCDD in veterans would have required repeated long-term direct skin contact of the type experienced by United States (US) Air Force RANCH HAND and US Army Chemical Corps personnel who handled or otherwise had direct contact with liquid herbicide, not from incidental exposure under field conditions where Agent Orange had been sprayed.     

Assessment of polychlorobiphenyls in human/poultry fat and in hair/plumage from a contaminated area

HR gas chromatographic PCB patterns in human/poultry fat tissue and hair/plumage in samples from a polluted region of Bela Krajina /Slovenia/ were investigated. The concentration of PCBs in human adipose tissue was found to be 9.62 μg/g in comparison to 0.67 μg/g in the adipose tissue of the non-exposed population, and in poultry fat 12.80 μg/g on a fat basis. The corresponding values in human hair and poultry plumage were 0.90 μg/g and 0.20 μg/g of original weight. The difference in PCB patterns between fat and hair can be attributed to the different routes of contamination (ingestion, air transport), to the time of exposure and physicochemical properties (octanol- water partition coefficients, Henry's law constants and the metabolism) of some individual congeners. Hair could be used for the assessment of ingestion of contaminated food and of the PCB levels in the air. In fat tissue PCB congeners with higher metabolic stability are enriched, whereas in hair PCB congeners with higher concentrations in air and with high octanol- water partition coefficients predominate.     

基于梯度提升回归树算法的地面臭氧浓度估算

将机器学习中的梯度提升回归树（GBRT）算法应用到中国地区地面O₃浓度制图中,利用地面O₃浓度观测数据,结合WRF气象数据、MODIS植被归一化指数以及高程人口数据建立训练预测数据集.通过反向变量选择法选取模型最佳特征变量对其进行训练,十折交叉验证结果：决定系数R²=0.89、均方根误差RMSE=4.75μg/m³.同时对全国O₃人口暴露水平进行评估.结果表明：在暴露强度上,我国人口加权O₃浓度值排在前5的省依次是山东、河南、江苏、河北、上海,均值浓度为94.48μg/m³.在暴露持续时间上,非达标天数最多的5个省依次是河南、山东、河北、宁夏、北京,一年内有42%的天数处于非达标的状态.