Actual measure-based studies have estimated ingestion rate of moderate and high daily use to female college students and career women in northeast of China. Sequential extraction analyses showed that total bioaccessible metals concentration in lipstick ranged from 2.103 to 31.103 μg/g and in lip balm ranged from 0.100 to 3.716 μg/g. The relationship between total bioaccessible metal concentrations and the cost of lip cosmetics showed a negative correlation. Lead was detected in all 30 products (100%), with an average concentration of 0.346 for lip balm and 0.407 μg/g for lipstick. With the exception of chromium content in three lipsticks, the estimated exposure in female college students and career women to target metals via lipstick and lip balm ingestion (calculated for moderate and high use) were much lower than the acceptable reference limits. The findings strongly emphasize the need to focus on the health risk of lip balm.

The aim of this study was to investigate the association between exposure to extremely low frequency magnetic fields (ELF MF), or power frequency fields, and non-specific physical symptoms (NSPS). In a cross-sectional study, personal exposure to ELF MF was measured for 99 adults selected in and around Amsterdam, the Netherlands in 2009–2010. They were scored on 16 NSPS. As a cut-off point for the individual 24-h time weighted average exposure the 80-percentile (0.09 μT) was chosen. As only one man scored “moderately high” on the somatisation scale against nine women, we decided to proceed analyses only with the 48 women. The crude odds ratio (OR) for women was 8.50 (CI 95%: 1.73–46.75), suggesting that for women environmental exposure to ELF MF is associated with an increased score on NSPS. As this is an exploratory cross-sectional study in a relatively small sample, no conclusions regarding causality can be drawn.

We investigated whether there might be excess ovarian cancer mortality among women residing near Spanish industries, according to different categories of industrial groups and toxic substances. An ecologic study was designed to examine ovarian cancer mortality at a municipal level (period 1997–2006). Population exposure to pollution was estimated by means of distance from town to facility. Using Poisson regression models, we assessed the relative risk of dying from ovarian cancer in zones around installations, and analyzed the effect of industrial groups and pollutant substances. Excess ovarian cancer mortality was detected in the vicinity of all sectors combined, and, principally, near refineries, fertilizers plants, glass production, paper production, food/beverage sector, waste treatment plants, pharmaceutical industry and ceramic. Insofar as substances were concerned, statistically significant associations were observed for installations releasing metals and polycyclic aromatic chemicals. These results support that residing near industries could be a risk factor for ovarian cancer mortality.

Concentrations (including isomer patterns) and temporal changes (1997–2012) of perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAAs) and selected perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluoroalkyl carboxylic acid (PFCA) precursors were determined in serum samples from Swedish women. Perfluorooctane sulfonamide (FOSA) and perfluorooctane sulfonamidoacetic acid (FOSAA), as well as its N-methyl and N-ethyl derivatives (MeFOSAA and EtFOSAA) were consistently detected. Highest PFOS precursor concentrations were found for EtFOSAA (before year 2000) or MeFOSAA and FOSAA (after 2000). Disappearance half-lives for all PFOS precursors were shorter compared to PFOS. 4:2/6:2 and 6:2/6:2 polyfluoroalkyl phosphate diesters (diPAPs) were detected in <60% of the samples, whereas 6:2/8:2 and 8:2/8:2 diPAPs were detected in >60% of the samples, but showed no significant change in concentrations over time. Linear and sum-branched isomers were quantified separately for three PFAAs and three precursors. Significant changes between 1997 and 2012 in the % linear isomer were observed for PFOA and FOSA (increase) and PFOS (decrease).

Female infertility rates have increased by approximately 4% since the 1980s. There is evidence of adverse effects on female fertility in relation to exposure of chemical pollution in recent years. Follicular fluid samples were collected from 127 woman patients (aged 20–35) who underwent assisted reproductive technologies (ART) and had no records indicating occupational exposure to OCPs. Seventeen OCPs were analyzed in this study. The results showed that methoxychlor was dominant, accounted for 13.4% of total OCPs with a mean concentration of 167.9 ± 33.9 ng/g lipid weight (lw), followed by heptachlor-epoxide, hexachlorocyclohexanes, endrin and DDT. The concentrations of OCPs in the follicular fluid samples in the present study were moderate in comparison with those reported from developed or industrialized countries. All these pollutants can accumulate in different tissues of human body through diet, drinking water and respiration. No correlation between patient age and OCP concentrations was observed in this study.

To Date, the knowledge on relationship between PCBs/PBDEs exposure and thyroid hormones (THs) levels during pregnancy still needs to be extended. Meanwhile, studies on congener-specific adipose-serum ratios for PCBs/PBDEs were limited. This study reports the levels of PCBs/PBDEs in serum-adipose tissue samples (n = 64) from expectant women living surrounding e-waste recycling sites in Wenling, China. Their concentrations varied from several to hundreds of ng g−1 lipid. Maternal exposure to PCBs was associated with lower TSH during pregnancy, suggesting possible implication for maternal health and fetal development. The compound levels between the adipose tissue and matched serum samples were highly correlated (p < 0.001), generating a predicted adipose-serum partitioning relationship for individual PCB congener and PBDE congener. Molecular characteristics, such as Kow value, molecular weight and molecular volume, may play a key role in the variable partitioning of some compounds between serum and adipose tissue.

It remains uncertain whether air pollution modifies the magnitude and time course of the temperature-mortality association. We applied a distributed lag non-linear model (DLNM) combined with non-linear interaction terms to assess the modifying effects of particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter of 10 μm or less (PM10) on the association between mean temperature and mortality in Guangzhou, China. We found that both cold and hot effects increased with the quartiles of PM10. The elderly were more vulnerable to cold and hot effects. Men suffered more from cold-related mortality than women, with the gender difference enlarging with the quartiles of PM10. We identified statistically significant interaction effects between PM10 and mean temperature on mortality (except for respiratory mortality). Cold and hot effects basically appeared acutely on highly polluted days, while effects were delayed on lowly polluted days. The findings indicate the importance of reducing PM10 emission on extremely temperature days.

To assess the public's understanding of the main sources of air pollution in Nanchang and factors influencing their perceptions of Nanchang's air quality status, a face–to–face survey data was collected at the provincial children's hospital and four kindergarten classes in Nanchang. A total of 989 parents with children between the ages of 2 to 10 years old participated in the survey. Among which 69% of respondents believed that the current air quality was worse than three years ago. This study reveals that parents who were under 40 years old of age with higher education level and international travel experience, had higher level awareness of air pollution. Men tend to have lower knowledge of air pollution as compared to women. The top three selected sources of air pollution were motor vehicles (78.5%), waste burning (56.3%) and industrial facilities (53.7%). In addition, 79.8% of respondents believed that the government did not spend enough on environmental protection and 96.8% suggested to increase government funding to improve air quality. The majority of respondents (>90%) strongly urges the Nanchang government to prioritize environmental protection. The findings from this study suggest the need for the government to improve the awareness of the main sources of air pollution, especially to residents of rural areas with lower levels of education, to more effectively and efficiently control air pollution in Nanchang.

Bisphenol A (BPA) is an ubiquitous chemical, which is an endocrine disruptor. Recent epidemiological studies have suggested a relationship between BPA exposure and body weight. However, most of these studies were cross-sectional and not on elderly people. We conducted a panel study with repeated measurements to evaluate the relationship between BPA and overweight in elderly people. A total of 560 elderly participants aged ≥60 years were recruited in Seoul from 2008 to 2010. Urinary BPA levels and body mass index (BMI, kg/m²) were measured at every visit. We defined a BMI ≥25 as overweight and examined the relations between urinary BPA and BMI or overweight. Repeated measures analysis was performed after adjusting for age, sex, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels, alcohol consumption, regular exercise, total calorie intake, fatty acid intake, urinary cotinine levels, and the status of diabetes mellitus. The geometric mean of BPA was 0.67 μg/g creatinine. The odds ratio (OR) of overweight was 1.17 (95 % confidence interval [CI] 1.04–1.32) per interquartile range increase of log-transformed BPA. When stratified based on sex, we observed a significant association in women (OR 1.25; 95 % CI 1.09–1.45) but not in men (OR 0.97; 95 % CI 0.77–1.22). The ORs of overweight increased with quartiles of BPA in women (quartile 2 vs 1: OR 1.54; 95 % CI 1.02–2.32, 3 vs 1: OR 1.70; 95 % CI 1.10–2.62, and 4 vs 1: OR 1.81; 95 % CI 1.13–2.92). Our results suggest that urinary BPA levels are significantly associated with overweight in elderly women but not elderly men.

Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) have been of environmental and health concern for more than half a century and have their own intergovernmental regulation through the Stockholm Convention, from 2001. One major concern is the nursing child’s exposure to POPs, a concern that has led to a very large number of scientific studies on POPs in mothers’ milk. The present review is a report on the assessment on worldwide spatial distributions of POPs and of their temporal trends. The data presented herein is a compilation based on scientific publications between 1995 and 2011. It is evident that the concentrations in mothers’ milk depend on the use of pesticides and industrial chemicals defined as POPs. Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and “dioxins” are higher in the more industrialized areas, Europe and Northern America, whereas pesticides are higher in Africa and Asia and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) are reported in higher concentrations in the USA. POPs are consequently distributed to women in all parts of the world and are thus delivered to the nursing child. The review points out several major problems in the reporting of data, which are crucial to enable high quality comparisons. Even though the data set is large, the comparability is hampered by differences in reporting. In conclusion, much more detailed instructions are needed for reporting POPs in mothers’ milk. Temporal trend data for POPs in mothers’ milk is scarce and is of interest when studying longer time series. The only two countries with long temporal trend studies are Japan and Sweden. In most cases, the trends show decreasing concentrations of POPs in mothers’ milk. However, hexabromocyclododecane is showing increasing temporal concentration trends in both Japan and Sweden.