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Background: Solar and geomagnetic activity have been shown to suppress melatonin and to degrade folate levels, important hormones for fetal development. We examined whether solar and geomagnetic activity were associated with fetal growth., Methods: We included 9573 singleton births with 26,879 routine ultrasounds at an academic medical center in Eastern Massachusetts from 2011 through 2016. Sunspot number and Kp index were obtained from the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Three exposure windows were considered, including the first 16 weeks of pregnancy, one month prior to fetal growth measurement, and conception until fetal growth measurement (cumulative). Ultrasound scans from which we extracted biparietal diameter, head circumference, femur length, and abdominal circumference measurements were categorized as anatomic (<24 weeks' gestation) or growth scans (≥24 weeks' gestation) based on clinical practice. Ultrasound parameters and birth weight were standardized, and linear mixed models adjusted for long-term trends were fitted., Results: Prenatal exposures were positively associated with larger head parameters measured <24 weeks' gestation, negatively associated with smaller fetal parameters measured ≥24 weeks' gestation, and not associated with birth weight. The strongest associations were observed for cumulative exposure in growth scans, where an interquartile range increase in sunspot number (32.87 sunspots) was associated with a -0.17 (95 % CI: -0.26, -0.08), -0.25 (-0.36, -0.15), and -0.13 (95 % CI: -0.23, -0.03) difference in mean biparietal diameter, head circumference, and femur length z-score, respectively. An interquartile range increase in cumulative Kp index (0.49) was associated with a -0.11 (95 % CI: -0.22, -0.01) and -0.11 (95 % CI: -0.20, -0.02) difference in mean head circumference and abdominal circumference z-score, respectively, in growth scans., Conclusions: Solar and geomagnetic activity were associated with fetal growth. Future studies are needed to better understand the impact of these natural phenomena on clinical endpoints., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: Ambient air pollution is among the greatest environmental risks to human health. However, little is known about the health effects of nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ), a traffic-related air pollutant. Herein, we aimed to conduct a meta-analysis to investigate the long-term effects of NO 2 on mortality., Methods: We conducted a systematic search for studies that were published up to February 2020 and performed a meta-analysis of all available epidemiologic studies evaluating the associations between long-term exposure to NO 2 with all-cause, cardiovascular, and respiratory mortality. Overall pooled effect estimates as well as subgroup-specific pooled estimates (e.g. location, exposure assessment method, exposure metric, study population, age at recruitment, and key confounder adjustment) and 95% confidence intervals were calculated using random-effects models. Risk of bias assessment was accessed by following WHO global air quality guidelines. Publication bias was accessed by visually inspecting funnel plot and Egger's liner regression was used to test of asymmetry., Results: Our search initially retrieved 1349 unique studies, of which 34 studies met the inclusion criteria. The pooled hazard ratio (HR) for all-cause mortality was 1.06 (95%CI: 1.04-1.08, n = 28 studies, I 2  = 98.6%) per 10 ppb increase in annual NO 2 concentrations. The pooled HRs for cardiovascular and respiratory mortality per 10 ppb increment were 1.11 (95%CI: 1.07-1.16, n = 20 studies, I 2  = 99.2%) and 1.05 (95%CI: 1.02-1.08, n = 17 studies, I 2  = 94.6%), respectively. The sensitivity analysis pooling estimates from multi-pollutant models suggest an independent effect of NO 2 on mortality. Funnel plots indicate that there is no evidence for publication bias in our study., Conclusion: We provide robust epidemiological evidence that long-term exposure to NO 2 , a proxy for traffic-sourced air pollutants, is associated with a higher risk of all-cause, cardiovascular, and respiratory mortality that might be independent of other common air pollutants., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare no competing interests., (Copyright © 2021. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Background: Exposure to ionizing radiation increases the risk of chronic metabolic disorders such as insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. Internal ionizing radiation from inhaled radioactive aerosol may contribute to the associations between fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 ) and gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM)., Methods: We used the Massachusetts Registry of Vital Records to study 1,061,937 pregnant women from 2001 to 2015 with a singleton pregnancy without pre-existing diabetes. Gross β activity measured by seven monitors of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's RadNet monitoring network was utilized to represent ambient particle radioactivity (PR). We obtained GDM status from birth certificates and used logistic regression analyses adjusted for socio-demographics, maternal comorbidities, PM 2.5 , temperature and relative humidity. We also examined effect modification by smoking habits., Results: Ambient particle radioactivity exposure during first and second trimester of pregnancy was associated with higher odds of GDM (OR: 1.18 (95% CI 1.10 to 1.22). Controlling for PM 2.5 did not substantially change the effects of PR on GDM. In women that reported being former or current smokers, the association between PR and GDM was null. In the full cohort, the overall effect of PM 2.5 on GDM without adjusting for PR was not significant., Conclusion: This is the first population-based study to examine the association between particle radioactivity and gestational diabetes mellitus - one of the most common pregnancy-related diseases with lifelong effects for the mother and the fetus. This finding has important public health policy implications because it enhances our understanding about the toxicity of PR, a modifiable risk factor, which to date, has been considered only as an indoor and occupational air quality risk., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The characteristics of desert dust storms (DDS) have been shown to change in response to climate change and land use. There is limited information on the frequency and intensity of DDS over the last decade at a regional scale in the Eastern Mediterranean. An algorithm based on daily ground measurements (PM 10 , particulate matter ≤10 μm), satellite products (dust aerosol optical depth) and meteorological parameters, was used to identify dust intrusions for three Eastern Mediterranean locations (Crete-Greece, Cyprus, and Israel) between 2006 and 2017. Days with 24-hr average PM 10 concentration above ~30 μg/m 3 were found to be a significant indicator of DDS for the background sites of Cyprus and Crete. Higher thresholds were found for Israel depending on the season (fall and spring: PM 10  > 70 μg/m 3 , winter and summer: PM 10  > 90 μg/m 3 ). We observed a high variability in the frequency and intensity of DDS during the last decade, characterized by a steady trend with sporadic peaks. The years with the highest DDS frequency were not necessarily the years with the most intense episodes. Specifically, the highest dust frequency was observed in 2010 at all three locations, but the highest annual median dust-PM 10 level was observed in 2012 in Crete (55.8 μg/m 3 ) and Israel (137.4 μg/m 3 ), and in 2010 in Cyprus (45.3 μg/m 3 ). Crete and Cyprus experienced the same most intense event in 2006, with 24 h-PM 10 average of 705.7 μg/m 3 and 1254.6 μg/m 3 , respectively, which originated from Sahara desert. The highest 24 h-PM10 average concentration for Israel was observed in 2010 (3210.9 μg/m 3 ) during a three-day Saharan dust episode. However, a sub-analysis for Cyprus (years 2000-2017) suggests a change in DDS seasonality pattern, intensity, and desert of origin. For more robust conclusions on DDS trends in relation to climate change, future work needs to study data over several decades from different locations., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)