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BACKGROUND: Nutritional quality, and health and climate impacts are important considerations in the design of sustainable diets. OBJECTIVES: To investigate the association between diets varying in nutrient density and climate impact and MI and stroke HRs. METHODS: Dietary data of 41,194 women and 39,141 men (35-65 y) who participated in a Swedish population-based cohort study were employed. Nutrient density was calculated using the Sweden-adapted Nutrient Rich Foods 11.3 index. Dietary climate impact was calculated with data from life cycle assessments, including greenhouse gas emissions from primary production to industry gate. HRs and 95% CIs for MI and stroke were assessed with multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression, comparing a least-desirable diet scenario reference group (lower nutrient density, higher climate impact) with three diet groups that varied with respect to higher/lower nutrient density and higher/lower climate impact. RESULTS: Median follow-up time from the baseline study visit to MI or stroke diagnosis was 15.7 y for women and 12.8 y for men. The MI hazard was significantly higher for the men with diets of lower nutrient density and lower climate impact (HR: 1.19; 95% CI: 1.06, 1.33; P = 0.004), compared with the reference group. No significant association with MI was observed for any of the diet groups of women. No significant association with stroke was observed among any of the diet groups of women or men. CONCLUSIONS: The results among men suggest some adverse health effects for men when diet quality is not considered in the pursuit of more climate-sustainable diets. For women, no significant associations were detected. The mechanism underlying this association for men needs further investigation.

Expressing the environmental impact of foods in relation to the nutritional quality is a promising approach in the search for methods integrating interdisciplinary sustainability perspectives. However, the lack of standardized methods regarding how to include nutrient metrics can lead to unharmonized results difficult to interpret. We evaluated nutrient density indexes by systematically assessing the role of methodological variables with the purpose of identifying the index able to rank foods with the highest coherence with the Swedish dietary guidelines. Among 45 variants of the nutrient density index NRF (Nutrient Rich Food), a Sweden-tailored NRF11.3 index, including 11 desirable nutrients and 3 undesirable nutrients, calculated per portion size or 100 kcal with the application of weighting, ranked foods most coherently with the guidelines. This index is suggested to be suitable as complementary functional unit (FU) in comparative life cycle assessment (LCA) studies across food categories. The results clarify implications of methodological choices when calculating nutrient density of foods and offer guidance to LCA researchers on which nutrition metric to use when integrating nutritional aspects in food LCA. © 2020 by the authors. Funding: This research was funded by Stiftelsen Lantbruksforskning, grant no R-18-26-133.

The objective was to examine 10-year changes in dietary carbon footprint relative to individual characteristics and food intake in the unique longitudinal Västerbotten Intervention Programme, Sweden. Here, 14 591 women and 13 347 men had been followed over time. Food intake was assessed via multiple two study visits 1996–2016, using a 64-item food frequency questionnaire. Greenhouse gas emissions (GHGE) related to food intake, expressed as kg carbon dioxide equivalents/1000 kcal and day, were estimated. Participants were classified into GHGE quintiles within sex and 10-year age group strata at both visits. Women and men changing from lowest to highest GHGE quintile exhibited highest body mass index within their quintiles at first visit, and the largest increase in intake of meat, minced meat, chicken, fish and butter and the largest decrease in intake of potatoes, rice and pasta. Women and men changing from highest to lowest GHGE quintile exhibited basically lowest rates of university degree and marriage and highest rates of smoking within their quintiles at first visit. Among these, both sexes reported the largest decrease in intake of meat, minced meat and milk, and the largest increase in intake of snacks and, for women, sweets. More research is needed on how to motivate dietary modifications to reduce climate impact and support public health. © 2020, The Author(s). Funding details: Forskningsrådet om Hälsa, Arbetsliv och Välfärd, FORTE; Funding details: Västerbotten Läns Landsting; Funding details: Vetenskapsrådet, VR; Funding text 1: The authors want to acknowledge teams at Västerbotten County Council for collecting data and organizing Västerbotten Intervention Programme, and the personnel at the Department of Biobank Research, Umeå University for data maintenance and administrative support. The Northern Sweden Diet Database was supported by the Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare and the Swedish Research Council. The funders had no role in the design, analysis or writing of this article.

New methods for combined evaluation of nutritional and environmental aspects of food products are needed to enable a transformation of dietary guidelines integrating both health and environmental perspectives. We evaluated two sustainability aspects, nutrition and climate impact, of foods commonly consumed in Sweden and the implications of using parallel or integrated assessments of these two aspects, also discussing the usability and suitability of these food sustainability indicators in relation to Swedish dietary guidelines, industry food product development, and consumer communication. There were large differences in both nutrient density and climate impact among the different foods. The parallel assessment easily visualized synergies and trade-offs between these two sustainability aspects for the different foods. Coherence with dietary guidelines was good, and suitability and usability deemed satisfying. The integrated indicator showed better coherence with dietary guidelines than indicators based solely on nutrient density or climate impact, however, the difficulty to interpret the score limits its usability in product development and consumer communication. With both methods, advantageous as well as less advantageous plant-based and animal-based food alternatives were suggested. The two alternative methods evaluated could serve as useful tools to drive individual and societal development towards more sustainable food production and consumption.

Taihu Lake area is one of the densest metropolitan areas in the world including diverse industrial activity. In the present study, the snail (Bellamya aeruginosa) and sediment were collected from the Taihu Lake area to investigate the contamination status, congener pattern, spatial distribution, and bioaccumulation effect of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs). The samples underwent liquid extraction, lipid removal by sulfuric acid, and acidic silica gel column, and subsequently analyzed by gas chromatography-electron capture detector (GC-ECD) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Concentration of ∑22PCBs ranged between 90 and 680 ng g−1 lipid weight in the snails and between 0.018 and 0.82 ng g−1 dry weight in the sediments. Concentration of ∑24PBDEs varied from 25 to 200 ng g−1 lipid weight in the snails and from 0.62 to 67 ng g−1 dry weight in the sediments. The levels of PCBs and PBDEs observed were in the medium to low range compared with other studies in the world. CB-153 was the predominant PCB congener in both snails and sediments whereas BDE-209 showed a low bioavailability in the snails, even if it contributed up to 70% of ∑24PBDEs in the sediments. The spatial distribution showed that the highest concentration of PCBs and PBDEs were detected in samples from Zhushan Lake. East Taihu Lake and Dianshan Lake showed lower concentration of PCBs and PBDEs than the other sampling sites. Biota-sediment accumulation was found between snails and sediments of most of PCB and PBDE congeners except for the highly brominated BDEs (i.e., BDE-209). Therefore, sediment is suggested to be an appropriate matrix to monitor BDE-209 while aquatic species such as the snail could be good for monitoring of PCBs and lower brominated BDE congeners. No significant correlation (Spearman correlation test, two-tailed) of CB-153 (r = 0.54, p = 0.27) or BDE-47 (r = 0.60, p = 0.21) was found between snails and sediments. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s11356-017-8467-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Objective:The objective of this study was to examine climate impact from diet across background and sociodemographic characteristics in a population-based cohort in northern Sweden.Design:A cross-sectional study within the Västerbotten Intervention Programme. Dietary data from a 64-item food frequency questionnaire collected during 1996–2016 were used. Energy-adjusted greenhouse gas emissions (GHGE) for all participants, expressed as kg carbon dioxide equivalents/day and 4184 kJ (1000 kcal), were estimated using data from life cycle analyses. Differences in background and sociodemographic characteristics were examined between participants with low and high GHGE from diet, respectively. The variables evaluated were age, BMI, physical activity, marital status, level of education, smoking, and residence.Setting:Västerbotten county in northern Sweden.Participants:In total, 46 893 women and 45 766 men aged 29–65 years.Results:Differences in GHGE from diet were found across the majority of examined variables. The strongest associations were found between GHGE from diet and age, BMI, education, and residence (all P < 0·001), with the highest GHGE from diet found among women and men who were younger, had a higher BMI, higher educational level, and lived in urban areas.Conclusions:This study is one of the first to examine climate impact from diet across background and sociodemographic characteristics. The results show that climate impact from diet is associated with age, BMI, residence and educational level amongst men and women in Västerbotten, Sweden. These results define potential target populations where public health interventions addressing a move towards more climate-friendly food choices and reduced climate impact from diet could be most effective.

Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) are known brominated flame retardants that have now been banned or phased out in many parts of the world. As a consequence, interest in the environmental occurrence of non-PBDE flame retardants has increased. In the present study several potential PBDE replacement products together with short chained chlorinated paraffins (SCCPs) were assessed in Greenland sharks accidentally caught in waters around Iceland between 2001 and 2003. Non-PBDE flame retardants detected were pentabromoethylbenzene (PBEB), 1,2-bis(2,4,6-tribromophenoxy)ethane (BTBPE) and 2,3,5,6-tetrabromo-p-xylene (TBX). The concentrations were lower than levels of BDE-47 but similar to other PBDE congeners previously reported in Greenland shark. The median concentrations of SCCPs was 430 ng g(-1) fat, similar to individual PCB congeners previously reported. This is the first report of SCCPs, BTBPE, PBEB and TBX in any shark species globally and confirms the usefulness of the Greenland shark as a screening species for environmental contamination in the Arctic and sub-Arctic environment.

Phonological awareness is a critical enabling skill in learning to read, often developed outside the context of formal reading instruction. More than 2,000 6-year-old children were tested on phonological awareness at two occasions during the preschool year in two cohorts. Between the assessments, a training program was implemented. A two-level path model was applied. More frequent training sessions were connected to higher gains of test scores especially for children with low initial scores in the first cohort. A clear gender effect was also observed. There were more boys with very low initial scores and more girls among the top scorers. A clear SES-effect indicated the influence of early language stimulation. Children who already at the beginning of the preschool year had grasped the alphabetic code had the highest initial scores on the test.

The Greenland shark (Somniosus microcephalus) is a high-trophic fish species present in Arctic waters. The present study aimed to determine concentrations of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and furans (PCDDs/Fs), dioxin-like (DL) PCBs and six non-dioxin-like (NDL) PCBs in muscle and liver from 10 female Greenland sharks collected between 2001 and 2003 from Icelandic waters. The mean total concentrations of PCDDs/Fs were 13 and 530pg/g fat for muscle and liver, respectively, and show enrichment in the liver. Concentrations of DL-non-ortho PCBs were also higher in liver compared to muscle with mean concentrations of 7.8 and 0.36ng/g fat, respectively. No enrichment in the liver was found for DL-mono-ortho- and NDL-PCBs. No correlation was found between the size range studied and total concentrations of the compounds analyzed. Total WHO-TEQs (PCDDs/Fs and DL-PCBs) ranged between 7.1-70 and 54-1500pg/g fat in muscle and liver, respectively.

Non-dioxin-like (NDL) polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and their hydroxyl metabolites (OH-PCBs) are ubiquitous environmental contaminants in human tissues and blood. The toxicological impact of these metabolites is poorly understood. In this study rats were exposed to ultrapure PCB180 (10-1000mg/kgbw) for 28days and induction of genotoxic stress in liver was investigated. DNA damage signaling proteins (pChk1Ser317 and γH2AXSer319) were increased dose dependently in female rats. This increase was paralleled by increasing levels of the metabolite 3'-OH-PCB180. pChk1 was the most sensitive marker. In in vitro studies HepG2 cells were exposed to 1μM of PCB180 and 3'-OH-PCB180 or the positive control benzo[a]pyrene (BaP, 5μM). 3'-OH-PCB180, but not PCB180, induced CYP1A1 mRNA and γH2AX. CYP1A1 mRNA induction was seen at 1h, and γH2AX at 3h. The anti-oxidant N-Acetyl-l-Cysteine (NAC) completely prevented, and 17β-estradiol amplified the γH2AX induction by 3'-OH-PCB180. As 3'-OH-PCB180 induced CYP1A1, a major BaP-metabolizing and activating enzyme, interactions between 3'-OH-PCB180 and BaP was also studied. The metabolite amplified the DNA damage signaling response to BaP. In conclusion, metabolism of PCB180 to its hydroxyl metabolite and the subsequent induction of CYP1A1 seem important for DNA damage induced by PCB180 in vivo. Amplification of the response with estradiol may explain why DNA damage was only seen in female rats.

The authors studied the fate of the brominated flame retardant hexabromocyclododecane (HBCDD) added in a particulate suspension to experimental ecosystems assembled from brackish (Baltic Sea) coastal bays. Two experiments examined how benthic macrofauna (over 21 d) and increased temperature (14 d) affected HBCDD concentrations and fractionation of α, β, and γ diastereomers in the water, sediment, and biota. A third experiment run over 3 seasons (231 d), studied the effect of HBCDD dose on the same endpoints. In all treatments of the 3 experiments, HBCDD partitioned mainly to the sediment, and this proportion increased with time. Presence of macrofauna tended to increase the HBCDD concentration in the sediment and decreased its concentration in the water. Increased temperature (+ 5°C) decreased the amount of HBCDD in sediment and water but not in the filter- and deposit-feeding infaunal bivalves (Macoma balthica). The partitioning between water, sediment, and biota was not concentration dependent. In all treatments, sediment became enriched in γ-HBCDD, M. balthica in α-HBCDD, and water in α- and β-HBCDD. Bioaccumulation of HBCDD in M. balthica was high in all experiments (log biota-sediment accumulation factor [BSAF]1.25), the α diastereomer contributing the most (log BSAF 2.1-5.2). There is a risk of trophic transfer of HBCDD from benthic to pelagic food webs, as well as secondary poisoning of marine consumers.

In the present study were two favorite edible fish species for local residents, i.e., mandarin fish and crawfish, collected from the Shanghai market and analyzed for selected organochlorine pesticides (OCPs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), hexabromocyclododecane (HBCDD), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) and methoxylated PBDEs (MeO-PBDEs). Efforts were also made to identify the potential sources of these contaminants. Comparable concentrations of hexachlorocyclohexanes (HCHs), dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethanes (DDTs) and HBCDD were found in muscle tissue of mandarin fish from Guangdong (GDF), the Pearl River Delta and from Taihu Lake (TLF), the Yangtze River Delta. Levels of chlordanes, PCBs and PBDEs were about one magnitude lower in TLF compared to GDF. The concentrations of OCPs in the butter-like gland of the crawfish (CFB) were 2–5 times of those in the crawfish muscle (CFM) while concentrations of PCBs, PBDEs and MeO-PBDEs were comparable. The different patterns and levels of chlorinated and brominated organohalogen contaminants seen in mandarin fish from GDF and TLF indicates that different types of chemicals might be used in the two delta regions. The present study also shows a good correlation between the concentrations of hexachlorobenzene (HCB) and pentachloroanisol (PCA) in fish for the first time. Fish consumption limits based on chemical contaminants with non-carcinogenic effects were calculated. The estimated maximum daily consumption limit for GDF, TLF, CFM and CFB were 1.5, 2.6, 3.7 and 0.08 kg, respectively, indicating no significant risk regarding the persistent organic pollutants measured in the present study.

In the present study, muscle and liver tissue from 10 female Greenland sharks (Somniosus microcephalus) collected in Icelandic waters were analyzed for neutral and phenolic brominated organic compounds, including polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) and the structurally related methoxylated (MeO) and hydroxylated (OH) PBDEs. Hydroxylated PBDEs exist both as natural products and as metabolites of the anthropogenic PBDEs, whereas MeO-PBDEs appear to exclusively be of natural origin. Other compounds examined were 2',6-dimethoxy-2,3',4,5'-tetrabromodiphenyl ether (2',6-diMeO-BDE68), 2,2'-dimethoxy-3,3',5,5'-tetrabromobiphenyl (2,2'-diMeO-BB80), 2,4,6-tribromoanisol (2,4,6-TBA) and 2,4,6-tribromophenol, all of natural origin, although 2,4,6-TBA and its phenolic counterpart may also be of anthropogenic origin. The major brominated organic compound was 6-MeO-BDE47, and ΣMeO-PBDE ranged from 49 to 210 ng/g fat in muscle and from 55 to 200 ng/g fat in liver tissue. Total concentrations of PBDEs were lower than ΣMeO-PBDE, in all but one sample, ranging between 7.3 to 190 and 9.9 to 200 ng/g fat in muscle and liver, respectively, and major congeners were BDE-47, BDE-99, and BDE-100. Polybrominated diphenyl ethers were analyzed using both high- and low-resolution mass spectrometry (MS) as a quality assurance, and the results from this comparison were acceptable. In accordance with previous work on Greenland sharks, no size/age-related accumulation was observed. Differences seen in concentrations were instead assumed to be a reflection of different feeding habits among the individuals. Phenolic compounds were only formed/retained in trace amounts in the Greenland shark. Among the phenolic compounds studied were 6-OH-BDE47, 2'-OH-BDE68, and 2,4,6-tribromophenol, all detected in liver and the latter two in muscle.

Background Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in wildlife and humans remain a cause of global concern, both in regard to traditional POPs, such as the polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and emerging POPs, such as the polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs). To determine the time related concentrations, we analyzed human milk for these substances at three time points between 1987 and 1999. Polychlorobiphenylols (OH-PCBs), the dominating class of PCB metabolites, some of which are known to be strongly retained in human blood, were also included in the assessment. Methods We obtained milk from the Faroe Islands, where the population is exposed to POPs from their traditional diet (which may include pilot whale blubber). In addition to three pools, nine individual samples from the last time point were also analyzed. After cleanup, partitioning of neutral and acidic compounds, and separation of chemical classes, the analyses were carried out by gas chromatography and/or gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. Results Compared to other European populations, the human milk had high PCB concentrations, with pool concentrations of 2300 ng/g fat 1987, 1600 ng/g fat in 1994, and 1800 ng/g fat in 1999 (based on the sum of eleven major PCB congeners). The nine individual samples showed great variation in PCB concentrations. The OH-PCBs were present in trace amounts only, at levels of approximately 1% of the PCB concentrations. The PBDE concentrations showed a clear increase over time, and their concentrations in human milk from 1999 are among the highest reported so far from Europe, with results of individual samples ranging from 4.7 to 13 ng/g fat Conclusion Although remote from pollution sources, the Faroe Islands show high concentrations of POPs in human milk, particularly PCBs, but also PBDEs. The PBDEs show increasing concentrations over time. The OH-PCB metabolites are poorly transferred to human milk, which likely is related to their acidic character.